Alien's Bride: Lisette (6 page)

Things in the lab started with slow
awkwardness, but soon they were working with the same gusto as
yesterday. Lisette felt the lab to be her comfortable place, no
matter how different all the tools were from what she’d been used
to use. She flitted from one station to the next, accomplishing her
tasks. Every few minutes she blurted a few words to Prax-Denay to
inform him when she was taking an experiment in a new direction. He
understood her thinking with little need for explanation. He gave
her expressions of enlightenment or praise. Then he focused on his
own tasks.

She got to the point where they needed
to work at the same station. Despite their arms rubbing once or
twice Lisette wasn’t flustered. They were both too impassioned
about the results of the test.

“
There! No effect on the
thyroid,” Prax-Denay said. “Have a robot run a three week trail on
some
moffmits
to be
sure.”

Lisette met his eyes with a smile. It
was because of their success, not an attempt to flirt, but their
faces were close. She saw Prax-Denay swallow. This brought back all
the anguish of his morning revelation. Her smile erased and she
took several slow steps toward the test animal lab.

“
Quickly! We still have to
run the thalamus test!”

She sped up to a trot. It was easy for
her to get back into her work mindset. The midday meal seemed to
come way too fast. Then she realized all they’d accomplished. The
serum was near ready. They just had to make sure none of the lab
animals showed the possibility of side effects. Robots would handle
the repetitive minutia involved in these trails. She was free to
proceed with the next exciting project.

“
Come and eat with me.”
Prax-Denay led her to the door. “You should have had a tour of the
facility. Jorenkis could have at least done that.”

They passed his office. The door was
open and his chair vacant.

Prax-Denay harrumphed. “I thought he
might show up—now that you’re here. He’s gone back to his old ways.
The only time he was around was when he needed to harass me about
things important to the council. He’s useless. No skills. No war
experience. He barely managed to finish school and he’s never
strived for anything. Yet he’s what our society values.”

Lisette felt the forlorn feelings
creeping back. (Though the thought of Jorenkis not being around
much was nice.)

Prax-Denay gestured for her to sit once
they were a room with sleek cabinets molded into the walls. He
pressed some buttons on a console then retrieved bottles from some
random cupboard and sat with her. The bottle offered to her was
full of liquid cold enough to cause condensation. Lisette watched
how Prax-Denay opened his and mimicked him.

He didn’t seem to be looking at her,
almost conspicuously so, but then he said, “They had you wearing
rags at the slave colony. Lord Elentinus should be
ashamed.”

Lisette glanced down at herself. Yes,
her sweater and denim skirt was full of holes. All the slaves
dressed like this. She’d become too accustomed to
notice.

“
You weren’t provided a
tailoring machine?”

Lisette concentrated. “I um…I don’t
think so.”

“
Why didn’t you ask for
one?”

She shrugged.

“
You humans use a great deal
of nonverbal communication. I could ask you what that means, but I
prefer not to. I’d rather just figure you out.”

A robot came out of no where and
brought them two plates of piping hot food along with the stupid
alien utensils she’d seen last night.

They ate several minutes in silence.
What a difference from her meal with Jorenkis. Prax-Denay hadn’t
asked her what she wanted, but that was because he realized she had
no idea about their food. It was considerate of him to select
something for her. When she tasted how delicious it was she felt a
euphoric surge. This was her idea of bliss. Not being forced to
engage strangers. Not being forced to wear a horrible costume. Not
thrust into a creepy restaurant on a planet she had absolutely no
idea about. No, she would happily eat and sleep where she worked.
Prax-Denay provided her with good company.

He’d already proven himself the
smartest scientist she’d ever worked with. A lot of her old
coworkers faked the depth of their knowledge. She had to stifle her
own skill or they’d become intimidated by her. This always led to
them covering their ineptness with anger. She was an easy target.
Gullible bosses often believed it when people blamed her for their
screw-ups. Lisette never argued. The jobs just weren’t worth
fighting for. Her work was moments of insight interspersed between
months of tedium. She would have been happier as a
housewife.

Things were so wonderfully different
here.

“
You’re quiet, but I can see
the wheels of your mind turning,” Prax-Denay said. “Tell me what
you’re thinking.”

A tiny smile formed. She fought it
back. Prax-Denay knew how to make her talk, and with him she
actually didn’t mind it.

“
This is the best job I’ve
ever had.”

Now it was his turn to restrain a
smile. When she saw that her face turned even goofier. Then he
allowed the snort of a laugh to escape. She covered her mouth to
giggle.

Prax-Denay cleared his throat. “Do you
like the food?”

“
Mm-hm!”

“
Well, that was clearly a
yes, though I’ve never heard it expressed so...”

She looked at him.

“
Cutely.”

Lisette giggled again.

“
Stop it.”

She bit her lower lip.

“
Stop that, too. It’s as if
you’re trying to charm me.”

Lisette shook her head, though with a
smile affixed.

Prax-Denay scoffed and stirred his
food.

***

Days passed and Jorenkis remained
absent. Lisette ceased worrying about him. She let the meaningful
work they were doing absorb her while existing in their happy
bubble. Was there a whole planet outside their building? She could
care less. The lab was always magically stocked with all they
needed (due to robots, no doubt) and work flowed as smoothly as
clarified butter.

There didn’t seem to be the concept of
a weekend. Two weeks passed and work commenced every day. Lisette
was fine with that. If Prax-Denay had given her time off she would
have spent it in the lab fiddling around. She preferred to work
with him there. They were in synch. It often just took a glance for
her to convey her thoughts. Then he’d point his finger at her due
to coming to the same conclusion at the same time. She’d nod and
proceed without any doubt that they understood each
other.

The comfort she felt with Prax-Denay,
encouraged by convivial lunch dates, grew incrementally day by day.
She got up the nerve to ask him for a chair with wheels like the
one he had. This led to her rolling around the lab with her legs
raised. If she passed to close to him she got the back of her chair
grabbed and shoved with enough force to make her squeal.

Whenever they took breaks to discuss
their next projects she would twirl her chair side to side. He
started imitating her. This caused warmth inside her, because she
knew this was the act of a man much happier than the one she’d
started with.

When their eyes met in those moments of
quiet—that’s when other feelings stirred. Beautiful, soft flower
petal feelings. He was always the first to turn away.

They never had dinner together. She
would eat alone in the kitchen and he would go to his quarters.
There was some meaning to that, but she really couldn’t grasp it.
Lunch was no problem; why would dinner matter?

This was when an aching sadness would
drum up inside her. She didn’t want this daily reminder of the wall
between them.

***

Lisette heaved her chair a little too
hard and had to leap off it before it crashed into a console. A
wheel snapped off and bounced comically across the floor.
Prax-Denay darted back a glance from his micro-unit. She stood
beside the scene of the accident with both hands over her
mouth.

“
Ha! Now you’ve done it. No
more frolicking for you.”

His playful chiding was a relief. She
glanced at his empty chair. It sat an equal distance from both of
them.

Prax-Denay followed her eyes.
“Absolutely not.”

She ran for it. He darted for it also.
Lisette couldn’t stop herself in the moment after he sat. She
crashed onto his lap. When she tottered backwards he clasped her in
both arms. Lisette burst into laughter.

“
I win.”

There was a touch of soberness to his
voice.

Lisette looked into his eyes. Her smile
went away slowly. The feelings she had inside—the warm fluttery
pangs in her belly—they surfaced with such power she blinked slowly
with rapture. Prax-Denay’s arms were around her and he wasn’t
letting go.

Lisette draped one arm around his
shoulders and let her body press against him. He’d ceased looking
at her, but made no move to separate them. For that brief time he
merely held her on his lap while she nestled against
him.

“
What do you think
about…”

Lisette’s eyelashes lifted.

“…
doing a molecular study on
the moffmitts? Just to…be sure…in case there’s a…”

She lifted her head and kissed
him.

Prax-Denay’s response wasn’t instant.
She wondered if his kind even practiced kissing. Then he squeezed
her against him and crushed her lips below his own. The sudden
passion had her head reeling. She gripped him tighter as their
mouths hungrily merged together. His hand coursed over her back,
then through her hair. Every touch left tingling trails. Her
breasts were fused against him, and her stomach had turned to goo.
It was if they floated together on that chair. He broke, just for a
moment, and she saw the ache of desire in his eyes. Lisette met his
lips again. She wanted to return to that rapturous place of heady
warmth.

He broke a second time and turned his
head away. “Oh gods, stop. We’re not like human men—it’s agony to
resist my desires.” She could see his chest heaving with deep
breaths.

The answer was plain to her. “You
don’t…have to resist.”

His acrimonious laugh returned. “I’m
talking about intercourse, Lisette. The consummation ritual. Taking
you to bed…and…”

“
Uh huh.”

Now he looked at her. She could see a
trace of anger. “I already told you—“

“
But…um…”

“
Talk. I can’t read your
mind now.”

“
How will he know? We’re all
alone. We’ll usually be alone…right?”

He turned away again with a furrowed
brow. “A secret marriage?”

She resisted
shrugging.
Whatever.
All she knew was that she had feelings for him that were
stronger than she’d ever felt before. Three weeks was too short for
a courtship, but she still yearned for him to touch her. And if
they could get away with it, then why not?

“
We could never
breed.”

She let herself shrug this time. Sure,
she’d wanted kids (a lot of them, actually) but not enough to
suffer through a marriage with Jorenkis.

“
Maybe I could get away with
this,” he thought out loud, “even if they suspected things. If we
always denied it—if we were discreet—if we didn’t try to make a
political stand.”

She stared at him patiently. It seemed
unthinkable for them not to proceed. He knew it. She knew it. He
might pretend to debate himself, but he was holding to her tightly
as he did.

“
Have you any idea what
you’re doing?”

She shook her head.

“
Then how could I possibly
drag you into such controversy!”

Lisette lowered her eyes. It wasn’t
really a question, but she’d grown comfortable enough with him to
speak without direct prompts. “It’s up to you.”

He grimaced. “It should be up to you
also—but you don’t understand our ways, our eons of history, our
segregated culture. What do you even know about it besides what
I’ve told you?”

She swallowed. “I know…Earth
ways. If two people have feelings for each other, then they should
be allowed to be together. Sometimes…sometimes one is rich and one
is poor, or one is from a good family and one is from…like…a broken
home. Maybe with a parent in prison or…whatever. They still…I mean,
if the person is good enough for the other one to love, usually
they’re good enough for everyone else to approve, too. You would
never
not
be with
someone you love…just because of society.”

Prax-Denay closed his eyes and let out
a deep sigh. His voice became choked with emotion. “That
sounds…like a magnificent world.”

She waited. When he met her eyes she
knew she’d won.

“
And I do love you,
Lisette.”

Her heart felt like it lifted in her
chest.