

The Gigolo's Bride

The Necklace Chronicles

By R.E. Butler

Copyright 2012 R. E. Butler

The Gigolo's Bride (The Necklace Chronicles)

Copyright 2016 by R.E. Butler

License Notes

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

**Cover Design: CT Cover Creations**

This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.

Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.

* * *

Many thanks to Alexis Arendt at Word Vagabond for editing this book. Her guidance and insight were invaluable. Thanks also to CT Cover Creations for the fantastic cover.

For my father, who spent countless hours watching Star Trek with me so I could develop a love of science fiction, for my Aunt BL, who is always there to offer encouragement, and for my husband...I love you.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Contact the Author

Other Works by R.E. Butler

The Norlanian Brides Series...Coming Soon!

The Gigolo's Bride (The Necklace Chronicles)

By R. E. Butler

Sold into slavery....

Only one person can truly set former sex slave Eden Atarn free: his soul mate.

Taken from her planet....

When Ashleigh Turner receives a beautiful necklace as a gift from a secret admirer, she has no idea who it came from. When another delivery shows up at her home, instead of finding out who sent her the necklace, she finds herself transported onto an alien spaceship as it speeds her away from earth.

Will she be what he needs or find herself a slave as well....

On a planet where forced prostitution is a punishment and young adults are sold by their families for money, Ashleigh must decide if she can be what Eden needs when she comes face to face with what he once was. Will she always want to go home, or will she find that the place she longs to be most is in Eden's arms?

Chapter 1

Five Years Earlier

Norlan Homeworld, Dena System

Giu Medical Center, Kyvern City

Eden stared up at the ceiling of the medical center, silently cursing the friend who had saved him. Overdosing on kotik would have been so simple. He'd already started to drift away, free of pain and misery for the first time in ten years. It was bad enough that Paoli had saved his life, but Eden would now have to add the hospital stay to his long list of debts.

The door to his room opened, and he heard his sister Sloan's soft gasp of alarm. Of course she had come. She thought he could be saved. But there was no hope for him. He was an empty vessel: his soul long gone, his heart so broken it would never mend.

"I know you're awake, Eden," Sloan, older by four years, said angrily.

He turned his head toward her, his unkempt blue hair falling across his eyes. He'd tried to lessen his appeal to potential customers by not grooming himself, but it hadn't seemed to matter. They wanted him, clean or dirty.

"What do you want, Sloan?" His voice was weak, his throat dry. He'd been in the medical center for three dins now, and he knew it wasn't the first time she'd come.

Sloan was lovely and kind. A medical officer, she had an affinity for lost and broken souls. Eden's soul wasn't broken, it was missing entirely. She tucked a strand of dark brown hair behind her ear.

"I wanted to tell you that I think you're an asshole and an idiot, and selfish, too." Her mouth curled in a snarl, her brown eyes dark and stormy.

"What?" Sloan had never talked to him that way.

"You heard me. How dare you try to take your life! Do you know how important you are to me? You're my only brother, Eden. I love you. I need you to stick around." She dashed tears angrily from her cheeks.

His mouth opened in surprise. "I...I..." he stammered, but he didn't know what to say.

She handed him a credit. "I paid for you to do the soul-walk, Eden."

Bile rose in his throat. No woman would want someone like him. Someone used up. He had nothing to offer anyone.

Sloan sat on the edge of the bed. Her angry snarl softened, and she smiled sadly. Taking his hand in hers, she said, "I know you hate yourself. I tried to love you enough for both of us, but that didn't work. I realize now that you have to love yourself, too. You have to forgive yourself for the life you were forced into and make changes for the better. When you get out of here, do the soul-walk. If you have a bride out there, then killing yourself is selfish and insane. You will leave her for someone else to have."

"I'm not worth having," he said in a voice thick with sudden tears.

"You are, I promise. You're the kindest, sweetest person I've ever known. Any woman in the galaxy would be lucky to have you."

She leaned over and kissed his forehead. Straightening, she said, "I paid for your hospital stay. They're keeping you here for another two dins, and then you'll be released to my home for one more din. You can do the soul-walk then. Think hard before you decide to throw that credit in the trash, Eden."

Ashamed, he nodded at her mutely and watched her leave. Turning the credit in his hand, he wondered if there really was a woman out there in the universe that was waiting for him. There were males that came back from the soul-walk without finding a female, but the majority were linked to a female somewhere.

Maybe, though, if he did find himself linked to a female, he could get her to love him first before he told her about his long life spent degrading himself for his own people. Maybe if she loved him enough, she could overlook all that he'd done.

For the first time in years, a glimmer of hope shone inside him. He clutched the credit in his hand and made a vow to the heavens that if he was given a mate, he would do everything in his power to set his life to rights and make her proud of him.

*Three Days Later*

"Eden Atarn?" A young male called out as Eden sat next to Sloan in the soul-walk agency's main office. He was still feeling a little shaky from the drugs used in the soul-walk, but he was euphoric with the news that he did have a soul mate, somewhere in the universe.

He waved his hand and the young man came over to him. "Your bride is on a planet called Earth. So far, only three other males have females on that planet and the minimum for an extraction trip is twenty-seven."

He nodded, taking a small memory chip from the young male that contained the images Eden had seen in his mind during his soul-walk. "How long?"

The young male shrugged. "It could be several lunar-cycles or it could be years. There's no way to know. Everything you need to know about the abduction trip and costs involved is on the memory chip. When the twenty-seventh bride is located on the planet, a message will be sent to you. Fifty percent of the cost will be due then, the remainder two dins before the trip's scheduled departure. If you fail to pay the appropriate fees, your bride will not be abducted and you will have to wait for the next trip."

He nodded, understanding the gravity of the situation. Without knowing for sure how long it might take to get the trip ready, he was going to have to work hard to earn enough money. Not only to set himself free, but also to pay for the trip.

Eden thanked the young male and turned to Sloan. She stood up and helped him up. They walked out to Sloan's hover-machen, and she drove him back to the Bordelayz. The hover-machen lingered above the ground as she pulled in front of the building and got out, offering him her arm to help him make the walk back to his room.

Bile rose in him as he walked through the front door, past the two guards who were always stationed there, and down the long, twisting hallways that led to the small room he shared with Paoli. The scent of disinfectant mingled with sex assaulted his nose, and he had an urge to find a needle of kotik and forget his troubles. Then he remembered the beautiful woman in his soul-walk, and he shook himself out of his destructive desires. She was his, and he needed to snap out of it so he could bring her home. Home to him.

Paoli rushed to him, hugging him tightly. "I missed you, friend," Paoli said, tears shining fresh in his eyes.

Eden said what he hadn't said during his time in the medical center, when Paoli had kept vigil at his side. Pressing his forehead to Paoli's, he said, "Thank you, my friend, for saving my life."

Paoli nodded silently, and Eden turned back to Sloan and hugged her. All their lives, he had envied her. Although he found her beautiful, by Norlanian standards she was too tall, her cheekbones too high, her lips too full. Their parents knew that she would not marry well financially, so they had supported her desire to go into the medical field. But he had never had a choice in his schooling. When he wished to learn about art, he was chastised and punished. His young life had been spent in classes learning about polite society – "your betters", he'd been told. He didn't hate her for what their parents had done to him. He never had. He counted himself lucky to have her as his careful guardian and supporter.

"I love you, Sloan. Thank you for everything."

"I love you, too, Eden." She brushed a lock of hair from his forehead. "I wish your life had been different. I wish I could have stopped them from selling you, using your beauty to increase their place in society."

"It was the path laid out for me." He held up the memory chip. "I have a new path, now. Thanks to you."

She winked at him with a smile, kissed his cheek and left.

After meeting with Yuil, the owner, he found out how much money he owed on his debt to free himself, and added it to the amount needed for the abduction trip. His heart stuttered a bit at the large amount, but he knew he could do it if he had enough time. He didn't want to ask Sloan for it. It was important to him that he saved himself first and set his life right before he brought his bride home.

That night, as Eden lay with one of the females who had paid for his time, he pictured his soul mate instead, imagining it was her light skin that he caressed, her moans of pleasure that touched his ears, and her hands on his body. Each woman he touched brought him closer to freedom, closer to her. He was ashamed of his life, his slavery. He didn't know how she would react to all that he would need to do to set himself free and bring her here. But she was his perfect match, and he could only hope that she would love him enough to overlook his faults. That she wouldn't loathe him for selling his body. By law, until he freed himself from his contract, he could do nothing else to earn money except have sex.

"No," he told himself as he stretched out his sore body on the cot in the small room he shared with Paoli several hours later. "No, I will keep my past from her until she loves me so much she can overlook all I had to do to bring her home. I'll love her more than anyone has ever loved her. I'll give her everything she could ever want or need. I may sell my body to pay her way here, but when she's with me and I'm free...I can make her proud of me. Proud that she loves a man, not ashamed she loves a brokah."

For the first time since his freedom had been taken from him, he felt not only hope at the future, but happiness. According to the soul-walk company, her name was Ashleigh.

His hope for the future.

His bride.

Chapter 2

"I have a delivery for Ashleigh Turner," a young man said as he walked into the Lyttle Tots Daycare. Ashleigh looked up from the reception desk, where she was filling in for Gwen on her lunch hour.

"Oh, that's me!" She signed the small clipboard and took a heavy vase filled with rainbow-colored roses. The delivery man disappeared, and Ashleigh put the cut-crystal vase on the reception desk and looked for a card.

"Please tell me those flowers are really for me," Gwen said as she came back into the reception area.

"Sorry, they're for me," Ashleigh said with a smile as she pulled a small envelope from the plastic pick and opened it.

"You have a new boyfriend I don't know about?" Gwen stowed her bag in the bottom drawer and sat down in her chair.

"Nope. Maybe it's Tate, wanting to get back together." Tate was Ashleigh's ex-boyfriend. They had split two months earlier when she had found him in bed with her cousin.

There was no card inside the envelope. Instead, she pulled out a delicate white-gold chain with a sapphire gem the size of her thumb hanging from it.

"Oh, wow," Ashleigh said under her breath as she lifted the necklace up so the overhead lights glinted off the stone. Sapphire was her birthstone, and she'd always been partial to the color blue. Her first thought had been that it was a gift from Tate, but she couldn't remember ever telling him what her favorite color was. Would he know that sapphire was her birthstone?

The necklace was pulled from her fingers. "Holy crap, this thing is gorgeous! What's the card say?" Gwen gushed.

Possessiveness flitted through Ashleigh briefly as she gently retrieved the necklace from her friend. "There wasn't a card, so I don't know who it's from. Maybe Tate."

"You don't sound so sure," Gwen pointed out.

"Well, he did give me earrings for Valentine's Day, but that was before we broke up. He hasn't called me in a few weeks. The last time he did, I shot him down pretty good, so..." She didn't finish her sentence. She decided to call him when she got home and find out if he had sent her the flowers and necklace.

She picked up the envelope to put the necklace back inside, but then thought better of it. It was so beautiful and perfect, and she wanted to wear it no matter who it came from.

Gwen put the necklace on Ashleigh, and she left the brightly colored reception area to look in the mirror in the staff bathroom. The dark blue stone complimented her peaches-and-cream skin, and she lifted her long auburn hair up and piled it on her head so she could admire it.

Adrianna Lyttle, the owner of the daycare, came out of one of the stalls and washed her hands. "Oh, that's lovely, Ashleigh. Where did you get it?"

"It was a gift from a...secret admirer," she said, enjoying the idea of a secret admirer more than her cheating ex trying to get back in her good graces again.

"Ooh, mysterious! Any idea who it is?" Adrianna tossed the paper towels in the bin and held open the bathroom door.

"Nope. But he's got great taste." She smiled at her boss and walked through the door. She left the flowers at the front desk and went back to the three year-olds' room where she worked as a teacher. Even though she didn't want to, she took off the necklace and placed it in her purse in the cabinet. She didn't want to risk it getting broken by curious little hands. She had received her associate's degree in early childhood development the year before, and after completing her certification work, she got a full-time job at Lyttle Tots. During her summers in high school, she nannied for a couple in her neighborhood with young children, and that was when she knew she wanted to work with kids.

There were twelve three year-olds in the class, and she and the other teacher, Hannah, had their hands full. It was stressful at times, but Ashleigh had always been able to handle stress and difficult situations with ease. Her mother said she had been "born calm" and never freaked out no matter what.

When she was ten, she was in the front seat of her grandfather's town car, and they were driving home from the grocery when he had a stroke and lost control of the car. Without a thought, she grabbed the wheel and pushed his foot off the gas pedal, steering the decelerating car over to the side of the street where it ran up on a curb and knocked over a mailbox. The homeowners rushed out and called the emergency squad, and her grandfather recovered. She remembered someone telling her mother that she wouldn't have been able to react so fast and be so calm as Ashleigh had been, but Ashleigh hadn't understood how freaking out would have helped anything.

"Oh, no!" Hannah groaned, surveying the kids as they woke up from their after-lunch naps. Already they were active, several of the young boys deciding to try out some wrestling moves and knocking over a small table. As the table tipped, it jostled a shelf with paint jars that tipped precariously. Ashleigh closed the distance quickly, stopping the jars from tumbling to the ground and righting the table.

Turning her attention to the boys, who were rolling together in a tangle of arms and legs, she separated them and directed their attention to another, less hazardous activity.

She caught herself thinking about the necklace throughout the afternoon, even looking in her purse a few times just to assure herself it was still there. Everyone wanted to know who the jewelry and flowers had come from, and she found herself the topic of idle gossip for most of the day.

It was the night of her book club, so she grabbed a sandwich from the deli at the grocery and ate it on the way. She had belonged to the book club for over a year and loved the opportunity to talk to other women who loved to read. Growing up, reading had been an important pastime for her. Her mother hadn't liked her watching television very much, so she'd happily buried herself in books from the library. That love of reading had stayed with her into adulthood.

The book club was held at the home of one of the founding members, who owned a bookstore with her husband. The monthly fee of twenty dollars for club membership provided the book for the month and a few dollars toward the snacks and drinks.

"Ashleigh!" Kelly cried as she opened the door to her home. After a quick hug, Ashleigh put her jacket on a hook in the hall along with her purse and pulled out her copy of this month's read, " _A Time to Weep_ ".

She was greeted warmly by the other seven women in the group, who ranged from as young as Kelly's niece, who was nineteen, to as old as Mona, who was fifty-one. They were all very different women, but their love of reading brought them together.

Filling a small plate with a few pieces of cubed cheese and some crackers, Ashleigh sat down on one of the overstuffed sofas and put the plate in her lap. Taking a glass of white wine from Kelly, she took a sip and waited for someone to start things off.

The first hour of the get-together, the women discussed the book at length, asking questions of each other and exploring the serious nature of this particular story about child abuse. Because she took care of children for a living, the thought of someone hurting a child for any reason made her blood boil.

Ashleigh put her now-empty plate on the coffee table and sat back, taking another sip of her wine. "This book was so sad. To think that those parents profited off selling their children like that, it's just so sickening."

Mona nodded, "Makes me wonder what this world is coming to. Parents selling their sons and daughters for drug money, caring only about themselves." She shuddered, and Ashleigh felt that same revulsion fill her. Her childhood hadn't been perfect, but it was leaps and bounds over what the children in the story had suffered. She wanted to find those parents and wring their necks. Putting themselves above their kids like that; putting their own hopes and dreams over the welfare of their own flesh and blood.

"Can we not read something so depressing this next time around?" Colleen, a mother of two, said, putting the book down and settling back in one of the wing chairs surrounding the coffee table.

"I second that," Ashleigh quipped.

Kelly stood up and brought a box of books out. "I knew you'd want to go lighter this month, but before I show you the new book, I wanted to tell you that Bob and I are going to donate money to the abused children's charity set up by the author. If you want to give some money tonight, we'll match it dollar for dollar."

"I'm in," Ashleigh said quickly, and the other women around her answered the same. Kelly smiled and opened the box.

She passed out a thick paperback titled " _The Rake and the Rose_."

"An historical novel set in 1800s London, about a duke who falls in love with a woman betrothed to another man. It's supposed to be lightly humorous and just a bit sexy." Kelly winked and the women laughed. Ashleigh liked historical novels, and the premise sounded really cool.

They put the books aside and spent the next hour chatting about what was going on in their lives. Although the women kept in touch via email and phone calls during the month, getting together in person was sweet and fun. She shared her news about the necklace and flowers, and when asked, she extracted it from her purse for everyone to see. Met with jealous grins and threats to steal it away from her, she tucked it inside her new book as she walked out the door, saying goodnight to her friends until the next month.

When she walked through the front door of her two-bedroom apartment, she kicked off her sensible heels and wiggled her toes in the thick white carpeting, glad to be home. Book club night was always a late one, but she loved it.

She pulled the necklace from the book and laid it on the top of her cherry-wood dresser. She immediately wanted to put it on, to feel the slight weight of it against her skin, but she ignored the desire and left it alone. She loved the necklace, but she didn't want to risk forgetting about it and accidentally falling asleep with it on.

She changed into a pair of lilac lounge pants and a brushed cotton short-sleeved shirt, walked into the kitchen and reached for her cell. Even though Tate's number had long since been erased from her contact list, she thumbed through the recent calls until she found where he'd called her last and dialed his number.

"Yeah?" he answered.

"Hi, Tate, it's Ashleigh."

There was a pause, and then he said brightly, "Ashleigh! How are you?"

"Fine. I wanted to ask you if you sent me something at work today?"

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"I asked if you sent me something at work today, Tate."

Tate sounded suspicious. "No, I didn't. Must have been some other guy."

"I guess so." She felt stupid for calling him. She hadn't really thought he was sweet enough to send her flowers and an expensive necklace, had she? He hadn't been that attentive when they'd been together.

"Sorry to bother you."

"No, wait, Ashleigh, it's not a problem. Look, if you're not busy, maybe I can come over and we can chat. I miss you."

She felt a bubble of anger well inside her. "You didn't miss me when you were having sex with my cousin behind my back. Forget I called." She hung up and dropped her phone on the counter with a clatter. He called back immediately, but she sent the call to voicemail and then turned the phone off.

She felt like a first-class idiot for calling. Now he would call her constantly and beg her for just a few minutes to talk, which she wouldn't give. She'd met Tate at her friend Suzanna's birthday party in January. Tate and Suzanna's husband were close friends, and both worked for the same mortgage company. They'd hopped into bed immediately – something that Ashleigh had never done before – and the relationship had moved fast and fizzled equally as fast. He was charming and a shameless flirt. It hadn't really been much of a surprise when she had taken Tate to a family reunion and then found Tate and her cousin Brit in bed together a few weeks later. She'd ended what little remained of the relationship in April, and he'd been calling her off and on for the last two months, asking her to give him another chance.

She poured a bowl of cereal for herself and sat down at her laptop to check her email. Her mother had sent her several messages over the last few weeks, asking Ashleigh to call her, but she hadn't. She'd sent standard "I'm busy" emails, but she knew that eventually she would have to speak to her mom.

It had been bad enough when Brit and Tate had betrayed her. But then her mother had sided with Tate and suggested that Ashleigh should forgive him and take him back. She said that everyone made mistakes, and it wasn't very kind of Ashleigh to hold his one indiscretion against him. Ashleigh and her mother had not always seen eye to eye on things, and Ashleigh's insistence that she couldn't just "get over" Tate's cheating had been a thorn in their relationship ever since.

Ashleigh knew that her mother's concern came from a loving place, even though it hadn't felt like it at first. When Ashleigh's father had died of a heart attack when she was seventeen, leaving her mother with a mountain of bills and not enough insurance, she'd had to return to work after being a stay-at-home mom for all of Ashleigh's life. It had been hard for her mother, and she'd worried ever since, insisting that Ashleigh find a man who could provide for her. Her mother wanted to know that Ashleigh was taken care of, and Tate, who came from money and had a steady job, represented the fulfillment of that goal. Unfortunately, Ashleigh didn't trust him, and if she couldn't trust him, she couldn't love him.

She glanced at the clock on the TV and saw that it was too late to call her mother. _I'll call her tomorrow, after work_ , she decided with a yawn, closing her laptop and heading to bed.

As she passed by the necklace, she touched it, the blue stone winking at her as if lit from within. It was an oval cabochon, in the deepest, truest blue color she'd ever seen. She slipped into bed and turned off the small lamp on her side table as she settled under the covers. The light from the streetlamp outside her window cast an amber glow over the bedroom. Ashleigh couldn't take her eyes off the necklace until exhaustion tugged at them. She drifted off to sleep, the gorgeous necklace the last thing on her mind.

**Chapter 3**

Gwen was waiting expectantly when Ashleigh walked into the daycare. "So?"

"It wasn't Tate." Ashleigh paused at the front desk. She'd had a long debate with herself that morning about wearing the necklace, but in the end she knew it was safer at home.

"Well, that's probably a good thing, right?"

"Yeah, but he left me a half-dozen messages last night and sent me a couple of texts this morning. He wants to know who my secret admirer is, and what he has to do to compete with him so he can get me back." Ashleigh rolled her hazel eyes.

Gwen gave her a sympathetic look. "If he had cared this much the first time, he wouldn't have slept with Brit."

True.

Her body demanded sugar and caffeine, so Ashleigh said goodbye to Gwen and headed to the kitchen, grabbing a lemon-filled donut and a cup of coffee in a lidded mug before heading to her room. The three and four year-olds were going on a field trip to a local fire station to meet with the firefighters and see their equipment, so the day was incredibly busy from start to finish.

All Ashleigh had been thinking of on her drive home was the necklace. Even though she felt silly, she wanted to wear it. And she really, really wished she knew who it came from. Hopefully her mystery man would reveal himself soon. She dropped her purse on the counter and went into the bedroom, picking up the necklace and slipping it on. When the cool, slight weight of the stone rested against her skin, she smiled.

Turning back to the kitchen, she dug her cell out of her purse. She didn't want another day to get away from her without setting things right with her mom. Just as she was about to call, there was a knock on her door.

She looked through the peep-hole and saw the same young man who had brought the flowers and necklace to her the day before, holding a long black box with a red ribbon on it.

"Yes?" she said, loudly enough to carry her voice through the door.

"I have another delivery for Ashleigh Turner."

Her thumb ran a small circle around the 'call' button of her phone as she opened the front door slowly.

"Ashleigh Turner?" the delivery man said with a tight smile.

"Sure. I remember you from yesterday." She opened the door further and reached for the box, but he lifted the lid and a cloud of dark blue gas burst in her face, making her head spin.

"Wh-what's happening?" she mumbled through thick lips. Her knees went weak and her vision tunneled as arms grabbed her and kept her from falling to the ground when her legs went out completely. Her fingers lost their hold on the phone and it clattered to the tiled floor.

She heard several different masculine voices, but they spoke in a language she didn't understand. She opened her mouth to speak, to call out for help, but nothing came from her lips, and she drifted away into the darkness.

* * *

"Psst! Psst!" A voice hissed in Ashleigh's ear as someone shook her shoulder. Ashleigh groaned and tried to roll over and go back to sleep. It was then that she realized she wasn't in her comfortable pillow-top bed, but on a hard, metal floor.

Her eyes popped open and she sat up straight, making her head spin violently. "Ow, crap," she breathed, pressing her fingers to her temples as she tried not to vomit.

"Careful, it seems to take a while for the drugs to wear off," the same female voice said.

Ashleigh blinked her eyes a few times and found herself staring into the face of a woman who looked to be about her own age, wearing a simple white shift. Ashleigh looked down at herself and saw she was wearing the same thing. She touched the material; it felt soft, like brushed cotton.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"My name is Kate. We're on some kind of alien ship." Kate gestured around her, and Ashleigh saw a lot of women. Some were huddled fearfully together in small groups. Some were lying on the floor like her, waking up slowly.

"Did you say 'alien ship'?" Ashleigh asked incredulously.

"I think so. What's the last thing you remember?"

Ashleigh told her about the flower delivery guy opening a box and the puff of blue smoke, and then passing out.

"I had a similar experience," Kate said. Ashleigh noticed that each woman in the room had on a necklace that was similar to hers. The pendants were a rainbow of colors, though, and whether that was significant or not, she didn't know. The room looked like it was made entirely of smooth, nickel-colored metal, save for the ceiling of frosted glass, which let in soft white light. There appeared to be no doors, windows, or furniture.

_Aliens._ Her mind raced. "What would aliens want with us?" She felt panic rise in her, and she fought it down. It wouldn't do any good to lose it.

"I don't know." Kate fiddled with the necklace. "I think they put some kind of tracker in the necklace. Otherwise, how would they know where we lived?"

"Surely this is a trick," Ashleigh said. "The delivery guy looked entirely human to me. And besides, there isn't life anywhere but Earth; everyone knows that." Even as she spoke the words, her mind reminded her that no one could really know everything. What if there _were_ aliens on other planets? Why would they abduct women?

One of the women, red-faced from crying, twisted her long blonde hair around her fingers. "They're going to experiment on us or make us sex slaves, I just know it!" Her voice took on a hysterical edge and the other women near her tried to calm her down, but it was clear that all of them were equally worried.

Ashleigh's mouth went dry. Sex slave or experiment. Those weren't very good options.

Kate shushed the women. Ashleigh closed her eyes and shook her head. _Please be a dream_ , she chanted in her head. She was disappointed, but not all that surprised, when she opened her eyes and found herself still in the room with the other captured women.

There was a crackle that sounded like a speaker, and a large opening revealed a flat screen about the size of a large TV in one wall. The screen flickered for a moment before the face of a woman appeared. She was sitting on a small stool in front of a glass wall that looked out into space. She appeared to be human, with long brown hair and eyes.

"Welcome, women of Earth. My name is Shreva, and I am a medical officer on board the freighter ship _H'lio_. You are being taken to the planet Norlan, several galaxies away from your former home."

There was a pause, and several of the women gasped in disbelief. Ashleigh knew the phrase they were focusing on because it was rattling around in her brain: 'former home'.

The screen split, and a picture of a city appeared. Sleek, egg-shaped cars hovered off the ground, moving through streets lined with non-descript dome buildings. The sky was purple, dotted with silvery clouds.

Shreva smiled brightly. "This is Kyvern City, the capital of our world. The ship will land here, and you will all be taken to your new homes."

The image shimmered, and a slideshow began. She ticked off the descriptions of the images as they were scrolling by: the green-tinted ocean, the farming areas outside the city, a city park with tropical-like plants, the night sky with twin moons, and smiling families of one man and one woman, a child in their arms.

"First let me assure you that you will not be harmed. When you were taken, you were put into a light sleep and transported into our ship far above your planet. While you were unconscious, female medics such as myself examined you for any maladies that our advanced medical knowledge could heal, and then bathed and dressed you."

Ashleigh felt a little sick to her stomach, glancing down at her body and wondering just how many had seen her naked and vulnerable.

"In a few moments, guards will be coming into the room. Do not fight them or try to escape. They will not harm you, but they will restrain you if they have to. They will identify you by the necklaces you wear. Please do not try to remove them. The necklaces were locked during your exam and cannot be broken or taken off. You will be taken, one by one, and delivered safely into the hands of the male that chose you as his bride. Once in his safe-keeping, all your questions will be answered. Rest assured, Earth females, you will not be harmed in any way. Welcome to Norlan." She smiled again, and the screen went blank as the covering slid back over it.

There were a few shocked moments of silence and then...chaos. Some of the women fainted, many of them cried, and a few – like Kate – tried to rally everyone to fight.

"We're stronger together!" Kate said loudly.

Ashleigh stood up slowly from the floor and grabbed Kate's arm. "You can't incite them to fight, Kate. You don't know what will happen to us if you fight."

"Did you hear her? She called Earth our 'former home'! That's bullshit. I want to go home, now!" Kate raised her voice and wrenched herself from Ashleigh's grip.

Ashleigh put as much authority into her voice as she could. "The woman in the video said we wouldn't be harmed and that we shouldn't fight back or try to escape." She implored the women to calm down, knowing that a few panicked people could cause all of them harm.

Kate stomped her foot. "The only choice we have here is to go like lambs to the slaughter or fight. I'm not a lamb!"

Her brave words were cut off as a door slid open in one wall, and two men with bright blue hair came inside.

Kate and two other women threw themselves at the men, and a few others tried to escape, but more guards appeared, blocking the exit. Some of the guards had bright blue hair and some had dark brown hair, but they all looked human.

Ashleigh backed away from the fray slowly, not wanting to get caught up in the melee. She took a few breaths and tried to assess the situation logically and calmly. While the other women around her were either trembling in terror or fighting against the large men, she tried her best to keep a cool head. If she'd learned anything from her job, it was that adding your own panic to a bad situation wasn't going to do anyone any good.

Her back pressed against the smooth wall opposite where the men entered. Some of them stood in the entrance to block the women from escaping. The women who were fighting didn't seem to be having any effect on the men as they kicked and hit.

Ashleigh wanted to believe that Shreva was telling the truth, at least about them not being hurt. The men, although larger than the women, were restraining them carefully so they weren't injured.

The two inside the room spoke to each other, but Ashleigh couldn't hear what they said. They moved to a group of women, apparently using a metal instrument to guide them. They raised it and waved it over the group. The women began whimpering, clutching each other for support, and when the instrument beeped over the head of a thin, blonde-haired woman, she went nuts. She screamed and shoved the other women ahead of her, "No, no! Don't take me! I want to go home. Please! Help me, please!"

Ashleigh cringed, unsure what to do. Kate wrenched free of the guard who was holding her back and jumped up, beating on the back of one of the men. "Who are you? Why are you holding us captive? We want answers, damn you!"

Another guard pulled Kate away with far more tenderness than Ashleigh would have expected. When the terrified blonde woman was clear of the room, her wrists in glowing handcuffs, the guards released Kate and the other women who had tried to escape and left, sealing them all inside.

Kate felt all over the wall where the door was, but there was nothing except the smooth surface. Sliding down to the floor, she put her head in her hands and sobbed.

Ashleigh thought about the guards. They certainly looked human. Handsome faces, the right number of arms and legs, as tall and muscular as one might expect from men who were clearly well-trained in how to handle abducted, hysterical women. They looked normal except for the hair. But anyone with a bottle of blue hair dye could do something similar, although she'd never seen a dye job quite like it. It wasn't just blue, but shades of navy, turquoise, and powder blue nestled together in the strands.

Kate gathered herself after a few minutes and stood up, dashing the tears from her cheeks. She began to search along the wall again, looking for a way to open the door. Ashleigh wasn't sure how much time had passed, but the door opened again. Kate was waiting and tried to rush out but was stopped easily before she got even one foot out the door.

This second time, only one woman stood with Kate and tried to get out, as another woman was taken away in glowing blue cuffs. The third time, only Kate railed against their captivity.

One by one, their numbers slowly dwindled until it was just Ashleigh and Kate. Ashleigh moved over to Kate and sat next to her against the next wall.

"I wish I'd have listened to the instincts that told me that accepting a gift when I didn't know who it was from was a bad idea. If only I'd listened to my inner voice!" Kate sighed. "You're being awfully calm, Ashleigh. Are you in shock or something?"

Ashleigh shook her head. "No. I've always been able to keep a cool head in a bad situation. I guess panicking isn't really in my nature. I mean, don't get me wrong; I'm freaked out on a number of levels. But losing it?" She shrugged and ran her hands across the smooth fabric of the shift. "I just don't see how it can help."

"We should just go with them without fighting?" Kate accused. "They took us from our homes, and they're calling us 'brides'!"

Ashleigh felt a pang of regret for a moment, but knew that she'd been right. For all their fighting, the women hadn't been able to stop the others from being taken. "Shreva said that we would be safe."

"You trust her? She could be one of them. Or brainwashed. We have no guarantee of our safety. They could promise us the moon and never deliver. I want to go home, damn it!"

"I want to go home, too, Kate. But your fighting didn't do anything but keep everyone in a state of panic. You didn't stop the women from being taken. You didn't injure any of the men that came to take them away. For all you know, you made things worse for them. Worse for all of us."

Kate blanched slightly, her lightly tanned skin paling, and then her eyes blazed and she gnashed her teeth. "I won't go quietly, Ashleigh. You want to stand idly by while these aliens cut us apart for some science experiment or strap us down and use us for sex slaves, then go ahead. I won't give up fighting until the last breath has left my body."

Ashleigh, chilled to the core by Kate's words, had opened her mouth to speak when the door opened again. Kate hugged her tightly and whispered, "Fight, Ashleigh. Fight for all you're worth."

The instrument waved over the tops of their heads, and one of the guards reached for Kate when it beeped over her. Kate kicked out with both her legs and rolled to the side, shimmying away from their grasps and racing for the door, trying once more to get between the guards. They stopped her easily and seemed unaffected by her pounding fists and screams for help. Like the captives before them, blue glowing handcuffs were placed on Kate's wrists, and then the door closed and Ashleigh was left to wonder about not only Kate's fate, but her own.

She paced, debating her course of action. It seemed that fighting back hadn't really helped any of the women, and maybe it made things worse for them. She didn't really know. What if fighting back was the worst thing she could do? She was frightened and missed her home. She rubbed the gem on her necklace in thought. She decided to continue to be calm and learn all she could. Maybe, just maybe, she could figure out a way to get back to Earth. She didn't have the most exciting life, but no one had asked her if she was ready to give it up to go to some alien planet.

_Bride_. Shreva said they were chosen as brides by men from their planet. Although a part of her knew that the term bride could really be interpreted in a myriad of ways, they did seem to be going out of their way to be kind. If they thought of the women as chattel, to be traded, used and abused, they wouldn't have treated them so well, would they?

Shivering, Ashleigh cleared her mind and turned toward the wall where the door would appear when she heard the now-familiar whoosh.

The two guards who had come in each time to retrieve the women looked at her warily. She hadn't exactly formulated a plan, but her instinct was to do whatever they said and to be as nice as possible. The two guards, both of them with blue hair, towered over her five-foot-three frame. They were wearing black jumpsuits and military-style boots. "It's time to go," one of them said, and she wondered why he was actually talking to her instead of just grabbing her as he had the others. Maybe because she wasn't screaming, fighting, or cowering in fright?

With a quick movement he attached the glowing cuffs to her wrists, and she lifted her hands to look at them. They looked like beams of light, but they felt heavy and cool. "This way, please." He gestured toward the open door, and she dropped her hands and began to walk. She caught the curious and surprised looks from the guards at the door but ignored them. They were probably wondering why she was being so quiet.

He stayed on her right and the other guard came on her left; the other two guards walked behind them. They moved down a long, narrow, nickel-colored hallway. "Why didn't you manhandle me?" She asked.

"What does it mean to 'manhandle'?" the one who put the cuffs on her asked.

"You know, drag me out of the room, like you did the others?"

"They fought us; you did not."

"Well, it might have been helpful if you had told them what you were taking them for; where they were going," she pointed out.

"They didn't ask."

She glanced up at him. He was very serious. She hummed in thought. "So where are you taking me?"

"To your _sacrosant's_ chambers. He will answer all of your questions and share the truth of your new life."

"Sacro-what?"

He glanced down at her, and a smile curved his mouth just slightly. "The one who wanted us to take you."

"Ah, so it wasn't just my random bad luck to be abducted?" She felt a little edge of hysteria and tried to tamp it down. _Calm down, Ashleigh._ She reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and was reminded that she was a prisoner when the cuffs flashed in front of her eyes.

"No, you were chosen for a reason, Ashleigh Turner. All will be revealed soon to you."

She let that information process for a few minutes as they walked, turning this way and that down various metallic-colored hallways. "Why do you speak English?" she asked after some time had passed.

"We don't. When you were being examined by the medical team, you were given a translator implant that allows you to speak in our language and hear in your own."

"So I'm speaking in your language?"

"Yes." He nodded. "There are some words that won't translate, which is why I didn't understand 'manhandle', but for the most part, you are speaking flawless Norlanian, the language of our home world."

They entered something like a glass elevator, and it moved swiftly upward until her stomach felt like it might be somewhere down by her feet.

"Our people don't know much about space travel," she said.

"The Norlanian people are very advanced. You'll learn all you need to know from your _sacrosant._ "

Advanced people, but still abducting women like some barbarian race.

The doors slid open, and they walked down another few hallways before stopping. The only thing about the smooth wall of the hallway that looked out of place was a pad about shoulder height that was black with a green grid on it. The guard who had spoken to her pressed his palm to the door and said, "It's Captain Riya, Eden. I have your bride."

Bride? There was that word again.

She had a mind to just run like mad down the hallway, screaming in terror, but then the door slid open, and standing in the open doorway was one of the most beautiful men she'd ever seen in her life. Her mouth dropped open and all thoughts of fleeing in terror were swept away.

The man in the doorway held out his wrist, adorned with a bracelet with the same blue stone hung in between intricately carved golden links. The guard who had identified himself as Captain Riya used a small instrument the size of a pen and touched the bracelet. The man looked at her shyly, running his free hand through his thick blue hair. Then Captain Riya touched the gem on her necklace with his pen. Two beeps sounded from the pen, and Captain Riya slid it into a pocket of his uniform. "All is in order here. Good luck, and congratulations."

Captain Riya unlocked the cuffs from around her wrists and pocketed them inside his uniform.

The beautiful man stepped back into the room and gestured inside. "Won't you come in, please, Ashleigh?"

Ashleigh looked up at Captain Riya, and he smiled and nodded, so she stepped in. The door whisked shut behind her, and she stared in confusion at the man in front of her.

His eyes roved over her quickly, happiness lighting his features and making him even more impossibly beautiful than before. His eyes found hers again, and he smiled. "I'm Eden Atarn. I'm so happy to finally meet you, Ashleigh."

Her mouth went dry and fear licked at her. "What...what are you going to do to me?"

He frowned, his lush mouth drawing down. "Do?" Understanding dawned on his features, and he actually looked sick. "Nothing! I just want to get to know you. I won't hurt you, I promise. You're perfectly safe here in my room on the ship."

"No offense, but I don't want to get to know you; I want to go home." She ground her teeth together, yelling at herself to stop talking. _So much for being agreeable and finding a way to escape_.

He shook his head, his pretty blue hair moving with the motion. "We're already out of your solar system. There is absolutely no way for you to return to Earth."

She stared at Eden. He seemed entirely sincere. Not only about her being safe with him, but about her now being far away from Earth. She wasn't sure why she believed him, but she did.

"I need to sit down," she said weakly, feeling like she might pass out. He started with alarm and pulled her swiftly to a long couch. She sank down into the cushions and put her head in her hands. He disappeared, and after he returned a few moments later, he had a steaming cup in his hand.

"This is hot tea made from the _beri_ plant. It's soothing."

He sat across from her on a small ottoman, the same shade of beige as the couch she was sitting on. She took a tentative sip of the brew and found it tasted like sweetened chamomile. His hair, like several of the guards including Captain Riya, was multiple shades of blue, cut short and spiked carelessly. His eyes were soft brown and luminous, reminding her of a wounded puppy. A straight nose and high cheek bones gave him a regal look, and the perfect line of his jaw and the lushness of his full, plump lips made her body tighten with lust, even as her brain reminded her she wanted to go home.

He fidgeted, seeming unwilling to bear her watchful gaze, which she found odd. He was beautiful. Surely he was used to people looking at him.

"So tell me why the hell I'm here," she said finally, putting the cup down on a small end table with a top that looked like mother-of-pearl.

He darted his dark brown eyes up to hers and ran his hands through his hair, then dropped his eyes down and began to speak.

On their home world of Norlan, their mated couples had stopped giving birth to baby girls several decades earlier. Those that were born were found to be sterile when they were old enough to marry and start a family. Sometimes, very infrequently, a female would be able to bear children, but never female children, only males. Their scientific community worked hard to find the reason for this sudden mutation that threatened to be the eventual end of their kind, but found no underlying cause for it or way to reverse it. In the meantime, only boys were born, and those boys needed wives. Females capable of producing children were becoming in short supply and fights broke out constantly over those few. Their government sent out ships to find planets that contained biologically compatible females. They found several planets in different solar systems, and they began to bring those women home as brides.

A lot of things went through Ashleigh's mind as he spoke about the loss on their planet. She did feel sorry for them, but she had her own life back on Earth and she wanted to get back to it. Although she would admit that she was attracted to him, and curious about life on other planets, she was human and she wanted to be back on Earth, period.

"I'm not a whore," she said finally.

"What is a whore?" His brow furrowed in confusion.

"A whore, a woman who gives her body to anyone."

She wasn't sure, but for just a moment, it looked as if he was ashamed. But the emotion passed over his face so fast she wasn't sure she'd actually seen it. "Of course you're not, I know that." His voice was soft and soothing, and she had a sudden urge to crawl into his arms and let him hold her.

Steeling herself against those dangerous thoughts, she growled, "I'm not going to have sex with you, so you might as well have them send me back."

"There's no way that you can return to Earth. I'm sorry that you're upset. I would never take you against your will, Ashleigh; I want you to come to me willingly."

She snorted and folded her arms. "That will never happen."

While she might have expected anger at her flippant remarks, the sadness that eased over his features made guilt prick at her.

He stood up slowly and smoothed his hands down the front of his green embroidered tunic. He was wearing matching pants and dark shoes. "Let me show you the rest of the chamber, and then I'll make us something to eat."

She stared at his offered hand. "Just so long as we're clear."

"We are," he said evenly. She took his hand and he pulled her up from the couch. For a brief moment, their bodies touched, and she was very aware of the lean, muscular body underneath the clothing, the heat that radiated from him. He smelled incredible, like dark spices.

Coming back to herself suddenly, she let go of his hand and followed him through the front room. "This is the cooking area." It was just off the front room and contained a refrigerator, a pantry, a cook-top that looked far too difficult for her to operate, and a metallic sink. A door opened to the right of the kitchen, and he said, "All the doors, except for the one leading into the hallway, will open for you at any time; they're programmed to recognize you. If you want the lights on or off, you simply say the command."

She nodded and followed him through the open door. Inside was a bedroom. A huge bed sat in the corner, covered with dark green blankets and a pile of pillows in various shades of green. Pretty sashes hung from hooks in the ceiling and created a gauzy, dreamy effect around the bed. He opened the doors of a dark cabinet. "Here are clothes for you. Our women dress in tunics and slacks or dresses. There are shoes, too."

She was a little stunned at the array of colorful clothing inside. She touched the hem of one dress. "These are for me?"

"Of course. I didn't know what colors you liked, so I got you a little of everything. When we get home, you can have things made in any color you like."

"Earth is my home," she reminded him.

He said nothing and shut the door. At the far end of the room, a door opened for them, revealing a bathroom that looked like it was nestled in the middle of a garden. The walls were painted with beautiful trees and flowers, with birds and butterflies that almost appeared to move amongst the leaves. The floor was the color of summer grass, and felt soft under-foot, like foam. In the center of the room was a large pool that he said was for bathing. With the simple command "fill", the pool started to fill up, the steaming water churning as it rose quickly.

"The temperature is regulated here," he said, pressing a small blue panel in the wall near the tub and adjusting a lever up and down. "Test it, and tell me if it's hot enough."

She reached down and let the water bubble over her fingers. It felt perfect.

"It's good." A bath sounded heavenly right then. She needed some time to absorb what she'd learned.

He moved to a tall cabinet and pulled out a fluffy towel. "This is a _raki_ drying towel; it's made to dry you instantly." He set out a tray of jars, which he explained were shampoos and soaps, and he pointed out the toilet, which looked like a regular Earth toilet with an auto-flushing mechanism.

"When you're done, you can change into something from the cabinet."

She liked the idea of getting out of the shift. It just reminded her that aliens had been looking at her while she was naked and unconscious. He must have caught the embarrassment that crossed her face and pinked her cheeks because he said, "Nothing bad happens during the exam; you were stripped of your clothing and put on an exam table by medical personnel. Your body was scanned, and then you were taken into a bathing chamber and dressed. It was all done by female medical personnel."

"Oh, that's a relief," she said sarcastically, as if being handled by women while she was unconscious was going to take away the humiliation of it.

He opened and closed his mouth several times before he finally said, "I'm going to make us something to eat. Take as long as you like, Ashleigh."

He left. As she heard the bedroom door snick shut, she fell to her knees and wept.

* * *

She used the drying towel after her long bath, and it really soaked up the water fast. Even her hair was perfectly dry after only a couple of minutes wrapped up in the towel. Using a brush left on a small counter in front of an oval mirror, she brushed her hair until it shone, falling in waves past her shoulders. Her hazel eyes were ringed with dark circles and red from crying, and her face was blotchy. Not that she cared. It would be better if he hated her or found her repulsive, but something told her that he wouldn't, no matter what she looked like. Eden looked at her like she was a missing part of himself.

She scoffed at the notion and opened the cabinet. She opened one of the narrow drawers inside and found silky undergarments. She selected a pale peach set. The bra was lightly lined and very comfortable, as were the panties, which rode low on her hips. After looking through the clothes, she selected a navy blue tank and matching slacks that were made out of a soft but shiny material. She slipped on a pair of soft ballet-style slippers that matched the outfit, and looked at herself in the mirror. The top and pants highlighted the lush curves of her petite body. The top had a low, square neckline and wide straps, and it cut just under her belly button, so a little bit of flesh showed before the waist of her pants.

The bedroom door opened as she neared it, and her stomach growled as soon as she smelled the food sitting on the table. Eden was standing by one of two chairs, and she took the one he pulled out for her and sat down. He picked up her plate and talked about the dishes as he put some of everything on her plate. The meat was an animal that sounded a lot like a cow, the mound of yellow mash was made from root vegetables they grew in a garden on the ship, and the noodles were actually the stems of a flower, which he also used to make the soup. In a small blue crock was _mirsh_ soup. She tried that first, and was pleasantly surprised to find it tasted like cheddar cheese.

She drank a sweet fruit juice and ate everything, feeling like she hadn't eaten in days, which prompted her to question just how long she had been out of things.

"Our days are similar to yours, but we call them _dins_. The drugs kept you unconscious for half of one _din_."

She could tell that he wanted to talk more, but she wanted to think, so the silence hung heavily between them.

When they were finished eating, he sent her to sit on the couch with a refilled glass of fruit juice while he cleaned up. As he moved quietly and efficiently through the small kitchen area, she mused on the situation. He had said that she couldn't go back to Earth. But if they had come to Earth, then they certainly could take her back. Perhaps if she was rude or mean to him, then he might not like her, and he would be willing to arrange for her to be sent back. Then her brain's equivalent of a warning bell went off. What if he rejected her because of her behavior, and she was sent off to some kind of slave camp or something?

When he sat down on the ottoman in front of her again, she had the strangest feeling that he was setting himself below her, as if he didn't think he deserved to sit on the couch with her. Something about that thought, about the way he held himself shyly away from her, made her heart ache. But just a little. She wanted to go home. She didn't want to care about this man who had stolen her from her home.

"Can I see the women who were in the cell with me?"

"No. There isn't any contact allowed between the brides until a lunar cycle has passed on our home world."

She frowned. "What's a lunar cycle?"

"You would call it a month. There are twenty-eight _dins_ in a lunar cycle."

They probably didn't want the women all gathering together and rising up against their captors. Although it was kind of hard to see shy Eden as a captor. "So how long does it take to get to your home world?"

"Two lunar cycles."

Two months of travel, and then they didn't allow contact for another month after that. They must want to make certain the women were happy with their men before they allowed them contact with their own people. Well, so much for conspiring with Kate or any of the other women.

He licked his lips nervously, "I can put on a vid, if you'd like to watch something."

"Vid?"

He gestured to a screen hanging against the wall, and she realized that by vid he meant a movie or show. "I'm kind of tired."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. Let me turn the bed down for you."

She was going to protest that she could turn down the bed herself, but he was standing up and holding out his hand to her with such an earnest look on his face that she didn't have the heart to say no. She let him lead her into the room, where he first opened the cabinet, pulled out some clothes and handed them to her, saying she could change in the bathroom, and then he busied himself pulling off the mounded pillows.

She changed out of the top and pants and found that he'd given her a set of comfy-looking pajamas, a short-sleeved top and a pair of shorts in light pink. She stepped out of the bathroom and found him standing in the doorway wearing only a pair of lounge pants with a drawstring waist. His upper body was bare, and in the low light of the room, she saw how well-defined his muscles really were. Although not large, he was perfectly sculpted, as if someone had sat down and molded the perfect man.

She knew he caught her looking at him, and embarrassment made her lash out. "You can't sleep with me. I'd rather be on the couch."

That same sad look skated through his eyes, and he took in a slow breath and said with a soft voice, "Goodnight, Ashleigh."

The door slid shut as he turned and walked out into the other room, and she stood next to the bed in dumbfounded silence for several minutes. Had she seen scars on his back?

She said "lights off" after she was settled under the covers, and the room became pitch black in an instant. As she stared into the darkness, she thought about Earth. Her mother. Her friends. If she'd known that those last few minutes were going to be her last on Earth, she would have done things differently. Called her mother the night before, even though she would have already been in bed, so she could apologize for not calling and let her know how much she loved her. Thanked Gwen for being such a supportive friend. Hugged her book club friends a little tighter, a little longer. Regret hung heavily around her and tears stung her eyes, but she didn't let them fall. She didn't know what would happen to her, but she couldn't give up on the hope that she would return to Earth at some point.

Her mind replayed over and over how she'd been so close to pushing the 'call' button on her cell and talking to her mother. She prayed she would get a chance to make that call. Exhaustion settled over her, pushing away the sad thoughts, and she slipped down into sleep quickly.

Chapter 4

She woke up to what sounded like someone crying out for help. For a moment she thought she was back home in her bed, but when she reached for her alarm clock to turn it so she could see the time, she fell off the bed reaching for what wasn't there.

Cursing, she said, "Lights on!" The room illuminated brightly, and she groaned at the intensity. Doing what Eden had said, she grumbled, "Lights dim!"

Her eyes adjusted to what amounted to candlelight, bathing the room in soft amber. Rubbing first her eyes and then her knees from where she'd landed on the floor, she stood up and went to the door. It opened, and she didn't hear anything, but she could see from a small flickering blue stone on the side table by the couch that Eden was sleeping there. He looked asleep still, so she was moving to go back into the bedroom when he began thrashing on the couch and cried out in terror, "No! Don't take her from me!"

She rushed to him, ignoring the pain in her knees as she dropped by the couch and grabbed his flailing hands. "Eden. Eden!" she said loudly. His eyes popped open and his wild gaze took a few seconds to focus on her; then he grabbed her to him in a fierce hug. "I thought they were taking you, Ashleigh."

Something warmed through her, and although she knew it was foolish to sit there and let him hold her when she was trying to figure out a way to get back home, she didn't try to break his hold. She put her hands around him gingerly and said in a low voice, "You were having a nightmare, it's okay now."

He froze and released her abruptly. Sitting up and scooting away from her, he untangled his legs from the blanket and said with a trembling voice, "Th-thank you for coming out here. I'm sorry that I grabbed you."

She was going to tell him that it was okay, that she understood nightmares because she'd had her share as a child, but he didn't give her a chance. He asked if he could use the bathroom before she went back to bed and she nodded mutely and watched him stumble into the bedroom. This time, she clearly saw the scars on his back and had felt them under her fingers. Whatever had happened to him in the past, he'd not been treated well.

The flickering blue stone caught her eye and she reached a tentative hand out for it. There was no warmth coming from it, so she let her finger graze it lightly. It looked like a blue crystal with a little flame inside.

"You'll be okay?" she asked when he returned to the couch.

He nodded, embarrassed, and said goodnight. She walked back to the bedroom and climbed into bed, wondering why it bothered her so much that he'd had a nightmare. He dreamed about _her_ being taken? She shivered at the thought.

Sleep took a long time to come, and when she did doze off finally, she dreamed about Eden.

* * *

The next morning, Eden put a bowl in front of her that looked like blood-red oatmeal. She stared down at it. A bubble rose and popped and she gasped and scooted back in her chair. Eden chuckled and put a metal spoon in the bowl, stirring it up. "That's normal. It's fermented, mashed _jilo-root_ , mixed with the grains of the _hoir_ plant. It's a traditional morning meal."

When he stirred it, the color deepened. Her stomach took that moment to rumble, and she picked up a spoonful and took a delicate sniff. It smelled mild and slightly bready.

"What is normal for your people?"

"Coffee and donuts," she answered. When he didn't say anything, she looked up and found him waiting for an explanation. "Coffee is a dark, slightly bitter caffeinated drink that most people drink in the morning to help them wake up. And donuts are fried lumps of dough covered in sweet glaze, sometimes filled with jellies or icings."

He smiled and hummed in his throat. "I will try to find things that might be more to your liking, but do try the dish, it tastes better than it looks."

"It would have to," she muttered under her breath. She took a small bite off the end of the spoon, chewed and swallowed. It tasted very mild, almost like plain cream of wheat, but with a really lumpy texture like bread pudding. But the color was just so off-putting. She concentrated on the table in front of her and ate without looking into the bowl, finding that once she got used to the taste she could pick up some different flavors. It was grainy and lightly sweet.

After breakfast, Eden showed her how to work the vid, and they watched a movie about his planet. Once more, instead of sitting next to her on the couch, he sat on the ottoman.

The vid was like a documentary, although it was utterly self-serving, which was probably the point. Like the one she'd seen in the room with the other women, it was made from the standpoint of explaining the Norlan world to newcomers. It showed only the best parts of the land, citing their military's ability to keep their shores and skies safe, their scientific and engineering brilliance at space travel, and the incredible beauty of the land.

"We'll live there." He gestured to a large map that popped up on the screen. "Where it says Polona. It's a small town outside of the capital of Kyvern City."

She folded her arms in annoyance. "My home is back on Earth. I have a nice little apartment that I'd like to get back to."

He ignored her snarky comment and said, "There is a museum within walking distance and a really nice park. There's not a lot of property, but enough for a small garden, if you like to do that?"

She sighed. He was so enthusiastic and sweet it was hard to be dismissive, especially when he looked like a wounded puppy. "I never had any place to grow anything. But I might like it, if I had the time."

His brown eyes glittered happily when he looked at her, and he went back to explaining the wonders of the street that he called home while she groused internally at being unable to keep him at arm's length. She wondered how the other women were faring.

When the vid was over, he said, "What did you like to do on your planet?"

"I worked as a daycare teacher."

"What is 'daycare'?"

"It's a place where parents can take their children during the day. Usually, if the parents work, they will take them to daycare and other adults will watch them, along with other children their age, and they'll learn and play."

He nodded, and she said, "Do you have daycare on your planet?" Although she still wanted to go home, she couldn't help but wonder...if she was stuck on Norlan, what would she do?

Shaking his head, he said, "No. One parent is home with the children at all times, until they are old enough to go to school."

She found herself frowning. She'd wanted to get married and have babies and stay home with them, the way her mother had with her. But she'd planned to do that _on Earth_. She was a little bit relieved to know that it was something that the two planets had in common, that one of the parents was a caregiver while the other one worked.

"What do you do, Eden?" she asked, aware he hadn't really told her much about himself. He'd talked at length about the planet, but had revealed little personally.

He froze for a moment, and she wondered if she'd said something to upset him. When she was going to ask him if something was wrong, he said suddenly, "I saved money before this trip so that we could spend time together once we were back on-planet. When the time comes, I'll find work." He spoke animatedly, but she felt like it was a false happiness. Before she could ask him to elaborate, he said, "Tell me what you did when you were not at the daycare with others' children."

He seemed genuinely interested in her, and she found herself warming to him. She told him about her monthly book club, and the historical romance novel she'd just started for the group; her twice-monthly trips to local dance clubs with some of the women she worked with; and her obsession with a TV series about vampires.

"Vampires are not real, though? I read something about them when I was studying your people."

"No, not real," she laughed. It felt good to laugh. And to share.

"They sound like the _ligaru_ , a mythological race of flesh-eaters. They have sharp teeth and hide in the shadows. Parents use them to frighten their children into being obedient."

She wrinkled her nose. "That sounds like the bogeyman from my planet. The vampires I like looked and acted human, but drank blood instead of eating food. They're a myth, though, too. When I was seven, an older neighbor boy told me that the bogeyman liked to hide in closets and under beds. That night, I was so terrified of my open closet door and the darkness inside that I screamed myself hoarse and scared my mom and dad to pieces. I slept with a light on after that. For a long time."

Eden's eyes narrowed, and a particularly feral look crossed his face. "I would string up that young boy for terrifying you, if I could."

Her face flushed and she dropped her eyes. She'd never had a man want to avenge her honor before. Peeking up at him through the veil of her lashes, she was sure that he would go after Tommy Perkins if he could.

That evening, he cooked dinner for her and she watched. In the small kitchen area was a cooker, a refrigerator that he called a 'refrigerated cabinet' and an oval- shaped sink. The stove and sink, like the bathtub and lights, worked by voice control. The refrigerated cabinet was square and contained shelves stocked neatly with containers of food and drink.

He laid out two saffron-yellow pieces of flat bread and arranged strips of pink meat he had fried on the cooker on one side of the bread. He had asked her to slice a pale green vegetable that was shaped like a carrot, and he added those thin slices to the meat. Dabbing a white cream on top, he rolled the flat-bread up like a wrap sandwich and placed them on plates. A scoop of crispy noodles with light brown gravy sat to the side of the sandwich.

"Oh, this is really good, Eden!" she exclaimed after taking a bite of the sandwich. The meat was crisp and salty, the vegetable was crunchy and mildly sweet, and the cream was tangy.

"Thank you." He blushed. "It's my favorite. _Esot_ with _guiu_ and _freks_."

She had to laugh. "I have no idea what any of that stuff is, but it tastes good."

After dinner, they watched a vid that was a popular evening show and a lot like a nighttime soap opera. It was about a wealthy family and the fictional town that they lived in. Despite her best intentions, Ashleigh found herself enjoying not only Eden's company, but the things about his planet and his life that he was showing her.

The nightmare came back for him again that second night, and she felt even worse for him then she had the night before. Already she was starting to care about this alien far too much, but she just didn't know how to stop herself. It was only going to be the two of them together for three months. How was she supposed to stop from feeling anything for him after so much time? It was a battle she was already losing, and she was both frustrated and disappointed with herself.

She complained about being bored on the third day, after a breakfast of sugar-dusted pancakes with fresh fruit. It was as close as he had been able to come to donuts. One of the fruits, which he called a _ronii_ , was sweet like ripe peaches, and she greedily ate every piece he had. The large, strawberry-shaped fruit was sweet and seedless, and its mauve skin was edible.

"You could visit my sister Sloan. She's a medical officer on board."

"You have a sister? I thought your people stopped having baby girls?"

"There are some born from time to time. Sloan was one of the last ones before our people realized that the females were sterile."

"Is she married?"

He shook his head as he cleared the table. "The men won't choose a female from our people because they are unable to have children."

"That's cruel, to the women."

He shrugged, but his eyes said he agreed. "Without babies, our people will die off. We have done what we needed to do so that our people will survive."

"Seems like they could have come up with something besides kidnapping."

"They did try. Sloan, and many of our top scientists, are working on the problem." After a quiet moment, he said, "I'll call Sloan and ask her to come get you. I have some things I'd like to get done, so she can escort you back and forth."

"Sure, Eden."

Within an hour, Eden's sister Sloan was walking with Ashleigh on the way to her chambers. She was tall and curvy, with dark brown hair and eyes, and a pretty, welcoming smile. She seemed so happy to meet her brother's bride that Ashleigh found her attitude infectious. "I'll take you to see my office another time. It's pretty busy there right now; there was a fight that broke out amongst some of the single males."

"Why were they fighting?"

"Why do any men fight?"

Ashleigh smiled. "Because they're stupid?"

Sloan laughed and entered her room, motioning her inside. "Perhaps. Men appear to be the same no matter what planet they hail from. Sit, please. I'll get us something to drink and you can tell me all about yourself."

Her room was soft and feminine, and about the same size as Eden's. The flooring was sandy brown and the walls were pale green. Ashleigh sat on a small couch and kicked off her slippers.

Sloan brought her a glass of _flar_ , which was a mild liquor that tasted like white wine. She set a tray containing small crackers, cheese slices, and fresh fruit on a small table in front of the couch. She sat next to Ashleigh, listening to her share about her life back on Earth. Ashleigh found it was easy to talk to her, and she listened with rapt attention and asked questions and joked. Sloan talked about her work as a medical officer and her hope that someday she would be able to reverse the barrenness of their females.

"What happens to your women, when they're barren?"

She smiled sadly. "We're useful, but not as wives. Once it became widespread knowledge that the females were barren and that cross-breeding with species from other planets and systems might produce the hope of the future, many that were married were tossed aside. I was engaged to marry a man named Talek, and he said he wouldn't marry me unless I had a fertility test done. Even though I had hope that he didn't mean it, when the results came back that I was sterile, he walked away without another glance. He was one of the first ones to take a bride from another planet. He has a couple of children now, but all boys." She smiled slightly. "I guess I can take some small measure of joyful revenge in that."

"Eden said that some females of your planet can still have children, while others are entirely barren." Ashleigh tried to wrap her head around the situation.

"I'm one of the unfortunate females who are truly sterile. I won't have children of either sex. The scientific community is almost certain that something happened universally to us; either an unknown change to our genes or environment with the end result of either true sterility or only male children being born. I'm almost thirty-five years, and there are less than five hundred females younger than me, on a planet where the males outnumber the females eight to one. The men, they want to help the race survive, not make more competition for future generations by only having males."

"But I thought that men's sperm determined the sex of the baby?"

"It should. But what we discovered through many years of testing was that something happened between fertilization of the egg and implantation in the uterus that changed the baby from female to male. We tried inseminating them artificially, but no matter how we manipulated them, the fetuses always became male. The only time we could get female babies was through the use of alien eggs and uteruses. It's unfortunate, I know, and I do feel badly for you and the other women. But our people are desperate."

Ashleigh protested, "But the babies that will be born, they won't be either race, but a mix."

"It doesn't matter; our people can continue on."

"How long have your people been abducting women from other planets?"

She rolled her eyes in thought. "I became an adult at sixteen years and they started testing the females shortly after that, and then it took many years for the probes to return with the right planets for the ships to take women from. Ten years, perhaps."

"And you haven't found a cure or the reason for the sterility?"

"No."

"And how many babies have been born since the abductions started? How many girls to boys?"

She smiled. "The first mixed baby girl was born about five years ago. Now there are over a dozen girls and about thirty boys resulting from the abductions. There have been numerous pilgrimages to other planets and systems, but the travel time is long and the women, of course, need time to adjust."

Of course.

"You don't know if the girls born now will be sterile or not, though," she pointed out.

"That girls are born regularly is sign enough. When the time comes that they are adults, they'll be tested. All testing so far points to the mixed females being able to breed successfully."

She felt her anger rise. "And in the meantime, your people are abducting innocent women like me."

Sloan put down her glass and took Ashleigh's from her. "I know you're angry, and I can empathize with you, but think of it this way. If your people were going to die out eventually, wouldn't you do anything in the universe to change the course of that future if you could?"

Ashleigh wanted to say that she thought she would rather go gracefully into non-existence then abduct women and force them to breed, but she didn't. Because if she knew anything about human nature, then Eden and his people had behaved no differently than humans would have.

Sloan shifted the subject slightly, "I hope you can take some comfort in knowing that Eden will take very good care of you. He cares about you."

She muttered, "As a brood mare."

She smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, Ashleigh. I can't imagine how you are feeling right now, but I will tell you that my brother is one of the sweetest, most gentle men I've ever known. You need time to adjust to this situation, but in time I know you'll come to love him."

"I really just want to go home to Earth."

"I know it seems impossible, but our ability to travel through space is millennia ahead of your planet's. We're so far away from Earth that we're already in another solar system. Our ships use something called _yanning_ , that folds space for us, and allows us to travel great distances in a shorter amount of time. These ships are supplied with only enough fuel and supplies to take us to the destination planet and then home again."

Ashleigh felt tears press behind her eyelids again. She hadn't cried since that first night, but she wanted to cry now. She just didn't believe it. She didn't _want_ to believe it. But looking at Sloan through blurry eyes, she knew that it was true. She really couldn't go home. It helped some to know that Sloan thought a great deal of Eden, and so far, he'd been nothing but kind to Ashleigh even though she'd been difficult, but it wasn't enough to take away the ache of not being able to go home. She would never see her mother again or apologize for not calling her when she'd had the chance. She would never see her friends again, or her boss.

"I don't know that I'll ever stop wanting to go home, Sloan. I hope you can understand that." She sniffled and wiped at her eyes with a small napkin.

"I do. But for what it's worth, I think that in time you'll change your mind."

Silence fell between them, but it wasn't strained. Neither of them had any more to say about the situation.

Ashleigh spent the day with her, watching vids and talking about the similarities and differences between their people. It was a strange twist of fate that something had happened to their females to prevent them from having girl babies. And it was her bad luck that she was picked to help further their race.

When she walked with Ashleigh back to Eden's chamber, they found him pacing inside. His face split into a broad smile of relief when they walked in. He hugged Sloan and asked her to stay for dinner, which she accepted. Over dinner they talked about the differences in plant and animal life between the two planets. Their people were scientifically minded, but they were also agricultural. Although many things were similar enough, Ashleigh knew that their planet was going to take some getting used to.

When Sloan left after dinner, Eden joined her on the couch with a bowl of _ronii_ , and they watched some vids about the art history of his people.

When the nightmare came that night, and she looked into Eden's sleep-blurred eyes and watched the terror slide into relief, she felt another little bit of her heart lost to him. It angered her, because it felt like a betrayal of her own kind, but she seemed to be unable to stop it. He was sweet and kind, and even though she hated that she'd been taken from Earth, she couldn't help the warm feelings that surfaced whenever she was with him.

The fourth day, Eden took her on a long elevator ride up to the top deck of the ship to the observation deck, telling her they called them _transports_ and not elevators.

"I reserved this time for us, Ashleigh. There won't be anyone else up here for the next hour. I know you're bored in the chamber, but it's part of the agreement that we sign when we take a bride, that you have to be sequestered until we arrive on planet and then another lunar cycle after. Because Sloan is a medical officer, you're allowed to visit with her, but otherwise, you aren't supposed to have contact with anyone but me."

"Did something happen that made that a rule?"

"I think you can guess that some women gathered together and tried to find a way to escape. Unfortunately, they were injured, and one of them died when she stepped into an airlock, sealed herself in, and blew the lock. She died out in space. I know she didn't want to be part of our world, but I don't think she wanted to die like that."

"What happens if a woman refuses?" The door to the transport opened, and they stepped out into a large oval-shaped room.

"If, after the lunar cycle on the planet is over and the woman is still insistent that she cannot remain as bride to her husband, then she is taken to the _Bordelayz_ until a more suitable mate can be found."

She turned to look at him in surprise. "What is the _Bordelayz_?"

"It's a brothel, Ashleigh. Do you know what that is?"

"Y-yes," she stammered.

His face hardened, and he looked truly angry. "Do you understand that a woman that refuses to marry the male who chose her loses all rights to herself and her body until she is chosen by another male? And she may never be. There are women in the _Bordelayz_ who have been there for years."

She swallowed hard. "What happens if her husband dies?"

"When the mating ceremony is complete, the bride becomes a citizen of our home planet immediately. If her husband should die, as long as she was not the cause of his death, she retains her freedom and citizenship and can choose another husband if she wishes, or she can remain single for the rest of her days."

"Freedom? How is what you are doing to me freedom?"

"You're no less free than in a marriage on your planet. I've done my research, Ashleigh. Human men and women belong to each other in marriage, there's mutual love and respect, sharing of household and family duties. It's no different on my planet. The only difference is that you didn't ask to be taken, and I understand your anger at the situation, but I only want you to be happy. Ask me anything, except to take you back to Earth, and I'll go to the ends of the universe to see it happen."

Of course he would say, "except to take you back to Earth". Damn smart alien.

She shook her head and moved away from him, unable to say anything to that statement. She could see the truth in his eyes. He really did care about her; he really did want her to be happy. She just didn't understand that. It had only been a few days.

The lights went out suddenly, and she spun in the darkness as fear spread through her. She felt Eden's strong arms circle around her, and he said, "Screen clear." The light from a million stars and planets became visible as the walls and ceiling faded to clear glass. Dumbfounded, she stared up at the ceiling, the inky darkness dotted with stars. She gripped Eden's arms. "Where are we?"

His voice tingled in her ear as he said in a low voice, "This is the Gasar Galaxy. Beautiful, isn't it?"

Awed, she could do nothing but stand there and stare, mouth open, at the awesome expanse of space. She moved from his arms and he let her, and she walked to the glass and touched it, finding it slightly cooler than the air in the room.

He moved next to her while she gazed out at a galaxy she had never heard of. The inky darkness, dotted with stars, was mesmerizing. She kept reaching her hand out and brushed it against the cool glass.

All too soon, he said the time had come for them to return to their room, and she was still so surprised by what she had seen that she didn't correct him by reminding him it was _his_ room and not _theirs_.

Before she went into the bedroom that night, he said, "You don't have to keep coming out here."

"What do you mean?"

"My nightmares. I appreciate that you come out for me, but it's not necessary."

"If you don't want me to, I won't." She felt strangely disappointed.

"It's not that; it's hard enough to be here in this room with you while you push me away, but when I wake up and find you in front of me, concern on your face, it just makes it that much harder."

The pained look on his face made her want to walk over to him and hold him tightly and tell him she was sorry, but she did what she'd been doing since she got there, and walked away.

Chapter 5

The next several days were the same. They ate together, watched vids, and talked, but there was a tension between them, and she didn't know how to fix it. She hadn't gone out to him when he had his nightmares, and it tore at her to remain in bed while he was being tortured in his dreams.

She was still keeping Eden at arm's length, even though her feelings for him were growing steadily. Grudgingly, she had accepted that she wasn't going to be taken back to Earth and was sad for what she had left behind: her job, her friends, her family. But she was surrounded by things that probably would not have happened in her lifetime back on Earth. She was in a spaceship traveling through space in a way that her people never imagined possible, going to another planet to live. She was living a dream that her people likely wouldn't realize for generations.

She was stuck on the ship, in his room, for two months and then another month on the planet. He was gorgeous, funny, sweet, attentive, and kind. Of course she was going to care for him, fall in love with him. No matter the amount of physical space she put between them, she couldn't help but appreciate everything about him. He never lashed out at her when she rebuffed him. He never pushed her. He'd never done anything in their time together except hug her a few times. She could have certainly ended up in a far worse situation.

And she certainly didn't want to refuse him and wind up as a whore in a brothel.

She asked to visit Sloan again on the seventh day. Eden made the arrangements, and Sloan came to pick her up. As they walked through the halls and stepped into the transport, Sloan said, "Is there anything special you'd like to do, Ashleigh?"

"Could you teach me how to use the cooker?"

Sloan's brows rose in pleased surprise. "Sure. Was there something you'd especially like to make, or did you just want to learn how to use it in general?"

"Eden liked a salty thing, _esot_ I think it was called, that was rolled up?"

"Oh, _esot_ with _guiu_ and _freks_. That's his favorite. I used to make it for him all the time when we were young. I'd be happy to show you how to make that."

Inside Sloan's tidy kitchen, she showed Ashleigh how to turn on the cooker and use a control pad in the counter to adjust the heat level. Ashleigh sliced up the _esot_ , which was a pyramid-shaped meat like a ham, with two thick bones through the center of it. The _esot_ beast, which was a stocky creature with spikes along its furry back, was butchered and the meat prepared using a brine, which gave it the salty flavor, before it was roasted over an open flame.

While the strips fried on a pan heated on the cooker, Sloan showed her how to make the flatbread, which they called _varjak_. Two scoops of yellow flour, one spoonful of a thick oil, and enough hot water to make a dough. While Sloan watched, Ashleigh kneaded the dough and then cut it into three pieces, rolling them into large discs. Another pan was heated on the cooker, and each flatbread was toasted until it was cooked and then left to cool on a platter.

"Why do you come on these trips, Sloan?" Ashleigh asked, touching the strips of _esot_ with a long-handled fork and moving them around the shallow pan.

"This is my first trip, actually. I wanted to come to support Eden and to meet you. I am qualified to be here, and I, well, I wanted to make sure that you were treated well from the beginning."

Ashleigh stopped fiddling with the meat and looked at Sloan. "What?"

"I'm the one who handled your in-take, Ashleigh. I implanted your translator, and I examined, bathed and dressed you. I know that might embarrass you, but you shouldn't worry about that. It was important to me that you were treated with the utmost respect. I even watched the entire group of women in the room, and I spoke personally to Commander Riya and made sure you were the last one taken."

"Why?"

"You handled yourself so well. You didn't fight or cower in fright. You tried to encourage the others to stay calm. I've seen the vid they show inductees, and it's not very informative, but instead of panicking, you kept your head. I thought that being the last one taken would help you have time to come to terms with things. I hope it didn't make you panic too much, all that waiting." She smiled.

"No, I don't know if I would have been more upset to be taken earlier or when I was. I just was trying to be calm and not fight. It didn't seem to work for any of the other women."

"The men are trained to handle the women without hurting them. Commander Riya is very careful of the men on his team and chooses them wisely."

Did Ashleigh detect a bit of affection for the handsome officer? "He was kind, so thank you for speaking up for me, even though I didn't know you had done that at the time."

"He would have treated you well no matter what, but he assured me that he would be extra kind, and I'm glad that he was."

When the sandwiches were put together, Ashleigh and Sloan ate on the couch with their plates in their laps and talked. When the time came for them to return back to Eden's room, Ashleigh wrapped up his sandwich in a napkin and carried it with her.

When she handed the sandwich to Eden, his eyes lit up, and he thanked her by kissing her cheek. That night, as she watched him eat the sandwich she had made, she felt happy for the first time since she'd come on board.

* * *

She'd been there for eight days. Time seemed to stand still sometimes and the boredom made her antsy and annoyed. That evening, she looked in the refrigerator for some _ronii_ , but found none. She hadn't meant to complain out loud, but Eden took her words to heart and promised to return soon with the fruit from the market.

But he didn't return. She waited for hours, watching vids and flipping through a few art books on the table. She couldn't read them because they were written in the Norlanian language, but the pictures were beautiful.

Her emotions ran the gamut from worried to angry. Her ears strained to hear the sound of footsteps out in the hall or the whoosh of the door opening.

_I miss him_. She frowned, not realizing just how much she'd come to rely on his presence until he'd been gone so long without leaving word for her. She missed the way he ran his hands through his hair when he was frustrated, and the way he would look at her when he thought she wasn't paying attention. She had accepted that she was never going to go home, but she'd never allowed herself to really admit that her feelings were growing for him every day. He was sweeter and kinder than any man she'd ever known, treating her like a princess no matter how many times she asked to be taken home, how often she took his kindness for granted. Had she ever even said thank you to him? Had she ever shown him in any way that she was growing to love him? She wasn't sure she had, because she'd been trying so hard to shut up that part of herself in the beginning that she didn't think she'd let go and just let herself feel what she felt for him.

She fell asleep on the couch, which smelled of the soap he used; a spicy, sweet scent that was imbedded in the light blanket thrown over the back of the couch, and in the plush pillows. Her dreams slipped into nightmares she couldn't escape from, in which she was left alone because Eden had left her in the _Bordelayz_ , to be used and abused for the rest of her life.

When she finally broke free of the nightmares in the morning, she had so hoped to find Eden in the room so she could tell him how foolish she had been. She didn't want to be with anyone but him, and she only hoped it wasn't too late to fix the damage she had done.

The rooms were empty and there was no evidence that he had even come back at all. On shaky legs, she walked into the bathroom and cleaned up in the enclosed shower, wondering what had happened to him and when he would be back.

Opening the clothing cabinet, she looked over her things, but instead of picking any of them she turned and walked into the small closet where he kept his clothes. Choosing one of his tunics, she slipped it over her head and cuddled the soft fabric around herself. It hung to her knees and gaped at the chest, but she didn't care. She would show him that she wanted to be with him, that she was ready to open herself to him. And it wasn't just because she had no choice. His absence had made her wake up and open herself to the emotions that had been struggling to break free for days now. She loved him. She wanted him.

He _was_ sweet. He _was_ funny. And he was the most beautiful man she'd ever laid eyes on. What did it matter, anyway, whether they were from different worlds or not, if they loved each other?

Hunger gnawed at her as she looked around the empty front room in confusion. He'd been gone for so long. Where was he? She had no idea how to find him or how to call him, or if they even used things like cell phones. He'd told her she wasn't to leave the room without him or Sloan, and the front door to the room that led out into the hallway wasn't coded for her, so it wouldn't open.

As her anger grew with each passing minute at being left alone, it twined with panic, deep inside her. She'd never panicked before, but this wasn't a normal situation. Had Eden abandoned her? Had he decided she'd kept him at arm's length for so long she wasn't worth the trouble? What was going to happen to her?

Her heart thudded erratically. Had he really stayed out all night because he needed some time away from her, because of her constant rejection? But what if something had actually happened to him? He said they wouldn't be technically married until a ceremony had happened, and so far there hadn't been any vows exchanged or any sort of official ceremony done. It had just been the two of them for the last week.

The door opened, and Ashleigh's heart leapt into her throat. Sloan walked in.

"Good morning, Ashleigh. I came to have breakfast with you. I hope you're hungry."

"Starving." She could have cried, she was so disappointed it wasn't Eden.

Sloan put a paper sack in her hands, and she opened it and found _ronii_. "Why did you bring me these?" she asked, looking up at her.

Sloan busied herself at the cook top. "Eden asked me to bring them over and have breakfast with you."

Ashleigh put the bag down on the table. Unease flitted through her. "He asked you to come and...take care of me?"

"He did," she said, without turning to look at her. There was a stiffness to her that Ashleigh hadn't seen when they spent the day together, and she had the distinct feeling that something was wrong.

"Do you know where Eden is?" she asked.

Sloan looked at her over her shoulder and then turned her attention back to the cooker. "I do."

"Where?"

She sighed loudly and turned off the cooker. She turned around slowly and leaned against the counter, her arms folded across her chest.

Ashleigh's heart pounded in her chest as she waited for Sloan's response.

"He's in Kasimir's quarters, having sex with his wife Anca."

Ashleigh's whole world shut down. She didn't realize she was crying until she felt a tear slip down her cheek. She'd thought her heart had been broken when she found out that Tate had been sleeping with her cousin behind her back. She realized now that she hadn't known the definition of a broken heart until this moment.

Rubbing angrily at her watery eyes, she said, "Good. Fine. Whatever." Completely crushed, she turned to go back to the bedroom. Sloan's hand caught her wrist.

"Why haven't you had sex with Eden?"

She stiffened. "How would you know what we did or didn't do?"

"Because his hair is still blue, Ashleigh."

When she stared in confusion, Sloan pulled her into the bedroom, went into the closet, and pulled open one of the small built-in drawers on one wall. Ashleigh hadn't looked in the drawers because she didn't want to invade Eden's privacy. Sloan pulled out a thick leather-bound book and put it down on the bed.

At her urging, Ashleigh opened the book and saw a pencil drawing of herself. It was so perfectly drawn it was like a photograph. He'd caught the subtle wave in her thick hair, the tiny dimple in her cheek. The next page revealed a charcoal drawing of her standing at a porch railing, an arbor of flowers surrounding her. The gown she wore was beautiful, and reminded her of a wedding dress. She turned the next page and found a water-color painting of her nestled in Eden's arms, but his hair was dark brown and he looked serene. As she continued to look, she found page after page of drawings, paintings and sketches of herself. Mostly alone, always wearing beautiful clothing, and sometimes drawn with him, embraced liked lovers. "Eden made these?" Her voice was a bare whisper. Emotions rioted around in her mind.

"Of course he did, Ashleigh. He's an artist. He's absurdly talented. The moment he took the _soul-walk_ to find his mate, he started to prepare for you. Besides drawing what look like near mirror-images of you," she held one up next to her shocked face and compared it, "he also spent the last five years preparing for you. All of the things in here – the clothes, the linens, even the furniture – it was all done with you in mind." She went to the closet and pulled several more volumes of art of her from within.

"I don't," Ashleigh licked suddenly dry lips and sat down on the bed, "I don't understand. If he really wanted me to be his wife, why has he been gone all night and why is he having sex with someone else's wife?" She wanted to be mad at him, but she felt completely torn and broken at seeing the pictures.

Sloan interrupted her thoughts by joining her on the bed. "Okay, so clearly Eden left out a large bit of his life before you came here. He's a _brokah..._ I think the term on your world is 'gigolo'?"

She gaped at her in shock. "A gigolo is a male prostitute."

She nodded. "Yeah, that's about right. You know how beautiful he is. Even as a child, everyone knew he was going to be gorgeous. We were born into one of the poorest cities. Our parents indebted themselves even further to send him to the best boarding school so he could learn how to fit in among the upper echelon of society. When he showed an interest in art as a child, he was punished and told that it was folly. Art wouldn't help him gain employment that would help our parents to get out of the slums. When he turned sixteen years, the age of sexual maturity for our people, he was taken from our parents' home to the house of the governor of Kyvern City. His wife had seen him at the school and wanted him. Eden said that it was awful. The governor watched him the whole time and made crude comments, and then he... Oh, Ashleigh, the governor raped him while he was having sex with his wife."

Ashleigh's heart stopped dead, and her eyes filled with tears. Immediately her mind flashed to the book she'd read for her book club about abused children. Eden was as much a victim as those children had been, sold for profit, tossed to the wolves for money. Eden had suffered so much; all he'd asked of her was time, and she hadn't given it to him.

Sloan continued her story of Eden's life: that their parents sold him as a _brokah_ , and he was taken to the _Bordelayz_ as a sex slave. For the last fifteen years, he had been forced to service anyone who called for him. After the governor raped him, he fought not to be taken like that again, and eventually the males that preferred that sort of thing gave up on him. But he was called constantly to the beds of married women while their husbands watched him. Their world was casual about many things, including the use of prostitutes by couples.

It was his job. He was not allowed to deny anyone no matter how much he was filled with disgust at the act. He became addicted to drugs, trying to dull the pain and humiliation he suffered, and then he overdosed, trying to kill himself. After he tried to take his own life, Sloan paid for him to take the _soul-walk_ and hoped that he would be able to find his mate. That was five years ago.

"What is this _soul-walk_ you keep talking about?"

"Oh, sweet Ashleigh, he really didn't tell you anything, did he? I think he must have wanted you to love him, before he shared such painful things. The _soul-walk_ is something that our men do to find their perfect mate. It's a drug-induced vision that leads them to where their bride is. Machines hooked up to the males pinpoint the location and name of the bride from information in the vision. She will be perfect for him, compatible in every way. The male chooses a necklace that contains an identification number and a tracker. The moment his bride puts on the necklace, the retrieval crew comes for her." Because Ashleigh had taken off the necklace that first night, the crew had not come for her because they couldn't guarantee that the necklace was with her. Secrecy was of the utmost importance to them, so they took the women at night, when they were alone in their homes, wearing the necklace.

"Why did he wait so long to come for me?" She wiped at the tears on her cheeks.

"He had to save up enough money to buy out his contract from the _Bordelayz_ , for the trip and your abduction, and to wait also for a freighter to come to your planet. When the _soul-walks_ are done, the males are grouped together by planet, and when enough of them have drawn mates from the same planet they will be able to begin their journey. The whole time he waited for others to find Earth mates, his whole outlook on life changed. He still hated his status as _brokah_ – it is one of the lowest stations in our society – but he had you to look forward to.

"I know you want to go home, Ashleigh, and I can understand that, but you are blind if you don't know that my brother loves you. You told me that first day we spent together that you didn't believe in love at first sight, but he's had five years of remembering the vision he had of you and waiting to be able to find you. You were going to be his salvation."

"His salvation?"

"He freed himself for you, Ashleigh. Once a _brokah_ becomes mated, he will never be able to be a gigolo again; it's against our laws. He'll be able to do what he wants with his life back home, and he'll never be called into anyone else's bed again."

Still reeling from everything she'd just learned, she managed to ask her the one thing that had stuck out. "What did you mean when you said you knew we hadn't had sex because his hair was still blue?"

"Unmated males have blue hair. When they mate with their bride for the first time, it changes their hair color to brown. It's a chemical, connection kind of thing. When he went out last night to get the fruit for you, he clearly didn't think that anyone would ask him to service their mate, but he was wrong. Kasimir is a general in the military. If Eden had said no to him, he would have been beaten for sure and forced anyway. It wouldn't matter to Kasimir that Eden paid for his freedom and was no longer a _brokah_. Kasimir's mate is from a world where the women go into a sexual frenzy once a month and the general has never been able to keep up with her. So he clearly kept Eden there overnight, making him go again and again."

"Oh." Her hand went to her mouth and she swallowed a scream born of guilt. "Can you take me to him?"

"You can't do anything for him until he's released from Kasimir's quarters. If you want to mate with him when he recovers, you can, but until then he's a sex slave."

Shaking her head, Ashleigh stood up and went to the tall cupboard where he kept the clothes he'd picked for her, neatly folded and hung on metal hangers. She chose a crimson halter top in a fabric that felt like satin and a matching pair of slacks and ballet style slippers. "Help me get to him, Sloan, please," she said as she turned around, dumped the clothes on the bed and pulled off his tunic.

"I don't know why you'd want to see that, but I'll take you to Kasimir's."

Ashleigh wasn't sure she could explain it either. She just felt like he needed her, and if she sat in the room until he was released from his duty, then she would be failing him. It was her fault that he had been taken, and she had to try to fix it. She dressed quickly, and Sloan helped her apply some light makeup to hide the fact that she'd been crying and brushed her hair until it shone. Taking her hand, she stepped out of their room and turned to the left.

She and Sloan entered a transport and Sloan spoke their destination. As it swiftly moved them through the levels of the ship, Sloan said, "Kasimir is a big man with a bad attitude. His mate, Anca, is from the Ghrakin world. She has eyes like diamonds, and pointed ears. I think the only reason she wanted to come along on this journey is because she wanted to use Eden before he became mated."

Ashleigh felt nauseous. As Sloan spoke about Kasimir and Anca, she realized how foolish she'd been. If she'd had an open mind with Eden from the beginning, she would have seen him for what he was. And she really did like being with him. And she was powerfully attracted to him. And more than that, she knew that she loved him. She'd tried to keep herself detached, but he was impossible not to love.

The door to Kasimir's quarters opened after Sloan pressed a pad and requested entrance. Kasimir was huge. Tall and broad, he had a scar down one side of his face that looked like it still hurt even though it was clearly healed and old. Sneering at them from under a dark brow, his thin lips curled up slightly.

"Lovely Sloan, who is this beauty?"

"This is Eden's bride, Kasimir. She wants to see him."

"He's not done with my wife."

"Please." Ashleigh looked up at him. "Let me see Eden."

"If you're really his bride, if you care so much, why have you been on board for eight _dins_ and he's still got blue hair? That makes him a _brokah;_ I don't care what the _Bordelayz_ says."

Ashleigh didn't know how to answer that. "I needed time, and you took him from me. Let me see him, please."

Kasimir seemed to be considering things and then finally he said, "What's one more person enjoying the show anyway?"

Much to her dismay, the scene that waited for her in the large bedroom was much worse than her mind could have invented. Eden, hair matted to his head with sweat and with fresh whip marks across his back, was thrusting into the body of a woman lying on her back while she played with her small breasts and licked her lips. Couples and groups of men sat around the room on lounges, some watching intently while others laughed lightly and whispered.

She hadn't meant to make a sound, but a small, sad gasp left her lips. Eden's head shot up, and he froze, eyes locked to hers.

The woman under him shrieked, "Kas, he's gone soft! Do something!"

The look of utter humiliation on Eden's face made Ashleigh's heart break even further. She barely heard Kasimir say, "Get the whip," but the words registered when one of the men watching stood up and grabbed a lethal-looking whip from a hook on the wall. Ashleigh screamed, "No! Wait, wait!" She raced to Eden, to protect him.

Kasimir regarded her coolly. "You have no standing here, little Earth girl. You're not his mate yet and until he finishes fucking my bride, he's not going anywhere."

The whip unraveled with a slithering sound, and her brain spun. She absolutely couldn't watch him get beaten. Not when she'd been so foolish. "Wait, I can help him."

"Help him?" Kasimir asked with an arched brow.

"Yes, I can help him get hard again so he can finish. Obviously I broke his concentration. You don't need to whip him."

Shrugging, he said, "Suit yourself."

She gave a meaningful look at Sloan, who nodded but looked worried. She turned and climbed up the bed next to Eden, ignoring the naked woman sprawled out under him. He sat up, his limp cock sliding from her as she made an angry noise. Ashleigh cupped his sweaty face with her hands.

Whispering, she said, "I'm so sorry, Eden, I'm such a fool."

He blinked tear-filled eyes. There was such pain and loss there. "I deserve this. It's what I am. All I'm good for."

Shocked, she gripped his face harder. "No, that's not true!"

"If I can't get my own soul mate to love me in a week's time, then it's just proof that this is all I can offer."

"Oh, Eden, I do love you. I do. I swear. You're too good for me; I've been so awful to you. Please, finish so we can go back to our room and make love so I can be yours forever."

"Ashleigh?" His voice quivered as disbelief warred with hope in the depths of his chocolate-brown eyes.

"I'm not going anywhere until you're done." She slid her hand down his sweat-soaked stomach to the base of his cock, which was thick enough that her finger and thumb didn't meet as she circled it with her hand. He tilted his head and dropped his mouth to hers with a moan, and she opened her mouth to his tongue and savored the sweet taste of him. As she stroked his cock, it grew quickly, and he pulled away from her mouth for a moment and flipped Anca over onto her knees and plunged into her. As he thrust hard and fast into her, he said with halting whispers, "I couldn't look at her anymore."

Ashleigh slipped slightly behind him, curling one arm around his side possessively and pressing kisses to his shoulder and arm. He clearly hit a good spot inside her because Anca shrieked in climax and he pulled out of her body, his cock still hard.

"Ooh," Anca purred, rolling to her back and facing them, "that was wonderful."

Ashleigh moved off the bed, grabbed the slacks that Sloan was holding out and helped Eden dress. When he stood up, his knees buckled slightly, and he leaned heavily on her. "I didn't say you were done, _brokah_ ," Kasimir said blandly.

Sloan stomped over to him and pushed her finger into his chest. "They're mates, Kasimir. Even you can't deny that. You've used him as your personal sex toy for far too long, and now he's done with that life. If you try to keep him here when his bride is asking for him, I'll have you brought up on charges."

His lips curled into a snarl, but Sloan's threat must have carried some weight, because he stepped aside and didn't try to stop them.

Eden was quiet all the way back to their room, and Ashleigh didn't know what to say to him. When Sloan left them at the door with a smile and a kiss on the cheek, Ashleigh took him straight back to the bathroom and called for the pool to fill. She helped him undress and get settled inside as the heated water rose quickly. Stripping, she joined him, settling on her knees between his legs. She reached for a thick sponge and gel wash, lathering the sponge and lifting his hand gently from the swirling, hot water.

"Are you okay, Eden? They whipped you, didn't they?" She began to wash away the evidence of the sex from his body with gentle motions.

"Someone saw me in the market last night and told Kasimir that my hair was still blue. I was on my way back here when he met me and refused to allow me to come back. I couldn't deny that nothing had happened between us. He said that my blue hair meant I was still a _brokah_ and that he didn't care how much I had paid to leave the _Bordelayz_ , that I would always be one. I left the fruit outside the door and when I got to his chambers, he let me call Sloan and ask her to take care of you this morning. I thought I could talk my way out of it, ask for more time with you so I didn't have to do that with Anca, but he wouldn't agree to it. When I refused, they whipped me, and then they drugged me so I would be more compliant. The night is kind of a blur after that. I don't know when he brought in the audience."

She swiped the sponge across his shoulder and the front of his chest. "I'm so sorry for all of this. I was being stubborn. Even after I knew it wasn't possible to go home, I still kept myself away from you. But you being gone last night made me take a hard look at myself. I should have asked you about yourself more and I should have been more open about myself. If I hadn't been trying so hard to keep you at arm's length, I would have asked about your hair, about our future. Kasimir took you from me, and I hate him for it, but I'm the one who set you up to be taken. I was selfish and awful. Can you forgive me?"

He pulled the edge of a towel over and blotted the tears that dotted her cheeks. "There's nothing to forgive." He put the towel back on the edge of the pool and fiddled with the embroidered hem. "How can you love me, Ashleigh? You hated the thought of whoring yourself to me, you were terrified of being sent to the _Bordelayz_. I'm a whore, the lowest in our society. I can't give you the status you deserve."

She hated his self-deprecation, but she understood it. "You're not a whore anymore, not a _brokah_. I don't care about status, Eden, all I care about is you. You're mine, my husband and my soul mate. I still don't entirely understand how I was chosen, but I know that we fit together, and I don't want to go anywhere but with you."

His brow arched. "You don't want to go back to Earth?"

She returned to washing his skin, plunging the sponge under the water and moving it along one leg. "I did, but even if I could go home now, I wouldn't. I would stay with you, Eden, because I love you." She stroked up the inside of his thigh and watched his eyes close and his body relax. "When you're rested up and healed, I want us to make love. Not just so your hair will change color and no one will ever force you like that again, but because I love you and I want to be your wife."

He opened his eyes and smiled for a brief moment before closing his eyes again in exhaustion. When she had first heard he was having sex with another woman, her wounded heart had screamed _no, not again!_ But Eden wasn't willing. He was a victim, plain and simple. And while it killed her to know he'd been with that awful woman, she knew in her heart that it hadn't been his choice. It had taken drugs and the bite of a whip to force him to comply. That meant something.

She washed his body tenderly, dismayed at how bruised and battered he was. After she rinsed his hair clean, she helped him from the pool and dried him carefully. She found a healing ointment in one of the bathroom cabinets for the whip marks on his back, and when she tried to help him toward the bed, he offered to sleep on the couch, which she soundly rejected. She straddled his thighs and palmed some of the ointment, rubbing it until it was warmed in her hands and applying it gently to the wounds.

He groaned as she worked her way down his back. "Did I press too hard?"

"No," he rasped, "your touch is most welcome."

"I don't understand what happened last night, Eden," she said, smoothing more of the ointment across one particularly deep whip mark. They crisscrossed over the old marks.

"What don't you understand?" He rested his head on his hands and closed his eyes.

"Why wouldn't Kasimir listen when you said no last night? You set yourself free. You should be seen as free, no matter what you used to do."

He grimaced in thought and then said, "You know that my parents sold me?"

"Sloan told me," she answered softly.

Eden's eyes squeezed tightly shut and his body tensed. Ashleigh kept her hands on his back lightly, hoping to offer him some comfort. "That first time, _my_ first time, when the governor raped me when I was with his wife, I told my parents I wouldn't do anything like that again. They had plans to sell me nightly to the wealthy elite, who get their pleasures from dallying with whores, slumming it. My refusal was a roadblock for my parents, so they sold me to the _Bordelayz_ for a large sum of money. But the owner didn't just give them money for me freely, he gave me the money he had given them as a debt against myself. I was forced to work to pay off the debt of my own slavery while my parents spent the money on a house in a nicer area."

Her heart cracked so sharply it took her breath away. She struggled to rein in the tears. "How could they do that to you?"

"I don't know if they truly understood what they'd done in the beginning, but I know they only saw me as a meal ticket. Sloan fought to have my debt returned to our parents to force them to return the money and free me, but the owner of the _Bordelayz_ had powerful friends, and I was too valuable to him to let go.

"I hated it so much. I hated myself. I hated my parents. I got hooked on drugs as a way to make myself forget what I was doing, so the money I was making toward my release was being eaten up by my addiction. If I wanted to leave the brothel I had to buy my freedom. Seventy thousand _deenars_. I might have been able to buy my freedom years ago if I hadn't gotten tangled up in the drugs, but I didn't care. Sloan came to see me frequently, and was even putting money toward my release, but I couldn't stand to bring her down with me. I tried to take my own life, but I was saved by one of the other slaves. That's when Sloan paid for me to go on a _soul-walk_. She said if I didn't find my soul mate, then I could do what I wanted. But if there was a woman out there for me, then I was being disloyal to her by taking my own life. When I saw you in my vision, everything changed for me. I got free of the drugs, and I began to work harder than I ever had before, to save enough money to free myself.

"The things I did for that, Ashleigh; I don't like that I debased myself for so long, but I had to get free. It took five years for the ship to be ready, but I worked like mad to make a home for us. Kasimir sees me as a _brokah_ because I've been one for fifteen years. In his eyes, in the eyes of many, I will always be a _brokah_ , no matter what color my hair is." His eyes opened, and she leaned over so she could look into his eyes. "I should have told you everything. It wasn't fair of me to leave you floundering about my past, my life."

"I should have asked. You've suffered so much, but that's done now. No one will ever take you against your will again, I swear."

"I love you, Ash," he whispered thickly.

"I love you, too, Eden."

Chapter 6

Ashleigh moaned as she woke up, her skin tingling in awareness as fingers grazed over her bare stomach in a slow, languid pattern. Eden pressed open-mouthed kisses against her shoulder, his hair tickling her neck as he drew himself closer to her as she woke.

His hand stroked up her stomach to her breasts and he cupped one, lifting his head and looking into her eyes. The light in the room was dim, but bright enough for her to see the hunger in his eyes that made them darker brown, bordering on black.

"You are so beautiful." His voice was husky and sent shivers down her spine.

She smiled, opening her mouth to return the compliment, when he pressed his mouth to hers, slipping his tongue past her parted lips. Her hands found his hair and played with the thick, short strands while their tongues glided together, tasting and touching. Her heart pounded in her chest and she pulled him closer, wrapping her arms around him. She ran her tongue along the edge of his teeth, loving the sweet taste of his mouth.

He moved down her body by slow degrees, kissing and tasting, nibbling and licking, until his lips slipped over the tip of her breast and suckled deeply. Her back arched off the bed, and her hands spasmed against his back. His tongue licked circles around her nipple as he continued to suck, his hair tickling her skin and making her nerve endings go haywire. Licking across the valley of her breasts, he nipped at the untended nipple, smiling against her flesh as she moaned, before sucking and licking it until it ached with need.

His tongue flicked across her stomach as he moved down, his breath washing over her skin as he slid, an inch at a time, toward her throbbing core. Slipping between her spread legs, he eased her thighs wider and rested on one elbow, dragging his fingers through the dark curls that covered her mound. "You are so soft here," he murmured, a small smile on his lush mouth. "Our people are bare. I love your curls; they are so pretty."

She'd never had anyone say she was pretty there. She blushed and smiled at him, sucking in a breath when he parted her lower lips with his thumbs and peered at her. His eyes met hers, and the look on his face was primal and full of need. "Pink and wet," he flicked his tongue across her heated flesh, and her whole body jerked, "and so sweet."

Licking up the wet slit, he delved his tongue inside her core, as she gripped the sheets and the pleasure began to coil deep inside her. He spread her apart with the fingers of one hand as his other hand slipped down, and he pushed a finger inside her.

"Oh...oh," she moaned, her hips rising to take his finger deeper. He pulsed it into her, twisting it inside as he massaged her inner walls. His tongue touched her clit, moving the sensitive bud, circling and stroking as he added a second finger. She felt the width of his fingers inside her, and wanted more. It felt good, so good, but it wasn't enough.

"Eden," she panted, feeling the edge of climax just within reach. He sucked her clit into his mouth and curved his fingers up, moving them in hard, fast motions as her body writhed under him. Her pulse raced, and her stomach clenched in waves.

"I, oh, Eden, oh....oh!" She cried out, her body jerking off the bed as pleasure filled her. Her body clenched around him as heat exploded within her, and her hips rose and fell as her limbs went limp.

With liquid grace, he slipped up her body, and she caught his hips with her legs as he rested in the cradle of her body. His hard cock lay trapped between them, hot and heavy. Framing her face with his hands, he kissed her tenderly, stealing her breath and making her fall in love with him a little bit more.

"You'll be mine, sweetheart? Forever?" His voice was earnest, his eyes pleading.

"Yes, Eden," she promised, brushing her fingers through the soft, shorter hair over his ears.

Shifting slightly, he lifted himself from her, easing his cock to the entrance of her body and pausing, meeting her eyes once more. With one hand, he gripped her thigh higher on his body and with the other, he linked their hands together and pushed inside.

They moaned together as his huge length pressed into her, stretching her and filling her like she'd never imagined possible. He held her gaze and squeezed her hand, easing back before thrusting hard, filling her completely.

"Oh...Eden," she gasped, pleasure rioting through her body at the exquisite dance between pleasure and pain as his cock pressed deeply inside her.

"Sweetheart," he groaned, sliding out slightly before pressing in again, "you feel so good."

Sensually, slowly, he pulled from her body with languid strokes, filling her perfectly each time he surged forward and their bodies met. Her hips met his, her legs twined around his lean, muscular body. She gripped his hand tightly, and used her free hand to stroke the heated flesh of his side, from the curve of his hip to his strong shoulders. The muscles under her fingers tensed and relaxed as he thrust into her, and she gripped his shoulder and lifted her head to kiss him. Sweat slicked their bodies, and she felt him trembling slightly as if he were holding himself back, but losing his grip.

"Harder," she moaned, "take me, Eden, I'm yours."

His hand gripped her thigh harder for a moment, and he stopped moving, buried deeply within her. With a growl in the back of his throat, he pulled almost completely free of her body and then slammed forward, pounding into her with a furious pace. She slid her hand from his shoulder to his chest, her fingers brushing the hard points of his nipples, tweaking one between her fingers.

Glancing down the length of her body, she watched his cock move in and out of her body, glistening with her arousal, pumping and thrusting into her core. He slid one arm under her hips and lifted her, changing the angle of her body and the depths of his thrusts.

"Oh! Eden!" she cried, her fingers digging into his skin as bolts of pleasure spiked through her body. His body thrust into hers as he swiveled his hips and finally found a place that made stars wink behind her eyes.

"Come, baby, please," he groaned, his cock hitting her deepest, most pleasurable place. She felt his cock spasm inside her as he shouted his release, and her body spiraled into pleasure, a place where lights exploded behind her eyes and her body seized in the most amazing, magnificent way. His name fell like a prayer of thanks from her lips as he slipped down next to her, their legs still tangled, bodies pressed together.

Her skin felt hot and her heart pounded, as pleasurable aftershocks shivered through her. She'd never orgasmed during sex before. It had been intense and amazing, and she was glad that she could share that with Eden.

"I've never done that before." Eden's voice was raw and throaty. She wrapped her arms around him as he rested against her, his head on her chest. Her fingers wove through his damp hair, still blue.

"I don't understand what you mean."

Tipping his face up, his eyes penetrated hers. "Made love. You were my first. First kiss, first lovemaking, first time that I came and I didn't hate myself."

"I'm sorry for all that you suffered through, but I'm glad that we found each other." She caught the shine of tears in his eyes, and he smiled briefly and dropped his head back against her.

The silence stretched around them, and she found herself drifting off to sleep, comforted by the warm press of his body against hers.

He woke her again several hours later to make love, pulling her against him when they collapsed in a panting heap. She had no idea of the time, as they slept and ate and made love, in a wonderful, pleasurable cycle.

* * *

By the clock in the bathroom, she knew that they'd been in bed for almost a full day when she noticed his hair had begun to change. The change was subtle at first, some darkness to the lustrous blue, and then slowly, as if paint was poured over him, the silky blue locks changed to dark brown.

He peered at himself in the mirror after they showered together. She didn't speak, but instead watched him quietly as he looked at himself. She wondered what he saw; if he felt like a different person.

"When I was a kid," he tugged on a short lock of hair, "I loved my blue hair. I used to wear it really long, pulled back at the sides and braided. We're born with it, you know. Before the females became sterile, the males would go on their soul-walks and be led to their woman somewhere on Norlan. There would be a mating period, a few weeks, when the males would sweep their females away to a secret place to woo them before claiming them. Females rarely rejected the males, as eager to be mated and start families as they were. And then things changed. The females became sterile, and therefore unwanted. The soul-walks failed to work; no matches were made. The blue hair became a curse of sorts. Unable to mate, the males turned on each other, fighting over the few females that could bear children, ignoring the soul-walks.

"When I was sold into the _Bordelayz_ , my first few customers talked about how lovely my hair was, how pretty I was. So I cut it off with a dull blade I stole from the meal hall. The owner was so furious that I'd damaged my hair that he had me whipped. He told me that I was property and not a person, and I was not to cut my hair again unless I had permission. The first thing I did when I was free was cut my hair."

He grew quiet again, and she stood from where she had sat on the edge of the bathing pool and hugged him. "I love the color. It means that we belong to each other as equals." She kissed his bicep. "No more sitting below me like you were doing. I want you by my side, in all ways."

She met his eyes in the mirror. "It's hard for me to get out of old habits, but I'll try for you."

They stood in silence while he battled his demons, and then he seemed to shake his thoughts away and turned with his arms around her, walking out into the bedroom.

"I have a question about the soul-walk thing."

She stood next to him at the refrigerated cabinet and looked inside the lighted interior. Wire shelves held neatly arranged food items. He pulled an oval container from one shelf and a jug of fruit juice.

"What do you want to know?"

The container held a _fourn_ , a type of large, black-feathered fowl that tasted like turkey. It was basted with sweet fruit like apricot and cooked for hours. He shredded it onto slices of thick, tangy bread.

"Well, if a woman rejects a male who did the soul-walk for her, you said that the female goes to the _Bordelayz_. Aren't they still soul mates? How can another male claim her and have his hair change during their mating?"

They sat down at the table, her in a silky aqua robe and Eden in satin lounge pants. "If the woman rejects him, even after the three lunar cycles, then she's taken to the home and their ties are severed. He won't be able to go on another soul-walk, but he can choose another unmated female and take her as his bride. The medical community has a serum that can be injected into the male prior to their mating that will allow him to bond with her as if she was his true soul mate."

"So both the male that lost her and the male that chooses her eventually will both have to take the serum?"

"Yes. It's complicated and expensive, and it's why there are three lunar cycles for the males to try to win their females over."

"It must be hard for the males."

He shrugged and took a bite of his sandwich, washing it down with a drink of juice. "A few years ago, the government decided that their soldiers would be happier and more productive if they had mates instead of using the _Bordelayz_ , so they forced them to go on soul-walks. Many of the females from your planet were from those walks. Not all of those men, though, sweetheart, are interested in being mated. Some of them are strictly military-minded and wouldn't necessarily be loving or kind. I would be surprised if every female from your group had mated with their males."

"Oh." She suddenly felt sorry for the women that had been abducted with her. She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

"What was that for, sweetheart?" He smiled.

"Because I'm really lucky."

He picked up her hand and kissed the top. "I'm the lucky one, sweetheart. You saved me. I'll spend the rest of my life thanking you for it."

* * *

The next seven weeks passed quickly as she learned about Eden and her new home planet. Although there were times that she missed her family and friends, she loved Eden and didn't want to be anywhere without him.

He began to teach her their written language, sharing with her a book of the Norlanian equivalent of fairy tales. They spent their nights tangled together, sharing about themselves and their hopes for the future.

Their official joining ceremony would take place on a stage set up near the landing platform. As soon as they exited the ship, they were going to be joined together as husband and wife, and Ashleigh would become a permanent citizen of the planet Norlan.

Eden had taken her into the viewing room once more the week before they were due to land on the planet, when the large purple and green orb was visible. It amazed her to know she'd traveled to such a far place. When she was a child, she'd had many dreams about the stars as she listened to her grandfather tell her the stories of the skies while she sat on his back porch and drank hot cider. The stars were different here than in her own solar system, not just white but often vividly blue or yellow, depending on whether they were a star or planet.

The day of the landing, Sloan joined her in the room to help her get ready. They didn't have a tradition of the man not seeing the woman until the ceremony, but she had wanted to surprise Eden so she kicked him out of the bedroom while she prepared. She wondered how many women who had been abducted actually really loved their mates. Once more, she was struck by how lucky she was to have been paired with a sweet man who would do anything for her.

Thoughts of her mother and friends flitted through her mind and she caught herself feeling morose. Although the dress that Eden had given her was beautiful, it wasn't the one she had expected to wear. Her mother had saved her wedding dress so that Ashleigh could wear it. The pure white satin gown had long sleeves and a train, with a veil covered in delicate crystals that matched the pattern on the bodice. When she was younger and had fantasized about what her wedding would be like, she hadn't anticipated a group affair, but instead her and her future husband, standing at the front of the little Methodist church where her parents and her grandparents had both tied the knot.

She'd pictured her mother standing up for her, in absence of her father, the sweet sounds of organ music, and Gwen by her side as maid of honor. When she'd thought she might marry Tate, Gwen had promised her a wild bachelorette party. They'd talked about raising their kids together and staying friends their whole lives.

It wasn't just that she missed her family and friends. She missed Earth and all the things she'd grown accustomed to. Microwave meals, cocktails on Friday nights, long discussions about books with her book club friends.

The brush that Sloan was using on her auburn hair slowed and then stopped. "What are you thinking about?"

"Hmm?" She looked back at Sloan, who sat on her knees behind her on the bed.

"You look so sad."

"Oh, I was just thinking about my mom. We weren't on the best of terms when I was taken, and I'm sure she's worried. Do you know how much time has passed on Earth?"

"Many years. I don't know what the translation is, but I think it's safe to say that your family has most likely accepted that you were abducted and won't return."

Emotions she hadn't realized she had never really expressed rose up in her suddenly, and she dashed off the bed and into the bathroom. She fell to her knees and buried her head in her hands, her sobs echoing around the small room. She didn't think her mother would ever just accept her as being gone, and it grieved her to realize that she would spend the rest of her life never knowing what happened to her only child.

Eden's arms wrapped around her and hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart." The stiff fabric of his marriage tunic was rough against her cheek as she turned into him and cried. He held her quietly, tightly, letting her have the time she needed to get out all the emotions she'd kept unintentionally bottled up.

When her tears had dried and her rioting emotions were under control, she sagged against him, grateful for his strength. "There are times, love, that I wish things were different for our people, that there would be a way for the males to stay on Earth and bond with their females before taking them away, to give them time to say goodbye. If I could change things about how you were taken, I would, but I would never give you up." He cupped her face and kissed her tear-stained cheeks. "I know it's not the same, but I'm your family now, me and Sloan, and when we have children, we'll have our own family together. Whatever happens from now on, we're together, and that's all that matters."

She knew she couldn't go home, and if she'd been given the chance, she would have declined. But the realization that life had continued on Earth at a much more rapid pace had left her reeling and opened the door to the floodgate of her emotions. She ran her thumb across his cheek and stared into his eyes, amazed at the love and acceptance he had for her. She'd thought she'd known what love was back on Earth, but she realized she truly hadn't until she had loved Eden.

"I love you so much, Eden." She kissed him.

"I love you, too."

Shooing Eden from the bathroom once she had collected herself, Sloan helped her cover the evidence of her tears with makeup and finished her hair. The gown that Eden had bought for her prior to the trip was beautiful. A perfect shade of ivory to match his tunic, the strapless gown hugged her upper body before flowing like a satin waterfall down her legs and pooling at her feet, which were enclosed in matching sandals. The gown split up to her knees as she walked, the smooth fabric a stark contrast to the stiff material of Eden's outfit. She had never taken off the necklace that had been used to take her away, and now it was paired with a clip, which Sloan used to hold her hair away from her face, and a ring, the large blue stone edged on either side by two lighter blue stones.

When the time had come to leave, all their belongings were packed up and waiting at the door. The company that ran the "extraction flights" would pack up the furniture and other items and deliver them to their new home within several hours.

There was a chime that alerted them when the guards were there to escort them to the stage for the ceremony. Captain Riya and another male with blue hair were standing in their uniforms outside the door when Eden opened it.

"Eden," Captain Riya said, "are you and your bride prepared for the bonding ceremony?"

"Yes, Captain." Eden squeezed her hand.

"Ashleigh, do you come willingly, to join with this male?" Captain Riya asked.

She looked up at Eden quizzically, and he smiled. "He just wants to know if you're going to try to run away."

"Oh." She grinned. "I'm not running anywhere."

Captain Riya smiled, but there was a sadness behind his eyes. She wondered if any of the women that had been with her in that metal room had said they weren't willing, and what happened to them when they did. And she wondered why he hadn't been mated yet. Sloan followed behind the guards as she and Eden walked down a long hallway to a transport, which moved down several floors. When the doors opened, they were in a huge bay in the ship, a wide ramp open to the ground. Beyond the opening, the land of her new home stretched out before her, a vibrant wonderland.

She knew the ship had landed in the capital, Kyvern City, which was where the _Bordelayz_ was located. Their own home city of Polona was a short drive away. The bright sunshine caused her to shield her eyes as they adjusted to the cityscape before her. All the buildings were short, not more than a few stories high. There were no skyscrapers. In the distance she could see mountains, underneath a pale purple sky dotted with puffy silver clouds.

"The sky is amazing," she said as she took Eden's arm, and they walked down the ramp. Ahead of them were more couples, hundreds of feet apart, as if the guards had purposely timed their exits so that the women couldn't speak to each other. Ashleigh was pretty sure they had.

"What color is the sky from where you are from?" Eden asked.

"Blue, but it changes with the weather. Sometimes it's very bright blue in the summer, and sometimes it's gray in the winter. I like the purple, though. It's cool."

Eden winked at her, and she grinned. This was her wedding day. Even though she wished her family knew she was safe and that her mother could be with her today, she was happy, and ready to embrace her new world and life.

With the guards on either side of the two of them, they stopped several hundred feet from a stage where a group of men stood on a raised platform. Ashleigh looked around, noticing how far apart the couples were from each other; each couple paired with two guards. She scanned the crowd for Kate, but didn't see her, and she vaguely recognized some of the other women from the room.

Before she could wonder about Kate further, one of the men on the platform stepped forward and raised his hand. The whispering in the crowd quieted, and he spoke, his voice amplified as if by a microphone, though she couldn't see one.

"Face your intended," he said with a gruff voice. She and Eden turned to face each other, and as he held both of her hands in his, all thoughts of anything except him slipped from her mind. He was so handsome. So sweet and amazing. If she had sat down to write a list of qualities for her future husband, Eden would have had them all, along with other qualities she hadn't known she wanted, like his compassionate nature, his creative spark, and the sexy way his eyes fluttered closed when he was too worn out from making love to keep them open.

"By the sun that lights our days and warms our planet, you are bound this day to each other, for the span of your lives. Come good or bad, you will walk through life as one, never separated, until death sees you into the beyond. Do you, males, take your brides as your own? Do you swear on your life that you will cherish and protect them, until your last breath?"

Eden's voice was soft, but she heard it. "I swear."

She faintly heard the echo of the other men speaking.

"Do you, females, take your husbands as your own? Do you swear on your life that you will love and honor them and take their people as your own?"

She'd never been more sincere in her life. "I swear."

"By the power of the position of magistrate of the capital city of Kyvern City, I bind you together as husband and wife. Bonded forever."

Eden pulled her close, sliding his arms around her before he pressed his mouth to hers. She wrapped her arms around him in return, reveling in their first kiss as husband and wife, as a cheer went up from the crowd.

They smiled together, breaking the kiss, and then when no one moved away, she said, "Is it time to go home now?"

"Not yet. You have to be registered as a citizen. It will take just a little while longer, and then you can see your new home."

A little while turned into an hour, before three men with graying dark brown hair stood in front of them. They used a wand to check the stone on her necklace against Eden's bracelet, and then they pricked her finger using a small black device that looked like a blood-glucose meter. They nodded together after a moment, and one of the men said, "Welcome to your new home, Citizen Ashleigh." He nodded and turned with the other two as she rubbed the tip of her finger where the tiny needle had pierced her flesh.

"What was with the blood thing?" she asked as Eden turned her around gently and they began to walk away from the ship, two guards still with them.

"First they checked the necklace and my matching bracelet to make sure that they still identified us as belonging together. Although there are identical necklaces on other brides, yours is coded to my bracelet alone. And the blood was matched to the medical records from your intake exam."

"So you wouldn't try to switch me with another bride?" She glanced up at him as they walked along a grassy area toward what looked like a parking lot, with the cars hovering several inches off the ground.

"Exactly. If your blood hadn't matched what was on record for you, we would have had a problem."

A door on a small blue vehicle that was shaped a bit like an egg slid open when they approached. Eden told her that it was coded for him and would be for her as well, once the lunar cycle had passed and she was free to be out in the city.

He helped her inside, and she smoothed the skirt under her as the door shut, sealing her into the two-seat vehicle. The front panel was lit up with buttons, gauges and lights, and when Eden sat down in the other seat, he waved his hand over one gauge and the car hummed to life. She felt it lift slightly higher from the ground, and he fiddled with some buttons and then turned his attention to her as the car moved away from where it had been parked.

"You don't have to drive?" she asked incredulously. He reached for her hands with both of his.

"No. The _hover-machen_ is fully computerized. I just entered our destination, in this case our home, and it will drive us there by the safest, fastest, and most convenient path. It is powered by the sun; small panels embedded in the roof gather power and store it. How do _hover-machen_ s on your world work?"

She had no idea how to explain gasoline, engines and steering wheels. Outside of turning the key in the ignition, she had no clue how that all worked anyway. She had never even changed her own oil. She explained what she could about manual steering and rubber tires, and he listened intently, never taking his eyes off her. It was really disconcerting to her that he paid attention to her completely and never looked at the road, but after several minutes passed with a lack of devastating crashes, she began to relax.

The scenery blurred past them as the car drove itself from the densely populated city to grassy, rolling hills dotted with trees and colorful flowers. The grass was a very dark green with thick blades, and the flowers were brightly colored, like a rainbow on steroids.

A floating sign over a cluster of dark purple flowers announced the city of Polona, as the hovering car coasted above the road as if running on invisible tires. "This is our street, Daeny, which means 'hope'."

She liked the translation of the street name. All the homes on the street were beige one-story domes with clear rectangular windows. The lawns were the same thick, dark grass she'd seen before, and a long flower bed filled with color ran along the front of each home. A section of the dome opened in the home at the end of the street, and the car pulled into the garage, the wall closing behind them.

Eden leapt from the car with a grin, his face alight with happiness. He rounded the vehicle as the door opened, and he scooped her up in his arms and carried her toward a door that opened against the wall. He stopped to kiss her before he stepped over the threshold, and put her on her feet inside the home.

"Welcome home, sweetheart." He hugged her, sighing in happiness, and kissed her forehead. "Let me give you the grand tour."

He gestured to the area around them. "This is the kitchen. This cooker is the same as the one in the ship. The refrigerated cabinet is not so small, so we'll have plenty of room in there for your _ronii_." He talked animatedly about the kitchen, pointing out the view from the window over the sink into their small backyard.

The kitchen flowed into an eating area with a table and four chairs set back in a windowed nook. The table had a clear top, with an intricately woven base made of metallic strands. The chairs were identical to the table, but with cherry colored cushions on top of the seats. White, pearly tile gave way to thick bright green carpet as he took her into the living room, which contained an overstuffed couch in sage green, a coffee table of a nearly white, highly-polished wood, and a large vid screen hanging on the wall. Underneath the vid screen was a fireplace, but instead of logs, clear, colorful rocks were piled in a pyramid shape.

He waved his hand over the stone mantel and the rocks blazed to life, as if fire were caught inside them just waiting to be free. The red, amber, blue, and green stones were as large as cantaloupes and gave off no heat. She touched the walls as they moved down a hallway, and they were cool like metal but felt like plastic. They were a muted grayish-white, in contrast to the bright green carpeting.

Of the three bedrooms, two were the same, empty and bare of any decorations. Before he stepped into the master bedroom, he swung her up into his arms again. She pressed her lips against his, drinking in the sweet taste of her husband.

He laid her gently on the bed and stretched out over her, his eyes glowing with happiness, a teasing smile on his lips.

"What happened to the tour?"

He pulled on the ribbon that laced up the side of the bodice. "I have a different tour in mind."

She reached for his tunic and slid it up his body, her palms rubbing up the length of his back. He helped her pull it off his body and she trailed her fingers across his chest, tracing the muscles as he worked the ribbon loose.

"You're married now, sweetheart, do you feel different?"

"I'm happier than I've ever been before. How about you?"

"Five years is a long time to want something as badly as I wanted you, but you were worth the wait."

Their mouths met in a dance that was both so familiar and still so exciting as he tugged the dress down her body. His lips moved from hers, kissing across her jaw and laving his tongue around the shell of her ear. She shivered as he freed her breasts, her nipples puckering in anticipation.

He worked the dress down her body by slow inches, pressing open-mouthed kisses as each bit of flesh was bared for his hungry gaze. Dropping it to the floor, he undid her sandals and removed his trousers and shoes.

He stroked down the center of her body with his fingertips, a wicked, thoughtful look in his eyes. He kissed her once, twice and then straightened up on his knees. He kissed each fingertip before pulling her to her knees, tracing lazy patterns up and down her arms as he teased her mouth with lips and tongue. With gentle pressure, he turned her to face the headboard, placing her hands on top.

The headboard was made of shiny, striped black-on-black wood. The coverlet was thick like velvet and dark amber. Eden eased her knees apart and gathered her hair off to one shoulder, baring her body. Once more, his fingers wove a path down her body, this time from her neck to her bottom, rounding across the swells as he bent forward and kissed her shoulder.

One hand slipped around the curve of her hip to the curls that covered her mound, rubbing lightly. The other hand moved up the front of her body to cup one breast, squeezing and kneading the lush orb.

Dipping a finger inside her, he found her already wet and hot, and he circled his finger around her clit. He kissed her neck, from the crux of her shoulder to the sensitive patch of flesh behind her ear. Working her to the edge of climax quickly, her body trembled as she grew closer and closer to orgasm.

With one hard thrust, he buried himself inside her so fast her eyes crossed as her climax thundered down on her like a hot wave. Her fingers gripped the headboard as Eden rode out her climax, his finger never leaving her clit as he drew her pleasure out from one great height to the next. His hand left her breast and cupped her chin, tilting her head until their mouths met as he drove into her, holding her captive in his arms.

His hips slammed against her bottom as she rocked hers back to meet his thrusts. The kiss ended when they both moaned, and he dropped his head to her shoulder, kissing and biting gently.

Heat spiraled in her core, expanding outwards as she felt herself hurtling toward release. She reached back with one hand and fisted Eden's hair, pulling him close as her vision blurred and her heart pounded in her chest.

Eden groaned mindlessly, his pounding rhythm all but lost to his pleasure. He tugged on her clit one last time, sending her tumbling off the edge into intense pleasure, as he followed, his cock spasming over and over inside her. She would have collapsed against the headboard if Eden hadn't shifted them quickly, laying back and tugging her body across his.

Sweat slicked their flesh and their chests heaved as they gasped for breath, both of them shuddering as the after-effects of their orgasms still rode through them. She shivered, and he tugged a blanket to cover them both. They held each other in sweet silence as they came down from the heavens.

"How long have you owned the house?" She lay sprawled across him, listening to the steady beat of his heart.

"About a year. I set aside the money to free myself first, and then to pay for your abduction and the trip, and then saved enough money for us to live comfortably."

"What will you do now?" She lifted her head and propped it on her upturned hand.

"Some of Sloan's patients have asked about me teaching their children art. Now that I'm not a _brokah_ , I can finally use my talents. I have a workshop in the back big enough to hold a class. What do you think?"

"I think you can do anything you set your mind to."

"With you by my side, I feel like that is really true."

They talked quietly for some time and then dressed. Eden finished the tour of their home, showing her the magnificent bathroom, which matched the one on the ship. He had painted the walls in the ship's bathroom as well, and this one was no less incredible. A forest of trees and flowers decorated the walls, the limbs and petals dotted with birds and butterflies and small winged animals like bees. In the corner where the bathing pool was located, he painted a waterfall that looked so real she had to touch it to make sure it was only painted on.

The backyard was edged with thick shrubs almost as tall as Ashleigh. Their dense webbed leaves were turquoise and lavender, with flowers that looked like strings of purple, gray and white pearls. Eden said the brown-sugar scented flowering shrub was called a _kerite_. The yard itself was several hundred feet square, with unplanted, freshly tilled beds in front of the _kerite_ that fenced in the yard. Behind their yard was a stand of thick trees with clusters of yellow fruit hanging from the branches, and through the leaves she could see another group of houses that was the same as theirs. Eden spoke animatedly about her making the backyard her own, planting whatever she liked and decorating it with outdoor seating. In the far corner of the yard stood his workshop. Like the outside of the house, it was made of the same beige material and shaped like a dome. The door slid open and they walked inside. It had taken her a while to figure out where the doors were, but she could see the outline of them now.

Inside was a large open room, the outline of several doors visible against the walls. The floor was plain white; cabinets and shelves lined the walls, filled with everything from fabric canvases to containers he said were packed with sculpting clay. One of the doors led to a small bathroom, and two were large storage rooms, one of them full and the other almost empty.

Without a word, Eden sat her down on a dark wooden stool, arranged a lock of hair over her shoulder and placed a kiss on her nose.

He grabbed a canvas, pulled an easel from against the wall and set it up a few feet from her. "Don't move, love," he said as he grabbed a container of brushes and a palette, arranging them on a small side table, and then he opened a drawer in the table and pulled out a pencil.

She couldn't help but smile. He sketched furiously with the pencil and then turned to the palette and paints, choosing a brush and beginning to work. "Tell me about the soul-walk."

He smiled at her from around the canvas. "What would you like to know?"

"Well, what was it like? How did it work? What did you see?"

Turning thoughtfully back to the canvas, he told her that Sloan had taken him to the soul-walk agency after he had been released from the hospital. He was taken back into a small cubicle where he sat down in a reclining chair. After a long wait, a medical officer and two agency staff members came into the room. He was first given a shot to relax his body. When it had taken effect, straps were used to secure him to the chair to ensure he didn't move too much during the process.

Electrodes were attached to his head with long, twisted wires that carried the images he would see in his soul-walk to a master computer which would sort through the data, finding out the location of his bride as well as her name and physical characteristics.

"When they gave me the drugs to induce the soul-walk, I slipped down into darkness quickly, and saw nothing for a long time. I felt completely relaxed, hopeful. And then suddenly I felt like I was being pulled toward something, like I was flying. Stars and planets shot by me so fast they were blurs. Whole galaxies slipped by before a planet loomed large before me, blue with streaks of green and white."

"Earth," she said.

"Yes. I was pulled downwards through the atmosphere. It was night, but there were lights that illuminated everything, and I'd never seen anything like what I soared by. The buildings were square with many windows. The _hover-machen_ s moved on large, round objects. And the people! All the men had different colored hair! And the clothing was unlike anything I'd ever seen."

"I didn't realize you actually literally traveled to Earth."

"It was just a manifestation of my mind. The machines that are used during the soul-walk, combined with the drugs, pinpoint the perfect mate no matter where she is. It was very much like taking a fast trip. I wasn't actually there, but my mind felt like I was."

"That's really incredible. So then what happened?"

"I went from moving over the streets to appearing inside a room. That's when I saw you. You were lying in bed, asleep. Light from your moon came in through your open window coverings, and I could see how beautiful you were. Peaceful. You rolled over while I was watching, kicked your leg over the blanket, and made the most adorable little humming sound. Then I was pulled back to the agency and slowly I came out of the deep sleep. The machine had gathered the data about you. When the recovery team transported to Earth from the ship, they followed procedure to deliver the necklace to you, and then when you were wearing it, they abducted you."

"Sloan said that she was engaged to a male who left her because she was sterile. Had he done the soul-walk for her?"

"No. She and Talek grew up together and loved each other. Even before the females became sterile, males and females could mate for love, Ashleigh. The soul-walk was a way to introduce males to their soul mates, but there were many who chose out of love instead of letting the machines lead them."

"Did many women like Sloan get tossed aside because they weren't able to bear children?"

He looked around the canvas. "Yes. When the women became sterile and other females that could carry our children were found on different planets, the agency stopped searching for soul mates on Norlan, changing the parameters."

She wondered how the unmated women on Norlan felt about that. To be cast aside as useless when they were still very valuable as people. Sloan was one of the nicest women she'd ever known. She deserved happiness.

"Do women do the soul-walk?"

"No. From the government's standpoint, if the women are incapable of breeding female children, then expending resources to bring mates to them makes no sense."

"Your government is ridiculous and cruel."

"They tend to be, sweetheart."

She changed the topic to his art, and he talked excitedly about renovations he wanted to make to his workshop. They talked easily while he painted, and when he had done as much as he wanted to for the day, he pulled a cover over it, promising to let her see it when it was done.

For dinner that night, she made a popular _fourn_ dish. Eden didn't help her cook, but he did help her read the recipe from a vid display on one wall of the kitchen. After dinner, they went to the bedroom where they made love before falling asleep. She was amazed at how easily she had slipped into this new life. Two months ago, she never would have thought she would find happiness on an alien planet, but now, she couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

Chapter 7

"I love it," Sloan said, looking at the painting that Eden had finished the first week they had been in the house. Ashleigh loved it, too. He'd painted her sitting down on a large stone in front of a waterfall, sunshine sparkling on the water. She was amazed at his talent.

"I do, too." She couldn't help but be proud of him.

They moved into the kitchen to get lunch started. Ashleigh hadn't seen Sloan since her wedding day, and Eden had called and invited her to have lunch with them. Sloan hadn't wanted to intrude on their time to get to know each other, but Ashleigh missed talking to her.

Eden had purchased everything she needed to plant flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables in the beds in the backyard. She had never really had a place to grow things, but as a child she had enjoyed planting seeds and watching them push out of the ground and stretch up to the sky. The names of things were different, but she had quickly learned what she and Eden liked, and chose fruits and vegetables that were easy to grow and tasty, as well as herbs that were used for cooking. Flowers were added for color; large, beautiful blooms in every shade in the rainbow.

Looking out into the backyard, she could see the hard work of the last two weeks, and was still surprised by how much she enjoyed it. She couldn't wait until the lunar cycle had passed so she and Eden could go out and explore the town of Polona.

"When does Eden's first class start?" Sloan reached up onto a high shelf and pulled down a bowl while Ashleigh opened the refrigerated cabinet and pulled out fruit for a salad.

"Two days from now. He ordered supplies and he'll do three classes each week; one for painting, one for sculpting, and one for drawing. He's already got twenty students, all young men."

"That's wonderful. I'm so happy for you both." Sloan smiled at her, and they began to chat about Sloan's medical practice, which was located in Kyvern City, near the _Bordelayz_. Ashleigh asked about the other women from Earth. Three women had been taken to the _Bordelayz;_ the others had stayed with the males that had taken the soul-walk for them.

Ashleigh looked at Sloan in surprise. "What will happen to them?"

"Well, the good news is that all three of them have taken new males and their debts have been paid."

"Oh! Well, that's really wonderful news!" Ashleigh felt a surge of relief. To think that women from her home planet would have been turned into slaves would have driven her crazy with worry.

She and Sloan were cutting up fruit for a salad for lunch. She asked, "Was one of the women named Kate?"

Sloan looked at her in surprise. "Yes, how did you know?"

"She fought so hard, not only for herself but to try to help the others. She told me to fight against everything and never give up hope of going home. Do you know who she ended up with?"

"Go get your husband, and I'll tell you both at the same time." She winked at Ashleigh.

She found him in front of an ivory canvas, painting a seascape. She waited until he put his brush into a jar of paint remover on a table before she closed the distance to him and slid her arms around his waist. "What do you think, love?" he murmured, his hands sliding along hers.

"I love it," she said as she peeked around him to get a better look. "Where is it?"

He hummed in his throat, "It's a place my parents took me when I was a child during a break in my schooling. It's one of the few happy memories I have of my childhood. I'd like to take our children there, someday."

He turned in her arms and tilted her face with his paint-smudged hands and pressed his mouth to hers.

"You taste like _ronii_." He licked his lips with a roguish smile.

He let her lead him back to the house so they could eat lunch. While they sat around the table in the cozy kitchen, Ashleigh asked Sloan to tell her what happened to Kate.

"Paoli paid her debt, after only a week." Sloan smiled.

Paoli's situation was similar in some ways to Eden's. His father had died in the military when Paoli was fifteen. He had six brothers and sisters younger than him, and his mother had to go to work. She was injured and lost her job, and they lost their home. Unlike Eden, who was sold by his own parents, Paoli sold himself into bondage to save his family.

He came into the _Bordelayz_ a few years after Eden, and they shared a cell. He was Eden's only friend.

"But he is also a slave worker at the _Bordelayz_ , isn't he?" Ashleigh asked in confusion.

"He was." Sloan nodded, spooning the fruit salad onto her plate. "He had just paid his own debt after saving enough money to buy a home for himself and his family. He saw Kate, and he said that something clicked for him and he knew he couldn't leave her there to be forced. He paid her debt outright, which all but drained the money he had set aside. But she was never forced or abused in any way, he made sure of it."

"Paoli is a good man," Eden smiled. "He will make an excellent, caring husband."

"Where are they staying? I'd like to visit her when the lunar cycle is over," Ashleigh said.

"They're staying at a community home. He is trying to get a job to support them, but with his hair still blue and the fact he was a _brokah_ , he cannot find anything. He may have to take her home to his mother's."

"So they haven't really mated, with the serum and everything, so his hair will turn?" Ashleigh asked.

"No. Paoli is determined not to ask her to be with him until she loves him. She's very distraught and unhappy. She still wants to go home to Earth."

"Why can't they just let her go home?" Ashleigh let her fork drop to the plate with a clang. Frustration ate at her.

Eden pulled her from her chair into his lap and kissed her neck. "If one can go home, love, then all could. The government won't risk it."

"She's safe, Ashleigh, that's enough for now. And Paoli is an honorable young male. He will take care of her. He won't ever lay a hand on her, until she's ready."

The conversation switched topics slightly as Eden asked Sloan about her medical work and when the next abduction journey was planned, which was not for at least a year. It wasn't to Earth, thankfully. Although happy with her husband, Ashleigh didn't want to think about them returning to her planet again and again to kidnap women. It had worked out okay for the twenty-seven women on her journey, but it could have been a disaster for any one of them – or all of them.

They finished eating, and Sloan left to go back to work.

She felt the ridge of Eden's cock against her thighs as she sat on his lap, and she wiggled experimentally and smiled when he groaned. He offered her another bite of _ronii_ , and she ate it from his fingers.

He chuckled, and then his eyes darkened slightly, just before he took possession of her mouth with his own. Their lips mashed together as he slid his tongue into her mouth, licking and sucking at her tongue, eating her moans like they were food he could live on. He broke the kiss, setting her on her feet.

Their clothes were discarded as they kissed, making their way to the couch. Eden sat down, grabbing her hips and tugging her onto his lap. She straddled him, playing her fingers through his hair as she leaned forward and pressed him into the back of the couch.

"I think _ronii_ makes you horny," he chuckled.

"You might be right. You don't really care, do you?"

He rolled his thumbs in the space on either side of her pussy and her hips followed the motion. "No. I love you just like this all the time. Hot, wet, and all mine."

He pulled her down by her hips, impaling her on his hard cock, so deep she felt the head of him kiss her womb. Her head fell back as she reveled in the feeling of him buried so deep, the heat of his body underneath hers, and the sweet scent of their mixed arousal.

She rolled her hips against his, moving on him leisurely so she could enjoy every inch of his solid length. The flat of his hand pressed against her belly and his thumb pressed against her clit. A dart of pleasure spiked through her. She gripped his shoulders and began to move on him. Up, down. Stroking him, squeezing him. Up, down. Moving a little faster, she began to pant as he rubbed her arousal against her swollen nub. Up, down. Her stomach fluttered, her muscles contracting as she met his dark eyes and held them.

He held her by one hip, his fingers digging into her skin as his thumb ran relentless circles around her clit and drove her closer and closer to the edge. She felt her body turn liquid just moments before she jerked in pleasure, her climax squeezing his cock tightly. He groaned and grabbed her by both hips, slamming her down as he thrust his hips up in a frantic pace. He came after only a few strokes, calling her name and pressing her tightly against him, their bodies wed.

She collapsed against his chest, hugging her arms around him. His hands stroked lightly across her back as he kissed her forehead and whispered his love.

Chapter 8

Ashleigh pulled off her pink gardening gloves and wiped at her brow with the back of her hand. Their home in Polona was in the temperate region, so it stayed warm year-round, but they were in their hottest season. She had learned very quickly to work outside in the mornings, before the bright sun rose high in the purple sky.

There were fourteen lunar cycles to their standard year, with an equal twenty-eight days – also known as _dins_ – each lunar cycle. Last week she had completed her first lunar cycle on the planet and was released from the requirement to stay within the confines of their home for the first lunar cycle on planet.

She and Eden had celebrated the first day of her release by going for a long walk around the city of Polona. They toured the museum, ate lunch and dinner out, and went to a market to buy plants for her flower garden.

A few days later, they had gone to see Kate and Paoli at the community home. When Ashleigh was in college, she'd gone to Europe for a month with two friends from school. They had stayed in hostels, which was what the community home reminded her of. It was a large dome with a few dozen rooms that were rented by the day. A robust woman with graying hair owned the home. Kate appeared to be fine, but she had clearly not had a good time of things. Her pretty blonde hair had lost its luster, and her blue eyes, which had held such fire, were now wary and unhappy. Paoli was as sweet and kind as Eden and Sloan had said he was. He rushed around the small room that contained a cot, a low table, and a clothes rack. A pillow and bedroll tucked on the floor told Ashleigh that Paoli didn't sleep on the cot with Kate and was truly giving her time to get used to him.

She and Eden had brought a picnic lunch from the market, and the four of them went to a nearby park to eat. Paoli's hair was a lighter shade of blue than Eden's had been, half-way down his back and tied in a thick braid. His eyes were caramel, surrounded by thick lashes. He was clearly smitten with Kate, even though they'd only been free of the _Bordelayz_ for a little over three weeks.

_Eden looked like that_ , she thought, as she watched Paoli carefully arrange food on a plate for Kate and put it on the blanket in front of where she sat. Kate thanked him, and he practically bristled with pride.

They walked back to the community home together, Kate and Ashleigh walking just in front of Eden and Paoli. She linked her arm through Kate's. "Are you feeling okay, now that you're free?"

"I'm still not home, Ashleigh. I miss my family and my house and my dog."

"I miss my family, too. I would have liked to be able to say goodbye. But these are the cards we were dealt. We're lucky, Kate, so very lucky, to have found men here on this alien world that will take care of us and keep us safe."

She shivered. "Dex didn't want a wife, he wanted a sex slave."

"Dex? He was the one who did the soul-walk for you?"

She nodded. "He was really scary. He kept me locked up in the bedroom when I refused to sleep with him. I think it wounded his pride when I wouldn't, and that made him angry. He tried to get rid of me before we even got to the planet, but they made him keep me in his quarters until we landed. Then I was just tossed away like a sack of rotten potatoes."

"Maybe the soul-walk didn't make a mistake. Maybe it brought you here to Paoli through Dex," Ashleigh offered as they stopped in front of the community home.

"I don't believe in fate."

"Well, I didn't believe in alien planets and traveling through space, either," Ashleigh joked and Kate chuckled.

"Yeah, well, at least I'm out of that horrible _Bordelayz_. He thought we could go live with his mother, but she said the house was too small for us. We'll be on the streets soon, and I heard one of the tenants say the other day that if you get picked up by the military police as homeless, they throw you back in the _Bordelayz_ until you can afford to pay for a home."

"Paoli will figure something out. He cares for you."

Kate hummed in her throat and said nothing. Ashleigh watched Eden and Paoli hug, and then Paoli dipped his head and kissed Ashleigh's hand, thanking her for the meal.

Eden wanted to work some more in the classroom before his pottery class showed up, and Ashleigh sat down on a large, square pillow in the corner and watched him. His long, agile fingers worked with a lump of clay, twisting and carving it into something that was sure to be incredible.

Her mind wandered a bit, and she stood up, walking over to the nearly empty storage room. The door slid open, and she walked inside. _It could work_ , she thought.

Leaning against the door jam, she said, "Didn't you tell me that Paoli liked to make clothing?"

"Yes, sweetheart," Eden said without looking up. "He fixed up a few of the tunics I purchased for you."

"Could he sell them?"

Eden looked up, his brows drawing in confusion. "Of course. He would just need a place to work. Any of the garment stores would take his creations. Why?"

"I was just thinking that this room," she gestured behind her, "is really big enough to be a bedroom, and there's a full bath in here. And the other storage room could become another workshop. Sloan's storage room in her home has a few garment machines, I'm sure she would be willing to loan them to Paoli. We could organize your things better in here, add some more cabinets."

Eden straightened, and a curious smile came over his face. "He could help me out in classes, too, and I could pay him a little so he could purchase materials."

She closed the distance to him and hugged him, ignoring his clay-smudged clothing.

"Then they won't be homeless," she said, a feeling of relief filling her at being able to help not only Kate but also Paoli, as they treaded the waters of their new relationship.

"My sweetheart," Eden said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, "you have the biggest, kindest heart of anyone I've ever known. I'm so very fortunate to have you as my soul mate and my bride."

Even though it had only been a few months, she felt truly at home on Norlan, with Eden. She'd believed at first that she'd lost everything she had ever valued as important. Now, she realized that Eden had become the most important person in her life. She would always miss her family and wonder what had happened to them, but Eden was her family now. And someday, she hoped they would have children to love and nurture. Male or female, their children were the next hope of the Norlanian people, and she was proud to stand on the edge of the future, with her husband.

One day, a delivery man had brought her a necklace. But what he'd really brought her, was her heart.

The End

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Contact the Author

Website: http://www.rebutlerauthor.com

Email: rebutlerauthor@gmail.com

Twitter: @rebutlerauthor

Facebook: www.facebook.com/R.E.ButlerAuthorPage

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Coming January 31, 2016 in the Norlanian Brides Series

**Paoli's Bride (Norlanian Brides Book One)**

Kate Mason was ripped from her life on Earth to become an alien's bride. When she refused, she was dumped into a government-owned brothel on the alien planet of Norlan and told that she had to work off the debt of her abduction by becoming a sex slave.

When Paoli, a recently freed slave, sees Kate in the brothel, he knows that she's the one female in the whole universe for him. He sacrifices everything to pay off her debt and set her free.

Paoli is the kindest, sweetest man Kate has ever known, but she misses Earth and her family. Can she put aside her hope of going back to Earth someday and embrace Paoli, or will she always want to go home?

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