The Gigolo's Bride (The Necklace Chronicles) (8 page)

* * * * *

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...
It’s a, uh, 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.”