The Impatient Lord (10 page)

“
Define often.” She reached for the tray and forced herself to take a small piece of fruit. The sweet flavor exploded in her mouth.

“
More than three times in the last ten years,” he supplied.

“
Then yes,” Riona gave a small laugh. “Very often. Though to be fair, authorities is a very subjective term. Some people call themselves an authority, but I don’t necessarily recognize their authority over me.”

“
But you do intend to obey the laws of your new world, do you not?” Mirek’s eyes stayed steadily on her, piercing in their green intensity. She tried to avoid eye contact by looking at the food tray. “We are nobles. Others will look to us to see how to act. Honor and duty are a part of the title. I am Ealdorman of Draig and, as my wife, you are Lady Riona.”

In her nervousness, she ate a little too quickly and began to cough.
She? A noblewoman? The idea was hysterical in and of itself. She cleared her throat. “I can’t really say. I don’t know all of your planet’s laws.”

“
Our planet. Qurilixen in your home now.”

Riona
’s hand stopped mid action and she dropped the piece of fruit pinched between her fingers. Even now, in this moment, the sight of the explosion was clear in her mind. She didn’t want a home world, not ever again. “It’s a kind offer.”

“
You do not sound pleased.” Mirek reached his hand to stop the discarded fruit from rolling off the table.

“
I’m trying to be polite.”

“
I would rather you speak honestly than politely. How else are we to learn about each other and fall into a happy marriage?” There was that hopeful look again. Did the man have to be so positive?

He wanted honesty? Ok
ay. Wish granted. “That Fajerkin noble you were speaking to, I don’t remember his name.”

“
Jerk Kando,” Mirek said. “I was very impressed with your knowledge of their greeting. You questioned why the gods sent you here. Perhaps your skills will compliment mine as Mining Ambassador.”

“
You run the ore mines?” Riona swallowed nervously. Just how powerful was this husband of hers?

“
Control of the mines is a long-held tradition with my family. It ensures the king and his sons have full focus on the enemy Var who live to the south of the palace. My brother Vlad handles the day-to-day operations onworld. He is Ealdorman Honorary of Draig and the High Mining Official. As the offworld ambassador, it is my duty to see to trade negotiations, orders, shipping, payments, and politics. We have a launch pad and fleet of ships here in the mountain fortress. A few alien ambassadors land, such as the Redde, who are here visiting their daughter, Lady Clara. For the most part, we greet them in space and keep work off the planet. The locals prefer it that way. Not many know of the Fajerk greeting. If you are skilled in alien customs, it will be a great asset to our people.”

“
Yeah,” Riona drawled. “I wouldn’t be so quick to assume as much. You’re lucky the Jerk didn’t recognize me.”

“
Why?”

“
A ship I happened to be on crashed into a fuel station’s communications tower. The station was owned by Kando’s brother. They tried to force us to pay for the damage, but it was determined they had drifted a parsec out of their assigned territory and thus couldn’t insist we compensate them for damages since they were not where they should have been. We left before the Federation could get involved.” She studied him. He didn’t move, merely fingered the piece of fruit in his hand, as if testing its firmness. The slow motion of his fingers made the trembling inside her start anew. “Fajerk is a small planet and I believe I’m still on their wanted list. So you see, as long as I don’t land there, I’m technically not under their authority. However, if they see you married me, it’s possible they’ll try to maneuver to get me in their custody.”

“
If you damaged property, you should compensate them for it.”

“
I didn’t say it was my proudest moment,” she mumbled. “They have insurance. They wanted a double payday. And they shouldn’t have been there.”

“
And how did you crash? Was your ship damaged?”

“
I bet the pilot he couldn’t fly blindfolded. Turned out I was right.” She gave a light shrug. “If they had been where they were supposed to be, it would have been fine.”

“
A bet?”

“
I said I wasn’t proud of it,” she answered through clenched teeth. “I don’t live my life apologizing for who or what I am, or for what I’ve done. Frankly, there is only one person in all the universes who I care about—my sister.”

“
That is a cold view, my lady. It saddens me that you would have it.”

It was better he knew the truth. He seemed to really believe in this destiny nonsense. If there were gods moving
the population around like little pieces in a game, gambling with people’s lives, she wanted no part of their ill-fated playtime. They had destroyed everything.

“
It is what it is,” Riona said. “That’s it. Aeron is all I have room for inside my heart.”

“
Then why did you send her away crying?”

“
Crying?” Riona glanced at the door leading from his home as if she’d be able to determine for herself if he spoke the truth. “Aeron never cries.”

“
She was after she left you.”

Guilt racked her. She pressed a nail into the webbing between he
r thumb and forefinger until it hurt. “What did your people do to her?”

“
We gave her a home, a family, a life. All that we have is hers, as it is yours if you allow it to be.”

“
No.” She shook her head in denial. “I know my sister.” She pointed at the door. “That’s not my sister.”

“
Perhaps she suffers from the joys of pregnancy.”

“
Joys?” Riona shot to her feet. “You mean
horror
. Pregnancy is a death sentence for our kind. Well, not necessarily the pregnancy itself but the sex to get pregnant.”

When Aeron died, she
’d be the only one left. Forever. Tears burned her nose and her eyes but she refused to cry. It was unknown if the baby would take after them. By all accounts, the Draig only produced male children. A boy wouldn’t have the same lifespan as a female Jagranst.

“
Joys is a polite way of saying pregnancy hormones.” Mirek remained calm.

Riona
found his persistent niceness irritated her. She wanted him to tirade and act like an ass…mainly so it would excuse her behavior.

“
Because of Aeron’s concern, and because you are sisters and my wife, and because you were sick, I had the Medical Alliance doctors run the same tests on you as they did Aeron. You are genetically human. They could find no medical reason as to why you would be immortal, let alone how that immortality would be tied to your sexual practices.” He stood and went back to the couch. Lifting the handheld he’d been using to communicate with earlier, he pressed the screen and then handed it to her. Riona instantly recognized it to be a medical report. “Everything is right there.”

Hadn
’t Aeron said the same thing? She didn’t want to believe it, but what if it was true? If she was genetically human then that meant… “I’m dying too.”

“
Not for a long time,” he said, clearly trying to be comforting. “You are a very tough woman. Just look how sick you were a few days ago and now you are almost completely healed.”

Riona
scrolled over the report, picking up keywords and stopping once she’d arrived at the summary. Her eyes turned from the words on the screen to her arm. Her skin did look better. She touched it with shaking fingers as if feeling it for the first time. “Mortal.”

“
Yes.” Mirek nodded. “But you have many years left, more so now that you are my wife. My life force is yours. Your new home world is special. The blue sun’s radiation—”

“
Mortal,” she repeated, not really hearing him. “I’m mortal.”

* * *

Mirek forced himself to meet his wives tortured eyes. Why had he given her the medical reports? Yes, she had a right to know, but the look on her face tore at his heart. Everything in him wanted to hold her, but he forced himself to be patient.

For months
, he sat by her side, worrying for her. He had become used to the idea of her, of them. And, oh, how he was ready for their lives together to start. Months of unspoken conversations welled inside him. He’d thought of many things he wanted to tell her. Stories he wanted her to know—anecdotes from his youth, tales of his meetings with bizarre aliens, dreams of their future together. In his mind she knew everything about him. He’d imagined her answers.

Maybe he
’d gone mad, creating a life with an unconscious woman. His expectations of her, combined with his imagination of what she would be, caused his conversation to be stunted. He could greet any alien dignitary with ease. He could read faces and gestures even when the person was from a culture very unlike his. It was a strange sixth sense he’d been born with. It made him a great ambassador for his people. Yet here, presented with his wife who was by all rights chosen for him by the gods, he couldn’t manage to make his words flow.

“
It’s true,” Riona stated, looking again at his handheld. “I was always going to die.”

“
I shouldn’t have told you.” It was more of a question than a statement.

“
Are you kidding? This is great news.”

That was not the reaction he
’d expected from someone who’d just found out they were suddenly mortal.

“
I feel like this weight of expectation has been lifted off me.” Riona breathed heavily. She shook her hands in front of her with nervous energy as she stood and began to pace. “I’m going to die someday and there is nothing I can do about it. Here I’ve been forcing myself to live for a dead planet when it turns out my existence is out of my hands.” Her beautiful face turned toward him once more. “I have lived my entire life taking risks, seeking excitement, living for those who no longer could, in what I really think might have been an attempt to take the pressure off. I don’t want to be dead, but if I died by accident having fun, then…” She took several more deep breaths. He wondered if she was about to hyperventilate. Before he could ask, she rushed on, “but in the process I’ve been avoiding what I’ve been told is one of the best things in the known universe.”

“
Chocolate?” he asked, attempting a joke to lighten the mood. “I’m told by women it’s as close to bliss as they can get.”

“
Oh, I’ve had chocolate. I won an entire vat of chocolate off some monks.” To his surprise, she began pulling off her shirt.

“
Do you need—” he gestured weakly toward the isolation room, “—mental, ah, medical help?”

“
I have wanted to press against you since I first saw you. Do you know what it’s like living with the responsibility of a dead civilization on your head? Thinking to touch and kiss and feel another person would be betraying their legacy?” Suddenly, she paused with her shirt clutched in her fist. “You do want me, right? I mean, you want to be married to me so I assumed that translated into you wanting to be in my bed.”

Unable to help himself, he stared at her naked chest.
If he looked close enough he could see patches of light pink where the blisters had been. It didn’t matter. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen and she was offering herself to him. His body lurched with excitement and for a moment he couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. This was not how he’d expected things to go. Mirek realized his mouth was open and licked his dry lips before closing it. He nodded, unable to form a vocal answer.

“
Oh, good.” She sighed in relief. Riona pushed her pants off her hips. Then, standing before him completely naked, she commanded, “All right. Do it.”

“
Do…?” He stood.

“
Yes. Do the thing.”

“
Thing?”

“
Yes, do the thing, sex, get naked,” she gestured that he should start.

Mirek reached for the tight shirt and pulled it over his head. He placed it on the table. E
very part of him wanted to surge forward, but he had paid dearly for his impatience the day they married. He would not act in haste again. “I think you may be reacting badly to the medical news.”

“
I admit, my experience in these types of matters is fairly nonexistent. But it seems to me that you have a woman standing naked in front of you, ready to be sexed on and you are still dressed.” She arched a challenging brow. “I mean, if you’re not up for it, I’m sure someone will be willing to misbehave with me. I have all this energy that needs to find an outlet. I need to do something before it makes me crazy. So either we have sex, or I’m going to steal a spaceship and go for a joyride. You decide.”