Page 4 of The Pregnancy Pact
My head had jerked up and I met his golden eyes with consternation.
“Do you keep those on all humans?”
“All of any merit or rank or usefulness,” he’d shrugged. “It is the Asterion way.”
It might have been the Asterion way, and the mere notion might have made me exceedingly uncomfortable. However, in this case, it proved to be my salvation.
Such as it was.
“You have the translating chip in your wrist, and can read and write our language, yes?”
I'd nodded. The chip had been implanted years past, and Charlie and I both had taken courses to learn to read and write the Overlords’ language, due to his job and my proximity to it. It served me well, as Official Drayke had said, “If you think you can recover your former secretarial skills, I can place you on the space ship, Everlast. This would be a traveling position. The former records keeper is with child, and wishes to return to her home planet for the duration of the pregnancy and until she feels her child can be safely left with child keepers. This means you could potentially fulfill the position for several Earth years.” He regarded me solemnly. “Would this be a problem?”
A problem? Leave Earth? Leave Charlie behind for good? Not have to worry about providing for myself on this war-torn planet? Not have to worry about selling my body to get by? Get to travel to other planets, see space, and visit other realms? Most humans never got chances like this. Not unless they were young, like my sons, and joined the Unified Forces.
Official Drayke was not only handing me a lifeline. He was handing me the opportunity of a lifetime.
I’d licked my lips, swallowing hard to conceal my excitement.
“This would definitely not be a problem,” I’d said, grateful my voice wasn’t shaky from nervousness. My hands had certainly been trembling. I’d clasped them together in my lap. “And I’m sure, given a little time and training, I could recover my former skills. I could definitely be a records keeper on the starship.”
Official Drayke had offered me a small, encouraging smile.
“Then I will place your name in the duty slot. Come back tomorrow. Your training begins then.”
That was how I’d wound up here, sitting at a bar on the pleasure planet, Drixus. Even reputable space ship captains had needs, I considered dryly, glancing around the room once more from gaming tables to a dance floor, lit with sparkling lights, to smoking zones, cordoned off from the main area. Three alien males of a race I didn’t recognize were propositioning a working female, leading her off into another curtained side chamber. Not hard to imagine what was about to happen. I raised an eyebrow in distaste. I’d never, ever seen such goings on. Never heard of them, either. Thanks to the universal language chip—an ingenious alien invention—imbedded in my right wrist, I could understand the language of every species here. And a lot of what I heard I could have lived without.
People, aliens, creatures…there were alien types I couldn’t identify…in various stages of dress and undress. Some were reclining on the cushioned couches scattered about the space, busily groping their companion—or companions. Some, like the group I’d already noted, were leading others out of the main room into curtained off chambers, while others seemed intent on getting past kissing and groping and going straight to…other fun. Although, to be fair, when actual consummation began bouncers were on couples/throuples/threesomes/quartets pretty quickly, breaking up the action.
It wasn’t that such activities were frowned upon, by any means, but if you wanted to watch you were supposed to pay extra and view the show in private quarters set up for it. Hence, the no public sex rule.
Beyond sex, other folks were getting plastered, or else puffing away in the designated smoking areas until the air was tinged blue, purple, and green from the fumes. I was pretty sure, given the state of some of the guests, simple tobacco and meridak weed—an alien planet similar to Earth’s tobacco—weren’t the only things being smoked.
In the Drixus pleasure houses, any sort of plant or chemical concoction that might have been outlawed on some planets was more than legal. Ironically, oftentimes the leaders who were barring their folks from using substances back home came to Drixus to partake in the vice themselves.
Charlie had told me that.
Naturally, he would know, I thought bitterly.
I lifted my glass for another sip.
And that’s when I saw him.
Chapter 3
Lorelai
Idon’t mean to brag, but he was gorgeous and he was coming toward me. I was seated at the bar on one of the padded, swiveling stools, my back to the bartender, observing the action, when I spotted him. He stood out in the crowd, and his golden eyes held mine for a beat, even across the crowded room. Then he moved my direction.
It had been a long time, years, since a creature this attractive had even glanced my way. Or maybe I’d been so determined to be a good wife, faithful to my husband and purposefully oblivious to any attention from any other male, no matter the species, that I’d deliberately ignored any second glances cast my way.
Look where that’s gotten me.
Anyway, faithfulness and animosity aside, this alien creature was freaking beautiful in a way most human men, or alien males, weren’t. He was taller than me by a head and a half, with a slender, muscular frame. He walked with purposeful grace, and must have been Asterion, judging by his silver skin and golden eyes. His wedge-shaped ears, typical of the Asterion race, were decorated with several jewels that sparkled in the hazy light. He wore a circlet, almost like a crown, that set low on his brow and appeared to be fashioned from twisted vines. Light glinted off its bronze metal as he wove his way through the throng of customers. His features were defined, almost sharp, and his golden eyes piercing. His dark, silver hair was drawn away from his face and knotted in the back, accentuating his stern expression.
Like many patrons, he was dressed in evening finery. Which, to him, was a fantastic indigo blue coat, a billowy white shirt, half laced up, and tight black pants. Very tight. I had to remind myself that I was a grown woman and didn’t need to stare at…well, at how tight those pants were. His black boots were polished to a sheen, noticeable when he sidestepped an inebriated customer who tripped over her feet, giggling, only to collapse on her bottom. Clearly irritated, the Overlord flicked his embroidered blue coat so it wouldn’t touch the fallen woman.
Despite the extraordinary sights I’d already witnessed this evening, my mouth simply dropped open. I had never seen an Asterion like him. Most of the Asterions on Earth wore their hair short, the jewels in their ears were far less ostentatious, and they chose clothing that was simpler and reflected Earth’s harsh environment. I could only surmise that this Asterion had come directly from his home planet, and most definitely had to be one of their lords or leaders.