Beloved Stranger: Gaian Series, Book 5 Read online

  She hesitated, and he found he liked that. She was cautious about being alone with a man. He knew some women were easy with their bodies, and he’d hoped the woman he’d attached to wouldn’t be. He wanted to be special to her. A man she wanted to be intimate with. Even so, he held his breath until she finally nodded.

  “I’ll go with you.”

  Chapter Two

  Roan looked around. The men who hadn’t attached or who’d been rejected had left, and most of the other attached couples had already headed for one of the lightless rooms where it was permitted to remove the concealing robes. With only sixteen couples there wasn’t a wait, and several stood with their doors open. He stood and led her to the nearest one.

  Her hand felt small and soft in his, but there was strength in her fingers. For her size she was strong, this woman who might become his wife.

  Roan liked the sound of that, his wife. He liked just about everything about her. This was his future, to be with her, make love, and have children with her. She was everything he’d ever wanted. She had to be. He was attached to her and that made her his match.

  His awareness of her grew with every moment, and he knew she was the one he’d been waiting for all his life.

  As soon as he closed the door to the small room it was pitch black inside, and he heard her gasp. “It’s all right. It is supposed to be dark.”

  “Why?”

  “So we can take off the robes and learn about each other. Touch but not see. It is said that the eyes can fool you but touch never can. That’s why we court our mates in the dark.” He tried to see it from her perspective. “I guess it seems pretty strange to someone not Gaian.”

  “You know I’m not from Gaia.”

  “It was a good guess.”

  “Doesn’t that bother you? I mean it isn’t like I can react the way a Gaian woman does.”

  Roan couldn’t help laughing. “You mean like men do with attachment? That’s not a problem. Gaian women don’t react as severely as we do, at least not physically. When a Gaian woman is with a man she doesn’t match she gets queasy. With the right man she doesn’t.”

  A low chuckle erupted from her. “So as long as I don’t get sick on you, I’ll be acting like one of your women.”

  “That’s right.” He reached out to touch her shoulder, caressing it lightly. “I don’t care where you are from, I’m just glad you are here. Don’t worry, nothing you don’t want is going to happen in here.”

  He knew what a dark room looked like, a padded platform filling most of the room about one meter off the ground and hooks on the wall near the door to hold their robes. He tugged on the hood of hers. “You can take this off.”

  She fumbled with the fastening, and the hooded robe came off in his hands. He put it on one of the hooks and hung his own robe next to it, leaving him only in his sleeveless shirt and loose pants. By then she’d moved away from him and he heard her scrambling across the platform. She almost sounded scared, and he remembered how she’d been reluctant to give up the knife earlier.

  Roan moved cautiously onto the platform. One man had already grabbed her tonight and he didn’t want to upset her further. He’d take it slow and easy and get her to accept him that way.

  Sliding his hand along the padded surface, he found the fabric of her long, sleeveless dress. He followed the edge until he knew he was sitting in front of her. That’s when he found that she’d put her hands flat on the platform in front of her, palms down.

  He breathed a sigh of relief. Her hands were in the correct position, where he could easily find them in the dark. Someone had told her what to do, and she knew the ritual at least that far. Roan covered her hands with his own, hoping to soothe her and make her see he meant her no harm.

  No harm at all. In fact, he’d move the universe to help her. He meant to woo this woman and bind her to his side, just as he was bound to her through the attachment. He knew she belonged with him. He had to prove it to her, an outsider unbelieving in his people’s ways.

  He took her hands and lifted them to his lips, planting a kiss into the palm of each. She seemed to shudder with each touch of his lips, and he didn’t think it was fear making her tremble. He held her hands against his face, letting her caress his cheeks.

  “Am I supposed to see what you look like with my fingers?” She sounded amused, but also like she was breathing harder than usual.

  “You can try. Tell me what you think.”

  Her fingers trailed along his skin, her touch gentle. “You have a square-shaped face, a strong chin, your nose…” Her fingers explored that feature carefully. “Your nose is a little odd. Was it broken?”

  He couldn’t help a rueful smile. “A while ago.”

  “You’ve fought before.”

  That wasn’t something he wanted to talk about. “Most men here have. But what else do you sense about my face?”

  She explored the area around his eyes. “There are lines here. You sound young but I think you’re older than your voice tells me. Or maybe you just laugh a lot.”

  He did laugh. “I try to see the humor in most situations.”

  “You’re an inmate in a mining prison but you’ve kept a sense of humor?”

  A chill flushed through Roan. “I wasn’t and won’t always be an inmate here.”

  Her fingers stilled. “I’m sorry. I forgot we aren’t supposed to talk about things like that.”

  One of the many rules of a Gaian marriage meet. You weren’t supposed to say your name, or talk about who you were, or what you did. He wanted to tell her that he was due for release in six months, his ten years served, and that she wouldn’t be marrying a common prisoner without a future. In fact he’d done very well for himself, and soon he’d be heading back to Gaia with funds enough to keep them both comfortable for life.

  But he wasn’t allowed to tell her any of that. He had to win her with just what he could show her physically and make her commit to him that way.

  He took her hands and put them on his shoulders. “Use your touch, my lady. Learn who I am.”

  She did. Moving her hands slowly along his shoulders, she felt the length of his arms and gently squeezed the muscle there, her hands soft and sure. When she reached the bandage on his arm, she was careful not to disturb it. Then her hands landed on his chest, and her small fingers played lightly across its breadth, almost tickling him.

  Roan tried to suppress how her touch affected him. She might assume he was anxious if he trembled. He shook under her touch, but it was desire that drove him, not fear.

  Well, not real fear. He worried that she would find something she didn’t like in him. So far she seemed pleased. She even made a small humming sound, almost like a purr as she measured his waist with her hands and tested the strength in his upper thighs. He held his breath as she felt below his waist and found the proof he’d attached to her.

  At first her hands slid along his hardened shaft as if unaware of what she was touching and he wondered just how innocent she was. Surely she wasn’t a virgin…

  “My, my. You have certainly attached, haven’t you?”

  Roan’s held breath left in a shaky laugh. If she could joke about his erection she must not be a total novice at sex. “You should have known that already.”

  “It is always nice to have proof.” Her hand gave him a long caress that left him breathless again. “And very nice proof it is too.”

  “You aren’t a virgin.”

  Her hand stilled. “No. Is that a problem?”

  “I don’t mind either way.” He hesitated. Might as well get this out of the way sooner than later. “I am. Is that a problem for you?”

  “You’re a virgin?” Shock colored her voice and her hand disappeared from his shaft. He missed it immediately.

  “Never had the chance before. It’s different for Gaians…”

  “I know,” she broke in. “I understand the difference.”

  There was something in her voice that said she wasn’t happy with what she u
nderstood. He groped for and found her hands and held them to his chest. “I don’t care about anything but what could be between us. I’ve attached to you and only you matter to me.”

  “You don’t care about my past?”

  “Whatever it is doesn’t change what I’m feeling for you. I want this to work between us. Gaian marriage is based on what we’re feeling right now.”

  Her voice sounded uncertain. “What you’re feeling is desire, because you attached to me. You don’t know what I feel.”

  “You’re right, I don’t. You’ll have to tell me. Do you like me—at least a little?”

  “A little?” She laughed. “Yes, I like you at least that much.”

  “Then that’s a start. I know I like you a lot.”

  “You want me,” she said flatly.

  “That too.” He kissed the back of her hands. “But I also like you.”

  “You don’t know much about me. Far too little to offer marriage.”

  “For a non-Gaian, I guess that would be true. But I know more than you think.”

  “Oh?” She sounded apprehensive. “Tell me what you know about me.”

  “Can I touch you?”

  “Oh.” There was a surprise in her voice as if she hadn’t expected to be asked. “The way I touched you? Of course.”

  He let her guide his hands to her face and he touched it gingerly, using the back of his hand to caress her cheek. Her features were delicate, her nose a small blip in the middle, and he thought her eyes must be large to take so much space in her face. The rest of her seemed so small. He thought he could cover her entire face with one hand. Using his fingers, he traced the length of her mouth, which was wide and her lips soft. He wanted to kiss her so badly it made his mouth water.

  Finally he moved to the lower edge of her face, and here he found something he didn’t expect. Her chin was pronounced and sharp. Roan cleared his throat. “You are lovely, I expect. Your skin is soft and smooth, and your features even. I think you probably have beautiful eyes. But this…” He tapped her chin. “This tells me that you are probably not a woman to take lightly.”

  She tensed. “What do you mean by that?”

  “You have a strong jaw. I think you probably have a stubborn streak a kilometer wide.”

  She burst into laughter, and the tension eased out of her. “I’m afraid you’re probably right about that. So what else can you tell about me?”

  With her tacit permission, he moved his hands down to her shoulders, which were broader than he would have expected given her height. Long hair fell past them and straight down her back. It was soft as pseudosilk in his hands.

  “You have beautiful hair,” he said, stroking it gently. He could have played with it longer, but she tensed as if she was uncomfortable so he moved on. Feeling her arms, he found more muscle there as well as in her shoulders, and he knew she must have worked hard to put it there. When she’d moved before, there had been a lithe strength to her.

  “You are strong for your size,” he said. “I bet you dance well.”

  “I’ve been known to dance,” she admitted. “What else can you find?”

  He ran his hands along her body, carefully avoiding her breasts. “You are slender.” His hands rested at her waist, the narrowness surprising after the width of her shoulders. “Very slender.”

  “You missed a spot,” she said, sounding amused. “A couple of them in fact,” she added as if to drive the point home.

  Well, if she was going to be that way about it. Roan moved his hands up to cover her breasts. Small like the rest of her, but soft and easy to hold under the loose gown she wore. As he touched them, the nipples pebbled under his hands as if begging for him to caress them.

  “Wow,” was all he could say.

  “You like?”

  “I like very much. Will you marry me?”

  She erupted into laughter. “That’s it? You feel my breasts and promptly ask to marry me?”

  “I’ve wanted to marry you since the moment I attached to you. This just seemed like a good moment to ask.” He wasn’t sure if he should be offended or not. “How should I ask?”

  “Well, not with your hands on my breasts. And I think you should at least kiss me first.”

  For a moment Roan wondered which of them was conducting this courtship. At the moment it didn’t seem to be him. However, who was he to ignore another blatant invitation? Gently but firmly, he pulled her into his arms and tight against his body. Her curves seemed to dissolve into him. Those few parts of her that were soft became a blessing against his hardness. She made a small gasp of surprise, which was lost when he lowered his lips to find hers.

  And then he was the one lost as their lips met and mingled. She was experienced at kissing, but he didn’t mind as she let him take control. She let him use his tongue to open her mouth and taste the inside. She tasted sweet and clean, her teeth smooth and her tongue more than talented as it wrestled with his. It was the first time he’d kissed a woman this way, but she made it easy for him.

  She opened to him and melted in his arms, her body clinging to him as he pushed her onto her back. The padded cushion of the platform gave as her body flattened and then he was on top of her, pressing her farther into the yielding surface. The breasts he’d felt were soft against his chest, and as he covered her, his hardened shaft fell into the cradle of her thighs, pressing against her sex. He let her feel the length of him and slid forward just a little, rubbing them together and making her gasp. She moaned, and he knew she felt desire just as strongly as he did.

  Supporting himself on his elbows, he felt her warm breath on his cheek. He kissed her again, putting all the frustration of ten years of waiting into it. This was the woman he’d waited for, the woman to be his wife and take her place at his side. She was the one he wanted.

  When he pulled his mouth from hers, she wasn’t laughing. Every part of her seemed tense and wanting, wanting everything he could give her as a man. Where his chest met hers, he felt her heartbeat racing, matching the pounding he felt in his. They were matched. It was inevitable.

  Maybe even now she saw it. “Will you marry me?”

  She didn’t laugh this time. “Yes…” She drew the word out. “Yes, I think I will.”

  He let out the breath he didn’t even know he was holding. Pushing up on his arms he rose off her, moving to a sitting position. He pulled her up to sit as well. From the pocket of his pants he pulled the marriage band he’d made earlier in the day and fastened it around her wrist.

  He pulled her hand to touch his own naked wrist. “You have a band for me?”

  “A band?” She sounded dazed. “Oh, yes.” She fumbled about and then he felt her wrap something around his wrist. The cool feel of the metal band was a comfort he’d sometimes wondered if he would ever know. With a sudden surge of joy he realized that he’d done it. He was a married man.

  He tugged her into his arms again and kissed her, this time in celebration. “Come on.” Roan practically leapt off the platform and onto his feet, pulling her with him.

  “Come where?” She sounded even more confused than before. “Aren’t we going to…”

  She thought he was going to make love to her in a dark room? Sometimes he knew couples did that, too overcome by desire to wait, but he’d always known that wasn’t his style. He grabbed her robe from where he’d left it on the hook and wrapped it around her, pulling the hood and mask over her face.

  “I’ve waited a long time for this. When I make love to my wife for the first time it will be on a bed, after a good dinner and a warm bath so neither of us smells like blood. I also want light so I can see your face.” He grabbed his robe and pulled it on, replacing the hood and mask.

  When she spoke again she’d apparently regained some of her earlier composure. “You’ve got it all planned out, I see.” Again she sounded amused.

  “You have no idea.” He opened the door and ushered her through.

  He directed her over to the desk at the room�
�s exit. The marriage meet complex was built as part of the spaceport on the outskirts of the mine. It was one of the few places outsiders were allowed.

  From here they’d take a shuttle to his residential bubble and his apartment. He’d order a good dinner for them, they’d take a bath, and then there was his bed…

  But first there were some details. He showed the mining official his banded wrist. “Roan Duman. Prisoner alpha-delta-four-seven-eight-two-zero. We’re married.”

  The man looked up at him with clear amusement. “Congratulations. But don’t you think you should introduce yourself to your wife first?”

  Roan thought he heard a distinct chuckle from the white-clad woman standing next to him.

  Feeling like an idiot, Roan pulled off his hood and mask and faced his bride. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. My name is Roan Duman.”

  She stood for a moment, and he thought through the mask she must be staring at him, taking in what he looked like. Roan had no delusions that he was the handsomest man around, but he hoped she wasn’t too disappointed. For a brief moment he wondered if she’d turn and run back the way she’d come in.

  Reaching up she pulled up the mask and hood in one gesture, uncovering her face. The long hair he’d touched in the dark room spilled down her back in a flow of light gold and she looked up at him with wide eyes as blue as the sky over Gaia, a sky he hadn’t seen in ten years. Her face was absolutely lovely, and it took his breath away.

  “My name is Sonja. Sonja Deems.” She smiled at him, and he was forever lost in her loveliness.

  Chapter Three

  Sonja thought wryly that her new husband looked like someone had whapped him in the stomach. She’d known he’d probably be pleased at her appearance, but Roan seemed more than that. He looked positively stunned.

  Well, they didn’t get many women here, she reasoned. And she wasn’t a woman without looks.

  He wasn’t so bad himself, she reflected, with his dark brown hair and eyes. He’d been right about the scar on his arm not being his first. A thin one bisected his left eyebrow, but rather than marring his looks, the scar, along with the slight bump of his broken nose, gave his otherwise handsome face a touch of rakishness she rather liked. Under normal circumstances, Roan would have been a man she might have really gone for.