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I stopped to look back at her.
“Insult me again and I’ll see you in the ring personally.” She pointed back at the mat where my husband had fought her soldiers.
“But you’re a stripper.” I frowned, forgetting myself for a moment.
I immediately regretted my words.
Being a stripper, she was more likely to need to know how to defend herself, not less. She probably could mess me up even before she became empress.
“I’m the empress of a species of aliens that have a ceremonial fight to the death.” She planted her hands on her hips. “I just took over Earth. I vaporized a major shoe producer's child labor sweatshop yesterday and replaced it with a state of the art school plus lunch program for those kids. You really want to disrespect me?”
“No, I do not.” Then I bowed. It couldn’t hurt. I wasn’t entirely sure if she was actually upset or just throwing her weight around because she could. Either way, even as a stripper, she had earned my respect and I didn’t want her to feel otherwise. “I would really actually love to interview you if you have the time. Like an hour exclusive special would be amazing.”
She raised an eyebrow at me.
“Your majesty?” I guessed.
“I’ll think about it.” She tilted her head to the side. “Now get off my ship before I make you my workout buddy.”
“Yes, your majesty,” I laughed. “Can I be your workout buddy anyway?”
“Like I said.” She waved her hand at me. “I’ll think about it. Now go away.”
Away I went.
Walking back to the ship, all I could focus on was Aeson beside me. He didn’t touch me, he just moved, sinuous and focused as his body shifted beside me, the inherent power in his movements anchoring my attention. I watched him out of the corner of my eye. We didn’t speak, and the empty space of sound filled with a tension of all the words I wanted to say but didn’t know how to.
It boiled down to one simple thing.
Aeson made me feel good.
He made me feel good physically, when his body wrapped around mine, massaging me as he worked absolute magic with his mouth. He made me feel good that he hadn’t asked for anything in return. He made me feel good when I was having a panic attack on his ship and he was just there for me, not touching me, just trying to figure out how to help me in the best way. He made me feel good when he took care of shit, scheduling me with a doctor and taking me there so I could get a second opinion that was vastly different from the first. He made me feel good when I watched him fight, when he kept me from harm, when he looked at me after the fight, radiating an animalistic pride in his showing.
What I was experiencing inside my heart was different than anything I had felt before. It was a coiled mess of feelings all tangled together - appreciation, admiration, attraction, anticipation with a little dash of apprehension.
The apprehension was for what was waiting for me back at home.
It hadn’t even been a full day since my disastrous livestream, yet I knew that things were likely hitting the fan. If things had escalated online to the point that I got fired only an hour after I flashed my new hubbie’s bits online, then it was likely that the scandal was way out of control. I needed to post another video. I needed to edit together a whole thing and make sure my perspective was the front and center of the story.
First, I needed to grab my computer and my meds and get going on my honeymoon.
There was so much for me to do, I doubted I’d have any time to really enjoy the honeymoon at all.
The ride back to Earth was just as quick as the way up, but less eventful. As the door opened and I stepped outside, I noticed we were a block away from my apartment, at a public park. I stepped down into the grass and turned to see nothing behind me but a tall nondescript man. I blinked and stared at him. He had the kind of face that eyes skim over in a crowd. Brown hair, dull eyes, grey shirt and faded jeans.
“Aeson?” I asked.
“I dislike this holographic disguise,” the bland looking man said. “But my species hasn’t been introduced through the media to this planet yet. I was advised to wear this disguise unless I wanted to risk incidents.”
“Incidents?” I asked.
“Human civilians have access to a great number of projectile weapons in your country which have a high rate of unintentional injuries,” he replied.
There was something odd about his appearance, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
“Oh.” I kept staring at him, trying to figure out what was weird.
The human hologram he was wearing was moving its facial muscles a minimal amount. That was what was weird. It wasn’t just that though. It moved enough to match his words, but his words were in his language and being translated into mine. It had taken me a moment to realize the discordance, but now that I figured it out, I couldn’t help but focus on it.
