Wed to the Alien Prince by C.V. Walter

Chapter 8

Not like other humans, she said. Serogero shook his head. Of course she wasn't like other humans. If she was, she would never have drawn him to her. He understood having an image that had to be carefully maintained but he couldn't imagine a world where the people she helped and talked to would think less of her for easing the burden of her disorder.

"I know you're not like other humans," he told her. "You're so much more."

"I'm not," she denied and he shook his head.

"You have no idea how amazing you are," he said. "I don't understand how you can deny who you are or relief from your most difficult burdens but I won't push. You desire more information and so, for now, I must wait until you can speak to the ships doctor. Hopefully he can put your mind at ease about the bio-nanos."

"I can wait," Kaelin said. "I don't mind waiting. If he can explain to me what's happening and assure me that it won't change things I don't want changed, I'll consider the bio-nanos."

"And I will stay with you in quarantine if I must," he told her.

"If you have duties on the rest of the ship, you won't be able to," she said. "I don't know exactly what you're doing but I do know that being a prince can be a lot of work. Especially on an expedition like this."

Truthfully, there hadn't been a lot of work for Serogero to do up to that point. The few times they went through foreign territory, they already had a treaty with the worlds that could contact them. Most of his work was coming up and he knew they were still working on establishing communications with the rest of the humans. The first steps of that process had required going to the planet.

"There is work to do," he acknowledged. "But not so much that I can't spend most of my time with you until there are answers to your questions about the bio-nanos."

"You don't have to hover," she told him. "I can entertain myself, especially if all I'm doing is sitting in quarantine."

"There is nowhere I would rather be than with you," he told her. "I do not wish to hover if you do not desire my presence but, for my part, doing nothing but holding you was a great pleasure."

She leaned her head against his shoulder. The others in the room had moved off somewhere else so he lifted her off the table and carried her to a chair in a corner of the room. He would rather take her somewhere else but he didn't think she'd want to slip away with him just yet.

"How can you say that so casually?" she asked quietly. "I don't even know how I feel exactly and you want to stay with me?"

Prince Serogero thought about his answer. He knew why, had known it since the moment he met her, but he wasn't sure she was ready to hear everything he needed to tell her.

"You enjoy it when I touch you, right?" he asked, stroking his hand down her cheek. She shivered against him and he didn't think she was cold.

"Very much," she agreed.

"I enjoy touching you," he said. "And I enjoy hearing you talk. What I have learned about you so far fascinates me and makes me want to know more. I want to know everything and I see no reason to fight that desire. Everything about you brings me pleasure, even your stubborn insistence on waiting for the bio-nanos."

"I'm not usually stubborn," she murmured.

"I bet you are more often than you think," he told her. "And that is a good thing. You think about what you want, about what you need, and you ask questions. And you use the answers to those questions to help other people even after it affects you, right?"

"How could you know that?"

"Because," he said, touching her chin gently to tilt her head back. "That's something the woman I love would do. Because that's something a leader would do, something a future princess would do."

"I can't be a princess," Kaelin said quietly.

"Why not?" he asked. "Is there some requirement on your planet to being a princess that I can't meet? Is there some impediment to you assuming a role as my partner that you feel is not possible? Do princesses do something on your planet that you are physically incapable of doing?"

"Not, there's not," she stumbled over her words and looked down at her hands. "Princesses are pretty."

"Well, you meet that qualification with room to spare," he told her. "What else do princesses do?"

"They're graceful and elegant and I might work at that but it's not something I'm terribly good at."

Prince Serogero wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. "Those are things that can be learned or hired out. All you have to be is willing."

"I don't know if I'm that, either," she mumbled and he squeezed her close.

"It's a big commitment," he agreed. "Especially with little to no preparation. On my planet, there are any number of my people who could expect to interact with and thus be recognized into royalty. There is, or at least there was, a lot of room for error and forgiveness for someone who was still learning how to handle all the things that are necessary to handle as, say, a newly recognized princess."

"Used to be?" Kaelin asked and he could have cursed himself.

"Things have hardened in recent years," he said. "And I don't really know why except where I've seen the outcome on some of the women in my family. What's been happening on the planet is an abomination to everything my people believe and that's why many of us are on this ship. In many ways, we hold to the traditions that helped our people thrive."

"And those traditions embraced princesses that were deficient in the language, bearing, attitude and desire to be a princess?"

Serogero chuckled. "Yes, in fact, they did. Recognition respects no cultural, economic or language barrier. We've built whole festivals and celebrations around the fact that a brush of the hand in the middle of a crowded marketplace can elevate someone from the poorest situation to the highest throne in the land. There is room for error and much room for forgiveness when someone is thrown into a new situation."

"There used to be room for error and room for forgiveness," Kaelin said. "You've just said that the situation has changed."

He sighed. "And that's part of why we left. We want to go back to the old ways."

"And that's why you're here? You're looking for mates among the humans?"

"That was not our mission," he said.

"But now that it's been proven that humans are compatible?"

"Being able to court and marry humans would be an ideal solution to part of the problem that drove us off the planet, yes," Serogero told her.

"And having a human bride would push that solution along quite nicely, wouldn't it?"

He stilled and saw the trap he'd almost stepped in. "I'm certain that a human princess would make some negotiations easier," he said carefully. "But I'm also certain they'd make others harder."

"So you're not completely ignorant of the realities of the situation," she said.

"I do try to keep some perspective about what's going on," he told her. "Even if I'm not sure I'm going to like it. Actually, especially if I'm not sure I'm going to like it. Because hiding from unpleasant truths is the best way I can think of to doom my people."

"You're not exactly what I would have expected in an alien prince," she told him.

"Have you met many alien princes?"

Kaelin laughed and it lit up her face. "No, and not very many human princes, either. Alright, I won't judge but I'm also not going to jump into any of this without thinking it through or getting very solid answers about what's going to happen and what's expected of me."

Serogero's heart began to pound harder in his chest. "You're willing to consider what I'm offering?"

"Well, I'm willing to think about considering it," she said. "As soon as you lay out exactly what you're offering and what would be expected of me. I might seem soft and innocent but I'm not exactly naive, you know."

"I would never expect you to be naive," he told her. "And I am happy to explain exactly what I'm asking you to take up and how I will help you do so."

With a deep breath, Kaelin looked up at him, then squinted. "I have some requirements."

"Name them," Serogero said, certain he would be willing to do whatever she wanted to gain her acceptance.

"First, I need my glasses," she said and grinned. "Second, I would like some breakfast."

He smiled at her. "Is that all my lady requires?"

"For the moment," she said. "I'm sure I'll have others. Like, directions to the bathroom, a chance to put on real clothes and maybe even take a shower."

"I hope that all of your requirements are so easy to meet," he told her. He held his arm up and helped her to stand. They were unnoticed as they left the medical bay and they snuck quietly through one of the other rooms to avoid going across the bridge.

While he'd been certain he could keep her from being embarrassed while she was asleep, he didn't want to risk his jacket falling off of her while she crossed the command area and letting the others see her pajamas. He loved the feel of the fabric that covered her skin and looked forward to spending long nights running his hands over it but he hated the thought that anybody else would see it or all the skin it exposed.

He took her through the galley and fed her tiny bits of the food that was easy to transport, taking great interest in the way the juicy pieces of fruit and the fluffy bread disappeared across her lips. With each tiny morsel he fed her, he found himself desperate to sample its taste on her lips. Foods he'd long considered mundane and a bit boring were suddenly interesting again.

He wondered what she'd do if he kissed her.

"Roger?" she asked and he realized he'd been staring at her lips for a very long time.

With a shake of his head, he looked down at the tray he'd been putting together. "Do you think this will be enough?" he asked. "I can always come back for more if it's not."

"I think it will be fine," she said. "It's all delicious, at least, so I'm sure I'll enjoy it."

He swallowed hard when he remembered the sounds she made that had indicated she'd liked the morsel he'd fed her. "Right," he said. "We'll take this back to my cabin and you can eat it then we'll see about that shower and getting dressed."

"Glasses first," she reminded him and he nodded.