When She's Ready: A Sci-Fi Alien Romance Novella Read online

  When She's Ready

  A Sci-Fi Alien Romance Novella

  Ruby Dixon

  Copyright © 2019 by Ruby Dixon

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Audio available in the Read Me Romance Podcast.

  Cover Art: Mayhem Creations

  Edits: Aquila Editing

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  WHEN SHE’S READY

  Part I

  Part II

  Part III

  Part IV

  Part V

  Bonus Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  About Read Me Romance

  Want more blue aliens?

  WHEN SHE’S READY

  To get amnesty on a remote farm planet, ex-con Tassar has to marry an alien – specifically, a strange looking creature called a ‘human’. When he sees gorgeous, delicate Leilani, though, all of his plans change. He wants more than just a marriage of convenience. He wants her forever, but only when she’s ready.

  Part I

  TASSAR

  “Explain to us again how this works.”

  I cross my arms and watchfully study the male across the table from me and my friend, Vordigar. The tiny food service restaurant we’re seated in is run-down and dingy, and the protein chips we ordered nearly as dry and tasteless as the fermented brew. On Risda III, though, there aren’t a lot of options for restaurants. In fact, this is the only one, and it has all of three tables. The farm planet on the outer rim isn’t very populated, which means the supply depot functions as spaceport, social gathering spot, and community center. If I look out the window, I can see the large, sprawling manor that houses the lord of this planet…and not much else. Lots of fields full of green crops and endless rolling hills.

  It’s a far cry from the red and bleak atmosphere of Haven, but I’ll take it. I’d rather be anywhere than on a prison planet. I know Vordigar feels the same way. This isn’t ideal…but it’ll do.

  Jutari clears his throat and toys with his glass of brew. He glances at us, then over at the window, where his fragile mate watches, their child in her arms. His hard expression softens for a moment as he gazes upon her, and then he looks over at us. “Leilani’s a human, just like my mate Chloe. She’s one of about fifty of them that arrived six months ago as part of an amnesty program.”

  “Yes, but why here, and why now?”

  Jutari points at the window, to the massive house on the hill. “Lord va’Rin mated a human, you know. Bunch of planetary lords lost their keffing minds when they heard that, but he wouldn’t be budged. Said she was his and that was all there was to it, and if they had a problem, they could go kef themselves.” His lips twitch with amusement. “His family’s old and has a lot of power on Homeworld, so they let it be. But then a bunch of humans got rescued recently, and Homeworld decided to dump them here on the edge of the galaxy where they could be quietly forgotten.”

  Vordigar’s lip curls slightly. “Humans?”

  I grunt. I’ve heard about humans—they’re an intelligent species from a Class D planet, which means it’s off limits. They supposedly are hot commodities on the black market, and lots of females get stolen from their homes, never to return. Once a human’s come into contact with the rest of the universe, they can’t be returned home. As a Class D planet, no one in the Interplanetary Alliance is allowed first contact, so I always wondered what the government did when they confiscated the contraband humans.

  I guess they dump them on backwater farm planets like this one.

  Jutari takes another sip of his brew and continues. “Lord va’Rin didn’t want all the humans living at his house so he parceled out farms to them and got them set up out of his own pockets. It’s been a mess ever since. People are trying to steal the farms from the females, and others have been forcefully kidnapping them or getting rid of them to take over their land. Heard rumor that one female was forced to marry a ssithri, and then he killed her and kept the land. Basically it’s a shitshow and it’s not safe for a female alone.”

  I lean back in the rickety wooden chair, scowling. Even on the far ends of the universe, it never fails. People are assholes no matter where you go. “So this Leilani wants a mate to protect her land and keep her safe? Why doesn’t she ask lord whoever to find her a male?”

  “She doesn’t trust him,” Jutari says. “She thinks he’ll go for the simplest solution, which would be to marry her off to a neighbor. Hers has already petitioned to marry her, but she doesn’t like him. Leilani trusts Chloe, though. She trusts another human to help her.”

  I glance over at the female at the window. She’s the first human I’ve seen and if they all look like that, this is a bad keffing idea. Jutari’s mate is tiny and slender. I doubt she even reaches his shoulder. She’s pale with a dark mane and looks so fragile that I’m surprised she hasn’t snapped under his touch. I don’t like the thought of having a mate I can break in bed, but I guess this won’t be a real mating after all. It’s for convenience. It gives her someone to protect her farm, and me a way to ensure I don’t get sent back to the prison planet.

  That’s all it is.

  “And that’s why we’re here?” Vordigar sounds displeased.

  “Yes. I figure the three of you can decide who gets together, and we can work on finding a bride for the other…” Jutari’s voice trails off as Vordigar gets to his feet. “Where are you going?”

  “I’m out,” Vordigar says. “Tassar can have the human female.”

  “It’s the safest way to stay here,” Jutari warns.

  Vordigar just claps me on the shoulder. “Which is why she belongs to Tassar here. I’ll take my chances elsewhere.”

  I study the big male as he heads out the door. Vordigar served in the wars with me and got sent to the same prison planet I did. He’s a good man, but I know why he’s leaving. He doesn’t want a human female to take one look at his acid-scarred face and skin and recoil in horror.

  Can’t say that I blame him. It’s hard to see people flinch at the sight of you. Still, it clears the path for me. I don’t have many options left, and this will work well enough, I suppose. I grunt acknowledgment. “She…knows I’m a convict, right?”

  At the window, Chloe turns to look at us. “Leilani’s fine with it, Tassar. She knows Jutari’s one and how good he is to me.” And her skinny human face lights up with a smile, as if this answers everything.

  Jutari drains his brew. “We told her you were a prisoner of war and that’s why you were at Haven.”

  The look he gives me is a careful one, and we both know the reality behind the situation. Just because I didn’t get freed after the Threshian war doesn’t mean I don’t belong in prison or that I’m a good male. I’m still a killer. I just happened to get caught up in the wrong side of the war and spent the last several years on a prison planet, until I slipped into a box of recycled trash that was taken off-world and Jutari’s pirate brother Kivian picked me up and brought me here.

  All I know is I don’t want to go back. Most people don’t last more than a few years at Haven, and I’d already been there for far too long. “You’re sure this will work?” I ask Jutari skeptically.

  “I assure you it will,” he says. “Lord va’Rin loves his human. He’s going to look the other way when it comes to your record as long as you keep your human happy.”

  Keep the human happy. Right. I look at Jutari’s all-too-breaka
ble human mate again and try to imagine taking something as fragile like that in my arms and keffing it. The thought isn’t appealing in the slightest. “Not sure about that,” I admit.

  “It’s easy. Do things to make her happy. Help out around the farm. And humans are big on kissing.”

  “Kiss-ing?” I ask, the word unfamiliar. “What is this?”

  “It’s putting your mouth on her mouth and touching tongues.”

  “Touching…tongues?” I look at Chloe and imagine Jutari doing such a thing to her, and the thought is ridiculous. “I’m pretty sure that violates a sanitary law or two.”

  “Several of them,” Jutari agrees, and he looks utterly pleased at the thought. “Humans don’t care about those kinds of things. They’re very big on touching and kissing. You’ll see what I mean.”

  I’m not sure I agree, but I say nothing.

  Chloe makes a happy little sound at the window and bounces her large baby on her hip as she looks back at us. “She’s here! She’s just outside! Get ready.”

  To my surprise, Jutari grabs a handful of my tunic and hauls me up from my slouch. “Sit upright. Straighten your clothes. Don’t scowl. And be nice to her.”

  All this to impress a human? I brush his hand away and it’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him to go kef himself, when the door to the tiny restaurant opens and a cloaked figure steps inside. A split second later, the hood on the cloak drops and I see the female that’s going to be my mate.

  Well, well, well.

  This…is promising.

  She doesn’t look much like Jutari’s little Chloe. Instead of Chloe’s sickly pale, this female’s skin is a warm, golden brown. Her face is round, her eyes dark, and the mane that falls down her shoulders is wavy and long and a thick, rich shade of black. She’s taller than Chloe, and where Jutari’s mate is slim and fragile, this one has a thicker figure and ample, rounded hips and breasts.

  Oh yes, I think to myself. Now I’m definitely interested.

  And I grin, utterly pleased.

  * * *

  LEILANI

  I’m nervous.

  I feel silly for being anxious about the meeting today. I have all the power, I remind myself. I’m the one in control of the situation. If I say I don’t want to get married, I won’t get married. It’s as simple as that.

  Chloe’s smiling as I enter the solitary little restaurant in Risda III’s spaceport. She’s holding her daughter Kivita, and the baby’s so big that it looks like it belongs to a stranger and not this petite woman. But then I see Jutari, Chloe’s mate, and I remember that she married a giant. A big, blue giant with horns and a tail. Of course her baby’s big.

  She greets me at the door and touches my hand. “If you don’t want to go through with this, just say so.”

  I nod at her, butterflies in my stomach. Truth is, I’m not entirely sure I do want to go through with it. I’ve been on my farm alone for six months and while sometimes it’s lonely, it’s all mine. I don’t have to worry about anyone else bothering me or telling me not to talk. But then I think about my neighbors, and how often I’ve seen them scoping out the edges of my land as if it’s theirs. I think about how unsafe they make me feel when they stare at me in town. I think about how Annabelle died because someone killed her over her land.

  “I’m fine,” I tell Chloe. And I will be. I’m strong. I can handle this.

  So I lower my hood and straighten my shoulders, looking around the restaurant for my husband-to-be. For a moment, I think he’s not here. That he’s stood me up because the only man in the room other than Jutari is…gorgeous.

  He’s flat-out beautiful.

  I was stolen from Earth three years ago. In that time, I’ve seen a lot of ugly aliens. There’s froggy races, and reptilian-looking races, and lots of races with sharp, scary teeth. I haven’t run into an alien that I ever thought was attractive, and I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to marry someone I wasn’t sexually attracted to. A loveless marriage is better than a shallow grave, though, and I’ll do what it takes to protect my farm.

  I didn’t expect a gorgeous hunk of an alien.

  Jutari is from a race of aliens called “mesakkah” and I knew that my husband-to-be would be one, too. He’s a distant relative who escaped a prison planet, where he’s been for the last few years due to some messy alien war that ended badly. I don’t care that he’s a convict. That just means he’ll intimidate my neighbors. And because he’s mesakkah, I knew he’d be tall and blue and horned like Jutari, but…whoa.

  I was not prepared for what I’m seeing before me.

  The man I’m supposed to marry is tall. He’s about the same height as Jutari, but his horns sweep higher, which makes him look even taller. His head is shaved close, dark bristles shadowing his scalp. His shoulders are massive and broad, covered in tattoos and bulging with muscle. His thighs are as big around as my not-very-small waist and I swear I’ve never seen a man so overtly masculine and mouthwateringly built. Even his face is appealing. His expression is stony, his brow hard with ridges that sweep into the arching horns. The eyes that regard me are intelligent, though, and his nose is large and strong, and he’s got the prettiest, fullest mouth I’ve ever seen on a man.

  And he’s smiling at me as if he likes what he sees.

  My knees feel weak. This has to be a mistake. I thought the man I’m supposed to be marrying is desperate and that’s why he needs a bride? This delicious blue testosterone feast could have any woman he wanted. I’m not sure why he’s getting stuck with me.

  As humans go, I’m unexciting. If he’s expecting someone like Chloe, I have to be a disappointment. I’m tall where she’s short, and I’m robust where she’s dainty. Robust is maybe a kind word. Let’s just say all the calories I eat gravitate towards tits and ass…and waist, and thigh. Strong, yes. Delicate flower like Chloe, no.

  Maybe this is a mistake, though. I glance down at the name I’ve written on my hand so I wouldn’t forget. “Did Tassar not show up for the wedding?”

  Chloe’s brows furrow. She shifts her large daughter on her hip. “What do you mean?” She glances backward, looks at the two men, and then back at me. “He’s right there.”

  “That’s him?” I whisper, still astonished. “That’s Tassar?”

  “I can hear what you’re saying, humans,” the man calls out. He crosses his arms over his chest and just looks amused.

  Jutari, meanwhile, goes to his wife’s side and takes the baby from her arms, pressing a doting kiss to his chubby daughter’s cheek. “Is there a problem?” he asks.

  “No,” I manage to squeak out. “I just wasn’t expecting…”

  “An alien?” Tassar asks.

  I wasn’t expecting you to be sexy, I want to say aloud, but I shake my head. “I guess I’m not sure what I was expecting. I’m Leilani.”

  He inclines his head at me, those shockingly large horns tilting as he does. “Tassar sol’Irian.”

  I lick my suddenly dry lips and try to focus. This is for my farm, not for anything else. This is so I can keep my freedom. I need to concentrate. “So you want to marry me? For protection in case the authorities come looking for you?”

  He moves closer, taking a few slow steps in my direction. The floors of the run-down restaurant creak under the weight of his boots, and out of the corner of my eye, I can see his tail twitch. “That was the original idea, yes.”

  “What do you mean, original idea?”

  A smile curves his mouth as he leans in. “I mean I’m seeing benefits to this mating that I didn’t see before, little one.”

  I can’t decide if I want to flush or slap him across his pretty, pretty mouth. I’m not little by anyone’s standards, and I can’t decide if it’s an insult or a compliment. Either way, it makes me nervous. “I have rules to set before we head to the registrar.”

  “Rules?” His tail twitches, close to my leg as if closing the space between us.

  I cross my arms and try to glare up at him, determined to loo
k fierce. “Yes, rules. Two rules specifically. If you don’t like them, I’ll find myself another groom.”

  I mean, sure, whoever I get next won’t be smoking hot, but that might be a good thing. It’ll sure be less distracting. But I find myself hoping he goes along with my suggestions. Not just because he’s pretty, but because he’s utterly massive and at seven feet tall, he’s bound to intimidate my unpleasant neighbors.

  Tassar lifts his chin at me. “Tell me these rules and I’ll let you know if they’re agreeable or not.”

  Arrogant man. I flick a finger out to count. “One. I get to talk as much as I want. You can’t ever tell me to be quiet or try to force me into silence.”

  “Done.” He’s still staring at my finger. Tassar reaches out and touches his finger to mine, and I realize he’s only got three fingers and a thumb, all of them far, far bigger than mine. “What is your next rule?”

  I clear my throat, my cheeks heating. I sort of expected an argument about the talking rule, or at least a few questions. “Oh, uh, rule number two?” I flick my second finger out and I wonder if he’s going to touch it, too. “No sex.”

  He looks at me. “No deal. I want sex.”

  I can feel my face getting hotter by the moment. “That’s not part of the deal. This marriage is so you can hide out and so I can protect my farm.”

  Tassar leans in, his deep voice dropping to a whisper. “Doesn’t mean we can’t have some toe-curling sex.” He takes my hand in his and touches my fingers as if studying them. His hand is callused and huge, and for some reason, the sight makes heat pool between my thighs, my pulse throbbing. “Do you have five little toes, too?”

  Oh damn, he should not sound so fascinated. “I…why does that matter?”