Page 7 of Offering Herself to Darkness

“I’m just saying you’ll probably get tired of me after you, you know, do what you want.” Nora could feel her cheeks getting hot again but she made herself go on. “I’m not asking you to tie yourself to me for life—just long enough for us both to get what we want out of the relationship.”

He nodded.

“That seems fair.”

He began typing again and Nora read what he had written and nodded.

“Okay, that’s good.”

“I am glad you approve.”

He finished typing and hit the print button, sending the contract to the printer in the corner of his office. It hummed for a moment and then spat out two identical copies—one for each of them.

“We’ll sign both copies and each keep one,” Xarex said. “And if you agree, I will set our Joining Ceremony aboard the Mother Ship.”

“Can it be soon—as soon as possible?” Nora asked quickly. “The doctor is only giving Anna six months to live—she needs to see a Kindred doctor right away!”

“I can plan it for Tuesday of this coming week if you wish,” he said gravely. “After we are Joined you will need to move to the Mother Ship with me in order for our contract to be fulfilled and your daughter to receive treatment. Will that give you enough time to gather your things and move?”

Nora bit her lip. It was Saturday and they would be getting married—or Joined—on Tuesday. Two days was absolutely not enough time to get her life on Earth wrapped up in order to move to the Mother Ship. But she had asked for a fast wedding and her boss was obliging. And the sooner Anna saw a Kindred doctor, the better.

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “That’s plenty of time. Thank you so much. Er…what should I wear?” she added uncertainly. “I mean, do you really want to have a formal ceremony and?—”

“I wish to have the traditional equivalent of a human wedding,” Xarex said. “I am…most interested in your species—you fascinate me. That is one reason I started looking into human erotic activities in the first place.”

“Oh, er…all right.” She nodded. “Well in that case…it’s just that it’s going to be hard to find a wedding dress and get a cake and a venue and everything in only two days.”

He waved a hand.

“Leave all of that to me. I know a human woman aboard the Mother Ship—Kat—who plans these kinds of events regularly. All you need to do is be here at the HKR building at nine in the morning on Tuesday. I’ll bring you up to the Mother Ship and we can have our ceremony in the afternoon.”

This all sounded too good to be true to Nora, but if he really thought he could pull a wedding together in two days with no input or effort from her, she was more than willing to let him try. After all, she wasn’t doing this to have her dream wedding—she just wanted Anna to be seen by a Kindred doctor.

“I’ll be here. Along with my daughter and my mother,” she told him. “I’ll want them to be involved in the ceremony too.”

His eyebrows shot up in what looked like surprise.

“Do humans often involve their families in their Joining ceremonies?”

“Yes, they do,” Nora said firmly. “My mother will want to walk me down the aisle and Anna can be our flower girl.”

“Flower girl?” His eyebrows climbed higher.

“The person who you say plans ceremonies all the time can tell you about it,” Nora told him. “And other than that, I’d like to invite my best friend Samantha. She already lives aboard the Mother Ship—she’s married to a Beast Kindred,” she added.

He nodded.

“Of course—you can invite whoever you want.”

“And after the ceremony, I want to take Anna straight to the Kindred Med Center,” Nora said quickly. “After she gets to see a Kindred doctor, I’m all yours and you can…can do whatever you want with me for our honeymoon night.”

Xarex nodded gravely.

“Of course. That seems fair. In fact, I’ll make an appointment for your daughter when I talk to Kat about the wedding plans. We can go directly from the ceremony to the Med Center if you like.”

“Thank you—that sounds just perfect.”

Nora felt relieved. She’d been afraid that he might want to rush her off to a honeymoon suite and ravish her immediately. The stories she’d heard from Samantha about her wedding night with her Beast Kindred husband made it sound like all the Kindred warriors were absolutely insatiable. But she absolutely couldn’t surrender her body until her mind was put to rest. She was glad that her scary boss was being so understanding.

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