Page 11 of Latham
They lay together, sweaty and a bit sandy, hot and sated.
“I can’t believe I did that,” she said with an embarrassed giggle, cheeks flushed from the exertion and the embarrassment. “Made love outdoors.”
“Sweetheart, there’s no one around for hundreds of miles except for those corporate sticks in the mud at the cove and they couldn’t hear or see us way out here.” His laughter rumbled through his chest and she enjoyed the vibrations. “I don’t ever want to lose you or the happiness I find with you,” he said, smoothing her hair off her face. ”Will you come with me to Ardanna and be my wife?”
She couldn’t breathe at first, hearing him say the thing she most wanted to hear. Mistaking her silence for doubt, Latham continued. “I’ve been living out of a ranger’s rucksack for the last five years, not spending my salary, not touching my military pension. I’ve got a good sized nest egg built up. We can get a house, you can take your time finding a job if you want one?—”
“Yes, this is crazy after only three days but I absolutely will come to Ardanna and marry you,” she said, giving him a kiss to shut him up. “We’ll figure things out as we go. What is your family going to think of me though?”
She was aware he had a big family, four brothers and a sister, plus his parents and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins, nieces and nephews galore. Suddenly shy she couldn’t imagine how they’d react to her sudden arrival, agreeing to marry Latham after only three days together. She was sure down to her core he was the man for her and the idea of ever parting from him cut her like a knife.
“Sweetheart, my relatives are going to love you like I do. And the fact you’re the woman who brought me back to them, broke me out of my isolation, will make them love you even more. I’ve been hiding from everyone in the wilderness, literally, for over five years. There were days I thought I might as well end it all if that was all my life was reduced to—nightmares and flashbacks and staying away from people. When I got the orders to come on this dating boondoggle I was pretty upset but there’s no getting out of it. Our government is serious about this.”
“What if you hadn’t found a match?”
“As long as the man reports for departure as scheduled and spends the five days with the woman IDA says could be his match, they’ll sign off the obligation as completed. No one is being forced into anything other than coming here. I thought I could probably handle that so they’d leave me alone in the future. Let me be a hermit. Which is no longer my life goal by the way, in case I haven’t been clear enough.” He gave her a grin. “The first night, in the club?—”
He shuddered.
“I’m sorry,” she said, upset he’d actually contemplated ending his own life while in the grip of the PTSD.
“No, you’re the bright light I needed. Coming here, with you, has given me fresh perspective. I’ll always have the damn memories but life can go on. I can be a part of it again, with you at my side.” He studied her with a serious expression. “Am I putting too much of a burden on you? I’m not saying you have to be my guardian or my caretaker. I want you as my partner, my equal, my woman I come home to in every sense of the word.”
“I didn’t take it as a burdensome situation,” she said. “You’re a strong man, Latham. Together we’ll be even stronger. I’m not organized, except at work and I’m not good at long term thinking and I tend to rush into things?—”
His grin was a little lopsided. “Like agreeing to marry me after only three days?”
“No, that’s a brilliant decision on my part because I’ve fallen in love with you,” she said. “I meant more like not realizing to get to the damn cove I had to antigrav jump and zipline and climb cliffs. I looked at the pretty holos and said yeah, I want to be there. I’ve gotten to know you, my heart knows your heart and I’m sure this is right.”
He tapped the new mark on her chest. “Do you want to know what this is?”
“I thought we decided it was a bruise?” She craned her neck to see it and was surprised to find the spot had grown much more defined, almost like a miniature pawprint.
“You called it that,” he corrected her gently. “It’s a fated mate mark. It means you and I are fated mates, which is a thing among the luckiest of my people. Not everyone meets their fated mate but two people can fall in love and marry and be wildly happy without the extra symbol. One of my brothers is married to the girl of his dreams and she doesn’t carry the fated mate mark.”
“What if I’d said no?”
“The mark would fade and go away over time,” he said sadly.
“What if this brother of yours meets a woman who does have the fated mate mark?”
“He won’t. It doesn’t work like that. Once an Ardannan man commits to a woman the whole fated mate question is closed forever, one way or the other.”
“That’s reassuring. How about you, do you get a mark?”
“No.”
Helaine suspected he wasn’t telling her everything but she didn’t care. Being a human from Earth who read a lot of romance novels, she found it exciting to have Latham’s fated mate mark but she wasn’t going to worry about him not having a matching one. He could get a tattoo. It was a topic for later. “A bit sexist, don’t you think?” she teased.
“It’s genetics, sweetheart, not in my control,” he protested.
“I was kidding, mostly. Is it just me or is the islet getting smaller?” She eyed the sandy boundary nervously.
“I think you’re imagining it but I’m ready to pack up and go if you are. If we want to see the waterfall the Harlecky folks were talking about, we’d better get back and change.”
“And hike. Oh goody, I can wear my favorite hiking boots again,” she said with sarcasm.
“It’s a short hike and I think you’re sexy in the boots,” he said.
