Series: Like Us Series by Krista Ritchie
Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1182(@200wpm)___ 946(@250wpm)___ 788(@300wpm)
Luna clasps my neck with two hands, an uncertainty still in her.
“Tell me,” I prod.
“What about how we’ve joked that you’ve been at my earthly service?”
“I am at your earthly service, space babe. Not for money—but out of love. I’m gonna be at your service for as long as I’m alive. You know that?”
Her eyes well, and she nods.
Good.
“I’m going to be at your otherworldly service for as long as I’m alive,” she says so softly. “You know that?”
I nod back. “Yeah, I do.”
Marry me.
Feels like we just did. Still, I don’t surface it right now. We kiss—aching, plunging, soulful kisses that grind my body into hers. I do unplug the drain, and I make deep, sensual love to Luna in the tub. We fuck until her breath is too ragged, and my heart won’t slow down.
We shower. I wrap her hair in a towel when we come out, and with one slung low on my hips, we’re brushing our teeth. Only, my toothbrush is in the corner of my mouth. I have her foot in my hand. “Does it make calls out of the Milky Way?” I mumble.
“Uh-huh,” she says, mouth full of toothpaste suds. “But best reception is to Wawa.”
“Girl, say no more.” I put her foot to my ear, stretching her leg higher. She’s very flexible, and she’s laughing while brushing. I speak to her phone-foot. “I’d like to place an order.”
“Ham hoagie!”
“One ham hoagie for my…”
Her joy steals my breath, and I want every day with her. No less than that. With her foot up to my ear like a phone and a toothbrush in my mouth, I say, “I wanna marry you.”
Luna goes wide-eyed. She slows brushing her molars. “That’s…not on the Wawa menu,” she mumbles before spitting in the sink.
I relinquish her leg, my pulse pounding harder. And I spit out toothpaste too. We rinse and turn back to each other.
Casting a quick glance at the mirror, I see the reddened burn-streak across my cheekbone. Don’t think it’ll scar, so there’s that shiny positive. It’s easier to confront a cigarette burn than the possibility of being rejected right now.
But we’ve gotta do this. I screw the cap on the toothpaste and look her over. She has on a hotel bathrobe and stares at the pools of water at her feet.
“You don’t wanna marry me,” I say.
Her eyes snap up to me. “What?”
“You don’t wanna marry me,” I repeat, the pain like a dagger sunk in my heart. Funny enough, I’ve got that image tattooed on my foot.
Her face breaks. “Why do you have to say it like that?”
“I dunno how else to say it, Luna.”
She holds on to the counter. “It’s not that I don’t want to.”
I frown. “What is it like?” I shake the excess water off my toothbrush and slip it back into my Dopp kit.
She watches me. “I’ve felt like we’ve flown so far beyond marriage in commitment and love. Like if we tied the knot, it wouldn’t even encapsulate a third of my feelings for you.”
I didn’t expect that. “Being my wife is too basic,” I tease with a slow-edging grin. “Too earthly. Needs to be weirder.”
She’s contemplative. “Can you say that again?”
“Weirder?”
“No, before that.”
I know. “My wife.”
Her eyes glass, and she shrugs, then buries her face in her palms so I can’t see her expression crack again. I pull Luna in my arms, holding her against my chest. “I’m not trying to pressure you—I don’t wanna pressure you.” I rub tears off her cheeks while she wipes the splotchy patches with her bathrobe sleeve. “You’re only twenty-one, and I’m not gonna propose anytime soon. Or at all, if it’s not what you want.”
“I want it,” she croaks.
It takes me aback. “Luna—”
“It doesn’t sound too earthly.” She wipes her nose with her sleeve. “I’m already yours. It’s like it’s branded inside, and I haven’t needed anything outside. But I want it. One day. Not now. Not tomorrow. I want to get excited about our future together. To finally look beyond and see what waits and never question its existence. And if time is short for us and we die too soon—”
“We won’t—”
“—then oh well. Because we’re kinda already married on my planet.”
I grin. “What’s kinda married?”
She laughs tearfully. “I didn’t want to scare you, but we are wedded for all-time, without end.”
“When did that happen?”
“In the bathtub,” she sniffs, her silent tears still falling. I thumb them away, and she says, “Your intergalactic vows were very beautiful.”
My love for her burrows deeper. “So were yours, sad alien.”
“Not sad. Very happy.”
I let her go to find a box of tissues under the sink. Handing them to Luna, I express, “I’m not in a rush, but down the road, I do wanna marry you the earthly way. And I never thought I’d marry anyone, but I never imagined I’d love someone as much as I love you. I like that it’ll be something to look forward to, but…”