Chapter Thirty
Leagues and Lagoons
Jenna sat on the dock of the Crescent Bell Palace and let her leg dangle in the water. It was the first time she’d done that since she’d been on Octavia Prime. She’d been in the water, but she’d never relaxed. Above her, the sun was shining, but it was so far above the tree tops. The vines hung down and the purple wisteria blooms created shadows that surrounded her.
Sardius came up behind her. “Have some ice cream, my well-oiled machine.” He handed her an ice cream cone and cuddled up behind her.
“Oh, are you having some too?” she asked, coyly looking over her shoulder. If they never ate, was he joining her?
“Yeah. It’s my honeymoon, and I’m a third husband, so I get nothing but perks as long as I put out,” he said with a chuckle.
Jenna licked the ice cream. It tasted like bubblegum. “What should I do?” she asked mournfully as she leaned back into him. “Don’t say you don’t care! I’m tired of hearing you don’t care.”
“You want me to make the choice for you?” he asked drolly.
“I want to hear what you think,” she whimpered back. He wasn’t soft to lean into at all, but she put her head on his bony chest anyway.
“All the options are good as far as I’m concerned,” he replied joyfully.
“They’re all good?” she questioned. “They can’t be all good.”
He replied sternly. “They can be. Look, if you decide you don’t want to be a diplomat anymore, I’m fine with that. I’ll still make my security business because I’ve got to do something and prize fighting probably won’t work for me now because of all the hoopla we’ve had here. We can live with the people I brought with me, or we can scuttle off by ourselves. Both have so much appeal. I’d love to introduce you to all my freedom-fighter friends and start a community, but I’d also love to find some quiet little spot somewhere where we could be alone. I haven’t even scratched the surface of all the stuff I want to do with you in bed. It would take years to accomplish it all. I really need a to-do list. That’s what I admire most about really organized people. They get stuff done.”
“I’ve always thought of you as very organized,” Jenna said. “More organized than me and I always thought I was above average.”
He smiled and continued. “On the flip side of the same choice, if we left, what Favel told you is right. We might have a lot of people who are quite interested in harming you, just for their own fun. It might not be very safe for me, you, or any of the people I brought with me.”
“And you’d still be willing to do it, even with consequences like that?” Jenna gasped.
“Yeah. I’m a gambler, a risk-taker, someone who doesn’t care where tomorrow’s money is coming from. It’s always worked out so I don’t even worry how it’s going to work out. Sometimes it’s really tough for a bit, while it’s waiting to work out though, and sometimes people die,” he said softly.
“And if we stayed?” Jenna prompted.
“It could be just as dangerous here,” Sardius continued. “You have been attacked over and over. I was hoping to stop that from happening by coming here in all of my glory, but perhaps we’ve just upped the ante and more attacks are on the way. That said, if you stay, we’d be rich. That titanium mining company Favel offered you shares in would make you an extraordinarily rich woman overnight. I’m honestly surprised you’re hesitating. I would have thought that they would have had you hook, line, and sinker when they offered you a baby of your own.”
“We haven’t tried very long,” Jenna whispered.
“No, we haven’t, but no amount of us trying is going to get us anywhere. When we make love, it hits a lot of culture’s definitions of bestiality. It sits wrong with a lot of people. I know I said we needed a doctor, but not every doctor would be willing to help us. That was why the offer from the Octavians to help us was so meaningful. There are probably a lot of them who think that even trying for such a thing is a thousand kinds of wrong. Not to mention, that if they’re successful and we have a child, the Octavians would have a method for manipulating you that would be more effective than offering you moons and houses and shoes. They’d have you on a leash every time they threatened our baby.”
“And they might do that,” Jenna sighed. “Not directly, but what they think and do is weird. Ever since the jewel incident, I can’t believe that their goals and values will always align with mine. Forget all that for the moment. What do you think? You haven’t said. Do you even want a baby with me?” Jenna asked softly.
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“Jenna, I’d have a hundred babies with you if that was what you wanted, but I seriously wonder about what kind of life a child we made would have to look forward to. What would even be happening with their skeleton if they were half you and half me? Not only that but even if you were my species, if you had a baby that looked exactly like me, it wouldn’t look anything like me. I’ve had so much work done on my face. The old me did not look like this. If you took a sample of me to a cloning clinic and had them make me again, the clone wouldn’t look like this.”
“What did you look like?” Jenna asked, looking at his face again.
He rolled his eyes. “I looked more like a cow than anything. Now that I look like this, I have an effect on people that I never had before the surgery. The knowledge that I’m not naturally this charming keeps me grounded.” He sighed. “Back to babies. I think we should get you a sperm sample from someone the exact same species as you and have you have a baby that way. I swear, I’ll be a good dad. I’ll act like it’s mine. I promise.”
Jenna glanced over her shoulder at him. “I’m not doing this.”
“You’re not doing what?”
“I’m not having someone else’s baby. Why bother? We’re just going to die. Both of us. All of us. If we leave, we die. If we stay, we die. I’m not doing this.” She dropped the rest of her ice cream cone into the water.
“Shall we adopt then?” he offered, not discouraged by her outburst. “We could adopt a Stickman. We could have little yarn balls running through the palace.”
Jenna sat up and glared at him. Keeping her glare steady, she responded with a cold, “I would love that, but that is not the same as having our own baby. Do you think I’m mature enough to not get what I want?”
He looked at her mournfully.
“Or more important still,” she fumed. “Do you think I have the capacity for more in my life? When Favel was listing the things they were going to give me, I couldn’t even envision how I could accept it. Wouldn’t it all go to waste if I’m always busy? I can’t use a whole moon for my personal pleasure! What a waste! I can’t use a whole workshop of dressmakers and shoemakers! I can only wear one dress at a time and one pair of shoes at a time. Everything they’re offering me is all about excess. How am I supposed to enjoy eight husbands? I have a hard enough time getting time to spend with the one I love the most.”
“Okay,” Sardius said, slipping his arms around her and keeping his ice cream cone away from her. “I understand. Most of the time lovers are supposed to give what they have to show their devotion. What you want from me is for me to take things away. So, how about it? How about if I take it all away? Forget the Augusta Four, the mines, the resort, the clothes, and everything else they offered you. I’ll take you away.” He rubbed his nose against the side of her cheek.
“Where would you take me?” she mumbled, closing her eyes and falling into the fantasy of his voice.
“Well,” he said softly, dropping his ice cream cone into the water after hers. “I’ll start by taking you up to the space station. You’ve never been in a room that was mine. I have a room there. You’ve never slept in zero gravity. You might love it. There are a ton of things about space travel you’ve never tried because you’ve always been knocked out for interstellar road trips. I could show you how to fly a starship and how to crash it.”
Jenna chuckled at that.
He continued in a low voice that set fire to her senses. “You’re more ready for space travel than you realize because you’ve already given up eating. And there will be tons of working out. You have to work out like a maniac if you want to keep your muscles. Once I have enough security contracts to pay the bills, I’ll find a place for us to live. I was thinking we’d stay in this system. There’s a gorgeous mansion next to Vinia’s on Spikey Two. It’s up for sale right now. I could buy it. It’s one of the spots retired dignitaries go. If you make it very clear to the public that you’ve retired, we might be able to live peacefully.”
“And you’re imagining that we’d adopt children?” she mumbled, trying to remember what the houses on Vinia’s street looked like.
“If you like,” he murmured next to her ear.
“I don’t want to adopt and I don’t want to get help from a doctor. I want to see if it can happen naturally.”
Sardius didn’t say anything for a bit. “You’ll be disappointed if you hope for that. It’s impossible.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard all kinds of things about what’s impossible. I was never supposed to be able to meet you. You were in jail in a different dimension. That was impossible, but now you’re here whispering sweet nothings in my ear with your breath in my ear instead of talking to me over an earpiece. You killed everyone over and over. We had our honeymoon in the Xypher Zone. We rescued Conrad. We’re back here wondering what to do with ourselves because it was impossible for me to lose my crown unless I betrayed the Octavians or died. You can’t tell me that the craziest, most impossible thing can’t happen. Anything can happen. Anything is possible.”
He sighed. “I guess. If you put it that way.”
She straightened. “I’ve decided what I want.”
“Do you want me to call Favel? He said he could be over in jiffy if you wanted to talk.”
“No. I don’t want to tell him. I want to go to bed with you tonight and when I wake up in the morning, I want to see if I still feel the same way.”
Sardius grinned. “I love this plan, but we should do more nights than just one. We should take as many nights as the Octavians will give us. Let them sweat.”
Jenna touched her husband’s cheek. “What are we waiting for? If you love this plan, you should take me to bed right now.”
He kissed her. “I agree.”