Ellie realized he thought she was judging him for not being attentive enough. She wanted to explain but couldn’t articulate what to say right away without being more insulting. After a pause she said, “That’s very thorough of you, but I was more than pleased when your doctor offered me birth control. I personally hate bleeding once a month and I have terrible mood swings.”
“Bringing life into the world cannot be easy.”
Ellie didn’t know what to say, so she simply said, “Yes,” and then asked, “Are your rooms close to mine? I assume within 800 meters.”
He didn’t answer her, but led her down a massive hallway into an equally magnificent set of rooms that included a sitting room, a bedroom, a walk-in wardrobe already half-filled with clothing, and an enormous bathroom with a bathtub so large she could invite five friends into it with her. The toilet was in a separate room on its own.
Then Valentin opened a small door in the wall next to her silver four-poster bed with the most magnificent shimmering silver drapes hanging from it, and answered her question, “My bedroom is here.”
Ellie followed behind him to see what his rooms looked like. She believed you could always tell a lot about someone by what their personal space looked like. Valentin’s bedroom looked like hers except his color scheme was dark green and maroon. And, surprisingly, he had lots of painted art on the walls, in styles she had never seen.
“Are these paintings from Reima Two?” she enquired looking up at a painting of a man standing before a lake looking up into the sky at an old-fashioned transport.
“Yes,” Valentin said complacently as he came to stand behind her. “We are very proud of our art. It’s nothing compared to what humans produce on Earth or what comes out of the Waja Confederacy or even Hogo for that matter, but I think it’s a beautiful reflection of our peaceful existence and suffering outside the Empire.”
“I’m shocked to hear you use the word, ‘suffering’.”
“Despite our wealth, we are still Outcasts to the Empire. I don’t know how better to articulate it. There’s another word in Alliance but it translates the same to English. I guess I could also say, ‘shame.’”
Ellie thought about his use of the word, ‘shame’ and inspected the other paintings around his large bedroom. She wasn’t an art connoisseur by any means, but she thought the paintings were well-executed and pleasing to look at even if she didn’t understand the meaning behind them all. Although the one with the shadows of people looking towards what clearly was the Empire, its meaning wasn’t lost on her and she wondered, Shame or merely longing for acceptance, praise, or acknowledgment? This painting spoke to her because she felt the same with her parents and even Jei to a certain extent.
“I have a serious question for you,” Valentin said interrupting her thoughts.
Ellie almost jumped at the interruption and turned to look at him. He looked very handsome, but a bit tired.
Valentin began walking towards her and stopped short a few millimeters from kissing her. He did brush her messy hair back from her face though, “Why don’t you insist that people call you by your true name, Elloisa?”
Ellie’s heart was beating so hard she couldn’t even answer him, she just put her hands behind his head, guiding his lips to hers. She loved the way he said her name, her ‘true name’ as he referred to it. After a few minutes, when the kiss ended, she said, “Please, I always want you to call me by my true name.” She kissed him again and then answered quietly, their lips almost touching, “I only grew into my name when I met you.”
Valentin looked into her blue eyes and was so taken in by her words, he pulled her against him strongly and held her tight. “You’ll always be free with me and you’ll always be Elloisa.”
Ellie didn’t know that his words were exactly what she had wanted to hear. She melted into his embrace and wanted him to never let go. She reflected that it was probably a good thing she had to wait two weeks to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to marriage because right now, after such a short period of time, she would be motivated prematurely by romantic words to say ‘yes.’
After a few minutes, of holding each other and simply gazing into each other’s eyes, he asked gently, “Would you like to have some breakfast outside?”
The last thing Ellie wanted to do right now was eat breakfast. “We have two weeks to get to know each other. We are standing in your bedroom after a wild night of husband stealing and being attacked by Octopods. I’d appreciate a different kind of morning, I think.” She watched his reaction. It was difficult to read his face. She hoped she wasn’t coming on too strong, but she knew from what she had overheard from people in Alba, that Alliance men could be very standoffish when it came to sex unless the couple was already fully committed to the relationship they had decided to have, whether it be slave artist, lover, or spouse. When he didn’t answer her immediately, she added, “I don’t want to rush you. For me, I feel like it would be nice to spend some intimate time together now. I’ve heard when people are in life and death circumstances together like we just were, that this is a natural and comforting reaction.”
“I certainly hope not. I have a lot of women in my crew that I’ve had life and death experiences with.” The truth was that Valentin wanted to have sex with Elloisa. However, he had not slept properly in the days prior organizing everything in order for the husband stealing to proceed and he knew he would not be able to give a stellar performance now. Since she would be able to turn him down after the two weeks had ended the last thing he wanted was to begin their sex life badly. He pulled her closer to him, their faces so close their eyelashes almost touched, “Make no mistake, I’m very attracted to you, but I’ve not slept well and I want to wait to make sure we start off as well as can.”
Ellie was disappointed by this answer and it took her a minute to let his words sink in. Her body wasn’t listening though, despite her mind telling it to, Calm down, he doesn’t want to right now. Her first instinct was to tell him she didn’t care if he was bad in bed today, they could make up for it tomorrow and the next day, but she resisted, “I understand. You let me know when you feel rea...”
Valentin kissed her before she could finish her sentence. He slipped his tongue inside her small and hot mouth, exploring it with the rhythm as if he were exploring a different part of her body altogether.
Ellie’s body was suddenly in overdrive, she wanted this man and now she feared he was going to torture her with Imperial behaviors. She pulled away from the kiss, “Is this like an Alliance thing, where you say one thing and then do another to cover yourself in case it goes badly?”
Valentin laughed, “No, this is a let-me-show-you-what-you-can-look-forward-to-by-tomorrow-kiss, I hoped it was anyway.”
Ellie took his cool hands in hers and stepped back to create some distance between their bodies, “I accept that kiss then, now please show me breakfast outside. If I can’t eat you, I want to eat some food.”
Valentin squeezed her hands and was about to lead her out of his room when he abruptly turned and decided not to. He easily picked her up and said while he carried her to his large bed, “When you say things like that, I can think of nothing else but this. I wouldn’t be able to eat or talk to you without having you now.” He laid her down and then positioned himself comfortably over her while kissing her. His hands running up and down her warm body over her Imperial dress. “I only hope that I can make up for my performance throughout the week. If you will allow it?” he asked between kisses. “Promise this won’t be my only chance?”