“I accept,” Valentin said.
Ellie gently put the crown on his head, doing her best not to cut herself, him or have the crown fall off. Once she finished and he began to rise, it almost fell off, but he caught it making and readjusted it making his hand bleed.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
He just smiled at her, dismissing the small but deep cut.
Now the formal ceremony was over, an old-fashioned human photographer appeared. Another human touch from Valentin. Her mother promised that these would be the images given to the Capital City Gossip as all the other human marriage ceremony pictures were done. Her mom had said that just because she was in House Rega didn’t mean she should be treated any differently than the women in House Human. It made Ellie smile thinking that for once she would want to be seen there. The photographer from Earth took images of them standing in a few different positions and then thanked them and disappeared.
“You really thought of everything,” said Ellie.
“I am half-human, so I wanted to do my heritage justice too. I studied Jade and Nicholas’s ceremony from the Capital City, and I saw the images from the Capital City Gossip Columns, and I thought an ancient photograph makes for a nice and tangible memory. I heard that Chef Jade keeps hers in her bedroom.”
“And will you keep yours there?”
“I hope we will both keep one there,” he replied sincerely.
Then witnesses came and congratulated them one by one from the crowd. Their parents and Jei still flanked them as witnesses.
After, they walked out of the Grand Hall in Lina, they were face to face with an overwhelming crowd and more gossip drones than had been inside. Ellie was doing her best not to let the crown of daggers fall off her head, but she almost lost it at one point and now she too had a bloody hand she was holding out and away from her body. She thought, Nothing barbaric except for dagger throwing and prickly crowns that will slice your fingers like bloody tomatoes.
Once inside the transport, relieved that she was finally alone with Valentin, she asked, “Can we take these torture crowns off now?”
He reached over and carefully removed hers, “Will you do the same for me?”
She obliged and the crowns were set in the empty seat next to him. He pressed a button on each one and as he did, little clear boxes formed around each of them.
“Shouldn’t we clean off the blood before we store them?”
“It’s good luck to have a bit of blood on the day of your marriage ceremony,” answered Valentin amused.
“And you said there was nothing barbaric about Reima Two marriage ceremonies!”
Valentin pulled her into his arms, “And there wasn’t. Now we will go back to One, have drinks on the Left Terrace, talk about how wonderful our future will be and then we will have amazing sex.”
“Why don’t we just start with the amazing sex?” Ellie suggested as the transport landed in front of One. “And after all of that, I think you owe me.”
“Only as long as you promise to wear that dress afterwards. I want to remember this day forever.”
“That’s what the old-fashioned picture was for,” Ellie said, impatient to get her handsome husband into bed and activate their Imperial marriage bracelets. “And besides, I don’t even know how to get this dress off. Right now, the only thing on my mind is thinking about your lips on my naked skin, tasting every bit of me. Nipping at the folds of my sex and making me shiver with erotic delight. I want you to eat me up Valentin.”
“I agree,” said Valentin becoming aroused by her words.
She grabbed his hand, “Your room or mine?”
“Yours. I have a surprise for you there,” he said as they quickly walked through the large hallways.
“What kind of surprise? A good surprise?”
“It’s the day of our marriage ceremony. How can you ask that?”
Ellie raced to her room as fast as the gold jeweled dress would allow, “Well, need I remind you that you did throw daggers at me?”
Valentin frowned, later he would have to find out who tried to have Elloisa killed. Not now though. He was sure Lon and the rest of the Nage Horde noticed and were taking care of it. Right now, it was all about his wife.
Ellie’s doors opened when she stood in front of them and she rushed in. On her bed was a large box decorated in pink flamingos. “I love flamingos!” she said and went to open it immediately.
“I know you do,” he replied watching her.
Ellie had not expected to find a pink whip with a flamingo handle inside the box though. She took it out and waved it in the air, experimenting, “What’s this?”
“I wasn’t joking. I figured you would want to punish me after the dagger throwing,” he said, beginning to remove his dark purple formal uniform. “I only ask that you do it in that dress.”
Ellie looked down at the whip, it was computerized. She began to run through the menu. “How bad can I hurt you?” she asked.
“How bad do you want to hurt me for not telling you?”
Ellie set the whip to the second from lowest setting that was said to cause ‘mild to medium discomfort’, “Put your hands on the bed post.” She hadn’t realized that she actually wanted this probably as much as he wanted her to do it, until now.
Valentin was naked. He obeyed and prepared himself for the first lash of her new flamingo whip. He knew this was going to hurt as these whips were serious despite their playful appearances and were a common accessory for married couples on Reima Two.
Ellie positioned herself and then swung the whip at his back.
Valentin reacted a little with the shock and pain of it.
Ellie watched a red mark form on his skin. She hit him again in a different place and then again across his buttocks and then his thighs. “There,” she said when she finished and gingerly placed the pink whip on a nearby table, “seven lashes for seven daggers. Now, take off my dress and make love to me, Husband. Start by licking every bit of my skin. I thought you were going to kill me with those daggers, lick this sweat off.”
Valentin turned and ran his hands down either side of her gold jeweled dress. “I hope you liked this. I thought it was magnificent and that it suited you.”
“I do like it, but I would like it even more if your mouth would stop talking and start kissing or sucking or something.”
Valentin ran his hands over the floral design which showed off both sides of her beautiful breasts, “You want me to suck on your nipples? Were they sweaty too? Worried about being skewered with a dagger?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
Then he ran a hand down between her legs, “And to lick your clitoris like a hungry animal?”
“Yes, take this dress off, barbarian.”
Valentin turned her and then undid the dress that simply went from being skintight and perfectly formed on her body to dropping to the floor. Underneath she was naked. He wasted no time in kissing her from the nape of her neck, down the center of her back to her anus. Then he began licking her there, rimming her.
“Oh, are you sure that’s the right place?” she asked breathlessly, enjoying his tongue where it had never been before.
“I’m sure,” Valentin replied, amused. Then he continued piquing her curiosity for later. Then he turned her around and sucked and played with each nipple equally. “I would have never impaled these perfect breasts,” he in between gentle nibbles. After her spending a lot of time giving attention to her breasts, he slowly worked his way down across her stomach, kissing the swell of her hips, down to her lower stomach and then to her upper thighs and finally at her vulva. She already was aroused and ready. He ran his finger over her inner labia and then inside her vagina, spreading her wetness over her entire vulva, enjoying the glistening wetness on her pubic hair, “Did I scare you with the daggers?”