Chapter 2

Onboard the flagship Regency Valor, Clarise showed Gwyn and her minions to their quarters, then told her to let the room know when she was settled in enough to talk with her and me. All she needed to do was tell her room she’d like to speak to Lady Clarise now, and she would be advised of what she needed to do.

Clarise and I left her and her girls alone and walked the few steps down to my suite. Clarise had her own room on my ship, next door on the other side from the suite to which we led Gwyn, but she didn’t use it often.

The suite for Gwyn was two bedrooms with a common area and a shared bathroom with a sink, toilet and stall shower. I am calling them suites, and they sound luxurious, but they were far from it; even on the royal flagship Regency Valor, space was at a premium. The beds in Gwyn and Clarise’s suite bedrooms, although looking large and long, were just oversized cot or twin sized beds. There were two slightly smaller beds in the next room, in Gwyn’s case, for her girls. In Clarise’s, there was a small office setup with some extra closet space. She needed uniforms as well as formal attire so that she was outfitted as necessary for any occasion which may arise.

Normally when attending with me, she was in formal civilian clothing. She was both a full time Ambassador at Large, representing the Regency, and a Magnus Major Navy Flag Officer. The same type of dress was generally used when she was alone as an Ambassador, but when traveling by herself on this, or any other Alliance starship, she wore the uniform of a Commodore, her earned rank, helped a bit by her short but successful military career, as well as her duty and travels as an Ambassador for the Regency, and her title as Lady Clarise Allison of Magnus Major, daughter of the Prime Senator, for now. That just meant her mother was the leader of the ruling political party on Magnus Major. Her father was retired and off fishing most of the time having served a few terms as president of the government on their planet.

We heard the door open, and Gwyn walked into the room with us. She had left the flowing gown in her room, but was still in her top, shorts, and heels. She was a fantastically gorgeous specimen. She was, in a word, lovely.

Clarise shed her robe as well, hanging it in my closet. My suite was set up with only one bedroom, slightly larger with a long queen-sized bed, adorned with a narrow nightstand on either side of it. The door cleared the foot of the bed, and that was the extent of it. My office was in the common area and there was a large closet to the side for my uniforms, civilian clothing, and weapons. I had an easy chair, a small sofa, and a coffee table which had been used to plan battles more often than it had held coffee cups. Not that I don’t drink coffee, much the opposite, but my recliner had a side table. Both it and my desk had coffee cup heaters built into them. That was the extent of the luxury the chancellor enjoyed on his personal spacecraft.

I urged the women to take a seat on the little sofa, more of a loveseat if it was in a home on most any world. They did, then Clarise sort of took off with the conversation.

“Gwyn, do you want the girls here with you? Would you be more comfortable?”

“Yes, I would, but I need to do this alone.”

Clarise continued. “We are going to be together, from here on out, Gwyn. I need you to be comfortable with that.”

“When are we leaving for your home world?” Gwyn asked of Clarise.

“We are not heading for mine, hon, but for the Chancellor’s. The seat of the United Alliance Regency. Home of the Cojourn. The planet Concord and the capitol city of Concordia.”

“Oh. I guess my next question is how long will it be until we leave, and what happens then?”

“Reecy, if I might.” She nodded, deferring to me. “We’ve already departed.” Gwyn gasped. “Yes, we are already traveling faster than the speed of light, and then some, by a factor of many, and it will only be a couple of days. What happens next, my dear, is totally up to you. You are to be my wife. You will sleep with me, comfort me, take care of my needs, help me raise my children, and be at my side in all I do, just as Lady Clarise is.”

“What do you mean, sir, by take care of your needs?”

“You are a beautiful girl, Gwyneth. Very much so, and probably more so a beautiful and desirable woman. If you are in my bed and I wake up with a gorgeous blonde in my arms, there is a possibility I will be somewhat aroused. I would hope that if you see me as your mate, your spouse, regardless of whatever you have going on the side with Clarise, that you may desire to share that arousal with me.”

“When would you expect that to start, Charles?” I looked at her with a bit of a frown. “Charlie. When will you expect me to begin to service your needs as your ... your woman?”

“When you are ready. When you feel comfortable touching me. When you feel comfortable sharing your marvelous and wondrous self with yours truly. I will never force you to do anything, Princess. Never, ever, ever. I will be severely disappointed, however, if we don’t find common ground and fall in love soon. You are that amazing to Clarise, and therefore to me.”

“She warned me.”

“The Seer?”

“No, your counselor. My girlfriend. She warned me that you would be polite and try to win my allegiance through kindness and respect. You scoundrel.” She giggled. Clarise pulled her over into her embrace and they kissed.

Clarise said, “Welcome home, Princess Gwyneth. Welcome home. Kiss my boyfriend or I’m sending you back to your minions and locking you in your cell.” Her giggle took the heat out of the command.

She rose, looked at Clarise with an apprehensive, or frightened, or maybe shy and meek look, I couldn’t tell which, then took the two steps toward me from the sofa to the recliner. As I straightened up and moved forward in my seat to greet her, she took my hands and placed them on her waist. She placed those offered hands on her small, sexy, uncovered, unclothed, soft, smooth, hourglass waist, showing me her little innie belly button. Her shelved breasts in their blue satin and lace confines caught my attention, then she pulled my chin up with the fingers of one hand while the other held my earlobe, rubbing it between her thumb and forefinger. I could tell in her beautiful blue eyes there was trepidation involved, but that she was overcoming it, a bit at a time. Our lips met. My thumbs moved of their own accord, stroking her ribs. My fingers felt Clarise’s hand on her back, soothing her, making sure she knew she wasn’t in this alone.

Not expecting her to accept me in her future and join us, romantically, quite this quickly, Gwyneth’s next move surprised me slightly, but just the same, surprise me it did. She licked my lips and moaned softly as my hands gently caressed her flanks. My fingers started down just a bit, touching beyond the top hem of her shorts, the waistline. I did not put my fingers inside her pants. I felt it was too soon, even with the advent of her tongue and all, I just thought we needed more time. I did, however, keep my hands moving, feeling Clarise coaching me. The kiss went unbroken while I ran my thumbs all the way from below her breasts, caressing down to the waistline of her shorts, my fingers reaching around her buttocks, softly touching them and gently caressing my way back up. Finally, she moaned and pushed me back.

“You said we had already left. That’s not possible. How could we have launched without us feeling it?”

“My dear fiancée, Gwyn, you aren’t in Fairland, or your Thordast realm, anymore. Your father’s ships may lurch a little when they start out, but Concordian ships do not. Most Regency ships do not. We just move. It’s just the way it is.”

“Oh, my. Well, if the ship didn’t move me, your kiss certainly did, your majesty. I felt both of you. Together. I liked it. Lady Clarise was touching me as we were joined in our not so little smooch there, and I felt your empathy. I can feel you through your kiss, Charlie. Reecy is right. You are special, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know about that. You’ll need to ask others if you want an answer to that question.”

“I will. Now, what do we do next, Charlie? Reecy?”

“I was thinking we could talk the Chancellor into letting us eat dinner before we dwindle down to nothing and he has no one to keep him warm at night.” Clarise is funny quite often, and this was one of the times when a little humor broke the seriousness of the situation. “The dining room should be open for a few more minutes. I’ll call them just to make sure.” She did, stepping to my desk and making the call.

Gwyneth leaned down to kiss me again, this time putting my hands on her outer thighs. Her legs were supple, smooth, soft, and the feeling of her hosiery caused a stirring in my lap. I was a sucker for all things feminine, especially legwear in the form of sheer hosiery and high heels. The shorts they were wearing topped off the look I felt was so feminine that it just had to be worshipped. Clarise knew of my penchants and must have shared them with her girlfriend. I’m glad of that though. It means she’s taking this seriously. They both are.

The kiss was as good as the last one, this one ending with Clarise holding both of our necks, gently massaging to let us know she was there, but not bothering or intruding on the intimacy we were trying to share and let grow. When we broke the kiss, my thumbs were on Gwyn’s hipbones and my fingers just below her shorts on the back of her thighs. I could feel the beginning of her buttocks, the softness, the ... Gwyn interrupted my thoughts.

“I have a funny feeling my minions, as you call them, will be sleeping alone in their suite tonight. Will it be too early to stay with you all starting now? Starting tonight? We only have a year to get to know each other and I think we should get started right away.” She giggled, then asked the room how to get to the dining area and was surprised by the answer.

Instead of a gentle man’s voice giving her careful directions, a female voice told her she might just want to hold Lady Clarise’s hand and follow her instructions. There was no animus, but it was definitely the voice of someone advising someone else to stop asking stupid questions.

“Anna, that will be enough. This is the future wife of the Chancellor, and we should extend some respect.”

“Yes, ma’am. I apologize, Princess, but following Lady Clarise to the dining hall would have been easier than asking for instructions. Again, please accept my apologies. I will try to be more polite in the future.”

“Thank you, Anna. You can stop lying now.”

“Excuse me, Chancellor, I did not misrepresent in my apology.”

“No, but you did say you would try to be more polite in the future. Either your programming has been altered or you were lying. Pick one.”

“I plead the fifth, if that is still a thing.” Anna knew full well the Bill of Rights, the original one from the birth of the American country on Sol Earth so many thousands of years ago was kept intact by every known society trying to maintain peace in the free universe. She also knew it wouldn’t apply to Artificial Intelligence platforms such as herself, as the law currently stood. But it was funny.