Chocolate Rewards: The Sweetness of Two Worlds Colliding Together (3 page)

“
What's
your name, slave?”

“
Amber.
It's a precious stone on my planet, a jewel.” She pulled the
necklace she was wearing out of the blouse of her maid's uniform and
showed him the stone that she always wore around her neck.

Rokai
looked at the golden stone with black dots in it for a moment before
he looked back in her eyes. She looked pleased with the boring stone.
“It's lovely,” he lied, hoping to please her.

“
Yes,
lovely.” Amber felt that the word
lovely
was more evidence
that this was a dream. A man wouldn't say that, especially not an
alien.

Rokai
shoved the chocolate into her mouth. At first she gasped for air,
then she just enjoyed the chocolate. Next time, he would give her a
smaller piece. Something like this needed practice.

Amber was
unsure at first, but then the familiar taste of chocolate melting in
her mouth started to comfort her. She let it melt as she looked out
of the window.

Rokai
peeked over his shoulder at Jamko who had been watching him closely.

“
It
worked,” he bragged as he returned to his seat and took the
controls.

“
I
should have taken a woman, too. I'll regret that for a long time.
Earthlings just seem to be so easy to manage.”

Rokai
nodded, as if he was an expert on Earthlings. He had a really good
feeling about Amber.

Amber had
leaned against the wall of the ship to nap. She decided that if she
fell asleep in her dream that she would probably wake up in reality.

Now, she
was awake even though her eyes were still closed. She could feel the
ship vibrating around her.

No, this
couldn't be. She couldn't be here. It was just a bad dream, and those
ended the second a person woke up! This one had to end! But it just
wouldn't.

She
opened her eyes and saw that she was still on the ship. The two red
colored Hulks were sitting in their chairs. They looked comfortable
and here she was sleeping on the floor.

“
Take
me back home.” Amber rose to her feet.

Rokai
looked over his shoulder at her. Her fists were clenched and she
looked mad. He sighed loudly as he unfastened his harnesses. “I'm
here, woman. You aren't alone.”

“
What a
pity. If I were alone, then I would turn this ship around and go
home.”

“
We are
going home. We just have to stop off and report our findings to our
king. After that, we will go to our home. Perhaps the king will
reward us with a home on a nice planet where we can grow our plants.”

What did
she care about his farming ambitions?

“
What
kind of plants are they, anyway?” If they were some sort of drugs,
then she would see to it that they overdosed on them.

“
Why
chocolate plants, of course.”

“
Cocoa
plants? To make chocolate?”

“
Yes,
would you like some more chocolate?” He was smiling eagerly at her.

She could
see that he wanted her to have some. But why, she asked herself. What
did he hope to gain by giving her sweets? She worried that he thought
that she was too thin. It was just that clothes looked best on thin
bodies.

Then it
hit her. This wasn't a dream. This was permanent. She would never be
going home, never see her parents and friends. She would never get to
wear her new boots that she had been saving for a special occasion.

If she
had known she would have worn them to work today. All of her purses
were gone. The dresses that she had hanging in her closet, which were
sorted by length, color and season, in which they could be worn. She
had bought them all for nothing. She had been working as a maid,
cleaning up after strangers so she could afford them.

She
stepped closer to him. “You are going to turn this ship around this
instant. Have I made myself clear?” She pointed her finger, holding
it up to his face. He should know that she meant business.

Rokai was
surprised by her aggression. Slaves often cried and even tried to run
away but they never scolded and demanded.

“
You
are just a little upset, slave.” He wanted to remind her of her
place. “Perhaps a taste of chocolate will settle your nerves?”

“
Perhaps
it won't. Kidnapping is illegal.” But it wasn't called kidnapping
when aliens did it. She was being abducted.

Even
though the ship was amazingly steady she was sure that they were
traveling faster than the speed of light. “Take me back.” Tears
were in her eyes. Her parents would soon notice that she was missing.
They would be brokenhearted. “Please.”

He looked
worried and nervous since she had started to cry. “When a woman
grows up, she gets claimed by a man. This is all perfectly normal.
You don't need to be so upset.”

There it
was again. The word
claimed
. “But I am claimed. I have a
husband. He expects me to be home soon. I have to go, immediately.”

Rokai
raised an eyebrow. Stealing a claimed woman was a great crime. He
wasn't positive but he felt that she was lying to him. “Then I will
test you.”

“
What?”
Amber instinctively covered her left hand with her right, wanting to
hide the fact that she wasn't wearing a wedding ring.

“
Take
off your clothes.”

“
I beg
your pardon.” She stepped back again. He couldn't mean a virginity
test, could he?

Rokai
leaned his head a little to the side. What could she mean by pardon?
His brain was going through the different meanings of the word. Did
she want forgiveness from the obvious lie, or did she want to be
released from a punishment.

“
Admit
that you just lied to me,” he demanded.

Amber
felt her cheeks starting to burn. She was a bad liar. This was
something that she should really have practiced. A good lie often
helped a person in life, but she just didn't lie often enough to do
it well.

“
I
really want to go home. My parents are going to be worried.”

“
Many
humans saw us leaving together. They will know where you are.”

“
You
mean in a galaxy far, far away,” she sassed at him.

Amber was
staring him down, daring him to say the word
claimed
again.
She was pressing her teeth together so forcibly that she worried that
they might crack under the pressure.

“
Perhaps.
That is for King Aideyoung to decide. I am sure that he will want to
reward us greatly for bringing these treasures along.” He looked
over at the chocolates and smiled.

Amber was
getting so frustrated with him. There was just no talking to him.
“Just give me a piece of chocolate,” Amber demanded. In fact, he
should give her a whole box. She needed something to calm her down.

“
First
you have to earn it.”

“
What?
You're nuts, aren't you?”

“
Some
of the chocolates have nuts. Which kind do you prefer?”

Amber
felt that she had been taken completely off track. They seemed to be
having two totally different conversations. There was no use in
fighting him.

Her
father had often said that there was no point in talking to crazy
people; never try to calm a crazy person down. It just makes them
crazier, he would say
.
He usually meant their next-door
neighbor when he said that. The two had an ongoing battle about the
height of the hedges. The neighbor wanted them low so his plants
weren't in the shade.

Amber's
father felt that he just wanted them low so he could better see what
was going on at their house. They fought constantly, be it about
hedges or where to set the garbage cans on pick up day, what times
were acceptable for mowing the lawn and the biggest fight was about
the brightness of Christmas lights.

This
could end up being a similar vicious circle. “The kind with peanut
butter in it,” she answered, needing chocolate now.

Rokai was
pleased. He found the kind that she wanted and broke a tiny piece off
and placed it in her mouth. He wanted to turn away from her and go
back to his flying.

“
Wait.
I want the whole thing.”

“
I'm
sure you do. But you will have to earn it.”

“
Earn
it?”

“
Through
obedience.”

“
Then
I'll never have chocolate again,” Amber answered him, stubbornly.
She folded her arms and went back to the window to pout.

Rokai was
a little confused. He went back and sat down.

Jamko
couldn't resist a barb. “Maybe King Aideyoung will give me a woman.
One that isn't so difficult.” He was grinning from ear to ear as he
mentally patted himself on the back for not taking a crazy Earthling
along home with him.

Amber
listened to them talking to each other. It was clear that they didn't
see her as being equal to them.

It was
also clear that she couldn't sneak away when they parked to get gas.

This was
too much for her mind to understand. She had never believed in
aliens. The thought of that had seemed so far-fetched. Now, she tried
to remember everything that she knew about them.

Weren't
they supposed to be tiny and green?

Instead
they were reddish, like they were sunburned. She was remembering the
one's naked backside. It had been red. His front side was too. She
had only gotten a glimpse of his penis before she had turned her face
away, but it had been reddish, too. Even his hair was red. His eyes
were as black as coal. Surely, these men were devils. Red was the
color of anger and frustration. He towered over her. His heart was
right at her ear level.

Perhaps
if she laid her head on his chest she would be able to prove that he
was a heartless monster.

She had
never seen a naked man before the red barbarian. The most she had
seen of a man was their plumber when he bent under their sink working
on the faucet and pipes down there.

The
plumber's bottom had practically been bare when he installed their
new dishwasher last month. It had been disgusting. Were all plumbers
a bit of exhibitionists?

The red
barbarian's backside had at least been nice to see, even if it had
been the wrong color. He was well built, perfect even. She couldn't
let herself get lost in such thoughts.

Slavery
was never a positive thing. She had to face reality; she wasn't going
to escape. She would be his slave and have to clean up after him and
bring him things. If he wasn't pleased with her, he could punish her.

He was
strong. If he wanted to, he could make her do what he wanted.

Was he
going to perform some sort of kinky alien sex tests with her?

What did
being probed mean?

Would it
hurt?

Amber
couldn't pretend to be brave anymore. She started to cry.

Rokai
jumped to his feet. Having a slave meant that he had a lot of
responsibility. He had to see to her well-being. He knelt down in
front of her and held her in his arms.

At first
she tried to push him away, but as the moment lingered, she lost her
will to fight him. She needed to be comforted, and that was what he
was doing.