Chapter 4: Michyle in Love
Michyle’s POV
Michyle heard a terse knock on the door followed by Kopha’s gruff announcement that food had been brought for him.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” Michyle called, and put the image projector away. He stepped onto the balcony and looked into Evenous’ setting orange sun. He thought about everything he would give up to marry Caressa and call this place his home. As she still had more than a year until the title became official, they had agreed if all went well, she would journey to Mars and become acquainted with all possible technologies first hand.
“When we claim the colony once again as our own,” she’d said, “we would have already mapped out the beautiful road to its future.”
Michyle had smiled at the certainty and determination in her voice. He had not been sure if a marriage would be possible. But, he was certain that he would help the young Sovereign as best he could in any capacity. That is what made the long journey worth it, finding a project and a people that could truly benefit from the achievements of his life’s work.
As he looked into the wilderness, he took note of a woman emerging from the woods dripping wet, and quickly making her way towards a back gate just off of the forest line.
He watched her carefully determined steps and looked on as she reached a hand in front of her and groped in the air for a moment before her fingers landed on the gate door. He immediately realized that this was Caressa. He wondered where her security was. As the acting Sovereign, she should never be without a trusted someone by her side.
Her hair hung heavily around her and she seemed to hop towards the entrance of the interior compound. She was in a hurry and he knew it was because she’d been caught off guard by his arrival. He smiled and hurried to collect his clothing before taking a shower and getting ready for the mostly blind acting Sovereign to see him.
Three months later, Michyle watched from the woods as his fiancé stepped into the water. He had discovered shortly after his arrival that she liked to run into the woods and swim in the water at odd times of the night. He was happy that she’d accepted his marriage proposal on the first day of their meeting. He wasn’t sure what drove him to offer it. But, he could not quell the impulse to make her his as soon as possible. Her golden brown face, the fierceness of the multicolored lenses on her eyes, and her lean strong body were all too much for him to resist.
Immediately he’d assigned five of his own guards to be by her side day and night as needed. She hated the idea, but agreed that she should get used to it if she truly expected to make this colony thrive. It was the night before their wedding and the guards had come to inform him once again that she had gone to the lake. He rose from his bed and let them lead him to her.
He stood at a distance, watching her as she seemed to dance and glide in the water. It was not the first time he’d done this, and it was a part of her that he was already jealous of. What was it that she lost herself to? Why didn’t that carefree and angelic aura come out in his presence?
He thought of the way she’d stiffened the first time he reached out to touch her cheek. He’d wanted to kiss her, but stopped himself. She was fierce and guarded. Every line he’d relied on to impress other women fell flat. The usual gifts were useless. Spending money on jewelry was thoughtless when the money could have gone to help the village. Flashing a smile she could not see, flexing muscles she refused to touch, sending compliments that came across as shallow, even to him, had all been a waste of effort.
“I said I would marry you. You can stop trying to seduce me,” she’d finally said. Michyle was not sure whether it was an attempt to put him at ease, or to put him out of the misery of his clumsy courting.
He knew she could recognize him by sound. He spoke his name every time he entered her presence. He would watch as a curious expression crossed her face. He would take in her rich complexion, crisp and brown, generously kissed by rays of sunlight and get lost in the varied colors of her eyes.
He admired everything about her. Her nose, small and round, sat over a mouth of plump, pouting lips and between two high cheekbones. Her hair, thick and curly, the shade of mahogany with flecks of red, was always tied in a braid that fell to the middle of her back. He sometimes imagined what that hair would look like if he were to take that braid loose, but had fought back the impulse to touch her hair on several occasions, even though the sweet perfume she used in it drove him crazy.
He took a seat at the edge of the woods as she swam that night, and silently gave orders to his guards to leave her alone and let her swim. He was jealous of this moment that he was not invited to, but was happy to see her enjoying it.