Free My Alien Love by LaVenia R. Boswell

beginning of new life for all of us.”
     
           Everyone immediately understood the double meaning.  Cheers rang throughout the large room with Mark cheering the loudest.  Relief swept over the crowd and everyone started acting normal again. 
     
           While Melody nibbled at her plate she noticed Jon move his finger oddly.  A man came to his chair and knelt.  Jon quickly whispered something and the man disappeared.  In only a moment the one’s who’d gasped earlier peeked around the door, he smiled warmly at them and invited them to share the occasion.
     
           When Jonathan picked up Melody's hand Mark's eyes became instantly alert.  As Jon opened his other hand toward Mark she wondered what he was doing.  Mark's eyes took on understanding and he handed Jon a jeweled box.  The box was lovely.  Those were real jewels encrusted over the entire surface.  Some she had never seen before.    
     
           “Melody, in my country the husband and wife only share matching wedding rings.”  Looking into her beautiful brown eyes he added, “as well as their hearts and souls.”  
     
           “Because our engagements are always very short there has never been a need for “pre-ceremony rings.”  I've found out that your customs are different here.  Since we will be mixing our two cultures together, I thought that you and I would start our own new tradition, we'll also share pendants.  They will always be close to our hearts.”
     
           He opened the box and lifted out a delicate gold chain.  It was studded with very tiny diamonds and opals along the entire length.  At the end of the chain was a pendant.  She lifted it up to look closely at it.  It was a triangle (pointing downward) with a brilliant yellow stone in the center of the top bar, some type of crystal threads ran off to the right and left of the yellow stone.  A blue stone was connected to the end of the thread on the left and a green stone on the strand to the right.  From these two outer stones hung similar threads that connected together creating the bottom point of the triangle, there was a beautiful, large, sparkling diamond with four rubies around it. 
     
           “Jonathan, it's beautiful!”  For someone who only owned costume jewelry she had certainly lucked out, she thought.  “Will you explain the significance of the placement of these stones?  I get a feeling that I can almost understand it, then it leaves me.”
     
           He stood and lifting her long, dark brown hair and attached it around her neck.  After attaching it she felt him holding the clasp firmly with his hand, “Now, Melody it will never break.”
     
           She looked a little baffled but before she said anything he lifted the small pendant bending his head down beside her face.  “The yellow stone is God, the blue stone is the . . . .”  There was a little shuffling noise around the table, he paused and frowned, then everyone was silent.  “The blue stone is your country, the green stone is my . . . island.  The strands from these two meet to form the diamond that is the joining of our love.  The rubies represent our hope for the future.” 
     
           “Oh, Jonathan, that's the most romantic thing I've ever heard.  It's absolutely perfect . . . but my love for you is much stronger than any diamond.”  Without thinking she turned and kissed him.  She just floated with the warm tingling that their kiss caused.  Someone spoke and she remembered the disturbance their kissing had caused earlier.  Blushing she regretfully pulled away.  When she looked at the table again everyone was standing, then they applauded.
     
           As tired as she had been earlier Jonathan's last deep, hungry, wet kiss at her bedroom door had left her wide awake.  Even though it had been over two hours since Mark made her lock her door, she was still aroused.  Every nerve in her body was