Big Blue Valentine Read online

  Big Blue Valentine

  by Sue Lyndon

  Copyright 2015 by Sue Lyndon

  All rights reserved

  No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Sue Lyndon. All names, brands, characters, and settings are purely from the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to real people, real brands, and real locations is a coincidence. Contact: [email protected]

  Published by Sweet Savage Press, LLC

  Cover by Anthony Walsh: http://www.thecoverartisan.com/

  Note: This story contains a mischievous human girl who delights in all things Valentine’s Day, a hunky alien prince who doesn’t take kindly to being turned blue, a bit of spanking, and other naughty scenes that are out of this world. Please don’t buy this book if such material offends you.

  Chapter One

  This is home now. Don’t think about the date.

  Minnie stared across the awe-inspiring landscape of Erta’Aklann. Sky shuttles zipped across the bustling city of Traa in the valley below, and the solar tops of stately buildings and elegant houses shimmered orange and pink under the rising sun. Three white moons, visible on most days, floated serenely beyond a lush forest and a distant range of snowcapped mountains.

  After six months on this planet she still wasn’t used to the surreal view from the palace. Well, she wasn’t used to a lot of things, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t found happiness here. For the most part, she loved Erta’Aklann and her new life with her husband, Zak, but when a holiday approached she always felt a little homesick for Earth. She sighed and focused on a flock of birds swooping amidst the white and purple flowering trees outside the city.

  Don’t think about the date.

  She tore her gaze from the scenery and moved to the large blue screens affixed to the wall behind the immaculately set breakfast table. The right screen displayed her husband’s schedule, and the left screen displayed hers. Both calendars also highlighted upcoming Erta’Aklann holidays as well as Earth holidays. She’d entered detailed information about Valentine’s Day in bold with large red hearts circling it, but still her husband hadn’t uttered a word about her favorite holiday.

  A noise at the door pulled her attention away from the calendars. She turned as Zak entered their private dining room in his dress uniform. Her stomach fluttered at the sight of him in his most formal wear. He must have a speaking engagement today, or an important meeting she’d forgotten about. She glanced at the calendar screens again, finding his side empty today, and she shot him a questioning look.

  “Prince Attab’s return from Earth has been delayed due to a malfunction with his ship. Don’t worry, all is well with my brother and everyone else aboard, but now I must fill in for him at the Parliament session today.”

  But today’s Valentine’s Day. She tried to swallow her disappointment and failed, so she forced a smile and straightened her skirts as he approached in all his princely finery. Zak was the second born son of the King of Traa, and he’d once held an ambassadorship on Earth. He had many important duties to attend to, and she chided herself for thinking he would bother with something as trivial as Valentine’s Day. He’d done a sufficient job indulging her on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, and she supposed that ought to be good enough.

  Except Valentine’s Day was her favorite holiday of all and had been since she was a small child. Joyful memories of passing out handmade cards and heart-shaped cookies to her family and friends flitted through her mind. She gulped past the burning lump in her throat and took her seat at the table across from Zak.

  “You look lovely this morning,” Zak said as servants rushed in with their breakfast platters of fried cemma and an assortment of fruits native to Earth that had been cultivated in the palace’s greenhouses. “I said you look lovely today, Minnie. Why the long face? What’s wrong?”

  She shook her morose thoughts away, feeling her cheeks grow hot under his intense gaze. His assessing black eyes shimmered in the chandelier light, offset by the rich golden hue of his skin. “Thank you, Zak, and nothing is wrong.”

  One dark eyebrow rose up, prompting her bottom cheeks to tingle. He looked like he didn’t believe her, and that didn’t bode well for her. He rather disliked lies, even the smallest untruth. The many admonishments he’d doled out over the course of their marriage echoed in her head. Princesses who tell fibs end up with sore bottoms. Naughty wives are dealt with firmly on this planet, Minnie. Stop your pouting this instant, little princess, or I will take you over my knee and spank you right here in this dining room.

  Her whole body flushed with the reminder of every scolding she’d ever received.

  As a young aide to an Earth-Erta’Aklann trading official, she’d been shocked to learn of the backward traditions embraced by this otherwise advanced alien civilization. As a result, she had initially resisted Zak’s attentions, unwilling to fall for a man who would expect her to submit to his authority and his discipline, even if he was the most handsome Aklannian she’d ever seen and a prince of a formidable alien kingdom. Her resistance had waned over time, of course, and before she knew it, she was being whisked far across the galaxy to become his wife and his princess. Though she often struggled with submission and accepting a spanking after she broke one of his rules, she didn’t regret her decision to marry Prince Zak of the Kingdom of Traa. Despite the occasional clash of cultures, her heart continually swelled with tenderness for the stubborn alien.

  “The berries are delicious.” She popped a plump, ripe raspberry into her mouth and moaned her satisfaction. “You must try them.” She breathed a sigh of relief when his eyebrow lowered and most of the sternness left his face.

  “Are you certain nothing is bothering you, Minnie?” He reached for a raspberry. “Because if you’re keeping something from me, I will find out, and then my sweet wife, you will find yourself in trouble.”

  An exasperated sigh built in her chest, but Minnie held it back, donned an innocent guise, and shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean.” She bypassed her glass of water and reached for her coffee—the most necessary imported good from Earth—and savored a long sip while wishing to become better at hiding her feelings. Zak never failed to notice when something was bothering her, but she refused to confess her upset about his forgetting Valentine’s Day.

  A servant tiptoed to the doorway with a tray of champagne and heart-shaped cookies Minnie had baked herself. She gave the young Aklannian girl a slight shake of her head. The girl backed out of the room and luckily Zak didn’t witness their interaction. Minnie was too dejected over Zak’s forgetfulness to go through surprising him with the cookies. Maybe later, after the burning in her throat subsided.

  “When will you return from Parliament?”

  “Late. Don’t wait up for me.”

  Her spirits sank to the floor.

  Zak remained uncharacteristically quiet as breakfast drew to a close. He seemed more interested in his fried cemma than in holding a conversation, only giving one word answers and noncommittal grunts whenever she attempted to engage him.

  Anger simmered and flared in Minnie, despite her attempts to forget today’s date. It wasn’t fair that he expected her to keep up with his calendar and every major and minor Erta’Aklann holiday if he wasn’t going to keep up with hers.

  Bold letters and circled with hearts. He read English as well as she did. How could he have missed it?

  Zak pushed away from the table and moved to examine his side of the screen, completely ignoring hers. Red flashed in her vision, and before she realized what she was doing, she fished the lemon slice out of her water and squeezed it into his untouched dres
man juice. Yanking her hand back, she let the lemon slice plop into her water just before he turned and reached for his juice.

  Her heart thudded a wild rhythm in her chest. What had she done now?

  *

  Zak finished his juice and placed the glass back on the table. Minnie peered at him with the same shocked expression she’d worn the first time he’d cornered her on Earth. Wide blue eyes, lips slightly parted, and all the color drained from her face. He pretended not to notice her surprise over his failure to call attention to the event highlighted on her calendar.

  “Well, my sweet wife, I must be off to Parliament now. I do hope you’ll behave yourself today. Do you have any plans?” He was a—what was that human word?—ah, a bastard. He was a bastard for toying with her this way, but he didn’t want to spoil the surprise he’d been planning for months. Dressing in his finest uniform and claiming he must attend Parliament all day was a fine addition to the ruse.

  “No plans. I hope you have a good day.”

  Zak tilted her face up and pressed a kiss to her lips. She smelled of raspberries and coffee and prinna flowers, and he despaired to leave her all alone, but he had to go and set his plans into motion. She melted into the kiss, but he pulled away after a few seconds and rose to his full height.

  “You have a good day too, my sweet Minnie.” He tapped her nose playfully. “And behave yourself, young lady, or I will find out about it.”

  “Yes, yes, I will behave. Good-bye.” Her eyes remained fixed on his empty juice glass. She stared at the cup as if it were a serpent threatening to strike.

  Zak didn’t have time to ponder her increasingly odd behavior. He made a slight bow and hurried to the east wing of the palace, where his engineers were busy programming a luxury airship to his specifications. A green image projected onto the far wall displayed the flight plan of his surprise for Minnie. The actual airship resided in the hangars atop the palace, and once the programming was complete he planned to whisk his cute little human wife away for a full seven days.

  For their honeymoon, he had taken her on a sky cruise over all of Erta’Aklann. She had enjoyed it immensely and hinted on several occasions that she would like to take another one. What better time than Valentine’s Day? He smiled to himself, imagining the joy in her eyes when he revealed the surprise. Especially since this lavish airship boasted the newest technologies and required no pilot or staff of any kind. They would be alone without a single servant milling about. Oh, the things he would do to her.

  He had meant to inform Minnie of his intentions first thing this morning, but an abrupt change in the weather on the west continent had necessitated a change to the flight plan. He nodded his approval at the programmer’s careful work.

  “When will the airship be ready for takeoff?” Zak asked the nearest technician.

  The man tapped a few numbers onto the screen and turned with a deep bow. “The airship is ready now, Prince Zak. Shall I initiate the engines?”

  “Yes, and thank you.” He looked at all the programmers, even those who’d worked on the smallest details. “Thank you all for your assistance.”

  A collective murmur of our pleasure, Prince Zaks rippled around the spacious room. Zak departed the east wing and made his way through the palace, taking the servants’ corridors in an effort to avoid Minnie. Once he arrived at their chambers, he tossed clothing and toiletries into two bags. He could’ve asked a servant to do the packing, but he didn’t mind the task. In fact, he enjoyed picking out Minnie’s dresses and especially her underthings. He selected her skimpiest attire, including a few scraps of fabric she called thongs. Thoughts of their impending lascivious activities prompted his cock to harden and ache.

  He rang for a servant to take the bags to the waiting airship, then set about tracking down his pouting wife. Technically, she had lied to him during breakfast when she claimed nothing was bothering her. He planned to have some fun lightly chastising her for the fib. He would turn her over his knee, lift her skirts, and bare her firm little bottom. He expected her to struggle and protest his barbaric ways, as she often did, but in the end she would submit to his discipline, and the sweetness between her thighs would glisten with her arousal as she surrendered to his mastery. He searched the halls and headed for the passage leading to the greenhouses, hoping to locate her there.

  But the sight of his reflection in a mirror stopped him in his tracks. He stepped closer to the mirror and touched his face.

  His blue face.

  He stifled a gasp when he realized his hands were blue too. He lifted up his pants legs to discover his legs were also the same odd color. What in Erta’s name was going on? Using his wrist communicator, he called up the palace physician to meet him in his chambers.

  Luckily Zak only ran into one stunned servant on his way down the halls. If Minnie were to witness him in this condition—whatever his condition was—she would probably scream and run the other way.

  Had he caught a virus? He touched his face as he entered his chambers. He felt perfectly fine. So why had his entire body turned bright blue?

  The physician strode into the room and the elderly man’s eyes went wide. “Prince Zak. Why, you’re blue.”

  Annoyance buzzed through Zak. “I know I’m blue. That’s why I called for you. You’ve got to cure me, whatever I have, before Princess Minnie sees me like this. I’m planning to surprise her with seven days on a sky cruise and I had planned to leave the palace by now.” He wouldn’t open up to just anyone like this, but Zak had known the physician, Errtin, since childhood.

  “Don’t worry, Prince Zak. I’ve seen this before. Tell me, have you eaten any lemons recently?”

  Chapter Two

  “Oh, Rosa. I’m in so much trouble!” Minnie hunkered down in the interplanetary communication cubicle in her private library and stared at her best friend’s smirking face. “It’s not funny! I’m serious. Prince Zak is going to exile me from Erta’Aklann and I’ll have to come back to Earth, once a princess.”

  Rosa’s tinkling laughter drifted through the speakers. “What did you do this time, bestie? Did you offend Queen Terwina again?”

  “I wish I’d offended the queen, but I did something far worse than that. I…”

  “No, wait! Don’t tell me. I want to guess.” Rosa grinned and tapped her chin. “Hm. Did you let a wild Erta’Aklann monkey into the palace again? Or did you let your sister-in-law borrow another naughty romance novel under the pretense of learning to read English? Oh, wait, I know!” She leaned closer to the screen and whispered, “You touched yourself without Prince Zak’s permission again, didn’t you? You naughty girl. I bet he’ll punish you thoroughly for it too.” She waggled her eyebrows.

  Minnie shook her head and exhaled slowly. “It’s worse than all of those things combined and multiplied by a bajillion.”

  Rosa slumped back in her chair. “Okay, bestie, I officially give up. Whaddya do?”

  Minnie rose up and glanced from side to side over the cubicle walls, even though she hadn’t heard anyone enter the library. Even so, only the servants visited this room for cleaning. If Zak wanted to speak with her, he might search for her here, but he was in Parliament today. Oh heavens. Parliament. In front of thousands of his people. She sat back down, groaned, and covered her face.

  “Come on, Minniepants. Spill it. Some of us have to go to work today.”

  She dropped her hands into her lap and took a deep breath. “I squeezed a lemon slice into Zak’s dresman juice this morning, and he drank the whole cup.”

  “So?”

  “Aklannians are allergic to lemons. It turns them blue from head to toe. Bright blue! I saw it happen once in the kitchen when one of the servants pranked another servant. It doesn’t hurt them in any way, but their skin turns blue for several days. Prince Zak didn’t see me do it, obviously, and he’s at Parliament right now.”

  “Oh dear. He’s going to turn blue in front of the whole planet!”

  Minnie ran a hand through her curly aubu
rn locks. Rosa was right. Parliament sessions were broadcast all over Erta’Aklann. “I’m doomed.”

  “More like spanked.”

  “Because of me, he’s going to be humiliated in front of millions of Aklannians. How will he ever forgive me?” Regret welled up inside her.

  “Oh Minniepants, he’ll forgive you. He loves you. Sure, he’s going to be mad, furious even, but he’ll eventually forgive you. I know it.” Rosa gave her a sympathetic look. “But why did you squeeze lemon into his dresman juice? Are you two fighting about something?”

  “He forgot Valentine’s Day,” Minnie mumbled, not meeting Rosa’s eyes. It sounded so ridiculous when she admitted it aloud.

  “So let me get this straight. You turned your husband, who happens to be a powerful, seven foot tall alien prince, blue on purpose all because he forgot an Earth holiday?”

  “You know how much I like Valentine’s Day! I got angry when he announced he was spending the whole day in Parliament, and so when he turned his back in the dining room it just sort of happened.”

  “Well he’s obviously not blue yet, or you would have heard from him by now.” Rosa smiled with a conspiratorial gleam in her eyes. “I think I have a plan that will get you into less trouble.”

  “Oh you and your plans! I shouldn’t have called you. Your suggestions have gotten me spanked on at least a dozen occasions. I’ve half a mind to set you up with one of Prince Zak’s cousins just so you get the spankings you so richly deserve.”

  Rosa’s grin broadened. “I’ve been begging you to set me up with one of those hunky Aklannians forever. It’s a deal. When I finally visit Erta’Aklann, you can set me up on a blind date and perhaps I’ll get my comeuppance.” She folded her hands together and leaned forward. “Now, here’s what you need to do. Find a marker, or something similar, and put dots all over your body. Call for the physician and tell him you feel ill. He’ll take one look at you and summon your husband, calling him away from Parliament before he turns blue. Once he arrives back at the palace, you can confess everything and beg him for leniency.”