Brianna by Judy Mays - Celestial Passions 01 Page B

before?”
    Brianna’s scathing look answered that question.
    “Well then, what’s the problem?”
    “The problem is that I think I’d like it too much!” Brianna practically shouted as she shook off Meri’s hands and strode across the room to stare unseeing at a painting.
    Meri gazed thoughtfully at her new friend. “I don’t understand.”
    Brianna turned back to Meri. “Neither do I,” she admitted with a sigh. “I feel so overwhelmed.”
    “Do you want to go through with this marriage?”
    Meri watched the play of emotions race across Brianna’s face and let out the breath she hadn’t realized that she’d been holding when Brianna nodded and said, “It’s the most logical thing to do for the good of everyone else on Earth.”
    “You had expected marriage to be based on more than logic?”
    Brianna nodded again and returned to sit on the edge of the bed with her elbows propped on her knees and her chin cupped in her hands. “On Earth, people get married because they’re in love.”
    Meri laughed brightly. Sauntering back across the room, she once again took up her brush and began to work on her hair.
    “Brianna, you’re a delight. You’ll have Char completely wrapped around your fingers in a matter of days.”
    Laying the brush on a dresser, Meri unwrapped the towel and shrugged into a comfortable robe. “You’re more afraid of yourself than you are of Char. That’s something that can be overcome.”
    “Humph.”
    Meri walk over to the wall and pushed a button. A door slid back and revealed a surprisingly spacious closet. “Come here and help me pick out a dress for you. You want to look beautiful for your own wedding, don’t you?”
    “Wedding! What wedding?”
    “Whose marriage have we been discussing for the last fifteen minutes?”
    “But I thought…”
    “You thought you’d have more time to get used to the idea. I wish that were true, but the sooner you’re married, the harder it will be for Bakom to fight it.”
    “But who…?”
    “Lorilana will perform the ceremony.”
    “Don’t we need a priest or something?”
    “On Mediria we have priests, as you must have on your planet since you’ve mentioned them, but on Drakan anyone designated as an elder can perform marriages. Lorilana has presided at hundreds.”
    “Oh.”
    Still talking, Meri disappeared into the closet, but Brianna stopped listening, immersed in her own thoughts. She was walking a fine line and her sanity, if not her life, was at stake.
    Brianna thought back to when she’d been in Chardadon’s arms.
    Maybe Meri was right. Why shouldn’t she try to have a little fun before she went home? Char was handsome, in an alien sort of way.
    Shaking herself out of her revelry, Brianna rose from the bed and walked to the closet. “I guess I should just make the best of the situation. What have you got for me to wear?”
    Meri emerged from the closet grinning. In her arms, she carried a length of silvery material. “This dress will be perfect.
    Here, let’s try it on you.”
    Brianna removed the tunic and pants she was wearing, and Meri dropped the dress over her head. “I don’t think it fits, Meri. I can’t get the bodice in place,” she said trying to fit the dress over her breasts.
    Meri laughed again. Adjusting the dress so that silver ribbons looped around Brianna’s neck and nestled between her breasts, Meri turned her to face the mirror.
    Brianna’s shocked face looked back at her. “I can’t wear this! I’m half-naked!”
    The silver ribbons that lay between Brianna’s breasts were attached to a stiff cummerbund fitted snugly underneath her breasts, helping to lift and support them. Shimmery, silky material cascaded from the cummerbund and draped gracefully to the floor. It was a beautiful dress, but, as she had said, with her breasts fully exposed, she was half-naked.
    “Meri!”
    “Here’s the jacket. I didn’t think you’d want to go without it,”
    Meri said with a grin. “Although on