Wedded Bliss

The bride carried her new husband across the threshold, clutching him to her breast. After the long day of ceremony and photography, the evening of speeches and dancing, he was dehydrated to giddiness and only weighed about two kilograms.

"Oh Matilda," he sighed. "I'm so happy that's done."

"Me too, Gregory," Matilda said. She closed the door and wore him as a brooch as she moved toward the big heart-shaped tub. "It was a lot of ceremony, but I do feel closer to you."

Gregory flexed his narrow tendrils around her arm, the permeability of his outer membrane combined with his dryness made him sticky, but he would never draw her moisture, not if his life depended on it. He chuckled, his telepathic voice a little sharp. "Yes, but I meant how glad I am to get away from all those other people."

Matilda's hand paused on the way to the faucet. "I thought you liked my family."

"I do, Darling, of course I do," he said. "They produced you, the most charming, beautiful, kind..."

Matilda's new husband, an alien from the Andromeda Galaxy though he had a different name for it, got loopy when he got so small. Most of the time it led exactly here, to extreme flattery. It could also lead to unexpected places. He never mentioned a dislike for her family before, and she knew he was susceptible to persuasion when he was like this. She knew if pressed a little, he might tell her many other things he never had, all the feelings he held back about her family, friends, and all of Earth, maybe even a few things about Matilda herself. She plugged the tub and started the water, deciding it unfair and a bad foot to put forward into their marriage.

"I love you, too, baby," she said. "Do you want to get in?"

His whole blue body pulsed, his noodle-like appendages caressing her neck. "Let it fill a little, I want to plump up all at once." He giggled, his dense flesh rolling into her bodice and beneath her breast. "Do you know how much I've been looking forward to this?"

Matilda sighed, shaking her head. "I've begged you..."

He laughed again, gripping her nipple tighter within him, making her gasp in surprise and her back arch in pleasure. "It's very important to my people to follow the customs of your people."

Admissions of desire were also more prevalent when he was in this state, and she didn't want him to stop his caress, but she was confused. "My people? I never followed that custom; I told you about the men I've been with..."

"I know, Darling. I loved it when you told me of all the things you've done, it made me want this even more, want you. I am so happy we can be together at last."

"Then whose customs are you talking about?"

"Your parents, of course. If a disgusting space jellyfish like me is going to get my filthy tentacles all over his little girl..."

Matilda clenched her jaw. "He said that to you?"

"Oh, Darling, I've upset you, I'm so sorry!" Gregory drew back, loosening the grip of his membrane. "Your mother said it's very important to your people's custom that you are not upset on your wedding day, and I definitely cannot mention... never mind that. Mm, Matty your skin is making me tingle. Do you feel it?"

"Yeah, baby, I do," Matilda said, trying to control her voice, but it wavered. Her parents, since being threatened to be cut off over disparaging remarks, had not disparaged the relationship to Matilda. They always acted understanding, even proud. They were on record as being extremely proud. Part of her wanted to find out how deep their disapproval went, but she shook her head to the notion "Are you ready to go in?"

"Oh, you are upset." Gregory withdrew most of his mass to her shoulder and upper arm. "Matty, I didn't want to upset you today."

Matilda took a dripping handful of warm water from the tap and poured it over her husband. He shivered against her, his faint pulse becoming stronger, and not a drop made it to the tub or her gown. "I'm not upset at you, baby. You've been wonderful, you've always been so wonderful, and I hate that they can't accept that."

"Don't hate, my dear," he said. "I don't blame them for their attitudes, and certainly don't hate them. It is a custom of your people to be hostile to what you don't understand. Except you, Darling, my sweetness, my perfect specimen of humanity I love so much..."

Matilda rolled her eyes as he went on, splashing him again and pulling gently on his squishy body when he ignored her. "Baby, if you don't get into this tub, I'm taking you in, two-thousand-dollar dress and all."

Gregory gasped. "That would ruin the delicate chiffon ruffles!"

"I know," Matilda said. "So you can tell how serious I am."

"Oh, I really have upset you, I'm so..."

"I'm not upset, baby, I just know that when you get like this, you sometimes say things you regret later. I'd rather talk when you're thinking clearly."

"Oh Matilda, you're so good to me," he sighed, sliding at last from her shoulder and down her arm. The large tub had filled to a quarter of its capacity, and he reached in as Matilda touched the turbulent surface. He poured off her, letting go with a final snap, and fully submerged a moment until he filled the space the water had and a little more, his permeable skin absorbing every water molecule that touched it. His long tentacles, about a centimeter and a half thick now and still growing as water continued to pour from the faucet, slithered across one another. He sat silently for a moment, filling the tub at a rate slightly faster than water alone as the billions of tiny sacs within him rehydrated.

"Better?"

"Yes, thank you," Gregory said. The reserved quality of his voice indicated his embarrassment, but he drew himself up a little and raised five tentacles, twisted together and separated again into the shape of a hand to meet hers. "Matilda..."

Matilda smiled as his plump, smooth flesh came against hers and wrapped around. He was warm, like the water he absorbed, and his faint pulse had grown with his body to be more powerful than she ever felt it, though he got much bigger than this. "Are you alright, Gregory?"

"Yes," he said. "Yes, of course."

"You're trembling."

"I'm so excited, so happy, but so nervous, even afraid..."

Matilda took his bundle of tendrils in both hands, gripping reassuringly. "What are you afraid of?" She gave him a long moment to reply, and finally prompted him, "What my father said to you?"

More tentacles slithered up from the tub, surrounding her hands with slippery warmth and gentle pressure. "He has said many things that made me doubt my suitability as your partner, some of which are unquestionably true. I knew it would upset you to find out. We have been through this before, dozens of times."

"Hundreds," said Matilda.

Gregory chuckled, still emerging from the mass of himself to wrap her forearms. "I trust you and love you, so I believe you, yet I cannot put their doubts from my mind. This fear kept me from acting on my desires, hiding behind your parents' demands because I can't help worrying that you'll be wrong. That our differences will prove too great."

"You can be so silly for such a wise being," Matilda said, leaning over the tub. She flipped the shoe from her right foot and pulled the stocking down. "I've wanted this for a long time, Gregory, and never more than right now. May I get in?"

Gregory shivered, still growing as the hot water poured onto him. His tentacles shifted, creating a space for her, and she tossed her other shoe, swinging her feet over the edge and between his warm members. "Darling, you're still in your gown."

"Be careful with it, won't you?" Matilda said as she slid into the tub. Gregory could control the rigidity of each silky-smooth appendage and they were soft now, comforting and inviting as they slid around her legs beneath her elaborate skirts. He reached around her torso, and she felt the bodice loosen as nimble tentacles, sensitive far beyond human touch, unlaced it. More tentacles gripped the chiffon ruffles, pulling from beneath to expose the slip that barely covered Matilda's breasts.

The skirts and bodice were tugged down, submerged into the writhing mass of thickening tendrils. He pulled out from the opposite edge, hanging neat and pretty as the day she picked it up, and took it all the way to the closet by the kitchenette. Matilda closed her eyes as she was drawn deeper into the tub, stroked on all sides by his slithering body. She gripped one in her right hand, relishing the hardness it took on in response to her touch.

"Are you comfortable, Darling?" Gregory whispered.

"Yes," she said. "Are you?"

"Quite so." She could hear amusement in his voice, relief. "Perhaps more comfortable than I have ever been."

Her husband continued to grow, reaching up, he stroked over her head, releasing all the pins that kept her long straight hair in a crown of coils without sticking to the hair. Able to control the stickiness of every surface on his body toward the surface or substance of his choosing, he latched onto her nipples and pulled gently. More tendrils slid beneath and around her breasts, squeezing with his warm pulsing body. He had sixty-one thick blue tentacles surrounding her, taking her weight and supporting her. She lay back with a sigh, feeling as though she was floating, every touch focused on her comfort and pleasure.

As the stimulation of his many sliding arms became centered around the one between her legs probing the squishy mound beneath her panties, Matilda cried out again with a twitching motion that brought her knees together. "Gregory..." she gasped. She regretted that he paused, and then retreated slightly. "No, no," she said, and laughed when he withdrew further, exasperated. "No, I meant yes. Gregory, I like what you're doing. If you have any doubt, press harder there."

"Here?" he said, prodding her underpants again. She moaned in response, and she hoped he could hear the pleasure in her voice this time. He relaxed his fears and tightened the membrane against her crotch, stroking her a little harder. "Matty, I feel your heat."

"Yes," she moaned. "That feels nice, how did you learn to..."

"I've done a little research. Your nerve endings are very dense here. I love the way you move when I touch you there, let me know if you get too warm inside me, or if I squeeze too tight, or I do something that you don't like as much..."

"It feels good to be in your embrace," she assured him, stroking one of his members. "I love you, Gregory."

"Oh Darling," he said. "I love you. Your body has been my obsession this last few years."

"You've hidden it well."

"I felt that I must. There are many of your people and mine that think this union is unnatural."

"It feels natural to me." Matilda stretched out, one hand still above his surface and holding a single tentacle now the girth of her wrist. "Does my body feel natural to you?"

"Yes, but more than that. It feels... inconsequential. It isn't your body I love, but your Schemt-tehar, your soul."

"Me too, baby. And it made me love your body, too, the vessel. Even if it's strange."

He hugged her a little tighter at the paraphrasing of his alien vows. "I have longed to hold you like this, my love. It's better than my sense of sight indicated, better than I could image. I feel your heart beating within me, the rate slightly faster than at rest, indicating your heightened arousal. I feel every curve and crevice of your physiology, taste the delicious horny hormones you're exuding. I knew it all already, and yet being here with you is so amazing."

"I'm happy to be your wife, Gregory," Matilda said. She was already panting with excitement. Like Gregory, imaging this moment for the better part of three years, her anticipation was making it impossible to enjoy the current experience. All she could think about was that timid tentacle between her legs, teasing her, probing but going no further. "Take me, baby, I want you inside."

"Me inside of you inside of me," Gregory murmured, a playfulness in his psychic voice. Matilda's damp panties were pulled out from the dampest spot, a tentacle holding it away and a handful of them around each leg, guiding them wider. "I offer my body and soul to you, my love."

"You're mine, and I'm yours," she said, continuing his bonding vow, and she could feel his love and respect and perfect connection with her in his embrace. His pulsing body surrounding her, now toying with the act of entering hers, Matilda licked the tip of the tentacle in her hand. "Put it in, baby."

Gregory didn't cry out wordlessly, at least he never had before, so perhaps what he said as he penetrated her was a concept untranslatable into a human frame of reference. It sounded like a long, lusty moan, and it got louder as her slick, impatient vagina took more of his hardening tentacle.

Closing her eyes as the slithering mass of her husband's fully hydrated body enveloped her, she held her breath, her loins heaving on his member to invite it deeper. "Please talk to me, Darling," he whispered. "Tell me what you want."

"More," Matilda said. Her dear husband swelled within her, doubling his girth, and pushed into her deeper. "Yes, baby, yes, that's perfect, you're perfect, now pull back a little..."

Gregory withdrew.

"Now push it... yeah, that's right." She smiled as he stretched her out, entering and leaving her seeping hole in a rhythm she tried to match with her writhing hips. "Yeah, that's it, you're perfect."

"No, but you are," he said. "I feel it all, and you are perfect." As he thrust deep, he tugged at her sensitive nipples. She cried out. "In this situation, that is a good sound?"

"Very good," Matilda screamed as his thick member pushed deep and another came to rest between her cheeks, another pair suckling her, and still others kneading her breasts. She screamed it again as he thrust, making a conscious effort to vocalize her thoughts. "I love it, I love it..."

"I'm so happy, Darling, that our bodies are compatible despite the many differences. Your flesh responds in such intriguing ways to varying movements and levels of grip. I'm beginning to catalog your reactions, and based on the data you've given me, this is pleasurable?" He pulled on her nipples again, squeezing her breasts.

"Yes!" Matilda moaned. She moaned again at his next thrust, and then held her breath as much narrower, softer and smoother tendrils gathered around her clitoris, wrapping around the tiny button as a delicate filament. He squeezed it as he thrust in deep and pulsed inside. The tension in her loins made her buck, and she cried out to prevent misunderstanding, "Good, very... very... Ah! So good!"

Matilda screamed as she came hard, shaking harder in his grip as he pulsed everywhere. Moving in unison with her orgasmic spasms, his many arms kept her in perfect balance as she came screaming. She shook harder, thrashing to pull her legs together, and he released her to the bottom of the tub.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Matilda laughed, falling against him. "That was amazing, baby, but I want more."

Gregory pulsed beneath her. They had been though that hundreds of times, too, never coming to an agreement. "I will give you as much as you want. Of that. I love making you shake and leak this delicious moisture. This is the taste of your pleasure and I want more of it."

"I want to bond in the way of your people," she said.

Gregory slowed his pulse, a reaction to fear, and his grip loosened slightly. "The risks..."

"I don't care what happened before, Gregory. We're together now, husband and wife, and I want to be with you in every way. I want it, don't you see that's the difference? Our love is so perfect, it will make up for the anatomical issues."

"I know you are steadfast and brave enough that the possibility of your death doesn't scare you," Gregory said slowly, his quiet voice weighted by emotion. "But it does me. I want it to be true that our spirit connection transcends this physical boundary, but I cannot stop worrying that your father is right. I cannot live without you, Matilda."

"That's how I know I'll be okay. What happened in the lab, to those women, it wasn't your fault. You knew you wouldn't be compatible. This has nothing to do with that."

"You're the one who brought it up."

Matilda laughed in exasperation. "Did I? Or did my father?" She could feel apprehension in his trembling movements, and she squeezed the nearest tentacle to comfort him.

"He has many times since we decided to marry," Gregory admitted. "Whenever we are alone, he reminds me of Doctor Tyler's breeding experiments, and the results."

"Was he...?" They had always said no, but now that she knew about this dynamic, she had to ask again. "Was he involved with those?"

"No, no, of course not. His adversarial relationship with Doctor Tyler began over the ethics of such experiments."

Matilda nodded, relieved to be reminded of the timeline. "When he took over the lab, things got better for you."

"Yes, your father was always kind to me."

Matilda rolled her eyes; they'd been through all of it a hundred times, including the differences between 'kind' and 'slightly better than the torture that preceded it'. "Until we started dating, apparently."

Gregory squeezed her gently, rocking her. "He loves you and wants the best for you. He didn't want this relationship, but he made it possible. He is a good man, instrumental in my freedom almost as much as you were."

"I know, but that doesn't mean he's right about this. He doesn't know what I feel for you or what you feel for me. If you truly believe that our spirits are bonded..."

"Please, Matilda. Please look at things from our side."

"Our side? Are you and my father a side now? He doesn't get a say in this. Our spirits are aligned, aren't they? I am yours, and you're mine?"

"Of course, Matilda. I love you with every sac in my body, and that's why I'm terrified. What if the very doubt in my mind causes bonding to fail, causing me to kill you? I cannot let that happen, no matter the cost, and the only way to be sure is to abstain." A tentacle came softly to her mouth, holding her lips shut. "I can still be with you and enjoy your body without ova depositing. My stimulus so far seemed to be pleasurable, would you like to experience further stimulus?"

Matilda moaned softly as his silky members began to move again. "Your dirty talk is adorable, baby," she said. "I'll take your further stimulus, but we are not through talking about this."

Tentacles around her wrapped tighter, bold in their grip as Gregory lifted her from the tub. "I'm happy to hear how much you want me, Darling."

"Can I say something that might upset you?"

"Yes, of course you can," Gregory said, not pausing his movements. "You've done it many times." He raised her above him, held her by a dozen or so softly gripping tentacles. "I hope that you choose not to right now."

Matilda sighed as she was turned upside down in a smooth motion by Gregory's many members. "I love you, Gregory. I want your baby, as the custom of your people dictates. It's my right as your partner. Our souls are merged, so the rest is natural, isn't that what you believe?"

"Your innocence is adorable," he said. "I envy it." He stroked her cheek, up her neck over her collarbone and flattened two tentacles over her breasts. His former experiments yielded the result of a hard suckling, almost a pinch, as he gave her the freedom to arch her back. Two more sliding appendages snaked around her thighs. "How do you feel right now?"

"A little confused as to why I'm upside down, hoping you're going to enter me again."

"You're not displaying any fear, or revulsion..."

"Of course not. I love how strong you are, I feel safe with you. Because of the soul-merging." Matilda cried out when the tentacle probing around her vulva with an enlarged tentacle slid into her vagina and pushed deep. "Now I feel like I'm so full of you I could burst, but in a really good way. I feel like I want you in me forever."