The ceremony was tiny and the biggest expense was the dresses. They hand-picked and arranged their own bouquets from the ship’s botanical garden - Esther’s life’s work. Neither wore a veil but both wore smiles.

Once the paperwork was signed they enjoyed a meal with Quinn’s entire family. All five of them.

Instead of informing them that the marriage was a formality required due to fertilisation laws, they bashfully claimed that they had been keeping their relationship deeply secret for years. So secret that no one bar the two of them had any idea that they had crossed the mentor/mentee line.

In reality, Esther had found out a week ago that she needed a spouse to ensure that her sperm donor did not get access to the child she is heavily pregnant with. It was revealed to her that there are actually laws within the Q federation about fertilisation without a chain of responsibility. She needed to either produce the name of a trusted family member (of which she had none) or provide a marriage certificate to show that her child would have an additional guardian looking out for its best interests.

Quinn, the research assistant employed aboard Esther’s ship (and the only human that had stepped foot upon it in years) found herself plopped into this role very suddenly. Luckily for both parties, Quinn has been hopelessly and painfully in love with Esther since her first day on the job. She had agreed to the arrangement on one condition: that she get a real and fair chance at Esther’s heart. If it did not work out, she would remain her wife on paper, but she wanted her shot at genuine matrimony first.

That night, they stayed in a hotel on the Q federation planet they had been married on.

Quinn pulled the door open for Esther, who hefted her baby bump over the threshold with a chuckle. Their baby bump. Soon to be their child.

When she hesitated in the doorway, Esther grabbed her by the lace of her bodice and yanked her into the room. It was a beautiful suite, well lit and filled with shiny modern furniture. They headed straight for the enormous bed in the centre of the room.

Quinn was in a daze when Esther began to unlace her dress, as though she were watching herself be undressed from a distance. As though this were a dream, another teasing from her brain that one day, maybe, she could be married to the woman she was hopelessly in love with. That woman paused.

“Are you feeling alright?” Esther asked, dropping the satin ties and taking Quinn’s jaw in her hands.

“I’ve… only done this once before,” Quinn mumbled. She suddenly felt sweaty and overly conscious of every single inch of skin covering her body. She hadn’t felt this nervous her first time. This time mattered. Their deal had been a marriage certificate in exchange for a chance at a real marriage. Quinn had only one chance to keep hold of Essie, love of her life and star of her eyes.

“I’ve only done this with two people,” Esther announced. She had no visible hint of nerves.

Quinn tried to focus on the conversation rather than the way her entire body felt clammy. “Two times?”

“Oh no, just the same two people.” Esther chuckled. “You think I spent ten years celebate?” Her black eyes were bright and full of cheer. She looked too beautiful, it made it hard for Quinn to remember to breath, or swallow.

“I wondered,” Quinn laughed awkwardly.

“Just because I didn’t allow it to happen on my ship, does not mean I cannot visit a friend on a nearby planet.” Esther unhooked the pearl buttons at the sides of her own dress. Quinn watched with rapt attention.

“I just thought you were a slow shopper… when you went on your grocery runs,” she answered slowly, her mind pre-occupied with taking in the slow drop of the zipper on her wife’s gown.

“What sane person takes six hours for basic supplies?”

“Since when are you in the category of sane people?” The words fell out of Quinn’s mouth before she could truly think about them and she froze immediately.

Esther cackled. “Very true!” Her dress hit the ground in a flump of layered satin.

Stunning beauty was the only way Quinn could describe her, because she felt stunned in that moment. Looking upon her round body, coated in beautiful dark skin that radiated with her pregnancy glow. Her breasts were mouth-watering, Quinn fought not to kiss and bite them all over, knowing the flesh would be soft and spongy under her mouth.

Quinn finally managed to take control of said mouth again. “You’re far more confident with this than I was expecting…”

“What is there to lack confidence in? You understand the basic motions, no?” Esther hummed to herself before adding, “I don’t have a diagram to hand.”

Suddenly, her sexy wife had reverted back to her slightly mad mentor.

Quinn huffed out an exasperated breath. “Essie, I beg of you, if there is one time in your life you can pry your scientific goggles off, please let it be now.”

Esther hummed questioningly. Her head tilted and her long braids tinkled softly with metal rings bumping each other. They brought Quinn’s gaze to her extravagant curves, heightened with her pregnancy.

“There is nothing less sexy than turning sex into a formula,” Quinn explained. “I feel as though you are about to break out a textbook and have me do homework.”

“I apologise. I will do my best to turn the scientific brain off and the sexy brain on.” Esther tapped at her head teasingly.

“Your incredible mind is very sexy…” Quinn looked away awkwardly. “I find your intelligence very attractive.”

She managed to drag her eyes back to Essie but the woman said nothing. Instead, with an excited grin she shoved her backwards, pressing her into the bed with both hands. Surprisingly strong hands. But perhaps not that surprising when Quinn considered the 10 years her wife had spent keeping her ship afloat, and her enormous botanical paradise thriving.

A hungry kiss silenced her considerations. Esther’s lips pried Quinn’s open and her tongue dipped into her mouth in small licks. Quinn squirmed beneath her, her hands grappling at Esther’s curves and squeezing at her. Esther began yanking her unlaced dress down and Quinn shimmied out of it on the bed.

Quinn rolled them over, placing herself above Esther and taking control of the kiss. Esther hummed into her mouth appreciatively. This was part of her chance, her time to show what she could offer as a real wife.

One of her hands slid down her rounded body, pressing between her thighs and stroking gently at her wet lips. The other hand was squeezing and massaging a breast although it was far too big for her thin fingers, the soft skin overflowing them. She broke the kiss to drag her mouth down to an engorged nipple and suck on it gently, lapping at the oversized nub with the tip of her tongue. Esther groaned long and low in her throat. Quinn pinched it between tight lips and pulled harder.

“Oh,” she panted. “You don’t understand how good that feels.”

Quinn continued her tongue fuck of the fat nipple, playing with it in her mouth. Esther’s back arched and her head lolled back.

“Don’t st-stop!” she moaned.

The fingers running up and down Esther’s lips plunged inside and the older woman cried out, her thighs trembling open wider. Quinn’s fingers dug into sopping wet velvet again and again, she wanted to touch every inch of the woman she was completely obsessed with, inside and out.

Quinn switched nipples and Esther made an inhuman sound, her hands clawing at the white bedding beneath them. Spasms rolled over her frame, her cunt clenching in time with them around Quinn’s fingers. She refused to halt, though, and pulled on the nipple in her mouth as Esther half-screamed and half-moaned. Her fingers rocked her wife through her first orgasm of the night.

She only released her once Essie had collapsed to the bed, completely drained.

“You’ve only done this once?” Esther panted with a sceptical look in her eyes.

Quinn answered quietly. “Only once in reality. I have… thought about you a lot.”

“Oh, really?”

Quinn did not want to go into detail about her pathetic pining for her mentor. She dropped to her knees on the ground and pulled Esther’s hips to the overhang of the bed.

“You won’t indulge me with descriptions of your fantasies?”

“Maybe one day, not tonight.” Quinn pressed the flat of her tongue between Esther’s dripping lips and took her first taste of her wife. On paper only for now.