Brides of the Kindred(25)

Blushing furiously Liv sat up, clamped her thighs shut, and pulled the black lace hem of her nighty down as far as it would go. “My God, how did you…how did you do that?” She looked up at Baird who was still breathing hard, his broad chest rising and falling rapidly like a man who was holding onto his self control with both hands. “How did you make me forget everything and just…just want to go for it?” she demanded.

He took a deep breath and shook his head. “It’s not something I was doing on purpose, Lilenta. It’s just your body’s natural reaction to mine. And mine to yours. Like I told you, it’s always like this with the Kindred when we find our mate. We’re drawn together by the need to bond. To fuck. It’s what I need from you and what you need from me. Your body knows it even if your mind won’t admit it.”

“I don’t…don’t believe you,” Liv said. “And I don’t appreciate you using my…vulnerability to you, whatever it is, to prove your point.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “You must feel awfully full of yourself right about now—showing me exactly how easy it would be for you to…to take me whether I wanted you to or not.”

Baird gave her an exasperated look. “That wasn’t what I was doing—didn’t mean to do anything at all. I’ve wanted you for so damn long. It just…happened.”

“Oh, right. The same way our minds just happened to align at just the right time,” Liv scoffed. “Tell me another one, champ. Has everything you told me since we met been a lie or just most of it?”

“Nothing I told you is a lie but you can believe what you want.” His face was like a thundercloud and for a moment Liv thought she might have gone too far. But he didn’t threaten her in any way. He just got off the bed in one fluid movement that made him seem more animal than man for a moment. Grabbing a new shirt from a narrow chest at the end of the bed, he stalked to the door of the bedroom. “I’m going to get some human food for later. Make yourself at home but don’t go out by yourself. Understand?”

Liv’s frustration at her own vulnerability rose to the boiling point. “I understand,” she flared back. “I’m supposed to stay here like a good little bride while you go out and act like the big, brave warrior bragging to all your friends that you bagged your human woman and she can’t wait to spread her legs and let you bond with her all night long. Is that it?”

For a moment he looked even angrier and then the expression in his bold features became quieter and a little sad. “I would never brag about what happens between us in the privacy of our rooms, Lilenta. That would be breaking the trust between us. No matter how much you hate me, I wouldn’t do that to you.”

Her anger drained suddenly away and Liv felt taken aback. “I…I never said I hated you,” she protested at last in a small voice.

“You didn’t have to.” Turning he left the dimly lit room. Liv watched him go, sitting alone on the bed in the dark.

For some reason she felt like crying.





Chapter Eight



“Are you sure this is what she wanted us to send?” Kat looked uncertainly at the contents of the brown cardboard box Sophia was packing for her twin.

“She said send everything in the top dresser drawer. So—this is the top dresser drawer and this is what I’m sending.”

“Yeah, but…that’s not very sexy.” Kat frowned. “In fact, it’s pretty much the opposite of sexy. Maybe we should send her some lingerie too. Something hot and spicy.”

“She’s trying not to have sex with him, Kat. Not the other way around. If anything we ought to be sending her the bulkiest, ugliest clothes in her closet—or maybe a nun’s habit,” Sophie stuffed things into the cardboard box as she spoke, moving faster and faster, trying not to think.

Kat raised one auburn eyebrow at her. “A nun’s habit? You guys aren’t even Catholic.”

“I don’t know. Just anything that would make him leave her alone. That would make him give her back.” Sophie’s eyes blurred with tears and she had to sit down on her sister’s bed for a moment to collect herself. All around her the bedroom seemed to echo Liv’s personality. Her scrubs were hanging neatly in the closet and the pictures on the wall of her recent graduation from nursing school showed Liv in her cap and gown with Sophie and Kat on either side of her, both hugging her at the same time. Liv’s face looked so happy in those shots, Sophie couldn’t help thinking. So excited about her bright future and a career in nursing. And instead what had happened to her? She’d been hijacked. Kidnapped to become some macho alien’s pleasure slave bride. It was all just so unbelievable.