“Uh, you mean like a spa? Sure, I guess.” Liv shrugged uncomfortably. “But usually the emphasis there is on relieving stress and the attendants are all very professional and impersonal.”
One corner of Baird’s full mouth twitched. “Afraid I can’t promise you that, Lilenta.”
“I didn’t think so,” Liv mumbled. She tried to imagine a spa staffed with Kindred warriors waiting to bathe and massage the women who came there and thought that it would probably be sold out for years in advance. And here she had her very own ticket for the Kindred spa treatment and she would have done anything to give it away if she could. “God,” she muttered. “This is going to be really interesting.”
“Look at me, Lilenta.” Baird lifted her chin gently, forcing her to look into his amber eyes. “Is my touch really so distasteful to you?” he asked softly.
Liv bit her lip. “You know it’s not,” she said at last, deciding not to bother with a lie. “You pretty much said you can tell how I feel when you…when you touch me.”
“I can smell your arousal, yes.” He nodded. “Then why do you have to fight me every step of the way?”
Liv felt frustrated. “You know why—I told you why. I can’t let myself relax with you because I’m afraid if I do I’ll go too far and let you…let you bond me. Whatever that means, exactly.” She still wasn’t sure but she was damned if she’d ask Baird for an explanation. It was embarrassing enough to hear him explain the holding and bathing weeks and tell her what he would be allowed to do to her at the end of the month, let alone hearing a detailed account of what bonding sex entailed.
He was still looking at her intently and his fingers were warm under her chin. “What if I promised not to bond you to me tonight—no matter what you say?”
Liv looked at him in surprise. “You’d do that? Promise me that? But I thought your whole goal was to get me tied to you as soon as possible.”
“There is that urge, yes,” Baird admitted. “It’s an instinct every Kindred male has because of our past. But I’m willing not to act on it tonight—hell, for the entire week—if it’ll make you feel better.”
“It really would,” Liv admitted. In fact she was so relieved she almost felt weak. But she still didn’t understand why Baird was making this offer. “I appreciate that you’re willing to, uh, put our contest, as it were, aside for a week,” she said cautiously. “But I guess I still don’t understand why you would.”
“I don’t want you to feel forced into anything. Not by me and not by the way your body reacts to mine.” Baird leaned down and brushed her lips gently with his own.
Liv’s heart stuttered in her chest. “God…” she whispered.
“I want you to care for me, Olivia. Care for me the way I care for you,” he breathed. “And I want you to be able to enjoy what I do for you without fear.” He pulled back a little and looked her in the eyes. “So what do you say? Will you try to relax and honor the bathing ceremony with me if I promise not to bond you to me no matter what?”
“For this entire week?” Liv asked, wanting to be sure.
He nodded. “It’ll kill me but yes—I swear on my honor as a warrior that I won’t have bonding sex with you no matter what you may do or say for the entire bathing week.” He flashed a wolfish grin. “Of course, after that, all bets are off. But if I can’t make you want to bond with me during the tasting week, I don’t deserve to have you.”
Liv felt a flash of heat run through her and looked away from his intense golden gaze quickly. “Fine. We’ll take it a week at a time,” she said, wishing her heart would slow down. But it was racing, as it always did when he touched her—kissed her. As if sensing her wish, Baird gave her one last soft kiss and then stood up.
“I’ll leave you to get dressed now. Just wear the robe and nothing else. Come to the bathing pool when you’re ready.” He dropped the robe in a soft crimson heap in her lap and gave her one last burning look. “I’ll be waiting for you, Lilenta.”
Baird waited by the bathing pool, wondering how long it would take Olivia to get up the nerve to come to him. He couldn’t wait to see her in the dark red bathing gown, couldn’t wait to see it fall to the floor and reveal her to him naked for the first time. Of course, he had seen her undressed often enough while they were dream-sharing. Watching her take her morning shower and evening bath had been some of his favorite parts of the dreams. But to actually see her in the flesh and know that he could touch her this time…just the thought made him almost painfully hard.