Brides of the Kindred(9)

In her dreams he’d always appeared dirty and disheveled, understandable considering that he seemed to be in some kind of prison undergoing torture on a regular basis. Now that she saw him in person he looked quite different.

He’d had a haircut for one thing. The shaggy black hair on his head had been tamed to a certain extent although it was still longer than the blond crew cut of the warrior beside him. And he was wearing a high-necked, deep crimson shirt that looked outstanding against his dusky tan skin. The shirt was made of some heavy, silky material that draped across the broad expanse of his chest, clinging with loving detail to each chiseled muscle group. It was tucked into a pair of black pants tight enough to prove that Kat had been right in her earlier assessment—the Kindred were hung like Clydesdales. Liv swallowed hard and tried not to think about that. High, shiny black boots that came to his knees completed the outfit, giving him a slightly military air.

Liv couldn’t help herself—she stared. She’d been dreaming of him for six months but nothing she’d seen in her dreams had even remotely prepared her for how incredibly freaking huge he was. Tampa was a favorite stop on the Pro Wrestling circuit and as a student she’d seen her fair share of big men with ridiculous stage names come through the ER. But this Kindred male, the dark man, made even the largest guys she’d seen look small in comparison. His shoulders were immensely broad, his arms bulged with muscle and each of his thighs was as thick as her waist. His hands with their long, strong, capable-looking fingers looked big enough to palm a basketball or span an octave with no problem.

Once she’d gone down his big body, her gaze naturally swept up again, stuttering along the way over that enormous bulge in his crotch. His mouth was a full, sensual red and he had unusual facial hair—long, closely clipped sideburns that marched down to the edge of his square jaw. A high forehead, arching black brows and the familiar amber eyes that were focused intently on her alone finished the visual tour. He was looking her over too, Liv realized, assessing her the same way she was assessing him. And from the blazing look in his eyes he liked what he was seeing.

She could almost feel him touching her with that heated gaze. Undressing her was more like it. Her nipples hardened into tight little points and her sex suddenly felt wet and tingly for some reason when he glanced at her there. It was almost like his gaze was a laser beam, burning her everywhere he looked, forcing her body to react to him.

Then everything happened at once.

The dark man strode across the room. He seemed to saunter with a slow, lazy stride but somehow he was in front of her in under a second anyway. He growled like an animal, his voice too low to understand and suddenly the officers on either side of her dropped her arms and backed away, as though they’d suddenly been confronted with a wild beast.

Liv felt like she had, too. The look in those hot amber eyes went beyond desire—there was a consuming need to devour in their liquid gold depths and she was plainly what was on the menu. She stared up at him, unable to speak, almost unable to breathe. He looked utterly ferocious—beyond terrifying. And then he reached for her.

Liv’s brain went into overload and everything went black.



When she woke up, she was lying on one of the powder blue couches that were pushed against the perimeter of the large main room of the HKR. The whole building had a slightly institutional feel to it—kind of like being at the DMV. Only here you were standing in line to get an alien husband instead of a driver’s license. But she hadn’t been standing in line, Liz thought groggily. She’d what…fainted? Had a syncopal episode. Need to lie down with my legs higher than my head, she thought, her nursing training automatically kicking in. Then she realized she was lying down, but her head was propped up on something. Something warm and hard and solid was under her cheek and a musky, masculine scent that smelled both alien and totally familiar was filling her nose.

“Easy, Lilenta.” The deep voice from her dreams filled her ears and Liv told herself she had to be dreaming again. But was she dreaming the warm, spicy scent of his skin? Was she dreaming the long fingers that stroked strands of hair away from her cheek so tenderly? Suddenly she knew where she was and what was going on. And none of it was a dream.

The dark man! Liv sat up and jumped to her feet, staggering a few steps before his hand shot out to catch her. She backed away just before his fingers closed on her wrist.

“How long have I been out?” She couldn’t believe she’d fainted in the first place—what a horribly weak and girly thing to do! But it had been so shocking, seeing what she thought was a dream turned into hard, cold reality. Well he’s certainly hard but I’d say hot describes him better than cold, jabbered a little voice in her brain. As in hotter than any guy you’ve ever been with. Liv hated that little voice but she had to agree with it—the Kindred warrior certainly put Mitch in the shade.