But how could he convince the curvy little Earth girl that they were right for each other? And why was she so certain they were wrong?
Liosh didn’t know, but he intended to find out. He wished for a moment that he’d let her leave the Think-me on just a little longer…but that would have been dishonorable. No, he would just have to find out the hard way—through patience and persistence. But that was all right—he could wait.
Melinda was worth waiting for.
“So now you’re all set up to get email—you can check it on my laptop anytime you want,” Melli told the big Kindred. “Just be careful never to click on attachments—you could download a virus onto the computer. Oh, and you’d better not click any links either or you might end up on a porn site.”
Liosh frowned in apparent confusion.
“Porn?”
“Oh—short for pornography,” Melli explained, feeling her cheeks get hot. “You know—naked pictures and vids of people, uh, having sex?”
“Your people allow themselves to be recorded doing such intimate things with their mates?” Liosh looked surprised.
“Well, it’s not usually with their mates, I don’t think,” Melli confessed. “A lot of times it’s professional actors and actresses and sometimes it’s just people doing it for fun. You mean the Kindred don’t have any kind of porn?”
“The Blood Kindred certainly don’t.” Liosh shook his head. “Well, not visual pornography anyway,” he amended. “Though we do have what we call ‘scent books’.”
“Scent books?” Melli asked, confused. “What’s that?”
“Well…” He shifted on the couch uncomfortably. “It’s a collection of the scents of unmated females when they are aroused.”
“Really?” Melli was both embarrassed and fascinated by this idea. “I knew that the Kindred had really sensitive noses but I never dreamed they would rather smell a girl than see her.”
“Don’t get me wrong, my Lady—we like the sight of a beautiful woman as much as the next male,” Liosh said. “But it’s disrespectful to take pictures of a female undressed and then ogle them later—it objectifies women and strips away their dignity—it makes them into nothing but subjects of lust. A warrior and his female might occasionally take pictures themselves for their own private usage but you won’t find pictures of random nude females for sale in any Kindred culture.”
“Hmm, that’s a really interesting take on porn,” Melli admitted. She kind of wished more human men felt that way. Though some porn could be nice if it was kind and consensual and the people in it seemed to be really enjoying themselves and each other’s bodies, there was an awful lot of it that wasn’t nice where the women looked like they were being coerced or even hurt.
The thought made her shudder. But she still had some questions.
“Okay, so you don’t watch visual porn, but you do have these, uh, ‘scent books?’” she said, making sure she got it right. When Liosh nodded, she asked, “But how do you collect these scents?”
“Well…” he shifted uncomfortably again. “I believe the, uh, females who agree to contribute to such a book wear a sex-shield—a thin strip of fabric pressed tightly between…” He cleared his throat. “Between their legs for a certain period of time.”
“Oh, like panties?” Melli’s face felt hot but this was a fascinating subject and she wanted to learn more.
“Panties?” He frowned.
“Oh, um, little thin underwear that women wear here on Earth,” Melli told him, thinking how glad she was that she’d picked up the several pair she’d left strewn around the floor before he saw her dorm room. Just think—if smells were what turned Kindred on so much, it would have been like leaving a bunch of porno magazines lying around for him to find! Thank goodness all her panties were safely tucked away in the hamper.
Liosh’s eyes widened.
“You mean Earth females wear sex-shields all the time?”
“Well, I mean, not for the purpose of collecting sex smells,” Melli said hastily. “Although I have heard of some people selling stuff like that on the Internet. I, uh, suppose that some Earth guys like scents too—just not as much as Kindred, apparently. So these, uh, sex-shield panties the women wear,” she went on, still fascinated by the subject. “They just put them on and wear them for a while and then they put them in a book for guys to, uh, sniff?”
“Well…” Liosh cleared his throat. “They don’t just wear them all around. They, er…” He coughed, his face getting red. “Are you sure you don’t mind talking about this? I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“It’s all right,” Melli assured him. “I feel really comfortable with you, Liosh.”
Which was true, for some reason. Discussing porn with a human guy might have freaked her out, but the big Kindred made her feel safe—not threatened in the least. “As long as you know that talking doesn’t lead to, uh, doing,” she added, just to be sure.
Because she knew human guys—plenty of them—that might consider this kind of conversation to be a kind of foreplay. She didn’t think Liosh was like that, but it didn’t hurt to lay the cards on the table and be on the safe side.
“Oh, no—of course not!” he said quickly. “I’m here to guard you, My Lady—not seduce you, after all.”
“Of course,” Melli echoed, her cheeks getting hot again. “So…you were about to tell me what…what the women do while they’re wearing the special panties?” she asked, feeling tingly all over in places she hadn’t felt tingly in a long time.
“They, er, pleasure themselves,” Liosh admitted in a low voice. “They bring themselves to the edge to make their honey flow all over the fabric—that is where the strongest and best scent comes from.” He cleared his throat. “And then the shields are preserved and put into a book and the books are sold to warriors who don’t have a mate yet. They are, uh, very popular in the Unmated Males section of the Mother Ship.”
“They are, huh?” Melli mused.
It sounded really kinky—sitting around, sniffing a book filled with used panties. But then again, some of the visual porn on the Internet was way kinkier. Not that she looked at porn much—it was too easy to get triggered if she saw the wrong thing. But still, there was some pretty strange stuff just a few clicks away at any given time.
“Do you have any of those smell books—I mean scent books?” she asked Liosh before she thought.
Then her hand flew to her mouth as she realized she’d basically asked if he liked porn—or the Kindred version of porn, anyway—which was really too intimate a question for a guy she’d only known a day or two.
“Oh, I’m sorry—you don’t have to answer that,” she said quickly. “I, uh, shouldn’t have asked.”
But Liosh was shaking his head.
“No, I don’t mind. I don’t have any scent books,” he said. “It’s not that I haven’t been tempted, but…”
“But what?” Melli asked, still fascinated.
“Well…” He shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling. “Arousal scents are all well and good and I won’t deny they’re very stimulating. But I don’t want to just smell any random female. I want the scent of the female I want to Claim—the one the Goddess has chosen for me. When I find her…” His pale blue eyes were suddenly half-lidded… “When I find her, I’ll want to bathe in her scent and mark her with my own. That’s what I truly want—what I’m waiting for. Which is why I don’t find the scent books as tempting as some do,” he finished.
“Oh,” Melli whispered, biting her lip. “You really feel that way? But how…how will you know when you find her? The right girl, I mean?”
“Well…” He appeared to be thinking carefully about what to say. “I might Dream-Share with her—that’s where she’s dreaming of me and I am dreaming of her at the same time.”
“Really? That really happens?” Melli asked, wide-eyed.
He nodded. “It’s very common, though it doesn’t always happen. Or sometimes you might be Dream-Sharing with someon
e and not even know it—it depends on if you remember your dreams or not.”
“Well, how will you know if you’re not uh, Dream-Sharing with her or you’re forgetting your dreams?” Melli asked.
“My body will…give me certain signals. “But he was starting to look uncomfortable and Melli sensed they were moving into sensitive territory.
Liosh was so nice and polite he would probably answer any question she asked him, but Melli didn’t want to make him feel awkward around her. After all, she’d already asked him about his porn habits—maybe it was time to back down a bit.
“That’s all right—you don’t have to tell me,” she said quickly. “You’ve already given me more information about the Kindred than I ever expected to know. Your people are fascinating.”
“Thank you.” Liosh smiled at her. “We find humans fascinating too. Especially human females—I’m afraid we don’t have much use for the males.”
Melli laughed.
“I guess not. Well…” She shut the laptop and looked at him uncertainly. “If you don’t mind, I’d really like to try and get cleaned up.”
“Do you want to take a bath?” Liosh raised his eyebrows questioningly.
It was on the tip of her tongue to say yes and ask him to help her…but at the last moment, Melli chickened out.
“Just a shower will be okay,” she said. “I, uh, think I can manage on my own. There’s a rod inside the shower stall I can hang onto and I won’t have to stand for long.”
She thought the big Kindred looked slightly disappointed but Liosh only nodded.
“As you wish, my Lady. Please let me know if you need any help.”
“Like I said, I think I’ll be okay,” Melli told him. She stood unsteadily, balancing herself on the arm of the loveseat, and made a few experimental hops on the good leg while keeping the weight off her mostly healed leg. “See? I’m good.”
“Will you go to sleep after you finish?” Liosh asked her. “Would you like me to turn down your sleeping platform and get it ready?”
“Oh, that’s okay, really—I can manage that,” Melli said quickly. “But I’m not really tired yet. I thought maybe we could watch something on TV? There are lots of good shows streaming. You could, uh, learn more about Earth culture by watching.”
Liosh grinned.
“I’d like that. It’s always good to know more about your host culture.”
“Good. Then we’ll do it.” Melli grinned back as she hopped to the bathroom. “See you in a few.”
As she shut herself up in the small bathroom, she thought with anticipation of how nice it would be to sit so close to the big Kindred and watch some movies or shows. One thing she longed for—had longed for all her life—was physical contact. Unfortunately, most guys interpreted the wish to cuddle and be close as the wish for sex, which wasn’t necessarily true. In fact, it was never true for Melli. Not that she didn’t want to have sex sometimes. She just…couldn’t.
But she was certain that Liosh wouldn’t read anything into them being close together on the loveseat. He might even put his arm around her and then she could cuddle up to his side and feel surrounded by his warmth and his wonderful scent.
That would be nice—beyond nice, Melli thought. And she thought with anticipation of the night ahead.
Eleven
Jodi was dreading the night ahead. How could she ever face the big Kindred again after he’d seen her private toy collection? Hell, he’d done more than see them—he’d held them! And quite possibly broken her most expensive dildo!
The mental image of him holding the damn thing—which had been marketed under the name “the python” because of its squirming action—while it writhed in his hand, made Jodi so embarrassed and angry she could barely breathe. Not even James had seen the python—mostly because she was afraid it might make him insecure about his own equipment if he saw what she really craved—but still!
This is it, she told herself. I can’t stand one more minute of this! I can’t have that big bastard living under my roof one second more!
She had told the big Kindred to get out in the heat of the moment but now she decided that was the best idea. Vorn needed to leave—she couldn’t stand to have him here where she would have to look at him and remember him holding the squirming python in his big fist. He had to go.
“Jodi…” Vorn came out of the spare room, still bare-chested, both hands held up in a gesture of truce.
Jodi was irritated to see that he did, indeed, have a nice amount of chest hair on his muscular pecs, just as she had speculated. He also had elaborate blue tattoos running up both bulging biceps.
“What do you want?” she demanded. “What part of ‘get out’ do you not understand?”
“Listen,” he said in a low, careful voice. “I want you to know, that was just a mistake. I didn’t mean to go snooping in your private stuff—I was just looking for a place to hang my shirt and store my carry-all cube. And then I smelled your scent and, well…” He shrugged, his broad, bare shoulders rolling with the movement. “I got curious.”
“You can save your lying explanations,” Jodi snapped, glaring at him. “I told you to get out and I meant it. So get out of my house right now.”
He frowned, his heavy brows drawing down over those golden eyes.
“Now look, sweetheart,” he growled. “I can’t do that. I was assigned here to keep you safe. What if the damned Varians come back tonight and I’m not here to protect you?”
“I can take care of myself!” Jodi spat—a rather reckless claim since she’d had exactly one self-defense lesson several years ago. She and Melli had taken it together, after the incident at Melli’s Junior prom. Jodi had been hoping that it would make her little sister feel empowered but it was good to feel safer herself too.
At the time, she had promised herself she would come back for more lessons—maybe even take a whole course or start learning Jujitsu or something like that. But then life had gotten in the way and she had never quite gotten around to it. Still, she wasn’t about to let the big asshole standing half-naked in her living room know that!
“I’m fine on my own,” she told Vorn, lifting her chin to stare him in the eyes. “You go ahead and go.”
“Fine on your own, huh?” He raised one eyebrow skeptically. “As I recall, you didn’t look so fine the last time I saw you being attacked by Varians.”
“I sprained my ankle!” Jodi exclaimed. “But I’m fine now and I can take care of myself. I’ve taken lessons in self-defense, you know,” she said, exaggerating just a bit. “I’m well prepared to take on any opponent—even one that’s bigger than me.”
“Is that right?” Vorn said flatly. “So you’re suddenly an expert at hand-to-hand combat and I should just leave you to your own devices and go back and tell Commander Sylvan he shouldn’t have bothered to assign a Protector to you in the first place.”
“Yes. Exactly,” Jodi snapped. “So get your things and get out.”
To her surprise, he nodded.
“Fine, I will.”
“You will?” Jodi looked at him uncertainly.
“Absolutely.” Vorn nodded. “Providing one thing.” He held up one finger to illustrate.
“What?” Jodi gave him a suspicious look.
“You say you’re so good at self defense that you can take down an opponent bigger and stronger than you, right?” he asked, lifting his eyebrows.
“Well…yes.” Jodi lifted her chin. “Yes, that’s true,” she said firmly.
“Okay, sweetheart. Then take me down once—just once—and I’ll leave,” Vorn told her.
“I beg your pardon?” Jodi frowned.
“You heard me. Show me your skills—take me down to the ground just one time and I’ll believe you’re able to defend yourself. At that point, I’ll feel comfortable leaving you alone and I’ll go back to the Mother Ship and never bother you again.”
“Um…” Jodi stared at him. Bare-chested as he was with his thick, black and gold hair sp
read over his broad shoulders and his golden eyes blazing, he looked like a wild beast, ready to spring. And he was so big—how could she possibly take him down?
Vorn lifted one sardonic eyebrow again.
“What’s the matter? Are you afraid, sweetheart? Maybe you exaggerated your skills just a little?”
His taunting words caused her anger to flare back to life. Suddenly, Jodi saw red.
“I am not your sweetheart, you big fucker,” she snarled at him. “And I will take you down and send you back to the Mother Ship with your tail between your legs!”
His golden eyes widened in apparent surprise.
“Nice language, sweetheart,” he growled, his grin a white slice in his dark face. “Come at me then.”
He spread his arms wide, as though offering himself.
The taunting gesture and words were like a red flag to a bull. Jodi had worked all her life to control her temper but under her outer veneer of the civilized academic, she was a primal creature who did not like to be fucked with.
With a scream of pure rage, she rushed at the big Kindred, intending to hit him hard in his midsection and crumple him to the ground, like a football player making a tackle.
Vorn didn’t even try to stop her or guard against her rush. He just stood there, booted feet slightly apart and arms spread as though he was expecting a hug instead of a shoulder to the gut.
Jodi hit him as hard as she could, ramming her right shoulder directly into his rock-hard abs. But her expectation that he would fold and pitch backwards was sadly mistaken.
It was like hitting a brick wall. The big Kindred gave a soft grunt at the impact, but he didn’t even move an inch. He just looked down at her, one dark eyebrow raised mockingly as if to say, “Is that all you’ve got?”
For a moment Jodi was nonplussed. She’d never practiced with anyone his size during the one self-defense lesson she had taken. In fact, she and Melli had been partners and her little sister was even smaller than she was. But she remembered some of the techniques the instructor had taught for taking on bigger opponents and decided to try one now.
Taming Two Warriors Page 7