She cast a longing look at the bathing pool—which looked like a mini swimming pool and had tendrils of sweet-smelling steam rising off of it. But it also looked deep and she remembered what Trey had said about it being over her head. She didn’t need to end this stressful day by drowning.
Sighing, she took off the dress and underclothes and went over to the shower instead. It was a kind that Mia had never seen, and she was surprised and pleased to find that it had six different showerheads that sprayed her tired body from every angle.
The hot water felt wonderful and she scrubbed herself all over with some sweet-smelling liquid soap solution she found in a bottle with a tiny squirt nozzle. She even washed her long, black hair and squeezed the water out of it, letting it hang damp and clean around her back.
The shower had one more trick that Trey had showed her. After turning off the water, she pressed a special button near the door. Immediately warm gusts of hot air started coming up from around her feet. Mia turned this way and that, letting them dry her almost completely, though her hair was still a little damp. Then she stepped out of the shower stall and found the uniform shirt Trey had left for her to wear.
It was cool and silky and unexpectedly sensuous, rubbing against the pointed tips of her nipples in a way that made Mia shiver. The fabric was also surprisingly heavy and dense as it draped over her bare body. As expected, it was much too big but when she buttoned it up and rolled up the sleeves, she found it fit all right.
She picked up the crumpled red-flowered dress and stepped out of the bathroom. She was just about to open the bedroom door and go climb into bed—she felt bone weary and the excellent dinner and warm shower had relaxed her wonderfully—when she heard that voice in her head again.
What do you think you’re doing, Mia? Your job isn’t done yet—not nearly. That Kindred is out there in the living area and you’re supposed to seduce him. If you don’t and the Commandant finds out, who knows what he’ll do to Neemah? Get out there and do your job!
The voice in her head was right and Mia knew it. Her work wasn’t finished for the night—she had to go and get the big Kindred to let her meet his needs. She had to seduce him.
Except now that she thought about it, she had no idea how to go about seducing anybody. The lectures about sex and needs back in school hadn’t included any methods for enticing men. The school mistress who lectured Mia and the other girls in her class had implied that men with needs to be met would need no urging. Presumably they would just take what they needed, and the woman’s roll was to hold still and give whatever was required. But how could she go about meeting the big Kindred’s needs if he didn’t ask her to or simply take her the way the Commandant had attempted to do?
The memory of that morning seemed far away now but still somehow so real it made her stomach clench. Mia tried to push it away. She told herself it would be different with Trey—he was so nice and he smelled so good—so warm and spicy. Surely it would be no hardship to meet his needs.
But then the Commandant’s words came back to her. She remembered him saying that the Kindred were “absolutely huge in the cock department.”
He’ll split you in half, whispered the nasty voice in her head. The Commandant said so. This is going to hurt, Mia—you’d better be prepared for that.
The thought scared her so much she wanted to go into the bedroom and hide her head under the covers like she had when she was a little girl and thought ghosts might be in her closet. But another thought frightened her more—the thought of Neemah being put out into the street because the Commandant didn’t see any progress on the picture-feed that was beaming to him from the Mercy Star pin which was still on the red-flowered dress in her arms.
I have to do this—I have to! There’s no way around it so just get it over with, Mia told herself harshly.
Taking a deep breath, she unpinned the Mercy Star from the dress and put it on the lapel of the silky teal uniform shirt she was wearing. Leaving the dress in the bedroom, she made her way down the hallway towards the living area.
She had to seduce the big Kindred, whether she wanted to or not.
There was no choice.
Chapter Ten
Trey was dressed in his sleep trousers and watching an informational vid about some of the animals that lived on his new home world of Ormyu Five. He was interested because the creature the vid was talking about—the targen—looked a lot like the beast inside him. It had tawny fur and a mane and golden eyes and it roared when it was angry and…
“I don’t “roar”—that is my normal speaking voice,” his beast protested indignantly. “And besides, those creatures look nothing like me. I am much larger and my eyes are much brighter. They are pathetic imposters.”
“Sorry about that—I’m sure you’re right,” Trey murmured to his other half, with a little smile. “I just thought they looked a little like you so—”
“Trey?” Mia walked into view, standing in front of him with an uncertain—almost desperate—look on her face.
Concerned by her expression, Trey turned off the vid and looked up at her. Though he didn’t have to look far—even though he was sitting on the couch and she was standing, he was so much taller than her they were still nearly eye-to-eye.
“What is it, little one?” he asked, worried that she was somehow unwell. She looked lovely in his uniform shirt with her long, dark hair hanging down her back and her legs bare, but she didn’t seem happy at all.
“Trey…I…” She stopped abruptly, nibbling her lush lower lip and twisting her fingers together in front of her, which he had already noted was a sign of distress for her. She had pinned the pretty little star ornament she’d been wearing earlier to the lapel of the uniform shirt, he noticed distractedly.
“Yes, Mia? Is something bothering you? Something you need?” He couldn’t imagine what was wrong, but something clearly was. She was looking more upset and uncertain all the time.
She didn’t say anything in reply to his question but her small, slim fingers crept up to the golden buttons on the uniform shirt she was wearing and began unbuttoning them one by one.
Trey watched, mesmerized, as she came to the last button and spread the shirt open, revealing full, luscious breasts tipped with berry-dark nipples and rounded hips with a neatly trimmed mound of dark curls between her thighs.
“Trey,” she said, speaking at last in a low, trembling voice. “You can…can have me, if you want. You can use me to meet your needs.”
Then she stepped forward and reached for one of his hands, which lay open on his thigh. Lifting it, she pressed her left breast into his palm, so that he could feel the hard little point of her nipple right in the middle of his hand.
“Touch me,” she whispered. “Take me. Go on, I…I want you to.”
Her breast felt heavy and silky in his palm and her naked body was so close to his face he couldn’t look at anything but her luscious curves. Trey could feel his shaft going painfully hard in his sleep trousers, no doubt tenting the thin, silky material shamelessly. And inside him, his beast moved restlessly. Gods she was gorgeous! And Gods how he wanted her!
But several things stopped him from taking her up on her offer.
For one, he couldn’t help remembering her words to him about males having needs while females didn’t. So she couldn’t be doing this because she really wanted to—it must be from a sense of obligation.
The second thing that stopped him was more visceral—her scent. Under the sweet smell of the shower soap, the flowery bouquet of her hair, and the warm aroma of her skin, he scented something else that no one but a Kindred could have caught—her fear.
It breathed from her pores and tainted her sweetness with a bitter tang. Also, he could feel the breast he had cupped in his hand trembling and Mia’s breathing was shallow and quick. Her blue eyes were wide and she was nibbling her lip again, almost compulsively.
My Goddess, he realized, looking up at her. She’s frightened nearly to death! It’s scaring
the Seven Hells out of her to offer herself like this yet she’s doing it anyway. Why?
“Mia…” he said gently, removing his hand from her breast and pulling the two sides of the shirt closed to cover the tempting sight of her naked curves. “Little one, you don’t have to do this. If you’re trying to repay me for staying here, there’s no obligation.”
Mia looked near tears.
“But…don’t you have needs that must be met?” she asked, almost pleadingly.
“That’s not a need, it’s a want—a desire,” Trey told her firmly. “And nobody ever died if they didn’t get everything they wanted all the time.”
“So…you do want me, but you won’t take me?” She looked at him uncertainly.
Trey sighed. He could still feel the silky weight of her breast in his palm and see the soft little mound of curls that covered her pussy in his mind’s eye.
“You’re beautiful, little one—of course I want you. But I’m not going to take what you’re not ready to give.”
“But I am ready,” she protested. “I’m trying to meet your needs, Trey—why won’t you let me?”
“Because what I need most of all is not to hurt or scare you. Look…” He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. “You told me earlier today that some bastard tried to rape you. I don’t think you’re over that yet.”
“Yes, I am!” she said quickly, but he could still see her shaking, could still scent her fear.
“Even if you were, from what you told me, you’ve been taught next to nothing about sex.”
“You refuse to meet your needs with me because I’m a virgin?” she exclaimed. “But I can’t help that! It’s not my fault I was never called for reproductive purposes.”
“Goddess, reproductive purposes…” Trey shook his head—it was unbelievable the things she had been taught in that police state she’d lived in! “I’m refusing because you’re not ready and we don’t know each other well enough to do this right now,” he said firmly.
“But…we dreamed of each other,” Mia said in a small voice. “I thought that meant something to the Kindred.”
“It does. It means you’ve found the female the Goddess intends for you,” Trey said gently. “But when the Goddess sends you that special female you’re meant to love and cherish her—to treat her with tenderness and respect. I want to get to know you before we make love, Mia.”
“How?” she said simply, shaking her head. “I don’t understand what you want of me if it isn’t to meet your needs.”
“For starters, come sit beside me on the couch.” Trey patted the cushion beside him. “Watch this vid about targens with me and tell me about some of the other animals of your home world—which is my world now, too.”
“Really? That’s all you want—just to sit and watch a vid?” she asked disbelievingly.
“That’s all I want,” Trey assured her. “And maybe to put my arm around you and hold you while we watch. Would that be all right with you?”
“I…guess so.” She sat beside him in the spot he’d indicated and Trey put an arm around her shoulders.
At first she stiffened but after a moment when he didn’t try anything else, she began to relax a bit.
“We don’t have many vids back home,” she said with a little sigh. “Except for technical ones about how to do your job better.”
Wow, the dictating council that rules the Republic really tries to suck every bit of joy out of their people’s lives, don’t they? Trey thought and his beast growled in agreement.
“What harm could watching a vid about noble beasts of prey do?” he wanted to know.
Inwardly, Trey smiled. So now the targens were noble, eh?
“I’m sure I have no idea,” he answered.
To Mia he said,
“I bet you’ll like this then. It’s really interesting to me because we have a beast a little like a targen on my home world.”
He pressed play on the vid and continued watching, though he was very aware of the small, luscious female cupped in the crook of his arm. They watched for a while and Mia gradually relaxed even more against him. At first she had been sitting ramrod straight beside him on the couch. But slowly she began to melt against him, cuddling against his side and letting her head rest on his bare chest.
Trey knew it was probably just his Bonding Scent working on her, but he was glad to see her more relaxed. Clearly she had come out here expecting him to take her up on her offer and pretty much rape her, like that other bastard from her own country had tried to do. With no good sexual experiences and nothing but bad memories in her past, no wonder she’d been so frightened at the prospect of having sex with him.
We’ll have to find a way to change that, Trey told himself. How, he wasn’t sure how he would, but he knew he couldn’t Claim Mia and bond her to him without making love to her. And before that happened, he wanted her to be completely comfortable and happy with both his body and her own and the idea of the two of them together.
I’ll have to take things slowly, he decided. Talking about it openly to start with—getting to know each other—letting her know she’s safe with me, that I would never hurt her…
“Tell me about the beast you have on your home world that’s like a targen,” Mia said, breaking the comfortable silence they’d been sharing as they watched the vid.
“Well, it has the same coloring and a long mane around its face,” Trey said, choosing his words carefully because he hoped at some point to introduce her to his own beast. “But it’s much larger and its coat and eyes are more golden.”
“Really?” She looked up at him with wide eyes. “How big is it?”
“Oh…big enough for you to ride on, I’d say,” Trey said, smiling a little. He meant it as a gentle poke at his own beast who he was certain would object to such a thing. But to his surprise, his beast spoke up in his head and said that he would be pleased to give Mia a ride—though she would have to hold on tight to his mane.
“Ride on it? Why would I try to ride a wild beast?” She shivered in fear. “It would probably eat me for dinner!”
“It wouldn’t do any such thing,” Trey protested. “The beasts in my world are very intelligent. Sometimes they take a special liking to people and then they’re extremely loyal and protective.”
“Really?” Her eyebrows raised in surprise. “Do they follow you around like a canis if they like you, then?”
“Not exactly like a canis,” Trey demurred when his beast growled indignantly. “They’re more like a felinis in temperament, I’d say. “If they like you, they’ll come around and want to spend time with you. If they don’t, well…” He shrugged. “Then you’re of little interest.”
“They sound fascinating,” Mia said dreamily. “I wish I could see one sometime.” She sighed. “But I suppose your world is light years away.”
“That it is,” Trey murmured. “But you never can tell—maybe you’ll see one someday.”
“Someday soon!” his beast added emphatically. “I want to meet our female and smell her for myself,” he added.
“You will—just be patient,” Trey told his other half. He stroked Mia’s long hair gently and relished the feeling of her soft, curvy body resting against his own larger, harder one. He couldn’t blame his beast for wanting to get to know her in person.
“I’d like to pet one,” Mia mused, still watching the targens on the screen. “Even though they look scary, they’re beautiful too.” She looked up at Trey. “Can they really be gentle even though they’re so big?”
Somehow he sensed they weren’t really talking about targens anymore.
“Very gentle,” he assured her quietly. “And extremely protective.”
“I’d like that, I think,” she murmured. Then she bit her lip. “We’ve been sitting here for a while now, Trey. But…I’d still like to meet your needs.”
He frowned. Why was she so intent on offering herself to him when he could tell the idea frightened her? Well, maybe she wasn’t quite so
frightened anymore, he thought, taking a closer look at her. Her body language was more relaxed and her pupils were dilated as she looked up at him. Probably that was the effect of his bonding scent. But he still didn’t feel like they were anywhere near ready to make love.
“Why don’t you meet your own needs first?” he asked quietly.
“What? But I told you—women don’t have those needs,” she protested quickly, sitting up a little.
“Sure they do, little one.” Trey gave her a half-lidded stare. “They absolutely do. You’d have them too, if you’d just let yourself feel them.”
“How…” She cleared her throat, obviously embarrassed. “How could I do that?”
“How could you do what—feel your feelings or meet your needs?” Trey raised an eyebrow at her.
“I don’t know—both, I guess.” She was beginning to look nervous again but not in the bad, trapped and no-way-out way that she’d looked the first time she offered herself to him.
“Well, why don’t you start by touching yourself?” Trey asked matter-of-factly.
“Touching myself? You mean…Oh!” Her cheeks grew rosy and her eyes got wide. “Oh, I couldn’t do that! It’s a violation of The Oath.”
“Let me ask you something, did you want to take that oath? Did you ask to take it?” Trey demanded.
“Well…no.” She shook her head. “It was just…expected. All the girls had to take it.”
“On my world we believe if you didn’t enter into a contract or oath willingly and of your own volition, then it isn’t legally binding,” Trey remarked. “I’d say it’s the same principle with your oath. Nobody asked if you wanted to take it and dedicate yourself to a life of extreme celibacy. And you’re out of there now—you’ve left it behind. So why should you let that past life dictate how you live your new one?”
“I…never thought of it like that.” She shook her head. “Oh, but I wouldn’t know where to start! I’ve spent my whole life trying to…to avoid those areas.”
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