“Uh…” It had taken a certain amount of maneuvering to get up on the shaggy green animal in the first place and Liv didn’t want to fall on her face getting off it. Awkwardly, she began to clamber down but Jillian stopped her.
“Wait a minute—why are you doing it the hard way? Make it smaller before you try to get down.”
“Make it smaller?” Liv stared at her blankly. “How?”
“Like this.” Jillian addressed the two-headed creature sternly. “Take-me, half-as-big.”
Liv gasped in dismay as the furry green back under her bottom suddenly began to shrink. In a second she was left standing with her legs still spread wide and a Take-me no bigger than a large dog between them.
“I…I didn’t know it could do that.” Liv stepped carefully away from the placid creature who was looking up at her patiently with all six of its big purple eyes. “Can it get twice as big too?”
“It can be any size you want—well, up to a point. The Take-mes can compress and expand their mass almost infinitely but you wouldn’t want to make it too big to fit in the ship, of course. Now come on.” Jillian tugged on her arm. “We don’t have all day and I’m dying to catch up with you.”
Liv allowed herself to be led into the suite Jillian shared with her two husbands and the Take-me ambled in after them. Jillian put it in with her own Take-me which had apparently just come back from the Kindred version of the vet. It seemed to have a longer back than Liv’s. “It’s a three person model—bred especially for Twin Kindred families,” she explained when she saw Liv staring. “Speaking of which, you haven’t lived until you’ve done it on a Take-me. The way they rock when they walk…” She trailed off giggling. “But I’m sure you know what I mean.”
“Well, no, actually. I had no idea there was any such animal, er, form of transportation, until you told me,” Liv reminded her.
Jillian frowned. “Oh, that’s right. So strange that your guy hasn’t taken you on your Take-me to see the rest of the ship yet.”
Liv felt uncomfortable. “Well, we’ve kind of been staying in a lot. Our, uh, claiming period isn’t even over yet—in fact, this is just the beginning of our third week.” She was not going to say tasting week but she didn’t have to because Jillian said it for her.
“Oh, your tasting week. Well, if your guy is anything like mine are, you’re in for a big treat.” She giggled.
“Right. Can’t wait,” Liv mumbled.
“My goodness, I didn’t realize you were that new to the ship.” Jillian’s eyes widened and she tossed her perfect hair over her shoulder. “I can’t believe he even let you out of his sight.”
“Well, like I told you, he’s away at some conference on the Moon.” Liv shrugged. “And I figured, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Jillian grinned. “That’s the spirit! Well, anyway, make yourself at home. The food got here right before you did and I’m dishing it up right now.”
“Can I use your restroom?” Liv asked. Swaying on the back of the Take-me for the past hour with no hope of getting off had made her have to go.
“Sure. Down the hall and to the right. Look around if you want—all the suites are decorated pretty much the same with us brides in mind. They want us to feel at home, I guess although from what my guys say, our concept of furniture is kind of strange to them. Did you know on Twin Moons they eat lying down and sleep sitting up? So weird.”
“Yeah, that is weird.” Liv really had to go now. Making an excuse to get away from Jillian’s chattering, she ducked down the hall and went to find the bathroom.
As far as she could tell, Jillian was right about the decoration. Her suite appeared to be done in the same style as the one Liv was sharing with Baird. The one different was that the massive furniture seemed to be even bigger. Of course, she thought as she peeked her head into the doorway of the bedroom and saw a bed so immense it dwarfed the one she and Baird slept in. Everything is built for three.
The bathing pool was larger too—to the point where you could almost do laps in it. For a minute Liv wished for one that size and then she remembered that in order to get one, she would have had to put up with two huge Kindred warriors instead of one. No thanks, guess I’ll keep the one I have, she thought with a little shiver.
After she finished in the bathroom, she found her way out to the living area which was just off the main hallway where she’d entered. There was a couch that was half again as long as the one Baird had but at least it didn’t have a creepy living blanket on it. Liv still refused to sit on the fuzzy blue couch cover, although Baird had explained several times that it actually liked to be used.
In Liv’s opinion, household objects should not be able to fondle you or decide that they wanted you to use them. But the Kindred, being genetic traders, had developed a distressingly large amount of appliances that were alive and all too aware of their surroundings. Like that Touch-U thing…ugh! Just remembering the way the black massage mat had molested her still made Liv shiver. Well, at least there are a few useful and easy to use things. The Take-me was relatively simple and now that I know how to make it bigger or smaller even mounting and dismounting should be no problem.
Stepping around the couch she saw a display of wall mounted holo frames, each displaying Jillian with two huge Kindred males. To Liv’s surprise, one of them had dark blond hair and green eyes while the other had brown hair and brown eyes.
“Those are my guys,” Jillian said from behind her, making Liv jump. “Aren’t they handsome?”
“Yes, they are,” she said honestly. “But, uh, I thought they were supposed to be twins.”
“Yes, but not identical—fraternal. Otherwise, how would you ever tell them apart?” Jillian giggled. “Now this one is Happy.” She pointed at the blonde warrior who was slightly shorter than his brother. Not that a few inches mattered one way or another since both of them were over six four.
“And you call him that because…?”
“He’s the cheerful one—the light twin,” Jillian explained. “They’re like two halves of a whole, you know. So you always have a light twin and a dark twin—they compliment each other. Now that one,” She pointed to the Kindred male with the dark brown hair. “Is Grumpy, the dark twin. It took me a little while to warm up to him. But once I did…let’s just say he’s very…intense in the bedroom.” She gave a little mock shiver and grinned at Liv. “What do you think?”
“I think you make a lovely couple…er, threesome,” Liv corrected herself hastily. “You look, uh, very happy together.”
“Oh, we are.” Jillian was positively beaming. “In fact, we’re already trying for a baby. But of course, that’s not exactly easy with the Twin Kindred. What with the way we have to…I mean, they both have to, you know, at the same time. You know?”
“Uh, yeah, I guess so.” Liv really didn’t want to go into the details. “I’m really looking forward to trying Twin Moon’s cuisine,” she said, hoping to change the subject. To her relief, it worked.
“Omigod, the food—I left it out by itself. Come on.” Jillian grabbed her by the hand and dragged her back to the food prep area.
Once they were settled at the massive table with a circular bench running all the way around it, she proceeded to serve Liv something that looked like a heaping plate of pale orange spaghetti.
“Pasta?” Liv poked at the noodles experimentally with her fork and then gasped when several of them reared up off the plate and poked back.
Jillian laughed. “It’s not exactly pasta although I know it looks like that.”
“But…it’s alive.” Liv laid down her fork and stared at her plate in horror.
“Well, of course it’s alive, silly. You can’t kill Grieza worms until you’re just about to eat them or you’ll lose their delicious fresh flavor.”
“Uh, I think I’ll pass, thanks.” Liv was in the act of pushing the plate away—very carefully because she didn’t want any of the pasta-worms coming after her—when Jillian stopped her.
“This is some kind of a joke, right?” Liv asked uncertainly as Jillian poked a large forkful of the recently deceased worms into her mouth.
“Uh-uh.” Jillian swallowed and dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. “C’mon, Livvy, live a little. Hasn’t your honey been cooking for you at all? My guys love to cook for me—sometimes they fight over the privilege.” She grinned. “Of course that’s only because I reward them so nicely afterwards.”
“Yes, Baird cooks,” Liv admitted. “And it’s not all Earth food. In fact, he’d made quite a lot of Kindred dishes for me. But I, uh, kind of asked him not to tell me everything he was cooking.”
“You did?” Jillian frowned. “But that means you’re missing out on half the experience. I mean, the whole point of being up here is to learn their culture so we can understand them. That and the amazingly hot sex, that is.” She giggled.
“Maybe they should spend some time trying to understand us.” Liv crossed her arms over her chest.
“Honey, they’ve been studying us for ages.”
“They have?”
Jillian nodded and took another big bite of her pasta, making an ecstatic mmm sound before continuing. “I mean, think about it, they’re genetic traders. They want to know what they’re getting into before they propose a trade. Why do you think the ship is so easy to get around in? I mean, they could have made it a lot more difficult just by conforming to their own standards of comfort but they designed it to make the Earth brides comfortable.”
“Really?” Jillian thought back to her first night in Baird’s suite. Everything had seemed strange and frightening at the time but she had to admit she’d been able to tell what each room was used for. The kitchen even had a refrigerator and a stove of sorts. Who knew how Baird’s people cooked and stored food back on their home planet? For all she knew they buried it in a cold hole in the ground and seared it on lava rocks or something. She’d never considered that Baird might be living in an environment that was alien to him as well, in order to make her feel more comfortable. But now that she thought about it…
“Really,” Jillian said, breaking into her train of thought. “And since they’re so into learning about us, I figure the least we can do is give their culture a shot. Some things are easy to adapt to—I mean, I never want to live anywhere without a bathing pool again, you know? Other things are a little harder.”
“Like the uh, what did you call them?” Liv gestured at her plate.
“The Grieza worms,” Jillian said, taking another forkful. “Go on, try them, Livvy. I promise you won’t regret it.”
“Well…” Liv hesitated, feeling torn. On one hand, she was almost ashamed of herself. She’d been so determined to resist Baird that she’d been closing her eyes to his entire culture. Who would have thought that ditzy Jillian Holms would be more open minded than her? On the other hand, those were freaking worms on her plate. Lots of Earth cultures eat insects and other weird things, she reminded herself. Besides, I never expected to like sushi when I first tried it and now it’s one of my favorite foods. “All right,” she said at last. “Pass the poison sauce. I’m going to kill these suckers good and dead before I dig in.”
“That’s the spirit.” Jillian laughed and handed her the rectangular pitcher with the strange spiral spout. Liv took it and doused the pale orange pasta-worms on her plate liberally with the thin blue-green oil. When they were bright green and didn’t move when she poked them, she felt better. But only marginally. After all, she still had what amounted to a plateful of freshly killed raw worms. Grimly she wound some of the long thin strands around her fork and lifted the dripping mass to her mouth. Come on, she told herself. It can’t be worse than Baird’s first attempt at pizza! Closing her eyes tight, she shoved the worms in her mouth and began to chew.
At first she was so intent on not spitting out what she’d just put in her mouth that Liv couldn’t taste a thing. But after a moment the flavor exploded across her tongue and it was…Sweet. It’s actually sweet! The Grieza worms seemed to melt on her tongue, filling her mouth with a taste like the richest, most decadent chocolate she’d ever had. There were other flavors mixed in, a hint of something like mint and something else like citrus and raspberries and almonds but the main flavor was definitely chocolate.
“See, didn’t I tell you?” Jillian grinned at her delightedly. “It’s like Godiva died and went to heaven in your mouth, right?”
“It’s…pretty damn amazing,” Liv admitted, swallowing and reaching for another forkful. The taste was instantly addictive and she wanted more no matter where it came from. “Why didn’t you tell me they tasted like chocolate?” she demanded after she finished another forkful.
“It’s better if you find out for yourself.” Jillian dug into her own plateful of chocolate pasta-worms happily. “I didn’t believe it myself until my guys got me to try them. Now I can’t get enough of them. And you know the best part? They’re pure protein—no fat and really low calories. You can practically eat as much as you want and not gain an ounce.”
“Wow,” Liv mumbled around another mouthful. She knew she was being rude but she didn’t want to stop eating long enough to really talk. The weird looking Grieza worms were literally the best thing she’d ever put in her mouth. Go figure.
They ate in silence for a moment until both plates were completely clean. Unlike eating real chocolate, the Grieza worms tasted decadent but weren’t too rich too eat a lot of at one sitting. Though she was alarmingly full when her plate was clean, Liv thought she cheerfully could have asked for seconds. However, she didn’t want to be rude so she just smiled at Jillian. “Thanks for getting me to try that. It was amazing.”
“I knew you’d like it.” Jillian smiled. “Seriously, I gave up a lot to leave Earth and be with my guys but between the hot sex every night and the Grieza worms it was totally worth it.”
“You really think so?” Liv looked at her closely. “I mean, didn’t you leave family behind? People you loved? And now you can never see them except once or twice a year.”
“It’s a little rough,” Jillian admitted, pouring Liv a glass of wine. “I’m really close to my mom and she cried and cried when I got drafted. Actually, both of us did. At first I was determined to resist but, well…” She shrugged. “The guys are just so sweet. I mean, they think the sun just rises and sets on me. It’s hard to resist that kind of devotion.”
“Baird seems really, uh, devoted to me, too,” Liv admitted. “He’s always really patient.” And I’ve really been trying his patience lately. But she was ashamed to say that out loud. Jillian seemed so happy and well adjusted here on the Kindred ship. It was hard to admit that she herself wasn’t. Only because you won’t let yourself be. But she pushed the thought to the back of her mind.
“It’s funny you should say that because Beast Kindred have a reputation of being really impatient. Very fiery and impetuous—especially if they feel like they’re bride is threatened. Of course, that last pretty much goes for all Kindred. Don’t you think it’s kind of romantic to be with a guy who would fight to the death to keep you safe?” Jillian sighed happily. “I mean, my last boyfriend on Earth was nice—he bought me everything I wanted, had his own yacht—you name it. But he never really had time for me. If I complained or wanted to talk he just threw more money at me. It got really boring after awhile. Not to mention that his bedroom technique was, shall we say, lacking.” She giggled. “And I have to say I have no complaints about the guys in that department. What about Baird? Is
he amazing in bed?”
“Uh…” Liv didn’t actually want to admit she hadn’t done the deed with him yet. “He’s really focused on my pleasure,” she said carefully. “He seems to be a lot more interested in making me happy than, uh, getting happy himself if you know what I mean.”
“I do—I know exactly what you mean. My guys are the same way,” Jillian said excitedly.
“Still?” Liv raised an eyebrow at her. “I guess I just thought, I don’t know, that maybe the whole ‘put your woman’s pleasure first’ routine was only for the, uh, courting stage of the relationship.”
“Oh no.” Jillian shook her head. “Believe me, the Kindred are devoted to their brides all their lives. Their whole culture reveres women—that’s why they worship a Goddess—the Mother of All Life. I don’t think you could find a single society in all of Earth that’s more into pleasing and protecting their females. It’s really amazing.”
“I guess so,” Liv said slowly. “Baird is very protective.”
“My guys too.” Jillian nodded. “And they want to spend hours and hours making me, well, you know…” She blushed and giggled. “But it’s not just that—afterwards we talk—for hours sometimes. That’s how I learned so much about their planet. They miss it, you know. The ship really isn’t home to any of them either but they came here to take part in the new trade and find brides. One of them, Thinks Hard, told me that even if he never saw his home world again he would consider it worth it because he and Sees Much had won me as their bride.” She put a hand to her chest. “Isn’t that romantic?”
Liv had to admit it was. “Baird seems to feel like we had a connection a long time before we met,” she said cautiously.
“Because of the dream-sharing, of course. I always say that’s better than a background check any day because let me tell you, dreams don’t lie. What you see is what you get.”
Liv thought of the dark man she’d seen in her dreams. The way her heart had ached for him, the way she’d wanted to heal him. Then she thought of the gentle way Baird touched her and the despair on his face when he’d asked why she couldn’t admit her feelings for him. Suddenly she felt like crying.
Brides of the Kindred Volume One: Books 1-4 Page 26