“What?” Liosh looked at her in undisguised horror. “Did he injure the inside of you that badly? Did he hurt your womb?”
“No—nothing like that.” Melli shook her head. “But the next time I had my period I tried to put in a tampon and, well…” She shrugged her shoulders. “I couldn’t.”
“I’m sorry—a what?” Liosh looked confused.
She explained briefly about tampons.
“They’re only the size of a finger—the ones I use, anyway. Well, used to use. But when I tried to put one in, it was like everything down there just clenched up.”
She made a fist to show him what she was talking about.
“That’s not surprising,” Liosh said gently. “The body remembers trauma.”
“Well, mine can’t forget it, no matter what I do.” Melli sighed. “The rape was years ago and I’ve had so much therapy since then. I don’t hate myself anymore—I don’t even hate Jason. I had to let go of that in order to heal—though of course the healing process is different for everyone.”
“I hate him,” Liosh growled. “How could he treat such a beautiful, innocent little female in such a shameful way? Such evil should be punished.”
“I just never want to see him again,” Melli said. “Honestly, I don’t know what I’d do if I did.” She shivered.
“But in the meantime, he left you with lasting trauma,” Liosh said, it wasn’t a question.
Melli nodded.
“He did. I can’t…can’t open up down there. Not for anything. It’s a condition called ‘vaginismus’—‘an involuntary contraction of muscles around the opening of the vagina in women with no abnormalities in the genital organs. The tight muscle contraction makes sexual intercourse or any sexual activity that involves penetration painful or impossible,’” she quoted. “That’s literally what it says when you Google it.”
“So you tighten up whenever you, uh, try to…”
“Put anything at all in my vagina,” Melli finished for him. “And believe me, I’ve tried to fix it. Those things you found under my bed this morning? They’re called dilators. The idea is that you start with the smallest one and gradually work your way up to the biggest—which is supposed to be the size of a normal human-sized penis.” She looked at Liosh directly. “But I’ve heard all the rumors about the Kindred—about how all you guys are hung like horses.”
“We are larger than human males in every way,” Liosh admitted, frowning. “So the dilators didn’t help?”
Melli shook her head.
“I couldn’t even get the smallest one inside me. It hurt too much so I stopped.” She looked at him appealingly. “So do you see now why we can never be together? You told me yourself that in order to bond with me, you’d have to be all…all the way inside me, making love to me while you bit me and injected your essence.” She shook her head. “That’s never going to be possible, Liosh. It’s just not.”
To her surprise, the big Kindred didn’t immediately agree with her. Instead, he bowed his head and appeared to be deep in thought for a long moment. At last he looked up at her.
“Melinda,” he asked. “Would you allow me to try and heal you?”
Twenty-One
“Heal me? How?” she looked at him fearfully. But Liosh thought he also saw the tiniest spark of hope in her eyes. “Do the Kindred have medicine for this kind of thing?” she asked.
“For the aftermath of sexual trauma, no,” Liosh said. “Though we do have something called bonding fruit which enables a female to open herself for a shaft much larger than she normally could take. The Twin Kindred use it for bonding—it would be impossible for them otherwise. But that isn’t what I’m proposing—not yet, anyway.”
“What, then?” There was definite hope in Melinda’s big blue eyes now. “How would you—could you—heal me, Liosh?”
Liosh took a deep breath, trying to think how to express his thoughts to her.
“Remember how I told you that the essence my fangs make is able to heal the wounds of my mate?”
“But I’m not your mate,” Melinda protested. Her face went pale. “And I don’t know how I feel about you biting me in such a sensitive place.”
“I wouldn’t have to bite you to spread my essence,” Liosh told her. “I could do that just by licking and kissing you.”
Her cheeks got rosy.
“You want to lick and kiss my, uh…”
“Your pussy. Yes.” Liosh nodded.
“Well…” She seemed to be considering it. “But it’s not like what’s wrong with me is a cut or a scrape. My body healed from the trauma of the rape a long time ago. At least, outwardly. Jodi says she thinks my vaginismus is psychological.” She sighed. “She’s the one who suggested the dilators, you know? I think what happened to me is one reason she decided she wanted to be a sex therapist.”
“I agree with your sister that a lot of your problem is probably due to mental and emotional trauma,” Liosh said. “But I think the body has muscle memory too. You said that when this happened to you, when this male…took you…” He couldn’t bring himself to say the word ‘rape’—it made him sick just to think it. “When he took you,” he went on, “It was your first sexual experience? Correct?”
Melinda nodded.
“I was a virgin up until then,” she whispered. “I went home that night feeling like a whore—because he told me I was. Because he told me I wanted it.” Angry tears filled her eyes. “Nobody wants to be treated like that! Nobody wants to be raped!”
“Of course not, Talli.” Liosh felt like his heart was breaking open for her, like her hurt and pain were seeping into him and they were almost too much to bear—yet he wanted to help her bear them. “Melinda,” he whispered hoarsely. “Can I hold you?”
At first she seemed uncertain but when he held open his arms, she flowed to him quickly. Liosh pulled her into his lap and cradled her against him, stroking her long blonde hair as she sobbed and feeling her anguish as though it was his own. In a way, it was his. For she was the female the Goddess had set aside for him—of this he was absolutely certain. Melinda might think of herself as broken or damaged but to him she was perfect and beautiful and the only female in the universe for him.
Oh Goddess, he prayed silently as he held her close. Please help me to heal her—help me heal the female you sent me to love. And if I cannot, let us be together anyway. Let our love be strong even without a bonding to cement it. For I never, ever want to give Melinda up or let her go.
For a moment, he thought he felt a healing warmth surround him and a strong, female voice seemed to whisper in his heart,
“Be patient, Warrior, and your love shall be rewarded.”
Then the warmth faded and the voice died away but Liosh was certain he was on the right track.
“Melinda,” he murmured when she finished crying and wiped her eyes on the sleeve of the green and gold sweatshirt with the USF logo she was wearing.
“Yes?” She looked up at him, her eyes red and uncertain.
“I would still like to try and heal you,” Liosh told her firmly. “As I said before, I think the body has muscle memory. Maybe if the muscles that were traumatized were bathed with my essence, it might help them to relax.”
“Do you really think so?” Melinda asked, and that spark of hope was back in her eyes.
“It might not happen all at once,” Liosh cautioned her. “It might take many, many sessions of gentle licking and bathing your sweet pussy with my essence to help you begin to relax.”
“Many sessions?” Melinda looked at him doubtfully. “And…you wouldn’t mind that? Because not many guys I know would be all right with going down on a girl time after time with no pay-off guaranteed.”
“Talli, tasting you is the pay-off.” Liosh stroked her cheek gently as he looked down into her lovely blue eyes. “And I promise you now, even if it doesn’t work—even if I can never make love to you with anything but my tongue, we’ll still stay together.”
“Liosh, don’t!
” she exclaimed. “You can’t make promises like that—we barely know each other.”
“I know you enough to understand that you’re the one female who’s perfect for me—the one the Goddess meant for me to find,” Liosh told her. “And I’ve known it from the first minute I saw you sitting in your mother’s yard under that big old tree with the Varians attacking you. I knew you were the one I’m meant to Claim. So will you let me try it? Please?”
“Um, now?” Melinda looked at him uncertainly.
Liosh shook his head.
“No, you’ve been through enough tonight. Reliving your pain and telling it to me, which I know wasn’t easy. No, tonight I just want to hold you in my arms and keep you close to me.”
A tremulous little smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
“I…I’d like that too,” she admitted. “There’s something about you, Liosh—you have such a warm, kind, comforting presence. From the minute I saw you, I just wanted to crawl into your lap and stay there.”
“That’s because you felt it too,” Liosh assured her. “The knowledge that we were right for each other—that the Goddess meant us to be together.”
“I don’t know about the Goddess,” Melinda murmured. “But I certainly felt drawn to you from the first. Maybe it’s because you’re not a human guy—you’re a Kindred. And I know a Kindred would never do…what was done to me.”
“No, never,” Liosh agreed fiercely. He still felt the Rage in his heart—the fire that burned bright and hot against the male who had wronged her so callously. Who had decided that her innocent body was something to plunder for his own greedy pleasure and her gentle spirit was something to be broken.
If I ever find him, Liosh promised himself, I’ll make him pay for what he did to my Talli. I’ll visit the agony of the Seven Hells upon him and make him beg for death.
But for now the embers of his vengeful Rage were banked, ready to blaze up in the future if they were needed. Right now, he just wanted to hold Melinda and let her know how perfect and beautiful she still was, despite what had happened to her. Tonight he just wanted to show her his love.
“Come on, Talli,” he murmured in her ear. “Let’s go to bed and hold each other.”
She looked up at him and he saw her heart in her big blue eyes.
“All right,” she whispered. “Let’s go.”
Liosh gave her a gentle squeeze and kissed her forehead. Then he rose with her still in his arms and carried her into the bedroom to hold her close all night.
Twenty-Two
The ride home from The Todd was stiff with sexual tension. But at least it wasn’t angry sexual tension, anymore, Jodi thought to herself. She and Vorn understood each other now—understood that they had unconsciously been driving each other crazy and that the feeling between them wasn’t either one of their faults.
Feeling…right, sneered a sarcastic little voice in the back of her head. Don’t you mean desire? Or maybe lust would be a better word. And don’t forget, you’re engaged.
Jodi could hardly forget it. The diamond on her left hand wouldn’t let her. And yet, the animal magnetism of the big Kindred sitting in the car beside her was undeniable…inescapable. Just smelling Vorn’s Mating Scent in the enclosed area was making her nipples hard and her pussy wet.
From the way Vorn’s nostrils were flaring and the hot looks he was throwing her way, he was feeling the effects of their mutual cycle of arousal as much as she was.
“You know, baby,” he growled, when they were about halfway back to her apartment. “I don’t wanna be pushy, but I think it might be a good idea if you used those toys on yourself the minute we get in the door tonight. Your scent is so sweet and hot it’s kind of making me crazy right now.”
“Don’t forget, your scent does the same thing to me,” Jodi pointed out, a bit breathlessly. “And I fully intend to break in some of the toys we got. Only…” She hesitated for a moment.
“Only what?” Vorn growled, shooting her a glance.
“Only, I just thought that maybe…maybe I would put on a little fashion show first,” Jodi heard herself saying.
God was she really saying this? And did she really want to go through with it?
The tingling in her pussy was answer enough. Jodi loved to dress up and pretend she had an audience watching her. If she actually did have someone looking while she paraded around in her sexy new clothes…God! Just the thought alone was almost enough to make her come!
“A fashion show, huh?” Vorn’s deep voice was definitely interested. “What kind of fashion show do you mean?”
“The kind where I put on some of the naughty little outfits you just bought me and you get to see how they fit,” she said lightly. “Of course, it would be a strictly look-but-don’t-touch event,” she added quickly. Because after all, if the big Kindred didn’t touch her, it couldn’t be considered cheating—could it?
Jodi was pretty sure it couldn’t.
“Of course.” Vorn agreed. His golden eyes had gone half-lidded and his Mating Scent had intensified until it was all Jodi could do not to crawl across the seat and straddle him while he drove the damn car. “I’d be pleased to watch your fashion show, little girl,” he told her. “You think it’ll help you get off? Having somebody watch you be sexy?”
Blushing, Jodi nodded.
“It always helps me to imagine I have an audience,” she admitted. “I guess I’m just an exhibitionist at heart.”
He shook his head.
“So damn much like the Krining. I knew there was a reason I was drawn to you.”
“What’s the Krining?” Jodi asked, frowning. “Is it some kind of Kindred thing?”
“It is but it’s only in my home tribe back on Rageron,” Vorn said. “It’s a kind of ritual a male and his chosen bride go through before they can be formally Joined.”
“Oh?” Jodi was immediately intrigued. “And is this a, uh, sexual ritual?”
“You got it in one.” Vorn nodded. “It’s kind of a public Claiming—a way for the male to let every other male in the tribe know that the female he has chosen—and who has chosen him—is off-limits.”
“Oh?” Jodi asked again, shifting in her seat. “And…what exactly does he do?”
“First the whole tribe gathers—well, all the unmated males and females, anyway,” Vorn told her. “This show is strictly for them, so they’re the only ones who have to see it. So anyway, they all gather in the center of the Claiming Grove—which is a special spot in the center of a group of trees designated for that purpose. They all form a ring around the pair and then the Krining begins.”
“What exactly do they do?” Jodi asked, shifting towards him.
“Well…” Vorn frowned. “I don’t want you to be shocked. Some people say it’s a savage custom—that it makes public what ought to be private. But my tribe carries on the tradition anyway.”
“Tell me!” Jodi reached out to put a hand on his arm and the tingle between them was almost electrical when they touched.
Vorn looked down at her small hand and then up into her eyes. The heat in his golden gaze was unmistakable.
Jodi quickly withdrew her hand.
“Tell me,” she said again, trying to ignore the way her pussy felt so much wetter than before she’d touched him. “Tell me about the Krining.”
“Okay, well…” Vorn cleared his throat. “First the male takes a vine and binds it around his chosen bride’s wrists. He ties the vine to a tree branch above. And then he ties her ankles wide apart as well—so she’s open and helpless in front of everyone.”
Jodi felt her breath catch in her throat. To be helpless in front of so many people—to be in the hands of your Master and know he could do to you what he wanted…
The mental image turned her on so much she could barely breathe. But there was something that bothered her.
“But this is consensual, right?” she asked. “I mean, it’s not something the male forces the female to do?”
“Hell no, sw
eetheart—don’t you know by now that Kindred aren’t willing to do anything a female doesn’t want?” Vorn asked. “No, believe me—the females are as into it as the males. More even.” He shot her a glance. “You give off that vibe, you know—the feeling of a female waiting for her Krining. Maybe that’s what made my Mating Scent come out for you—because you remind me of home.”
“Well, what happens next?” Jodi asked, trying not to sound too breathless. “Once he has her all tied up, what does the male do?”
“Well first, he cuts or rips her clothes off—usually with his teeth,” Vorn told her. “He has to make her bare before the whole tribe, you see, in order to mark her as his own. So he makes a big show of stripping her while the female stands there, tied up and helpless. He bares her breasts and her pussy in order to Claim her.”
Jodi felt her breath catch in her throat as her own pussy clenched with need. Oh, God…
“That…that sounds interesting,” she finally managed to say. “What…what does he do next?”
“Touches her,” Vorn growled softy. “Runs his hands all over her body. You have no idea how erotic it can be to watch—the way he circles her in the firelight, cupping her breasts…tugging her hard little nipples…running his hands up and down her sides and finally, down to claim her pussy…”
“Oh,” Jodi whispered, squeezing her thighs together.
“He tastes her too,” Vorn said, his golden eyes gleaming in the dark car beside her. “The whole tribe watches as he sucks her nipples. And then, when her pussy is good and hot, he goes down on his knees before her and buries his face between her thighs.”
“And…and the whole time she’s tied up and can’t…can’t do anything to stop him?” Jodi asked, shifting in her seat again. Oh God, she was getting so hot!
Vorn nodded. “Not a damn thing. She just has to stand there and let him taste her—has to let him spread her sweet pussy with his tongue and lap all her honey while everyone watches.”
“Mmmm…” Jodi squirmed in her seat, unable to sit still. She was certain her panties were soaked by now but she couldn’t seem to help it—she was getting so damn hot. “And then…then what happens?” she finally managed to ask, nearly panting as she did.
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