“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 someone 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?
