“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
