Vorn’s dark brows pulled down over his golden eyes and he looked so fierce Melli wondered how her big sister dared to bait him. But Jodi just looked at him coolly, her arms crossed over her full breasts as she tapped her fingernails, waiting for a response.
“They’re both, damn it,” Vorn growled at last. “Why should I have to choose just one reason to treat females the way they deserve to be treated?”
“Present company excepted?” Jodi asked, raising an eyebrow. “Maybe irritating bitches like me don’t quite deserve the same reverence nice ones like my little sister, do?” she said pointedly, looking at Melli.
“I never said that,” Vorn said, frowning. “Every female deserves reverence—even the ones that get under your skin and itch like a fucking Frenarian sand burr.”
His golden eyes met Jodi’s green ones and their gazes locked, both of them glaring at each other in a way that made Melli really glad looks couldn’t actually kill. Because if they could have, both Jodi and Vorn would probably have dropped dead on the spot.
“And on that note, I’m leaving,” she remarked, as a second Kindred shuttle, which converted to look like a car, pulled up beside them. Liosh got out and opened the passenger side door before coming around to open her door as well.
Jodi dragged herself away from the impromptu staring contest and gripped Melli’s hand.
“Be strong and stay safe, little sis,” she said, smiling briefly at Melli, though her eyes were serious. “Text me when you get home and let me know you’re okay.”
“Will do,” Melli promised, giving her big sister a smile. “You do the same. And cheer up, big sis—having a guard is for your own protection.”
“Right. I know,” Jodi said flatly. “Love you, Melli. Give me a hug.”
Melli—never one to refuse a hug—squeezed her big sister tightly. In some ways, she was closer to Jodi than anyone else in the world. Her sister knew things about her she hadn’t told anyone else—hadn’t even been able to tell their mother.
“Love you, Jodi,” she said, echoing her sister’s words. “Be safe and careful and watch out for lizard aliens.”
“Oh, I will,” Jodi assured her. “You, too.”
And then the back door closest to Melli opened and Liosh said,
“May I carry you to our new vehicle, my Lady?”
Melli’s heart fluttered despite her own uncertainty and her sister’s warning. And, contrary to the promise she’d made to herself earlier not to touch the big Kindred unnecessarily, she held out her arms eagerly.
“Yes, please, Liosh,” she said shyly. “And you can just call me Melinda, if you want. I don’t mind.”
“As you wish, my Lady Melinda,” he rumbled and then he was gathering her into his arms and holding her close to his broad chest. He kicked the door shut with his foot and then they were alone—just the two of them.
Three
Now I’m all alone with him. What am I supposed to do? Jodi thought, eyeing the still-glaring Beast Kindred in the front seat of the shuttle as the second shuttle with her little sister and Liosh in it drove away.
Vorn seemed to be wondering the same thing.
“Would you like to sit up front?” he asked at last, raising an eyebrow at her. “It would probably be easier for you to give me directions to your domicile that way.”
“Yeah, okay—sure,” Jodi muttered, though getting any closer to the big Kindred was the last thing she wanted to do. She started to get out of the back seat, only to have him come around quickly to open the door for her before she could get it for herself.
Jodi felt a flash of irritation.
“You don’t have to do that, you know,” she said, frowning up at him. “I mean, always open my door or pull out my chair. I’m a liberated woman—I don’t need to be treated like an invalid or a child.”
“I’m treating you with respect whether you want me to or not,” the big Kindred growled. “So if you want to get your own doors and chairs, that’s too damn bad.”
Jodi thought about arguing that he wasn’t respecting her wishes not to be respected, but even in her head that sounded too ridiculous—like she was picking a fight just for the sake of fighting.
Well, aren’t you? whispered a little voice in her head. Aren’t you fighting with him in order to put the way you feel around him out of your head?
Jodi pushed the little voice aside. It was ridiculous. She didn’t feel any specific way around Vorn except irritated.
But was it irritation that caused her to press her thighs together and shift in her seat when she was settled in the front of the shuttle beside him? Or was it that maddening, masculine scent of his, invading her senses and making her bra feel too itchy against her suddenly sensitive nipples and her panties feel too tight against the tender skin of her pussy?
Jodi didn’t know. She only knew the big Kindred affected her and the effect he had on her was bad. As she gave him curt, clipped directions back to her apartment just off the USF campus, she couldn’t help thinking that she really, really needed some alone time, damn it.
Hopefully soon, she would get some. Although how she would manage it with the big Kindred in the house, she had no idea.
Gods, had her scent gotten even stronger and sweeter?
Vorn cast a sidelong glance at his passenger as she told him in a tight, annoyed voice how to get to her domicile. He hadn’t thought it was possible for her feminine fragrance to affect him more, but damn if his shaft wasn’t at full mast and snarling in his flight leathers for release just because she was nearby. He could practically smell her pussy getting hotter by the minute—almost as if
