“Well, I don’t want to see James anymore than you wanted to see Amanda Brannigan, but I’m not letting him run me out of USF,” she said firmly. “I’m going to finish my degree at least—though I might focus more on other kinds of counseling since I don’t think anybody here has much sexual dysfunction.”
“Unless you count having too much sex as a dysfunction,” Melli said dryly.
“Exactly.” Jodi laughed. “Anyway, after I finish my degree, Vorn and I might head back up here to the Mother Ship. Honestly, it’s so much nicer than Earth.”
“It really is,” Melli agreed. “It has everything you need and want with none of the pollution or political nastiness of Earth. Everyone here is just so…happy.” Having finished the blueberry cupcake Jodi had offered her, she reached for another—a pale peachy one that had a faint fruity aroma.
“Oh, wait—don’t eat that one!” Jodi exclaimed, grabbing her by the wrist before Melli could bring the luscious-looking cupcake to her mouth.
“What? Why not?” Melli put it down and turned to her sister in surprise.
“Because, that’s a bonding fruit cupcake.” Jodi blushed a little. “The lady named Lauren, who owns the bakery, only sells them to mated women.”
“But why?” Melli asked. “I thought bonding fruit just helped a girl, er, open up more—especially girls who are mated to Twin Kindred. At least, that’s what Liosh told me.”
“It does do that, but it’s also an aphrodisiac—a really strong one,” Jodi told her. “So you have to be careful. According to Lauren, once you eat it, you pretty much have to have sex. Which is why she only sells them to mated women.”
Melli frowned. “Well why in the world did you buy one? It’s not like you and Vorn need any help in that department. You two are constantly going at it twenty-four/seven—like a couple of bunnies.”
“I know that, but, well…Vorn and I like to try new things.” Jodi’s cheeks were getting red. “We’re very…experimental, if you know what I mean.”
“I think I have an idea,” Melli said dryly. She was pretty sure that the side of herself that Jodi had been suppressing the whole time she was with James was finally coming out into the open. And though she was glad for her big sister, she didn’t really need to know the dirty details.
“So anyway, I just thought I’d try it.” Jodi shrugged. “So pick another one—any cupcake but that one.”
“Okay.” Melli shrugged and selected a chocolate one instead. But even as she took a bite of the luscious dark chocolate, her eyes lingered on the peach bonding fruit cupcake as an idea formed in her mind…
Fifty-Three
“Are you ready to go back down to Earth tomorrow?” Liosh asked, as they were getting ready for bed. They had been sleeping together—well, cuddled up with each other anyway—for the entire week they’d spent aboard the Mother Ship. It was just that cuddling was as far as it went, Melli thought sadly.
Well, maybe that would change tonight.
“I think so,” she called from the bathroom—what the Kindred called the fresher—where she was just finishing brushing her teeth. “Why do you ask?”
“I just wanted to make sure you felt ready,” Liosh told her.
“I’m ready,” Melli told him. “I’ve missed enough classes—I need to get back.”
She could see through the crack in the partially open door that he was wearing a long pair of satiny dark blue sleep trousers and nothing else. His broad, bare chest was mouth-watering in its muscular smoothness, she thought longingly. She seriously wouldn’t mind licking him all over like a great big ice cream cone.
An image formed in her mind of her pushing the big Kindred to the bed and doing exactly that—licking and sucking him while he moaned her name.
The surprisingly aggressive sexual thought caught her a little off guard. Was that the bonding fruit cupcake she had eaten talking, or was it her natural sex drive finally coming out to assert itself? She knew that Jodi had a high sex drive—what if she was more like her big sister than she realized?
Well, whatever the reason, her engine was revving tonight and she was determined to get some satisfaction—she just hoped that Liosh would cooperate. She looked at herself in the viewer, taking stock of what she saw.
Melli had something a little different on tonight—something she hoped the male she loved would enjoy. But she wanted to take her time before she revealed it. So she belted a short, silky pink robe around her waist and came out into the bedroom—or sleeping chamber, as the Kindred called it.
Liosh smiled at her as his eyes traveled up and down her body, taking in the silky robe hugging her curves and her bare legs.
“You look lovely, Talli,” he murmured.
Melli’s heart started pounding faster.
“Thank you,” she murmured, wishing that Liosh would offer her more than compliments. But the big Kindred only opened the covers and patted the spot beside him on the bed. “Come on, let’s get some sleep,” he said.
As if sleep was what Melli was craving! Still, she wasn’t about to give up on getting what she wanted yet.
Follow the plan, she told herself firmly. Just do what you planned and everything will be okay.
Se hoped, anyway.
Step number one was taking off her robe. She waited until Liosh’s pale blue eyes were on her and then, with deliberately slow and sensual movements, slipped the soft pink robe down her shoulders to reveal the silky pink teddy that went with it.
Liosh’s eyes widened as he took her in. The teddy was a tiny little number with lacy, see-through cups that showed the innocent buds
