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  “I know you will.” Sophie gave her a hug and then cocked her head. “Oh my God, the music’s starting. How do I look?”

  “Gorgeous.” Nadiah hugged her carefully, trying not to disarrange the transparent white panel she wore over her face which the other Earth girls had called a veil. It was a beautiful and interesting custom—one she was determined to emulate in her own bonding ceremony.

  And who knows, she thought as they lined up behind Sophie and began the slow procession out to the sacred grove. Maybe I’ll be meeting—and kissing— my future mate in the next few minutes.

  Of course she knew that was nonsense. The blood bond between herself and Yo-dah was practically unbreakable. Her parents had seen to that. Still, a warrior who genuinely cared for her might be able to challenge the bond…

  Humming softly along with the lovely Earth music, Nadiah followed her friend out of the changing tent.

  Chapter Five

  “Well…that wasn’t so bad,” Lauren murmured after Blix finally left. She shut and locked the door carefully, checking it twice to make sure it was secure, before shaking out some of the clothes in the pile.

  She had to admit they were a vast improvement over the silver muumuu. There was a tight-fitting blouse with long flowing sleeves in a shimmery see-through pale blue that felt as soft as silk. It fit Lauren so exactly she wondered how Blix could know her size. Probably picked it right out of my head like everything else. The idea made her frown but Lauren pushed it away. If the worst thing that came out of her meeting with the alien mind reader was a new set of clothes she supposed she couldn’t complain.

  The only problem she could see with the blouse was that it was revealing—very revealing. Her full breasts and tight nipples were clearly visible through its shimmery fabric. Just as she was thinking there was no way she could wear it out in the open, she saw a solution. The next piece of clothing she unfolded was a red sash. It was about the width of her palm but so long she was able to wrap it around her several times and still knot it on one side. It looked a little strange when she was done—kind of like the wrapping on a kimono—but it was better than showing God and everybody her boobs.

  The skirt that went with the blue blouse and red sash was deep cobalt. Lauren caught her breath at the lovely color and was pleased to see that it was completely opaque. It fit just above her hips and fell to her ankles in a snug but comfortable sheathe. There was a long slit up one side that showed most of her left leg when she walked but Lauren shifted it over so it didn’t reveal as much as felt satisfied with the result.

  The only problem now was shoes—she didn’t have any. In fact, she’d been barefoot for weeks, ever since the AllFather had first kidnapped her and taken her aboard his Fathership. Lauren wasn’t wild about the idea of going barefoot on an alien planet—who knew what she might pick up out there? But when she looked down again, she saw something she must have missed the first time. A pair of deep blue slippers with crimson soles was lying where she’d put the pile of clothes. Lauren tried them on and found that they fit perfectly and were deliciously comfortable.

  She went to look at herself in the bathroom viewer and was pleased with what she saw. “Sooo much better than that ugly silver muumuu,” she murmured, running her fingers through her long black hair. She wished she had a little lipstick to brighten up her face but other than that, she looked ready for a night on the town—well, a strange alien town, anyway.

  Which led to a dilemma—should she leave the ship and trade a few food cubes to Blix or should she stay tucked inside the spaceship as Xairn had instructed?

  On one hand she had promised to stay inside. But on the other hand, he had promised to be back in one day. Lauren didn’t want to let herself think that something had happened to him—the very idea put a lump in her throat and not just because she’d be stranded on a distant planet without him. As fierce and moody as he was, Xairn had become very dear to her. She felt safe in his arms and wanted to help him work through his troubled past. Not to mention that when he looked at her with that burning red-on-black gaze she felt hot and cold all over and wanted…what did she want from him? Lauren wasn’t quite sure but she did know she didn’t want to lose him.

  Right now, though, she had to be practical. What if she was on her own now? Marooned on a distant planet in a galaxy light years from Earth. What was she supposed to do? How would she survive when the food cubes ran out? There were hundreds of them but not a lifetime supply. And besides, did she really want to live the rest of her life cooped up in the small silver spaceship?

  When she thought about it that way, there was no choice. “I’ll do it,” Lauren said out loud. The sound of her own voice seemed to give her courage. Lifting her chin, she went to the cabinet and began sorting rapidly through the cubes, looking for the ones that had the little squiggle that indicated worm based cuisine. When she had a handful she tucked them into the pocket of the skirt. Then, taking a deep breath and gripping the stunner Xairn had left her firmly in one hand, she unlatched the door and went out.

  She hadn’t gone two steps, her crimson soled slippers soundless on the stones of the alley, when a girl with deep orange skin and strangely tilted eyes suddenly appeared before her.

  Lauren gasped and held up the stunner. “Stay back, I’m armed!”

  “I’m Vlanka. Don’t be scared—Spider sent me.” The girl smiled, revealing blue teeth. Instead of hair she had two large, fleshy tentacles with purple tips growing out of either side of her head. They twitched and moved, seeming to have a life of their own—reminding Lauren of an elephant’s trunk. Other than that and the coloring of her skin and teeth, she looked more or less humanoid and seemed to speak English as well as Blix had. She was also wearing the same kind of outfit Lauren had on, right down to the blue shoes with red soles.

  “You mean Blix?” Lauren asked, still keeping the stunner level with the girl’s midsection.

  Vlanka shrugged. “If you want. Around here we mostly just call him Spider. He said you’d be out. Sent me to bring you to him.”

  Lauren frowned. “I thought his, uh, booth or stall or whatever was just around the corner.”

  “It is.” The girl smiled mysteriously. “But you got to know which corner to go around. First though, you’re wearing your tok all wrong.”

  “My what?” Lauren asked but the girl was already rearranging the red sash Lauren had wrapped around herself so carefully. She used both her hands and her hair trunks, as Lauren was beginning to think of them, for the job. Lauren couldn’t help noticing that she had seven fingers on each hand, tipped with long purple nails. Several of them were missing joints, however, and ended in stubs instead of nails. Lauren wondered if Vlanka had lost them in some kind of accident.

  At last the alien girl stood back to admire her handiwork. “There. Better.”

  “Hey,” Lauren protested, looking down at herself. The long red sash now crisscrossed between her breasts and tied at her waist in an elaborate knot. Unfortunately, the new configuration left her breasts exposed through the sheer pale blue top. “I can’t go out in public like this,” she said, trying to pull the sides of the sash over enough to at least cover her nipples. She was only partially successful.

  “You got to,” Vlanka said implacably. “That’s the only way to wear a tok in the trade.”

  “A what in the where?” Lauren asked but Vlanka was surveying her with a frown.

  “You got this wrong too.” She twitched the long cobalt skirt around until the long slit was directly up the front, flashing a lot more of her crotch than Lauren was comfortable with. But before she could protest again, Vlanka said, “Come on. Spider’s waiting.”

  Taking her by the hand, she pulled Lauren down the alleyway toward the busy marketplace beyond.

  Chapter Six

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Rast said, looking down at himself. The black haired warrior named Deep had made him strip down to his skin. Then he’d given Rast nothing to replace his clothes but a
furry green kilt-thing to wrap around his waist and green fur boots to match.

  Deep raised an eyebrow at him. “You don’t like it?”

  “Of course I don’t fucking like it,” Rast growled. “I look like a reject from a Conan movie.”

  “Too bad.” Deep clapped in on his bare back. “Because the ceremony’s starting and I promised my female I’d have you dressed and in line in time to participate.”

  “What do you mean? What am I supposed to do?”

  But Deep was already leading the way out of the changing tent and around the side of the grove of green and purple trees Rast had seen earlier. He felt beyond strange in the weird alien outfit but at least there didn’t seem to be many people in the immediate vicinity to witness his shame.

  Taking a deep breath, Rast decided to try and go with it. It pissed him off to no end that he had to change into some strange get-up in order to even talk to Commander Sylvan but he supposed it must be part of the Kindred culture. It was bizarre but he would have done stranger things than wearing a furry green kilt and matching boots in order to solve this case and bring Lauren home safely to her grieving mother.

  He followed Deep, who was stalking around the side of the grove of trees purposefully. The warm scent of growing things almost made Rast forget he was inside a spaceship and the artificial green sun hanging overhead beamed down on his bare shoulders in a way that was strangely soothing. Again he was overcome by the oddest feeling. Not déjà vu exactly. More like…homecoming. As though he belonged here somehow. As though—

  “Here we are,” Deep hissed, breaking into his musings. “We’re just going to slip in the side here.”

  Rast nodded and followed him through a narrow path in the green and purple trees. He felt like he had as a kid, playing Cowboys and Indians, stalking silently through the trees to ambush…

  A wedding.

  Rast stared blankly at the assembled group of people. Yup, no doubt about it, for some reason he was about to take part in a Kindred wedding. The groom was Commander Sylvan and his best man was Commander Baird. Both of them were dressed in the same fur kilt and boots outfit that Rast was wearing but the bride—one of Lauren’s cousins—was wearing a traditional white lace wedding gown and her bridesmaids were wearing simple pale gold sheaths.

  It was obvious what was going on, but not why he was being made to take part in it. “Hey,” he whispered to Deep, who was already pushing him into line beside Commander Baird. “I think there’s been some kind of mistake.”

  “No mistake,” Deep growled softly. “Just stand there and shut your mouth. You don’t have to do a damn thing until the luck kiss.”

  “The what?”

  But Deep had already faded back into the trees, leaving Rast to watch as a beaming Commander Sylvan said his vows to his bride in front of a very stern-looking priestess.

  He looked around uncertainly. Should he just stand there and do nothing? He didn’t want to make a scene and, regardless of how strange the situation was, he was a nice enough guy not to want to ruin someone else’s big day. But what was it that the dark Kindred had been saying about a kiss? Was he supposed to kiss someone? And if so, who?

  Rast looked speculatively at the two bridesmaids standing across from him. One was Lauren’s other cousin—he recognized her from the conversations they’d had on the viewscreen. The other was a tall, slender girl with long, pale blonde hair that flowed over her shoulders like a golden shawl. She had sharp, clever features and bright blue eyes which were currently fixed directly on him.

  Why is she staring at me? Rast thought uneasily. He returned her look, giving her a challenging gaze in return. But instead of dropping her eyes and blushing like most girls would have done, the blonde bridesmaid stared back. A teasing little smile curved the corners of her lush mouth and Rast couldn’t help thinking she had the softest, pinkest looking lips he’d ever seen.

  The rest of her wasn’t bad either. She might be slender, but she had curves where it counted. The pale gold dress clung to her lovingly, making it apparent she was all woman. He raised his eyes to her face again and saw her arching an eyebrow at him. Obviously she’d seen him checking her out. Rast felt his cheeks burning—he’d been ogling her like a horny teenager. But he refused to look away. Instead he looked into her eyes, taking their staring contest to the next level.

  He willed her to drop her gaze but the blonde girl clearly wasn’t one to back down from a challenge. Rast wasn’t either. Though it was uncomfortably intimate to look into a stranger’s eyes for such a long time, he held her gaze unflinchingly.

  He was dimly aware that the priestess performing the ceremony was saying something that sounded final. Then, from the corner of his eye, he saw Commander Sylvan lift his bride’s veil and kiss her passionately. Funny, he hadn’t seemed like the type for such effusive public displays of affection, but Rast supposed allowances had to be made considering it was his wedding day. And also—

  But his train of thought was cut off abruptly when the blonde girl came toward him. Rast thought she was finally going to say something now that the ceremony seemed to be wrapping up.

  Instead, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

  He was so surprised that at first he couldn’t do a thing. Then his heart thudded in his chest and his body took over.

  Rast wrapped his arms around her, crushed her to him, and kissed her back.

  She felt warm and soft against him, the curves of her breasts pressing against his bare chest. And her lips tasted like cherries—not artificial cherry lip gloss but real ripe cherries—sweet and succulent and completely irresistible. And her scent…God, he’d never smelled anything like it in his life. Warm and sweet and devastatingly feminine, it seemed to go straight to his cock, which was rock hard against her thigh.

  Rast was really tall—every bit as massive as the Kindred warriors that surrounded them. But the girl in his arms was tall, too. He liked that—liked that for once in his life he didn’t have to stoop over to get a good kiss. And the way she was running her fingers through his hair and scratching his bare shoulders was driving him fucking crazy.

  Despite the fact that he always kept a rigidly tight rein on himself, he was rapidly losing control. He wanted the girl in his arms. Wanted her with an intensity and single minded need that he’d never felt before in his life.

  She broke the kiss for a moment to look into his eyes. “I knew it,” she whispered in a low, lovely voice that made his cock throb with need. “I knew it would be like this from the moment I saw you.”

  Rast didn’t know what she was talking about but by this time he didn’t care. He only knew that she had him so aroused he felt like he could fuck a hole through a concrete wall.

  “I want you,” he growled, looking into those gorgeous, deep blue eyes again. “Now.” Then he took her mouth again, possessively. He didn’t care that she was a complete stranger. Didn’t care that he didn’t even know her name and they were surrounded by people. He wanted to lower her to the ground and have her here and now in the green and purple grass and damn the consequences.

  But just as he was about to put his lascivious thoughts into action, someone tapped him on the shoulder. Rast ignored them so whoever it was tapped again, this time much more insistently.

  “Detective Rast?” a vaguely familiar voice said. “Is that you? What are you doing?”

  * * * * *

  This is it—he’s here, Nadiah had thought excitedly the minute Deep shoved the Kindred with the truegreen eyes into line beside Baird. He looked exactly as she had forseen him.

  He had a warrior’s build with a muscular chest and arms and well developed legs that did the tharp he was wearing justice. His thick, golden-brown hair was tousled, as though he’d been carelessly running his fingers through it and his eyes were a shade of green so deep it was almost black. Around his iris was a thinner line of pale green that gave his gaze an intensity so powerful it was very difficult to meet his eyes.

  But meet
them she did, and she refused to drop her gaze even when he frowned at her. She sensed that this was a male she could never back down from—not if she wanted to win and keep his respect. So she lifted her chin and stared harder even though the way he was looking at her made her nipples feel tight and achy and the vee between her legs hot and wet. Goddess but he looked so primal standing there wearing nothing but the short tharp and boots. The big muscles of his arms and thighs were bunched tight with tension—tension she was causing, Nadiah could tell.

  Maybe he’s the one, she couldn’t help thinking. Maybe he’ll challenge the blood bond and set me free. Looking at this male she was certain that if he made a challenge he would win it. There was a fierce determination about him that told her he didn’t back down for anyone.

  When it was finally time for the luck kiss her heart was pounding so hard she could barely breathe. But Nadiah was determined not to show how nervous she was. It was the female’s responsibility to go to the male and she didn’t intend to mess up her part in the ceremony. Taking a deep breath, she swept forward and wrapped her arms around his muscular neck. A look of surprise filled his truegreen eyes and then she kissed him hard on the mouth.

  At first she was afraid he wasn’t going to respond. He stood absolutely rigid—doing what appeared to be the galaxy’s best statue impersonation. Then, suddenly he came to life.

  Nadiah gasped in surprise as he bent her over his arms and plundered her mouth, kissing with a passion that belied his stoic outer appearance. His arms around her felt like warm, flexible iron and when his tongue demanded entrance to her mouth, she parted her lips with no hesitation at all.

  Goddess, she was melting…burning…being utterly consumed in the heat of passion. It was exactly as she had always known her first kiss from a Kindred male would be. The instant heat between them, the sudden lust, was as rapid and devastating as a lighting strike. It was amazing…incredible…