Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 130947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130947 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 655(@200wpm)___ 524(@250wpm)___ 436(@300wpm)
“I told you this would happen.” Baird shifted on the bed toward her but Liv pulled away again. He sighed and sat back. “Your body is in heat, Lilenta—to a certain extent anyway. And as long as we’re together you’ll get hotter and hotter. Having me inside you is the only thing that will ease you.”
“Well then I guess I’ll just have to manage on my own because there is no way I’m letting you try to get your whole entire uh…self inside me.” Liv’s heart was still racing. “In fact, I don’t think I want you touching me at all anymore. It’s too dangerous.”
Baird’s face was like a thundercloud. “You signed a contract, Olivia. This is our bathing week—you can’t deny me the right to wash you.”
“Exactly—wash me. And that’s it.” Liv lifted her chin defiantly. “I’m pretty sure if I went over that contract with a fine tooth comb there wouldn’t be anything about you being able to rub me with fifty types of oil and lay on top of me and practically hump me through the mattress.”
“I was scent marking you,” he protested. “Gotta do that in order to let other males know you’re mine.”
“I’m not yours,” she flared at him angrily. “And I never will be! So you can wash me—fine, I can’t stop you. But nothing outside the bathing pool. That means no more naked massages with exotic oils. And absolutely no more marking, or whatever you call it.”
“Fine.” Baird was so angry now his eyes were practically glowing. “But if I can’t mark you, then we’re not leaving the suite. Not with you smellin’ so hot and not having any of my scent on you.”
Liv threw up her hands. “Great. Put me under house arrest—I don’t care. Just stay away from me.”
“If that’s how you feel,” he said, his jaw clenched. “I told you once I wasn’t interested in taking what you didn’t want to give.”
“That’s exactly how I feel,” Liv assured him. “And I’m not giving another inch.”
“Fine.” He was still glaring at her but the pain was back in his eyes now—back to stay and Liv knew she was the cause of it. Suddenly she felt horrible.
“Try to understand, Baird,” she pleaded softly. “I never asked for this—for our minds to align or for you to claim me. I never wanted any of it. I just…I just want to go home.”
Baird closed his eyes briefly. “I wish I could let you. But I can’t, Olivia. I need you too damn much. I’m sorry.” He got off the bed and left just as he had the first time he’d brought her into the suite.
Liv sat in the middle of the huge bed and wrapped her arms around her knees, trying not to cry. God, if only she could control herself better around him! It made her feel horrible, like the worst kind of tease to go so far with him and then refuse him anything else. But damn it, she was fighting for her future here! She didn’t want to never see her family again, especially Sophie. She didn’t want to give up the career she’d worked so hard for. Not even for love? whispered a little voice in her head but Liv pushed it away. She didn’t love Baird, despite all the dream-sharing they’d done and the way he made her laugh. Despite the way she felt so safe in his arms—at least until things started getting sexual. All of that, as nice as it was, didn’t add up to love. Did it?
Liv didn’t know but she didn’t intend to stick around and find out.
“What am I supposed to do now?” Baird stood in the ship’s main temple before the statue of the Goddess, looking up at her beautiful, blank face. Because of their three genetic trades, the Kindred had many gods to choose from but the Mother of Life was their original deity—the one they had worshiped back on the Kindred home world before the first trade had ever taken place. Baird’s father, who had been a rare full blooded Kindred with no trades in his heritage, had prayed to her in times of need and taught his sons to do the same. And the gods know I’m certainly in need now, Baird thought ruefully. If only Olivia wasn’t so damn stubborn! If only I could make her see that we need each other.
His thoughts ran in circles as he stood on the green and purple grass. The lush vegetation served as the floor of the temple which was located in the sacred grove. It tickled his bare feet, since he’d removed his boots before stepping on the holy ground.
All around him trees of different variations on the same colors grew. Lavender and mint green leaves mingled with royal purple and emerald bark, filling the grove of the Mother of Life with the warm, resinous scent of growing things. Baird breathed it in, letting the blessed scent fill his lungs and calm him. No matter what deity they worshiped, this temple was a sacred place to all of his people. In fact, the artificial sun that hung overhead and bathed the core of the Kindred ship in golden-green radiance had been patterned off the sun of their home world and specially developed just so these trees would grow.