Sought...Book 3 in the Brides of the Kindred series (14 page)

“That’s right honey.” Turning to the
threesome, Piper spoke in a language that was clearly not English
but somehow Kat understood her anyway. “My friend is new to Twin
Moons. Her name is Kat and she would be pleased to make your
acquaintance.”

At once, both of the males each took one of
Kat’s hands and their female mate came forward and gave her a kiss
on the forehead. “Welcome. Welcome to our world,” she said, smiling
broadly.

“I…thank you,” Kat said haltingly. “Thank
you very much.” She could tell that the words coming out of her
mouth were some foreign language but somehow it seemed to be
comprehensible to the Twin Moons threesome.

“See?” Piper grinned. “Works like a charm!
Let’s see now, who else can we introduce you to?” Nodding goodbye
to the smiling threesome, she grabbed Kat by the arm and towed her
deeper into the milling crowd.

Kat followed her, trying not to step on any
feet. It seemed that the party had gotten even more crowded while
they were in the ladies room and she wondered where all these
people had come from. Had Deep and Lock’s mother invited the entire
town or were some of them just crashing the party? Speaking of Deep
and Lock, she craned her head to look for them, but the Twin Moons
inhabitants were too tall to see over. She felt like a little kid
lost at the mall and looking for her mother. There was another
feeling too, starting at the tips of her breasts and between her
legs—something strange and ominous that made Kat uneasy. But before
she could give it much thought, Piper was talking again.

“Here we are,” she said, nudging Kat into
position in front of her. “These two own the local vegetable and
fruit market here in town. It’s a very lucrative business they
inherited from their fathers.” She nodded at two males who appeared
to be around Lock and Deep’s age and spoke again in the Twin Moon’s
language to Kat. “This is Large Tasty and this one’s Rigid
Juicy.”

“Excuse me?” Kat said, startled. “I’m not
sure I caught those names right.”

“I said they’re—”

“Oh my goodness, Piper—thank the Goddess
you’re here!” A distraught looking Twin Moons woman suddenly
appeared and grabbed Piper by the hand.

“Mina, what is it?” Piper’s easy smile was
replaced by a frown of concern.

“It’s the Take-mes, they’re at it
again
. I
knew
it was a bad idea to bring a breeding
pair, especially since Ju-ju is coming into heat. But those stupid
mates of mine wouldn’t listen. Can you come help me? You know they
always mind you so much better than me.”

“Of course I’ll come.” Piper squeezed the
woman’s hand and turned to Kat. “Sorry, honey, but this is sort of
an emergency. I’ll be right back, okay?”

“But…but I don’t really know anyone here,”
Kat protested.

“You’ve got your convo-pillar—you’ll be
okay. Look, hon, I really have to go. You’ve never seen a mess like
Take-mes in rut. They’re as mean as a bull with a porcupine up his
ass.” Piper patted her hand. “You just stay right here and I’ll be
back in two shakes.”

And then she was gone.

Not knowing what else to do, Kat turned back
to make polite conversation with the two large twins Piper had been
introducing before she got called away. “Um, how do you do?” she
said, trying to smile.

“We are well to do, thanking you, my lady.”
The one Piper had introduced as Large Tasty had light blond hair
and pale blue eyes. Clearly, he was the light twin. The other,
Rigid Juicy, had dark brown hair and green eyes that reminded Kat
of emeralds.
He must be the dark twin,
she thought, trying
not to feel uncomfortable as that glittering green gaze raked over
her body. The two of them looked somehow familiar but she didn’t
know why.

“I’m not sure I understood your names
correctly,” she said slowly, thinking how strange it was to hear a
foreign language that she really didn’t know come out of her own
mouth. “Could you please repeat them?”

“I am Large Tasty,” the light twin said,
taking her hand and kissing it. “A name which tells of me—I have an
immense fruit of succulent quality.”

“Uh, okay,” Kat said doubtfully.
I really
hope he’s talking about the fruit he sells at his stand!

“And I am Rigid Juicy.” The dark twin took
her other hand and kissed it slowly, his eyes never leaving hers.
“Because of my fruit, which is full of flavorful juices for the
sucking.”

“Umm.” Kat
really
didn’t know how to
answer that. But the way they spoke seemed strange. Was her
convo-pillar not working? “I’m Kat O’Conner and I’m new to Twin
Moons,” she said, smiling uncertainly at both of them. “It’s very
nice to meet you.”

“Already we have seen you,” Large Tasty
said, nodding pleasantly.

“You have?” Kat frowned. “When?”

“In the light of morning, as the sun rose
up, the day to greet,” his brother answered for him. “We rose our
eyes to the window and see a star wrapped in shadows.”

“Huh?” Okay, her convo-pillar
definitely
wasn’t doing its job—this conversation was
becoming more and more incomprehensible but Kat didn’t know how to
end it.

“It was you, my lady,” the light twin, or
Large, as she was beginning to think of him said. “Your sheet like
a cobweb to cover the curves of a goddess.”

Suddenly, Kat got it.
Oh no! No
wonder
they look familiar—they were two of the
guys who waved at me this morning when I was only wearing a
sheet.
She began to feel intensely uncomfortable and not just
because of what Large and Rigid were talking about. The strange
prickling sensation she’d had earlier in her nipples and pussy was
back and this time it was multiplied.

Shifting uncomfortably, she blurted, “Well,
I’m glad you enjoyed the show but I didn’t do it on purpose. I
mean, I didn’t know you could see through the sheet with the sun
shining on me that way.”

Large frowned but then nodded, as though
understanding her. “But though you showing curves of luscious
tastiness without intention, still the seeing of an elite was a
thing more beautiful than skies aflame by burning sun.”

Clearly it was a compliment so Kat nodded
politely and murmured a soft, “Thank you.” She really wanted to get
away from this embarrassing predicament and find out what was going
on with her tingling body parts, but when she turned to leave,
Rigid took her hand.

“The Goddess has blessed you with enough
delicious to burn a male with desire,” he rumbled, his green eyes
blazing into hers. “Good thing, come with us. Please enjoy evening
entertainment of our tongues on every scrumptious curve.”

“Huh?” Kat tried to pull away but the dark
twin was gripping her hand too tightly and refused to let go.
“Look,” she said carefully. “I don’t think we understand each other
very well, but I am
not
going to have sex with you and your
brother. Is that clear?”

“Fine lady.” The light twin took her other
hand and stared earnestly into her eyes. “Forgive this brother of
mine. His tongue is rough like a boot to the rear. His meaning is
this—you go with us and discover the joys of meat?”

“Meat?” Kat said doubtfully. Maybe they were
just asking her out to eat. Not that she wanted to go anywhere with
this weird tingling sensation going on in the most sensitive parts
of her body. Still, she felt she ought to be polite. “Uh, well, I
do
enjoy meat. The only thing I’ve had to eat so far on Twin
Moons is fruit.”

“Bonding fruit.” Suddenly Rigid pulled her
close and pressed his face to her neck. Kat tried to push him away
but he held her tight, inhaling deeply. To her dismay, the heated
lump she felt pressed against her thigh proved that he really lived
up to his name.

“Hey, let me go!” she gasped, pushing at his
broad chest. It reminded her of the way Deep had scented her when
they first met but this was different—
strange.
She couldn’t
explain it but it felt utterly and completely wrong to have someone
who wasn’t Deep or Lock touching her. Especially this
intimately.

“Hands off, you son of a bitch,” a deep,
familiar voice behind her growled. “This female is spoken for.”

“Deep?” Kat turned her head and saw him
standing there, his black eyes blazing with barely controlled fury.
“Oh, thank God! Help me—they won’t let me go!”

“That’s because you just agreed to spend the
night with them, teasing their cocks with your talented
tongue.”

“I said
what?”
Kat gasped as Deep
pulled her away from the very irritated Rigid. “I did not! They
just asked me if I liked eating meat and I said that yes, I did
enjoy it.”

“Is
that
what you heard them say?”
Deep frowned as he hustled her away through the crowd.

“Well, not in so many words,” Kat said,
trying to keep up with him. “I mean, it was more like, uh…” She
tried to think of exactly how Large had put it. “Something about
discovering the joys of meat.”

Deep raised one black eyebrow at her as he
dragged her along. “You mean the
pleasures of the
flesh?”

“Oh my God!” Kat shook her head. “But I had
no idea that was what they meant. Look, could you please slow down?
I—” She stopped abruptly as she tripped over someone’s foot and
nearly fell. Only Deep’s grip on her hand saved her, but her
stumble pushed them both into a silvery fountain which was spouting
some kind of pale green alcoholic beverage. Kat only got a few
drops on her dress but the entire front of Deep’s shirt was
thoroughly drenched.

Cursing, he straightened up and plucked at
the sodden mess. He was wearing the same kind of shirt Kat had
found in the chest that morning and the tiny little feather designs
that decorated the front of it dripped with alcohol.

“I’m sorry,” Kat said. “I didn’t mean to
trip but if you hadn’t been dragging me along so fast—”

“Come on.” Grabbing her hand, he began
pulling her through the crowd again. Kat expected that he was
taking her back to Lock but she saw no sign of the light twin as
they pushed through the people milling around the large room.

“Where are we going?” she demanded when Deep
started pulling her up a broad spiral staircase that led to the
upper levels.

“Away from unmated males for one thing,” he
snarled, throwing a glance at her over his broad shoulder. “You
smell entirely too luscious for your own good.”

“I do?” Kat wanted to stop and sniff herself
but she wasn’t at all sure that she would be able to smell what was
clearly so apparent to Deep’s sensitive Kindred nose. She
concentrated on climbing the spiral staircase which was beginning
to seem never ending. Deep had already pulled her past several
upper levels and showed no signs of stopping. With each step she
felt more and more sensitive and irritated between her thighs and
she was beginning to have the urgent feeling that she needed to go
somewhere private and
do
something about it, even though she
wasn’t entirely sure what she could do. “How…how much further are
we going?” she asked, trying not to sound out of breath.

Deep ignored her breathless question. “How
did you even understand enough of the language to talk to those two
without translation bacteria?” he demanded in a low voice, looking
back at her.

“Piper gave me a convo-pillar,” Kat gasped.
His pace was so relentless it was like being on the stairclimber at
the gym set on maximum. “She…she had one too but hers worked…
better than mine. I could…could barely understand what they were
saying.”

“A convo-pillar?” He threw a glance over his
shoulder. “You know those are illegal on most Kindred
colonies?”

“No, of course I didn’t.” Kat felt a stab of
panic. “Why? Do they cause some kind of disease or infection?”

Deep barked out a laugh. “Nothing like that.
But they’re notoriously unreliable. The Kindred High Council
determined they cause more problems than they solve.” He pulled her
higher and higher until finally the never ending staircase came to
an abrupt halt in a narrow hallway. At the end of it was a small,
plain wooden door. “In here,” he growled, pulling Kat through it
unceremoniously.

It turned out to be another restroom but one
far less elaborate than the ladies room down in the main gallery.
There were a few sinks with small 3-D viewers mounted above them
and some blowers that she assumed must be for drying hands. And, to
her intense relief, she could see a row of small, round
curtained-off areas which must be the Twin Moons equivalent of
bathroom stalls. The strange sensations in her body had increased
until she was
dying
for some private time.

“Um,” she said, edging toward the row of
round curtains. “I had a lot to drink earlier so I’m just going
to—”

“Go on.” Deep released her hand. “And don’t
worry—I won’t listen.”

Kat wanted to say something about there not
being anything to listen
to,
but she was in too much of a
hurry to get some privacy. Trying to walk normally even though her
pussy was throbbing, she made her way to the last curtain at the
very end of the row. It reminded her of an old fashioned shower
curtain back on Earth—the kind people had used with those
free-standing claw foot bathtubs. Her grandmother’s house had one
in the downstairs bath.

Behind her she heard Deep laugh. “All the
way down to the end, huh? I
told
you I wouldn’t listen.”

Kat refused to dignify his remark with a
reply. Instead she slipped inside the small, round space and closed
the curtain firmly behind her.

Inside was an extremely low toilet with a
padded purple seat and some strange looking nozzles poking out at
different angles.
Some kind of Twin Moons bidet?
Kat
wondered, but she really didn’t care about the facilities.

Lifting her dress, she pressed trembling
fingers down the front of her panties. God, she was on fire! Her
pussy so hot and wet with need she was surprised her juices weren’t
running down her inner thighs. At the first tentative touch a moan
rose to her lips. Kat managed to clamp it off by biting her lip but
it was a near thing. Already she was right on the edge—it seemed
like the lightest touch might make her come.