Bonded by Accident: A Kindred Tales Novel (Brides of the Kindred) Read online

  “Sorry baby but it’s true,” he pointed out, grinning. “You’re so fucking beautiful I can’t keep my eyes off you.”

  “So what is this you wanted to tell me…or ask me or whatever?” she asked, scooting closer to him.

  “It’s actually something I want to show you and then something I want to ask you.” He looked serious as he took her hands in his. “Early on, you saw a pretty bad memory in my head, baby. It scared you and I don’t blame you for that—I haven’t always led the most quiet life.”

  “Oh Slade, please—it’s okay,” Brandi hastened to reassure him. “I understand now. I know you have this…” She groped for the right word. “This potential for violence. But I also know that it’s not going to be directed at me or Emmie or anyone that you love. It only comes out when you feel threatened or when someone you care for is in danger.” She cocked her head at him. “Am I right?”

  “You are.” Slade nodded gravely. “I’m so glad you understand that, sweetheart. But there are still some memories I’d like to show you…if you don’t mind looking.”

  “I’ll look.” Brandi braced herself as she closed her eyes, to better embrace their link. She wondered what Slade was going to show her now. Would it be another fight from his prison days? Or maybe one of the battles from his days in the Blood Circuit? He’d told her a little about that part of his life and it sounded like he’d been a kind of gladiator.

  “Neither of those,” Slade murmured through their link. “I want you to see something better…someone I cared for very much.”

  And then, just as she had before, Brandi was suddenly rushing down the long, dark tunnel of memory and seeing something from the big Kindred’s past.

  As the memory came into focus she couldn’t help the small noise of surprise that escaped her.

  “Oh! It’s…a woman.”

  A woman with a full, plus-sized figure much like Brandi’s own. She had a long waterfall of black hair and purple eyes and her skin was a delicate leaf green. In Slade’s memory, she was looking over one shoulder and smiling shyly.

  “She’s beautiful,” Brandi murmured through the link. “Who is she, Slade?”

  “That was Cinda.” There was a little catch in his mental voice and she could feel the strong emotions attached to this memory. “The one whose memory I vowed to stay true to.”

  Brandi felt a sharp stab of guilt.

  “Slade, I’m so sorry. I never meant to make you break your vow. I never—”

  “It’s all right, baby,” he murmured quietly through their link. “I’ve been to the Sacred Grove and made my peace with the Goddess and with Cinda. She loved me with her whole heart—the way I loved her. The same way I love you.” He sent a surge of love and devotion through their link that felt like a warm caress stroking against Brandi’s skin. “The point is, Cinda loved me and I don’t believe she would be upset with me for finding someone else to love and care for. I just wanted to show her to you so you’d know not all my memories are violent or bad.”

  “I know they’re not,” Brandi told him. “And you’re making new ones everyday with me and Emmie and Bud. And hopefully my mom whenever she gets out of rehab.”

  “How would you like to make good memories together the rest of our lives?” Slade asked softly.

  “We will,” Brandi said. “We’re bonded, right?”

  “Yes, but I’d like to make it official—by Earth standards I mean. Open your eyes, baby.”

  Brandi did as he asked and saw that he was holding a black velvet box in one hand. It looked tiny between his large fingers. Slowly, he sank to one knee beside the couch. As Brandi watched, wide-eyed, he opened the box displaying a perfectly gorgeous pear-shaped diamond ring.

  “Brandi baby,” he murmured, his deep voice hoarse with emotion. “Will you marry me? Will you be more than my mate—will you be my wife?”

  “Oh, Slade!” It was the last thing she had expected and Brandi wondered how he had hidden it from her through their extremely sensitive link.

  “Because I’m not a projector like you,” Slade sent back in amusement. “Been planning this for weeks—the other Kindred males told me it was a tradition in your culture to offer a ring when you want a female to join with you. But you didn’t answer my question. Will you be my mate—my wife—forever?”

  “Yes!” Brandi slid off the couch and put her arms around his neck. “Oh yes, Slade,” she whispered. “I will marry you. I will be your wife!”

  “Gods, baby! You don’t know what it does to me to hear you say that.” Slade slipped the ring on her finger and crushed her to him. Burying his face in her hair, he inhaled deeply, breathing in her scent. “Love you, Brandi,” he sent, his mental voice as hoarse as his physical one. “Love you so damn much!”

  “I love you too,” Brandi whispered, nuzzling against him. “I can’t wait to get married.”

  “When do you want the wedding?” Slade asked. “The jeweler in the shop where I bought your ring told me that sometimes human women take months or even years to plan such a big event.”

  “I don’t think we need to wait that long,” Brandi told him. “In fact, I think the sooner the better because, well…” She bit her lip. “I have a secret too. One I’ve been trying really hard not to broadcast to you—but it hasn’t been easy.”

  “You have a secret?” Slade’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Seriously?”

  “You shouldn’t be that shocked,” Brandi said with mock severity. “I can keep a secret—especially one as big as this.”

  Taking one of his hands, she placed his palm flat against her belly.

  “Slade,” she whispered through their link, “I’m going to have your baby.”

  “What?” His eyes flew wide and he looked at her for confirmation. “Really? You’re not just teasing me?”

  “Nope.” Brandi watched him carefully to see how he would take the news. She well-remembered the scene when she’d told Earl she was pregnant with Emmie. He’d become enraged and pushed her out of his car, forcing her to walk home through the rain.

  It hadn’t been pretty.

  But Slade’s reaction couldn’t have been more different. He cupped her lower belly reverently, a look of wonder coming into his mismatched eyes.

  “Oh sweetheart,” he whispered reverently. “I can’t believe it—is it really true?”

  “I have the positive pregnancy test to prove it,” Brandi assured him. “Although I hear there’s a Kindred test you can take up here on the Mother Ship that will let you know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

  “We’ll get it done right away!” Slade jumped up. “Come on—I know the med center is still open!”

  “Hold on, the test isn’t going anywhere,” Brandi laughed. “We can wait and find out tomorrow if you want. I…have something else I want to give you before we go.”

  “Oh?” Slade asked. “And what’s that, baby?”

  Brandi gave him a flirtatious little smile.

  “Me.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  From the moment she said the words, she felt the hunger rising in him—a hunger that matched her own.

  “Come here, baby.” Scooping her up in his arms, he settled back on the couch and kissed her hard.

  Brandi settled against him with her knees on either side of his thighs. Under the sundress she was wearing for their day on the “beach” she had on only a thin pair of sheer black panties and she could feel the bulge of his long, hard shaft rubbing against her through the thin fabric and the leather of his own trousers.

  “Mmm, Slade…” she moaned softly when he rolled his hips up, parting her already-swollen pussy lips with the ridge of his shaft and pressing had against her swollen clit.

  “Want you sweetheart,” he growled softly, looking into her eyes. “Want you so damn bad—but are you sure it won’t hurt the baby?”

  “It’s perfectly safe,” Brandi assured him.

  “In that case, I need to be inside you tonight,” Slade told her. “Need to bond you