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  “Maybe for him.” She looked down as though mesmerized by the sight of her own small hands being engulfed in his much larger ones. “But not for Liv. He’s going to trick her into having bonding sex with him —whatever that is—and then she’ll spend the rest of her life hating him once she finds out how he did it.” She looked up at Sylvan. “You don’t know her like I do—she hates being lied to. Her last boyfriend cheated on her and then lied about it and she dumped him and never looked back. If she knew what Baird was doing to her…”

  “It’s not as though it’s a conscious choice on his part,” Sylvan tried to explain. “It’s the way our bodies react chemically to our chosen mates. We can’t turn it off, even if we try. Sometimes it comes even when it’s not wanted. We have a saying for it—‘The blood knows what the mind does not wish to see.’” Lifting a hand, he cupped her cheek and brushed away the single tear that had escaped her wide green eyes with his thumb. “It cannot be helped.”

  Sophia leaned closer and for a moment he was mesmerized by the lovely depths of her eyes. Then she seemed to realize she was getting too close to the enemy and sat up and away from him abruptly. “It doesn’t matter how you justify it—Liv will hate him for it.” She stood abruptly and gestured at the pink shopping bag. “Go ahead and bring those to her. But please tell her…” Her voice broke but she kept her chin high. “Tell her I miss her and I haven’t given up on her yet.”

  Then she turned on her heel and left, leaving Sylvan to watch her curvy figure disappear out the double doors of the HKR building with a feeling of uncertainty and regret. What if she was right? He would have to warn Baird that something had to be said to his bride. If Sophia was correct, he could be jeopardizing his bonding with Olivia without even knowing it.

  “They’re drugging her, Kat. That’s what it amounts to. She’s breathing poison gas every minute she’s with him and there’s no way she can keep holding out when she doesn’t even know what he’s doing to her.”

  Sophia was sitting at the small round kitchen table with a wad of tissues in each hand, having finally given in to the tears. She hated how easily she cried—even in the best of times a sad commercial was enough to tip her over the edge. And lately, with Olivia gone and possibly never coming back she was just one big emotional mess.

  “Are you sure about this?” Kat asked doubtfully. She was standing behind Sophie, rubbing her shoulders soothingly.

  “Positive. The big blond warrior—Sylvan—told me so. He didn’t even have the decency to sugar coat it—he just came right out and said that Liv was going to give in eventually because Baird is making some kind of pheromone specifically tailored to drive her crazy for him.”

  Kat frowned and sat down beside her at the table. “We have to warn her somehow.”

  “He said it wouldn’t make any difference.” Sophie dabbed at her eyes. “He said even if she knew she wouldn’t be able to fight it—the mating scent—that’s what he called it.”

  “Still—she deserves to know. We need to write her a letter.”

  “And say what? We can’t be too obvious about it—apparently Kindred Security reads through all the correspondence between the brides and their loved ones.”

  Kat shook her head. “Worse and worse. It’s too bad you two don’t have some kind of freaky twin language like they do in the movies so you could tell her in code.” She looked at Sophie hopefully. “You don’t, do you?”

  “No, I wish. I suppose I could try to tell her in a round-about way although I have no idea how.” Sophia sighed. “If only I could talk to her directly and warn her. Five minutes is all I’d need—five seconds might do the trick.”

  “We talked about that—you know direct communication of any kind is not allowed during the claiming period,” Kat reminded her. “I’m sure the Kindred know that the bride seeing tearful holo-vids of her loved ones while the warrior who chose her tries to seduce her would be detrimental to their cause.”

  “Well, I’ll just have to do the best I can.” Sophia straightened up. “I’ll write her a letter. I’ll just have to word it obliquely and hope the Kindred Security Team doesn’t get my references.”

  “I can’t believe this Sylvan guy came right out and told you all this.” Kat shook her head.

  “He acted like it wasn’t a big deal. Said we ought to realize they had more than one way of attracting a mate.” Sophie blew her nose.

  “Other than being huge, muscular, and easy on the eyes. Right,” Kat said dryly.

  Sophia sighed. “Well at any rate, this certainly explains why no one ever comes back after the claiming period is over. They’re too busy being seduced through their noses and having hot alien sex to want to go back to boring old Earth.” She looked at Kat sadly. “Do you think they’ll let us see her more than twice a year?”

  “Come on now, Sophie, it might not be that bad.”

  “Might not be that bad? I told you what he’s doing to her and she’s already asked me to send her all her sexiest clothes and underwear.”

  “But she also told you not to worry,” Kat pointed out. “She wanted to reassure you that she’s staying strong.”

  “For now,” Sophie said morosely. “But how can she possibly hold out for a whole month?”

  “Maybe she doesn’t plan on being there a whole month.”

  “But I thought you said the claiming period was thirty days—nonnegotiable.”

  “It is—unless there’s a breach of contract.” Kat frowned speculatively. “I wouldn’t count Liv out just yet, Sophie. Your sister is a pretty tough cookie and I bet she has a plan. In fact, I’ll bet you a pitcher of margaritas that we’ll be seeing her again before her claiming period is up.”

  “I hope you’re right.” Sophie sighed. “I really do.” But she couldn’t stop seeing the sympathy in Sylvan’s blue eyes when he’d told her that she should face the inevitable—that Olivia wasn’t coming back.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I hope you know what you’re doing, a little voice muttered in the back of Liv’s head as she studied herself in the full length mirror in the bathroom. The bag of sexy clothes and lingerie had arrived from Sophie days ago but she’d been too nervous to put her plan into action. However, the first week was almost up and time was running out. Tomorrow night she’d be sharing the bathing pool with one very large and lusty alien—if she didn’t manage to get away by then. So it was now or never.

  She’d taken an extra long soak to try and calm her nerves and now it was time to get on with it. None of the things Sophie had sent were as fancy as the black lace nighty she’d been wearing when Baird first claimed her, but there were some fairly sexy pieces. Liv had a weakness for hot undies and liked the feel of silk and satin against her skin so there was plenty to choose from.

  Tonight she’d chosen a reasonably demure silver-grey satin bra and panties set with a short, matching robe that brought out the color of her eyes and made her skin look extra creamy. However, she’d neglected to tie the robe very tightly—the plan was to let it fall open at a key moment—thus tempting Baird into touching her in a sexual way and breaching the contract.

  Just the thought of those big, masculine hands touching and stroking her was enough to make Liv tremble. She just hoped she didn’t forget herself when he started and go too far. Of course, it would help if she knew exactly what too far was. What exactly was bonding sex and would she even know if they had it? She remembered Kat saying it was one step beyond traditional intercourse but how the hell did you go a step beyond having sex? She’d asked Baird for a copy of their contract but the dense legal language was too convoluted to make heads or tails of. It frustrated Liv to no end that she was able to decipher the most obscure medical lingo in a patient’s chart but that legalese made no sense to her.

  Should have been a lawyer instead of a nurse, she told herself, positioning her breasts in the satin cups so that the top curve of her areolas was visible on either side. She didn’t want to make it too obvious what she was doing but at the