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  “Those are the terms of the contract,” Baird said. “Although you can allow me to make love with you and bond you earlier if you wish. I understand that many Earth brides don’t wait the entire four weeks to make that decision.” His voice was soft and deep and his eyes wouldn’t leave hers.

  “That’s not going to happen.” Liv wished her voice wasn’t shaking so much. She dropped her eyes. “What happened in the old days if a male couldn’t convince a female to bond with him?”

  If he couldn’t…” Baird shrugged his broad shoulders. “She was allowed to leave him and allow her mind to align with another male. Of course, the weeks on the Kindred home planet were about the length of one of your Earth years, so a male had considerably longer to convince his bride they ought to stay together.”

  “Wow.” Liv didn’t know what to say. Here she was worried about holding out for one month and Baird was telling her that the original Kindred brides had had to withstand the blatantly sexual claiming period for four years. “That’s…a long time,” she managed at last.

  “Not nearly long enough to be with the woman you love.” Baird caught her gaze with his own until Liv bit her lip and looked away. “Of course, in time traditions grew up around each week,” he continued. “During the holding week a male keeps his bride safe in the circle of his arms and holds her close to prove he can protect her from any danger that might come.” He looked at her steadily. “I wanted to do that for you, Lilenta, but I didn’t want to scare you away or frighten you—any more than you already were, anyway.”

  Liv started to deny her fear as she had from the start but something made her stop. It was true—she was afraid of Baird. Of what he represented, of everything and everyone she could lose if she let herself fall into his arms and never look back. Instead she said quietly, “Go on.”

  “During the bathing week, a Kindred male cares for and pampers his bride by worshiping her body,” he continued in a low voice. “He washes her hair and bathes and massages and oils her to show her what their life will be like together if she consents to bond with him. The care he takes with her symbolizes how precious she is to him, how beautiful and perfect he finds her.”

  Liv cleared her throat. “Sounds, ah…intense.”

  “It can be.” Baird gave her a serious look. “Although I hear some females find it most relaxing to be bathed and pampered. Don’t you Earth women go to special places for it?”

  “Uh, you mean like a spa? Sure, I guess.” Liv shrugged uncomfortably. “But usually the emphasis there is on relieving stress and the attendants are all very professional and impersonal.”

  One corner of Baird’s full mouth twitched. “Afraid I can’t promise you that, Lilenta.”

  “I didn’t think so,” Liv mumbled. She tried to imagine a spa staffed with Kindred warriors waiting to bathe and massage the women who came there and thought that it would probably be sold out for years in advance. And here she had her very own ticket for the Kindred spa treatment and she would have done anything to give it away if she could. “God,” she muttered. “This is going to be really interesting.”

  “Look at me, Lilenta.” Baird lifted her chin gently, forcing her to look into his amber eyes. “Is my touch really so distasteful to you?” he asked softly.

  Liv bit her lip. “You know it’s not,” she said at last, deciding not to bother with a lie. “You pretty much said you can tell how I feel when you…when you touch me.”

  “I can smell your arousal, yes.” He nodded. “Then why do you have to fight me every step of the way?”

  Liv felt frustrated. “You know why—I told you why. I can’t let myself relax with you because I’m afraid if I do I’ll go too far and let you…let you bond me. Whatever that means, exactly.” She still wasn’t sure but she was damned if she’d ask Baird for an explanation. It was embarrassing enough to hear him explain the holding and bathing weeks and tell her what he would be allowed to do to her at the end of the month, let alone hearing a detailed account of what bonding sex entailed.

  He was still looking at her intently and his fingers were warm under her chin. “What if I promised not to bond you to me tonight—no matter what you say?”

  Liv looked at him in surprise. “You’d do that? Promise me that? But I thought your whole goal was to get me tied to you as soon as possible.”

  “There is that urge, yes,” Baird admitted. “It’s an instinct every Kindred male has because of our past. But I’m willing not to act on it tonight—hell, for the entire week—if it’ll make you feel better.”

  “It really would,” Liv admitted. In fact she was so relieved she almost felt weak. But she still didn’t understand why Baird was making this offer. “I appreciate that you’re willing to, uh, put our contest, as it were, aside for a week,” she said cautiously. “But I guess I still don’t understand why you would.”

  “I don’t want you to feel forced into anything. Not by me and not by the way your body reacts to mine.” Baird leaned down and brushed her lips gently with his own.

  Liv’s heart stuttered in her chest. “God…” she whispered.

  “I want you to care for me, Olivia. Care for me the way I care for you,” he breathed. “And I want you to be able to enjoy what I do for you without fear.” He pulled back a little and looked her in the eyes. “So what do you say? Will you try to relax and honor the bathing ceremony with me if I promise not to bond you to me no matter what?”

  “For this entire week?” Liv asked, wanting to be sure.

  He nodded. “It’ll kill me but yes—I swear on my honor as a warrior that I won’t have bonding sex with you no matter what you may do or say for the entire bathing week.” He flashed a wolfish grin. “Of course, after that, all bets are off. But if I can’t make you want to bond with me during the tasting week, I don’t deserve to have you.”

  Liv felt a flash of heat run through her and looked away from his intense golden gaze quickly. “Fine. We’ll take it a week at a time,” she said, wishing her heart would slow down. But it was racing, as it always did when he touched her—kissed her. As if sensing her wish, Baird gave her one last soft kiss and then stood up.

  “I’ll leave you to get dressed now. Just wear the robe and nothing else. Come to the bathing pool when you’re ready.” He dropped the robe in a soft crimson heap in her lap and gave her one last burning look. “I’ll be waiting for you, Lilenta.”

  Baird waited by the bathing pool, wondering how long it would take Olivia to get up the nerve to come to him. He couldn’t wait to see her in the dark red bathing gown, couldn’t wait to see it fall to the floor and reveal her to him naked for the first time. Of course, he had seen her undressed often enough while they were dream-sharing. Watching her take her morning shower and evening bath had been some of his favorite parts of the dreams. But to actually see her in the flesh and know that he could touch her this time…just the thought made him almost painfully hard.

  Hope she can relax enough to let herself enjoy this, he thought, as he paced beside the pool. He’d hated like hell that she was so scared of him, of the way he made her feel. It was one of the things that had motivated him to promise not to bond her for the entire week. In that, he was taking a big gamble and Baird knew it. Every instinct he had screamed at him to make her his as quickly as possible but he forced himself to remember Sylvan’s advice. He had to take things slowly—rushing would only scare Olivia away. After all, the ultimate decision to bond with him or not was hers and right now she was dead set against it. Baird had to be sure he gave her a damn good reason to change her mind. He hoped that by taking away her fear of bonding, at least for a week, he could get her to relax and enjoy the pleasure he couldn’t wait to give her. If he could just make her realize how right they were together, how much they needed each other—

  “I’m ready.”

  Olivia’s soft voice interrupted his thoughts and Baird stopped pacing and looked up to see her standing there in the long red bathing gown. She looked beautiful and frightened