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  “It’s not supposed to be. It’s to enhance your natural scent, not cover it up,” Baird explained. His hands stopped their movement and were still on her waist. “Are you ready for me to wash your front now?”

  Liv took a deep breath. She knew what he was asking—the gentle massaging wash he’d been giving her was about to turn sexual and he wanted to know if she could handle it. It’s all right, she told herself nervously. He promised not to bond me to him no matter what I said or did. I’ll be okay. “Yes,” she whispered deciding there was no point in putting it off. “Yes, I…I’m ready.”

  Baird got some more of the sweet-smelling lotion on his hands and then he was right up behind her, even closer than before. Liv felt something hot and hard brush against the back of her thigh and jumped in surprise.

  “Sorry,” Baird murmured in her ear as he began to wash the top part of her chest. “Can’t help it. You affect me.”

  You affect me too, she almost said but bit the words back at the last moment. Just because she was surrendering physically didn’t mean she had to surrender emotionally as well. In fact, she would do well to remember that no matter what he had promised, she was still doing this against her will. If it wasn’t for the stupid contract she’d signed…

  But any thought of holding out on him, emotionally if not physically, was driven out of her head when he cupped her breasts. Liv had to bite back a moan as he caressed her flesh, kneading gently and then plucking at her already hard nipples. Baird growled approvingly in her ear when she arched her back, thrusting her chest out, giving him better access. And then his hands were traveling lower.

  Liv moaned breathlessly as he massaged her inner thighs before cupping the tender vee of her sex. “You’re hot, Lilenta,” he murmured in her ear. “Even under the water I can feel it. Do you like my hands on you here?”

  “You…you know I do,” Liv gasped, unable to lie. God, was he trying to drive her crazy?

  “I’m going to open you now,” he told her in that soft, growling voice. “Going to wash you inside, Olivia. Inside your pussy. Are you ready for that?”

  “I…I think so.”

  “Good,” he said and then his long fingers were parting her pussy lips, opening her to let the heated water of the pool rush over her unprotected sex. Liv gasped and bucked back against him as he slid his fingers over her sensitive flesh, washing her, touching her, making her his.

  God, too much…too good… She was panting now, so hot for him she could barely breathe and the warm water of the pool suddenly seemed almost suffocating. With each breath she drew in his scent—that hot masculine spice that made her dizzy with need. “Baird, please!” she moaned, wondering if he could feel how hot and wet she was, even under the water.

  “Yes, Lilenta?” he murmured, his fingers never stopping their slow, gentle massage.

  “Please, I…I…it’s too hot in here.”

  “You’re ready to leave the pool and let me oil you?”

  Oil me? What the hell? But Liv was too far gone to care what else he did. She only knew she was feeling overheated and faint—her heart beating so hard it felt like it was shaking her entire body. God, what was wrong with her? “Yes, yes—out of the pool,” she managed to gasp. Almost before the words left her lips Baird was lifting her with no effort at all and wading out of the bathing pool. Liv sighed in relief as the cooling air hit her skin. Her heart was still going about a mile a minute but at least now she felt like she could breathe. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome, Lilenta,” he rumbled. “I’m sorry if the bathing ceremony upset you.”

  “It wasn’t upsetting so much as…” Liv searched for a word. “Intense. Really intense.”

  “I’m afraid the rest of what we do may feel intense to you too.” He sounded unhappy about it. “If you’d let me hold you the first week your body would be more used to mine, more acclimated to the powerful feelings we generate between us when we touch. But as it is…” He broke off, shaking his head. “Just let me know if it gets to be too much for you.”

  Liv frowned. Now that she was out of the pool she felt more like herself. His insinuation that she was too weak to stand whatever he could dish out stung. “I can take it,” she told him, narrowing her eyes. “Don’t worry about me, Baird—I won’t break.”

  He nodded approvingly. “You’re strong—the strongest female I’ve ever met even though you look so fragile.”

  “I am not fragile,” Liv complained as he stood her carefully on the tiled floor. She had no fear of slipping, having found long ago that the Kindred flooring actually sucked up water like a sponge. They could stand here dripping and naked, arguing all day, and not create so much as a puddle of water between them.

  “Compared to most of the females on the other Kindred trade worlds you are.”

  “Well, I can’t help it I’m not an Amazon. I’m actually a pretty normal height and size for a woman my age.”

  “Is that right?” Baird murmured as he got the red bathing robe and wrapped it considerately around her. Liv started to protest—the thing was lined with fur of some kind and she didn’t want to ruin it. Then she realized that the fur must have the same water-absorbing capabilities as the floor tiles because within seconds she was dry.

  “Wow, this thing works fast,” she exclaimed, looking down at herself as Baird toweled himself off. Even the back of her hair, which had been trapped between the robe and her neck, was dry.

  He shrugged. “We try to make things that have function as well as beauty. Most of our household objects are genetic adaptations of plants and animals we’ve found on our journeys.”

  Liv looked at him suspiciously. “It’s not alive like that weird blue blanket that lives on the couch, is it?”

  Baird laughed as he wrapped the long red towel he’d been using around his waist and knotted it firmly in place. “No, Lilenta. It’s not alive. Now, come, the rest of the ceremony will be in the bedroom.”

  “On…on the bed?” Being naked in the bathing pool with him was one thing. Being naked in bed—well, that was something Liv had been avoiding from the moment she came up to the Kindred ship.

  His gaze raked over her hungrily. “Yes, on the bed. I need to anoint you with fragrant oils. And I need to make you come.”

  The way he said it made Liv’s heart start racing again. It was like he’d said, “I need to breathe” or “I need to eat.” Clearly this was something he didn’t just want to do. He’s hungry for me, Liv realized in a flash. Touching me, giving me pleasure, feeds something inside him, some need so deep it’s ingrained in him. Is this how all Kindred males are or is it just Baird?

  “Why?” she whispered as he picked her up again and headed for the bedroom. “Why do you want…need to do that to me?”

  “Aside from the pleasure of touching your beautiful body you mean?” Baird gave her another hungry look. “It’s because every time I make you come it prepares your body for mine a little more. When you’re with me—especially when I’m touching you—every breath you take brings you closer to being mine. And when I make you come it starts a chemical reaction that makes you want more.”

  “But…you said you wouldn’t…that we wouldn’t…”

  “Don’t worry, we won’t,” Baird assured her. “Although you may wish I hadn’t made you that promise before we’re done tonight.”

  I doubt that. But Liv didn’t say it out loud. Baird laid her gently on her side of the bed.

  “Slip off your robe and lie on your stomach, Lilenta,” he murmured. “I’ll get the oils.”

  Well if he was offering her another back massage, Liv was all for it. Not to mention the fact that she wasn’t exactly eager to lie naked face up on the bed for his inspection. Of course, they’d just spent the last half hour naked in the bath together but there at least half of her had been covered by the water. Now that she was out of the bathing pool and dry she felt extremely exposed.

  As Baird went to rummage in the chest-like container at the foot of the bed,