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  Liv felt her face get even hotter. Oh my God, is he for real? The thought of being pressed up against that huge, masculine, muscular body was doing strange things to her, things she didn’t want to admit even to herself. And no one had ever said they wanted to bond with her before.

  “Baird, you’re only making things worse,” the blond Kindred muttered, tugging at the other one’s muscular arm.

  Baird—is that his name? Does he even know mine or am I just a “bride” to him? Vaguely she remembered him calling her something else, something that sounded like an endearment in another language, but she couldn’t quite remember what it was now.

  “Could you excuse us for a moment?” Kat asked both the Kindred warriors in her best professional tone. “I need to look over this contract and confer with my client.”

  “Certainly,” the blond warrior said graciously. The dark one, Baird, Liv thought to herself, looked ready to protest. But his friend said something to him in a sharp, guttural language and at last he relented and withdrew with a curt nod.

  “Okay girls, let’s get it together.” Kat shepherded them both to the powder blue couch Liv had jumped off of earlier. Liv and Sophia sat on either side of her, staring anxiously at the thick sheaf of papers in her hand.

  “Kat, do I have to go?” Liv asked but even as she did, she remembered their conversation from that morning. Strike that, she thought, looking at the clock hanging on the blank white wall above them, from forty minutes ago. Had it really only been forty minutes since she was sitting comfortably in her own kitchen enjoying a glass of orange juice and pretending to herself that the dark man was only a dream? And now here she was in the HKR building, in her underwear, with her heel throbbing dully from the embedded glass and her head full of confusion and dread. Worst of all, she was about to be hauled away in a space ship by a huge alien warrior who wanted to “bond” with her. It was unbelievable.

  “You have to go,” Kat said, nodding firmly. “But as I said, there is some good news.” She ticked the points off on her fingers. “One, it’s only for thirty days and as long as you don’t bond with him you’re free to go after it’s over.”

  “Wait a minute,” Sophia interrupted her. “He said he had to have sex to bond with her. So that means…”

  “No bonding sex or you lose your get-out-of-jail-free card,” Kat finished for her.

  “Bonding sex?” Liv and Sophia said at the same time.

  Kat frowned. “It’s…as far as I can understand, it’s one step past traditional intercourse. I wish I could tell you more, Liv, but I think it varies with the different branches of Kindred and the girl my firm represented was being called by a Tranq. It’s, uh, pretty obvious yours is a Rager—a Beast Kindred.”

  “The best thing to do is just to avoid sex altogether,” Sophia said in a trembling voice. “Tell him to keep it in his pants, Liv.”

  Liv shivered. “I think I can manage that. I’ll go up to their ship with him but after that…” After that she planned to avoid him as much as possible. He was a huge alien male that had been invading her dreams for months and now he wanted to have some kind of kinky tantric bonding sex with her. She was damn well going to be sure she stayed on the opposite side of the Kindred ship from him at all times.

  “You can’t avoid him,” Kat said as though reading her mind. She was scanning the contract again. “There are some hard and fast rules here, Liv.”

  “Rules?” she asked warily. “What rules?”

  “You have to eat every meal at his table and sleep every night in his bed,” Kat said, reading rapidly. “The good news is, you don’t have to bathe with him until the second week.”

  “That’s the good news?” Sophia sounded aghast. “She has to take a bath with him by the second week?”

  “They’re looking for a lasting union here, girls,” Kat said matter-of-factly. “This isn’t just a getting to know you scenario—it’s a period of deliberate seduction.” She looked at Liv. “He tries to get in your panties, you try to keep him out. The good thing is, he can’t force you against your will. In fact, for the entire first week, he can’t touch you at all unless you invite it. If he does, it’s a breach of contract and you’re allowed to end the claiming period right then and there.”

  “He better keep his distance then,” Liv muttered. Just the thought of having those large, masculine hands all over her body was making her feel warm and nervous. She told herself it was just the shocking suddenness of the whole situation affecting her. Who wouldn’t get a little hot under the collar if they were dragged from their homes and forced to go play sex games in the stars?

  “I don’t know, Liv—he’s pretty damn hot. And the way he’s looking at you…” Kat was obviously losing a little of her professionalism.

  “It’s like he wants to eat you up,” Sophia finished for her and shuddered.

  “Look, hot or not, I have no intention of giving it up,” Liv protested. “I mean, I don’t even know him and he’s talking like he owns me. Plus, did you see his pants? Either he’s smuggling a python in there or he’s got equipment that would put a porn star to shame. I have no interest in doing the horizontal mambo with a guy that’s big enough to split me in two.”

  “I don’t know…” Kat was getting a dreamy, horny look in her eyes that made Liv want to slap her. “Maybe if he was really gentle and slow…”

  “Hello? I’m the one he’s looking to impale,” Liv reminded her. “And does he look like the kind of guy who’ll be ‘gentle and slow?’” He didn’t—not a bit. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder and saw that he was staring at her, that intense hunger back in his amber eyes. He looked like he wanted to throw her down right here on the scruffy grey carpet of the HKR building and defile her six ways from Sunday. Just the thought of being caged in by that big, male body made her heart race and her mouth go dry. How the hell was she going to get through this?

  “Plus, even if he was nice about it, gentle and slow doesn’t negate being hung like a literal horse,” Sophia put in. “You always told us Mitch wasn’t much in the size department and it’s been six months since you two split.”

  “Don’t remind me!” Liv groaned. If she’d married her ex-fiancé, her name would have automatically been pulled from the draft and she wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. Plus, she could have divorced Mitch. A Kindred union didn’t end unless somebody died. Just the thought made her break out into a cold sweat. Tied forever to an alien male, forced to give up her life on Earth to be by his side doing…what? Nothing but getting screwed and probably having sixteen pound alien babies as Sophia had joked earlier. Well, it was no joke now.

  Her years of nursing school, down the drain. Her close relationship with her friends and family, especially her twin, likewise. Her entire existence changed and all because some big alien jerk had decided she should belong to him. It really made Liv mad. More than mad. Furious.

  “I can’t believe there’s not some way for you to get out of this,” Sophia said. Always in tune with her twin, she sounded as outraged as Liv felt.

  “There’s not, though,” Kat reminded them. “You have to at least do the thirty days—that’s nonnegotiable.”

  “Yeah? Well I don’t have to bond with him—whatever that means,” Liv said through gritted teeth.

  “Better stick to your guns on that one, Livvy,” Kat said. “Unless you’re willing to permanently change your zip code for some interstellar sex.”

  “Absolutely not.” Liv lifted her chin. “Don’t worry about me—he’s never gonna get it.” But then she glanced over her shoulder and caught a quick glimpse of those eyes again. God, did he have to stare at her quite so intensely? Nervously she crossed her legs and pulled her robe a little tighter over her breasts.

  “Something tells me you’re going to need every ounce of determination you can muster,” Kat remarked. She had also been watching and had apparently caught the look the huge Kindred warrior was directing at Liv. “He doesn’t seem like a guy who take