Brides of the Kindred Volume One Read online

  “Okay, I just have to say this. Before we go any farther, could both of you please stop calling me ‘my lady?’ It’s getting really old. We’re not at the freaking Renaissance Fair, you know. I mean, what’s next? Are you going to offer to buy me a tankard of mead and joust for my honor?”

  Both the brothers looked thoroughly confused.

  “Buy you what?” Deep said.

  “What’s a joust?” Lock asked.

  Kat blew out a breath in frustration. “Never mind. The point is, I want you to stop calling me ‘my lady.’ All right?”

  Lock frowned. “But it’s the only proper term of address for an elite female.”

  Kat had a feeling she was getting in deeper and deeper, but she couldn’t help asking. “What’s an elite female?”

  Lock’s dark brown eyes were suddenly as hot as his brother’s had been earlier when he’d scented her. “One with a shape like yours, my lady.” His big hands described a generous hourglass in the air. “Most of the females on Twin Moons are lean and tough—our lifestyle and diet make them that way.”

  “But there are a few,” Deep went on, taking up where his brother had left off. “A lucky few whom the Mother has marked with curving hips and ripe breasts, full to overflowing.” His black eyes flickered hungrily over her body as he spoke and Kat had to fight the urge to cover herself. She suddenly felt naked under the blue silk gown.

  “They are blessed by the Mother—goddesses who walk among us. We call them the elite,” Lock continued, still eyeing her. “And naturally we thought you were an Earth elite. Were we wrong?”

  Kat stared at them, unbelieving. “Uh, I guess so. But on Earth we call it ‘plus sized.’”

  “Plus sized?” Deep raised an eyebrow at her.

  “You know—more to love? Pleasingly plump? Big beautiful woman?”

  His eyes gleamed. “Most intriguing. I like all those descriptions.”

  “I do, too.” Lock gave her a ravenous look.

  Kat felt the sudden urge to pinch herself. Are they seriously saying they come from a planet of skinny-minnies but they think plus sized girls are hotter? Did somebody slip me some crazy pills? She shook her head, trying to clear away the mental images the brothers’ words brought to mind. “Look,” she said sternly. “It’s great you’re so into women with curves, but we are getting way, way, way off point here. One, I’d prefer if you just called me Kat. And two, we need to do this…whatever it is we’re going to do and try to locate Sophie and Sylvan. They’ve been missing for hours now.”

  “Very true my…Kat,” Lock said, coming over to her. “But the fact is, one doesn’t just jump headfirst into a joining with no preparation.”

  She looked up at him, refusing to let herself be intimidated. “A joining? Is that the name of what we’re doing?”

  He nodded. “Indeed.”

  Kat took a deep breath. “Okay, what’s the prep? Do we have to do some kind of special exercises or what?”

  “You’re not far off.” Deep came to stand directly behind her, which made Kat nervous since Lock was standing directly in front. Even though they weren’t touching her, she could feel the heat of their large, male bodies radiating against her skin through the thin dress. Suddenly she felt surrounded.

  “Okay, hold on a minute.” Kat took a step to the side and faced both of them. “Look, I don’t know what you’re up to, but I did not come here for some kind of a booty call.”

  Lock frowned. “I’m sorry, a what?”

  “More Earth vernacular,” Deep rumbled. “I believe our little Kat is saying she’s not prepared to surrender herself to us sexually.”

  “That’s right.” Kat crossed her arms over her breasts protectively. “I’m not about to have sex with either one of you, so you can just get that out of your heads right now.”

  Lock looked confused. “But we didn’t ask you here to have sex.”

  “And you couldn’t make love to either one of us individually,” Deep said, arching an eyebrow. “You’d have to take both of us at once. We come as a pair.”

  Kat felt her cheeks heating at his double entendre. “Good to know—now I have twice as much reason not to get physical. Because I am not interested in being the filling in your sex sandwich—I’m only here to do the uh, joining. So you can stop it with the whole surrounding me thing.”

  Lock shook his head. “Surrounding you? Do you mean the way we were standing?”

  “Exactly.” Kat nodded. “I don’t like that. It makes me…nervous.”

  “But that’s the traditional grouping for a joining,” Lock protested. “The finder in the front, the seeker in the back, and the focus in the middle. Sometimes the finder and seeker switch places, but the focus must always be between them.”

  “We’re usually lying down when we do a joining,” Deep added. “But we thought you’d be more comfortable standing up.”

  “Oh, uh…” Kat cleared her throat. “Well yes, standing is better than…it’s definitely better. But…we don’t have to touch each other, do we?”

  “Skin to skin contact generally makes the joining better and more effective,” Lock said gently. “But we don’t have to remove any clothing if you’d rather not. We can just hold hands.”

  Coming to stand in front of Kat again, he held out a hand. Hesitantly, Kat took it. It was warm and large and enveloped hers completely.

  “See?” Lock smiled. “That’s not so bad, is it?”

  She smiled back. “No, not bad at all.”

  “Good, then it’s my turn.” Deep moved up behind her again and Kat could feel him looming over her in a way that felt almost predatory.

  Taking a deep breath, she reached behind her with her free hand. “Here.”

  “I prefer it like this.” Deep wound an arm around the front of her body and took her hand. Entwining their fingers, he rested his chin on the top of her head. “So much nicer this way.”

  Kat wanted to answer but she was frozen to the spot. From the moment Deep had taken her hand in his own, a strange sensation had started inside her.

  It felt like a warm tingling that started in her hands and ran up both arms like a low level electric current. The sensation, while strange, wasn’t too bad until it reached her torso. There it became a warm glow in the pit of her stomach—like the best buzz she’d ever hand. Then, however, it moved to the tips of her breasts and the vee between her legs. Suddenly her nipples were painfully hard and her pussy felt swollen and wet. And the current didn’t stop there—it stroked her like a knowing hand, tugging at her nipples and caressing her clit until she felt like she was going to explode.

  Finally her paralysis broke and she pushed away from the brothers. “What the hell?” she demanded, glaring at them. “What the hell did you just do to me?”

  “What do you mean?” Deep asked at the same time Lock said,

  “We didn’t do anything but touch you.”

  Kat’s entire body was still tingling like she’d touched a live wire, but at least the more intense sensations in her nipples and between her legs were gone. She put her hands on her hips. “You’re going to stand there and tell me you didn’t do that?”

  “Do what?” they asked together.

  Kat put a hand to her forehead. Give me strength! These two are going to drive me crazy! “That…that weird tingling. You mean you didn’t feel it?”

  “Feel what?” Deep stepped toward her and frowned, his nose wrinkling. “Why do you suddenly smell so hot?”

  “What?” Kat crossed her arms over her chest protectively.

  “Hot—in heat. In need.” Deep’s black eyes were positively glowing. “Come smell her, Brother,” he told Lock, who was still standing a little distance away. “It’s as though she went from being disinterested to panting to be bred and bonded in the space of an instant.”

  Lock took a step forward and leaned in to sniff Kat’s neck. When he straightened up, his eyes were half-lidded with lust. “My lady, er Kat, Deep is right. You smell delicious and very, very…