Bridging the Distance Read online

  Bound laughed. “Which is your convoluted, academic way of saying you’re sorry you asked me a question about Twin Kindred sex.”

  “Well…” Lorelei blushed. “I guess so, yeah,” she said in a low voice.

  “I don’t mind talking to you about it,” Bound told her. “I think maybe in some ways we Kindred are more open about sexual things than some of the more repressed societies on Earth.”

  “Maybe…” she allowed cautiously. “But…you really never get jealous of your brother, even if you see him kissing or, uh, touching a girl without you?”

  “First of all, that would be intensely painful for him—touching a female sexually without me,” Bound explained. “If he is touching or kissing a female, chances are I’ll be doing the same.”

  “Oh, that’s right! Kat did say something like that to me.” Lorelei nodded. “So tell me…how does it work, exactly? I mean with two of you and one of her…” She trailed off, her cheeks going pink again.

  “When we take a female, we make her pleasure the focus of our complete attention,” Bound told her. “One of us might be kissing her breasts or sucking her nipples while the other is between her legs, tasting her and giving her pleasure with his tongue.” He sighed longingly. “Stroking and teasing a female’s breasts while I watch my twin between her thighs, spreading her pussy with his tongue until she moans and arches back against me…there is no greater pleasure.”

  “Oh…” Her cheeks turned even pinker. “So you and Torn have…have done that before?”

  “We haven’t had bonding sex with a female,” Bound admitted. “We haven’t found a female it felt right to bond with.” He looked down at the controls. “Now maybe we never will.”

  “I’m sure you will,” Lorelei said quickly. “We’re going to get your twin back—you’ll see.”

  “From your lips to the Goddess’s ears,” Bound said. “I must believe that Torn will be restored to me and we will find the right female to form a soul-bond with.”

  “A soul-bond?” Lorelei frowned. “What’s that?”

  “When a Kindred warrior—or in this case, two Kindred warriors, have bonding sex with a female, they form a mental and emotional bond with her,” Bound explained. “It allows the three of them to send and receive thoughts telepathically as well as to pick up on each others’ emotions.” He sighed, longing welling up inside him like water. “It’s a beautiful, deep connection which lasts a lifetime.”

  “It sounds…extremely intimate,” Lorelei murmured. “And the only way to achieve it is through…” She cleared her throat, her cheeks turning pink again. “Through bonding sex? What exactly is that?”

  “You don’t know?” Bound looked at her, somewhat surprised. “But you knew about dream-sharing when you thought I had come to claim you. And you seemed knowledgeable about other aspects of Kindred culture.”

  “Only because I’ve been interested in your people since I was a teenager and I really dug for information,” Lorelei said, sounding a bit defensive. “I only know what’s been published in magazines and websites and blogs. There’s this one called “Diary of a Kindred Bride” which is hilarious.” She sighed. “But the blogger is married to a Beast Kindred, not Twin Kindred. So…” She shrugged. “I don’t know everything I’d like to. You guys play a lot of your cards pretty close to the vest, you know.”

  “I don’t mind telling you,” Bound said, seeing that she thought she’d offended him. “I’m just surprised you don’t know.”

  “Well, I mean, it’s probably pretty obvious, right? You probably just, uh…” She cleared her throat. “One of you goes in the front and one in the, uh, back. Right?”

  “That’s one way we can make love to a female,” Bound said thoughtfully. “But it’s not how bonding sex is achieved.”

  “Is it one in the mouth and one in the—”

  “No,” he interrupted her before she could go on. “In order to bond with a female, both Torn and I would have to have our shafts to the hilt inside her pussy.”

  “All the way to the hilt? Wow, uh…I assume you take turns then, right?” Lorelei’s face was getting redder and redder.

  “No.” Bound shook his head. “It must be at the same time or the bond cannot form.”

  “But how is that possible?” Lorelei burst out. Her big brown eyes flicked down to his crotch and then away again quickly, as though she was afraid to be caught staring. “How could you both…fit?” she demanded.

  Bound smiled. “Not without help. We grow a certain kind of fruit called bonding fruit that helps a female open to accommodate us.”

  “Oh!” Lorelei snapped her fingers. “So that’s what Kat meant when she offered to set me up with some bonding fruit! Uh…” She cast a sidelong glance at Bound. “That was before I explained to her that you and I have a strictly business relationship.”

  “Of course,” Bound murmured. Not that he didn’t want more from the curvy little Elite. But how could he possibly ask for more when the fate of his brother was still undetermined? He literally could not bond with a female without Torn. It would be unfair to ask anyone—even a female as beautiful and understanding and perfect as Lorelei—to make a commitment to him without knowing what state the Dark Twin would be in when they got to him.

  They had flown through the fold long ago and now the proximity alert began beeping from the console.

  “Femalah in thirty parsecs,” proclaimed a mechanical-sounding voice.

  Lorelei’s eyes widened.

  “Wow, we’re here so soon?”

  “We are indeed.” Bound put the long-range shuttle into a wide orbit around the artificial moon and turned to Lorelei. “I’ve already secured us invitations to the sale—it’s an extremely exclusive affair in the downtown area where all the gentlewomen’s clubs are located. In fact, it’s being held at the Fren and Chulk club where only the wealthiest gentlewomen are members.”

  “Guess we’d better get dressed then, huh?” Lorelei sounded apprehensive. “So we can get on down to the Fren and Chulk. Wow, just rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?” She laughed nervously and repeated, “Fren and Chulk.”

  “You’re right, we should get dressed.” Engaging the autopilot, Bound unfastened his restraints and nodded at her. “Come on, let’s go.” He was fighting hard to control a mixture of nerves and excitement himself. After so long he was finally going to see his brother again! His other half was going to be restored to him! At least he hoped he was.

  Please Goddess, let it be so, he prayed as he and Lorelei went to get into the clothing Kat had prepared for them. Let me see him again soon and rescue him. And let him not be too changed for us to change him back. Please!

  Chapter Six

  The Femalian clothes that Kat had made for them were more than a little outlandish, Lorelei thought as she struggled into her outfit. The bottom part of it was skin-tight breeches with long vertical stripes of gray and black from hips to ankles and high heeled black boots with golden laces and tassels at the knees.

  That part wasn’t too bad, it was the top of the outfit which bothered her. On top, she had short, tight, deep red jacket. The sleeves of it came down over the tops of her hands but the back of it hit just around her bra-strap—or where her bra-strap would have been if she’d been wearing a bra. The jacket had a built-in belt with a shiny gold buckle just under her breasts. Its rounded collar fanned out, framing her breasts while leaving them bare—which wouldn’t have been so bad if she’d had a bra or a reasonably thick shirt on under the jacket. Unfortunately she didn’t.

  This was the part Lorelei really didn’t care for—under the jacket she was wearing only a thin, black mesh shirt, kind of like a long tank-top, which came down and tucked into the tight breeches. Her full breasts and nipples could clearly be seen through the black mesh. Framed by the bright red jacket, they were like two bull’s-eyes—you literally couldn’t not look at them. The result was that Lorelei felt incredibly exposed and vulnerable.

  Kat had assured her there