“Oh…oh, yes—of course.” Melli nodded quickly.
Liosh looked down at the food.
“Do you mind if we take this with us back to your domicile? I think I would rather not be in this crowded, noisy environment anymore.”
“That would be fine.” Melli put some of the new clothing together to get an empty bag and began packing away all the food-court delicacies. Luckily, Liosh had inadvertently gotten almost all of them to go, so they were easy to pack away.
The big Kindred was right, she thought—it was time to go home. At least back in her dorm room, she could be sure she wouldn’t run into awful Amanda Brannigan again—she was rooming someplace else entirely, thank goodness!
And maybe you and Liosh can cuddle, whispered a little voice in her head. Melli tried to shush it. There would be no need to cuddle at her dorm room—they would only be doing that in public, to prove they were a couple.
Still, she couldn’t push the thought away entirely. There was a part of her that ached for warm, gentle physical contact with the big Kindred. A part that just wanted to be wrapped in his muscular arms and held close to his broad chest for hours on end.
Stop thinking like that, she warned herself. Wanting to be loved-on all the time isn’t right—it’s exactly what got you into trouble with Jason Sykes.
That particular thought got her back in line quickly. Above all else, she never wanted to go there again. Even a cold, dry existence without ever being touched again was better than that.
Melli was sure of it.
In fact, she didn’t even want to think about the possibility of the past repeating itself. Better to just keep her needs under wraps, as she’d been doing for so long, and try to act like a normal person, she told herself.
Better to just try and forget what she longed for so desperately and get on with her life, than to stir up the sludge at the bottom of her memory and let the monsters that lurked there come out.
Liosh thought Melinda seemed subdued on the ride back to her domicile. Was she still upset about their encounter with the awful Amanda Brannigan? She had been a nasty piece of work, Liosh acknowledged to himself. She had said awful things to Melinda but in a way that made it seem as though she was trying to be friendly. He shook his head. What a strange contradiction—why weren’t Earth people more straightforward?
But was it only the chance encounter that was making the lovely little female quiet and withdrawn? Or was there something else? Something more specific?
Liosh ran over the conversation they’d had with Amanda in his mind in detail. Melinda had seemed especially upset when the other female had mentioned she had almost failed a certain grade in the school they went to together. Her eyes had widened and her scent had become sharp with pain and fear…but what was hurting or frightening her? Why had a remark like that caused such a visceral reaction?
Liosh had no answers but he wanted to find out. He shot Melinda a sidelong glance and saw that she was looking out the window with a melancholy expression on her lovely face. What had put that look there?
Melinda had a secret, he decided—something she wasn’t telling him. Something that was making her sad.
Whatever it was, Liosh wanted to find it out. Maybe he could help her with it and put a smile on her face again. That was all he wanted—just to care for her.
If she would let him.
Seven
“Here you are—make yourself at home.” Jodi spread her arms, indicating the small room which was apparently now Vorn’s—at least, for as long as he stayed there.
The words sounded hospitable but the look on the Earth female’s face was anything but. The set of her eyebrows and the downward curve of her mouth didn’t say “guest”—they said “intruder.” Vorn wondered if she knew how easy it was to read her…how poorly she concealed her emotions.
Her scent was hostile too—hostile and hot, Vorn decided. Not that her being upset with him made him aroused. No, what he smelled on her was sexual frustration—a tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.
It was the same way it had been in the car—why in the Seven Hells didn’t she just go take care of herself, he wondered? It wasn’t like he was stopping her.
Or was he?
There were other strange smells in this room as well—not just Jodi’s unaddressed heat, he realized. Under the overpowering, artificial flower stink coming from the small device plugged into the wall, there were much more interesting things for his sensitive nose to decipher.
His nostrils wrinkled. Was that leather he smelled? And latex? And the smell of her pussy—stronger and sweeter than ever. But this time it wasn’t coming from her.