Slade’s mind shied away from the old pain. He couldn’t go there right now—he just fucking couldn’t. Looking around for something to take his mind off the past, he spied a scrap of pink fabric on the ground by his foot. What was that?
Bending down, he picked it up and saw it was the panties his new stranger-mate had discarded. What was her name anyway? He supposed he could use their link to try and find out but she had been so upset when she heard his mental voice in her head he decided it would probably be best not to do that.
Oughta throw these in the trash, he thought, staring down at the scrap of fabric in his hand. Instead, he brought them to his nose and inhaled…deeply.
Gods! Her scent…so fucking sweet!
Warm feminine musk invaded his senses and his shaft, which had gone down after she left, was instantly hard again. Images of her begging for his cock inside her and bucking up against him to get more as he fucked her filled his brain and he wanted her all over again with an intensity that took his breath away.
Slade gritted his teeth and pulled the panties away from his face. Now why the fuck had he done that? Why torture himself with the scent of a female that could never be his? They might be bonded but neither of them wanted to be. The girl had practically pulled her insides out to get away from him the minute he started using their mind-link. She couldn’t get away from him fast enough.
I’ll leave her alone, Slade told himself, getting off the bed and tucking his still-hard shaft back into his black leather trousers with difficulty. That’s what she wants and it’s what I want too.
He looked down at the lacy pink panties in his hand.
And I’m going to throw these fucking things away as soon as I find a trash receptacle.
But somehow, though he passed by a conveniently placed receptacle as he left the Pairing House, he found himself tucking the lacy pink scrap of fabric into his pocket instead.
Chapter Six
“I swear to God, Brandi, you are no fun! Why won’t you tell me what happened?” Her cousin’s voice over the phone sounded shrill and whiney, getting on Brandi’s nerves.
“I told you yesterday,” she snapped, holding the phone to her ear with one shoulder while she gathered her purse and car keys. “We had sex and I left—the end.”
“If that was all there was to it, why were you in such a damn hurry to get off the Mother Ship yesterday?” Crystal demanded. “I swear you ran out of there like your hair was on fire and your ass was catching!”
Brandi gritted her teeth in frustration. She preferred not to remember the mad dash to get back to the tour group and the way she’d been looking anxiously over her shoulder the whole time, afraid that Slade would come after her. To make matters worse, she’d left her panties behind and put her shirt on backwards and inside out in her haste.
Her disheveled hair and disarranged clothing made her feel like she was doing the walk of shame all the rest of the tour. And it didn’t help that the big Kindred’s cum had been dripping out of her the whole time, making her inner thighs unbearably sticky. It had been ages until she could get to a public restroom—a “fresher” the Kindred call them—and try to clean up.
That uncomfortable memory brought back his words as she was trying to get away from him.
“I hope you’re happy sweetheart—in addition to forming a permanent bond with a complete stranger, I might have just planted a baby in that sweet little belly of yours. Is that what you wanted?”
“No,” Brandi muttered. “That isn’t what I wanted at all.”
“What are you talking about?” Crystal demanded in her ear. “What do you mean, this isn’t what you wanted?”
“Look, Crystal, I’m going to be late,” Brandi snapped. “Unlike you, my job is nine to five, not five to whenever the club closes. And I still have to drop Emmie off at pre-K so I have to go.”
“All right,” her cousin grumbled over the phone. “But you have to promise to spill the dirty details later. I know there’s more to this story than what you’re telling—I know it.”
“Fine, we’ll talk later,” Brandi said, though she had no intention of telling her cousin exactly how disastrously her Kindred sex encounter had ended. Those shameful and mortifying details she intended to take to her grave.
She hung up, her thoughts still preoccupied with the big Kindred.
At least he didn’t stop me from leaving the Mother Ship and he hasn’t followed me down here, she told herself hopefully. Thank goodness they had put down Crystal’s name and address on the visitors form they were required to sign out before boarding the Mother Ship! And he hasn’t projected his voice into my head again either.