“Hmm, that’s a really interesting take on porn,” Melli admitted. She kind of wished more human men felt that way. Though some porn could be nice if it was kind and consensual and the people in it seemed to be really enjoying themselves and each other’s bodies, there was an awful lot of it that wasn’t nice where the women looked like they were being coerced or even hurt.
The thought made her shudder. But she still had some questions.
“Okay, so you don’t watch visual porn, but you do have these, uh, ‘scent books?’” she said, making sure she got it right. When Liosh nodded, she asked, “But how do you collect these scents?”
“Well…” he shifted uncomfortably again. “I believe the, uh, females who agree to contribute to such a book wear a sex-shield—a thin strip of fabric pressed tightly between…” He cleared his throat. “Between their legs for a certain period of time.”
“Oh, like panties?” Melli’s face felt hot but this was a fascinating subject and she wanted to learn more.
“Panties?” He frowned.
“Oh, um, little thin underwear that women wear here on Earth,” Melli told him, thinking how glad she was that she’d picked up the several pair she’d left strewn around the floor before he saw her dorm room. Just think—if smells were what turned Kindred on so much, it would have been like leaving a bunch of porno magazines lying around for him to find! Thank goodness all her panties were safely tucked away in the hamper.
Liosh’s eyes widened.
“You mean Earth females wear sex-shields all the time?”
“Well, I mean, not for the purpose of collecting sex smells,” Melli said hastily. “Although I have heard of some people selling stuff like that on the Internet. I, uh, suppose that some Earth guys like scents too—just not as much as Kindred, apparently. So these, uh, sex-shield panties the women wear,” she went on, still fascinated by the subject. “They just put them on and wear them for a while and then they put them in a book for guys to, uh, sniff?”
“Well…” Liosh cleared his throat. “They don’t just wear them all around. They, er…” He coughed, his face getting red. “Are you sure you don’t mind talking about this? I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“It’s all right,” Melli assured him. “I feel really comfortable with you, Liosh.”
Which was true, for some reason. Discussing porn with a human guy might have freaked her out, but the big Kindred made her feel safe—not threatened in the least. “As long as you know that talking doesn’t lead to, uh, doing,” she added, just to be sure.
Because she knew human guys—plenty of them—that might consider this kind of conversation to be a kind of foreplay. She didn’t think Liosh was like that, but it didn’t hurt to lay the cards on the table and be on the safe side.
“Oh, no—of course not!” he said quickly. “I’m here to guard you, My Lady—not seduce you, after all.”
“Of course,” Melli echoed, her cheeks getting hot again. “So…you were about to tell me what…what the women do while they’re wearing the special panties?” she asked, feeling tingly all over in places she hadn’t felt tingly in a long time.
“They, er, pleasure themselves,” Liosh admitted in a low voice. “They bring themselves to the edge to make their honey flow all over the fabric—that is where the strongest and best scent comes from.” He cleared his throat. “And then the shields are preserved and put into a book and the books are sold to warriors who don’t have a mate yet. They are, uh, very popular in the Unmated Males section of the Mother Ship.”
“They are, huh?” Melli mused.
It sounded really kinky—sitting around, sniffing a book filled with used panties. But then again, some of the visual porn on the Internet was way kinkier. Not that she looked at porn much—it was too easy to get triggered if she saw the wrong thing. But still, there was some pretty strange stuff just a few clicks away at any given time.
“Do you have any of those smell books—I mean scent books?” she asked Liosh before she thought.
Then her hand flew to her mouth as she realized she’d basically asked if he liked porn—or the Kindred version of porn, anyway—which was really too intimate a question for a guy she’d only known a day or two.
“Oh, I’m sorry—you don’t have to answer that,” she said quickly. “I, uh, shouldn’t have asked.”
But Liosh was shaking his head.
“No, I don’t mind. I don’t have any scent books,” he said. “It’s not that I haven’t been tempted, but…”
“But what?” Melli asked, still fascinated.
“Well…” He shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling. “Arousal scents are all well and good and I won’t deny they’re very stimulating. But I don’t want to just smell any random female. I want the scent of the female I want to Claim—the one the Goddess has chosen for me. When I find her…” His pale blue eyes were suddenly half-lidded… “When I find her, I’ll want to bathe in her scent and mark her with my own. That’s what I truly want—what I’m waiting for. Which is why I don’t find the scent books as tempting as some do,” he finished.