Bridging the Distance

  “It is on my world of Twin Moons,” Bound said earnestly. “On my home planet you would have to thrust the males away with a branch.”

  Lorelei smothered a smile. “I think you mean, ‘beat them off with a stick.’ That’s the expression you’re looking for.”

  “Oh, of course.” He nodded. “The point is, I think an Elite—especially such a beautiful one as yourself—will have an easier time getting through to my brother.” His face darkened. “If we can retrieve him, that is.”

  Lorelei tried to keep her voice neutral and ignore the little hop her heart made when the big warrior called her beautiful. Even though he had expressly told her he wasn’t interested in her that way, hearing that he thought she was gorgeous and that his brother would too, was at least food for thought.

  Just don’t let it be food for your ego and cloud your judgment, she warned herself. Get the whole story before you agree to anything.

  “Tell me more about this place where your brother is going to be, uh, sold,” she said, trying to use her most professional tone. “This…Fem-lala place.”

  “Femalah,” Bound corrected. “The Femalians have a matriarchal society where the husband is always subservient to the wife.” He frowned. “In reference to your world’s history, I believe it would be analogous to the society of Victorian England, only with the male and female roles reversed.”

  “Reversed, huh?” Lorelei murmured.

  “Yes. Females go out to work and control all the money while the males stay home and tend children and do other various household chores.”

  “Wow,” she shook her head. “Talk about role reversal. That sounds interesting.”

  “From an anthropological point of view, maybe,” Bound said dryly. “But from a practical point of view, it means I am unable to go and bid on my brother by myself. It’s unheard of for a male to take such initiative. They never leave the domicile without a mother, a wife, or an older sister to look after them and make certain they don’t get into trouble.”

  “Amazing!” Lorelei was getting more and more interested. “So you want me to pose as your, uh…”

  “As my mate—my wife, as you say,” Bound finished for her. “You will bring me with you to the auction and then buy my brother, Torn.”

  “But…if I’m your wife, won’t people think it’s strange that I’m, uh, buying another guy?”

  “Oh no.” Bound shook his head matter-of-factly. “It’s quite common for females to have more than one mate on Femalah—more than one husband. Some of the wealthy females have whole harems of males to serve and pleasure them.”

  “Imagine that…” Lorelei grinned. “That sounds more like the Arabian Nights than Victorian England but wow—I think I could get used to a world like that.”

  “I’m sure it sounds inviting,” Bound said darkly. “But in any society where there is such extreme inequality, there is also much abuse. Males are nothing more than chattel on Femalah. They may be abused, bought, sold…even killed without comment or recrimination to the female who does the killing.”

  “That’s awful!” Lorelei exclaimed. “Okay, I see your point.” She sighed. “It’s just that women have been stomped on and held down on Earth for so long, a little role reversal seems like it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Do you know we still only make seventy cents to every dollar that men make even if we’re doing the exact same job? At least in this country we do—some places it’s a lot worse.”

  “We Kindred don’t agree with Earth’s inequality any more than we agree with what happens on Femalah or on Yonnie Six, for that matter,” Bound remarked. “We don’t believe that females are inferior because they are physically weaker. The Goddess gave males greater strength to protect and shield their females—not to hold them down or denigrate them.”

  “I like that.” Lorelei smiled at him approvingly. “I always heard that you Kindred were feminists.”

  “We are more like equalists if there is such a thing,” Bound remarked. “An equal relationship is essential between a female and her two males if there is to be peace and harmony between them.”

  “Her two males?” Lorelei started to raise an eyebrow before she caught herself. “Oh, that’s right—you’re a Twin Kindred. I forgot—sorry.”

  “It’s easy to forget since I am alone—without my brother.”

  The pain in Bound’s voice was almost palpable and for a moment, Lorelei thought his intense blue eyes looked suspiciously bright.

  “Hey, you really miss him, don’t you?” she murmured. “I’m so sorry. I have an older brother myself but we’ve never been particularly close. I can only imagine it must be different when you’re twins.”

  “There is a mental and emotional connection between Twin Kindred brothers that is only superseded by the bond they can form with a female, when she lies between them,” Bound murmured. “It…hurts to be without him. And every day I feel that connection between us growing weaker. I…” He pinched the bridge of his nose, as though trying to drive back a headache or perhaps tears. “Sometimes I fear that I’m going to lose him completely,” he finished, in a low voice.

  “No, you won’t,” Lorelei said firmly. “I’ll come with you and help you get him back.”

  “Will you really?” Bound looked up, hope shining in his eyes. “But I haven’t even offered you any money yet!”

  Lorelei sighed. “Well, I wish I could do it for free but you kind of caught me at a bad time budget-wise. So…” She shrugged apologetically.

  “I would never expect you to do this service for free,” Bound exclaimed. “I’m prepared to offer you a great deal to even make the attempt with me. It is, after all, a dangerous proposition.”

  “Dangerous how?” Lorelei asked. Her stomach felt suddenly cold. “It sounds straightforward enough—pretend we’re a couple, buy your brother, and bring him back to the Kindred Mother Ship.”

  Bound coughed delicately.

  “It’s just that the Femalians don’t take kindly to outsiders. So we need to be certain they don’t find out our true identity. And then once we have my brother…we don’t know what has been done to him.” He lifted his hands in a gesture of uncertainty. “Kindred are large and muscular—they are often trained as fighters or killers when they are captured as Torn was.”

  “But you said the fact that they’re selling him on a female-dominated planet means he’s probably been modified as a, uh, love-slave, right?” Lorelei couldn’t imagine what kind of modifications a Kindred would need for that particular role. If Torn was anything like his brother, Bound, he probably wouldn’t need a penis extension or anything like that. At least, if the long, thick bulge running down one leg of Bound’s tight leather trousers was any indication.

  “…all right with you, My Lady?”

  Bound’s deep voice drew her back to the present and she realized she’d been staring at his crotch, not paying any attention to his words. Talk about sexist!

  “Uh, sorry. What?” She cleared her throat and looked at his face, not his crotch. “I didn’t quite catch that.”

  “I said, we can stop on the Mother Ship first to draw up the contract. I can offer you fifty thousand of your Earth dollars to help me in this venture. Will that be enough?”

  “Fifty thousand dollars? Enough?” Lorelei nearly choked.

  “I wish I could offer more, but I have to have enough money in order to bid on my brother at the auction,” Bound said apologetically. “But if you need me to, I could borrow more…”

  “No, no.” Lorelei waved a hand at him. “No, fifty-thousand is plenty.” She could pay off the rest of her student loans with that kind of money! And maybe move out of this crappy apartment too. “Fifty-thousand is just fine,” she repeated. “We have a deal.”

  “Thank the Goddess.” He looked immensely relieved. Rising, he came to kneel at her feet and took both her hands in his. “Thank you, My Lady. Thank you from the bottom of my heart—you don’t know what a weight you’ve lifted off my shoulders.”

&
nbsp; “Well, don’t thank me yet.” Lorelei could feel her cheeks getting hot with a blush but she told herself not to be silly—Bound was probably just showing gratitude in the way of his people.

  Still, having him kneeling so close to her was a little disconcerting. Her skirt was pulled up past her knees so she could treat the scrapes she’d gotten falling down and she could feel the heat of his big body radiating against her bare legs. Plus, he smelled really good—a clean, fresh, salty scent like the ocean and cedar wood and masculine spice all mixed together. Delicious.

  “I thank you for being willing to come and to try,” he said seriously. His eyes dropped to her wounded knees and he cleared his throat. “Will you…will you allow me to offer you a more tangible token of my thanks?”

  “What—more tangible than fifty thousand dollars?” Lorelei raised an eyebrow at him. “Like what?”

  “Will you allow me to heal your injuries?” He nodded down at the scrapes on her knees. She had stopped bleeding now but the small wounds still stung.

  “Well…sure, I guess so.” Lorelei frowned. “What—do you have some kind of special Kindred medicine that heals things up right away?”

  “In a manner of speaking,” Bound said. “The Tolleg surgeon on the Mother Ship—the same one who is going to help my brother—developed a compound which enables all Kindred males who drink it to heal the female of their choice.” He looked into her eyes. “I would choose to heal you in this way, if you will permit me, My Lady,” he murmured.

  “Uh…in what way?” Lorelei heard the uncertainty in her own voice but she couldn’t stop herself from saying, “Show me.”

  “As you wish.” Bending his head, Bound licked slowly over her hurt right knee, his warm, wet tongue bathing the entire wounded area in a tingling stroke that made Lorelei’s breath catch in her throat.

  “Oh…uh…” Lorelei didn’t know what to say. Her heart was banging against her ribs like it was a prisoner trying to get out, but somehow she couldn’t look away.

  It was a good thing she was watching or she never would have believed what happened. Before her eyes, her right knee healed—the skin knitting together and leaving not even a scar where the nasty scrape had been just a minute ago.

  “Hey—wow!” she exclaimed, staring down at her knee and then back up at the big Kindred. “That’s amazing! How did you do that?”

  “As I told you—the compound I drank allows a Kindred male to heal a female. Of course…” He cleared his throat. “The female they most often choose to heal is a prospective mate—a female they are hoping to claim. But in your case, I simply wanted to thank you for your kindness.”

  “Oh…okay.” Lorelei’s heart was still thumping. “A female they are hoping to claim,” he had said. But then he’d quickly followed up with a qualifier about just wanting to heal her.

  Not like you’d want to be claimed by a Twin Kindred anyway, she reminded herself. He comes with a brother and if the rumors are true, it’s a nonstop sausage party. One huge male on the menu is enough, let alone two—they’d split you in half! Literally.

  As if to reinforce her thoughts, Bound murmured,

  “I wish my brother, Torn was here to heal your other knee, My Lady. It feels wrong to heal…wrong to touch a female without him.”

  Lorelei’s breath seemed to catch in her throat.

  “So then…you guys really do, uh, share a woman like…like that?”

  “It’s a beautiful, sensual thing, having the right female to lie between you and your twin—or so I’m told.” Bound sighed sadly. “Torn and I never met a female we wanted to bond with so we never had the opportunity to find out first hand.”

  “I…see.” Lorelei cleared her throat. “Well, you don’t have to heal my other knee if it feels, uh, wrong without him.”

  “Oh no, My Lady—please don’t misunderstand me. I want to heal you. I just wish my brother was here to get the same pleasure I do from tasting your sweet skin.” Bound looked up at her, his gaze pure intensity. “I wish I could share you with him,” he said in a low voice.

  “Uh…share me?” Lorelei’s pulse started racing again. “You don’t mean—”

  “For healing purposes only, of course,” Bound said quickly. Leaning down, he lapped slowly over her other hurt knee, taking his time as though being certain she would be well and truly healed. When he looked up again, his deep blue eyes were hooded with pleasure. “You taste delicious, Miss Daniels. I’m sure my brother Torn would think the same.”

  “You…you can call me Lorelei,” she said breathlessly. “I mean, since we’re going to be, uh, in business together.”

  “Lorelei.” Bound took her hand in his as though they were meeting again for the first time. “Thank you for the gift of your name and for your promise to help me restore my brother. If you don’t mind me asking, when will you be free to come with me? The auction is just a few solar days from now and if we miss it—”

  “We won’t miss it,” Lorelei said firmly. “Let me just load a few things into my car and—” She stopped abruptly. “My car—oh my God, my car!”

  “What? What’s wrong?” Bound looked alarmed.

  “My car—it repossessed itself this morning as I was trying to get to work. Right before you came.” She put a hand to her forehead. “Do you know what times it is?”

  Bound consulted a chronometer strapped to his wrist.

  “It’s almost ten o’clock your time.”

  “Crap!” Lorelei jumped up, spilling the unused First Aid kit off her lap. “I have to get down to the dealership in the next half hour or they’re going to repossess it for good!”

  “I’ll take you there,” Bound offered.

  “Thank you.” She sighed. “But it’s all the way across town. We’ll never make unless you can fly.”

  “As a matter of fact…” He smiled at her and held out a hand. “Come on, we’re not supposed to use the transport shuttles as anything but ground vehicles once we get down to Earth in them but I think just once we can make an exception.”

  Chapter Three

  As he maneuvered the flying shuttle through the air, following the route Lorelei had outlined, Bound couldn’t help sneaking a glance or two at the lovely little Elite who was currently strapped into the passenger’s seat. Gods, she’d been sweet when he tasted her. Sweet and salty and perfect in a way he couldn’t explain. The longing to have his brother by his side—the need to share her with Torn—had nearly overwhelmed him.

  But tasting her had alarmed him too. Touching a beautiful female without his brother touching her at the same time should have given him a painful, low-level shock. Twin Kindred had to share a woman—it was agonizing for them to try and pleasure a female on their own.

  It should have hurt to taste her so intimately without Torn there to taste her too, he thought, feeling a mixture of guilt and concern. But I barely felt it at all—what should have been pain was nothing but a tingle, all too easily ignored.

  Did that mean that his connection to his brother was growing even weaker? What if he lost it entirely? The Twin bond he and Torn shared was as necessary to Bound as breathing itself. Would he and Torn die if they were completely separated and their bond was lost? Or would the two of them just go through life like ghosts—never truly feeling anything again?

  Stop thinking such morbid thoughts, Bound told himself sternly. Lorelei has agreed to come with you. Now there’s nothing you can do until the auction—just be grateful to the Goddess that you’ve come this far and leave the future in her hands.

  But though he tried to release his worries to the Mother of All Life, whom all Kindred worshiped, he couldn’t stop thinking of how much he missed Torn and how he wished he could have shared that moment of healing and the taste of the sweet, curvy little Elite with his twin.

  * * * * *

  “Here we are!” As they touched down, Lorelei slipped out of the seat restraints and was already opening the shuttle door. “You stay here. I have to hurry—I only have five minutes
left!”

  “I will await your return, My Lady Lorelei.” The big Kindred nodded gravely. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

  “Thanks,” she said and hurried away, through the metal and glass doors at the front of the dealership.

  She hit the dealership floor running and went straight to the back of the big glass and metal building, weaving around the cars on display to get to the payment desk.

  There was no one there.

  “Hello? Hello, is anyone there?” Lorelei called. There was a little silver bell on the desk—the kind where you pushed the button on top to make it ding. She pushed it frantically and looked at the clock on the wall. Three minutes left! “Hello!” she called again.

  There was a long glass window in the wall behind the desk. Through the darkened glass, she could see someone moving. A large man with thinning brown hair was sitting behind a desk watching something on his phone. Was he the one who was supposed to be manning the desk? When he turned to one side, Lorelei saw naked bodies writhing on the small screen he was staring at intently. Great! Why was he watching porn instead of doing his job?

  “Hello? Can you help me?” she called, ringing the bell again. “I need to make a payment please!”

  At last the man rose ponderously to his feet. He paused the action on his phone, put it down carefully, and ambled at a leisurely pace through the door which led into the small office.

  “Yes? What can I do for you?” he said in a surly voice as he finally made it to his side of the payment desk. He was wearing a blue, short-sleeved shirt with the name “Bob” stitched over the front pocket.

  “Hi there, uh, Bob. My car repossessed itself today for an incomplete payment,” Lorelei said quickly. “I need to make the rest of the payment and get it back before the two hour limit is up.”

  “All right. Name?” he grunted, pulling an old-fashioned keyboard towards him, his pudgy fingers hovering over the keys. He had extremely dirty fingernails, Lorelei noticed with disgust.

  “Lorelei Daniels,” she said. “And could you please hurry? I’ve only got two—no, one minute left before my grace period is up.”