Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 67092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
“Okay. Suit yourself.” Raak shrugged and looked down at himself. “I’m fucking wet. Gonna change.”
He disappeared into a walk-in closet—his ship really had a surprising amount of storage, Kara thought—and came back out in a moment wearing another pair of tight black flight leathers as well as a sleeveless black shirt that molded to his chiseled chest and left his muscular arms bare.
He looked absolutely mouthwatering, Kara couldn’t help thinking and her fangs throbbed again at the thought. To her continued mortification, they were still long and sharp and refused to go back to their normal size.
“All right now?” Raak asked, sitting on the side of the bed beside her.
“Fine.” Kara nodded and then it occurred to her that she hadn’t yet thanked him for saving her. “Thank you,” she said, trying to smile though she was still embarrassed. “For saving me, I mean. Um…how did you find me anyway when my Uncle and that horrible Doctor ThrobGood were dragging me down the hall? Did you hear me?”
“Not at first.” Raak frowned. “I had this weird dream that a female’s voice was telling me you were in danger. When I woke up, I heard you calling—sound really echoes in those damn grottoes, you know.” He paused and looked at her closely. “Wait a minute—you say one of those males was your uncle?”
“Uh-huh.” Kara nodded. “He and the doctor were taking me down to his office to…” She trailed off, feeling embarrassment flood her again.
“To what?” Raak demanded.
“Uh…to pull my fangs,” Kara confessed.
“What?” Raak growled. “Why in the Seven Hells would they try to do something as asinine as pulling your pretty little fangs?”
Kara hung her head.
“I thought there was some kind of treatment here on Tranq Prime—some way of shrinking my fangs—that’s why I came. Also, I have kin here and I thought they would help me. But instead of helping, my Aunt and Uncle just wanted to yank them out.” She shivered and put a hand to her mouth involuntarily. “Which would have had…all kinds of awful consequences,” she finished lamely.
“Yeah—the same kind of consequences I’d get if I decided to cut my shaft off,” Raak said shortly.
Kara was surprised at his understanding how important her fangs were to her sex drive.
“Well…yes,” she said, nodding. “But how did you know that?”
He shrugged.
“Figured it was the same for you as for a male Blood Kindred. Their fangs are tied to their sexual urges, right?”
“Um, yes.” Kara looked down at her hands, more humiliated than ever. Did this mean that he knew that when her fangs grew long and sharp, she was feeling aroused? Oh Goddess, she hoped not!
“Hey, you don’t have to look so ashamed of it.” He lifted her chin gently and looked into her eyes. “I told you before, baby girl—your fangs are beautiful. Why would you want to get rid of them?”
“I don’t want to get rid of them, just shrink them some,” Kara protested. “It’s really embarrassing when they’re so, uh, prominent,” she added lamely.
“You mean like they are right now?” Raak raised an eyebrow at her. “I think they’re sexy. Did they get so long because you were getting, uh, excited?”
“Excited? Oh, you mean…” Kara trailed off, blushing.
“I mean aroused,” Raak said frankly. “Which again, is nothing to get so embarrassed about. Everybody has a sex drive—everybody’s got needs, little girl.”
“Yes but most females don’t show their needs like this.” Kara gestured to her mouth.
He shrugged. “So?”
“So males don’t like it!” Kara burst out. “They think it’s unlady-like… not feminine.”
“I would think most guys would be happy to have such a clear signal you were feeling amorous,” Raak remarked. “Although, even without the fangs, I could tell by your scent you were getting hot.”
“I couldn’t help it,” Kara muttered, feeling her cheeks burn. “It was that damn tharp my Aunt Zeelah gave me to wear. It was molesting me!”’
Understanding dawned in his silver-ringed eyes.
“Huh, no wonder you wanted to get it off.”
“It got me all, uh, hot and bothered and now my fangs won’t go down,” Kara held a hand over her mouth as she spoke, too ashamed to look at him now. “I mean, they won’t go back to their normal size. They’re driving me crazy.”
He frowned.
“Crazy how?”
“They’re throbbing and aching,” Kara admitted. “Almost like they want to…to sink into something,” she finished in a whisper.
To her surprise, Raak laughed that deep rumbling chuckle of his.
“Sounds like my shaft when I’m aching to make love with a warm, willing female.”
Kara understood that he was drawing the right conclusion—equating her fangs to his shaft—but it still surprised her that he was so completely okay with the idea.
“Most males don’t like the idea of my fangs, uh, piercing them,” she said carefully. “They seem to think it’s emasculating. Well, the Kindred males do, anyway. The humans I dated just don’t like being bitten.” She sighed.