Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Might as well be back on Z4, he thought dully, as he watched the dancing flames. Going to work in the mechanoid factory and eating garn three times a day.
Except on the Dark Kindred home world he hadn’t been hurting those he cared about by not having emotions.
Though to be fair, it wasn’t like he didn’t have any feelings—they were just extremely dull. Kind of like how you lose your sense of smell when you have a cold. So he felt a vague sense of what he was pretty sure was called “guilt” about how his lack of feeling was affecting both Light and Lili. Also a faint regret that he couldn’t be with them in a more permanent way. But nothing stronger than a whisper of feeling—an echo of what he used to feel before.
Light had argued that having even a hint of a feeling proved that his emotions were still there and that they could be brought forward, breaking the block in his brain, if only Dark would try Bonding with him and Lili. But Dark adamantly refused. He didn’t want to saddle the other two with an emotionless blank of a male—which was what he had become.
Or worse, what if his lack of emotion spread to the other two through the Bond? He still cared enough not to want to ruin the lives of his brother and the female they both wanted to be with. So he was just sitting here, stuck, with no way forward and no way back.
He was alone in the suite at the moment. Light had gone out—possibly to consult with Yipper again, though it seemed the Tolleg couldn’t help them. And Lili was having Mid-meal with her best friend, Rachel. Dark had decided to stay where he was, since he couldn’t add anything to either of these interactions.
Before leaving, Light had encouraged him to eat something spicy or highly seasoned for Mid Meal—the kind of thing that was disallowed on Z4 because it might cause emotions. But Dark had no appetite. He just wanted to sit there, staring at the flames because they demanded nothing of him.
Which is exactly what I can give, he thought dully. Nothing.
It had been hours now of just sitting and staring at the flame wall and he supposed that at some point, he really ought to eat something. But—
At that moment he heard the sound of the front door of the suite sliding open and Lili walked into the living area. Dark frowned when he saw her. She looked…different somehow.
Maybe it was the outfit she was wearing, which was a new one and not what she’d had on when she had left the suite. This new clothing was much more provocative than the modest “jeans and a t-shirt” combination—which was how Lili had described what she’d been wearing when she went out.
It was a short, flirty red dress with a deep V-neck and a hem that barely reached the midpoint of her lusciously thick thighs. The thin, silky material clearly showed the points of her nipples, making it clear she wasn’t wearing the undergarment human women called a “bra.”
To go with the dress, she had on shoes with high, thin heels just as she had that first night he and Light had met her, when she’d been running from the attacker.
Just the thought of that—of the male who had been chasing her and had tried to hurt her—stirred a stronger feeling than he’d had since The Fury had bubbled over on the fight to get free of Z4. But it was still just a ghost of a feeling…a residue of the fierce protectiveness he was sure was still locked up behind the barrier in his brain.
“Oh hi, Dark. Are you still sitting here?” Lili came over to him, a worried look on her pretty face. “Haven’t you had anything to eat?”
“I wasn’t hungry,” Dark rumbled dully. He frowned. “Is that a new outfit you have on?”
“Oh, you noticed! Yes, Rachel and I went shopping. Do you like it?” Lili gave a little twirl, making the skirt of the red dress fan out. For a brief moment, Dark caught sight of her panties—a tiny white triangle of lace which barely covered anything at all.
But more than the brief glimpse, what interested him was the scent that was wafting towards his nose. It was an enticing aroma he remembered well from their visit to F’rith Three. The same scent that Lili had exuded when the alien flower buds had latched onto her and were working her over so thoroughly.
Unbidden, the memory of how she had cried and moaned in his arms flashed across Dark’s mind. He remembered watching as the thick stem of the alien flower had fucked her tight little pussy—filling her to the limit as she gasped and bucked her hips.