Cursed: Brides of the Kindred 13 (22 page)

“They are cha-chas—a
Hossan
delicacy,”
Ssstha,
the girl with Medusa hair said.

“What do they taste like?” Charlie asked her. She was actually getting to like
Ssstha
and her husband. Despite the weird display of tongue-love they had given earlier they seemed like nice, down to Earth people. Though she wasn’t sure the term “down to Earth” would really apply here. But still…

“See for yourselves.” Reaching down,
Ssstha
picked up a golf ball sized cha-cha. But instead of putting it in her own mouth, she reached across the table to her mate.
Hsssthnk
opened his mouth obligingly and his long green tongue came out to curl around the round red ball and pull it in. He chewed slowly, his golden eyes glowing with enjoyment.

“Delicious! Here, you try one as well, my sweet.” He picked up a round blue ball the size of a walnut and leaned across to his wife who reached out her tongue for it.

Charlie looked away, not really wanting to see any more tongue play. She wondered why
Hsssthnk
and
Ssstha
were even at the resort. If they were lovey-dovey enough to be feeding each other tasty morsels at dinner, it didn’t seem like they would need any marriage counseling—especially the remedial kind this place was supposed to offer.

“Well…we might as well try it,” Stavros rumbled, picking up a bright yellow ball.

“I guess so.” Charlie shrugged and picked up one of her own—an orange one. She was still a little irritated at him for his comments about using his tongue on her before. And then after she’d kicked him and he’d caught her foot and started massaging her toes… The thought of his large, warm hand on her foot and ankle was…disturbing. And the sight of him sitting there across from her all broad shouldered and half-naked didn’t help either. Trying to put it out of her mind, Charlie popped the little orange ball into her mouth, chewed twice…

And promptly spit it out again in the palm of her hand.

“Ugh! That’s horrible! It’s so bitter—like somebody crushed up a whole bottle of aspirin and condensed it down to a pasty ball of chewy goop!”

Across from her Stavros was still chewing his own ball but from the look on his face, he didn’t care for it much. He swallowed with some difficulty and frowned.

“I don’t know what aspirin is but…that was
not
pleasant.”

“
Not pleasant?”
Charlie looked at him incredulously. “That’s the understatement of the year!”

“It’s because you are eating them incorrectly,”
Ssstha
said and popped another bright blue ball into her husband’s mouth.

“How are we supposed to eat them—does it have something to do with wrapping your tongue around them?” Charlie asked, mystified. “Because I’m afraid we’re at kind of a disadvantage there—at least compared with you guys.”

“No, I don not think you understand.”
Hsssthnk
selected another ball—this one as crimson as a berry—and placed it gently between his wife’s lips. “The idea of the cha-chas is to feed them to
each other.”

“Why would we want to feed each other little balls of crap?” Charlie asked flatly. “I mean, not to be rude but—”

“Taking the food from your lover’s hand changes the flavor completely,”
Ssstha
assured her. “Go on—try it.”

“Seriously?” Charlie looked doubtfully down at her plate and then back up to Stavros. He shrugged.

“We might as well try it.”

“Fine. Open up.” Charlie selected the biggest ball she could find—a pea green one a little bigger than a golf ball—and held it out to him. She couldn’t help a little twinge of satisfaction as she chose it.
This
would teach him to grab her foot and massage her under the table!

Stavros looked distinctly nonplussed.

“Why must I be the first one to try?”

“You afraid, big guy?” Charlie raised an eyebrow at him tauntingly.

He frowned. “I am not afraid of anything you could do to me, Charlotte…not physically anyway.”

Charlie frowned back. What the hell was
that
supposed to mean? She wasn’t about to ask.

“All right—put up or shut up,” she said, holding out the pea-green cha-cha and leaning across the table.

The big Kindred leaned towards her and opened his mouth.

Triumphantly, Charlie popped the weird alien food between his lips. But before she could withdraw her fingers, Stavros closed his mouth over them. She could feel the sharp points of his fangs but he didn’t hurt her—he just sucked gently at her fingertips.

“Hey!” Charlie pulled back quickly but her whole hand and arm seemed to tingle at the warm, wet feel of his mouth.

Stavros grinned at her and she realized this was his payback for her selection of the biggest ball and for making him go first in the taste test.

“Very funny,” she said as he began to chew. “How is it—any better?”

A surprised look came over his face and then he swallowed.

“It is…actually, it is not bad.”

“What does it taste like?” Charlie was deeply suspicious. Since they were playing this little game of one-upmanship she wouldn’t put it past him to
pretend
to like the flavor just to throw her off her guard.

Stavros shook his head. “I cannot describe it but it’s certainly vastly superior to the first one I ate myself. Here—try for yourself.” He picked up a cha-cha—a small blueberry-sized one—and held it out to her.

Charlie still didn’t trust him but her stomach was growling and there didn’t seem to be anything else to eat in the whole place. Every table she looked at was filled with happy couples feeding each other the little brightly colored balls.
Ridiculous.

“Come on—try it,” Stavros urged, still holding out the cha-cha.

“Well…all right.” Wish a sigh, she opened her mouth.

He placed the little ball gently on her tongue and withdrew.

Bracing herself for the bitter taste, Charlie bit into it—and gasped in surprise as sweet, succulent juice squirted across her tongue. She kept chewing and it got even better. The cha-cha had lost its pasty, gluey consistency. Instead it was crisp and juicy and tender all at once—yielding delightfully under her teeth and spreading a flavor that was indescribably good through her whole mouth.

“Oh! It’s like…” Charlie tried to find a way to describe it which wasn’t easy—the cha-cha was like nothing she’d ever tasted before. “It’s a little like fried chicken…and a little like roasted nuts…and there’s some kind of fruit in there that’s sweet and tart at the same time, too. Maybe…peaches? Or mangos?” She looked at Stavros, who was grinning, apparently amused by her reaction. “Why didn’t you tell me it was this good?”

“Would you have believed me if I had?” His deep voice rumbled softly.

“I…don’t know,” Charlie confessed, feeling put on the spot. “Probably not.”

“You need to learn to trust me, Charlie.” He caught her eyes and held them with his deep blue gaze. “We’re partners—we need to work together.”

Charlie finally managed to tear her eyes away from his, her cheeks flaming and her heart pounding. His use of her nickname disturbed her somehow as did the way he was still looking at her. Damn it—why did the big bastard affect her so much?

“Here, have another,” she said, grabbing a cha-cha at random and holding it out to him.

“Thank you.” He accepted the morsel from her without comment and, to her relief, without trying to suck her fingers again. “Delicious,” he rumbled and held a medium-sized red cha-cha out for her. “Would you like one as well?”

“Please.” Charlie allowed him to pop the food in her mouth and chewed slowly, still not meeting his eyes. This ball had entirely different flavors—some familiar and some alien but all completely delicious, like the first one Stavros had fed her.
Granny smith apples…roasted pork…cinnamon…and something else. But what?
She didn’t know and anyway, she was just trying to distract herself from the strange tension between them. “Your turn,” she said, picking up another and holding it out to him.

They fell into a kind of rhythm after that of taking turns and feeding each other. It felt strange at first but by the end of the meal when she popped the last cha-cha between the big Kindred’s lips, Charlie found she was almost getting used to it.

See, this isn’t so bad,
she told herself as they both sat back from the table.
You’ve got this, Charlie—you can do this!

Just then Nar’sa and Ta’no reappeared, moving as one as they glided silently up to the table.

“We hope you enjoyed your evening repast,” Ta’no said, smiling at them.

“And now it is time for your evening class,” Nar’sa said.

“A class?” Stavros asked. “All right, what is it called?”

Nar’sa and Ta’no spoke as one.

“The Sensuous Touch.”

Chapter Sixteen

“The
what?”
Charlie’s heart was racing like a panicked racehorse but Nar’sa and her mate were already beckoning for them to get up from the table.

“Come, come—we must go. We must not keep the instructors waiting.”

Stavros got up from the table at once, moving with surprising grace for such a big guy. He came around to Charlie and held out a hand to help her up.

“Thanks but I got it.” She stood on her own and then looked up to see the big Kindred staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

He let his hand fall to his side. “Do you really fear my touch so much?” he asked in a low voice. “You were not like this before…when I healed you.”

His mention of the passionate healing kiss they had shared made Charlie feel hot and cold all over. How could she tell him that she hadn’t been afraid to let him touch her on the Mother Ship because she’d believed she would never see him again? How could she explain that it felt different…
dangerous
to touch him here, where they were expected to be together for who knew how long?
You can’t trust him,
whispered a little voice in her head.
He’s just like all the rest—you know he is.

“That was…different,” she mumbled, looking away. “Come on—we’ll be late for the class.”

Without waiting to hear his reply, she hurried after the gliding forms of Ta’no and Nar’sa who were almost out of the vast dining area by now.

There was a choice of three different hallways. They were led down the far right one and went down a long metal corridor, their bare feet echoing on the dull silver floor plates, until they came to a large, deep blue double door. Here their councilors stopped and turned as one.

“Welcome to the Temple of Learning,” Nar’sa said, inclining her head graciously so that her floating halo of hair waved gently. “This door opens into the First Circle—the Circle of Enlightenment. Here you will begin to learn each others bodies and minds beginning with this first class—The Sensuous Touch.”

“Are we taking this class all by ourselves?” Charlie looked around nervously. “I mean, what about
Hsssthnk
and
Ssstha?”

“Unfortunately, no other couple in the resort requires the level of remedial help that the two of you do,” Ta’no said, shrugging. “So you will be receiving this class separately. Hopefully in time you will catch up and be able to take instruction with some of the other students.”

“Geeze,” Charlie muttered. “So we’re stuck in the
slow class?”

“Think of it this way—you will be receiving exclusive one-on-one instruction with one of our finest teachers.” Nar’sa smiled gently. “Come, you will meet them now.”

The double doors slid open suddenly, revealing a medium sized room that was empty except for a single figure in a black robe who was standing with its back to them.

Oh no!
Charlie had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Please don’t let it be…

“Greetings.” The figure turned around, revealing the two-faced stare of the Joined One they had seen in the dining area. The male face glowered at them but the female one smiled benignly. Charlie couldn’t tell which one of them had spoken and she didn’t really care.

All she could see was the monster from her nightmares—the ones she’d had as a kid—brought on by a particularly scary movie she’d seen at a slumber party.
The Creature from Hell…
God after all these years, she still remembered the name. Missy had had to sleep with her for
months
after that.

She was an adult now but she still didn’t like the look of this weird thing—seeing it in the dining area had sent a cold chill down her spine. But seeing it now, up close and knowing she would have to be in close proximity to it, made her like someone had dumped a bucket of ice cubes into her stomach.