“Oh God, this is wonderful,” I sigh around a mouthful of stew and a bite of bread, my hunger eclipsing embarrassment so that before I know it, I’m stuffed full to the brim and lazy with satiety.
Zack hums, bringing my head up and when I catch his eyes what I see there makes my stomach clench and dip while my sex clenches tight. I know what that is, even if I’ve never felt it before.
“I’m glad you liked it, angel,” he says softly, removing the tray and placing it on the floor.
I’ve been so involved in my hunger I didn’t notice him pull up a chair but I notice it now, and the way he’s looking at me. Hungry. The only way to describe that look is hungry and as soon as I have the thought, something within me tightens and also freezes.
“I—”
My heart races at the thought of this big man coming near me, even as I wish it and it confuses the hell out of me. I don’t know why I feel safe here, why I feel aroused or why I know that he’ll protect me, and that scares me.
“Don’t be afraid. I would never hurt you,” Zack says softly, seeming to decipher my sudden stillness and the pounding of my heart.
“I don’t know you. I need to go!” I croak, my eyes going to the storm while my skin itches to find a closet and hide.
It’s what I do, always. Hide. Find safety. Don’t let them find you.
“Stop!” Zack roars, his hands closing over mine and pulling until I realize I’ve shut myself off and I’m curled into a ball on the bed.
Humiliation fills me, cloaking me but I don’t have time to process it before I’m lifted, sheet and all, and he’s cradling me in his lap, his hard chest pressed to my ear where I hear his strong heart thumping. Panic writhes inside me, the need to be free and untouched a desperation that causes my skin to shiver but Zack just holds me tighter and starts to hum, rocking me gently.
“Was a girl, long ago, lips like wine, skin like snow,” he sings, the growling deepness of his voice rumbling through him and into me like a warm blanket.
The song is…terrible, a patchwork of rough words and off-key singing but it’s perfect because it’s not about the words or his voice, it’s about the way he cradles me and softly kisses my hair. It’s his smell, a scent I’ve been smelling for weeks and wondering about. How I smelled it, I can’t say but I know it makes me feel secure and I let it engulf me as I breathe and slump on him.
We sit that way forever, Zack finally petering into a hum and it’s only when I’m completely calm that I notice the thick bulge beneath me. I know what it is immediately but this time, instead of scaring the hell out of me I feel a furl of feminine pride blossom deep.
“You okay, angel girl?” he mutters, the strangled quality to his voice coming when I shift in his lap and press down against that rock-hard bump.
Everything south of my navel goes tight and a throb settles in there, pulsing along my clit and turning my entrance hot and slippery. The sensation shocks me but has me held tight in its grip as I stay where I am and listen to Zack’s heart beat faster. I may not be experienced with men and sex but I know a few important things that start my pulse-pounding hard. Men, especially men as good-looking as Zack, take what they want. They don’t hesitate and…Zack isn’t moving. He’s barely breathing as I shift a little more to test his control and feel his body go rock hard and tight beneath me.
“Angel girl,” He rasps, his hands clasping the arms of the chair he’s in and squeezing so hard I hear the wood groan.
“When I was a little girl, I got caught in a storm,” I tell him, my chest thrilling with a wild beat when I shift again and feel that bulge grow even more, pressing into the spot between my ass and my clenching sex.
I want him. I’m turned on beyond the point of reason but I’m testing him now and it excites me when he doesn’t move and fail.
“I’m sorry, angel. If I was there, I’d have saved you,” Zack murmurs, his groan of pain muffled in my hair when I move again, applying pressure where our bodies meet below.
My juices flow thick and heavy as I slowly move against him, incrementally and with a slowness that can be construed as settling more comfortably. And yet he doesn’t move. He doesn’t so much as flinch besides the tightening of those hands-on his chair and I realize that he won’t. He’s waiting for me to do something. Because I have the control here.
“I think I know that’s true,” I gasp, my core shivering strongly when the pressure beneath me increases.
What would he do if I turned, straddled him, and bucked against that flesh, I wonder, stifling a moan of desire just thinking about it? I want it.This closeness and the feeling of togetherness that I feel are alien to me but addictive.I love that I’m here, with him and not in my little house, cowering alone while I wait this out. He’s here, with me, for me and if I didn’t know better, I would say he was sent to me. My own personal protector.
Can that be? Dare I risk it, I wonder as I shudder and fight this instant ache in me, grasping for sanity.
Chapter five
ZACK
I wake up with my hips pumping into the mattress, a growl of pain leaving me when I force my sweating body to stop and heave lungfuls of air into my burning chest. I’m so hard my balls have a heartbeat of their own and one glance down shows my cock plastered to my hard stomach, pearls of pre-come beading out and smearing against the marred flesh.
“Fuck,” I growl, hardly daring to reach down because I know if my hand goes anywhere near my dick, I’ll start to jack it and I won’t stop until this agony is gone, spent from my balls and covering my stomach in come.
I’m out of my mind with need but I won’t break. For Rebecca, I’ll stand firm and control myself. She’s a queen, a goddess who deserves my worship and if I have to torture myself, every day, just to be near her, I will do it gladly.
That’s why I let her rub on my dick last night, let her stroke that needy little kitty all over my hard and aching cock, knowing that she was testing the waters while I was determined to pass that test. It nearly killed me and I wanted to come so badly I almost blacked out from the need.
