It’s a quiet dinner. I take a page from Ziv and Akkal’s book and let the silence fill the space between us. I’m sure they’re getting tired of my silly stories anyway, and would prefer to go back to how things were before I moved in.
Ziv tucks Akkal into bed and I take a shower, not because I’m sweaty or feeling dirty from the picnic, but because I need a reset, and my mind isn’t giving me one.
I jump as I open the washroom door and Ziv is leaning against the doorframe, his huge front biceps on display as he cages me in. “Are you going to explain it to me?”
I play dumb because I’m too overthinked-out to do anything else. “Explain what?”
“Why you shut down today. Why those females were able to change the way you are with me, with Akkal, after only a few insane comments.”
“I don’t know.” I throw up my hands as I sidestep him and climb into bed. “I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, and I let that shit get to me. I shouldn’t have.”
He climbs in next to me, and lays on his side so we’re facing each other. “Which comment got to you?” His fingers trail lightly down my arm, causing my muscles to loosen. He knows I love when he does this. It’s almost a ticklish touch, but right on the line without making me laugh.
It’s so stupid to say this shit out loud, but he deserves the truth. “That someone like you is with someone like me.”
“Who should I be with then, if not you?”
He can’t really be this clueless, can he? Does he not know how the island sees him?
I rub my eyes, trying to ease the headache building behind them. “I don’t know, Ziv. You’re a hero, and I’m a villain. Youcould probably close your eyes and point to find a more worthy match.”
He opens his mouth as if to respond but seems to change his mind. I follow his gaze as it darts across the ceiling then lands on me seconds before he grabs my hips and pushes me onto my back. One of his hands has my wrists pinned above my head, another is gripping my thigh as he wraps it around his waist. The third is lightly tracing my rib cage––the scrape of his calloused fingers making me shiver––and the fourth hand is gripping the sides of my mouth, pushing my lips into a slightly parted pout.
It occurs to me how small the room suddenly seems, how much of it he fills.
“It doesn’t matter what I say, does it?” There’s a chill in his tone and his eyes blaze with anger. “I could tell you you’re the most generous, charming, breathtaking creature I’ve ever known, and somewhere inside your mind, you’d still think one of those wretched females is a better match, yes?” His grip on my wrists tightens to the point of pain, and I watch his jaw clench as he looks up at them. “That you’re what, unworthy of my devotion?”
I don’t know what to say, and with the way he’s still squeezing the sides of my mouth, I can’t say much, so I nod because it’s the truth. I also clench my thighs beneath him because this new side of Zivren? It’s fucking hot. He’s never aggressive or commanding like this. If anything, he’s a gentle giant. But not right now, and I’m loving it.
“Fine,” he growls through gritted teeth. “If you refuse to listen to my words, I’ll make you understand another way.”
That’s the only warning I get before he lets go of my face and crashes his lips into mine, kissing me with a roughness I didn’t think he possessed. My wrists remain bound as he frees his other hands to rip my underwear straight down the middle. He onlyfrees my hands long enough to tug my T-shirt up my arms before tightening his hold on them once again.
His hungry mouth moves down my body until he reaches my nipple, sucking it between his lips and biting gently. He gives my other breast the same attention, and then his tongue traces along my collarbone and around the shell of my ear. “You are all I’ve ever wanted,” he whispers. A hand reaches between our bodies, and I can’t tell why until I feel the swollen head of his cock rubbing against the lips of my pussy. He presses it against my clit, and it must be covered in oonya because the tingles begin immediately, and they erupt across my skin like I’ve been bathing in it. “You’re a miracle I didn’t think I deserved.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” I pant, rocking my hips against his, trying to reach for the friction I know he can provide.
“There will never be another for me, June.” He sucks on my earlobe and bites down.
I cry out, sinking deeper into the pleasure and pain his body is feeding me, desperate for more.
“You’re the only thing that makes sense to me. The piece that’s been missing.”
I want to get lost in the beauty of his words, the gravity of what he’s saying, but then I feel him pause at my entrance.
“I don’t think I’ll last long, but I want this.” He kisses me, drinking from my lips. It’s an oath as much as it is a question. “May I?”
“Do we, um, need anything? Protection?” It might be his first time, but suddenly I’m nervous too. I want this to be good for him.
“There has never been another.”
“Right. Okay,” I reply, laughing at my slip in memory. “I doubt I’d be able to get pregnant, but even if I could, I got a contraception shot last year in the castle.” Then I remember something else. “Oh, lube.”
We got handsy in bed a few days ago, and my pussy was as dry as a saltine. He went to the market before the sun came up and bought three bottles of it. Sweet man.
He pulls one of them out of the drawer that disappears into the wall and squeezes a generous amount into his palm before coating his dick.
“We’re good then, yes?”
