Chapter 14
ZILL
Breaking News! Empress cancels all scheduled interviews and guest appearances. Is this the end of the pop star's career?
Kolos looks up from his comm as I step into the navigation room, and his brows nearly reach his hairline. Part of me wishes he wasn't wearing the stupid headband, so I won't have to see his expression. It's like a warning of what's about to come, and I don't understand it in the least.
"Why are you in here?" he asks, a lot more upset with me than I think I deserve.
"I came to tell you that we would appreciate your assistance when we return to Earth," I tell him, trying to keep myself from telling him once more that it is his decision whether or not to come with us and that I wouldn't fault him if he didn't want to go down to Earth.
He's already heard it plenty of times, and he knows that I'd never make any of them do anything they didn't want to do.
That doesn't stop me from feeling the urge to remind him again, though.
"Of course I'm helping," Kolos says, rolling his eyes like a petulant child. "Why are you here when you should be back in your room?"
I tilt my head to the side, confused about what he's asking. "Reese and I just decided what she's comfortable with, and I told her I was going to find you and Isha and make you aware."
Kolos stares at me for a long moment before kicking his feet off the dash and spinning around in his chair to fully face me. "Zill, look at me."
"Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot," I warn him, knowing full well it won't do a lot of good because he's got that look on his face that tells me he's going to give me a hard time for something I've apparently not picked up on between Reese and me.
"I'll try my hardest," Kolos says, and then immediately starts talking to me like I'm an idiot because his hardest isn't very hard at all. "Did you leave your room as your bond was getting undressed to come and speak with me?"
My face hardens, shadows going stiff. "Why do you know what she was doing?"
"Because she was blaring her thoughts like a siren with the sole intent of trying to get in your pants." Kolos lets his head fall back with a loud laugh as the gears start clicking into place for me.
Reese and I spoke at length about what she wants and what will make her feel safe.
Then, as soon as we had a plan, she told me she needed my opinion on one of her outfits.
With a quick kiss to her temple, I told her to get changed into it while I went and told Isha and Kolos the plan, and I'd be back to let her know what I thought of the outfit.
"Please tell me you understand where you went wrong," Kolos says, the laughter in his voice still loud and clear.
"She wanted my opinion on her clothing," I say, crossing my arms over my chest, refusing to fall for more of Kolos's teasing if that's what this is.
"Which clothing?" he asks, tilting his head to the side. "Did she have something laid out, maybe something she was pulling out of her suitcases or drawers?"
"No, but–"
"Zill," Kolos holds up a hand to stop me from arguing, and damn him because I do. "I bet you ten credits her 'outfit' was her boobs in your face."
I open my mouth to argue, my shadows all talking amongst themselves as if they're trying to figure out whether what Kolos is saying makes sense or not. My mouth closes, my brows furrow. With as much of my pride as I can muster, I ask for a simple favor from Kolos.
"Can you tell Isha we're heading to Earth tomorrow?"
Kolos snorts, "You got it."
He gives me a sarcastic salute before spinning back around and kicking his feet onto the dashboard.
My shadows are all crowding up around my shoulders and neck.
They whisper amongst themselves and to me, questioning whether or not Kolos is telling us the truth.
The fact of the matter is, we won't know if he is or not unless we see Reese again.
As much as none of us want to get our hopes up, well, it's a little too late for that.
Worst-case scenario, we walk back into the ship, and Reese is fully clothed, and we tell her we forgot something.
That's a good plan, and doesn't make us look too eager for something she hasn't offered yet.
Best case scenario though…
My shadows just barely keep themselves under control, and that's only because they're still just as uncertain as I am that Reese wants us in that way right now.
Sure, there was all of the flirting and the touching during the photoshoot, but that was before she found out she had a stalker, before we had to make a plan to keep her safe for the remaining time she's going to be on Earth.
I won't blame her if she has no interest in anything physical for a while.
The door to my private ship slides open right as a ping on my comm sounds.
I don't pay the device any attention because lying in the middle of my bed in the thinnest, smallest scraps of fabric is Reese.
My shadows fall to the ground as dramatically as possible, spreading wide before rushing back up my body in a swirling, dancing mess.
"Does that mean they like my outfit?" Reese asks, biting down on her lower lip.
I move, though it feels more like my shadows forcing me to rather than me doing it on my own.
I'm still too caught up in taking in just how beautiful my bond is.
Technically, I guess what she's wearing could be considered an outfit.
The dark lace is so thin I can make out the outline of her stiffened nipples.
Based on how little the bra covers, I have no doubt the bottoms do the same for her backside.
And as if she's the mind reader in this relationship, she rolls just enough that I catch a glorious glimpse of her.
"They like the outfit," I tell her. Once I reach the bed, I kick my shoes off and glance up at her to get the okay before working the button on my pants.
"You know," Reese says, rolling all the way over until she's on her hands and knees, crawling toward me. "When I asked you if you could help me with my outfit, I didn't expect you to leave."
"I realized that a little too late," I tell her, swallowing hard as my pants fall and I use my feet to get them off so I don't have to take my eyes off of her.
The tiny pieces of lace are doing so much work to keep her concealed, and I can't help but watch in anticipation for the weight of her breasts to win out against the hold of the bra.
"Shirt off," she tells me, and I work quickly to comply.
She's right in front of me, still on her hands and knees as she reaches the edge of the bed. My shadows all rush to her, pooling underneath her, reaching up for her like the little leeches they are.
Reese barely pays them any attention. Instead, her hands go to my abs as she sits back on her knees.
One of my shadows is close to tugging at her bra, and as she pulls away, they all cry out in disappointment.
Not that I'm disappointed in the least. Reese is trailing her nails over the rivets of my abs and up over my pecs, and I'm breaking out in shivers at how good it feels.
"Do you care?" Reese asks, and it takes me too long to realize her fingers are playing against the hem of my underwear.
I shake my head, hoping she knows I'm fine with her doing whatever she wants with me.
She seems to understand because her fingers slip under the fabric, and she slides them down my thighs until they're low enough that they fall to the floor.
I step out of them, working more on autopilot than anything else.
Reese is staring at me like she wants to devour me, and not a single one of my shadows or any of my own thoughts knows what to do in this situation.
Sure, we've thought about being naked and touched by Reese.
Fantasizing in her shower and actually doing it are completely different things.
I don't know what kind of lover I'll be, but I certainly don't want to be the skittish and wide-eyed man I'm being now.
"Can I?" Reese asks, her fingers trailing lightly over the coarse hair I've kept trimmed ever since Kolos mentioned it in an attempt to embarrass me.
"Do whatever you want to me," I tell her, my shadows as stiff and still as I am as we wait for Reese to decide. She pulls her hand back, and I worry that I've somehow managed to say the wrong thing in the two minutes since this has started.
"Come lie on the bed," Reese says, shuffling backward on her knees to give me space.
My brows pull together again, and my lips press into one another.
I do as she says, though. It isn't until I'm lying on my back that she crawls back over to me.
My shadows are all still pooled underneath her because they want to touch her.
I think she's going to offer to touch me again, but instead she tosses a leg over my hips and settles her lace-covered self right on top of my shaft, and I nearly come apart.
"Good gods," I say, gripping her hips and keeping her right where she is so she doesn't move and make me spill.
My shadows, seeing how I'm touching Reese, decide they are now allowed to touch her as well. Gone is my view of her chest, groin, and thighs.
Reese lets out the sweetest-sounding giggle, and my cock kicks at the sound, pressing hard against the lace covering her. How was I to know this would be so torturous? An amazingly wonderful torture, but torture nonetheless.
"Tell them to stop if they're being weird," I manage to get out between gritted teeth. "I have no control over them right now."
"They're being perfect gentlemen," Reese says.
She lifts her hands and cups her breasts in a way that I'm sure is plumping them up nicely. Not that I can see it, but I can hear the little terrors that are squeezed between them telling the others that they're being smothered and they're in bliss.
"I'm sure," I mutter, not wanting to tell Reese how they're all now trying to figure out how to get her to smother them all.