Chapter 26 Zill #2
Isha's jaw is set, but I've known her long enough to tell that she's feeling more relieved than she will ever let any of us know. She swallows hard and then seems to set herself right.
"I'll inform Skia of my new position so he can stop bothering me about how I'm doing," Isha says, a smile forming on her lips. "He was worried, but the trial with his human started today, and he won't leave her until it's seen through."
"I told him we're watching over you," I scoff. "He doesn't need to be bothering you."
"As much as I feel like all of you are my brothers, he really is, and he's the biggest worrier I've ever met.
" Isha's back to her good humor. Her only concern truly must've been that she was being let go because of what happened, and that hadn't crossed my mind even once.
If anything, I thought she was taking too much of it on herself when it wasn't her fault.
"Looks like he has one emotion then," I mumble, ducking when Isha throws a small decorative pillow at my head. I hold my hands up, chuckling. "Okay, okay. I see I'm now in hostile territory. I'll take my leave."
Just as I'm about to head out, Isha stops me. "I'm happy you found someone. Even happier you're taking some time for yourself."
"You all act as if Mauve isn't calling me down for weeks at a time every year," I say, and then more seriously add on. "But yes, I'm happy as well. Next up is finding everyone else's soulbonds, don't you think?"
"I'll let you be the one to tell Kolos," Isha says, shaking her head.
If I were to ask any of my crew, they'd all say they're fine, whether or not they find their soulbond.
They'd be dirty fucking liars, but it would be their answer.
Or rather, that would be Isha and Skia's answers.
Kolos would tell me he's living just fine without his, even though his shadows are limp pools of sadness almost every second of every day.
But, I don't know. I just have this feeling that a lot has changed already, but there's so much that's still to happen.
"Thanks again for your help," I tell her.
"Thanks for, well, you know," Isha says to my back as the door to her private ship opens so I can leave.
"Anytime."
I walk through the door, letting it slide closed behind me.
Reese is still asleep. I don't want to wake her, but at the same time, I really need to be around her right now.
It feels like I need to be around her every second of every moment for a good long while until my shadows and my own mind stop freaking out with the thought that something has happened to her.
So, as much as I tell myself to go somewhere else on the ship and get some work done, I find myself standing in the doorway to my ship, staring at the little human asleep in my bed.
In a few strides, I'm beside the bed, a few heartbeats, and my shoes are kicked off, shirt removed.
We won't wake her. I make my shadows swear we won't wake her.
But as soon as I lift the blankets to crawl in beside Reese, she stirs.
It's just a small movement at first, and then a soft little groan she always lets out because waking is just the worst when she's sleeping so well.
Zill? What time is it? Reese's thoughts aren't directed at me, which is why they come out at a normal volume.
No, it isn't until she actually wakes, rolling onto her back, that she's purposefully talking to me.
Her voice is loud and obtrusive and so perfectly her. Zill! Good morning! What time is it?
"You came in here to take a nap," I remind her. "It's not even time for dinner."
"Mmm, well, come get in bed with me and help me kill some time until it's time to eat," she says, offering me her hand and pulling me down to lie with her.
She gives me a wicked look. One that tells me I'm going to be groaning. Because I'm in her head now, my shadows are already warning me what she's about to say. My scandalized groan comes out just as her words do.
"We could both have a little snack now if you want." Reese cackles as she finishes.
Instead of covering my eyes and flushing in embarrassment, I pull her closer to me. My face is still burning. There's no stopping that.
"How's your ankle?" I ask.
"Considering your mom has the nicest medbot I've ever seen, I think my ankle is better than before I fractured it," she tells me.
She wiggles around until she gets her leg outside of the blankets, her toes pointed straight into the air as she moves her foot back and forth and side to side as if to show off the range of motion of her ankle.
"See, it's great. Absolutely no reason we can't sixty-nine right now."
"Gods, what does that even mean?" I ask. To my utter horror and definite enjoyment, a glorious rendition of what I'm assuming Reese and I will look like if we do her strange sex term blooms into intimate detail in my mind.
I take a deep breath, my shadows already confirming we will, in fact, be doing what Reese wants.
Because she's in my head, she's already crawling out from underneath the blankets and discarding the sleep shirt she was in.
Of course, she isn't wearing any underwear.
She's Reese, and if she can torment me, she's going to do it.
"Don't act like you don't enjoy being tormented by me," Reese says, pouting after hearing my thoughts.
The devilish thing even crosses her arms over her chest, plumping her breasts up and covering her nipples from me.
Not that it stops my shadows, because now that they know Reese likes them, they have no issue manhandling her.
It takes them all of a moment to have her wrists wrapped and pulled down to her sides, leaving her giggling and biting her lower lip as I admire her from where I'm lying.
I reach up, my fingers pressing gently to the back of her neck and drawing our faces close. Her anxiety sparks with a hint of fear and shame. It keeps me from kissing her, the strength of her emotions making me think I'm doing something wrong.
I kissed him. I did it to get away, but I still did it. What if Zill thinks I liked it? What if he's mad at me for doing it? Reese's worries hit me hard right in my chest.
"Reese," I start, releasing her from my shadows' hold so she can move her hands if she wants.
My shadows continue to caress her, being sweet and gentle with her instead of insistent in their need to have her right this second.
"Reese, love, you did what you needed to do to survive.
" I cup her face between my hands, making her look at me as she tries to divert her eyes.
"I would still want you no matter what happened.
You could've done so much more, and I'd still want you, because you were protecting yourself. You were saving yourself."
"I know," she says, reaching her hand up to place over mine. "I know that, but it's just so stupid. I can say over and over again that I did it to get away, but my brain is like 'Ew, you're gross.' It's just really rude."
"Well, you're not gross," I tell her, pulling her back close to me, and waiting to see if her thoughts turn ugly again. "Want me to show you how not gross I find you?"
"Yes, please," she answers, closing the distance, meeting my lips with hers, and deepening it before I get a chance to lead at all. She laughs into my mouth, probably hearing my grumbling in her mind.
"If you're going to be a little brat about it," I start, and am interrupted by Reese nipping at my lower lip, making me lose my train of thought.
"I think you were trying to beg me to sit on your face now," Reese says, flicking her tongue against the bow of my lips and making my cock jerk.
I nod, forgetting what my point had been before. "That's exactly what I was trying to do."
"Good boy," Reese says, and then laughs as my cheeks fill with blood and my thoughts fill with other scenarios in which I want her to call me that. "I'm so glad we found one another."
"Gods, so am I," I say, salivating as she moves around on the bed.
She positions herself above me, facing away from me, and I don't know how long I'm going to be able to hold up my end of this whole position. She's going to be swallowing me down faster than I can recuperate.
"I love you," I tell her, or rather tell her cunt since it's the part of her I'm seeing the most of right now.
Reese plops herself right down on my mouth, and I groan in ecstasy as she rides my face. "I love you too. Now let's see which one of us is better at this, yeah?"
I just moan in response as my shadows pin her closer to me. I might not be able to go as long, but I'm licking this pussy until you're begging me to stop.
"Zill, you can't just talk dirty in your head," Reese chastises me, punishing me with a lick to the tip of my cock.
"It's unfair." Another lick. "But I guess you don't really have use of your mouth right now.
" She licks me again, and my shadows tighten around her, threatening to push her further down my shaft.
"Needy," Reese says, finally taking me into her mouth. We moan at the same time, and for easily the hundredth time since I met her, I'm wondering how I ever thought sex was so disgusting.
Only come in my mouth twice, I want the rest inside me. Reese's blunt request has me shooting my first release into her mouth, and I can hear her laughing in her head.
You're a terror.
And you love me for it.
So much, Reese. So much.