Chapter 12 Zion
ZION
“Good luck!” Ezra shouted as Kali dashed through the open door.
Oh, she was in so much trouble. So much exciting trouble.
Eli grimaced at Ezra. “Really?”
Ezra shrugged. “What? She needs it. It’s not like she’s going to escape. But if, with a little luck, she can manage to stress them out before they catch her, then the more, the better. It’s fun to watch.”
Sadira reached for the chocolate croissant Gedeon had loaded onto the plate for Kali, and he swatted her hand away. “There are plenty. Get your own.”
“Gods, fine. It’s not like these have her name on them.” Sadira rolled her eyes and snatched a croissant from the silver tray full of the golden baked goods covered in sugar powder.
Did we sometimes annoy Gedeon by acting childish just for the fun of it?
Yes. Yes, we did.
Dinners became boring fast with nothing new happening besides a new person joining us every few years. So with our toy, a delightful package named Kali, here, now? All bets were off. Or more like starting, depending on how you looked at it.
And she was already getting under Gedeon’s skin by going against all his commands, even the easiest of all—eating her dinner. It was going to be immensely entertaining to watch him try to tame her.
Maybe I should teach him how to relish and savor her insolence. So many creative punishments could await her for her audacity.
Which led me to the fact it’d been two minutes of her being gone. Too long. I wished to have her back to irritate him some more. Preferably with her in my lap.
I stood abruptly, catching his attention. “I’m going after her. I intend to play, so if you want to join, haul your ass. Or would you prefer me to play with yours?”
Ideally, both hers and his. The rest from this table too. There could never be too many.
He rose, splaying his palms on the table and leaning toward me. “If you touch her—”
“What? You’ll spank me?” I spread my arms wide as I walked backward toward the exit. “Nothing I haven’t experienced before.”
I was playing with fire, but who didn’t like to get burned? That was the best part.
Absentmindedly, I traced the raised scars through my shirt’s fabric on the inside of my left forearm. It was impossible to count the endless crisscrossing lines and swirls, but the number that had caused them was fixed: forty-two.
Not all fire brought pleasure.
“If you touch her without me nearby, your ass will carry the same scars,” he promised, slowly, deliberately so.
I wondered what it would be like to receive such treatment. But knowing how and why I’d received my scars, I had to be incredibly messed up to want his warning to come true.
“There is definitely something wrong with you two.” Jayla popped a grape into her mouth, chewing loudly as she inspected the cluster of them for overripe bits.
“It’s an old story, Jayla. And you’ve been in Zion’s bedroom, so you know how wrong certain parts of him are.” Laughing, Eli leaped out of his seat to avoid me rounding him and took a ready-to-grapple stance at Jayla’s side. “Come on, let’s play.”
Jayla threw another grape into the air and caught it in her mouth. “Talking about butts, some are already in play,” she said, her voice half-distorted by her munching.
I swatted Eli’s feigned punch away. “Whose?”
There was no way my pretty birdie would allow anyone near those perfect curves of hers. If she did, Gedeon would break them into pieces based on the brutal intentions he’d exert in the training rings.
“I came here through the main hall tonight, and I think I saw Tarri getting cozy with a couple of our regulars on the couches. She’s the new waitress at Vice.
Took my place as a floor girl.” She loaded a new cluster of grapes from the large bowl on her plate and plucked two off, pointing them at me.
“Can you be decent for at least a day in your life and give the girl some space before you jump all over her?”
But curiosity and the need to chase and hunt didn’t boil inside me at her announcement. Usually, I’d be eager to meet new blood and see if they’d be inclined to join me in my proclivities, as Gedeon called them.
Hmm.
Gedeon strode out the door, and my head snapped up. There was no way I was letting him chase such a mouth-watering meal by himself.
Sloppy slurping and slapping sounds grew louder as we neared the hall. He leaned against the wall, observing Kali lingering a few steps inside the hall we used for major gatherings and celebrations.
I had to further stoke that fire in him I’d been playing with tonight. No fun otherwise.
Sauntering into the vast room peppered with sparse spots of light, I paused ten feet behind her. Wide scarlet streaks colored the white gauze wrapped around her right palm as her nails aggravated the wound.
So beautiful.
Using the dimness to mask my presence, I crossed the short distance separating us and halted two inches away from her back. Her sharp inhale went straight to my groin.
A man was fucking our new waitress on all her fours on the sky-blue couch while she eagerly sucked another’s cock.
I didn’t even tuck the note about Tarri being into public sex into the recesses of my thoughts, where I kept a detailed list of partners to choose from.
I was far more interested in the woman shivering against me.
“Enjoying the view?” I nuzzled Kali’s neck, and she startled, smothering a gasp, but didn’t move away.
It was all the response I needed.
I took her waist and spun her around, pushing her backward until her back hit the wall with a dull thud. Placing my right forearm on the wall near her head, I half-caged her on purpose, wondering if she would duck away or stay in place.
“What are you doing?” She curled fists at her sides. “Let me go.”
Her focus persisted on me, so I pinched her chin and directed her toward the show. “Eyes on them.”
The trio’s groans were becoming louder and less controlled, with more and more grunted curses bouncing toward us.
“What do you like the most?” I flicked her earlobe with the tip of my tongue. “That they are out in the open for all to see?”
An unintelligible sound burst out of her, and I sucked the tasty bit of flesh between my teeth, nibbling on it with increasing strength.
The man fisted Tarri’s hair and began thrusting into her throat, stealing her control of the situation.
“That she has no choice but to take what they give?” I reveled at Kali’s tiny whimper, at her throat bobbing. “That she can’t breathe without them allowing it?”
I wanted to take her here and now, pressed against the wall, hard and deep, scratch her fair skin with the knife I’d left in my bedroom, and cover us in her blood, all while she remained focused on the show.
But it would make Gedeon snap. And I didn’t want that.
Toying with his head tasted better than scarlet dripping down the blade of my favorite knife, and I intended for my game to last as long as possible.
Torture spanned more than just the physical aspects, and psychological methods played a large role in my repertoire.
I nipped her bottom lip and trailed my tongue over it. She stiffened in surprise, but it gradually dissolved into wary relaxation as I coaxed her lips to part so I could delve deeper.
So rich and sweet.
Her back slightly arched, and I took my opportunity, seizing her lower back and drawing her flush with me. I held her wrist above her head and brought us a step away from the wall. It forced her to bow her back fully, giving me unrestricted access to her mouth.
I entwined my tongue with hers, sucking it into my mouth as she gave in and scrunched up my shirt. Tension snaked its way up my thighs, and I ground my hips into hers, giving her a glimpse of how she was affecting me.
“Enough.”
Gedeon’s order dissolved the haze I had lost myself in. But my irritation melted into delight at his wide stance, hands flexing at his sides.
So I was taunting him to his limit.
I was set on playing one game match after another—until he cracked.
He might pretend not to want me to take this any further, but I was going down this road one way or another.
I had no patience left anymore. She’d been here a night and a day, unconscious most of the time, but she’d set up a permanent residence in my mind since I’d discovered her in the forest, and having her here now…
The possibility of a dangerous game with them as my pawns unfurled before my eyes.
“Let me go, you asshole.” She pushed at my chest. “I am not a toy you can use and discard.”
A toy? Gods, I’d love that. Was there a way I could ensure she gifted herself to me? Of course, with no clothing, only a ribbon of blood drawn on her arguably perfect breasts that I could lick off while she writhed under me.
Wriggling in my hold, she sneered, “Are you hard? I’m not getting you off, you lunatic.”
“Nobody implied I’d be the one getting off.” Final grunts filled the vast space behind us as I turned us away from the show to face Gedeon. You couldn’t miss the way his jeans stretched across his hips. “Would you like us to share you like they did?”
So far, we’d never fucked someone at the same time, but sharing them between us? She wouldn’t be the first. Only neither of us were ordinarily into relationships, so this situation was becoming…extra interesting.
“Obviously, no.” Tugging her wrist free of my grasp, she stumbled away, crossing her arms. The movement stretched the fabric of her t-shirt, framing her breasts, and her pebbled nipples stood out in the thin material. “Jerks.”
“Come back when you realize how hungry you are.” Gedeon moved toward the doorway lacking an actual door.
“I’m not eating your food. You can’t possibly think you can buy me with that,” she puffed out, each syllable leaking disdain.
“It’s not drugged.” He paused, and the satisfied tilt of his lips came back to the surface. “And I was not talking only about dinner.”
Her mouth popped open. A second later, she straightened up, and her eyes narrowed so slightly you’d miss it if you weren’t standing right beside her.
“I’d rather fuck everyone back at the dinner table.
You’re too”—her top lip curled—“boring for me. If your cock is as your fingers, then I’d probably fall asleep while you tried to grind out your meager release all over me. ”
She had some sharp fangs behind that luscious tongue of hers.
Oh, how I wanted those fangs turned on me.
Sunk deep into my flesh.