Chapter 22
Idon’t know why I had thought to test Zarren, but at his command, I couldn’t will my legs to move. True to his word, the damn Neanderthal fucking swept me up into his arms, then deposited me down onto not only the couch, but his lap, where I now felt his erection pressing against me.
Why again did I tell him that I didn’t want sex?
As Drake and Brae came to mind, a mouthful of bile did too, and I knew it was because of them.
Knowing they were still sneaking around behind my back pissed me off.
My small hands balled into fists, and the overwhelming urge to strike something took over.
The coffee and end tables were too far away to reach, and the back of the sectional was partially blocked by... As I turned in his lap and looked up into his smiling face, fury took over.
Before I even knew what I was doing, I struck him. The sound echoed in the silence, and while I expected him to retaliate in some way, he just stared down at me.
Goddamn psycho!
“I’d ask what that was for, but I have a feeling it might have to do with what I told you earlier,” he said.
His voice. How could it be so cruelly mocking, yet so damn sensual at the same time? He was a viper... A serpent, just like that tattoo on his chest. For once, I almost wished he’d do as that one proverb said and he’d bite his own damn head off.
I slapped him again, and this time, his expression changed slightly. He still didn’t retaliate, but I could see his lips narrow as my red handprint bloomed across his tanned cheeks. I raised my hand again, but he grabbed it this time and brought it to his lips.
“If you insist on striking me, I want something in return.”
Wait! What? Zarren was actually going to let me expel some much-needed rage out on him by letting me slap him. “What do you want in return?” I asked suspiciously.
“Do your worst to me, but get something out of that hard head of yours. Each time you strike me, you will unload something into the air.”
“Are you crazy? I’m not going to assault—”
He brought the hand he was still holding to his cheek, then rubbed it against the reddened spot. “The stinging in my cheek says otherwise. And don’t even think about lying to me. As I’ve said before, I know you better than you even know yourself.”
I slapped him with my other hand. “You piss me off when you say things like that.”
“Why does that bother you so much?” he asked me softly.
How in the hell did I explain something that made so little sense to me?
Finally, I just spit it out. “Because it sometimes feels like you might be right. And I hate it!”
“Duly noted,” he said with a smile that could melt the panties off a fucking nun. “Is that all?”
I struck him again, this time a bit harder than intended, because I had to shake the burning out of it by the time I drew it back. “I also hate that you’d kidnapped me, and that you’re holding me captive.”
“You do realize what the definition of kidnapping is, yes?”
“Don’t make me slap you for another reason,” I threatened, and he threw his hands up in mock surrender. He seemed completely unfazed by my fits of violence thus far. Another strike. “I also now hate Drake and Brea with a burning passion. I want to make them pay for what they’ve done to me, and—”
“They will pay, Bellezza. I’m certain you’ll get your revenge. In fact, I insist on it. Anyone who hurts you will get theirs.”
“Excluding you, of course,” I spat out sarcastically.
He pressed his forehead to mine, then his warm breath swept over me like a caress. “I’ll get mine one day, too. Don’t ever think otherwise.”
My lips trembled slightly, especially because he sounded so genuine with those words. There was something in his voice I couldn’t quite describe, but his mind had gone somewhere. Thankfully, as quickly as he’d left the present, he returned to it and pulled his head back.
“I give you my word,” he said, then seemed to brace himself for my next strike.
I could say and think a lot of things about Zarren, but so far he’d not lied to me even during the times when I wished he would’ve. While his words sucked more times than not, he was still true to them, while I couldn’t back up anything with conviction.
I struck him again, this time even harder than before, judging by the quick wince he gave, but to his credit, he stayed still and continued staring down at me. “What else? I’m hoping you don’t end up knocking me out cold before you get to the really good stuff.”
I barked out a laugh at that feeling every bit as much like the psychopath I’d earlier referred to him as.
“I hate how you have this ability to make me feel and do things so out of character. You’re so fucking infuriating, and half the time, I don’t know whether to laugh, cry, argue, or just smack the hell out of you. ”
“After tonight’s therapy session, I suggest we leave off the latter.”
I brought my hand up again, only this time I stroked his cheek instead of striking it. “What the hell are you doing to me, Zarren?”
“I’m giving you an outlet to release all of your—”
“No, not now. This whole time. What do you want from me that I haven’t already given you?” I continued to stroke his cheek all the while he closed his eyes. He took a few deep breaths, finally reopening them when I brushed my thumb over his lips.
“I want every part of you, Bellezza. It goes without saying that I want your surrender... Your submission... Your body under, over, and beside mine... but I want you to let me fully into that head of yours. Let me into your heart, because I intend to fully imprint myself upon every part of you before you’re ripped from my arms.”
“Don’t you want to get rid of me?’ I asked him softly.
“More than you fucking know, but not for the reasons you think,” was all he said before clearing his throat. “Okay, I know you have more, so let me have it.” I slapped him again, then hesitated. “Aurora...”
“I hate how everyone in my life has made a fool out of me. Brae and I were so alike, sharing so many similarities. Like me, she’d been adopted too, and we used to talk about how much we loved our families and how blood wasn’t what brought and kept us together.
I loved her like the fucking sister I’d always wanted and could never have, and we’d sworn to always be there for one another. How could she do this to me?”
“Sometimes the people in your life disappoint you.”
“She betrayed me in the worst way possible. How can I ever forgive her?”
He palmed the side of my face with his hand, and I wantonly turned to rub myself against it. His large thumb stroked my skin back and forth, and it dawned on me that he was chasing my tears away, which caused even more to escape.
“Forgiveness comes from the heart,” he said to me.
“And didn’t you say that you owned my heart?” I asked. “If so, tell me what to do?”
He chuckled softly, then his face tightened. All amusement was wiped clean, and I sucked in a gasp when he slipped that same hand behind my head and pulled me against him.
“I’ll fully own your heart one day, but I don’t now.
Once I do, you and I will both know it because there’ll be no room in it for anyone else but me.
Not your adoptive parents, colleagues, or friends.
No one, especially not those holding you up with one hand, only to stab you in the back with the other. ”
I shivered at the vehemence in his words. Zarren could be very intense, and it was all coming through now. His warm breath tickled my lips, and I involuntarily found myself leaning into him until he drew his head back suddenly.
“Give me more,” he demanded, but in the tone that made me want to drop to my knees to confess at his altar.
The next several minutes went by pretty quickly as I would strike him, then confess some small hurt or fear.
With each one, my shoulders grew lighter and lighter.
I supposed that was the point of this whole thing, but the more I looked at his reddened cheeks, the more I wished I had gone about this another way.
“Stop second-guessing this,” he said as he lazily ran his fingers over my cheek. “I know there’s more in that head of yours, so let’s continue.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“As a heart attack. Talk, or else I might have to resort to other methods.”
“Such as?”
“You don’t want to know,” he said, emphasizing that with a hard smack to my thigh, which made me yelp.
“Okay, okay. I thought you were a sadist, but it turns out that you’re a masochist, too,” I replied.
He chuckled. “I aim to please, now get to talking before I reintroduce you to the sadistic side of me.”
I slapped him hard, and this time it was close enough to his mouth that my nail nicked his lip, causing a spot or two of blood to bloom to the surface. I paused before continuing to watch his tongue dart out to remove them, and it was the sexiest damn thing I had ever seen.
A slight ache struck me as I watched his tongue as it slowly traced the curve of his upper lip, then the bottom, leaving a glistening sheen on them.
His lips slowly parted, and the longer my gaze lingered on them, the more my core throbbed.
My own parted in silent invitation, and I nearly sucked his finger into my mouth when he brought it to my mouth and softly tapped it.
“Talk, Bellezza.”
His voice was a delicious rasp, and maybe it was because he knew what I was thinking.
Or maybe it was because in moments like this, he seemed more human.
He wasn’t my kidnapper, and the only one who could help me avoid my fate.
He was a lover in that moment, and a soft sigh escaped from me as I moistened my own lips with my tongue, drawing a low groan from him.
“I hate that I’m so scared, not of you, but of where I’m going. And what I have to do when I get there. What if I hate this Mik—”
“Don’t say his name,” Zarren interjected. “And you hated me at first, yet here you are making eyes at me, hoping that I not only kiss these lips,” he said as he tapped them once more, “but these ones as well.”
I gasped as his free hand disappeared between my legs. “I did, and I still do, but... umm... things can change.”
“So you like me, Aurora?”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t push it. I can still slap you again.”
“I have no doubt about that. Do it, but just remember the terms.”
I shook my head. “Your face is safe for the rest of the night. I’m actually tired of talking about myself. Will you just hold me?”