Chapter 23
Nora’s guest room smelled faintly of lavender, the sheets crisp and cool against Ella’s skin. It wasn’t the hospital she’d spent last night in, so she told herself she should be able to sleep.
But every time she closed her eyes, she was back in her garden, an arm grabbing her from behind and yanking her off her feet. The flashes were so vivid her body reacted as if it were happening all over again.
“You’re safe,” she whispered, clutching a pillow to her chest, she exhaled slowly.
Flicking on the beside lamp didn’t help soothe her racing thoughts.
She grabbed her phone.
So what? She was dependent on her husband.
And he was dependent on her too. He’d be lost without her.
Zee loved the idea of Club Bandit, it was his dream.
But he didn’t love all the front-facing customer service parts of running a club.
He liked looking after the equipment, teaching classes and showing her off onstage, and having a play space to use with her and for his friends, but in all the years that the club had been open it had been Ella who made the effort for the members to make the place a space they’d come back to.
She’s the one who looked after the submissives when they were in tears and trained staff to follow her in her footsteps, always there with a fuzzy blanket or a non-judgemental ear.
So she was dependent on him, so what.
That’s not the reason why she hesitated calling him. If she called him, she knew he’d come.
Because he was right across the street or around the corner, somewhere near.
He’d come and he’d hold her and she’d melt against him and she would give in.
That was the issue.
A part of her didn’t want to give in.
She wanted to fight against them.
Against what they were, what their relationship was because Zee didn’t protect her.
And she’d felt so distant from him since he took the job.
Hot tears sprang to her eyes, and she blinked them away rapidly as she tapped his number.
She called him because she needed him.
“Ella?” The joy in his voice was unmistakable.
She clutched the phone. “So…” she let the word hang in the air, hoping he’d fill in the rest.
“Tell me what you need, dear heart.”
“For you to come. Please.”
“I’m already on my way. Meet me at the door. It’s so quiet on this street. Do you think the whole island is like this? Maybe we should move here.”
Ella laughed wiping away her tears, listening to the sounds of Zee’s chatter in her ear, heard the change of air through his phone and wondered how close he was.
“I think you would be bored in a week. I thought tomorrow I’d take a walk on the beach.”
“Yeah? I hope you want some company.” His voice caught.
“What if I say no?” Ella giggled as soon as the words escaped her lips. Where had this teasing come from?
“Then I’d say, too bad, I’m standing at Nora’s backdoor. Let me in, girl.”
A thrill sparked through her, as it always did when he came home, and she pushed herself up, moving quietly through the dark hallway toward the back door.
“You know it.”
Zee stepped inside, a rush of cool air following him as he closed the door.
Then he was turning her, pinning her to the wood, his hands framing her face as his lips seized hers as if he hadn’t seen her in a month.
Her knees nearly gave out, heat flooding her as she fisted his shirt and pulled him in.
His mouth moved over hers making her gasp and unraveling her thoughts until all she could feel was him.
His strength, his claim.
Without that grounding weight of him, she wasn’t whole.
He snaked a hand through her hair, tilted her head back and deepened the kiss as she moaned, wanting even more.
“I missed you.”
His gaze darkened, and the intensity of it sent a sharp, cool shiver down her spine.
“Haven’t even been gone a day.”
“I didn’t want to let you out of my sight. He said against her cheek.
She leaned against him, soaking in his familiarness.
“I needed you... you came.” Her voice was small as she melted against him.
“You’re mine, Ella. Always. I’m so sorry I didn’t protect you from what happened. I wish I had. I can’t stop thinking about how you were there, all on your own.”
Zee ran a hand over his face, as if he was trying to shake off his emotions and something in her cracked open.
It wasn’t fair.
Not fair that he was the one to punish her.
Not fair that he was the one in control and that she could be the open vulnerable one but that’s who they were.
For all these years, she had lived in this inequitable relationship.
Not fair, no and yet somehow, in that inequality, they’d built something that had held them both and made them better together.
This love had given her so much.
“Zee… I decided to fight because you told me to take care of your property.” Her voice caught. “Knowing I had to get back to you was my motivation for picking up that rock and attacking him. I knew he could overpower me but I wasn’t going to go quietly.”
“I’m so damn proud of you, dear heart.” Zee wrapped her in his arms and kissed her, a hot possessive kiss that left her breathless.
He edged her across the floor, until her thighs met the kitchen table.
Ella giggled so hard she snorted and covered her face.
“I love your giggles.” He pulled her hand away and kissed her deeply, sending tingles humming through her, he kissed her until her lips were sore, then pulled back just enough to rest his forehead against hers.
She saw all the years in his silver hair, the crow’s feet in his eyes, and the same hungry love that had been there the first time he ever touched her.
“Do you still want me?”
The desperation in his voice hit her like a physical weight, making her cry out, pressing herself against him as if to answer before words could.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders, tracing the line of his back, down the curve of his hips, his ass, as he peppered fiery kisses along her neck.
“Always.” Her voice trembled with need. “How could you even wonder?”
“Thank god.” His touch glided over her and he squeezed her breasts, brushing his thumb over her nipples through the silk of her nightie.
She moaned, tilting her head back at the heated touch.
“What are you doing?”
“I think they call this making up.” His hands slid down to her waist, then between her thighs.
He fisted her hair, tugging her closer as their lips met again. A searing rush of heat shot through her, pooling low in her belly.
Her mouth parted under his, desperate for more, craving the release only he could give.
Yes, she needed him. She wanted him. He came tonight just like she knew he would.
Shoving at his jacket, she giggled as her butt hit the table.
“Aren’t we too old for this?”
“Never too old to fuck you wherever and whenever I want, girl.” Zee traced his hand along her curves, then slipped it under the soft fabric of her nightie. He cupped her breast, teasing her nipple between his fingers before giving it a sharp, possessive pinch
She cried out, arching her back as he pulled her nipple.
“Hate being away from you but coming home is the best part.” Zee pinched her other nipple.
“We’re not home,” Ella cried out as his teeth tugged on her bottom lip.
“Wherever we are together, that’s home, my dear heart.” Zee kissed the hollow of her neck and she whimpered in the dark of the kitchen, needing him to keep touching her.
Wanting him to claim her, inch by inch.
“Please fuck me, Master.”
“I can’t wait to sink into your hot pussy Ella. Do you know, you weren’t there to wake me up properly this morning. Again.” Zee made a tsk tsk noise and Ella laughed, her veins heated with desire.
“Guess you’re going to have to punish me.”
“I will always give you what you need. Have I been good at that recently?”His tone went from light and playful to suddenly serious and made her gasp.
“Zee, it’s been a stressful few months. You’ve given me a life I could never have imagined. I’m content.”
“Yeah?” He ran his thumb over her eyebrow.
“Yes.” She said it with all the confidence she could because that was the truth.
His mouth crashed over hers and he gently laid her down on the table, and a pen clattered to the floor.
“Zee,” Ella gasped through her giggles. “This is why Rosalind hates me. We fucked on their table the night they moved in.”
Zee’s eyebrows rose to his hairline and he grinned.
“We came to help them move into their first home. In a rainstorm and got stuck there.
I fucked you on the dining room table of our first house, too.”
“Yes, you did,” she twirled her fingers through his hair, desperate to have him inside her.
“We’re long overdue.” He laid her down and she opened her legs for him but cried out.
“Not the good kind of pain. Ow, my shoulder.”
He slipped an arm under her and helped her off the table. “Fuck. We’re too old.”
“No, just too injured.” Ella clutched his shirt to stifle her giggles.
“Bedroom.”
“You’re in a bossy mood.”
“I missed you.” Ella grabbed his arm and pulled him down the hall and into the guest room, just as she heard footsteps upstairs. “Shh!”
“You shushing me is adorable.” Zee closed the door and then stalked towards her, so she was on the bed.
“Yeah?” Her mouth quirked.
“Almost as adorable as being bossy. Spread those legs and let me see my pussy.”
The heat in his gaze made her pussy wet and she did what she was told.
He shoved off his pants and pulled his shirt over his head, his thick cock sprang free under his toned stomach.
“Gorgeous. You’re fucking gorgeous.”
“You always say that.”
“It’s true. Lift those boobs for me.”
Ella slid her hands under her breasts and offered them to him.
With a wicked grin, he climbed on the bed and crawled to her, sliding his hand between her legs, across her stomach before taking her nipple into his mouth, sucking it long and deep.
She gasped as his fingers traced over her clit, the sensation making her head spin and her body tremble.
He flicked her nipple with his tongue, and she strained against him, clutching his hair, cupping his cheek, trying to anchor herself to the heat consuming her.
His teeth grazed the peak, and he held her gaze, claiming her attention entirely.
She whimpered, so wet and desperate she could hardly breathe.
“Show me how needy you are for me,” he demanded, pausing his fingers just shy of her clit.
“Master! Please!” she gasped, thrusting against him, her hips tilting to chase the friction she craved.
Her voice was a low, pleading whine that echoed around the room.
“Love it when you ask.”
He slid his fingers roughly inside her, and she bit down on a yelp, the pleasure jolting through her chest and stealing her breath.
She fumbled for him, curling her hand around his cock, stroking him in rhythm with the sensations he brought out of her.
He moaned, his fingers scissoring deeper, driving her higher.
“Come for me, my slave. Come on my fingers before I fuck you.” His thumb pressed hard on her clit, and her vision blurred as the orgasm hit her in crashing waves.
She grinded herself harder into his hand, wanting it to last forever, her voice echoing around the room as each crest rolled over her in relentless succession.
“That’s my good girl. I need to be in you now!”
Even through the aftershocks, he spread her legs with his knees, then removed his fingers and guided them to her mouth.
“Oh!” She obeyed, tasting herself on his fingers, and the possessive gleam in his eyes reminded her who he was and who she belonged to.
Her mind floated in the haze of pleasure as he positioned himself between her legs, brushing against her mound before sliding in inch by inch.
“Look at me, slave. Watch how I fuck you.”
“Yes, yes, Master!”
Her pussy clenched around his cock,, her hips arched into his every thrust.
Tension coiled low in her belly, and she moaned.
“Please, please.”
“Get it, girl,” He slid his thumb against her lower lip, in and out of her mouth and she couldn’t hold back as he rocked deeper, hitting her clit right on and like an arrow launching into the air, her orgasm vaulted through her, leaving her trembling, as she screamed his name.
Never had it felt this intense, this good between them.
“That’s my good girl. Give me more.”
Except for all the other times it had; it was him giving and her taking, and her body was his to do what he wanted to.
Ever so slightly, he shifted for a better angle, pumping even deeper into her, demanding that she give him another orgasm.
Zee panted, his rhythm erratic as his intense blues held her.
“Come again, dear heart! Right now!”
His whole body tightened but he held back.
She couldn’t stop another wave from claiming her.
It walloped her so completely she felt like she was ripped from her body, her mind detached as if she looked at them from somewhere far, saw the possessiveness and care in his eyes, saw how her body melted against him.
Another scream ripped from her throat as he rocked deeper, thrusting harder, so hard the iron frame scraped against the wall.
Pleasure thumped through her every cell as Zee shouted her name, his orgasm hitting him hard.
His beautiful face twisted as if in agony as he emptied his balls, in a orgasm that left his whole body shuddering over her and she knew there wasn’t a single thing in her life she’d change as long as she had her Master by her side.
“I love you.”
“Love you too, slave.”
They stayed joined, locked together until her skin felt clammy she needed to move because of the ache in her shoulder.
“You’re still healing, dear heart. Zee disloged from her, and then slid beside her and carefully pulled her head on his chest.
“I love you. I am never leaving you. And you are never going to leave me.”
“Yes, Master.” She couldn’t hold back the sob but he wiped away her tears, kissing her cheek where they fell and Ella knew there was nothing more in the world she needed than what they had.