Chapter 25 Gedeon
GEDEON
Pausing in front of the stairwell door, I placed a blue food container on the floor.
“What are you doing?” Zion gaped at me crouching down and checking if the lid was airtight.
Finished, I strode through the door he held open for me. “Leaving a trail.” A simple stroke along his jaw, over the faint stubble, was sufficient for him to forget his question and follow me.
We marched up a dozen stairs to a landing I marked with a yellow box and then another dozen to a rusted iron door.
Ignoring Zion’s frown, I put down the third food container, this one glaringly pink—unmistakably property of Jayla’s—on the last step and pulled the old key from my pocket.
“I thought the roof was off limits.” Zion yawned again. “Something about some kind of a hazard.” He rubbed the puffiness around his eyes. “It’s always been locked.”
I turned the key twice, and the cylinders retreated as the lock gave way. “It still is.”
He stared at me. At the key I stuffed back into my pocket. At the door. And then back at me. “You kept it locked on purpose. There was never any danger, was there?”
Smirking, I pushed the door open, my callouses scraping the flakes of rust. Fresh air ruffled our clothing, the wind testing to see if we were fit to emerge from the depths of the dwelling.
“So are you planning to push me over the edge, or…” Zion scrunched up his upturned nose, his reaction identical to whenever he would accidentally consume anything sour, like unripe kiwi—the fruit he relentlessly insisted to be evil.
As we walked across the flat expanse of concrete, I explained, “This is where I used to come to be alone.” Where no one would bother me. Where my past ceased to exist. Where I could…exist.
The ruins of neglected buildings and still-standing survivors unfurled before us like a rolling wave of grayness. The mountains loomed far ahead, their peaks hidden by a mist descending from a cluster of thick clouds.
Last night’s rainstorm had traveled to face the three-thousand-foot-high challenge instead of lingering above us like some god with a bone to pick.
“People used to find me everywhere: the training rings, the shooting range, the streets, my study, even my bedroom if something had occurred during the night.” I stopped at the edge of the roof.
The street below simmered in the darkness, the splits in the asphalt invisible.
“Whenever it all became too much, I would come here before dawn. This was where I could leave everything behind. I would watch the sunrise and just…be.” Adjusting my grip on the blanket-bag’s handles, I confessed, “Except I don’t want to do it alone anymore. ”
For some reason, this roof, the location I had restricted access to, had ceased holding significance for me. Or perhaps the solitude, the scenery, or both combined, had simply lost their charm. The allure had transferred itself to the man standing beside me and the sleeping woman a floor below us.
“So I’m special, then.” Zion grinned, his high cheekbones rising even higher, up to the feathery clouds floating in the sky.
Orange and red hues had begun to shade the horizon.
“You revealed your greatest weakness to me—the need for peace. Only now it’s going to be impossible with my cute little ass to distract you. ” On beat, he wiggled his hips.
His dramatics broke the dam, and laughter bubbled out of me.
It had taken me too long to admit to myself I couldn’t imagine my life without him.
At first, I had thought Kali would be enough—or more like, I had talked myself into believing such a lie. Because not one, but two people had been sculpted out of the fabric of the universe for me.
So if Ilasall managed to find its balls and target either of them, I was going to raze the city.
I would start by scooping out the eyes of their soldiers, frying them in a pan until they crisped to a golden hue and serving them to the government—the half a dozen idiots controlling the society and their ruler snapping his reins.
And to ensure they got my point, I was going to hover at their backs until they licked their plates clean.
Once their stomachs had been filled, then I would deliver them to Zion as a gift—a few playthings whose anatomy and pain points he could explore to his heart’s desires.
I could ask him to let me extract a few bones as well, seeing as they would serve as building material for a crown, its tips dipped in scarlet. The exquisite ornament would be perfect to adorn Kali’s beautiful head.
Closing my eyes, I savored both the blossoming fantasy and the spring caressing my neck—
No. Strong fingers were gliding up my nape, not the phantom ones of the sun.
“Thank you for bringing me here,” Zion murmured.
I relished how his smile surfaced at my speechlessness. We had spent enough time together for me to know he needed physical touch like oxygen. It served as tangible proof that the person beside you still walked the plane of our world, and not the next.
Untangling the corners of the purple blanket, I spread it out on the damp concrete. Zion instantly sprawled on his back, stretching his arms above his head. His leather jacket parted, and his t-shirt rose, their joint efforts providing me with a glimpse of sandy skin above his sweatpants.
I swallowed.
“Well, come on then.” Zion patted the woolen fabric. “Or are you going to just stand there and admire me?”
Yes to both. If a person could be in two places at once, I would have already discovered it and honed the skill to its full capacity.
Dropping next to him, resting my elbows on my bent knees, I breathed.
The tension boiling inside me slowly dissipated, and on my tenth inhale, the sun’s globe pierced the horizon, rising above the forests and setting the foliage on fire.
The leaves and pine needles rustled as if shaking off the bleariness from their winter hibernation.
“I get it, why you kept this a secret.” Keeping his legs extended, Zion rose onto his arms. “It’s…quiet.” A breeze whirled his golden-brown hair, like a whirlpool seeking to suck him in, to harbor him from any external aggressors.
The currents of air had caught a peek into my desires. War was imminent, and my instinct to safeguard, shield, and defend bordered on exploding.
We sat like that for what seemed to be an eternity, the two of us part of the few souls awake in the compound.
Slumber still feasted on our residents’ dreams, nightmares, and everything in between.
The lack of noise made you wonder if the streets had transformed into sinkholes and swallowed everyone overnight.
Zion leaned on his elbows. “Why didn’t you wake Kali up? She would’ve enjoyed this too.”
“I forced her to accept us the last time. Now, I want her to choose.” Because once she did, she would not be allowed to go back on her word. “I left her a note. Whether she comes here or not is up to her.”
“Is that why you left the food containers in the stairwell?” He chuckled, the sound free and unrestrained, the wildness of which I longed to hear every day. “You pestered Ryder into baking again. It’s a trail of treats.”
His stomach growled, and I reached for the transparent box laying upside down in the corner of the blanket. Removing the scarlet lid, I offered the packed-to-the-brim-with-pancakes container to Zion. “I brought breakfast.”
He gawked at me. “I should’ve gotten into your pants earlier. Pancakes, coffee, a secret hiding spot, and I get to stare at you while you pretend to watch the sunrise.” Zion stuffed half a pancake into his mouth, mumbling, “Yup, this is the best morning ever.”
He was like an open book, his reactions presented to you on a silver platter. One I was set on washing clean.
Only not with a washcloth. I intended to employ my tongue to trace the contours of his body, over and over again, until he vibrated from it.
Zion waved the golden cake, thick enough not to break as it swayed in his hold. “These remind me of the pancakes your father made us once for breakfast. Remember that time when we got drunk and you brought me to your parents’ house? I passed out in your bed.”
I tore off a piece of my own pancake. “You mean when you got drunk?”
He wiped the grease off his mouth. “Semantics.”
“It’s hard to forget. I had to vent my room the next day—your stinky socks made it uninhabitable.”
He snickered. “I was a teenager, what do you want? Be glad I didn’t throw up.”
Succumbing to the song of a crumb stuck on his bottom lip, I swept it away. My thumb lingered on his chapped lips, the sensitive flesh of the most biteable kind. His tongue darted out, tickling my thumb and tightening my core.
“Anyway, you know how I locked myself in the bathroom in the morning?” he asked, and then devoured the remaining half of the buttery goodness in a flash.
Steam rose from the thermos as I filled a white-with-teal-swirls cup. “And wouldn’t let me in to piss for half an hour? Yeah, I remember. I had to resort to destroying my mother’s flower bed in our yard.”
Taking the coffee from me, Zion drawled, “I had a boner to take care of.”
“I figured,” I deadpanned.
“It wouldn’t go down.” Zion sipped the holy liquid, the overbearingly sugary aroma alone deterring me from following his example. “I tried five different ways to jerk off but couldn’t finish. Even the cold shower did nothing. It fucking hurt.”
Crumbs lodged in my throat as I choked. “Five different ways? What the hell were you doing?”
“I can show you.” As he shifted on the blanket, the purple woolen fabric creased around his boots, the leather cracked and the shoelaces fraying. “It’s not that hard right now, but with you watching, it should wake up quickly.”
I threw my half-eaten pancake into the food container.
Before he could ask, I had my hand wrapped around his throat.
“You do not get to touch yourself, Zion. Not now, not ever.” As I straddled him, the concrete dug into my knees, igniting sparks of ache.
“Your pleasure is mine.” I leaned into him. “Mine to give, mine to withhold.”
His groan sent a wave of satisfaction down my spine, compelling me to nip his bottom lip, cleaning the residue of our breakfast off of it. Butter and coffee invaded my taste buds.
Compressing the sides of his throat, I cupped him over his sweatpants. A few rubs, and he began to harden, his eyes fluttering closed.
“Swear it.” My voice was hoarse from how he swelled under my strokes, the thin cotton material failing to conceal how much I affected him. “Swear you will not give yourself a single orgasm. Swear they are ours to control and ours to reward you with.”
His hips bucked.
“Zion.” I adjusted my grip to fall on his nape so I could access his neck. Finding the bruise I had set the night before, I licked around the discoloration, humming in approval at his half-sigh, half-groan.
“Swear to me, and I will honor your pledge by making this rough and fast, just how you like it.” Gripping his cock over his pants, I squeezed.
His hiss played out like the most hypnotizing notes of music.
“Gedeon.” The six letters he gritted out formed a plea, and I hooked my fingers over the elastic waistband hugging his hips. My knuckles skimmed the sensitive strip of skin, not far from where he needed me the most, but nowhere near close enough.
With his thighs trapped between mine, he released the most exquisite whine. Knowing it had originated from the torment I was causing made heat climb up my thighs.
“Refuse me, and I will go slow, so slow you will beg me for mercy,” I promised, widening my knees to alleviate the building pressure behind the zipper of my jeans.
Him licking his lips and leaving moisture behind beckoned a memory to arise.
How he had looked so heavenly with his mouth stuffed full of me in the shooting range.
Had sucked with such eagerness, such rapture, that it had broken me.
Had been so obedient with his hands crossed behind his back, not a sign of resistance.
That utter display of submission had driven me to step over the line separating us, shred it apart and scatter the pieces off a cliff, asking the sea breeze to erase them from existence.
Because the line should never have been drawn in the first place.
“Answer me.” I tugged his waistband.
When I grabbed his throat once more, his pelvis twitched. His gulp was such an exquisite exhibition of the emotions warring inside him that I had to exercise all my self-control not to ravage him that instant.
Instead, I challenged, “What do you choose, Zion?”