Epilogue
ZION
The summer sun baked my naked back as I dropped to my knees. Moisture in the soil cushioned the fall, the blades of grass tickling my bare legs as I spread them wider to alleviate the pressure.
Loosening the strings of his waistband, Gedeon growled, “Zion.” After two full months of rising temperatures, he’d finally succumbed to the heat and donned that mouth-watering pair of workout shorts.
I yanked the black fabric down his hips. “Yes?” Gathering the material, I helped him step out of it.
Mostly.
I did nip his inner thigh, forcing him to stagger. But who could fault me when he looked so appetizing? I had to quench my thirst somehow.
His grunt caused Kali to giggle as she leaned against our beat-up car, the same one Gedeon had claimed for himself five years ago. The parked-on-the-side-of-a-desolate-road vehicle sparkled with a fresh coat of dark paint, matching Kali’s locks flowing in the midday breeze.
This time, on our second trip to the sea, she wasn’t lying unconscious in the backseat with her head in my lap.
Instead, for the first hour we’d been on the road, she was the one who’d fidgeted so restlessly I’d threatened to tickle her, and who then had blurted out the reason for her agitation: Gedeon had gotten me a gift.
Which had also derailed our journey.
Shaking his head at Kali, Gedeon had handed me a new knife sheath with a rubber handle poking out of it. “Because you lost the other one,” he’d explained.
A whiff of the sweet and earthy scent wafting off the leather had been enough for me to perk up, but it was the blade that had pierced my groin.
Metaphorically, of course.
I liked my balls the way they were—intact.
On the flat side of the blade, three silhouettes of birds had been carved into the stainless steel: a blackbird, a raven, and a woodpecker.
Realizing he’d commissioned a new knife since Ardaton had stripped me of my favorite one had caused me to leap out of my seat, jump Gedeon right as he took a turn, and nearly make him drive into a ditch because of it.
Hilarious.
Especially when he’d barked at me to climb out of the car and get on my knees.
Looming before me, Gedeon swiped the overgrown strands off my forehead, the gesture light and gentle, a stark contrast to how he gripped my hair in the next second. “Stick out your tongue.”
The crown of his cock gleamed in the sunlight, and I stroked up and down his length, slowly—teasingly. “What for?”
“Payment.” He arched an eyebrow. “Unless you don’t want to come?”
The idea of him edging me for hours, like he’d already done so before, fried my senses, and I squeezed myself, praying for a moment of reprieve.
Gedeon wrenched my head back. “Touch yourself again, and I won’t let you come for a month.”
As prickles exploded all over my scalp, my fists curled on my thighs. I knew he would keep his vow if I defied him. He always did.
“Like this?” Failing to smother the tension winding me up, I pushed my tongue out as far as I could.
He hummed in approval. “Beautiful.” Taking his dick, he rested the tip in my mouth, and a slightly salty and bitter flavor roused my taste buds from their slumber.
Saliva pooled to the limit of my lips, but I stayed in the position, my nails digging into the meat of my palms. Gedeon slid deeper, just an inch, but enough for my jaw to tingle with the need to clamp down.
“Don’t move,” he grunted.
I gurgled out a groan in response. Because what else could I do? I couldn’t move, touch him, not until he gave me permission. A heady, sizzling, mind-scrambling blessing.
Tightening his hold on my hair, he withdrew and glided back in, a tad deeper than before. “Just like that.”
His cock bumped against the back of my throat, choking me, luring my drool to follow him as he pulled out. A web of saliva trailed from my lips to his shaft, the visual enough for me to break his command of staying put.
Wrapping a hand around the base, I leaned in and licked the slit at the top.
His groan zapped me like high voltage.
“You are so perfect.” He caressed my cheek, his callouses scraping the raised scar running from my ear to my chin. “Perfection that belongs to no one but me and Kali.”
The reverence in his murmur broke me.
Leaping closer, I trailed a path from his balls to his tip with my tongue, taking my time in following a slightly protruding vein and circling around his crown, eliciting a rumble from him, so heavy my mind grew foggy.
A memory of how Gedeon had looked during the war popped up, and I surrendered to its call, drowning in its pits.
Deep in the ruins of Ilasall, carnage had clung to him like a cloak.
But gore couldn’t hide his beauty. No, it’d brought it out.
The blood flowing down his neck, pooling in the hollow of his throat, the dip of his chin, the shade of crimson as dark as my intentions, had been pure allure.
The death’s paintbrush had drawn the most mesmerizing designs on his flesh, the matteness of caked blood such a pretty contrast to the gloss of fresh life essence trickling down his limbs.
A guttural noise escaped me, vibrating around Gedeon in my mouth, and he secured his grasp on my strands. Sucking earnestly, I hollowed out my cheeks and seized his hips. It was as much for me as it was for him. Throwing him a challenge often lit a spark, drawing him closer to losing control.
And whenever he did…
Things ended up being wonderfully messy.
“There’s a…bottle…in my backpack,” Gedeon gritted out, glancing over his shoulder. “Bring—” he cut off when I swallowed him, my throat contracting around his tip.
A scuff of sandals told me Kali had pushed off the car, and the following click signaled she was wriggling into the backseat to rummage in Gedeon’s bag.
Her shadow slunk across the blanket of grass before it fell over Gedeon’s abdomen, partially obscuring the scars creating a picture of battle on his torso. Stopping beside him, blushing, Kali held out a small bottle, half-full of clear liquid. “Here.”
Gedeon ripped me off him, much to my displeasure, and I lowered to sit on my heels, my toes digging into the earth to secure my balance.
Collecting the saliva off my bottom lip, I drawled, “My favorite treat.” I sucked my forefinger, savoring the last hints of him, and then smacked my lips. “I could eat you up.”
“You will get your chance,” Gedeon said as he took the sparkling-in-the-daylight container from Kali. “But only if you behave.”
She covered her mouth in hopes of muffling her snicker, the sound of her amusement so addictive, I wished I could taste it.
Only her mirth died as soon as it was born.
Her eyes widened from Gedeon taking in her state: her denim shorts unbuttoned and unzipped.
She’d clearly enjoyed the show I’d put on a little too much.
“Did you slip a hand in your underwear?” Gedeon asked as he unscrewed the cap. Liquid sloshed in the small transparent bottle, and the understanding of what was about to ensue coiled in my pelvis.
I had to resort to staring at the cloudless sky for my hunger to subside. My nails razed my thighs as I sought to find a new focus point, anything that wasn’t Gedeon preparing to destroy me.
“N-No,” Kali stammered as she fiddled with the hem of her cropped t-shirt. The loose, sky-blue fabric billowed in the wind, revealing a sliver of fair skin. “I didn’t.”
Walking right up to her, invading her personal space, Gedeon pinched her chin. “Remind me, what do I not tolerate?”
She stuck her thumbs into the pockets of her faded shorts. “Liars.”
“That’s right.” He tucked a stray strand behind her ear. “And what do I do when I catch one?”
Her belly moved with her quickening breaths. “Make an example out of them.”
“Precisely. So be a good girl, take those shorts off, and lay down on the grass.” He planted a kiss on her forehead, feather-light, soft, contrary to his usual self, and nudged her toward me.
She stumbled, but with a last glimpse at Gedeon, shimmied out of her shorts and panties.
Like a kid after a lollipop, I drooled at the contour of her ass.
“Right here.” I waved at a patch of lush greenery before me, the nature’s carpet a cushion for her curves.
Debating whether to protest, she stalled, but a huff of surrender betrayed her choice, and she folded herself on the ground, stretching out on her back, her legs bent and crossed at the ankles.
“You wanted to eat, Zion? Now you will get to do so.” Gedeon traced the rim of the glass bottle, his hunter’s smile as menacing as it was promising. “Get on all fours. Now.”
Following his instructions to the word, I crawled to Kali peeking at me from beneath her eyelashes. Although I’d fucked her senseless last night while Gedeon watched, she still flushed, toying with the grass blades at her sides.
I nuzzled her knees. “Spread your legs for me.”
Her feet gradually shuffled apart, exposing her glistening pussy, and I couldn’t contain a groan anymore. She might deny it as much as she wanted, but seeing me obey Gedeon always drenched her panties.
“Dripping wet,” I murmured, but paced myself. Failing to comply with Gedeon’s unspoken order would delay me from the dessert I’d been craving since this morning.
As I seized her thighs and hauled her closer, her cropped shirt rode up to her breasts—
She caught it, tugging the cotton down and screeching my name.
“Off.” I swatted her hands away and pushed the fabric up and up, growling when our positions prevented me from lifting it high enough to peel it from her.
A scatter of giggles accompanied her attempts to take off the clothing. The ring of her laughter fused with the shade of her nipples, already hardened, the composition of both morphing into electricity injecting my veins.