Chapter 22 - Naia
Zane’s mouth is on mine, hot and urgent as he backs me up toward the living room. His one hand is in my hair while the other slips to my hip, and he kisses me like he’s afraid I’ll vanish if he stops.
My skin is already flushed from the high intensity, and from how wrecked he looked the moment he stepped into the house.
I don’t know what came over him, but I don’t want it to stop, even if I should.
He’s everywhere, eagerly deepening the kiss as I hit the back of the nearest sofa and grip him tighter.
“I can’t pretend anymore,” Zane murmurs against my mouth, barely breaking the kiss. “I can’t pretend I don’t want this.”
My heart stutters at the confession, feeling as if every wall of mine starts to crumble.
“I hate that I want this.”
“I know,” he says, eyes glazed with need. His fingers slip into my hair, gently holding the back of my head. “You can hate this and hate me…just don’t deny us both. Please.”
Before I can stop it, my eyes soften as I look up at him, not used to hearing that near-desperate tone from him. “I don’t hate you.”
Something close to hope gleams in his eyes, and a soft breath escapes him before he kisses me again.
I hum into it as I slip deeper and deeper, unable to deny how badly I need this too.
With no protests left in me, I don’t fight as Zane scoops me up effortlessly and carries me around the sofa before sitting down with me in his lap.
The position sends a thrill up my spine, and I already know it would take great strength to pull away from him now.
His hands settle on my hips as he drags me as close as possible, his mouth only leaving mine to kiss down my neck. He pauses at my pulse and inhales deeply, not hiding how it makes him shiver and react viscerally before his teeth scrape at the spot while he barely represses a strained growl.
The need emanating from him weakens me, and I can’t bring myself to deny it either. Not with the almost reverent way he’s taking me in.
“I need all of you, even if it’s selfish,” Zane murmurs, fingers finding the buttons on my shirt already. His eyes are softer than usual despite the determination in them.
His words alone are enough to make me feel hotter, but when he pushes the material off my shoulders and starts to kiss my skin, I can’t find the right words to say.
Mapping out every inch of my skin, his hands are everywhere, claiming and urgent. The more he uncovers about me, the less I can stop myself from doing the same in return.
In a quiet rustle of fabric and heavier breaths, we remove piece by piece from each other, kissing in between until we’re down to nothing and chasing each other’s mouths.
When the last of our clothes disappears, Zane settles me back in his lap like he can’t stand the thought of me being anywhere else, and he leaves open-mouthed kisses up my neck.
Skin to skin now, bodies pressed together, the arousal between us is no secret, and without needing to speak it, we both know it requires no lead-up.
Instead, Zane’s mouth seeks mine out again, gentler now but still just as hungry, and he guides me closer.
Settled above him, I grip him and the back of the couch for support before slowly easing myself onto him.
Pulses syncing and breaths catching at once, the initial feeling overcomes us both, and something pulses in my lower stomach in response.
“Naia…” Zane says on an exhale, shoulders deflating with subtle relief at being one again. His lashes falter, and he grips me tighter. “More…”
Seeing him like this, succumbing to base desires while surrendering control to me, isn’t what I’m used to, but it instills a new, tender kind of power in me.
So I move, slowly rocking my hips against his while drinking in every sensation and every burst of warmth coursing through me.
Zane tips his head back with a groan, moving me enough to guide my movements rather than to control them, looking wrecked already. More dazed than I’ve ever seen him before, he struggles to stifle his pleasured sounds, and something about it sends a thrill up my spine.
As the room becomes almost stifling with heat and the gradually building urgency in pursuit of more bliss, I keep my movements as steady as I can, taking all of him.
Zane’s panted breaths deepen, and as I start going faster, he growls low in his throat before holding my hips still and bucking upward.
I gasp at the sudden change, only for it to be swallowed up by his mouth in a greedy kiss.
Warmth scatters through me the moment he takes over, moans leaving me unbidden. My fingers tangle in his dark hair, and I feel as the roles reverse again, but I don’t complain.
Not while Zane quickens his thrusts and holds me like he can’t stand the thought of ever letting go again.
“You’re mine, Naia…” he utters, piloted by pure instinct.
From this angle, he hits every perfect spot inside me, pushing me further and further until static courses through me.
His words replay in my head again and again, coaxing me into tightening my grip on him as my thighs tremble and I can barely hold on.
As it all becomes too much, and he pushes deeper, my breath catches, and I give in completely.
“Zane—”
My inner walls constrict and flutter around him as I release, and Zane buries his face against my neck. He groans, and his teeth graze my skin. His arms tighten around me, writhing under the pressure of his own orgasm.
Warmth fills me as he gives a few shallow thrusts, then he forces out a breath and slumps against me.
His heart rams against his ribs like it’s trying to break free in search of mine, and while the desperation fades, the need to be close lingers.
“Don’t move,” Zane murmurs, voice barely breaking through the room’s silence. His breath gently fans against my neck, and he settles in more comfortably. “Not yet…”
Something about the raw vulnerability in his tone makes me stay put, leaning into him while my fingers absently play with the hairs at the nape of his neck.
Spent and soothed now, I regain myself little by little, and rather than trying to find a way to leave the moment, I linger in it.
I savor how I’ve managed to reduce Zane to this. The otherwise level-headed, aloof Alpha of Delmont is barely hanging on as if that claim has taken it all out of him.
Still, he tilts his face up a bit to nuzzle against my skin in a gesture that seems almost too soft for him, but I don’t question it.
Not while I’m basking in the warmth and pleasant glow of it all.