Chapter 30 - Naia
The water is warm as it surrounds us both in the bathtub.
Zane sits behind me with his arms loosely around my middle, cheek pressed against the side of my head, while he soaks it all in.
I take a deep breath, savoring how good it feels to have him so close. Even through the water, I can feel the unique heat of him against my skin.
“You must be drained after today,” Zane murmurs quietly while his fingers idly trace patterns along my arm.
I hum to myself, eyes closed. “Not as much as I expected.”
“You’re saying you have more fight in you?”
An amused huff escapes from me. “Not fight, necessarily.”
“No?”
The faintly teasing lilt to his words sends a small thrill through me, and I lean back a little more. “I’m too relaxed for that.”
Zane hums at that, sounding pleased while he rests his hand against my stomach, gentle in the way he caresses me. “Good…I think we could both use a break from conflict.”
A shiver travels through my body when I feel his lips pressing against the side of my neck, and it sparks heat through me. I try to ignore it in favor of enjoying the peace between us, but as his lips linger, leaving more small affections on my skin, it becomes impossible.
Through the bond, Zane reacts immediately, responding with heat of his own.
He hums again, tone faintly amused now. “I see…you don’t have any fight left, but just enough energy for something else, right?”
Feeling called out, I huff a quiet breath, but I don’t deny it. “One of those things sounds significantly more enjoyable.”
“You’re not wrong,” Zane says, slowly sliding his fingers down my body beneath the water. He’s teasing at first, narrowly missing where I want him in favor of brushing along my inner thigh.
Not realizing I’ve been holding my breath, I sigh, bristling slightly at being denied.
To this, he chuckles and continues to tease. “Don’t like that, huh?”
“Evidently not,” I mumble, annoyed yet still wanting more.
Amusement lingers in his touch, and I can see his grin in my mind.
“Don’t be like that,” Zane muses, kissing my neck slowly while he finally makes contact, making me arch a bit as the sensations register. His tongue brushes against my skin. “Better?”
I melt into it, focusing on his fingers slowly gliding over me with purpose now, adding enough pressure to make me squirm.
Swallowing hard, I nod. “Yes…”
Satisfied now, Zane gently nips at my jaw. He traces over my clit, using his opposite hand to guide my thighs apart more.
“Then let me give you what you need,” he murmurs, easing his fingers inside me now.
My breath catches, immediately filled with warm, fluttery feelings. Leaning fully against him now, I tip my head back, body arching for him.
Before I know it, my moans and panted breaths are filling the bathroom while steam from the bath lingers in the air around us.
Zane draws me closer to the edge with every stroke of his fingers inside me, barely restraining himself as the hard imprint of him presses against my back.
“You’re always so responsive to me,” he says, voice a little more hoarse now.
I can’t even think of a response while he has me like this, curled back and suspended in the moment while he keeps me on the brink.
“That’s it…I want to feel it when you finish for me.”
The words send a ripple of need through me, well aware of what he’s doing.
But I don’t want to finish yet…and I don’t want to wait.
Before he can get me there, I move onto his lap, quick enough to startle him and to make the water around us slosh against the edges, then I settle there, straddling him with purpose.
Instinctively, his hands fall to my hips as he looks up at me, eyes glimmering now.
“You tease too much,” I murmur, able to feel him against me fully now, so close to getting what we both need.
Zane huffs out an amused breath at that, leaning back a bit while he takes me in. “Someone’s impatient—”
The comment fizzles out on his tongue when I slowly grind against him, pulling a strained grunt from him. His fingers press tighter against my skin, eventually guiding me.
“Christ, Naia.”
“Maybe I have a little fight left in me,” I muse, dipping down to capture his lips in a searing kiss, leaving no room to question how much I want this.
Zane stifles a moan into the kiss, hands roaming up my back while he pulls me impossibly close. Teasing forgotten now, he moves his hips in return to meet me halfway.
Pleased with the position I have him in now, and unwilling to wait a moment longer, I center myself above him and carefully sink lower.
Our breath catches at the same time, and his arms tighten around me to keep me in place. As I slowly take him in, stretching in the most delicious way, a soft sound escapes me, and my fingers slide into his hair.
Once he bottoms out inside me and I go still in his lap, Zane tips his head back with an almost disbelieving breath. His hands stay at my hips, and he peers up at me through his dark lashes.
“Go on,” he murmurs, already sounding like he’s at my mercy. “Take what you need. I’m yours.”
Encouraged and emboldened by the offer, I start to move, using a hand on his shoulder as leverage while I move my hips, sliding rhythmically.
The movement makes the water rock in the tub, sometimes spilling over, but neither of us can be bothered to care.
Instead, I focus on the rush of sensations consuming me while Zane holds me close, alternating between capturing my lips and kissing down my neck, almost like he can’t decide what he wants most.
Pleasure slowly builds with each rock against him, panted breaths interrupted by moans and every sound we can’t conceal anymore.
Zane explores every inch of my mouth while his one hand grips the back of my neck to keep me in place, deepening it with unfiltered hunger. He groans, body tense through every rush of heat exchanged between us.
Losing myself in the haze of it all, chasing after the high looming ahead of us, I whimper when he thrusts upward, pushing me closer to the edge.
“You feel perfect,” he murmurs, burying his face in my neck as he starts to lose control of his hips. “Always so perfect…”
A shaky moan falls from my lips as my thighs start to tremble from the onslaught of everything he has to give me, unable to keep pace anymore.
Unbothered, Zane takes over, not thinking twice about the amount of water leaving the tub and hitting the floor. Instead, he grips me tight and thrusts deeper, moving as if he’ll never get enough.
All the while, my moans pitch higher and turn more breathless as the pleasure forces my eyes shut, focusing on how good it feels.
He’s everywhere, forcing both ends of our bond to thrum with desire and the kind of nourishment it always craves.
“Zane…” I murmur, breath hitching as I grip his shoulder tighter, bracing myself while the heat in my lower stomach pulses. “I’m gonna—”
Catching on to how close I am, Zane shivers and doubles his efforts, his hips faltering just enough to betray how close he is.
“Let me feel it,” he rasps against my skin, dropping a hand between us to rub against me, sending more sparks through me.
Everything together is too much, and it sends me over the edge with very little warning. As my breath catches, I clamp down around him as the pressure cracks, and wave after wave of euphoria hits me.
Holding on tight, I shake and cry out softly, feeling how the pressure makes Zane falter just the same.
He groans into my neck, hips stuttering once before he stills beneath me, and follows me right over the edge.
His release hits just as hard as mine, but he doesn’t once let go. Instead, he slowly prolongs the experience, riding it out for both of us with shallow thrusts until he comes to a complete stop.
Boneless against him now, I lean into him while we both slowly catch our breath, and I feel his fingers ghosting along my spine.
“I love you,” Zane says quietly, but with so much sincerity that it makes me pause, momentarily forgetting about how spent I am.
Looking up at him, I find his eyes already on me, soft and full of everything else he can’t quite say, and it makes my heart clench.
His hand comes up to cup my cheek tenderly, and his thumb lightly brushes along my skin. I relax into the touch.
“I love you, too.”
“Even when I steal your moment?” he asks, allowing his lips to pull faintly. He looks at me like I’m the most precious thing in the world.
“Even then,” I confirm, unable to hold back my own smile. “As long as it stays between us.”
With a soft chuckle, Zane leans forward to murmur against my lips, “Deal.”
When his mouth melds softly with mine again, I let myself drift, trusting him implicitly to guide us both through the moment I can’t get enough of.
It has always been him, and that won’t change any time soon.
*****
THE END