She is mine.
The smell of his blood and his scent all over her wasn’t enough.
He reached down and gripped her chin, turning her perfect bow-shaped lips up. Lips she kissed other men with. Lips that had wrapped around other men’s cocks. Lips that belonged to him. “Why?”
“Fuck you, Cyborg! You don’t get to dictate my life or my choices. You have no idea what it’s like being me, being second-best in everything in life. I had no friends growing up, no one but my sister, my parents, and the other settlement workers. I was always being compared to Rylie, being compared to everything and everyone else. I hated every moment of it.” Zeph smelled her tears before they beaded in her eyes. “You can’t understand the solitude. There was no one to talk to, and Rylie was oblivious, so very oblivious.” Janet hit his chest and he softened his hold on her.
“I couldn’t do anything as good as her… She was just so smart, so sweet, and dedicated to the family business. She was born to take over once Ma and Da died. I watched her being groomed for it my whole life.” She wiped at her eyes, and he moved his hand up to cup her dewy cheek. “I overheard some of the men talking one day. They said such crude things about her, made bets on who would take her virginity first. I hated them. I envied her—but I hated them for daring to try and harm my perfect older sister. Nothing else mattered at that point. I realized two things that day: I would die for my family, and I had my looks.”
“What happened?” he asked, caressing her forehead and temples with his fingers. His anger remained but it was muted by her tears.
Janet sniffled and looked away. “Nothing.”
Zeph growled. “What did you do, Janet?” He needed to know. The wires in his limbs filled with electrical currents. He’d only glimpsed the vulnerable girl inside her once before, back on Kepler, when he held her when she’d been threatened with hypothermia. One didn’t become cold and bitter without a past.
He knew that better than anyone.
She wiped her nose on the back of her hand. “It’s in the past. Please don’t make me say it.”
He cradled her face and forced her tear-stricken eyes back to his, leaning down to softly rub his lips across her brow. “It doesn’t matter what happened, sweetheart. I’m keeping you anyway.” He breathed over her skin. She could’ve fucked every guy on Kepler and he’d still lay down his life for her. Zeph drew her into him and wrapped his arms around her shaking frame. “I will have a number though. That isn’t negotiable.”
“I seduced them.” The words were muffled against his chest.
“Were they your first?”
“My Da found out and never trusted me again. He took them out to sea and killed them.” Zeph had never liked a human man more than at that moment. He only wished he’d been with Quinten that day to commit murder. Brutal murder. He never left behind remains. The Croc was always hungry.
He held her harder and tangled his hand into her hair. “You don’t have to tell me if it hurts.”
“He didn’t speak to me for over a year. But for once, it didn’t matter. I had all this power I never knew existed. I realized I was good atsomething. No one really knew but I started to look at things in a different way. I started to calculate, and then as I got older, I realized something that had never really been talked about before at home. There were far fewer women than men. Not just on Kepler, but everywhere. I could use what I’d learned to protect those closest to me. Knowing how to use a gun is one thing, but guns don’t give you secrets. And yes, one of them was my first.” Janet pushed away from him and refused to meet his eyes. “It was horrible, but how was I supposed to know? Sex was never talked about at home.”
He took her hand and led her to the shower unit, turning it on. “I promise that will change.”
“I learned everything I know from the men I’ve encountered and the rest from what I could access on the network. I made sure Rylie knew everything so she’d make better decisions.”
“You’re a good sister.”
“I’m a terrible sister.”
Steam filled the small space, and Zeph turned the ventilators on, but not before Janet’s hair began to curl at the ends from the humidity. He lifted a strand to his lips and kissed it.
“I’ve seen you with Lily. You’re just being self-deprecating now. You’re better than that.”
“God, you’re an asshole.”
“Oh, I know, and someday you’ll understand that I’m so fucked up that I’mtwoassholes, but I’m also a man who knows what he wants and takes it. Now take off your bloody clothes and get under the water.” He held the shower door open in all his bare, fully erect glory.
Janet peeked up at him, her nostrils flaring. The fire back in her stance. “And if I don’t?”
Zeph grinned, the jealous monster he was just barely contained, and jerked her body against his. He popped out his claws, and as she struggled in his hold, he shredded her ruined clothes off her body. “Stop it!”
He ignored her surprise and pushed her under the water. Janet shrieked and slapped him across the face. The sting of it surged the song in his belly to thunderous life. His muscles bunched, and the green light of his eyes cast a neon glow across the spouting water. His cock jerked. She tried to move past him, covering her chest with one arm and her cunt with the other.
She was fucking perfection completely wet.
“I’m not going to fuck you if that’s what you’re worried about.” He stepped back and closed the shower door before she could escape, locking it with a metal bar he tore from the wall.
“Zeph, don’t you dare. Let me out right now.”
