“I can’t tell you anything, so don’t ask, just please trust in me, trust in us, just a little longer. I’m having to push the plan up by a week, and that’s going to take a day or more to get set up. I’ve got a few other things I’m working on that weren’t part of the original.”
Ze looked around the edge of the outcropping while I began to shiver beside him. He rubbed a hand up and down my back, and my nerves soothed only a little. I settled eventually, and Ze’s hand traveled from my back, down my arm to hold my hand for the first time.
The bell to return to the cells finally rang, and we slipped out into the crowd, headed for the stairs with no one really noticing we had been gone. There were a few stares in our direction as we walked, a few whispered conversations that stopped when we got close enough to hear the whispers. Ze kept a tight hold on my hand while we walked.
He’d never held my hand before. It was too intimate, but here he was holding my hand in front of the entire population, and I was grateful for the contact. I had committed murder. The thing I had been wrongfully convicted of wasn’t a lie anymore. I was a murderer, and that could never be changed. I wished I could enjoy this first intimate gesture in public with my mate, but the implications of my actions were looming in the back of my mind.
Ze didn’t say anything else until we got back to the cell. He lay down on the bunk and pulled me close to him, face to face on our sides with me on the inside, back to the wall. He instinctively knew I needed this contact and reassurance right now, more than ever. I had been touched and needed to have that evil lingering feeling eradicated by him. He held me close and petted me, but his words were not the words of comfort I so desperately needed.
“I’m going to ask to be taken to medical tonight.”
I knew my panic was visible when he shook his head and hugged me close.
“I’m fine, baby. It’ll be fine. I need to meet my contact on the way there and explain the situation. It has to be done. You’ll be okay in the cell, and I’ll be back before you know it.”
His touch was soothing, even if his words weren’t. I could cling to this and hope Ze could figure a way to get us both out soon. Ze’s touch slowed, and he hugged me to him as he continued talking in his hushed tones.
“I was doing the same thing the night you almost froze. I should have thought about your safety more back then, but I was too shocked at finding my mate and worried about fitting you into my plan. Will you ever forgive me for that?”
I hugged him close, never wanting him to leave me alone for a second, even if he insisted he’d be back soon. After all that had happened today, I had a bad feeling that everything was slipping away and all I wanted to do was hold on tighter. I stroked his soft, dark hair, memorizing the texture and breathed in his smell. My soul called out for me to hold on and never let go. With my energy surrounding us, I knew my mate needed my reassurance, and I would deny him nothing.
“I’ve never blamed you for that, Ze. You didn’t know it would get that cold. I’m fine now, so let’s not think about that anymore. Sallyann made me all better and gave me my magic. That’s all we need to remember about that night, love.”
Ze was still and quiet for a minute, then two. While I kept petting him and hugging him to me, I thought about what I had said and realized what I’d done. I was afraid for a split second that he would pull away. He would tell me it wasn’t real again, like the first time we were together.
I needn’t have worried.
Ze pushed me to my back, climbing over me and covering me with his entire body. I felt his aura try to push toward mine, something he had been practicing with me over the weeks. Ever since I had shared my feelings, even some stray thoughts with him, he’d wanted to try to do the same.
I could see the concentration settling in the wrinkles between his brows. He was trying so hard, trying for me. I smiled at him and released my energy to touch his, urged it to mingle and finally merge with his own. That was when I felt it.
I love you, my mate.
It wasn’t hollow words, said for obligation. It wasn’t lust, mistaken for commitment that would burn hot, then fade.
What I felt was pure, solid, and true. It was a true fated bond only one mate could have for another. This dark lion enigma of a man felt all of that for me.
He would never have to say the words to me, and I wouldn’t have to say them to him, but I wanted to tell him anyway. I needed to express how I felt.
“I do love you, Ze. I don’t know how it’s happened so fast, but it has. Ever since the first day, I’ve been bonded to you in a way I could never have explained. Your lion felt it, but I had to learn on my own what we were and what that meant.”
Ze smiled the most magnificent smile when I was finished and covered my lips with his own. He lifted my hands above my head, and it wasn’t lost on me that this was the exact position we’d been in the first day when he’d pretended to kiss me for the guards.
We’d come so far, so fast, it almost seemed like a dream.
Ze made love to me with his mouth and his hands. We both stripped, got under our blankets and loved each other for hours. Ze still refused to claim me in these walls, but he made sure I would never remember Jones’s hands on me ever again. I would only want and need Ze from this day forward. Ze held our cocks together and edged us deliciously for so long I thought I’d die if I didn’t come. Then finally he increased his hand’s speed, and I was in heaven. He stopped kissing me to make eye contact, noses still touching and breath mingling moist, hot and fast. Then he whispered, “Come with me, Nial, let your mate watch you come, and you watch me. I want to share this with only you for the rest of my life.”
Two more seconds and I couldn’t contain my moan as my orgasm released. The rush was so powerful that it was like pain and pleasure mixed into one. I wanted this forever, with this man. And I finally said the other words I’d been holding in for so long.
“No matter what you’ve done to be here or where we have to run if, or I mean, when, you manage to get me out, I want to be with you no matter the consequences or sacrifice, Ze. I don’t need to know the details. Just know I’ll do whatever you need me to do to make this work. I’ve never wanted anything more than to have a life outside of these walls with you.”
Ze tried to speak, but I shook my head and went to get a cloth to clean us up. Then we settled down to sleep for a while. True to my word, I didn’t ask any questions, but I assumed his plan was about to be changed, all because of me. My mind raced as I tried to fall asleep with all kinds of things, but one questions kept circling back to the front.
Had I screwed up our only chance of getting out of here alive?
If Ze’s plan didn’t pan out, getting out of here dead was looking like much more of a possibility.
