“Okay. So?”
Nobody speaks.
Zion goes tense and hard behind me. “This about me?”
“Well.” Gigi glances at Liev, then looks up at Zion. “Kinda.”
I feel him nod, his arms drop, he steps away. I shiver harder the moment I lose his body heat.
When I look up at his face, it’s gone hard, jaw set, his features blank. “I’ll take care of it.” He gives a single, stoic nod and moves toward the door, leaving me alone on the porch.
Everybody shifts aside to let him in except for Lamé. “Okay, sure, Kinky Crusader,” they say, stopping him with a long-nailed finger to the chest. “Except you might want to find out what happened before throwing on the old studded cape and revving off to save the day in the Kink Mobile.”
“What happened?” he asks, without a hint of curiosity.
“They’re here.”
“Who?”
“Come inside and we’ll tell you.” Liev leans out to grab my hand and Zion’s shoulder and hauls us in before slamming the door.
“Shower first,” says Grace, bless her heart. “Then talk.”
“Would you all mind…” Zion sweeps his arm out and everyone parts to let us up the wide, wooden staircase. He stays close behind me the whole time, keeping my backside hidden from their view.
We make it up and into a bathroom, where he gets out a pile of soft towels. “I’ll bring you clothes.” He glances down at my bottom, then back up, a little heat back in his eyes. “You need help with…”
Every muscle in my body wants to melt into his arms, but we’ve got a crowd waiting for us downstairs. “I’ve got it.” I bite my lip. “For now.”
“Okay.” He starts to go and turns back, eyes clear, expression earnest. “I’m gonna fix this.”
Something happens in my chest, expanding, opening, sparking with this new life we’re choosing for ourselves. “I know.”
“And then I’m fucking your ass.”
Heat washes over me as I grin up at him. “You’d better.”
“Just so we’re on the same page.”
My smile widens. “We are.”
“I adore you.”
“Me, too.”
“Okay. Bye.”
I give him a finger wave and move to turn the shower on.
He watches my butt like a lion on a hunt then, with a pained groan, turns to go.
34
Zion
I stare at the phone, feeling empty inside—blank.
There I am again, only this time, I’m not the one caught with my pants down. This time, it’s Twyla, on the day of the spanking workshop, caught in all her lush, well-lit glory. She’s bent over the bench in that fluorescent yellow bikini, her beautiful ass presented for all the world to see while I smack it with my open palm.
