The handle of my half-full cup of raspberry tea slipped out of my hold. The ceramic drew a high arc in the air before smashing into the hallway’s wall.
A sharp crunch joined my gasp, the explosion sending blue shards flying everywhere. Hot liquid darkened the gray paint, dripping down to the floor and forming a thousand tiny puddles Zion ignored as he dragged me back into the kitchen.
Marching past the steel counters and shiny appliances, paying no heed to my grumbles about his bullet wound and the crimson stain blooming on the white gauze, he deposited me in front of a pale wood table under a window.
“Wait here,” he said, and the press of his front against my back vanished.
The cracked tiles chilled my feet, and the cold weaved a spell of goosebumps up my legs. With all the light switches off, the night had laid claim to the room. Wisps of moonlight floatedin through the windows, casting a silvery glow that bounced off metal surfaces.
I clutched my elbows. “Everyone can see us like this.”
Despite the late hours, our people roamed the street, the weather welcoming enough to venture out after midnight. Having explored the road a hundred times over, I was well aware of the fact you could seeeverythingoccurring on the first floor of any dwelling.
No bottle of bleach could erase the number of bare butts I’d witnessed from the crevices of my memory.
“Exactly.” Zion placed a jar of coconut oil on the table. The clear liquid sparkled in the natural light. “It will make Gedeon go wild.”
I fiddled with the hem of Gedeon’s shirt I was wearing. “But?—”
Strolling to stand behind me, Zion yanked my shirt up, and I yelped from the cool sensation.
He tugged the waistband of my underwear. “Fucking panties.”
Before I could react,sharpnesstrailed up my thigh. Inch my inch, his knife climbed up my hip, scratching, grazing—a threat hanging in the air. My belly twisted, harder and tighter, the slight bouts of ache…pleasant.
I didn’t know why, but the promise of pain would always throw my logic out the window.
The weapon glided down my pelvis, over my panties?—
“Spread your legs.” He nudged my ankles, widening my stance. Immobilizing me against him, his arm wrapped around my waist. “Now stay very,verystill.”
His knife returned, freezing a path up my inner thigh, and the tip slipped underneath the quickly dampening fabric. Stainless steel ghosted over my slit, barely touching me, and a whimper wrenched itself out of me.
The double-edged blade hooked behind the cotton. My lungs halted their work.
Zion flicked his knife, and the fabricsnapped. Two loose strips dangled between my legs, exposing my pussy to the elements. Air attacked the slickness dripping out of me as steadily as my pulse was rising, level after level, aiming to reach the most perilous one.
“Better.” Tossing his knife aside, he pushed on my lower back, bending me over the table, and my pebbled nipples dragged against the wood through my shirt.
The position was something many would call vulnerable, but with Zion or Gedeon, or both, I didn’t feel insecure. Terrified. Or nervous. Unless the tingles raging in my bloodstream could be called anxiety.
A grating clang—a peculiar sound hard to mistake—told me Zion had uncapped the jar?—
Liquid pitter-pattered my flesh, dribbling down my ass crack, and I dug my nails into the meat of my palms in preparation of what would come next.
Two fingers slid between my cheeks, pausing to circle my puckered hole, once, twice, thrice?—
“Relax.” Zion pushed past the tight ring, inserting one digit up to the first knuckle.
A stuttered breath whooshed out of me. My insides lit up, but the flames didn’t destroy me. Instead of reducing me to ashes, they seeped into my muscles, stretching me out, driving my hips to bump against the edge of the table.
Twinges shot up my nerves as Zion worked a second finger in, then a third, and a fourth, thrusting and massaging without a single pause.
On my elbows, I stared out the window to distract myself from the rising anticipation. Adrenaline had built a nest withinme, freezing my tendons and transforming them into twigs so stiff I couldn’t move an increment.
“Please,” I begged. For the torment to end, to continue, to increase or to kill me, I wasn’t sure. My thoughts had begun to lose their solidity as the heat flooding me bordered on becoming pain. “I need— Zion—” I blinked away the unexpected tears. If I didn’t getmoreright this second, I was going to break down. “Please.”
He withdrew his fingers. “I love it when you sing your prayers.”
