“No,” she squeaked. The breeze twirled her dark strands into a cloud around her. “Again, I wasthirteen.”
He shrugged. “Not that it would’ve stopped me.”
“Do not lie to her.” I threw a buttery crumb at Zion. “You were twenty the first time you had sex. At thirteen, you were crushing on our classmate.”
Kali’s mouth dropped. “Twenty?” She quivered with barely contained delight, but Zion’s glare pushed her over the edge. Her laughter exploded out of her, much to his dismay.
“Your debt to me just increased,” he grumbled. “And this is not about me. Unfortunately.”
Instead of granting him a response, I scratched the back of his neck, right where his hair thinned out, only for a second, but it was enough for the creases lining his forehead to smooth out.
Rolling her lips together, Kali continued. “She practically screamed at me while I stood, frozen, with her duvet in my hands. But I didn’t find any wounds, so I asked if everything was okay. She mumbled that she was fine, of course, and to leave her alone, but…I was a curious kid.”
I rested my forearms on my bent knees. “You asked her what she was doing, didn’t you?”
Kali nodded. “And that’s not even the?—”
Hiccup.
We whipped to look at Zion.
He stared right back at us. “Tha—” Another hiccup rocked his form. “I can’t—” A third spasm of his diaphragm cut off his curse, and he threw his head back, convulsing again. “Fu—”Hiccup. “I ha—”Hiccup.
Suppressing the chuckles about to flee me, I passed him the thermos. “Drink this.” Hopefully, it would help him hold his breath long enough for the involuntary twitches to pass.
He chugged the coffee like a life-saving drug. Caramel liquid dripped off his chin and trickled down his leather jacket, soaking into his sweatpants, coloring the hemline in dark stains.
Heaving, he swiped his sleeve across his mouth. And paused. Waited a second. Two. Five. “No more.” Another six. “Yeeees.” Relief slumped his shoulders. “Now continue. I want to know what happened next.”
“As I was saying, I pushed her to tell me what she was doing,” Kali said, toying with the zipper of her jacket. “When she realized I wasn’t going to leave, she relented. Details aside, that’s when I learned a little extra about female anatomy—what a clit was. And what can be achieved by touching it.” She released the slider. “But that’s not even the worst.”
Fiddling with the purple blanket, she went on. “The following day, I spent some time in the shower…” She looked toward the woods, toward the sun rising from their depths, the scorching globe a far lighter shade than her blazing cheeks. “I doubt my…exploration had brought me an orgasm, but it’d felt good, and so, I ran to Alora.” Sadness danced in her features before she deadpanned, “I taught my best friend how to fuck herself. I literally helped her find her clit.”
Godsdamnit, I loved how she still blushed talking about pleasure. She had sold her body numerous times, called it favors, a price of whatever she was in need of, and I longed to rain murder on all those sick fucks who had accepted her proposal orrequestedsuch payment. But whenever the time came to admit what she wanted herself, she closed off. Shied from taking, too used to giving.
She was touch starved. Famished for affection. Ravenous for kindness. Malnourished in intimacy. It bolstered my resolveto provide her with a collection of all. To the point that she drowned in happiness. Cried from it.
Besides calling themmine—I wasn’t going to deny it; I was a territorial bastard—I wanted them both to shatter the shell hoarding their true selves from the outside world. I wanted to ensure they did not have to fight for tomorrow. I wanted to have endless breakfasts together, to cuddle them both in bed, to count their drowsy exhales as they yielded to slumber’s seduction.
I wanted it all.
“So that’s how my pretty birdie has learned how to pick her feathers.” Zion sucked a crumb off his forefinger. “I need to see it. Right now.”
She startled. “I’m not?—”
“You will.” I flicked a flake off my jeans. “Not necessarily tonight, but we own your pleasure, Kali. So if we wish to see you fall apart by your own hands, you will do it. Because you have given yourself fully to us. Or have you forgotten your promise?”
I’m yours, she had vowed four months ago.
An irrevocable pledge.
“That may be true, but you gave the same promise that night. You swore to me inblood. And yet, you broke it by leaving us.” She rose to her feet. A gust of wind flapped her jacket, the air currents as vicious as her. “If you can’t comprehend that, maybe I should treat you the same way you did us.”
Her words cleaved me apart, fractured my skull, beat my flesh until pain overloaded my nerves. Her proposal eroded me inside out like poison.
“Can you—” Sighing, I pushed aside my pride. “Can you sit down?”
“Like you sat with us for the last three months?” Bitterness seeped from her question.
