My breathing becomes staccato, each inhalation freezes in my chest, wrapping icy fingers around my heart and cramping tightly. Each of Zane’s words cause a vice-like effect around my heart, and it’s a delightful feeling. One I cannot indulge. I want to agree, to tell him that our fate is now sealed in the stars, but it’s simply not that easy, so I divert our conversation. Ignoring the carnal yearn in me and the skipping of my own heart.
“My father occupied a lot of land when he wanted to evolve his empire,” I state as we walk further from the house and toward the vast land before us. “This was the result. Tennis courts, shooting range, swimming pools; you name it and my father wanted it all here with Manhattan not far.”
“You’re really going to shut me down like that?” he asks, catching up with me. “Right in the middle of a sentimental moment.”
“Zane, I don’t know what you want me to say or do. It’s been three days, and I watch you across the breakfast table wondering why the fuck you look so out of place. Then it hits me; it’s because you don’t belong to people who are as ruined as us. You are destined for better things, and I try with all my might to be okay with it, but sometimes I just can’t keep strong and believe this will ever end right.”
“We’re right,” he speculates, arguing his side. “Isn’t that enough?”
“Not right now, it isn’t, no,” I argue back. “You’ve entered a whole new game, Zane; one where you have to prove yourself at every fucking turn. The sad truth is that this is the testament to whether I’m worth the fight for you. If you survive and still profess to love me then maybe I can dream about fairy tale endings, but right now, I cannot give myself to false hope. Not like I have before.”
When he doesn’t respond, I just head further down toward the large open spaces beyond us. There’s such a vast amount of area to cover, and I feel uncomfortable with how Zane’s conversation with me seems to fluctuate between understanding and confusion. Just as I’m preparing to walk out and head toward Enzo, who is using his bo-staff to work out, Zane grabs my wrist, his large hand swallowing my tiny wrist whole.
He slams me against the chain fencing to the tennis courts, invariably moving me just out of plain sight. Stepping forward, he covers my body with his and just stares at me as his fingers cling to the fence on either side of my head. There’s this uninhibited sense of lust, the desire we’re both swallowed by sparking to life and while I might refute mine, Zane is very much allowing his to take over.
“Don’t deny it,” he whispers, his heated breaths coursing over me, making me weaker than I already am. “Don’t stop what you really want, Amelia. You want my hands all over you, you want me under your skin, and you want me to be here, loving you, pushing my way into your life like you love me pushing my way between your legs. You’d be a liar to start denying it now.” How am I not ever supposed to love a man who always sings what my heart wants? I want the love, the lust, the downright dirtiness. I want everything he offers and will wait while he fights to grab the stars from above as well. He stole simplicity and made it the most complicated notion ever and Zane Maverick keeps intensifying the complexity of it all with every fucking breath. “Not all love stories have to be straightforward, sweetheart.”
He’s right, so I do nothing to push him away.
He leans in, his lips touching the skin of my neck gently as one hand begins to fall down the side of my body. He slowly, and with gentle ease, slips his hands into my sweats, past my panties and begins to work toward my heated core. As he leans back, I look at him, biting down on my lip with anticipation and watch him as he does nothing but gazes at me. His eyes are firmly on me, preparing to watch every single flurry of emotion he’s about to unleash on me.
“Speak now or forever hold your peace, sweetheart,” he muses and with my silence, his fingers race across my clitoris.
His touch scorches me every time, but I love the blistering pleasure it leaves across my skin. Like a million needles testing my nerves to make sure I’m more than receptive to what’s happening, but as I admit myself to the feelings he causes, Zane changes our course with just the touch of his lips to mine. We slip into a brisk intimacy that clouds judgment and dissolves reality, and it’s a time in my life I truly love. The sensation of being completely senseless is one I’d drown in if I was given the choice.
However, Zane clearly doesn’t want to revel in it for too long. Out in the open, he knows that time is of the essence and with a quick jolt moves lower into my panties. Our kiss ends and my lips part, my eyes begin to flutter shut and all because his fucking finger knows how to strike my clitoris and make my knees weak.
“The cameras,” I pant, worrying that this isn’t the most hidden of places. The last thing I want to add to my track record is exhibitionist.