Page 33

Zephyr

W e stayed in the bath until he had cried himself out and the water had cooled.

There were no words exchanged as we toweled off and crawled into bed together.

We were both still naked, but it was as if this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, like we’d done it a million times.

Sherrod was so exhausted that once he was able to curl up against me, holding me tight to him, he immediately fell asleep.

I should’ve been just as tired but my mind was spinning too much.

My throat wouldn’t hurt tomorrow, not with my nanites working overtime to repair any injuries.

There would be no physical proof of what had happened.

But what I’d seen and heard, that would be branded onto my brain forever.

I’d never seen Sherrod so vulnerable, so broken.

He had always been confident and strong, even when we were kids.

I knew he’d had a traumatic past, that he’d been injured in a fire, that his family had kicked him out after he’d accepted cyber implants.

But I didn’t know how much he still carried all of that, how it was still an open wound that tormented him.

I threaded my fingers between his as a fierce determination to protect him blazed through me. Sherrod let out a sigh in his sleep and snuggled against me.

“I’ll always have you,” I said, much more firmly than before.

I hadn’t known what to say for a split second when he’d asked in the bath, but I knew now that there was no other option for me. Before, when we were Daisy and Jacen, I had needed him so much that I had never considered that he’d needed me. But that was far from the truth.

He needed me just as much as I still needed him.

Not for the same reasons of course. Before, I’d needed him to be my friend, my savior, the one I could dream with.

Now, I needed an equal to stand by my side and not flinch when it got tough, or to retreat when I was the strong one.

I needed someone that would need me in equal measure, and not feel threatened by that fact.

And here he was.

“Zephyr…” he murmured sleepily.

I smiled and closed my eyes. Finally knowing what I wanted, and finally ready to tell him.

Tomorrow…when we wake up.

Slowly, I rose up through the fog of sleep to faint artificial light coming through the windows, giving the illusion of a sunrise.

It was followed by becoming aware of warm, firm flesh pressed against my back, and strong arms wrapped around me.

I let myself sink into the sensation of safety and pleasure that Sherrod’s body gave me.

When his lips murmured soft words onto my skin and deft fingers drew tiny circles around my navel, my blood tripped through my veins, growing hot and spreading down to my nethers.

“Good morning,” Sherrod whispered behind me.

I grinned and turned my head so I could see him. He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was sticking up at all angles. There was an enticing shadow of stubble over his jaw that I couldn’t help but run my fingers over. He nuzzled into my hand and pressed kisses to my palm.

“I’m glad you’re still here,” he said, his voice a little unsure.

“Me too,” I cooed, then gasped as something very hard, and very long and possibly pierced poked into my backside. “Well now, that’s….”

A nervous chuckle burst out of him.

“Uh, yeah I…Well, it’s not an excuse but we’re both naked and I…um…it’s a biological reaction and I-I’m not expecting…anything.”

I was completely enchanted by the sight of Sherrod blushing and ducking his head while essentially apologizing for morning wood.

“Oh so, it’s not because you want me, it’s just biology?” I teased.

“No! That’s not…I mean I do, want you. A lot. But I don’t want to assume just because…there was a bath and some words and we’re naked and I…” he let out a long sigh and ran a hand through his hair as I stifled a giggle. “I’m fucking this up.”

I couldn’t hold back the laugh any longer and it rippled up through my throat.

The giggles, just made me rub against his cock more.

It twitched and I swore Sherrod thrust his hips just a little.

It had me becoming more aroused, and at the same time I was laughing hysterically, a first for me.

Sex was usually perfunctory, or at best a release of tension between friends.

It wasn’t this easy, fun kind of back and forth.

I sobered a bit realizing that I hadn’t ever been with anyone that I had ‘feelings’ for.

“You thought that was funny, huh?” Sherrod asked.

I looked back to find his eyes sparkling with amusement and I was drawn back to the past when we could make one another dissolve into fits of giggles that seemed never ending. Had I laughed like that since?

He must’ve seen the thoughts flit across the fading merriment on my face because his expression turned tender and he ran the backs of his fingers against my cheek.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered. “No one ever knew me like you. No one does now either.”

“Not even…?”

“No, not even Zelena.”

“I like her, I do but I…it was hard to know she was with you when I couldn’t be. And yet at the same time, I’m glad you had her to help get through everything.”

Sherrod nodded, his fingers drifting down my throat and across my chest in feather light caresses, as if he were mapping my body one inch at a time.

“I can understand that. I’d feel the same way if you had an equivalent. But I never found anyone like you. Someone came close once but—”

“Who?”

I cringed at how my voice sounded. I wasn’t the jealous type usually, but now a bolt of fear tore through me that someone else might’ve been able to prevent this reunion.

“You’re gonna laugh,” he said with a nervous chuff of laughter. “It was Jax.”

I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing at first so I just stared at him and then I blinked.

“My agent Jax?”

“Yeah. It’s a long story, but we were engaged—”

“Engaged?” I sat up, not minding the sheet falling away to expose me from the waist up.

But Sherrod noticed.

His throat worked as his eyes raked over me.

“Hey, no ogling yet,” I said, snapping my fingers in front of his eyes. “Not until you explain being engaged to one of my agents.”

He smirked up at me.

“So there will be a chance to ogle? Can I ask for groping instead?”

I guffawed.

“Maybe I’ll be the one doing the groping.”

If his gaze got any hotter, I would combust. He cleared his throat, dragged his gaze up to my eyes and charged on.

“It was a job, a complicated one. I needed to earn Jax and his family’s, trust so I seduced him.

We were engaged but I…the one who hired me for the job wanted me to kill them, but in the end, I found a way not to.

Had to make it look good to the guy who hired me though, so I did some damage.

Including breaking Jax’s heart. I regret it because if there was every anyone besides you that I could’ve loved it would’ve been him.

But,” he shrugged, “he’s happy now with his pilot, it worked out. ”

I could tell he was expecting judgment but I had none.

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay?”

“Yeah. I mean…It’s not great that you tried to kill him, but…”

“You don’t feel weird that I was with him?”

I thought about that, wanting to really dig out any ounce of jealousy about this, but when I really stopped to think about it I realized that I had none.

“No. I’ve shared lovers with my agents before, and you were adults. He’s not the one you’re here with now.”

“No, he’s not,” Sherrod said sitting up and scooting closer to me.

The sheet fell away from his waist and I glimpsed a very thick, uncut cock with a piercing at the base. The beautiful shaft was arching up toward his stomach, one pulsing vein running up the underside. I wanted so badly to touch him, and suddenly, he was the one snapping fingers in my face.

“My eyes are up here, sweetheart,” he said.

I reluctantly tangled my gaze with his, and saw the biggest, smuggest grin on his face.

“You know,” I tapped my index finger on my chin as if in thought, “since you were so good to show me your attributes, I should return the favor.”

“I’m not going to stop you sweetheart.”

With a saucy grin, I threw the sheet back to reveal my newly waxed pussy and leaned back on my elbows so he got a good look.

Sherrod’s smile faded, a look of awe and sharp hunger replaced it. Tentatively he reached out but paused, and then glanced up at me, a question burning in his eyes.

I had all the power here. I could torture him with refusal, and clasp his cock instead. I could let him touch me only a little, then touch myself. So many options but in the end, all I really wanted was his hands on me.

So I nodded, clamping my teeth onto my bottom lip in breathless anticipation.

With reverent slowness, he reached out, running his fingers up my leg, circling my hip before drifting over to just below my navel.

“All the times I’d imagined you,” his whisper was jagged, “my mind couldn’t ever do you justice. You’re a dream, Zephyr.”

I’d had sweet talkers before. Male and female courtesans who thought it was a way to calm me or just part of their repertoire.

I never liked it because I doubted the sincerity of it.

But the way he was so lovingly caressing me with his eyes and hand, the cracks in his voice, the lack of his usual mask, for the first time I felt truly beautiful, implants and all.

And as much as I was suddenly starved for more of it, I was also scared. I’d never revealed this much of myself to anyone. It wasn’t my body, it was the way I couldn’t hide my soul from him. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to anymore.

“Kiss me,” I whispered, desperate for an anchor.