The duelist 2, p.19
The Duelist 2, page 19
How could she know that’s exactly how I used to cope with things that were too emotional, or just… too much, like she said?
For a while after my eighteenth birthday, and after the shitty childcare system cut me loose without so much as a thankyouverymuch, I was so lost and adrift the only thing that kept me functioning was the mindless repetition that came with physically exerting my body. I held up to five twenty-four-hour gym memberships at one point in case the buzzing in my head attacked me like it usually did at random. That way, no matter what time of day it was, I could go to the nearest gym and hit the heavy bag, or lift weights, or just run and run on the treadmill until the swarm in my head stopped, and there was nothing left but hollow exhaustion.
It had been a while since the buzzing, hopeless, set-adrift feeling gripped me so strongly, and I almost forgot what it felt like until I was already drowning under its oppressive blackness.
I suspected I’d been drowning for a while now, but Zoie noticed it even before I did, and I couldn’t help but stare at her and fall even more in love than I already was.
Which was saying something because I was already so gone on her it was like dividing by zero: hopelessly impossible.
“Do you like it?” she asked and shifted on her feet as my staring went on longer than she was comfortable.
“I don’t have words for how much I love it,” I said fervently and shook my head to get rid of the last remnants of worry still trying to cling to me. Suddenly, it was like a veil had been lifted, which made everything look just a little brighter, and the weight I didn’t know I was carrying finally left my shoulders.
“There you are,” Zoie whispered with a small secret smile that burned up the rest of my black fog and made the corners of my eyes sting. Then she came closer so she could run all ten fingers through my hair before she brought my forehead down to rest against hers. “I have missed you, my Alex.”
“I’m sorry I went away,” I murmured as I wrapped my arms around her waist and stared into her midnight-blue eyes until that was all I could see. From the way she squeezed the base of my neck, I could tell she knew I was talking about more than just my physical absence.
“It is alright,” Zoie whispered back, and she was still using her intimate voice as if we were the only two people in the universe. “But I hope you know you do not have to struggle with your burdens alone. I am here to hold you up when you lack the strength. I am here to love you when you forget.”
I squeezed my eyes shut as her words flayed me wide open, and I gathered her in for a healing embrace I didn’t know I needed.
God, my chest cavity ached, but in a tender way that was wholly and utterly good, like when a new tooth came in, or when a broken bone was just beginning to mend.
“I’m scared I can’t keep everybody safe,” I admitted into her shoulder in a hushed voice. “I just realized how much everyone means to me-- even Mel and Bodin, our new farmhands-- and so many people here at Ithaca are relying on me to provide them a sanctuary, and--”
“Shhh,” Zoie said and ran her hand up and down my spine. “I know, my love, I know. I see how you are trying so hard to give everyone a home.”
I pulled back so I could see into Zoie’s dear face. Even though it was easier to have this conversation without looking at her since I felt so exposed, there was a thrill to letting another person in so completely, kind of like how I imagined free falling to Earth would feel like after stepping out of an airplane.
It would have been terrifying if I didn’t have a parachute, but Zoie-- with her low-burning gaze, sure and capable hands, and resonating words-- was the only parachute I needed to give me the courage to open up even more.
“Seeing Rylan in pain…” I stopped as the shocking memory of him weeping on the floor of the barn with his broken leg threatened to close up my already constricted throat. I swallowed hard and then started again. “It shook me. I don’t know when it happened, but somehow Rylan became more than this annoying little kid who looks up to me. It’s like he’s a little brother… but not exactly. I’ve had several foster-siblings in the past, but none of them ever made me feel so protective like that.”
“You were afraid because you see him as your pack, as if he was your own son,” Zoie stated simply. “I know because I feel the exact same way about him as you do.”
“I…” My next sentence dropped off as I frowned. “Did we adopt a son without realizing it?”
“Maybe,” she said with a little smirk. “That sounds entirely possible between the two of us.”
“Huh,” I grunted as my brain struggled to process the fact that the description of foster-son seemed to fit on the kid when every other label fell flat.
“Are you… okay with that?” Zoie asked a little hesitantly as she kneaded my shoulders in that little anxious way she had.
“Yes, actually,” I said as a contented smile unfurled on my face. “I’ve never really considered myself as a father before now, but it feels right somehow. I can’t believe how angry I got because of how scared he made me, but now it makes sense.”
“I am glad you see how much you love him through your own eyes, because I have been observing this for a while now.” She flattened her ears so she could rub the top of her head under my chin as she began to purr continuously deep inside her chest. “You are good with him, and you will make a wonderful father to our own kits when the time comes.”
“You think so?” I asked as I rubbed circles into her lower back with my hands and relished the way she molded into me until we were all but plastered together.
“Oh, yes,” she said as she sensuously rolled her warm body against mine in all the right places. “I’ll admit, seeing you be a father to Rylan made me picture us with our own, and the thought makes my passions race.”
My beautiful cat-wife bit her lip and rubbed against me again so I could feel the stiffening of her nipples through the fabric of her tight, sleeveless shirt, and a howling cavern opened up inside of me and nearly strangled me with want.
“I need you, Zoie,” I rumbled in a low voice, and I ground us together so tightly not even a piece of paper could slide between us. My cock was already half-hard and growing harder the more I gyrated my hips against hers.
“I know exactly what you need, husband,” she purred and reached a hand down so she could cup my erection through my pants. Her palm was scorching hot even through the fabric, and I shuddered violently as my blood began to sing.
Yes, this is what I’d been needing.
Zoie, with her fresh clover scent filling my nostrils and her gorgeous body dancing in concert with mine in a language that didn’t need words.
“Oh, kitten,” I groaned when she unlaced the waistband of my trousers, slipped her soft hand inside, and gripped me around my thickening shaft.
“Please, Alex,” she moaned against my lips, and I struggled to drink her in with every parched kiss. “It’s been too long. I need to feel you inside me. I need you to claim me. I need you to fill my womb again with your hot seed.”
Chapter 13
The blood roared in my ears at the pleading note in Zoie’s dusky voice, and I hefted her up into my arms. She then wrapped her strong legs around my waist as I carried her over to the lumpy ‘mat’ in the middle of what Zoie labeled the Fighting Room.
I was definitely planning on putting that mat to good use, but not in a way conducive to fighting.
“I’ve missed your strong hands on my body,” Zoie moaned as she twisted her fingers sharply in my hair, and I squeezed her perfect ass just so she would tug harder. The sting felt good against my scalp, and my cock throbbed urgently in my pants.
We were both entirely too clothed and entirely too vertical for my liking, so I didn’t waste any more time in laying her down on the textured mat.
“Goddess, Zoie,” I groaned at the feeling of her wonderfully alive body splayed out underneath me, and then I sucked in a sharp breath when her hand found its way up under my tunic so she could scratch burning lines into my hot skin.
“You must take this off,” she practically growled as she tugged on my tunic with her other hand.
I hurried to comply, especially when she used That Tone of Voice because Good Goddess, she was hot when she was bossy.
“Better?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.
Zoie arched her eyebrow back, and then in a maneuver that made my head spin, she hooked her leg over my side and flipped our positions so she was the one on top straddling my hips.
“Much,” she said, and her cool fingers trickled down my chest and abs like raindrops on glass.
“Fuck, baby,” I hissed when she rolled her hips against mine, and I kneaded her outer thighs through the skin tight material of her leather pants. My fingers crawled up to the laces at the front, and I tickled the half-moon of her bellybutton I could see peeking over her waistband.
“Hey!” she giggled and snatched my fingers as I tried to make her squirm. She laughed and clamped her strong legs on either side of my hips, and we wrestled like that for a few moments until her eyelids lowered, and she held my hand flat against her belly. Then she moved both our hands up under her shirt, and I took the hint and helped her take off her top.
Her beauty never failed to leave me speechless, and I let my starving hands roam up the sides of her curved waist and up to her breasts that were rosy from arousal.
“Oh, yessss.” Zoie continued to sensuously swirl her hips around in a circle, and she arched her back beautifully when I caressed my thumbs around her pale-pink nipples.
“Gorgeous,” I murmured, and I sat up with her in my lap so I could bury my face in that dewy valley where her heathery meadow scent was the strongest. Then, as if she was an ice cream cone, I licked a stripe between her breasts over her heart.
“My love,” she purred, and she tossed her dark head back as I found the hard nub of her right breast and swirled my tongue around it. “Please.”
“I got you, kitten,” I said and then rocked us forward so she was back to laying prone underneath me.
“Your mouth.” She gazed at me with a burning desire I could feel as if her eyes were caressing me, and I bent toward my task by first trailing open-mouthed kisses over her fluttering tummy while my hands made short work of her pants and boots.
Zoie arched her back, and her legs fell open to reveal the pink shell of her pussy nestled in the thatch of her dark hair. Her natural musk was stronger now, and I hunkered down and threw her legs over both my shoulders.
“Oooohhhhh!” she wailed when I immediately went down on her and lapped at her wet arousal. “Yes, Aleeexxx.”
It was music to my ears, and I stiffened my tongue to a firm point so I could lick under the hood of her clit until the rosebud of her pleasure was in full bloom.
Zoie’s legs shook, and she thrashed her head from side to side as I sensed a familiar tension begin to build within her. She frantically kneaded her hands in the sheets, in my hair, and then in her own hair as if looking for something solid to hang onto during her tumultuous ride.
“Don’t stop!” she gasped in desperation, and I worked my tongue and lips harder even though my jaw was beginning to ache with the strain. She was right there, on the knife’s edge of pleasure, but I could tell she needed an extra push, so with my other hand I reached up and offered her two of my fingers.
“Suck,” I ordered when I came up for air, and I watched raptly as she drew my first two fingers between her luscious lips. I grunted as she used her own tongue to thoroughly drench my digits with her saliva, and the wicked gleam in her eyes made me flex my hips into the padding as my dick sought momentary relief from the friction.
Finally, when I felt like my fingers were wet enough, I resumed my previous task, only this time, my fingers slipped into her silky passage and crooked upwards as if I was beckoning her pleasure to come closer and closer.
And come she did, in a long undulating wave of pleasure as her climax rolled through her sensual body, and she bent and flexed like a sine wave.
“Alex, Alex, Alex,” she chanted as her hands found their way into my hair again so she could pull me up. “Mercedes, please, I need you inside me!”
I growled and raced up her perfect body so I could devour her mouth, and I used one hand to shimmy my pants down far enough in order to pull my cock out.
Part of me wanted to draw this out like we usually did, but the fire in my veins was too great, and I eagerly lined myself up with her opening so I could slide home in one mighty thrust.
“F-Fuck,” I stuttered out as the feeling of her clenching inner muscles rippled and pulsed around me.
“I feel like I’m imploding,” she whimpered, and her breasts heaved with her rapid panting as I bottomed out inside her.
“You feel so good, baby,” I said and then sat up on my knees. Now that the initial edge of being so tightly sheathed within her was tolerable, I slowly pulled out entirely before slamming home again all the way to the root.
“Alex!” Zoie wailed, and her hands scrambled to hold on to something again as if she was about to fly off into orbit.
“Yeah, baby, come on,” I ordered as I pulled my heavy cock all the way out and left her completely vacant before filling her again in one smooth rush.
“Uuhhh, oh, Goddess!” she hissed and nearly bent herself in half from how sharply her back arched off the mat. “I’m so close…”
“That’s it,” I cooed and then repeated the process one more time as I added a few stoking fingers to her outer pearl.
When she came, it was like fireworks.
Her whole body seemed to light up, and she couldn’t help but pull herself upright as she tried to prolong her orgasm for as long as possible by grinding down feverishly against my dick.
My arms immediately went around her back in order to help her balance, and as one, we both rocked and gyrated together in a violent dance.
“Oh, Alex, yes, I can feel you getting bigger inside meeee,” Zoie whined as her arms wrapped around my neck while I dug my heels into the mat and thrust up as hard as I could.
“You’re gonna make me come,” I growled out, and I slammed her hips down even harder with my hands.
“I want you to,” she moaned and met me thrust for thrust. “I want to feel you filling my womb with your essence. I want you to put babies inside me.”
“Zoie!” I cried out sharply as my orgasm took me by surprise and suddenly ripped through me, and I crushed her against me so I could hold on through the intensity.
“Ohhhh, husband, I can feel you-- ah!” Zoie trembled and rocked harder in my lap until she clenched impossibly tight around me and toppled into her second orgasm without any warning.
Her spasming muscles caused my hips to jerk up involuntarily, and we both clutched each other at the mercy of our shared climax.
I poured and poured and poured into her while we spasmed to a peak of ecstasy. Even coming down was just as intense as going up, and the two of us shook in each other’s arms as powerful aftershocks kept me semi-hard enough to keep us rolling through on a heady high as the pleasure ebbed out of us like the slowly retreating tide.
When I was coherent enough to actually put-the-words-into-sentence-doing, I turned my face up to Zoie and declared very eloquently:
“Fuck.”
“I agree,” the languid cat-woman sighed as she curled her long silky tail around the two of us and slowly nuzzled her face next to mine.
“Is it usually that intense, or is it just because we haven’t seen each other in a bit?” I asked as I soothed the bruises already blooming on her tender hips with the pads of my thumbs.
“I think you triggered what my species calls a ‘soft-heat,’” Zoie mused as she snuggled her head under my chin so I had no choice but to hold her close. “Your absence combined with watching you interact with Rylan must have signaled my body to attract you to me as a viable mate.”
“You’re always attractive to me,” I murmured and swept her beloved dark locks behind her so I could run my fingers through the fine strands. “Crazy intense pheromones or not.”
“And I find you pleasing as well, my husband,” she purred, and we both hissed as my member finally softened enough and slid out of her passage with a wet squelch. Zoie shivered at the sensation, and I traced idle patterns into her lower back to get her to settle again. “I-It’s like my body wants to practice for you before I come into mating season.”
“Well, we can practice any time you like, kitten,” I rumbled against her velvety ear, and it flicked me with a butterfly kiss against my lips. I smiled wearily and buried my nose in her crown so the sweet-grass smell of endless summer could fill me up. “Thank you, by the way.”
“For what, my love?” she asked and then leaned back in my lap so she could try to read my expression.
She was always there for me like a supporting pillar silently holding me up even when I didn’t notice, so I tried to make my expression open and honest in a way I usually never did.
As far as the words I needed to tell her?
Well, I couldn’t have said anything better than the ones she delivered to me, so I took Zoie’s hands in mine as if we were exchanging long overdue marriage vows and repeated the only promise that mattered between the two of us.
“Thank you for holding me up when I lack the strength, and for loving me when I forget,” I whispered reverently and kissed the tips of her fingers. “And I promise to do the same for as long as I live.”
“You are my everything,” Zoie said as her hand came up to cup my jaw, and then she leaned in to place a kiss on my brow, the arch of my nose, and over each closed eyelid before pressing a final one to my lips.
The kiss was chaste, but it was one of the most meaningful kisses of my entire life.
Much later, when we finally emerged from our hazy bubble and put ourselves back together, my head felt clear, and the unsettled feeling in my core was quieted for the time being.
I felt restored and armed with a plan of attack, and the first overarching goal I framed in my mind would be to make sure Ithaca Estate was in top working order so things like the barn fiasco wouldn’t happen again.
