Page 49 of Guarded By the Vodnik

“This feels so good, baby,” I choked out, quivering from the heat. “You feel so good.”

He moaned once and dropped a kiss on my lips, but when I tried to catch his mouth for more, he shook his head.

“Zoe, I need you to be still. Like before. Please.”

“Okay,” I said, curious and eager. “What else?”

His eyes flashed away to the house, his face contorting for a moment before he looked back at me, his features hard with determination.

“I want to fuck you.”

Chapter 17

Vodyan

I felt out of control, bursting with the need to somehow tear the pain and fury out of myself and fling them far away. At the same time, the hormonal reaction I finally triggered to warm up Zoe made me painfully hard, and all of it combined felt like a ticking bomb in my system.

Zoe’s words still burned in my mind and heart, too, and I didn’t know what to do with them. They just didn’t fit with everything else that I’d learned, and yet, she said them with such conviction, they rang so true.

The most painful, burning thing was her acceptance. Here she was, knowing my greatest shame, and she still wanted me unconditionally. I’d told her I would take my pain out on her, and she simply said yes.

I didn’t know who was crazier at this point, me or her.

“You’re fucking unreal,” I said, pressing my lips to her head as I went around the house to the front door. “Feels like I dreamed you.”

She shivered but didn’t move, and another burst of gratitude choked up my heart. I needed that, though I didn’t know why. All I knew was that if she stroked my nape in that soothing way of hers or gave me hot little caresses, I would die.

I wouldn’t be able to handle it. It would be too much.

“Baby, I promise you I’m real,” she whispered.

I closed my eyes, squeezing her warm ass in my palm, where she fit so nicely, seated on my hand like it was her personal little throne. Because it was. She had no idea what she’d done, and I didn’t comprehend the full extent of it myself, but I knew one thing: now, a month from now, or in twenty years, I would have her.

I wouldn’t let her leave.

The metal door was intact, though a bit rusty around the handle. I slid open the crude crate covering the electric lock. It lit up when I pressed a button, meaning the underwater generator still worked.

The generators were a state-of-the-art vodnik invention, transforming life underwater in an instant. They produced extremely cheap, renewable energy only at the cost of the generator itself and its maintenance. I knew there were attempts to invent a similar type of tech for saltwater environments, but none were successful for now.

I snorted under my breath. My grandfather had abhorred civilization, and yet, that didn’t stop him from installing electricity and cameras that would keep him safe from lamias in his separatist fortress on the shore.

I hadn’t been in this house in two years. It belonged to me now that my grandfather was dead, and I’d bothered to complete the paperwork and have it filed under my name, but I rarely came up here. The memory of that day I almost died permeated every fucking stone of this house, but it was the only place I could think of that was on the surface and safe for Zoe.

There were vicious traps around the house, and a perimeter keeping wild animals away. A few cameras were dotted around the property, and if the lock worked, hopefully, they would, too.

“What is this place?” she asked as I punched in the code and the lock buzzed mechanically, allowing me to open the door.

“It’s mine,” I said simply, unable to get into the rest right now, my being already stretched taut with one painful confession. “It’s a safe place.”

“Okay,” she said, pressing her face to the crook of my neck.

It undid me. She was so fucking trusting, so completely devoid of doubt. It hurt, that trust. When people expected nothing but disappointment from me, I couldn’t really fail them. But Zoe? If I fucked up, I would hurt her, and I couldn’t bear the thought.

And yet, she’d already forgiven me. My incredible, pretty human.

“It’s not much,” I said as we entered the narrow corridor that opened into a large kitchen at the end.

Two bedrooms flanked the corridor, and I hesitated. One had belonged to my grandfather, and the other had been supposed to be mine after I was finally conditioned enough to stay out of water for longer. It was where he tied me up to train me.

---