Page 82 of The Syphon King

“He doesn’t bite, Doc,” Harlow assured.

“Oh, of course he doesn’t,” he hurried. “I’m merely preparing to imprint this moment on my brain so that I never forget it.” He placed his hand in Quantum’s and his other joined in the shake as his breaths turned oddly erratic.

Jesus, he wascryingagain.

“Please forgive my emotions,” he wept openly as he stared at their shaking hands. “It is more than I can process, standing here touching something that should be impossible but here it is, being possible right as I am touching it.” He regarded Harlow. “Youdid this.”

“Wait until you seehisoffspring,” Harlow said, hopping right out the spotlight.

The doctor’s eyes popped. “I am ready to get on my knees and beg to see such a thing,” he assured, still shaking Quantum’s hand.

“Let us continue in the Sanctum, gentlemen,” Nidev said. “Please follow me.”

ZODAK SPENT A FULLhour convincing himself that doing more was necessary. The debate was how much more? For two months, he’d managed to keep himself out of the passive siphons he’d done on Zeen. At all times of the day, he performed them without her aware. He spent days measuring things, finding which gave him the most returns and always any type of physical touch with emotional stimulation outperformed all else.

To justify both, he chose physical therapy for her, performed by him. A glorified erotic massage that always ended in her orgasm with each daily session. They began with a single directive—Your massage, Zeen. And they always ended with him leaving immediately after to neutralize what it did to him. She only asked once whyhe gave them to her. Because you need it, he’d said. And she only asked once if she could do the same for him. Never, he’d answered.

The self-depravation he endured while cleansing and healing her with ecstasy was the most exquisite torture he’d ever endured. When studying her scans he found himself fearing she’d no longer need siphoning. Pleasuring her had grown into a full-blown reckless obsession that her darkness seemed to be toying with. And denying her ever-growing need to return the gift was officially a problem on all sides. She’d obediently fulfilled all requests he made of her, but she’d outgrown the one-way pleasure. She hungered for more. Needed more. But if he was right about what this exchange would bring, he’d have to do it with restraints. Literal ones.

“Zeen,” Zodak called from the living room when he finished in the kitchen.

She appeared in the bedroom doorway.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he said, letting her know he missed nothing where she was concerned.

“I’m...just giving you space,” she said, not looking at him.

“What’s wrong?”

She hugged the door frame, worry and guilt on her downcast face. “I’m just...I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

“Come sit by me.”

She didn’t move then finally shook her head. “I can’t.”

The odd answer intrigued him as his body burned with what he was about to allow. “Why not?”

Her struggle came to him in hard waves, hitting against his skin but not getting absorbed. “I can’t bear it,” she whispered.

Her tears fell and the sight stirred every part of him. “Come to me Zeen.”

He put authority in the words and watched as she unglued herself from the doorway and succumbed to the contract of obedience she’d made with him. She sat a great distance from him, and he got up and moved right next to her, allowing his hunger to devour what his closeness did for both of them. His sweet Zeen. Starved with the need to give him pleasure.

With the nano-bots in her blood, he felt it all and did not resist it this time. “I’m sorry I’ve hurt you, Zeen,” he said. “I know that I have been giving you things that cause you to want to give in return. But I have been learning a great deal in what I do to you.”

She looked toward him. “Like...what?”

Her delicate curiosity edged with all that he craved had him weighing his answer. “To feel.” He whispered the words, needing them to caress her. The slight give in her shell brought his next confession. “To need.”

Her eyes made it to his chest now. “What...do you need?”

Her gaze bravely worked its way up to his and he waited for it. She’d quit doing that for the past week and it was an absence he felt to the very depths of his soul. “I need...more,” he confessed.

Hunger and hope flared in her eyes and brought electricity racing through his blood until it hummed in his ears. Their stares remained locked for endless seconds, and he remembered his role with her. Guardian. Protector. Keeper.

The rise and fall of her chest told him he was on the very path she needed to be on. Had waited so long for.

“No woman has ever touched me, Zeen.”

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