Page 10 of Sapphires and Snakes
“Hm?” Hers is faux innocence.
“I’m supposed to be treatingyou.”
Zarina opens her eyes and frowns in faux naïveté. “Is this not me treating myself?”
I release a long-suffering sigh, feigning disappointment. “You’re such a brat.”
She grips my ass harder and grins with all her teeth. “I am.”
I shake my head, replace the cap on the moisturizer, set down the roller, and all the while, Zarina’s touch keeps wandering to more brazen places. When my hands are finally empty, I snatch her waist and throw her over my shoulder in one swift motion.
She yelps, laughing and smacking my ass as I carry her out of the bathroom. “And you’re a brute!”
“I bet you think it’s hot that I can carry you.”
“I do not!”
Itsk, swatting her ass in retaliation. “Don’t lie, princess.”
“Let me down!” She laughs as she wriggles in my arms.
“As you wish.” And I drop her on the bed with a wide smile. She bounces, her belt coming loose and her robe falling open deliciously. If I had any talent at art, I’d ask her to lie still so I could draw her. Might turn it into a little game, riling her up until she can’t stay still anymore. But I’m not an artist. I’m just a woman, weak in the knees for the woman before me.
I rest my knee on the bed beside her. “Shall I finish what you started?”
“What did I start?” Zarina stretches her arms over her head, arching her back slightly. A minx.
“Seducing me.”
“You’re gonna seduce yourself?” she quips with a giggle.
I smack her inner thigh, feeling the sound of her giggles burrow under my skin and warm my chest all over again. Only an hour ago, she was shaking in my arms in the car. And now she’s lying spread out before me, giggling. Safe and content.
You feel safe with me?
I don’t think it’s a question anymore.
I lean over her, one hand braced on the mattress beside Zarina’s head while the other traces her skin. Along her now-plunging collar line, from her navel up to her neck, to her jaw, doing my best to ignore the flowering bruises there. I lower over her, my lips inches from her mouth, eyes tracing the shape of her smile.
“Brat,” I whisper teasingly.
“Brute,” Zarina whispers back.
And I capture her lips in a searing kiss. There’s no pulling back this time, not anymore. Zarina said what she needed, loud and clear. And her body is singing her comfort to the room. I’m no longer questioning what role she needs me to play. I will help Zarina shoulder a burden that is too heavy for her to bear alone and, at the same time, allow her the space to let go without losing her power.
I brush my hand down her braid to find the tie and pull it out, throwing it elsewhere. My fingers re-trace along the edge of the robe’s collar, down to her belt, and fully untangle the poor excuse for a knot. The robe falls open and reveals her body to the air as my hand wraps around Zarina’s waist.
The smallest moan shudders from her throat into my mouth. I slip my tongue past her lips to taste her pleasure as she shrugs out of the arms of the robe, revealing herself fully. And then her fingers find the hairs at my neck, her apparent favorite, and scratch over my scalp, down my spine.
I pull back, both of us breathing into the other’s mouth. “Say stop and we’ll stop.”
She nudges my nose with her own. “Go.”
I grin and sink back down to taste her, nipping along the column of her neck to her collarbones. I take my time, licking and sucking my way from the dip of her sternum to each swell of her breast, over the softness of her tummy to the divots of her hips where they meet her thighs. I avoid her pussy altogether, instead relishing the fact that Zarina is here, in my arms, in my bed, huffing with pleasure that I’m providing. And because she trusts me to take care of her—no one else. Not Pat. Not her parents. Not even herself.
I make you feel safe.
And I take that very seriously.
