Chapter 429: Under the Lotus 2
Penelope’s smile gradually fell down as the sincerity of Zagan’s words sunk into her heart, and she tugged him back toward her, returning her mouth to his more softly this time. It was like her heart was speaking to the absence of his, trusting it would appear to mirror its beats with her own. She would bring it to life and teach it what it needed to know.
Zagan made himself open to her, accepting the gentle, silent words that were pouring themselves into the aching hollow space of him and prodding him, inviting him forth—but toward what, he didn’t know. Likely toward his death, but if it was this achingly sweet to walk that plank toward the abyss of an unknown fate that yawned threateningly beneath him, he would gladly do it. If she was safe and she was willing to lead him there, he would do it.
"Penelope, I don’t know... I have never," he muttered against her lips as he felt her touch lowering on his abdomen, tracing his muscles there and causing him to gasp from just her gentle touch alone. He took hold of her hand and pinned it against the bed so she would hear him, because her hands did not seem to want to listen.
"You have never done this?" She asked, her brown eyes lifting to find his. She did not seem worried or surprised.
"Nothing," he grimaced. "None of this. I have never wanted it. It did not make sense to me."
He was multiple centuries old, Penelope knew that much. That was a long existence without any kind of sexual curiosity or desire. She could not imagine it. No wonder his life was so dark and lonely. He had been fixated on hunting his own end for so long that he had left no space for anything else.
"But you want to now?" She whispered, lifting herself onto her elbows so that her face was a breath away from his once again. It was thrilling in a way—imagining that she could show him something he did not yet know. Something new and exciting.
A rainbow from the windows above him cast its brilliant colors across her face, and once again his attention went to how vulnerable and alive she was. Every angle of her was perfect. She was arched under him, her chest rising and falling with the air that sustained her, the flutter of life evident everywhere—in the smallest movement of her eyelashes as she glanced down at his lips, at the bright, curious light in her eyes and the expectant way her eyebrows arched just a little bit higher, waiting for an answer from him. Waiting for the words that he would speak in reply to her own. There was a quiver of excitement and fear about her, and he wanted to devour all of it. That is what scared him—the feral shifting and uncoiling within that was in response to her.
"Everything I have ever wanted has always been at the expense of someone else," he grimaced, shifting his weight so that he was lying next to her. "I fear that what you have in mind cannot work."
"Something tells me it can," she argued, pushing his shoulder gently so that he was lying on his back.
His soft white hair was splayed out around him, grey eyes watching her with such an abundance of innocence it was almost comical knowing how fearsome he should be. She propped herself up next to him, unbuttoning her shirt with one hand as she gauged his reaction.
"Penelope, I..."
"Shhh," she interrupted, lifting herself to a sitting position next to him.
Despite the light streaming in through the lotus in brilliant colors around them, Zagan’s pupils grew large when Penelope slipped her shirt off and her breasts were revealed to him. He swallowed and wet his lips, resisting the groan that wanted to break free as the beast inside thrashed harder, wanting to take her. Wanting to taste her.
"There is debate," she said, lying back to wiggle out of her pants before tossing them to the side of the bed, "about whether touch or hearing is the first sense that develops for fetuses in the womb. It is obviously not sight." A crooked smiled bloomed on her face as she watched his mouth drop open without his awareness.
"Don’t females usually wear..."
"Underwear?" She finished for him, turning to prop herself on an elbow next to him where she began teasing the waistband of his pants. He groaned and glanced down to watch what she was doing, wondering whether he should stop her. His control over this situation was slipping into her hands. "I do not have a washer in my room, Zagan."
"Oh," he swallowed, wetting his lips again, "I will... make sure to let Brandt know."
"You want Brandt washing my underwear?" She asked, and suddenly a fierce glint lit in his eyes.
He lifted himself up and grabbed her behind the neck, pulling her mouth down to meet his own in a demanding, punishing kiss that claimed her as his. No one else would see her or taste her or touch her like this. No one else would even think of her like this. She was his alone. Just the mention of Brandt on her lips made him suddenly murderous with jealousy.
"I will take that as a ’no,’" she giggled in the breath between them, fumbling desperately now to free him of his belt and letting him pull her back in where he could claim her mouth again.
"I would rather kill him," he muttered against her lips, running his hands over the soft delicate curves of her skin that was now fully bare to him. He played with the buds of her breasts, pinching the dark nubs between his fingers and teasing moans out of her that he devoured, taking her taste and her sounds into himself.
Penelope finally had his buttons free, and she pulled away from his mouth, mischief playing in her eyes as she did. "So the debate... touch or hearing," she said with that same crooked smile, and then he felt her hand snake its way into his pants, her fingers curling around the shaft of his cock that was straining painfully against the fabric that contained it. He grimaced and threw his head back as she was coaxing sensations from him that he had never experienced before.
"But touch and hearing are not so distinct. Have you ever felt a sound, Zagan?" She whispered against him before moving down to position herself to where she could free him of the wretched pants that seemed to cling so tightly now. He groaned when they came off, and then he gasped when he suddenly felt that warmth of her mouth around his cock.
"Penelope," he panted, finding her hair with his fingers and grabbing onto it. And then she hummed, and he felt it resonate through every cell, lighting his whole body on fire.
