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Lily’s P.O.V

I hastily unlocked my apartment door and rushed inside, a flurry of apologies pouring from my mouth as I tried not to drop the mountain of items in my arms.

“I’m so sorry, Zak. That meeting went on forever. I honestly didn’t think it was going to take that long.”

I’d been called in to a last minute business meeting at the studio and without a babysitter I had to use a last resort. Thankfully Zak hadn’t been busy and didn’t mind watching Avaya. The meeting had dragged on for a painful two and a half hours.

“That’s fine,” Zak answered from the living room.

I shuffled in there with a hand on my forehead. “No, it’s really not. I—”

I stopped dead in my tracks. The scene I walked in on made me want to laugh until my guts hurt and it confused me at the same time. I had to blink a few times to make sure what I was seeing was real, but when it didn’t melt away in front of me I could rule out hallucinations. Zak was playing Twister with Avaya.

“We’re playing Twister, mommy!” Avaya shouted from somewhere behind Zak’s leg.

“I can see that…” I chuckled, giving Zak an odd stare.

He tried to shrug, but given the pretzel-like shape he was in it proved difficult. “She wanted to play it, so I said yes.”

“Uh-huh, and how long have you been playing it now?” I smirked.

“Oh, about forty-five minutes and counting.” He sighed.

“I guessed as much.” I laughed.

“Come play with us, mommy!” Avaya beckoned, pushing Zak onto his side. He made a heavy “oomph” noise and then rolled over to look at me.

“Yeah, mommy, come play,” He winked.

I rolled my eyes but kicked off my heels and walked over anyway. “Fine, but just one game and then it’s bedtime, missy.” I pointed at Avaya.

She nodded and spun the dial. “Left foot red,” she said, pointing at me.

“Hm,” I stomped my foot defiantly onto a red circle, poking Zak in the chest with a finger. “Prepare to get beat at Twister by a 5 year old girl and her mommy.”

“She’s been beating me all night,” he said lowly. “But now I have something to play for.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“If I win, you and I are playing naked Twister when she goes to bed.” He wiggled his eyebrows and kissed my cheek before taking his directed position on the mat.

“Ha! Don’t get your hopes up.”

We managed to contort ourselves into quite the fine human knot near the end of the game. I was half on top of him with a leg underneath him and he had an arm slung across my waist, pinning me to his front. I was quite certain we wouldn’t be able to make any more moves pretty soon. Nevertheless he kissed me as we tried to hold our tangled bodies up.

Avaya yawned before speaking. “Mommy…left hand yellow,” she said.

I reached for the yellow spot and faltered, laying splayed over Zak on the floor.

“Oh no, I lost,” I said. “Now it’s time for a certain tired little girl to get into bed.”

Avaya yawned, her tiny jaw stretching to its limits. She rubbed her eyes with the sides of her fists and nodded, dropping the colour wheel by the mat.

“Okay,” she said. She trudged off to get into her pyjamas and that was that. I didn’t have to force her to her bedroom or try to calm her down or anything. Needless to say I was shocked.

“What did you do to her?” I asked Zak, who was still laying nearby.

He shrugged against the mat. “We played a lot of games. I guess I wore her out.”

“I guess so,” I sat up and fixed my hair a little. “I better go read her a story and tuck her in.”

Before I could stand up I felt his arms around my waist and his breath down my neck as he whispered seductively in my ear:

“Come straight back to me so I can wear you out, too.”

I bit the inside of my cheek and smiled, pulling out of his hold to travel down the hallway to Av’s room. I was fully prepared for our nightly ritual, but when I walked inside she was already passed out on her bed with the covers up to her knees and her hand slung over the side of the bed, her fingers outstretched towards a book that lay open on the ground. I smiled at my little angel and pulled the blankets up to her shoulders, put the book back, and kissed her head. She was very precious to me and it was moments like this that reminded me just how much of my heart she consumed.

I turned off her light and shut her door, walking back out to the living room. Zak was just putting the lid on the Twister box. I leaned against the wall and grinned at him.

“I guess I should pay you and send you on your way, huh?” I said.

He looked up at me and smiled. “I have a better idea,” He sauntered over to me, yanking me away from the wall and into him. I ran my fingers up his chest, all sorts of delicious thoughts racing through my head.

“Mm, what’s your idea?” I asked.

“How about I stay the night and you pay me with your company?” he proposed.

“Really? That’s it? No evil plans?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Well that depends on what you’re in the mood for,” He looked at me as innocently as possible although I knew his intentions were quite the opposite.

“Zachary Bagans are you trying to get me to sleep with you?”

“Only if you say yes,” he smirked, “otherwise I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“You probably do dream about it, sicko.” I laughed.

“Naw, I would never be so disrespectful towards a lady!” He exclaimed.

“What a weird kid you are,” I chuckled, kissing his jaw.

“Don’t say I’m a kid; I’m a man,” he argued.

“Oh, really? Well then show me.”

He kissed me, pressing me harder against his front. I smiled into the kiss and pulled him to my bedroom, beckoning him with a finger to be as quiet as possible. This kind of thing is hard when you have a five year old. Nevertheless, I pulled him into my room and shut the door behind us. He was quick to capture my lips again with his. I ran my fingers through his soft, hat-flattened h air, grinning once again as his hands roamed my sides. For a moment I couldn’t help but think about how odd it was that I wanted this so badly. I hadn’t been very inclined to it all day, but all it took was one look and some intense words from Zak and I wanted it just as badly as he did. After everything with Matt this kind of physical contact should’ve terrified me. There was a lot of trust that went into it, surprisingly. I had to trust him not to hurt me. I had to trust him to understand. For some strange reason, I did.

His blue eyes were looking down at me as his body pressed me into my bed and they were darkening; melting away and cutting holes into my skull. There was something very interesting about Zak’s presence. It was dominating and intimidating but at the same time it was very beautiful and calming. I’d quickly grown addicted to it. I’d cracked the shell of the man he pretended to be and found the beautiful centre and it was all mine. I liked that. I liked being able to call him mine. I would’ve never dreamed of it the day I met him, but I wouldn’t want it any other way now.

This time was so different from the last time. This time there was no uncertainty nipping at the back of my brain. This time I was perfectly okay with it; it felt almost natural. He moved above me, sending delicious waves of pleasure throughout my entire body from my toes to my skull. His own heavy breathing and occasional soft moans were desirable enough. As my fingers ran over the undulating muscles just beneath his skin I sensed that he was capable of a lot more in this kind of situation, but either he didn’t know that or he was just holding back for me. I had a feeling it was the latter. Maybe that was for the best right now, but someday I’d let him do whatever he wanted with me. The thought of it matched with his perfectly timed thrusts sent every nerve in my body into a sexual frenzy.

I felt his teeth sinking into the skin on my shoulder and surprisingly I moaned. I never liked that, the whole biting thing. But for some reason it felt different with Zak, just like a lot of things did.

I always think it’s funny how different people act before, during, and after sex. For example, during sex Zak was this intense presence who commanded every movement our bodies made and every feeling that shot through my body. He even used his teeth. But after sex I got to see my Zak again in the greatest way possible. He held me close and kissed my hair, enveloping me with his arms. He’d draw patterns on my sensitive skin and all-in-all he made me feel the most loved I’d felt in my entire life.

My head—which still felt up in the clouds—was on his chest. My fingers were busying themselves at his skull necklace, digging into the black eyeholes and tracing the toothy grin. We were silent for awhile. We simply focused on catching our breath and calming down. But my head was alive with thoughts and the more I regained my focus the more thoughts there were. I couldn’t keep them locked up and buzzing around my skull forever.

“You scare me,” I whispered.

I felt the movements of his head twitching and imagined he was probably tilting it to the side. “Why are you scared of me?” he asked in a throaty voice.

“I’m not scared of you, per se, I’m more scared of…well, I’m scared of how you make me feel.” I sighed.

“Okay, now I’m confused. Speak English, girl.” He chuckled.

I looked into the dark eyes of his necklace and smiled a little. “Before everything I wouldn’t have dreamed of getting this personal with you; I would’ve been too afraid. But something about you changes that in me and suddenly I find myself wanting nothing but you for as long as I can have you. I guess after going so long being terrified of relationships it’s just a little disconcerting for me to feel this way so fast.”

He was silent for a moment, mulling it over before he finally spoke. “What do you think that means?” he asked.

I turned my head to look up at him. “It means I’m weird, I think.”

He chuckled. “No, no. What if it means, like…I don’t know; what if it means we were meant to be together?”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Like…soul mates?”

“Sort of. Maybe our meeting in that library was written in the stars.” He winked and I pushed on his chest.

“Zaa-aak! I’m serious!”

“I know you are, sweetie. Honestly, if we’re speaking in those terms, you scare me too.”

I knew what he was talking about so I didn’t bother asking why. He’d already told me that he’d never come out of his shell for any girl before. He’d always pretended to be someone he never really was until I came around. Instead of making him explain it again I just reached up to kiss him deeply. I didn’t want to scare him anymore, but at the same time I think the fact that we scared one another was a good thing. It made us dare one another unintentionally and in doing so I found that I just fell deeper and deeper for him. Wow, what a scary term, “falling for him.” I guess it was true. I was indeed falling for Zak and I didn’t know when I’d land or if it’d be a soft landing. That was what I was afraid of.

I looked up at him, my eyes following the contours of his chiselled chest and jaw in the dim lighting. I watched his eyelashes twitch as he blinked; knowing a thousand thoughts were racing just behind his eyes. I wondered if I looked deep enough into them if I’d be able to see what they were. I doubted it.

“You know soul mate means forever, right?” I asked after awhile.

He paused for a minute before nodding. “Yeah, I know that.”

“But you were just joking about it,”

“Maybe I wasn’t just joking.”

“Zak…that’s a pretty serious thing to say then,”

“I know.”

“You’re not cringing at the idea?”

“No, I’m not, because I have you to look forward to in my future.”

I chuckled a little, settling back down on his chest. “You’re scaring me again.”

“Good,” he said, “I want to scare you everyday.”

I smiled against his bare skin and my eyes began to flutter closed. I’m not sure how much time passed between words but I began to drift within the thin barrier between consciousness and sleep. The heavy pressure was weighing on my head and relaxing me until his voice snapped me awake for one last instant.

“You know how they say home is where the heart is?” he asked idly.

“Mhm,” I murmured.

“I guess that means you’re my home.”

As I returned to the arms of unconsciousness the meaning of his sentence really sunk in. Let’s just say I fell asleep with a smile and I woke up with it still on the next morning.