Belonging to Lust

Heath got his portable fireplace started in his backyard to cook up some s’mores with Zaiyia. He had just placed down two comfortable patio chairs when Zaiyia had walked out of the guesthouse to join him with an armful of ingredients. Heath looked up and smiled at the familiar items cradled in her arms. “I take it you’ve made s’mores before?”

Zaiyia shook her head, but she flashed him a beautiful smile anyway. Heath found her smile just as beautiful as the rest of her. But when he remembered that she had denied knowing how to make s’mores, and he found himself staring at her in disbelief because she had picked out all the right ingredients from her small kitchen. “What? You’ve never made one? No, I don’t believe that. You just came out of the house with all the ingredients. How can you say you’ve never made one?” Heath pointed out as he took a seat by the small crackling fire.

Zaiyia sat next to him. “No, I meant I know the ingredients on how to make them, not that I’ve ever actually made one myself before.”

Heath nodded in understanding. “Oh, I get it now. Well I guess I’ll just have to show you how make one then, just in case you want to in the future.”

Zaiyia allowed him to teach her the ways of s’mores making. He toasted up a marshmallow in the fire before placing it on a thin piece of chocolate bar that sat on top of a graham cracker. He then finished it off by topping the sandwich with another graham cracker and mushing it all down together so that the marshmallow’s insides could spill out and melt the chocolate better. Reaching out, Heath handed her the small sandwich for her to sample while he licked his fingers clean of chocolate and marshmallow. “Be careful, it might be hot.”

Zaiyia nodded before carefully taking a bite of the delicious treat, and then letting out a moan in delight. “Oh wow, that’s amazingly good! Thank you, I freaking love it.”

Heath smiled with pride. “You’re welcome. Here, how about you try and make one for me, okay? I should also warn you that I have refined taste when it come to my food so don’t beat yourself up if I’m displeased with your offer.”

Zaiyia rolled her eyes at him, which made him laugh, before giving it a go. She had almost made it perfect except that she left his marshmallow on the fire for too long and caused the melted insides to come gushing out of one end of the sandwich cracker, almost burning her delicate fingers. “Oh shit, my bad.”

Heath chuckled before carefully taking it from her hands, and making sure to avoid burning either of them, before taking a bite of the treat. After swallowing a mouthful, he gave her a nod and the thumbs up sign. “Still tastes pretty good to me. Thank you for making it for me, Zaiyia. It’s perfect.”

Zaiyia felt a so much joy from his compliment that she wanted to jump up from her seat and do a pirouette…not that she knew how. She was already confident about her cooking skills but she felt truly honored to have been given praise by her oh-so-attractive Heath. As they continued to eat their s’mores, Zaiyia eyes occasionally glanced over to the house where she remembered Heath’s little brother had been eating his dinner earlier that evening. “Where did your little brother go off to?”

Heath rolled his eyes at the mention of Maverick, and licked the melted chocolate off his fingers again. “That little asshole is mostly likely passed out in my room again.”

Zaiyia frowned at him as she too licked the chocolate off her fingers. “Oh, then where are you going to sleep tonight? On your couch in the living room?”

Heath shook his head. “No, that couch isn’t big enough to stretch your legs out on comfortably. I got to get a new one for situations like this. Usually, with my brother taking over my room and all, I would come out to the guest house and sleep there for the night, but now that you’re staying there…”

Zaiyia caught onto his hint. Now that she was sleeping the same place he used to sleep in before when his bed wasn’t available for his use, he had nowhere to go Feeling bad, Zaiyia tried to think of way to rectify the situation. “If you want, I can sleep on the couch downstairs and you can sleep in my bed tonight.”

Heath dismissed her idea with a wave of his hand. “No no I’m not taking your bed. I’ll sleep downstairs on the couch in the guest house instead, it’s comfier than the one back in the main house.”

“Are you sure?” Zaiyia asked.

Heath nodded. “Yeah I’m sure. Besides, I don’t trust that my drunken brother won’t find his way out here and get into the guest house.”

Zaiyia’s eyes widen in horror. Would Maverick dare? “Wait, are you insinuating…is Maverick really that kind of person? Would he really come up into my room and….”

Heath gave her a steely look. “The bastard can try! When he’s drunk he can be a tiny bit forceful on women but not so much to the point where he’s too strong and fast to overcome. The boy turns into a damn worm when he’s drunk, he can’t sexually assault a mouse much less a woman.”

Zaiyia wasn’t too sure about Maverick and his drunken ways and so she leaned closer, and whispered in a low voice so no one eavesdropping could hear them. “Who did Maverick try to seduce?”

The normally serious Heath burst into a fit of rambunctious laughter, scaring Zaiyia. She was asking a serious question focused on the sexual assaults on women and he was laughing about it? As horrified as Zaiyia knew she should be by his amusement, she couldn’t help the twitching in the corner of her mouth pulling her lips into a smile. Before she knew it, she was laughing alongside him. She couldn’t help herself, Heath had an addictive kind of laughter. After hugging his aching abs for a while, Heath calmed himself down and wiped away his tears. “Okay okay okay, I’m going to tell you, BUT you cannot ever tell anyone I told you this. What I’m about to say WILL be carried to your grave, Zaiyia, so help me God!” Heath ordered her, failing miserably at trying to keep a serious face.

Zaiyia nodded eagerly and crossed her heart with her finger. “I swear to you, Heath Sullivan, I will take it to my grave.”

“Maverick must never know I told you this or he’ll drive my truck into the lake. Okay, one night, he came to my house completely wasted and started touching up on a house guest of mine that had come over to visit. This guest turned out to be Anneliese and she completely snapped on him and whopped his ass with her little purse. She didn’t even need me to tag in and hold him down for her. She was doing just fine by herself.” Heath burst out laughing again, and Zaiyia joined him. Because her seat was so close to his, she was able to lean on him during their laughter. Once they calmed themselves down a second time, she stayed leaning against his side.

“Heath, can you tell me more about your siblings?” Zaiyia asked him after a long moment of silence.

Heath looked into the crackling flames. “Uh yeah, sure. Maverick is technically the middle child and has always been the troublemaker in the family, but it became worse when our parents died. I tried my best to raise him to be a man but…a person can only do so much to a child without going to jail these days for child abuse. Anyway, Maverick always comes to me when his life goes to shit.”

Zaiyia wasn’t all that surprised. “What about Anneliese?”

Heath sighed and looked up at the night sky. “Nothing much to say about her. She’s married and has three kids. Oh and she visits me several times every week to check up on me, but you know that.”

“Oh I envy her. I hope to have kids of my own someday.” Zaiyia shared, smiling at the thought of her future daughter and what she would look like. Absentmindedly, she added a touch of Heath’s features into her imaginary child to see what they could create and she turned out to be beautiful.

Heath looked at her with a smile. “Oh you will someday. You’re gonna nab yourself the luckiest guy in the world and probably give him a house full of beautiful children.” Heath said in a dreamy voice as his stare turned in something more longingly than before. Zaiyia stared right back in the same dazed adoration as his eyes, before he cleared his throat and looked away. “When you’re older, of course, not right now when you haven’t even finished high school and gotten your life together yet.”

Zaiyia nodded obediently then glanced away too, before facing him again to give him an envious smile. “You know, Heath, you’re lucky to have them. Maverick and Anneliese, I mean.”

Heath laughed her statement off, and once again she found herself laughing too because of his irresistible laugh. She was being serious, despite the fact that she was laughing. Reaching over, Zaiyia placed a delicate hand onto his much bigger hand just so he could look into her eyes and see that she wasn’t joking. “No, I’m being serious right now. You’re lucky to have them.”

Heath stopped smiling as he looked into her brown orbs to see the flecks of gold hidden within, as well as something else. It took him a moment to realize that it was pain that was trying to hide behind the gold. Her pain. His heart went out to the poor girl. “I know honey, I know. I am lucky to have them.”

He pulled his hand away from hers, which Zaiyia knew to expect, but what she didn’t see coming was his hand descending down to envelope hers in the warmth and protectiveness of his hold. She looked back up into his eyes, and he to hers. They sat there for a while together, staring at each other while his thumb caressed the back of her hand gently.