Belonging to Lust

“WHY!?” Heath spat out, unable to construct a lengthier response than that to what Zaiyia just told him. She was planning to assist Alan in getting back together with Alice!?

“Because Alice wants to be with Alan again too!” Zaiyia exclaimed, nearly matching his anger with her own growing frustration. They were about to get into a fight, and instead of being the one to try to mitigate everything boiling between them back down again, she was ready to stand up and speak in defense of her decision to help Alan. She was choosing to be the gasoline to his fire. “She’s just fucking scared to take matters into her own hands when it comes to a future with him, that’s all.”

Ditching his empty chocolate milkshake, Heath scoffed, not believing this. He couldn’t believe she was implanting herself this deep into those two dramas! Incapable of looking at her because of how irked he was, he glared at the cabinets across the island counter they were dining on instead. “What even makes you think those two need to be together anyway? That Alan is mature enough for Alice?”

Damnit, Zaiyia had to ponder on that, and only when she felt she had the answer did she convey it to a very heated Heath. “Look, this has nothing to do with getting Alan off my back even though I can go all day on how much that prick annoys the shit out of me. This also isn’t just about wanting to make my friend, Alice, happy again like she used to be when they were together. I’m helping Alan, because…I shockingly believe that he has finally learned his lesson and won’t ever make this same mistake twice again. I can’t keep lying to myself that Alan doesn’t care about Alice anymore. He does! Why go through all this effort to get her back when he’s handsome enough to nab any other girl from school?”

Heath’s glare deepened to a murderous level when it snapped towards Zaiyia, imaging her as one of those smitten teenage girls all wrapped up in Alan's arms.

“EXCEPT ME!” Zaiyia swiftly extinguished that thought, shuddering to herself. Never again will she entertain that nightmare! “It…It just doesn’t make sense to me that he’d waste all this time on getting back with Alice if that wasn’t the case, you know? If he didn’t want to make amends with her.”

Shaking his head in further disbelief at how naive she was being towards all this, Heath shook his head at Zaiyia before averting his gaze again. “Un-fucking-believable.”

Not appreciating this attitude of Heath’s, Zaiyia frowned at him as she demanded. “What’s you’re fucking problem, man?”

“My problem is you’re wasting your time worrying about those two!” Heath snapped, returning his glaring gaze back to her. “You need to let them figure out this mess they made. It’s their mess!”

“Heath, you know Alice isn’t the type to make the first move. The girl is petrified!” Zaiyia reminded him as she turned in her chair to face him. She was determined to argue her case until he saw reason. “That means Alan has to be the one to make the first move which fucking sucks because he’s too damn stupid to figure out how to do it properly. That’s why he needs help from a female, hence me.”

The two sat in silence. Zaiyia staring desperately at Heath waiting for him to tell her he understood now and accepted her decision. But he didn’t. He went back to stubbornly shaking his head at her and admitting. “I don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to.” Zaiyia whispered, disappointed that Heath wasn’t seeing her side of things. Her shoulders sagged as she turned her gaze from him too. “I’ll be the one handling it all. Not you.”

Picking up his empty milkshake, Heath tried to cram his mouth with the delicious frozen treat only to be reminded it was all gone. Grumbling under his breath, he got up to distract himself from saying anything hurtful by gathering up the discards of dinner and tossing it into the garbage can. When he came back to reclaim his seat, he repositioned the bar stool so it faced the solemn girl who was silently ignoring him and then took his seat, gazing down at her. “I don’t want you to get involved in this, Zai.”

Letting out a resounding sigh as she tilted her head back to glare up at the ceiling, Zaiyia then slid off her stool, turned it to face Heath too, before climbing back onto it. Her brown eyes were resolute as they glared at him. “Listen to m-”

“No, you listen to me!” Heath cut in, reaching out with one hand to cup the side of her petal soft cheek in his large rough hand. With his other, he set it on the top of her left satiny thigh, his fingers curving over the top of it. “Alice needs to be only focused on her family right now. Not some idiot that broke her heart in the past and might do so again for all we know.”

Damnit.

“I-I guess I can see your point there.” Zaiyia admitted sheepishly with a shrug, her brown eyes lowering to her lap where his large hand encompassed her whole thigh. Her cheeks flushed with heat when she felt Heath’s thumb stroking up and down her cheekbone. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I just…”

“You just what?” Heath tenderly pushed her onward, the corner of his mouth turning up in a light smile. His Zaiyia was always trying to be Superwoman when it came to the people she cared about. It’s one of things he loved about her. But she was too young to be donning a cape and running to the rescue at her age. He should be the one bettering the world around them for her, not the other way around.

“It’s nothing.” Zaiyia dismissed with a shake of her head and a reassuring smile. She looked up at Heath once again being reminded of how wonderful he was. He was kinda listening to her now these days, something she wished he’d done earlier in their past talks, but hey beggars can’t be choosers. Anything she were to say now, he wouldn't judge her hatefully for it no matter how absurd it was to him. Despite that she still couldn’t tell him the rest. Like how she was 100% positive that Alan would make Alice’s present life better if he were back in it. Heath would likely disagree with that idea, and so she decided to keep it to herself. “It’s just the hopeless romantic in me messing with my head.”

“Try not to let it.” Heath chuckled with a sexy smile, running his hand along the side of her head, his palm gliding down her tight braids. “You have too many things you need to be focused on anyway to be thinking of your friend’s relationship drama and things like that.”

Mentally pausing their current conversation, Zaiyia tried to think of what he could be referring to. Her school work was always complete on time, her grades were continuously up, her chores completed to Heath’s standard…so what else was she supposed to be focusing on exactly?

Brows furrowed in confusion, Zaiyia asked him. “Okaaaay, what are you talking about?”

Not planning to tell her, Heath merely gave her another sexy smirk followed by a wink before rising from his tall stool chair. Rounding it, he headed straight for the living room.

Still confused, Zaiyia got up to follow Heath, expecting him to show her. She finally got her answer when the large man helped himself to lying down onto her couch. She crossed her arms over her chest as he found her remote and turned her TV on. “Oh, is this what you mean by focusing on too many things?”

Heath’s lustful green eyes took their time drifting over her body from the tips of her bare toes to the top of her head. They ended their journey back down to her laughing eyes where they lingered. “Wanna watch a movie?”

Talk about Netflix and chill time.

Laughing, Zaiyia shook her head in merriment at him. “Oh puh-lease!”

“What?” Heath laughed back, unable to wipe the grin off of his face as his body waited in anticipation to press hers down into the couch.

“Do you have any idea how long we’ll be watching this supposed ‘movie’ before someone starts yanking off somebody’s clothes?” Zaiyia questioned him, arching a brow in wait for his answer.

“Forever at this rate.” Heath calculated, beckoning her over with a hand. “So get on over here so we can figure out the math part together.”

“You horny bastard!” Zaiyia giggled at him before submitting to his wish, more than willing to do so. Placing her delicate hand into his much larger and rougher outstretched one, she allowed him to guide her down onto the couch. Stretching out along the open space directly in front of him, Zaiyia turned her body to face the TV. She bit back a grin when she felt him turn his body as well to spoon the back of hers.

“Now, to find a movie.” Heath whispered in her ear before pressing a kiss to the side of her head. A smile stretched across his face when his green eyes spotted her own. Snuggling down behind her, he reached for the remote again and began his quest to find a film for them to ‘watch’ together.