Belonging to Lust

After the conversation with Principal Quinn, Heath had followed Zaiyia down a twist of hallways in silence. He studied her tensed slender form with pity, but admired the way she held her head high with the remaining strength she had left that hadn’t been broken by the group of girls that jumped her earlier that day, or even the security guards that abused their power on her. Zaiyia was a strong woman, just like her mother, Heath told himself, pride blooming in his heart for the young girl. He was beginning to think that Zaiyia would pull through after her hostile encounter, when she suddenly turned to lash out on a specific locker that had been spray painted in blue. She punched and slapped her hands against the cold hard metal while letting out angry cries of pent up frustration and need for vengeance.

Heath didn’t hesitate to stop her from adding even more damage to that what had already been done to her body. He reached out to grab onto both of her upper arms and then pulled her delicate body up against his much firmer one. “Hey! Enough! Stop it right now. Listen to me, Zaiyia!” He towered over her, and so it was much easier for him to rest his chin onto the top of her head as his thumbs caressed the back of arms to help calm her down. “Stop it, okay? You’re only going to hurt yourself more if you do that, honey. Shh, come here. No, it’s okay, come here.”

Heath turned a silent, but fuming Zaiyia around so that she could wrap her arms around him as tightly as she could. He held her close to his chest as he felt her body began to shake against his. He knew what was going to happen before she did, and was right there to catch her when her legs buckled underneath her, and her heartbroken sobs began to echo down the empty hallway. Leaning down to press slow comforting kisses against her head that were also filled with his own personal pain at seeing her so broken, he hated the fact that he couldn’t take care of the people that did this to her, not without being convicted of six counts of first-degree murder. “Its okay, let it all out right here and right now. No one is going to bother us, I promise.”

Zaiyia dug her nails into the material of his plaid shirt as she clung to him with the kind of vulnerable desperation that would have embarrassed her if she hadn’t been so emotional at the moment. She couldn’t believe that she was so pissed off it brought her to tears. She hadn’t cried like this since she was a little girl that was struggling to accept her mother’s constant abandonment without shedding a tear over it. But now that she was here, and this particular hallway was empty, she allowed her sadness and anger to flow right out of her and onto the linoleum flood. Zaiyia didn’t wish to stand there crying any longer than she had to, so she tried to make it a quick moment of weakness, before she had to pull herself back together again.

Heath didn’t mind the time it would take for her to cry it all out, he just hoped that it would help ease some of her pain by the time she was finished. As he pressed one last kiss to her thick black braids, his eyes connected with the blue spray painted locker over her head that had the word ‘WHORE’ in bold letters spelled down it. Heath’s brow furrowed in suspicious, before the pieces fell into place for him. He had to fight the urge not to tighten his grip on the the beautiful young woman in his arm out of rage. “Zaiyia…please tell me I’m not looking at your locker spray painted with the word ‘whore’ on it.”

Zaiyia had finally gotten herself back emotionally under control, but she knew she still wouldn’t be able to form a proper sentence with the current lump in her throat taking it’s sweet time shrinking away. She could only manage to give him a confirming nod when she felt his broad chest tense up beneath her cheek.

“Those goddamn fucking bitches.” Seth cursed beneath his breath in a blackened rage that had him stepping back from Zaiyia and swooping her up into his buff protective arms. The young girl opened her mouth to object to being carried when the murderous look in his eyes clamped her mouth completely shut. She let him take her out of the building, and down to his car where he somehow found the tenderness within himself to help her inside. They both drove off down the road and far away from the scene of the crime.

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Zaiyia managed to talk Heath out of taking her to the doctor’s office, much to his disappointment, and instead they had driven straight home. The moment Heath had turned the car off, Zaiyia was already opening her door with the only goal of running back to the safety of her guest house on her mind. Heath followed her inside in his own moody silence, until he wondered off to grab a first aid kit in his bedroom, before meeting back up with her up in her room.

Zaiyia was sitting on her bed with her back to her headboard staring at a random spot on her floor. She was trying to hold back her tears until she was sure that Heath was going to leave her alone for the rest of the day so that he wouldn’t see them. When she heard his familiar knock on the wall next to her stairs, she couldn’t bring herself to look up at him and let him see that she was in need of another cry again.

She was in a place now where she felt like she had already caused Heath so much trouble what with what happened today, and that the last thing she needed to do was ask more of him, mainly his forgiveness, when he had already given her so much. Zaiyia couldn’t believe that this fight had finally taken place, that those girls finally physically attacked her. It’s not as if she was mad that it happened. Hell, she wouldn’t have mind getting jumped by them if it hadn’t been done during school hours. Why couldn’t they have wait later, like after school or something, maybe then she could have gotten away with whooping their butts without the Principal or anyone else getting involved and calling Heath on her.

What exactly was Heath planning to do to her now? Kick her out? She did in fact break his rules about getting into fights, and bringing teenage drama into his life that he asked her not to do, which means she had no other option, but to leave her new home. Zaiyia couldn’t bear the thought of him rejecting her, and throwing her out of his beautiful peaceful world. Deep inside her chest she could feel her heart ache with an intensity that only helped to increase the amount of unshed tears.

Not receiving anything but silence from Zaiyia, Heath walked towards her and took a seat in front of her on her bed. It was difficult to look at her wounds without feeling the need to want to break something or someone for it, but he knew he would eventually take it out on the punching bag hanging up in his garage. With a sigh, he flipped open the first aid kit. Zaiya didn’t try to interfere with what he was doing, and allowed him to tend to her wounds in silence. She avoided looking at him after she peeked at him and saw the most malicious fury she had ever seen on a person’s face before. Heath didn’t notice that she was averting her eyes from his out of fear, because he was so focused on her wounds and keeping himself from exploding into a violent rampage right in front of her.

Every now and again, Zaiyia would let out a tiny wince, and each time Heath would let out an apology that became more and more strained every time he repeated it. After a few minutes, he was done, and had just closed the first aid kit when his eyes began to wander over his work. His heart had already fallen in his stomach long ago the moment he walked in that gymnasium and saw Zaiyia sitting by herself handcuffed to a chair, but that ache had yet to ease itself with time, and had only gotten stronger. Heath was seething in his rage because he couldn’t snap every one of those young girl’s neck like he wanted to for what they did to his poor Zaiyia, but that was reality of it, and he could do nothing but accept it. Right now, he could only be there for her. Softly, he called her name to direct her attention to him. “Zaiyia.”

Zaiya shivered at the erotic sound of her name on his lips, but she continued to ignore him in hopes of stalling the inevitable scene where he kicked her off of his property. She didn’t want to leave this house, his life, or his side. She already loved this place so much, it hurt just to think she’ll end up losing it in the end for what she’d done. Zaiyia had had so many homes in her short young life, yet this place was one of the top few on the list that have touched her deeply, and had genuinely became a home to her…and now she was forced to give all that up for defending herself against a group of mindless idiot. Her unshed tears could no longer keep themselves from falling over her waterline, and slowly they began to trail down her cheeks.

Heath saw the tears, and felt his heart lurch in his chest for her. Reaching over, he captured the drop on his thumb and lightly swiped it away before cupping her cheek in his hand. He leaned over to say her name in a sterner tone voice that he hoped would bring her brown eyes to look at him again. “Zaiyia, look at me.” Zaiyia swallowed the lump in her throat, and then let out a shaky sigh before raising her eyes to his. Heath looked her over for a minute, before continuing on with what he was going to say. “I need you to pay attention, and listen to me closely. If something like this ever happens again-”

“Yeah I know, tell a teacher. Trust me, I’ve been told that many times before.” Zaiyia muttered, rolling her eyes at that ridiculous useless repetitive advice. What would telling a teacher even do for her? Once school was over it was all fair game, anyway. If she had informed a teacher then, yeah maybe she wouldn’t have gotten jumped in the girl’s locker room, but that wouldn’t have stopped them from following her home after school and jumping her along the way. But considering what had happened to her today, Zaiyia now wished she had gone to a teacher, if she had, she could’ve beaten all their asses outside of school without any interruptions.

Heath shook his head in disapproval. “No Zaiyia, that’s not what I was going to say. I was going to tell you that if that ever happens again I want you to fuck those girls up for me.”

Zaiyia’s eyes widened in shock as her jaw dropped down onto her lap. Did she hear Heath correctly? He wanted her to fight back, AND win the next time?

Heath couldn’t help but smirk at the sudden surprise on Zaiyia’s face as he carelessly shrugged. “I think we both can agree that you’ve been wanting to since they first started picking on you, right? I mean, you are Yovela’s daughter, after all.”

She still couldn’t believe he said that, but she laughed anyway in pure amazement. “Yeah, I-I mean I am her daughter, and I have been wanting to do just that.” Zaiyia began to look him over, just in case it would still be the last time. She had still broken his rule, which only meant one thing as far as he was concerned. Looking down at her lap, Zaiyia fiddled with her fingers anxiously. “Look Heath, I’m so sorry about all this. You have no idea how bad I feel about everything that has happened today. I don’t really know what else I can say about it that’ll make everything better again, other than I’m sorry.”

Heath was puzzled by her apologetic speech. “Wait, what are you apologizing to me for, exactly?”