Chapter 23

Zach

Moira’s given me the silent treatment almost the entire trip to North Carolina. I was waiting outside her room when Randall exited.

He gave me a smile and clapped me on the shoulder. “She’s a special woman, Zach. Tread carefully with her.”

I merely nodded at him in understanding, feeling pretty fucking low about myself. I breached Moira’s trust in me by revealing our secret, but I was so tired of hearing her fears. I knew Randall wouldn’t care and would even be happy about it. But I couldn’t get her to see that, so I took matters into my own hand. And I knew she was going to be pissed at me, but I did it anyway.

Randall’s words to me… to be careful with Moira… punch me in the gut, because the thought of hurting her shreds me from the inside out. I know I hurt her just now, and I know I’m going to hurt her when I leave.

But I have to return to Caraica. There is nothing for me here. Nothing except Moira, that is. But what is she going to do? Take care of me? Let me live with her in exchange for providing her orgasms? I have nothing to offer her. Nothing that I’m good at except hunting and raiding, which are skills that are absolutely useless here in this society.

I entered her bedroom to find a suitcase on the bed and her putting clothes in it. For a brief moment, I thought maybe she was still going through with her plan to quit but then, in a clipped voice, she said, “You should go get packed if you still want to go with me to visit Lisa.”

The grin that popped out on my face was spontaneous, so relieved I was that she wasn’t quitting her job.

Quitting me.

She glared at me in response.

“How long are you going to be mad at me?” I asked.

“I haven’t decided,” she sniffed, and my grin got bigger. I’d let her have her pique for now, but if she wasn’t talking to me by the time we went to bed tonight, I’d fucking demand that she forgive me. I figured I’d fuck her back into line if I had to, just so I can have her smile and laugh again.

I’ve tried several times to strike up a conversation with her during the ride, asking her more about Lisa and her family. Her words were short, but she wasn’t about to be totally rude to me. So she gave me some minimal information, but managed to still radiate angry vibes toward me.

My cock was hard half the time, thinking about getting into her pants so I could make her warm up to me again.

When she pulls into her sister’s driveway in Wilmington, in front of a cute beach cottage of gray shingles and white trim, I turn toward her. She shuts the car off and starts to grab for the door handle. My hand snakes out and I let my fingers slide along her jaw, where I grip it firmly. Turning her face toward me, I wait until I have her attention and say, “I’m sorry.”

She glares at me, so I pull her face toward me and slide my lips along hers. “I’m sorry,” I tell her again… sincerely.

Stiffness radiates off her, and I know I’m not forgiven just yet. I kiss her again and say once more, “I’m sorry.”

Pulling back, she looks at me with accusing eyes. “You could have ruined my career, Zach. You put this entire project in jeopardy.”

Anger surges through me because I’m tired of being considered her test subject. I know she certainly doesn’t feel that way when I’m lodged balls deep inside of her. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Moira. I don’t give a damn about your project, but I knew Randall wasn’t going to be mad and I was right, wasn’t I?”

“That’s beside the point,” she sputters, and I kiss her again to shut her up.

When I pull away, I clasp her face. “I’m not your pet project anymore. I don’t fucking need you to help me adjust because let’s face it… I’m doing just fine here. I’ve played by all your silly rules. I eat with my fucking utensils, and I don’t go around killing people on a whim. I understand your rules, and nothing about this world freaks me out. And I was tired of fucking hiding what we have. Do you know how much it kills me not to be able to touch you when I want, or to keep my eyes averted for fear someone might guess that we’re fucking each other? I was sick of it, and I’m glad I did it, and I’d do it again. So be pissed at me if you want, but I’m fucking the remaining bitterness out of you tonight.”

The anger finally seeps out of me as Moira stares at me with wide eyes over my rant. Her chest rises and falls in tune with my own.

“You don’t need me anymore?” she asks in a small voice.

Pulling her into my arms so her face is buried in the crook of my neck, I squeeze her and growl, “I do fucking need you. More than I want to admit. But not as an anthropologist. I need you the way a man needs a woman.”

“But you already have that,” she tells me. “I give that to you already.”

“Maybe I want more,” I tell her impulsively, because maybe it’s time to lay it all out on the line. Maybe it’s time to give a voice to these feelings I’ve been having.

“More?” she asks hesitantly as she pulls back to look at me, and it kills me to see the fantasy of a happily ever after in her eyes. Because I don’t see how I can give that to her, yet I know I’m not ready to let her go right now. I’m a selfish fuck.

Scrubbing a hand through my hair, I let out a breath and try to clear my mind. “Look… Paraila wanted me to commit to a year here before I considered going back. I know I haven’t exactly given in to that idea, but what if I did that? What if I just committed to a year here… with you… and we see what happens?”

Hope fills Moira’s eyes and I feel wonderful and wretched all at the same time, for offering her something I’m still deep down not sure I can fulfill. All I do know is that I don’t want her mad at me, and I want to be here with her right now with an absolute vengeance.

“Commit to a year here?” she asks.

“Yes. We can stay in Atlanta until you have to start back at Northwestern for the winter semester. We’ll move into my parents’ house because as much as I like and have come to respect Randall, I don’t like sponging off him. I’ll get a job. Then we can go back to Evanston when you have to start work. We’ll stay there until next summer, and I’ll decide what to do then.”

I know I’m hedging on that last statement because my mind hasn’t been changed. At least not as of this exact moment, because I still feel deep down in my heart that I need to return to Caraica. It’s my true home, and as much as I’ve come to care for Moira… as much as I think I’ve come to need her… my loyalties are still with Paraila and the tribe. The biggest part of my heart is still there.

Moira gives out a stuttering breath. Her voice is shaky when she says, “Okay. I think that’s a good plan.”

I smile at her then because, for now, this crisis has passed. “It’s a plan then.”

Moira surprises me when she grabs ahold of my face and kisses me deeply, plunging her tongue in, and I’m helpless to resist. I kiss her back, grateful to return to where we were… a mutual need for each other that we are both willing to satisfy by living in the here and now. I can do a year here. No problem. Not with Moira by my side.

Pulling her lips back slightly, Moira whispers, “I think I still might be a little pissed. I think you’ll definitely need to fuck that out of me tonight.”

I groan at the thought and wonder if I could just fuck her right here in the car, in broad daylight. My hand drops to the front of her jeans, and I work at her button. At the very least, I could probably get her off really quick.

Knock, knock, knock.

Moira springs away from me, whipping her head to the driver’s window, where a woman stands peering in at us. This is no doubt Lisa, as she has the same red hair and green eyes as Moira. She’s slightly older but they look remarkably alike, except Lisa is a little more rounded in the breasts and hips, probably from childbirth. I’ve noticed that happens to some of the Caraican women after they’ve had children.

Moira doesn’t spare me another glance, just pushes the driver’s door open and flies into her sister’s arms. I watch them hugging through the window for a moment, reach down to adjust my hard-on, and then get out of the car.

I turn to look at them over the roof of the car as they smile at one another.

Lisa shoots me a glance and then looks back to Moira. “Sorry to have interrupted your… um… whatever it was you were doing. But I’ve been hanging out at the window watching you since you pulled in, and I couldn’t stand not giving my baby sister a hug another moment longer.”

Moira laughs and pulls her sister back in for another squeeze before releasing her. I shut the car door and walk around the back. When I reach the sisters, Moira introduces us. “Lisa… this is Zach. And Zach, this is my sister Lisa.”

Lisa reaches a hand out, and I shake it. “It’s a pleasure, Zach. Moira’s told me a lot about you.”

She then turns back to Moira and punches her lightly in the arm. “But apparently not everything. That was some kiss I was watching.”

“Stuff it, Lisa,” Moira says with good nature, and then reaches her hand out to take mine. I don’t hesitate a second, linking our fingers together in what is our first public display of affection around someone we know. It feels… nice… not to have to hide my attraction to Moira.

“Well, come on in,” Lisa says as she turns toward the flight of stairs that lead up to the porch of her stilted cottage. “Adam should be home soon, and I’ve got some steaks to throw out on the grill. The kids are so excited to see you.”

Almost as if on cue, the front door bursts open and two red-haired children… a boy and a girl… come barreling down the steps screaming, “Aunt Moira.” Moira told me in the car that the little girl is eight and the boy is just six years old. I watch as she falls to her knees and opens her arms, then both kids are crashing in to her for hugs.

She wraps them in tight, pressing her nose into the little girl’s head, and I watch as she inhales their scent. A slight stirring in my chest occurs over the beauty I am watching. I never thought about Moira with children before, but she clearly loves her niece and nephew. I wonder what type of mother she would be, but I think I know the answer to that.

A twinge of yearning filters through me, knowing that isn’t something that would be possible for me to ever have with Moira. It’s not something I ever thought of before, quite frankly. In Caraica, sexual freedom abounds, and although women and men marry, and although the woman must submit to the man, there is no such thing as infidelity. Women are allowed to have sex outside of their marriage, just as men are allowed to do so. It’s done by mutual consent, and while sometimes jealousy can come in to play, for the most part, it’s an accepted custom. Even when a woman gets pregnant, if she’s taken more than one lover, the child is treated as a child of the tribe, not of the marriage, and everyone takes a hand in raising the baby. Well, that is, the women care for the baby and the men provide food and protection. Caraican men remain pretty removed from the kids, especially the little girls. They show a bit more interest in the boys once they are old enough to learn how to hunt and provide.

“Colleen… Samuel… I’d like to introduce you to my friend, Zach,” I hear Moira say. She stands from the ground and with a hand on each kid’s shoulders, faces them toward me.

“You’re the man that lived in the jungle,” Samuel says to me. Colleen keeps her shy eyes on the ground.

“That’s right,” I tell him with a smile.

“Are there lions there?” he asks wide-eyed.

Laughing, I ruffle his hair, and Moira smiles at me. “No lions, but there are jaguars. And alligators and really big snakes.”

Samuel’s mouth purses into a little “o” of wonder. “What’s a jaguar?”

Moira laughs and takes both kids by the hand, leading them up the stairs. “We’ll pull one up on the computer and show you a picture. But let’s get inside.”

Glancing over her shoulder at me, she shocks me when she says, “Remember… still pissed here. Better do something about it tonight.”

Fuck… I had just gotten my hard-on under control and now it’s back again.

With three fingers lodged deep in Moira’s pussy, I latch onto her clit and suck extra hard. She breaks apart as easy as spun glass, shoving her fist in her mouth to muffle her cries with the knowledge that the kids are sleeping in the bedroom next door.

I circle my tongue around her lightly and pull my fingers out. Rising up on my knees, I take my cock and guide it in, slipping easily into her wetness with a soft groan.

Taking her ankles in my hand, I raise them up and place them on my shoulder, leaning forward to place my hands on the mattress just to the sides of her breasts. It pushes me in even deeper, and Moira makes a strangled sound.

“Still pissed at me?” I ask quietly as I pull back slowly and then sink back into her.

She shakes her head violently, squeezing her eyes shut.

“I don’t know,” I say dubiously while I slowly thrust my cock in and out of her. “I think you might be. In fact, I think you need to come one more time… just to get the anger out.”

“I can’t,” she moans as her eyes open to look at me. “You broke me just now.”

Chuckling, I keep pumping in and out of her, eying with pride the red tint to her neck from the massive orgasm she just had and the sheen in her eyes. Leaning to the side to support my weight on one hand, I grab her by the wrist and shove her own hand between her legs.

“Touch yourself,” I tell her. “Make yourself come again while I’m fucking you.”

She shakes her head again but I look down and see her fingers working at her wet flesh. I sigh in absolute pleasure as I watch her… feeling her tight pussy gripping me.

“That’s my sweet girl,” I praise her and thrust a little harder, thankful the little twin bed that we’re on, which belongs to Colleen, isn’t groaning the way I want to let loose.

I feel my orgasm start to bubble at the base of my spine even as Moira’s free hand blindly grabs at my bicep, digging her nails in deep.

“I’m coming again,” she whispers, and her hips buck as her back arches. She throws her head back baring that slender throat to me, and I lean all the way down, causing her body to practically fold in half so I can run my tongue along her skin. My balls contract for a splendid moment, and then I bite down on her throat as I start to come inside of Moira, feeling the spasms of her waning orgasm still rocketing through her pussy.

Even as my hips shallowly pump at her, trying to squeeze every last bit of pleasure I can, I lean up so Moira’s legs can fall limply back down to the mattress.

Then I collapse on top of her, my entire body feeling depleted of all its strength. I bury my face in her neck and pull her tight into my arms, my breath still ragged. My cock is still lodged inside of her, still semi-hard but flagging in repletion.

Turning to my side a bit, I pull Moira in closer as her own pants brush soft against my chest. The damn bed we’re in is so small, my legs hang off by a good foot and my ass is hanging precariously over the side.

“No way are we going to be able to fucking sleep in this bed together,” I grumble as I kiss her temple. “I’ll take the floor as soon as I’m able to move.”

“Let’s pull all the blankets onto the floor, and I’ll sleep down there with you.”

“No way… you should keep the soft bed.”

“I’d rather sleep next to you if it’s all the same,” she says in a miffed voice, which makes me smile.

Grabbing her by the back of her hair, I tug gently so her head arches back. When I can see her eyes, I ask, “Done being pissed at me?”

“Oh, yeah,” she says with a satisfied smile. “Totally over it.”

“That’s a shame,” I tell her softly as I bend in to nuzzle at her neck. “I wasn’t quite done with you yet.”

She giggles, and the sound is like lovely music swimming through my veins. “Oh, well… in that case, I’m sure I might still be just a little angry with you.”

“That’s my girl,” I murmur before taking her mouth with mine.