CHAPTER 41
LUCKY
The first thing we did was switch rooms.
Taking every precaution necessary, the Gods insisted I do things they’d not done before. First, I had to give up my phone, because according to them, it could easily be hacked to find my exact location. Then, they insisted we switch to an entirely different hotel — Caesar’s Palace, next door. They registered me under a fake name, one I’d never used before and that Nicholai would have no way of knowing. Then, they insisted I travel surrounded with a group of them every where I went.
Once we’d checked in to the new hotel and gotten settled, I locked myself in the penthouse bedroom, and fell into bed with Ziggy and slept like a baby, the rest of the Gods standing guard throughout the rest of the suite. The most privacy I could expect from here on out would be found in a locked bedroom, with them just outside the door listening for any sound or reason to bust the door down.
It didn’t matter. I was way too exhausted at that point to have that sex-filled night that I’d anticipated anyway.
Yet, when I woke up the next morning, the sun streaming in over our tangled bodies, I realized it didn’t matter. The sex wasn’t what had made me feel so good, so free, so relaxed.
It was just being with him.
He was still asleep, his blonde hair falling over his face, his arm thrown over my breasts possessively. He’d not taken his hands off me all night, always maintaining a point of contact. I snuggled into him, closing my eyes and willing the morning away.
I wasn’t ready for this day to start.
The events of last night haunted my thoughts, and the anxiety I felt at what was to come tonight made me want to crawl under the covers and never come out. I inhaled deeply, savoring the scent of Ziggy’s skin, rubbing my cheek over his chest and relishing in his warmth.
When he stirred slightly, I cleared my throat, hoping to wake him up. I’d missed losing myself in his kisses last night, I’d missed the feeling of his body sliding against mine as he took me in the darkness to a place that I longed to reside again and again. I desperately wanted him to wake up, to allow me the brief respite just one more delicious time, before we were forced to face the day together.
For just a little while, I wanted to pretend that everything was normal.
That a madman wasn’t hunting me like prey.
That all of this wasn’t temporary, that Ziggy wasn’t going to go away someday and leave me all alone again.
I pushed my breasts into him, wrapping my thighs around his and pressing my sex into him, willing him awake.
It worked. With a groan, he pulled me closer, his hardness growing immediately. I smiled, moaning in pleasure as his hungry lips found mine, his tongue searching deeply as he rolled me over onto my back, his huge frame hovering over me as he slid inside smoothly, his body performing all the magic it promised.
The thoughts fell away, leaving me panting and gasping and moaning until I was writhing under him with no regard for anything outside of this bed, outside of this man, outside of the warm light that he bathed me in every single time he smiled my way.
For the first time in a long, long time, my heart cracked open and let a little sliver of that light inside.