TWENTY-SIX
Zeus
“Hey, babe.” I tread lightly into the living room, aware Belle has probably been out of bed for hours.
I literally fell in the door sometime around two, and then crashed soon after. I don’t remember getting into bed, let alone undressed, which makes me wonder how much she had to do for me.
“Morning.” Her back is turned as she folds washing; the fresh cup of coffee she has on the side table smells like heaven.
“I wasn’t too much of a jackass, was I?” I bypass her, opting to play it safe until I’m sure I’m not in the dog box, and head for the kitchen instead.
“You need to say thanks to Mike when you talk to him next.”
“Yeah?” I pull a mug from the cupboard.
“Mm. Without his help you’d still be asleep on the floor out here.”
Fuck. No wonder my head hurts. “Sorry, dove.”
“Pfft.” Her footsteps tell me she’s taking the washing through to our room, her voice distant as she calls out, “Not as though you’ll make a habit of it, is it?”
She’s too nice. Women are never this nice when you come home mega-late and damn near comatose. I make my coffee and then wait for her return, arse against the counter as I sip the brew. Fuck, that’s better.
“What?” She frowns as she catches sight of me eyeballing her.
“Why are you so nice about it all?”
Belle shrugs, eyes dead. “Not as though I have anything to be worried about, right?”
This isn’t good.
“Not as though you shared a bed with anyone else.” She looks away to retrieve the empty wash basket.
I set my coffee down and cross the room to where she stands with a frown. “Put that down.”
The basket hits the couch with a bounce, sliding to the floor. Her face is a storm as she stares me down.
“Tell me right this fucking second what that comment meant.”
She turns away and takes a step before I catch her arm. Belle’s harsh gaze connects with mine. “Let me go, and I’ll show you.”
I let her go with a growl, still mad as hell when she returns a minute later with her phone. Her fingertip makes angry smacks on the screen before she shoves it at me.
What the ever loving fuck? “Who sent that to you?”
“Who do you think?”
“Jesus, dove.”
She snatches the phone from me, sending it to black before wringing her hands around it.
“So?”
“You think I fucking slept with the bitch?”
She pulls her head back, eyes wide. “You’re both in a bed, sleeping, so….”
“Come here.” I catch her shoulder before she can leave again, jerking her against me.
She resists, hands pressed against my bare chest. I don’t like it one fucking bit.
“That bed was Jodie’s.” Belle’s jaw sets hard, her eyes turned away. “That night, we had a party to celebrate her twenty-first. What you can’t see are the three people asleep in the spare room, or the five or more that were out in the lounge. What you can’t see is that Jodie took that photo after getting out of bed from between us.” I slide my hands to her face, using my thumbs to force Belle to look at me. “We shared a bed to sleep, that is all. I did the same thing with John on more than one occasion. It’s what friends do when they’re as close as we all were.”
“Is that all?”
“That’s all.”
She lets out a defeated sigh. “God, I’m sorry. I let her get to me, didn’t I?”
I can’t believe the bitch still has the picture, let alone would think to use it like that. “How long has she messaged you?”
“Only yesterday. Dad said she phoned after she saw us at the supermarket. She must have been stewing about the run in ever since.”
“Yeah. I might have said a few extra things to her when I got the milk.” My jaw hardens as I stare off over Belle’s head.
“What are you thinking?”
“That I need to pay your mother a fucking visit.”
“Zeus.” She pushes her hands into me. “No. Don’t go causing more trouble.”
“How can I? She’s doing that well enough on her own.” I’ve had enough of the woman making it her life’s mission to ruin Belle’s.
Belle pushes up on her toes to meet my kiss, her hands sliding to my shoulders. I savour the taste of her lips, the feel of her breath as it washes over my face when she pulls away.
“I told you I’d take care of you, and I fucking mean it.” I press my forehead to hers. “Don’t ever think shit like that again, you understand?”
“I understand.” Her hands blaze a path down my body, that plump bottom lip of hers pinched between her teeth as she hooks her thumbs in the waistband of my sweatpants.
“Don’t go thinking you can fuck the angry out of me,” I grumble. “I’m still going around there to give her hell.”
“Might be fun to try though, don’t you think?”
I let her know I’m not totally sure that’s such a good idea with a grumble as she jerks my sweatpants off my hips. “You know I don’t like being too rough with you.”
“But I do.” She lifts an eyebrow in challenge as she drops to her haunches to help me step out of the pants.
I’m naked as the day I was born, and frustrated as hell that she isn’t when she rises before me once more. “Clothes off. Now.”
She tugs her shirt over her head, leaning forward to meet my kiss as she shimmies out of the sexy little shorts she has on. I work her bra, my tongue still tangled with hers, as she bends forward to kick the denim away.
“Tell me how angry it makes you,” she taunts, “when my mother upsets me like that.”
Fucking hell. “You don’t want to wind me up right now, dove.”
“But I do.” She straightens to shake the bra straps from her arms. “I want to know what it does to you when she makes me sick with worry.”
This girl…. “Makes me want to wring her fucking neck.” My body feels charged, as though I’ll tear apart if I don’t find an outlet for the unexpended energy.
Belle smiles, damn well knowing she has me where she wants me as she backs toward the bedroom.
Fuck that. It might only be twenty metres away, but it’s twenty metres too far. I grab a hold of her with a growl, lifting her clean off the floor as I turn us toward the kitchen.
She gasps as her bare butt hits the cool counter, bracing herself on flat palms. “Fuck, babe.”
“Told you that you don’t want to get me angry.”
“But it’s so fucking hot when you are.”
I smirk as I jerk her arse forward to the front of the counter. “That so?”
“So possessive….” She loops her arms around my shoulders and then leans back, exposing her throat to me. “So alpha.”
She’s about to find out just how alpha I can be.
I duck out of her arms, dropping to my haunches as I push her legs wide. She watches me with hungry eyes, a small smile pulling at her lips as I run my thumbs up either side of her pussy.
“You get why I’m like that, don’t you?”
She fails to answer when I drag my tongue the length of her in one hard swipe.
“It’s because I lost you once.”
Her hands press my head to her harder as I lick again.
“Because I’m never losing you again.”
She mewls when I add a finger to the mix.
“You’re my girl, dove. Mine to love.”
“Fuck, Zeus.”
“Mine to care for.”
She throws her head back as I spear her with two fingers, pulling them free only to taste her.
“Mine to protect.”
Belle’s back hits the counter, her climax near. I push to full height and enter her before she loses the feeling, burying myself deep as I pull her tight against my hips. She cries out, hands grappling to reach me as I make her understand how fucking serious I am.
“Mine forever.”