Genesis Lost - Books 1 - 6, page 74
The water came down in colors of green and blue, each stream lit by the small lightbulbs inside the shower head. I let the streams of water run down my body and cave in my aching body. A week ago, I thought escaping the Districts would set the world right again. Now it seemed things went from emergency-bad to slow-death-over-time.
The slam of the door ripped me out of my thoughts.
“What are you doing?” Rowan asked.
“What does it look like?”
Silence. That, and Rowan’s blurred outline swaying from left to right, as if he didn’t know what to do with his body. His hand raked through his hair not once, not twice, but three times in jerky movements.
“You’re not naked, right?”
“How do you usually shower? Besides, I can see you’re dressed so I’m pretty sure you can see I am not.”
“Right.” He turned around, adding a constant tok-tok-tok-tok of his foot pounding against the tiled floor to the sway of his body. “Uh… I need to take a dump.”
“Then you’ll have to wait.”
“It can’t wait, so you either get out, or I’ll just drop the bomb right here next to you.”
I turned the water off and ran my hands along my hair, squeezing as much water out as I could. The moment I stepped out, Rowan’s body squared itself up and his body tensed.
“Oh, come on,” I said, grabbed the towel from the bar beside me and walk up to him. “Don’t tell me you’re scared to see me naked.”
He began bouncing Rose on his arms. “Not scared. I just don’t care about seeing it again.”
The way he bounced Rose harder and harder gave away how nervous he was, giving me a feeling of power in my otherwise helpless situation.
I rubbed my hair between the ends of the towel, taking my time to dry them.
“You’re about done?” he asked.
“Just about.”
I took another step toward him and shook my head, each water drop clashing against his neck and cheeks, making his body twitch. If his eyes were open or closed I couldn’t tell, but I heard how each breath he took through his nose was deep and desperate. Did he try to take in my scent? Clean and naked, with subtle traces of chamomile soap left behind?
I leaned in closer to his shoulder and looked up at him, whispering, “Let me take her. I promise you’ll get her back.”
“You think I’m stupid?” His body twisted, but he stopped his movement mid-way and stiffened into solid rock. “I know you’ll make a run for it.”
“And where to?” I asked and let my hand glide over his shoulder, cupping Rose’s bouncing cheek. “You and I know there’s no place for me to run to. Please give me just that. A few minutes with my daughter. Please, I beg you!”
I let my hand slide back over his shoulder. A sensual moan escaped his lips, but he quickly drowned it with a scoff.
“Are you done?”
“Yeah.” I took a step back, anxiety, and hope squeezing my chest. “I’m done.”
He turned around. “Good, because there’s no —”
His words choked his throat. His eyes ping-ponged between my breasts, pussy, and eyes. “What the hell! I thought you draped the towel around you!”
“Am I making you feel uncomfortable?”
“Here.” He flung one hand across his eyes. With the other, he tossed Rose against me. “Take her and get out of here. And fucking put something on for fuck’s sake.”
“Alrighty.”
I left him standing there, arm pressed against his face like a six-year-old who thought girls are stupid. With Rose pressed against me, I strolled over into my makeshift bedroom, taking in the fresh scent of her clothes and rubbing my cheeks against the familiar softness of her hair.
She didn’t complain but rubbed her nose against my collarbone.
“Not yet,” I whispered. “You will get your nap soon enough, but first I need to tell you something.”
There was no time to lose, and I slipped back under the blanket of Autumn’s former bed and draped it across my chest. With the fabric tugged underneath my arms, I placed Rose tummy-down against me and rubbed circles across her back.
“I want you to know that I never wanted to send you away, but I had no choice. Whatever comes, I need you to know you’re the best thing in my life. I won’t love anyone more than I love you.”
My heart settled into a calm and reliable beat, and I continued stroking her back. I listened to her slowing breath. Felt how she dug her fingers into my skin.
If I wanted more of this, I had no choice but to find common ground with Rowan. Something dark overshadowed the moment. A thought. A question. How could we make this work? Him and I raising a child together, living here like lovers-gone-enemies-gone-roommates.
“Are you dressed?” came from behind the door, which stood slightly ajar.
“No. But I’m underneath the blanket if that helps.”
Rowan stepped inside, the hem of his shirt hanging half-an-inch above his belly button, and his muscles oozing out from the strained fabric.
“What the hell did you do with my shirts?” he asked, his shoulders curled up because those seams were bound to rip at the slightest movement. “I look like a fucking slice of head cheese.”
“Well, I… uh… you told me to wash them.”
“And how hot was the water?”
I gulped. “Rowan, it’s been —”
“Let me guess,” he said, stomped over and grabbed for Rose. “It’s been a while?”
Twelve
Rowan
Autumn and I were on our way home from yet another Clan meeting which had me drained and distressed. Men and women wouldn’t stop pestering me about why Darya was still here, if she would leave and why their chieftain would let a traitor live among them.
I took another silent step into the bleak evening, a strange tick worming through my left eyelid. My nerves lay bare from the constant bickering between us. She had burned almost every single meal she had prepared so far, and I slowly started to think she did it on purpose.
But what truly got to me was her running around the cabin in nothing but her bathrobe. Open in the front, of course, revealing my wife’s delicious tits and her beautiful waist. She definitely did that on purpose, fighting me with weapons I had no protection against.
“You’re quiet lately,” Autumn said, a few copper strands poking out from underneath her beanie.
“Got a lot on my mind.”
She fiddled with the zipper on her jacket. “I guess sending her someplace else isn’t an option?”
“I won’t separate a mother from her child. For that, I could have left her in the Districts.”
She gave a heavy sigh, which carried all the questions she didn’t dare ask. Should I give up on Rose? How do we avoid people to rebel against me? Can I keep them safe if things go south?
Autumn stopped and held on to my arm like an anchor. “Is it possible that you still love her?”
“What?”
A breath caught in my throat and sent out a string of stuttered coughs. Her question weighed me down as if she had poured lead on me, and my best guess was, the answer wouldn’t lift it.
“Hell no,” I blurted and put myself back into motion, pulling her behind me as her feet stumbled through the snow. “We’re through with each other.”
She let go of my arm and had trouble keeping up with me.
“I didn’t mean to upset you,” she said.
“I’m not upset. Why would I be upset? But I need to get back to Rose so I can tuck her in for the night.” I picked up speed and turned around once more. “Tell Max not to forget the sparring. He better be prepared, ‘cause I won’t go easy on him anymore.”
She gave me a wave and our ways parted. Autumn turned right to her husband and home. I turned left, expecting little more than havoc and mutually felt hate.
The moment I stepped inside and kicked the caked snow off my soles, a bitter sniff worked itself into my nostrils.
“Your dinner is on the stove,” came from the bedroom.
I sat on the chair, pulled my boots off, and placed them on the rack beside the door where my jackets hung. On the wood stove stood a skillet, the bacon in it crouched into a sad-looking fetal position, one side as black as the skillet itself.
She is doing this on purpose.
“This bacon is burned,” I shouted.
“It’s crispy,” came back.
I grabbed the cast-iron skillet, caring little about the hot handle. Neither did I care about Darya being in my bedroom. Or her shoving furniture around. One can burn many things, but the bacon was the last straw.
“Why on earth did it have to be the bacon? The bacon, Darya!” I held the abused piece of meat between my thumb and index finger, pointing the dead side right at her. “How can you burn it black in such a short… what the hell are you doing?”
A cramp shot through my lungs making me hold my breath, my eyes following what seemed like the worst idea of her life… right after leaving that was. Darya pushed my sister’s old bed right next to mine, nothing separating them but the crib in the middle which held Rose, fast asleep.
“I tried to be quiet.” She shoved my favorite sweater underneath one leg and silently pushed it across the dusty floor. “Where did you put the tools?”
Tools? What?
“Once she wakes up, I will take the other side of the crib off,” she continued. “That way, we both have access to her at night.”
“What exactly did you not understand about I don’t want you in my room?” I asked, standing there dumbfounded and with bacon grease running down my arm. “You can’t just rearrange the whole house without talking to me.”
“Why not?” She stopped the nesting for a moment and straightened herself, throwing me a look that had both anger and amusement dancing behind her eyelids. “I live here, and I can do whatever I want with our house. Or did you think I’ll just be good for the cooking?”
“Good for the cooking?” I glanced at the skillet. “Even my sister got a better bacon on the table.”
She came and grabbed the mistreated slice from my fingers, letting it disappear inside her mouth. “Too bad you didn’t like your meal.” Her lips suckled the grease off her fingers. “Considering you’ll have to do the wash-up.”
I let out a hearty laugh, left the room, and dumped the skillet in the sink. She followed closely behind me, the way she had parked her hands on her hips leaving no doubt she might yap any moment now.
“Wash up my ass,” I said, grabbing for a jacket and a beanie. “As it so happens, darling, I gotta take a dump. So how about you do that wash-up thing while I answer nature’s call.”
She shook her head. “Consult a doctor about your digestive system. Apparently, you’re full of shit.”
I punched my fists into the sleeves and pulled the zipper as high as I could. “Whatever. I should spank your ass for that comment.”
The moment I reached for the knob, Darya positioned herself in front of the door. “Where are you going?”
“Rose will need a six ounces bottle once she wakes up. Better make eight, just in case. The goats' milk is in the mini-fridge, and the vitamin drops are on the shelf with the mugs. Only three drops or she’ll get constipated. Think you can —”
“Of course I can,” she cut me off, her eyes furious. “But where are you going?”
“I told you I gotta take a dump.”
She pointed to the door behind me. “You have a perfectly fine toilet right there.”
“Yup.” I opened the door, the evening air smelling a lot like a blizzard. “But tonight I’d rather have the toilet seat freeze to my nuts than spending one more second underneath the same roof with you.”
She rammed her ass into the door which slammed back into the lock. “If it’s such a burden to you, how about you let me leave with Rose? Then I’ll be out of your way.”
With her arms outstretched, she blocked the way, her hundred-pounds-and-some-change body standing between here and a quiet place in the woods. There was only so much a man could take in one day, and we had crossed that line a week ago.
“Get out of my way,” my deep voice rumbled, “Or I swear I’ll wrap you up in that rug over there and personally carry you back into that deprivation room behind that fucking wall. And you better believe me.”
“Oh, I believe you,” she hissed, leaning her upper body slightly forward as if she got ready to jump at me with her claws. “Because you’re nothing but a brute. Who has no clue about the feelings of a woman. And who is too much of a jerk to sit down and actually reflect on why things happened the way they did.”
“Oh, so I’m a brute, huh?”
“The biggest one in this forest,” she screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice cracking.
Her fiery eyes sent a hot sensation deep into my core, driving out the coldness I had carried around for over a year. Yes. This was the Darya I remembered. And she was back. Right here in front of me, biting and licking her lower lip at the same time.
“And you’re a terrible cook!”
She stormed at me. “You take that back!”
I caught both her fists with my hands. She struggled against me for a few seconds, her heavy breath turning the air around us wet and sticky.
“I hate you,” the tone of her voice was strong, but still, her words came out as little more than a whisper.
What happened next caught me off guard. She dropped her fists by her sides with such force, the momentum pulled me against her warm body. We stumbled against the door with a wham.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked and took a step back, fighting a lot more against my will than her body.
She switched between trying to wiggle her hands free and throwing punches against my crotch, so I lifted her arms up and pushed them against the door.
“Oh, so you want to hit me, huh?” I asked.
Her body trembled from exhaustion, but she still went with her knees after my balls, kicking them up with whatever energy she had left.
“Fuck you, Rowan,” she said from a red face, her voice drowning in huffs and puffs. “Stop using my daughter to make yourself feel better about your shortcomings. I want my daughter back.”
For a short moment, I softened the grip on her wrists. Bad idea. She smacked her palm right in my face, making it clear I had underestimated just how much energy she had left.
She rammed through my side, but I wouldn’t let her get away like that. I let my hand dart after her ponytail, wrapped her long strands around my fist twice, and pulled her back.
“Ouch!”
Her hands fell onto her scalp, and her backside squirmed against my front, bringing a whole new something into the equation. The last thing I needed was someone else opinion on this hot mess, especially not when it came from my cock, who began jerking inside my pants.
I let go of her hair and let my hands glide down her body, holding her in a tight wrap which suffocated her punches. She let out a moan when I turned her around, and her beautiful green eyes immediately caught with mine.
Her skin glowed in a fine sheen of sweat, and the heat of her drained body crossed onto mine. The raw need to kiss her burned hotter than the reasons why I shouldn’t, and I couldn’t help but press my hips closer to hers.
This wasn’t a good idea. I eased my grip on her. Things were complicated enough already and sleeping with each other was the last thing we —
She had wiggled her arms free. My eyes squinted as if on reflex, expecting spit or a slap or a kick or anything. I expected it all, except for how she swung her arms around my neck.
Her kiss trembled my lips.
Shudders went up and down my spine unchecked, making me lower myself into her. She teased me with her tongue, pushing inside my mouth with a fiery kind of impatience.
I let my hand glide down her side and slip underneath her shirt, not even trying to hold back the moan when I cupped her breast. Kneading it between my fingers, I let one wiggle across her nipple until it met me hard and excited.
“Stop it,” she whispered, her words almost inaudible and lost to lips that wouldn’t part. She gave a defeated punch against my chest.
“No, you stop it.” I grabbed underneath her thighs, lifted her up against me and let my fingers stroke against the junction of her legs. Even through the fabric of her pants, I could tell she was hot and wet and ready for me.
I walked us toward the front door and squeezed her back against it, allowing me to open the buttons on my pants. My cock pointed straight out, and I placed him between her legs and rubbed myself along the fabric.
“Mmh,” she moaned and let her hand slide down.
She grabbed my cock and brought him up between us, letting her palm circle across his head while grinding her pussy against the hard shaft.
I let one of her legs slip and tugged her pants and panty down. A cracking sound came from the seam the moment I wrapped her legs around me again, but I didn’t care.
My cock throbbed against her wet hole. A place so familiar, it drove up my pulse and made my heart shudder away in my ears. Until it seemed to halt all pumping, letting the fog around my mind clear for a moment.
People called it the honeypot, but this wasn’t honey. No. I was dipping my cock in cold soup — everyone knew cold soup tasted like shit.
We shouldn’t do this.
We shouldn’t.
Her hand darted between us once more. She grabbed my cock and guided me inside her needy pussy. Fuuuck! I pumped inside of her, shaking my head with each thrust. This was wrong.
Darya
* * *
Rowan’s cock slid right inside my pussy, dripping wet after over a year without feeling my man inside me. His thrusts were quick, deep, and desperate as he fucked me against the door.
He gave a tug on my shirt and raised me higher, suckling on my breast, and caressing my hard nipple with the tip of his finger. Massive as he was, my walls cramped and convulsed, doing overtime to adjust and take him all in.
The next moment, he pushed us away from the door, turned and lowered me onto the rug in the center of the kitchen. I placed my soles onto the ground and lifted my pelvis, grinding myself against him. It didn’t last. His hips pounded me back down, his fingers digging deep inside my waist.
