Wasn’t it?
Zakai pulled me close, dipping his face to mine and using his hand to cup my chin. He tightened his fingers, tilting my head suddenly so that I let out a surprised gasp, his tongue probing my mouth roughly and causing my thoughts to flee. My body thrilled. This was the Zakai he only shared with me. “You want me, don’t you?” he grated. “Without the eyes on us? Without others watching?”
“Yes. Yes,” I moaned, beginning to climb down to the lush green grass. But Zakai moved over me so that I was forced to lean back on the thin strip of rock that made up the top of the wall. My heart leapt as my head turned toward the drop on the other side. Any small movement and I might roll right off and plummet to the hard-packed sand below.
Zakai pushed up the linen dress I wore and with a quick snap of his wrist, tore my underwear away. I let out a sound that was half gasp, but mostly moan as he went up on his knees on the wall, taking my ankles in his hands and bringing them to his shoulders. I teetered slightly, using each hand to grip the opposite sides of the wall, attempting to hold myself steady. My palms spread, the rock scratchy and still warm from the sun that had scorched the daylight hours. Zakai lowered his head, his tongue dancing along my thigh with quick little laps, drawing closer to the warm, wet place I was begging him to taste. He flicked his tongue closer and then away until I let go of the wall, grabbing his hair in my fingers, and forcing his head between my legs. He let out a satisfied laugh that was quickly muffled by my desperate, aching flesh. He knew just what to do, knew my body as well as he knew his own. Knew the exact pressure to use, the precise number of strokes that would cause me to claw at his head and see the stars from which we’d once fallen burst behind my closed lids.
A soft cry emerged when he caught my skin in his teeth, biting down softly, and then with increasing pressure, suddenly letting it go, and laving it gently with his soft tongue. “Oh, oh,” I moaned. Stop. Don’t stop. Blood quickened in my veins, rushing in all directions, making me feel as if I could fly. And maybe I could. Maybe we both could. Perhaps I might roll off this ledge, taking him with me as we rose into the sky, headed back home to the stars.
As if he’d read my mind, Zakai replaced his mouth with his fingers, stroking and teasing me as his head rose and our eyes met. “We are two halves of the same beautiful star, broken in the heavens. We fell to earth, separate, yet yearning to be together.”
“Yes,” I whispered breathily as his head lowered once again. I didn’t tell him that he sounded like Haziq’s parrot himself with the words he’d just uttered, because my soul recognized them as truth. Haziq had found us both, separate and suffering, and returned us to one another.
Zakai removed his mouth from my throbbing flesh and I made a sound of dismay. He lifted himself, coming over me on a breath of laughter. “You’ve been eating persimmons,” he said, flicking my nipple with his tongue. “I taste them.”
I smiled, my hands finding the sides of the wall again, holding us steady, though my initial fear had turned to excitement, my desire to have him inside me far more important than the risk of falling. He wanted it too. I could feel him pulsing against my thigh, see the wild rush of blood in the vein pumping at his throat, and I recognized the glazed look of his eyes, the intense set of his sweet, wicked mouth.
He bit and teased one nipple and then the other. My eyes flew open with one particularly hard nip, my breath releasing in a whoosh of air as I stared up at the diamond-scattered sky, fuzzy with the lust sparking through my veins. Fire and blood consuming me from the inside. Pain. Pleasure. Love. Fear. Life. Zakai growled and entered me in one quick thrust, making me wince and moan and cry out, “Yes.”
My palms moved on the rock, my arm muscles quivering as Zakai’s weight fell over me, the wall too slim for his knees. The skin of my back stung as it moved over the rough rock I was lying on, even as a wave of pleasure rose—rose, but not quite high enough.
Zakai was watching me, a knowing look on his stunning face. As my legs hung over each side of the wall, he picked up his pace, gliding in and out, the slick sounds of my body grasping his, mingling with our staggered breaths. I dragged in small inhales of air, his weight on top of me not allowing for more. With each thrust, his eyes grew both lazier and more intense, our gazes locked, the pleasure in my body rising to a fever pitch, even as my lungs cried out for air.
The sky of stars exploded, dripping sizzling light, the white-hot pleasure raining through me, my final breath releasing on a bliss-laden cry. Zakai reached around me, gripping the wall next to my breasts, and raising his body enough to allow an intake of air as he tipped his head back and groaned his own release, his seed flooding my body.
I let go with one hand, reaching for him, wanting to stroke his beloved face, but the small movement set us off balance and we teetered precariously. Our eyes met and I saw him pause for a stuttered breath.
But then, with a whip-quick movement, Zakai used his arm and leg to push off the side of the wall, steadying us once again, his face directly over mine, something sudden and dangerous in his eyes. And I knew, that for the slip of a second, he’d considered letting me go, and following me over.
But as quick as that, a laugh emerged and the danger faded from his gaze. He leaned in and kissed me softly on the mouth. “Let’s go to bed, little star.”
As Zakai helped me down from the wall, I saw the red glow of a pipe to the side of the house where our bedrooms were. Haziq. My skin bristled. Zakai had asked if I wanted him without the prying eyes. But on Sundara, there were always eyes upon us.
Always.
CHAPTER TWO
The plane dipped from the sky, teetering slightly before straightening again, its wheels touching the sand-covered runway, sediment swirling in its wake. It raced toward Sundara, finally slowing, and coming to a wobbly stop. The tracks it had left would be covered by the time the sun had fully risen in the sky. The desert was hungry with impatience, and there was little it didn’t consume.
I watched from the top of the wall, the hot wind blowing my hair and whipping my white tunic around my calves. The sound of the wind mixed with the cawing of the birds taking refuge in the foliage of the sole juniper tree as far as the eye could see. Sometimes I wondered how that bent and sparsely-leaved tree had ended up all by itself. Perhaps it was lonely, but I hoped instead, the creatures who took great comfort from its protection, whispered it their gratitude. I squinted against the glare of the sun on metal as the door of the plane opened, lowering to the ground, a child appearing in the doorway. A child? That was odd. There were no children on Sundara. Zakai and I had been young when we arrived, but we were the only ones before or since. Why, I didn’t know. But now . . . Haziq had changed his mind? My stomach clenched at the idea of a child living here. I liked my home, but this was no place for one. It had been tolerable for me and Zakai because we had each other but this child was alone. My stomach twisted in some unfamiliar way.
I squinted as he waddled down the stairs, his short legs barely long enough to take the steps one at a time. There was something different about his shape that confused me and piqued my curiosity. Haziq walked toward him and obscured his form as they traveled up the stairs at the side of the large plot of land that was Sundara, its massive white adobe structures shining under the cloudless blue sky, emerald-green grass and palm trees spread around it.