Unintentional Addiction: Lotus Adaamas Series

by Stone, Layla

  That…was not fair.

  “How long?” he repeated.

  “I took the first apartment that had a Yunkin leasing manager.”

  “You didn’t care what it looked like inside as long as it felt safe and normal, right? Yunkins make you feel safe?”

  She had to think about that. “I wanted a safe apartment because I was going to be by myself. I trusted the manager because we saw things the same way. And I fell in love with my apartment because it was mine.”

  “Yours?”

  “Yes. Everything inside belongs to me, I can do anything I want, act any way I want inside.”

  “You can do that outside, too. You choose not to.”

  A harsh truth. But it didn’t sting. “True. But I guess there are some things that I can’t break.”

  “So, you love your apartment, but you can’t tell me if you could see yourself staying on Adaamas. Do you expect to fight with the walls of your apartment sometime soon?”

  “No. That’s ridiculous.”

  “Then if you’re already in love, why wouldn’t you stay?”

  “Because it’s complicated.”

  “Right, your mate. Who is me.”

  She didn’t respond. How could he say that? Out loud.

  “I’m addicted to you, I’m technically a mate.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a qualifier.”

  “Are you afraid I am going to hurt you? Verbally or physically?”

  “No.” Even when she was mad, Z seemed to stew and say things. But they were honest. He was moodier than anything, but not hurtful. Seeing him with Shine showed his loyalty by their Yunkin-ish brotherhood.

  “I’m safe. I’m your mate, and I will move into your apartment, give you this house, or buy a new one. I don’t care, so long as you can fall in love with it and stay.”

  All of those things sounded like a business deal. Maybe everything came down to this kind of emotionless conversation for him. But for her, she needed…something more. “You’re speaking as if this is a business deal. Our lives are not as simple as picking one side or the other.”

  He nodded and scooted closer. “Here’s what I know. I know I want to be with you. I don’t have an honest to Seth story that will melt your heart. But I do know that after I used the container to get rid of the Grach hormones, I missed the feeling of the high. I wanted that back. I am also attracted to your scent, and bonus is that you’re beautiful. Everything I need to make that decision is right there. Seconds in, I’m ready to invest. You’re not me. I get that. So I’m wondering what you need from me to invest in this. In us.”

  “Even now this sounds like a business deal.”

  “Nope. You’re just scared, even though I’m over here willing to give you anything you want just so we can be mates. Is that clear enough for you?”

  Was it? Yes. But she was more than scared. She was terrified of making the wrong choice for her future.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  A chime rang out in the house.

  “The food’s here. I’ll be right back.” He got up, kissed her, then kept and held the pressure. Then he kissed her deeper. She leaned into it, wanting more. That’s when she realized something…he’d kissed her. He kissed her, knowing what she was. He was willing to mate with her, knowing what she was. And he liked her for what she was!

  He was right. He was her mate, and the way she longed for his touch told her that she wanted him back.

  Damn.

  It was that simple. She knew her choice.

  Z walked into the kitchen with several large bags of food. She got up and went over to the island counter. “Can I help?”

  He looked up at her with a surly expression, but then he stopped. “What changed?”

  “Don’t act like you know my expressions. You’ve known me for like five minutes,” Adelia played.

  His eyebrows rose. “One month, three weeks, and five days. You’re going to be one of those mates that forgets our anniversary, aren’t you?” Z played back, setting a blue tub of something on the counter.

  “I can’t even understand what you just said, so…probably.”

  He moved to her, lifted her up to sit on the counter, then grabbed her hips and pulled her to the edge. “You make your decision?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, you made a decision? Or the decision is yes? Specifics.”

  “I specifically choose to stay on Adaamas with my mate.”

  “What changed?”

  “This.” She leaned over and kissed him. Then she opened her mouth and took in his taste, his everything.

  He gave in to her kiss, gave back, and was already making her want to take this moment somewhere without clothes.

  “I’m that good of a kisser?”

  She smiled as she kissed him back. “I don’t know? I’ve never kissed anyone else.”

  “I don’t think I care anymore to understand why. I know when I’m getting a steal deal.”

  She laughed, and he pulled her off the counter, grabbed her hand, and walked her down the hall, up the stairs, and into another corridor that led to a bedroom. The room had one large bed, unmade, a dresser with clothes sticking out of one drawer, and others garments on the floor in the closet. She could have jumped up and down as if in victory.

  He wasn’t a clean freak. He was like her. She didn’t have time to relish it though, because she was suddenly being pushed onto the bed. Zane removed all her clothes and then set his mouth to her skin, starting at her neck and working his way down.

  “Your skin tastes like my favorite fruit. I could do this forever.” He licked and sucked until he got to her nipples. There, he played, teased, and sucked hard.

  Adelia bowed her spine, feeling the tension in her core. His hand slipped under her back, pulling her body into his.

  Already, he was the most amazing lover she’d ever had. Unwilling to let her ex-husband into her thoughts, she watched as Z loved her body. The lower he got, the more excited she became. She wanted this. Knew some women got this from their husbands.

  She widened her thighs. Z smiled. “Eager, Pet?”

  “Very.”

  His tongue separated her lower lips, exposing them to the air and his hot breath. Then he licked and circled around her needy petals. It was light and teasing, good and amazing, but not enough pressure. She widened her legs more and shifted her hips.

  Z’s hands grabbed her under the thighs to keep them open, and then she almost jacked up as his mouth clamped down and sucked, nipped, and licked her bud.

  She cursed.

  He didn’t stop.

  She shook her head back and forth. So good. Too good.

  Her stomach fluttered. She was going to come hard and fast. She told him so.

  Time evaporated. She was being devoured, and she never wanted to live any other way again. She felt the wind-up and then a kaleidoscope burst through her body.

  Her hips thrust up on their own, and she rode out her climax. Air flooded her lungs, and she was exhausted from doing nothing but enduring.

  Z stopped and let her thighs go. He kissed her mound before moving up. Taking one hand to line himself up, he asked, “Can I?”

  She smiled, and he smiled back. Her entrance widened as he pushed himself in, three good thrusts, and he was all the way to the root. He moved in and out slowly as she cradled his body with her legs and ran her fingers over his shoulders and down his arms.

  27

  First Chance I Get

  Her small hands outlined his arms as he took his time just feeling her body. He was going to go slowly this time, molding his body to hers. He’d given her an orgasm, but the taste and the glow he felt made him feel like he’d stolen his own. But he hadn’t come.

  It was the most amazing feeling. Z couldn’t describe it other than to say that he felt now what he felt at the peak of bliss as he came.

  His cock still hard, he was living a fantasy.

  “You okay?” she whispered.

 
“More than okay,” he said back.

  She leaned up and kissed his jaw. Featherlight, but it only added to his amazing feeling. Moving his arms, he lowered on top of her, her skin against his. It felt like home. Like he had done this a thousand times for thousands of years.

  He knew her. As in his soul knew hers.

  Her hips moved to the side, and he knew she was trying to adjust for his angle. He stopped living in his fantasy and forced himself to focus on her. Pulling out this time, he thrust back in at an angle, then rocked his hips and dug in again.

  “Ooooooohhhh.”

  He continued his assault and dug harder as her sheath started to quiver.

  “Ooooooooo. Yes.” Her body reached up to meet his, her channel slowly clenching his member.

  He gave her everything she needed, and her nails dug into his skin.

  He saw the side of her neck, the hard thump of her blood rushing through her body, and he needed it in his mouth. Covering her neck with his lips, he sucked.

  She screamed as her pussy squeezed him hard. It was heaven. He jacked into it, feeling his own tingles. He was about to come.

  He got his hold on her and then rocked into her, savage and needy. Her screams urged him on.

  Heaven.

  He was almost there. He was trying to reach the top of his climax even though he was already feeling the bubbles of pleasure. Hooking his hand on her shoulder, he pulled her into him and pushed himself to the hilt. And then he burst.

  His seed flooded out, even more than last time if it were possible. His back arched, and he would have screamed himself if he didn’t bite down on his lip.

  They didn’t speak for a time. When his breathing was finally under control again, he rolled over and brought her on top, not wanting to lose his connection to her yet.

  If there was such a thing as claiming, that was exactly what had just happened.

  28

  The Truth Comes Out

  Z rubbed her back. This was the third time that day that they had been together. He was insatiable, and she loved every moment of it.

  Breaking the silence, he said, “So, are you moving in here, or am I moving in with you?”

  Moving in? Was he playing again? She didn’t know. “Your place is nicer.”

  “Your apartment is closer to work. I mean, to Teeda’s.”

  She made an educated guess that he was talking about work. Business was never out of his mind. But this was a big thing to her. Being with him physically was going to make them a couple. At least until he found another container to cure himself. But if he thought that he might want to be with her, she had to reveal some truths. “If this is a start for us, you should know that when I said settle down, I meant settle down. Like a family.”

  “I figured that.”

  “You’re okay with that?”

  “I am now.”

  “Is the age difference going to bother you?”

  “What age difference?” His neck pulsed as he moved his head up.

  “I’m Grach. I will outlive you by hundreds of years.”

  His expression softened as if he’d only just realized that. She didn’t want to think of those hundreds of years without him. Maybe she would be lucky and follow him down.

  “How old are you?”

  “One hundred and two,” she told him, worried that he would think she was super old since he was Terran and was probably only in his early thirties.

  “You’re not that much younger than I am.”

  She sat up. “I’m serious. Terrans don’t live for that long, unless you have some cybernetic thing I don’t know about.”

  He sat up and gave her a curious look, then announced, “I’m only part Terran. I’m also part Silk Demon. Technically, I’m a Lotus child.”

  “You’re a Demon?”

  “And part Terran,” he clarified.

  But he was not just a Demon, he was a Silk. And she’d had lots of dreams about him. Dirty and hot ones. “Did you thorn me?”

  “First chance I got,” he said devilishly.

  She knew Silk Demons could enter someone’s dreams. “Have you ever taken my sleep or come into my dreams?”

  “I have never stolen your sleep. Most people I thorn never feel it. And I have too many. So, I maybe take five minutes of their sleep, but that’s all.”

  “How many people have you thorned?”

  “In the range of hundreds of thousands.”

  “Why so many?”

  He shrugged. “A lot of them were clients. Now, they aren’t.”

  She moved so her hand was on his chest, and her head was resting on her hand. “Can you ever de-thorn someone?”

  Deadpan he said, “I’m not going to de-thorn you, Pet.”

  “I wasn’t asking you to.”

  A few minutes went by, then, he said, “Yes, I can de-thorn someone.”

  “Have you ever thorned someone you wish you hadn’t?”

  He was quiet again. “My mother. My father said I killed her because I didn’t take sleep from anyone but her.”

  Adelia stopped asking questions. She kissed his skin and wished she could take away his sadness.

  29

  Old Enemies

  Zane’s first order of business was finished. He’d secured his mate. She was sleeping soundly now, her baby snores settling in his chest. He would be back before she woke up. But a Minky message from Shine had come in, and he wanted to answer it.

  Moving from the bed, he lifted up his pet’s arm from his chest and settled it down on the mattress. Taking slow steps, he left the room and closed the door behind him. The second door past the staircase entrance was his office. He walked in, shut the door, and powered on his Minky desk, grateful that he had a redundant quantum server so he could get all of his information at home. It had been installed recently because he was paranoid over what Trent had done.

  Tapping the message, a picture loaded. It was the remnants of Shine’s old lab. Zane hadn’t thought that Wrin and Trent would go that far, but then again, Z was planning to kill them both slowly and painfully. Soon they would be no more.

  Z selected Shine’s contact image, transmitting a voice call.

  Shine answered in one ring.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Burned down while I was home.” Zane could hear the distress in Shine’s voice.

  Zane shook his head. “Everything’s gone?”

  “Yes.”

  He cursed. “I’m going to kill them.”

  “I have a few prototypes in my Dwarf. We can make it a slow death.”

  “I’ll grab a few knives, make it a party.”

  Just then, his Minky pinged with another message alert. He pressed his finger to the message from an unknown number and opened it.

  Come outside.

  Karr

  To the black screen, he told Shine, “I’m going to think of something. I’ll have a game plan by tomorrow. Meet me at Teeda’s at ten degrees.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  “Adelia will be there, too.”

  “You really doing her? You know that the container is destroyed, right? There is only one way that’s going to end. With a lot of pain for you. Grach withdrawl is no joke.”

  “Not going to end. She’s my mate.”

  “She’s your what?”

  “You heard me.”

  Silence. Then, “Bahity?”

  “For the past few months.”

  “Damn. I hope you didn’t pass that disease to me.”

  Another message alert. Z opened it.

  I’m waiting, Zane.

  “All right, Shine, I’m gonna go.”

  “See you tomorrow. And…congratulations. That’s what Terrans say, right?”

  Zane laughed and terminated the call. He didn’t bother putting on a shirt or shoes for Karr. He walked downstairs, slipped out front, and found the red-headed, pale-skinned male leaning up against his porch rail.

  “Took you long enough,” Karr said in greet
ing.

  “I was on a call.”

  “It was either that, or you were with your new girl.” Zane hated Karr’s interfering ways and his nosiness. But the fact that he was standing in front of Z’s house talking about his mate made it personally threatening.

  “Come near her, and I’ll finish what that Red Demon started when you were five.”

  Karr’s blue eyes sparkled. “That kind of threat means she’s not your girl, she’s your mate. Congratulations.”

  “Whatever you want from me, the answer is no. So, you should go back to whatever hole you’ve been hiding in.”

  Karr pushed off the rail. “It’s interesting you say that.”

  Zane didn’t think it was interesting, and he didn’t care to know more. “Leave.”

  “No. I’m not leaving without the homner.”

  Karr had the uncanny ability to know way too much about things that were none of his business. Even so, the lie came out of Z’s mouth smoothly. “Too late. It was burned along with my warehouse.”

  “I’m not an idiot. Your safe was recovered. I checked.”

  That was true. “Good for you. But that’s mine. Need it to buy a new warehouse for Shine and me.”

  Unmoved, Karr typed something into his Minky watch. “I’ll give you two warehouses that I own. Uploading the information now. You will have the address on your Minky when you go back upstairs.”

  Zane was not going to ask how Karr knew where his office was. Was not going to take the two available warehouses either. “I’m not taking any of your rundown, acid-eaten warehouses in Northend. No, thank you.”

  Karr dropped his hand, a little annoyed. “After knowing you for almost a hundred and eighty years, I thought I had you figured out. The two I have are here, in Eastend.”

  “No deal. The homner is more valuable than whatever you’re trying to unload on me.”

  Karr narrowed his dark blue eyes. “You’re in a good mood.” He was being sarcastic.

  “I just watched my warehouse burn down in front of my face.”

  “Yes, I know. Wrin told me she was going to do that.”

  The words hit hard. “And you let it happen? Knowing how long I worked for it. You backstabbing, slimy bastard.”