Chapter 428: Lift Your Hips
"Stay," I whispered in his ear.
I don’t know what he heard in my voice, but Zhenlan’s eyes stayed on mine for several seconds after I answered.
He didn’t ask again or make me explain what I meant. His hands tightened around my waist before he pulled me back against him and kissed me hard enough that the tree pressed into his shoulders.
The last bit of control he had rebuilt disappeared almost immediately.
His mouth opened over mine while one hand slid higher beneath my tank top. The other stayed firm against my hip, holding me where he wanted me as I shifted closer across his lap. Heat moved through me every time his fingers spread over my skin.
The wind changed around us.
It wasn’t strong enough to hurt anything, but the leaves above our heads began moving faster. The swing rocked behind us, and the flowers surrounding the clearing bent away before slowly lifting again.
I smiled against his mouth.
Zhenlan felt it and pulled back just enough to look at me.
"What?" he asked, his voice rough.
I touched the side of his face. "Your wind is giving you away."
His jaw tightened beneath my palm. "You already knew."
"I knew you wanted me. I didn’t know one kiss could mess up the weather."
That earned me another kiss before I could say anything worse.
His hand reached the clasp of my bra beneath my shirt. He stopped there, fingers resting against it while he watched my face.
I didn’t need him to ask.
I pulled the tank top over my head and dropped it somewhere beside the blanket.
Zhenlan’s eyes moved down my body.
He had seen me naked before. All four of them had. Privacy had stopped being particularly important after enough shared baths, injuries, and nights in the same bed.
This didn’t feel anything like those times.
The way he looked at me made my skin heat before he even touched it.
His fingers opened the clasp behind me, then slowly slid the straps down my arms. The bra joined my shirt on the grass.
Zhenlan didn’t rush after that.
He ran both hands from my waist to my ribs, then higher, watching every change in my face as his thumbs moved over my breasts. The first touch was almost too careful. The second had enough pressure behind it to make me arch into him.
His mouth curved slightly.
I caught the front of his shirt and pulled him closer. "Don’t look so pleased with yourself."
He lowered his head and took one nipple into his mouth.
Whatever else I planned to say disappeared.
My fingers tightened in his hair as his tongue moved slowly over me. One of his hands stayed around my other breast, rubbing and squeezing until I couldn’t decide which feeling I wanted to follow.
The rough bark pressed against his back while I moved on his lap. Every shift dragged me over the hard length beneath his pants, and the pressure became harder to ignore.
Zhenlan made a low sound against my skin, telling me without words how much he loved the feeling of me pressed against him.
I rolled my hips again, slower this time and his teeth closed lightly around my nipple.
The sudden bite pulled a sharp breath from me. His arm tightened around my waist before I could move too far, holding me in place while he soothed the spot with his tongue.
I looked down at him. "You did that on purpose."
He lifted his head, but his mouth stayed close enough that I could still feel his breath. "Yes."
At least he wasn’t pretending.
I reached for the bottom of his shirt and pushed it upward. Zhenlan helped me pull it over his head, then tossed it beside mine without looking away from me.
The scars across his chest were easier to see now.
I had noticed some of them before, but there were more than I remembered. Thin lines crossed his ribs and shoulders, while the thicker scar beneath his collarbone disappeared toward his side.
I didn’t know when he had got them or what happened to him before I took over this body, but I didn’t need to know either.
I touched the one near his heart again.
His chest tightened beneath my fingers.
I leaned forward and kissed it.
The wind struck the branches above us hard enough to send a shower of water from the earlier rain across the outer leaves. None of it reached the blanket.
Zhenlan’s hand slid into my hair. He held me against his chest while I followed the scar with my mouth, kissing lower until his stomach tightened beneath my lips.
His control was much easier to break than he wanted people to know.
I planned to remember that, too.
When I reached the top of his pants, his fingers tightened in my hair. I looked up and found him watching me with his head resting against the tree.
There was nothing calm left in his face.
I opened the button.
His hand moved from my hair to my jaw before I could lower the zipper. He pulled me back up and kissed me, turning us while he did it.
The blanket pressed against my back a second later.
Zhenlan lowered me carefully, keeping one hand beneath my head until I was settled. His body covered mine without putting his full weight on me, one knee between my legs while the other remained beside my sore calf.
Even now, he remembered which part hurt.
His mouth moved down my neck as his hand reached the button of my shorts. He opened it slowly, then paused with his fingers resting beneath the waistband.
"Lift your hips," he murmured against my skin.
I did.
Zhenlan pulled the shorts down my legs, careful when the fabric passed over the old bite. My underwear followed before he returned between my thighs.
The evening air moved over my skin, but his wind curled around the blanket and kept the clearing warm. The plants had closed every space between the flowers. Even the baby vine had disappeared beneath the leaves after finally realizing it wasn’t getting dinner.
Zhenlan sat back on his heels and looked at me.
I reached for him. "Are you planning to keep staring?"
His hands closed around my thighs and drew them apart.
Apparently, he was planning something better.
He lowered himself between my legs.
The first touch of his mouth made my entire body tighten.
Zhenlan’s arm came across my hips before I could move away from the sudden feeling. He held me against the blanket and did it again, slower this time, his tongue moving exactly where it made my breath catch.
I grabbed the blanket with one hand and his hair with the other.
He had been paying attention from the moment he first touched me. I realized that now. Every small reaction I had given him on the roof, beneath the tree, and across his lap had been stored somewhere behind that calm expression.
Now he used all of it.
His mouth moved over me while his fingers pressed into my thighs. He didn’t hurry, even when my hips began moving against him or my hand tightened hard enough in his hair that it should have hurt.
"Zhenlan."
He lifted his eyes without lifting his head.
That almost made it worse.
I pushed against his shoulder, but he caught my wrist and pressed it into the blanket beside my hip. His fingers threaded through mine while his mouth returned to me.
The wind rushed through the garden.
Leaves shook above us, and the swing ropes pulled tight behind the tree as another wave of heat built low in my body.
Zhenlan held me through all of it.
He had spent weeks pretending he could stand across a room and want nothing.
Now I could finally feel everything he had been holding back.