The Twelve Zenati

Authors note: Hello everyone. I hope those of you who have enjoyed this series continue to do so. ~ellie.

Part 22

Marcella woke slowly, from a hot dream featuring Noah. He'd done everything right since blackmailing her into letting him stay with her, especially his day. This glorious day where he seemed determined to cross off every adventurous desire on her bucket list. It was difficult not to succumb to his evident desire for her. He had not only shown her how much he wanted her, but his words had told her in no uncertain terms just what he wanted at the end of this baseball bet she had made with him. If she was honest with herself, she was more than a little horny herself from all his attentiveness and that dream... if he was even half as good, she would be well and truly satisfied.

Giving in to him sounded like a fabulous idea as long as he knew it was a one time only deal. Just today, just because she wanted to scratch her itch not because anything was happening between them because she had a job to do and she didn't want him getting in her way because he felt some proprietary affection for her. No, their relationship needed to stay out of the bedroom except for maybe this one day. This perfect day. He'd gone to a lot of trouble to do put this day together for her. It would be rude not to give him something he so obviously wanted in return.

A slow, languorous smile spread over her lips as she stretched out her body, feeling like she has just run a marathon. Riding a jet ski after an indulgent lunch had finally exhausted the last of her reserves of energy. When they had come back on board, she had sat on the couch with another glass of the fantastic homemade lemonade and Noah had rubbed her aching shoulders and neck pressing light kisses along her skin. She had been so relaxed she must have fallen asleep on him. Literally on him!

She groaned and blinked her eyes open, taking in her surroundings she acknowledged that she must have been deeply asleep in his arms and he must have carried her here because she couldn't remember making her way into this room. Her eyes opened wide with her intake of breath at the implications, and she ran her fingers down her body, letting out a sigh as she realised that she was still dressed as she had been when she fell asleep.

"Sleep well?" Noah asked, humour lacing his voice as he watched her go through a range of emotions upon waking. He was curious what had made her smile, but he knew what the last gasp and sigh were about and it both amused and angered him in equal measure that she thought he would take advantage of her unconscious state to molest her. Not that the thought hadn't crossed his mind at least once before he called himself a monster and took a cold shower.

"How long was I out?" Marcella croaked; her voice still thick with sleep. She rolled toward his voice and found him stretched out on his side beside her, his head propped on one of his hands.

"A couple of hours, but I did wake you very early this morning, so I don't mind having to change some of the plans I made for us," he smiled softly. "I probably packed more than was necessary into this day. Have you had fun so far?"

"Yes," Marcella admitted. She pushed her hands into the soft mattress and scooted up the bed a bit, leaning back against the headboard, so that she wasn't in such a vulnerable position with him. "It's been an amazing day," she sighed and looked down into his face, happy with their change of positions.

"Why the sigh, then?" he asked, genuinely concerned.

"Last vestiges of sleep," she said, as she waved away his concern. The truth was that today was too much, he was too much. He was giving her everything she had said she wanted: adventure, adrenalin, no real-world pressures... and, at least for today, he had managed that, and at least for today, she was going to let him continue doing that and making bases as he put it. Then a horrible thought occurred to her. "I left my phone with our gear at the skydiving place. Can we go pick it up? I need to send a message to Olivia, and I would hate to miss a call from Bea."

"No." Noah shook his head, but his lips curled up in a smile as Marcella began to protest. He held up his hand to stall her. "No, we don't need to go and pick up our phones. They have been in the storage bin from the quads the whole time," he chuckled. "I knew you would ask for it eventually. I'm surprised that you lasted this long without it," he teased.

"May I have it, please?" Marcella asked, rolling her eyes at his teasing.

"Will that get me to third base?" He waggled his eyebrows at her. He was enjoying the range of emotions, which she usually kept hidden from the world, showing so plainly on her face. She was disarming like this, with her muddled thoughts and sleep-tussled hair. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her again, and more, so much more.

"What does third base entail, exactly?" she questioned, her eyes narrowing as if pretending to weigh up whether getting her phone back was worth the price that he wanted to exact from her. She wondered how long she should hold out after having made the decision to go with the delicious feelings for just this one amazing day.

"Well..." he said, measuring his words. He moved closer and reached out to stroke his fingers softly along Marcella's jawline to the side of her neck, his fingers curling around her neck into her hair. "It would include first base, naturally," he crooned in a low voice and lowered his lips to hers.

Marcella knew that she should push him away. The sensible and sane part of her brain that hadn't been overridden by hormones and desire screamed at her to stop this before it went any further. Yet the strange pull that she had felt towards him, from the first day he had shown up in her room at StarCity, stilled her protesting sensible side. No matter how hard the logical side of her brain screamed at her that letting down her guard with Noah was dangerous, she wanted this kiss, his hands caressing her and making her feel... feel what? Things she hadn't felt for a long time. Sex, she knew and used as a weapon in her arsenal, to be wielded to get what she wanted, as it had been with Vincent Vega. This, however, felt different, this felt as dangerous as any of the activities they had enjoyed that day so far.

It wasn't that she didn't enjoy sex, she did. She liked it when she was in control of her own pleasure. With Noah, however, she knew that there would be a struggle for dominance, one she could very well lose, and she had spent the last decade of her life refusing to submit to anyone. Even with Apollo, whom she had trusted more than any other at the time, she had held back, and he had found the full submission he required in others. All thoughts of Apollo and anything else, aside of the man who now took her mouth in a deep soulful kiss, fled her mind as she closed her eyes and just let herself feel the gentle dominance of the man beside her. It was like he was sharing with her rather than taking from her or giving her power over him.

"As well as second base," Noah murmured, in the small break in their kiss, before running his large hand down over her shoulder to her breast. He had felt the moment of her surrender and pushed further at her walls that usually held him at a distance. He pressed his body close to her side, letting her feel how aroused he was through their thin clothes as his hand ran over her body, making her breathing quicken with the long, slow, worshipping strokes of his hands, echoing the strokes of his tongue against hers.

"And third base includes?" she whispered breathlessly, allowing him to give her this pleasure. In her mind she balanced her needs by telling herself that he asked for permission, she was allowing him to do this, he wasn't taking his pleasure by force, and she could just as easily stop him at any time. She was not submitting to his wants and desires; she was allowing him to give her what she wanted, what she desired.

"Skin on skin," he murmured huskily and pulled at the tie on her sarong.

"The bikini stays on," Marcella commanded, the strength in her voice surprising both of them. She would allow him to unwrap her body from the sarong, but that was as far as she was willing to go at this point. He wasn't batting a home run after all. At least not yet. She needed to make him work for that a bit harder.

"Fine by me," he murmured, retaking her lips as he moved his hand, in a soft caressing motion, under the small triangle that covered her tight pebbled nipple and moaned softly, feeling the hard nub beneath his fingers. Unable to ignore the temptation, he pressed the nipple, albeit briefly, between his thumb and forefinger, and revelled in the small whimper that escaped into the kiss. "Fuck, you're going to kill me making sounds like that," Noah groaned, breaking the kiss and tweaking her nipple once more, to hear the unmuffled sound of her whimper of pleasure. "Yep, you're killing me..."

Noah's words stilled Marcella's thoughts for a moment. She'd done nothing but return his kisses and allow him access, or, at least, his hands' access to her body. She hadn't touched him, hadn't reciprocated the pleasure-filled touch that fanned the flames of her own desire, yet she was the one killing him? The thought made her smile with amusement. She realised that she didn't have to be the dominant partner, as she usually was when it came to sex, to be in control. This wasn't a scene with carefully laid-out ground rules. She had no safe-word with Noah because she didn't need one. She could stop what was happening between them with a single word.

Marcella's mind turned over the thoughts between brief moments of erotic pain when he pinched her nipple, and the feel of his lips kissing down her neck, collarbone and, eventually, to her breast. His teeth grazed over the nipple as he sucked it into his mouth and played his tongue over the surface. His hand moved slowly down over her stomach as if waiting for her to stop its pathway. She was wet, she knew she was, and her face flamed as she found herself caught between humiliation, that she had been so easily aroused, and need, to see how far he would push this baseball analogy.

"So sweet," Noah groaned, as he moved his head to the neglected breast and his hand finally cupped her pussy, feeling the dampness of the material between his hand and her hot flesh. He heard her gasp as his finger rubbed her through the material and waited again, for her to tell him to stop. If she didn't stop him soon, he wasn't sure that he would have the will power to stop himself from fucking her, skipping straight from third base to home plate.

The tentative touch of Marcella's hands, running through his hair to smooth over his shoulders, seemed to pour gasoline on Noah's hot desire. He shifted again for better access, his fingers running along the edge of her bikini bottoms before finding their way beneath, and still, she didn't stop him. Beyond caring now about going too fast, he dipped a finger between her wet lips and found the sensitive bundle of nerves, pressing against it to elicit a reaction from her.

"Is this third base, then?" Marcella asked, with a ragged, whimpering breath, as Noah applied pressure to her clit. Her mind raged at her to stop him, but her body pressed against him wantonly, enjoying all the attention that he gave to worshipping her body. It had been too long. She needed this release, and what he was doing to her, for her, felt so good at that moment. Damn the consequences, she deserved this release.

"Not quite," he growled huskily, kissing a path down her body to where his hand played in her folds, expecting at any moment that she would protest, push him away, and make him wait longer or indefinitely, to see and taste her pussy. Aware that her only command thus far was that the bikini stayed on, he moved down and pulled the material aside, breathing in the scent of her. Just the scent fed his hunger for her, and before she could protest, he pressed forward, and licked a long slow line between her folds, before hovering over her clit and rolling his tongue in circles.

"Oh, yes," she moaned huskily, the words drawn out with a long breath. It had been far too long since she had just let herself be pleasured for pleasure's sake. With Vinnie, she had a plan. She couldn't remember a time when she didn't have a specific agenda when it came to sex. She lowered her hands to play in his hair, encouraging him as she felt all the tell-tale tingles flow from her core into her extremities. "Yes," she hissed again, feeling a big climax brewing as he added fingers to her pussy, fucking her with them, as he sucked and nibbled on her clit.

"Fuck," Noah groaned into her pussy. She was perfect. The sounds she made, the sweet, sweet taste of her, as her pussy held tight to his fingers, making him wonder if he would hurt her when he fucked this tight little pussy later tonight. He felt the tell-tale trembling in her thighs and knew she was close. He added another finger to her tight hole and heard her cry out as he rammed them in and out, fucking her hard and fast with his fingers, biting harder at her clit, thus giving her the pain, she so obviously needed to go over the edge. He wrapped his free hand around her thigh and pressed it flat on her pelvis, holding her in place as she thrashed and shook with her orgasm.

The cry that came out of Marcella's mouth, as his teeth sank into her, was almost guttural in her animalistic need for release. Her body shook and spasmed with the pure pleasure of it as he held her in place, not easing up on his torturous attack on her pussy until he was sure that he had wrung every last drop from her and lapped it up. She lay back on the pillows, spent and breathing hard, as he cleaned her, replaced the bikini as it had been, and kissed his way back up her body, stopping to caress and kiss her breasts briefly. He tenderly kissed her neck and the sensitive spot behind her ear, before kissing her gently. Marcella was still floating on the endorphins of her release when his next words startled her, and she turned her head to look at him, confused.

"Thank you. Third base never felt or tasted so good," Noah said quietly and lay beside her, pulling her body against his, his arms wrapping around her delectable body.

"What?" Marcella asked in confusion.

"Thank you. Seeing you like that, well, you look so fucking hot when you come like that, and you taste even more amazing than I believed possible," Noah crooned in a soft voice while pulling her head to his chest and stroking her back. "Rest for a few more minutes. Then we have plans for the rest of the afternoon and evening."

Marcella had never had anyone thank her for her own pleasure before. The thought of it was ludicrous, but he made it seem so natural, so genuine. She considered him as she lay her head in the hollow between his shoulder and his chest. She had done nothing for him and had only taken pleasure, not given it, yet he was thanking her. As if reading her mind Noah spoke again.

"You let me enjoy your body, even if you aren't ready to admit that the chemistry between us is pretty incredible," Noah explained. "We could be amazing together; we make a great team. Once we find what Olivia needs to free herself from suspicion in the Suebi case, we could travel and have adventures together," Noah explained, pushing just that little bit more, to show that he wanted more than just a fling with her. That they could be more to each other.

Marcela remained quiet, thinking about his words and stroking her hand over his chest. She had half- expected that he would demand oral sex from her, because of what he had given her, but he seemed content to just give her a mind-blowing orgasm, without anything in return, and that bothered her more than she had thought it should. Nobody just gave without an agenda; everyone wanted something. She just couldn't work out Noah's deal but she would. She wasn't going to regret letting him go so far. It was an epic orgasm for her. Something she hadn't managed in a long, long time. Not without some sort of forced submission, yet he hadn't forced her in any way. She had been the one in control, and she hadn't stopped him. She had allowed it, given permission for him to touch and taste, and still, he had rocked her world without any expectations of her returning the gesture. Well, if he wanted blue balls, that was his business, she was satiated and felt the renewal of her energy.

*****

For Genesis, there was something heart-warming and special about holding Olivia in his arms as she slept. Since finding her in the hospital, they had both changed in their expectations of what the future might hold for them. Olivia seemed even more beautiful now than when he first saw her, looking small and frightened in her hospital bed. Even with her injuries, the first sight of her had stopped his heart and made him want to hold her and protect her from everything that she feared. It had been heart-rending to know that she feared everyone around her, including himself, because of her conditioning.

Taking a deep breath and banishing those early days from his thoughts, he gazed down on her again. Her face was softer, more feminine, and more open and giving than it had been. The hard lines around her mouth and eyes were gone, along with the terrors that she had lived through, and she looked almost doll-like in her serenity as she slept. It was as if the worries of the world had disappeared, and her body had relaxed in trusting contentment as he held her in sleep.

He lovingly stroked her hair and kissed her neck where it met her shoulder, knowing that they would need to wake soon. Olivia responded by sighing his name and snuggling tighter in his arms. Their bodies fit perfectly together, and his arms tightened, pulling her closer. At times, when he watched her sleep, she would twitch in her sleep and moan his name, and afterwards snuggle tighter into his arms, and he wondered about her dreams. Genesis was pleased that, even as she slept, he dominated her dreams. He wanted to reassure her and responded by tightening his arms, confirming that she was safe and loved with him.

"You're mine to love and protect," Genesis murmured, as he absently stroked her hair. He felt an intense ache in his chest when he heard her moaning and whimpering his name as she slept. He knew that she had captured him completely and, looking at her, he felt very possessive and wished that he could make the whole ordeal she was going through with the AFP, and the Suebi, go away.

She was the perfect woman, at least perfect for him. It was hard for him even to remember the broken and damaged girl who had refused everything, including food when he had found her in the hospital. She was so much more than that brainwashed little slave now, and she belonged to him. His smile tightened because, with ownership, came great responsibility.

She was a frightened little girl at heart, and she had protected that heart by hiding it behind the castle walls that her sisters' stories had helped her build. Now he had breached her castle walls and captured her heart, so it was his responsibility to keep it safe. There had been a pure, beautiful, innocent woman hidden inside her, and he had forced her to reveal it. It was his duty now to make sure that she has never hurt again and if he could reunite her with the sister who had protected her the only way she knew how, when they were younger, he would.

Somewhere during the time that she had been recovering the real Olivia was revealed to him. In those moments, with her heart open, raw, and vulnerable to him, he fell deeply, madly and incurably in love with the girl who had been hidden beneath the hard, outer shell of protection that was the perfect slave, Serena Seabrook. He didn't want it, he hadn't believed in the curse of his family, but he couldn't stop himself from falling in love with the innocent girl he saw inside Olivia. The curse, though, once triggered, was brutal in making itself known, and he had been bound to this girl from the first moment that his eyes met hers.