In the Shadows~zayn au~Completed ✅EDITING

~Chapter 49: Master and Puppet~

Hey everyone! I know no one is going to probably read this because you can tell what's going to happen, huh? Anyway, could you all please at least vote on this one? You finally get a bit of what you want and I hope it's enough to stop this ridiculous difference between the number of views I get and the number of votes in relation. Enjoy and remember: this is my first time really writing anything of this sort.

His body was fully pressed against hers and his urgent lips eked every part of self-control she had out of her. There was nothing to do but surrender. Even now she could feel a firm pressure from him against her lower stomach and she knew exactly what that meant, even if she hadn't experienced it firsthand before.

She almost protested vocally when his lips left hers, but he moved them to her neck and below her ear, and to the dip at her collar. He was more skilled than she would ever tell him. Her mind was completely awake now and she reveled in the gentle undulations of his body above her, the way his body seemed to stroke her.

This reveling didn't last long, however. It was as if someone had struck Zayn. He stopped his motions and grew alarmingly still.

"Zayn?" she whispered, wrapping an arm around his back. "What's wrong?"

"Don't move, please," he huffed. A moment later he gently removed her arm and flopped down on the bed beside her.

She reached out to touch him, but he shied away. That hurt.

"Just... be still for a moment," he pleaded.

She lay there, trying to remember how to breathe. The sensation of his lips on her neck was still there almost and she didn't want to lose it.

"I'll confess that I'm not on my best behavior in the morning," he groaned.

"Why did you stop?" She felt weak for desiring his touch so strongly.

"Because I have something I want to take care of," he sighed, looking down at where his body clearly displayed what he meant, "and I would have done just that, taken care of it, if we hadn't stopped."

This frustrated her.

"There's something you do to make sure a woman doesn't get with child!" Kalysta protested. "Or you and Louis would have children across all six nations, I imagine!"

Zayn sat up and looked at her in surprise, then burst into laughter. "You never cease to amaze me, Kalysta," he chuckled. "Yes, there are ways. But I'm a bit bothered that you think so low of me!"

She gave him a withering look. "Then you're saying that you haven't shaken the sheets with at least one woman from each nation?" The thought disgusted her, but she had no illusions as to how a man behaved once he'd come of age. Women were expected to keep themselves wholly chaste until marriage, but men could dally wherever they liked without repercussion. The man before her was proof of that.

He made a face, but didn't answer.

"Just as I thought," she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest and trying once more to calm her body.

"Come now, Kalysta, you know how these things work!" It was his turn to protest. "I'm not proud of what I've done, but I can't change it!"

"I'm not expecting you to!" she cried in frustration. "I simply would like to point out the ridiculous principle that necessitates that I remain untouched while a man gets to gallivant with whomever he likes."

"Ah, yes," he chuckled again. "I had almost forgot your preoccupation with equality."

"Yes, equality!" she spouted, sitting up. "Something that is woefully ignored by everyone! You take your happiness where you can find it, but women can't?"