Innocent - Roe Horvat Page 0,10

almost hurts to look at you. And I couldn’t even hold your hand while they were torturing you with those endless prayers, speeches, and bows. How many times did we have to kneel today? I’ve lost count.”

“It has been endless,” Navid murmured.

“I should’ve been able to make sure you were comfortable and happy on your wedding day. I’m so sorry.” Stroking Navid’s cheek, Zana watched as Navid’s eyes softened. “I’ll make it up to you.”

Navid looked at him with wonder, as if seeing him for the first time, and his expression was so open. He’d stopped crying, and his breathing had calmed down. No, Navid couldn’t love him yet, but his soul was bare in front of Zana, unblemished, eager to feel and connect.

Zana couldn’t stand the draw. He leaned in and kissed Navid’s forehead again, then his brow, the corner of his eye. He brushed his lips over those wet cheeks, and Navid grew heavier in his embrace as some of the tension eased from his body. He didn’t reciprocate the gentle kisses, but he received them with his face tilted up, subconsciously asking for more.

“I’m sorry you had to wait for me like this,” Zana told him. “Had I been able to talk to you before, I would’ve asked you not to.”

“Why?” The question was just a soft breath.

“I want to take care of you and love you. You’re my husband, not my slave. And because they made you do it, even though you didn’t want to.”

“But I wanted to kneel for you,” Navid whispered. “I wanted to do the right thing. To please you.”

“Darling, you do. You let me kiss your eyes and hold you in my arms. You smile for me.” Zana swiped the soft black hair away from Navid’s forehead. “But seeing you shaking with fear didn’t please me.”

“I wasn’t afraid of you.”

“Then what made you cry?”

Navid lowered his gaze and bit his lip. His long lashes brushed his cheeks, and Zana’s heart tripped for the umpteenth time. “I was afraid I’d fail you,” Navid said. “That you’d be disappointed with me.”

He had no idea, had he? The boy had stolen Zana’s heart with one shy look. Breathtakingly beautiful, kind and gentle, angelic yet with fire smoldering in his deep eyes. Navid was mesmerizing and unaware he held Zana’s life on a string.

“Look at me, Navid.” Zana skimmed his fingertips over the boy’s lovely mouth. The one thing that didn’t look innocent. Navid’s lips parted underneath Zana’s fingers, and Zana traced their shape. Full curves, swollen, supple. Seductive. “You stole my heart. I had to steal you whole so that I wouldn’t bleed out. I shouldn’t have ever been allowed to do it, but it’s done. You can’t disappoint me, my love. You’re my treasure.”

He kissed the tip of Navid’s nose. Calm now, Navid rested cradled in Zana’s arms, sitting sideways between Zana’s spread legs, his face tilted up. Zana savored the warmth.

“I’m not going to take you tonight, darling,” he said. Navid’s eyes widened. This might have been the first time somebody else than Navid’s staunch private tutor had mentioned sex in front of the boy. And Navid’s alpha father had boasted about Navid’s innocence as if he were bragging about the breed of his horses. Zana shoved his anger away. Navid needed him now.

“One day, you’ll want me. You’ll feel it in your body, a hollow ache inside you. You’ll ask me to soothe it, and I will. Until that day, I only wish to make you feel good.”

Navid’s cheeks turned bright red. He was gazing up at Zana with naked trust, clutching the robe to his chest. Gently, Zana took one of Navid’s hands and lifted it to his face. He kissed the center of Navid’s palm and placed it on his neck. Navid’s breathing quickened, but his gaze didn’t waver. He kept his hand on Zana’s neck, subtly tightening his grip.

“Can I kiss you, Navid?”

A jerky nod, barely perceptible.

Zana bent lower and kissed Navid’s lips for the first time. A chaste, careful kiss, closed mouth on closed mouth. A quiet gasp escaped Navid. Zana kissed him again. Slowly, the gentlest of nips on his upper lip, then lower, then lingering longer. He skimmed his fingertips over Navid’s throat along the tendons on his neck, and he kept kissing him, dry and tender. Brush by brush, he coaxed Navid’s mouth to open, his eyes to drift shut.

Zana was hard. Of course he was, painfully so. The most beautiful man in the world