They arrived back at the villa, Zayn considerably relaxed, his laid-back aura fully present other than the muscle working in the jaw, and the almost comic look in his eyes. Rina found it really exhilarating that he could get worked up over something that pertained to her It didn’t even matter that she was in over her head, hoping something would happen along the line, that he would look at her with a softened gaze, and an obvious tell of a changed mind, that since her first trip to Hong Kong, he seemed to have had a rethink and was putting very intentional boundaries between them. His current actions still made her giddy and made her want to get attached with unknown consequences.
The villa was dark and quiet as they sauntered in, with Susan retiring to bed, and William with Igor, for some reason, were nowhere to be found. Zayn didn’t stop until he got to the kitchen, pulled the refrigerator open, and retrieved a bottle of water. He gulped it down, his eyes searching the space, and at the last minute, coming to rest on Rina, who had just walked in, her eyes hovering around his face.
“Hey,” she called softly, injecting enough casualness into her tone, even though she felt everything but casual. “I just wanted to ensure you were okay before going to bed. During the ride, you appeared all worked up.”
Zayn’s hands stopped as he brought the can of water to his side, the dim lights of the kitchen dancing in Rina’s eyes. It made her look ethereal at the moment, and Zayn had to intentionally remember to ask himself to breathe, to remember the words he had told himself during the ride back to Hong Kong the very first time. Zayn couldn’t allow himself to get vulnerable around Rina, no matter what he did. But despite that, it was hard not to let go, not to take his hands off the reins and just allow nature to work its course.
His heart thumped erratically at that moment, and his eyes searched her face intently, like a predator out hunting for prey. Nothing else seemed to matter at that moment, save the soft sigh that escaped Rina’s lips and the way her eyes dragged to his lips and back to his eyes. Zayn couldn’t understand the emotions coursing through him. About three hours back, he had been a hundred percent certain that it didn’t matter if Finn came to see Rina, that he could handle watching the man act like a fool, wanting the very woman he tossed out on the streets for her bitching best friend.
But watching the duo together had been harder for Zayn at the end of the day. Still, it had nothing to do with Rina. All of his attention was on Finn, the way his eyes roamed every part of her body like he was trying to devour her without even taking off her clothes, the way he narrowed in on her lips, the lips that had Zayn going crazy every now and then but had promised himself to steer clear off all the while. It had made him mad, that Rina had had to go through all of that hard life, and one of the persons responsible for it was right there, with karma not doing its job.
“I don’t think I am fine,” he grunted finally, his voice piercing through the silence that had previously hung tight above the kitchen.
“Why?”
He took a small step closer.
“He walked out on you, Rina; was one of the people that called you a slut without thinking twice, all because of some baseless rumors. He never respected or loved you all the while you were together, and the mere knowledge of that is threatening to drive me over the edge. I need a distraction, to keep my mind here, to stop me from going after him and teaching him how not to mess with my fiancee.”
Rina covered the space between them gingerly, placing her hands on his chest. She stared at the falling and rising pace for a while before dragging her eyes to look into his. They were dark and soulful.
Soulful.
It was a word Rina never thought she would be using with Zayn.
“Is this working?” she breathed, ignoring how fast her pulse raced and the heat that seared her skin, a tingling sensation erupting all around. Rina ached at the middle of her thighs, and was in need, made more obvious with the feel in the middle of her thighs. Half her body leaned into him as if losing to the fight, and the other half was kept away from him, the only part that thought it could hold on to the very end.
Yet, even that was losing.
“To an extent,” he murmured, his chest still heaving under her hands. “Don’t let go.”
As he stared at her, Zayn’s hands moved. He retrieved his phone from his pocket, and dialed a number by heart, all without taking his eyes off her. The person on the other side answered immediately like he had been waiting for the call.
“We are back,” he murmured, waiting a bit before proceeding. “And I am just plain mad.”
At first, Rina couldn’t tell who it was on the other end, but after a while, she realized it was William. That was the only person Zayn could dish out instructions to while sounding like there was a bond between them.
“I need you to send him a parcel,” Zayn said. “He needs to stay the fuck away from Rina. If not, he wouldn’t like what would come for him. I don’t share my woman, and neither do I allow fuckers like him to touch her even slightly, nor breathe the same air.”
Rina swallowed, suddenly feeling light at his words. Zayn had just called her his woman, and she felt her last resolve crumbling without even putting up a fight. That was her undoing. Her breath hitched in her throat as all of her being leaned towards him, giving in to her desires.