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Chap 11

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Somehow they made it back to her apartment, but she couldn't remember the details, those were hazy.

"Zoi, the lights, the li-" She was panting and he caught on, nodding even as he was reclaiming her mouth, one hand blindly searching the wall for the switch.

They stumbled into the entrance of her room searching for the bed but neither willing to separate from the other long enough to locate it properly.

Things just escalated from there...

A short time later, she was laying on the floor on her back, her brain total mush with Zoi collapsed next to her, his chest heaving with the exertion.

"A-are you su-re that was your first ti-me?" Zoi wheezed, completely winded. He felt like he had run a marathon mile and that his brain was about to explode. He turned his head to the side to look at her, a big grin on his face. At least he would die happy, he thought with a smile.

"I c-cant believe w-we did t-that on the f-f-loor…" She huffed, striving for just one full breath. She felt unbelievably sexy and wicked. Her first time had been wild and amazing, Zoi had been unable to contain himself, and that made her feel so womanly, so desirable she didn't mind one bit that it had happened the way it had.

He propped himself on an elbow so that he was leaning over her small form. A fine sheen of sweat covered his naked chest and the fly of his jeans were open and she couldn't seem to stop her gaze from drifting to that most amazing part of his anatomy.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" He teased her, reaching out a hand to brush her bangs back from her damp forehead. Her eye closed, but not because of the tenderness of the gesture, but because she found his palm was too warm against her still heated skin. Weakly she lifted up an arm to swat his hand away.

"'S too hot." She murmured drowsily.

Since she didn't see to be deflecting his caresses but instead the heat of them, his deft fingers trailed down to caress her stomach under the soft material of her shirt. In their haste to be intimate with each other, clothes had been half off, half on when they had joined and he still hadn't gotten to see her lovely figure completely naked.

Her skirt was twisted around her upper thighs, and who knew where her panties had disappeared. She looked thoroughly ravished and he was pleased to have been the one doing the ravishing.

"So," He began conversationally, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. "Ready to go another round?"

At this she was jolted out of her stupor. She looked up at him from her prone position. "You've GOT to be kidding me!" She said, the sharpness of the words dulled by the natural soft voice. "Zoi I couldn't possibly…" She trailed off when he slipped her shirt up from where he had been stroking her skin underneath. Leaning over, he placed a gentle kiss on her exposed tummy, smiling when he saw her skin quivering as she sucked in her belly with a delicious anticipation she was hardly aware of.

She drew in a sharp breath. "Zoi…" She began, having every intention of telling him no. She needed time to recover for goodness sake!

"Hmm..?" He was distracted, raining wet kisses all over her skin, steadily pushing her shirt further up with his nose, determined to reach her bra and the wonders beneath it, at the same time nudging her skirt to the side with busy hands.

She found herself becoming aroused again, though she had thought for sure she would not be able to repeat the performance for some time. He stroked a hand down her leg and his fingers skimmed the sensitive area behind her knee, causing her to giggle.

His eyebrows shot up and he paused in his efforts to repeat the movement. When she giggled again and this time squirmed he gave a full out laugh. "It seems I've found your weakness." He said in a pseudo evil voice. From there he alternated tickling and stroking her, a disconcerting sensation that keep her wriggling on the floor.

She loved it. She had always thought that sex was some serious, reverent event. The way every one went on about it in school, all the teachers warning about the dangers of it, and the fact that she was a virgin year after year had weighed heavily on her, building it up until it had become this big serious ritual. No one had ever told her it was fun!

"Zoi…please…" She tried speaking again, becoming distracted by his mouth.

"What is it lille one?" He whispered close to her ear. He was afraid she would ask for a reprieve, but his body was on fire for her. Still, he wanted to be careful with her so he would honor her request even if it killed him.

"Can we at least try it on the bed this time?" She murmured faintly.

Zoi grinned widely and jumped up, full of fresh energy and vitality. "My pleasure." He assured her, picking her up and swinging her over to the bed.

The two gave the bed several more tries over the next few hours.

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After dozing and waking, with intermittent bouts of coupling in between, both were quite pleasantly tired and more than a bit hungry by the early morning hours.

But Zoi refused to let Ami leave the bed, insisting she stay with him. He leaned back against the headboard and pulled her snugly against him, her small back to his broad chest. He encircled his arms around her, and played with her fingers, intertwining them with his, noting how dainty she seemed in comparison to his much larger self.

Ami rested her head in the crook of his shoulder, loving the feel of him, savoring his body heat now that their ardor had cooled, the scent of his cologne that still lingered around pulse points and the languid affection he bestowed on her, dropping little kisses on her shoulder, marking her pale skin with love bits meant to warn others that she was 'taken'.

She hadn't protested much when he insisted she stay in bed with him. Their hunger could wait.

"Ami." He murmured, that low sexy voice muffled into her milky skin as the tip of his tongue traced the delicate line of her neck, creating fissions of sensation in her. "Ami, do you believe in soul mates?"

She exhaled a sigh of contemplation. If he had asked her this before when she was still dismayed with his declarations of love the question might have put her back on edge. Now, with the rightness of their lovemaking still between them, she pondered the question seriously. "I don't know Zoi." She prevaricated after a long silence. "Do you?" She found she was keenly anxious for his answer.

"Yes." He answered hoarsely, his arms tightening around her for a moment.

Heavy emotions swamped her, so many that she had to try to sort them out. Was she pleased, for she knew without a doubt now that he thought she was his soul mate? How did she feel about that? Was there really such a thing, and could she be his?

The minute she thought this, she shook her head. There was no way she could possibly be…

"Zoi, I appreciate your feelings for me, and I'm learning to accept that you really do feel.." Here she hesitated, still having a hard time with the word "…love for me. And I'm beginning to think I might feel the same." This she said in a rush, hurrying to tack on before he could react; "But I don't believe I'm your soul mate, though it's very flattering of you to say so."

He had been still, listening to her words but now he moved, turning her body around in the apex of his thighs so that she was facing him, lying against him breast to chest so he could see her face. "But you are Ami, and I think I've known that since the first time we met." He insisted huskily, his eyes searching hers for acceptance of his claim.

"Zoi," She began, staring at his chest because this was painful for her to admit. "I'm wrong for you, all wrong. Can't you see that?"

He tilted his head, his expression frozen. "What the hell are you talking about?" How could she be saying this now, after all they had gone thru to get to this point?

Ami pulled back, distancing herself a little so that she was no longer in his arms. It was time to be truthful, no matter the consequences. She had gotten far more than she had ever hoped to anyway. "Zoi, the truth is that while I was saying that you were all wrong for me, the truth is, it's the other way around."

He began to protest, but she cut him off. "You know it's true. I your past and your drug use, but lets be honest Zoi, you're just too good for me!" Unexpected tears formed in her eyes, and she wrinkled her nose to try to dispel that feeling she got right before she started to cry.

"How the hell do you figure that?" He demanded, angry with her now.

She grabbed a sheet, wanting a barrier between them while she desperately tried to explain. "I'm too old for you, and I know you insist that it doesn't matter but it does…I'll look silly standing next to you when we go places, everyone will wonder what a good looking guy like you is doing with a woman whose 'past her prime'!" He tried to interrupt but she barged on. "And I'm a nerdy, boring person, trust me! I like to read in my spare time and watch documentaries, go to lectures and that's about it! I don't do anything you would find interesting and you'd get tired of me in no time…" She was confessing her deepest fears and couldn't stop now. "And I want to settle down and have children, and at my age I cant wait around, and that wouldn't be fair to you!"

At this point, Ami had worked herself into such an emotional state she couldn't speak anymore, instead huddling into herself, wrapping the sheet around her, and crying quietly as she waited for Zoi's reaction.

It wasn't what she expected. Instead of compassion, he let his fury be known.

"Just where the hell do you get off lady?" He demanded loudly.

That startled her out of her weeping. "What?" She asked in a watery voice.

"Where the hell do you get off tell me that you're not good enough for me?" He repeated in furious tones. He scrambled to the end of the bed and leapt up, staring at her for a moment, body vibrating in anger before he turned to stalk across the room.

She watched in wide-eyed denial. Was he leaving her? While he was naked?

But he turned at the end of the room and stalked back, only to repeat the action and she realized he was pacing. She pulled the sheet around her tighter and waited.

He stalked back to the bed where she sat, feet tucked under her, so small and dainty, and so damn precious to him. Why couldn't she understand that?

"Okay, first:" He said, pointing a finger at her, his face dark with the force of his feelings. "I am sick and fucking tired of hearing about our age difference! I don't know how else to tell you that it doesn't matter to me except to say that I love you and I don't care how old you are!" He reached out, his hands grabbing onto her arms and he shook her lightly before releasing her, scared he would bruise delicate skin. He marched away and back again so that he stood in front of the bed facing her once more.

"Second: As for caring what other people think, why should we? If we're happy together it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks! And you're not past your prime, you're fucking gorgeous!" Ami inhaled sharply at this. To be told you were that beautiful was flattering in the extreme, even if it was mixed in with cursing. Did he really think she was gorgeous? "And you're only 33, not 53!" He added with a snarl. "You make it sound like you're so old!"

"But…" She began, only to be cut off.

"No, this time you listen to me babe." He insisted. She shut her mouth, wide eyed.

"You think you're nerdy?" He continued, repeating her earlier words with an incredulous air. She blushed furiously but nodded. "Let me tell you something gorgeous, you're the least nerdy person I've ever met!"

Ami's eyebrows shot up in disbelief. To a person who had heard all her life that she was bookish and boring, this was a shock. Didn't he see her nerdy tendencies?

"You're intelligent, knowledgeable and well read-qualities I happen to find very sexy." He said, his voice still furious so that it took away from the compliment a little. "And as for me getting tired of you…" He trailed off and approached her, reaching out a hand to caress her cheek lovingly, his voice tender now. "How could I ever get tired of looking into your lovely, amazing eyes Lille one?"

He leaned down to kiss her then, and Ami lost herself in the magic of the moment. Finally something in her heart began to unbend, to slowly unravel the barriers that she had erected so long ago. In a moment of clarity, she realized that though Zoi was younger, she was the one who had been acting childish. She had let the stigma's of her childhood and others perception of her affect her well into her adulthood. She had changed, grown both in appearance and personality but she still acted like the same shy, unpopular teenager she had been years ago.

It was time for a change. Time to claim her womanhood, her brains…her beauty. With a confidence she hadn't had moments ago, she reached up and looped arms around his neck, tugging him down to her. Willingly he followed her movements, his eyes locked with hers the whole time.

"Ami?" He questioned softly, not wanting to break the spell between them.

"I don't deserve you." She whispered, but when he tried to protest, she kissed him, silencing him. "But I'm going to keep you anyway. I love you Zoi." She finished, bravely saying the words she had resisted for what seemed like years. Fear had held her back for long enough.

His eyes closed, and his forehead rested against hers, achingly tender. "Finally." He breathed in relief.

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TBC-Epilogue is coming!

I'm trying to wind down some of my stories so I can post new ones…this story didn't go how I intended it to so I am going to finish it off, I hope you find closure in this and the final chappie coming up. (Please, no flames, i'm a sensative soul!)

Luvs!