“Two years. By thetime he found me, his disease was very advanced. I’d thought… I’d been youngenough to believe he’d gone out of his way, used his resources, etcetera,because of me, because he’d found out he had a son and wanted to do right byhim. I was wrong. He didn’t want a son, he wanted an heir. He wanted someone topass his legacy to, someone that would keep it in his name. He wanted acaretaker.” He swallowed. His Adam’s apple moved up and down with the effort.“I got his estate and he died knowing we were even.” His voice dropped again.“I did get Dillon, though. Maybe I won after all.”
Only he and hisfather weren’t even. I tried to picture Ezra as a child, as an orphan. I triedto picture him happy with the mother he loved so much, or happy that he wasfound again by a father he hadn’t known to hope for. I tried to picture himgiving Jo hell or meeting Dillon for the first time.
Until this moment,it would have been impossible. He had always been so confident, so utterlywithout fault. He had been this intimidating, larger than life, fictionalcreature that I had been terrified of. But now… Now, he was worse.
He was human. Hewas real—vulnerable in a way that was surprising but also bewitching. Myinsides felt fizzy, and electrified, and unsure all at once. I couldn’t catch abreath at the same time I felt like I’d just taken the first big breath of myentire life. I couldn’t make sense of my muddled thoughts, and at the same timemy mind had never been clearer.
But most of all, Icouldn’t stand the distance between us, the look on his face… the grief stranglingthe oxygen in the room.
Tossing my paletteand paintbrush on the sheet-covered table next to me, I walked over to him.
My movementcaptured his attention again, and with his full focus on me I questioned everystep I took. My heart divided in two, half convinced I should run away and halfdesperate to run to him.
He had more baggagethan I knew what to do with. He had been hurt and betrayed, and still he’dalways risen above it, always marched forward with his head held high and hisdignity intact.
I wanted to cry forhim, but at the same time I wouldn’t do him the dishonor. He was… everything aman should be.
Everything a personshould be.
And I couldn’tbelieve I’d tried to stay away from him.
He watched me movetoward him with a look on his face I couldn’t define. I didn’t know what itmeant, but I knew how it made me feel.
Fluttery andtrembling and… beautiful.
“You’re the mostamazing man I’ve ever met,” I told him. “Those people… your dad, Elena, therest of the three witches… they did not deserve you. They didn’t even deservepieces of you.”
He didn’t respondverbally, but his entire body responded, changing his expression and infusingthe atmosphere with gratitude, and pride. and something deeper, somethinglasting.
Meeting me in the middleof the dining room, his lips met mine before my arms could wrap fully aroundhis neck. We were fireworks exploding, and cars crashing, and worlds colliding.
The kiss was hungryat the same time it was healing. He wasn’t gentle. He wasn’t sweet. This kisswas no longer exploratory.
With the restaurantcompletely to ourselves, we finished saying with our bodies everything wecouldn’t verbalize.
He kissed my mouthand moved to my jaw, down the line of my throat, the tops of my breasts walkingme backward the entire time. I smoothed my hands over his crisp shirt making itwrinkly and disheveled, putting my mark on him.
My back hit thewall, crashing into the dried section of my mural. I grasped at the freshlypainted surface, desperate for balance as his teeth nipped at my throat. I madea sound I had never made before, gasping for breath and begging him to touchme.
He took my mouthagain, deepening an already soul-altering kiss. His hand moved over my hips,trailing a hot path over my ribs and then finally to the crest of my breast.His thumb rubbed over my nipple and I made another one of those mewls thatwould have embarrassed me with any other man. But I was so past that with Ezra.I was done overthinking, analyzing and finding fault. I was done pushing himaway because I was afraid of getting hurt, or being rejected, or feelingunwanted.
He pinched mynipple between his skilled fingers and I decided that the clothes we werewearing were frustratingly in the way. I pulled back, but barely as he alreadyhad me pressed against the wall, his long leg cleverly positioned between mine.Tugging at the hem of my shirt, he saw what I wanted and didn’t hesitate todeliver.
My shirtdisappeared, and then my bra followed quickly after. Before I could take a fullsecond to feel self-conscious, his mouth descended on my nipple, making my skintingle and my entire body flush with desire.
“Fuckingbeautiful,” he murmured against my skin as he tasted and nibbled and drove meout of my mind.
I struggled to gethis buttons undone while he made me wild with seductive kisses and talentedhands. He finally gave me mercy, reaching back to rip his shirt over his headbefore I’d fully unbuttoned it. There was a funny moment where his sleeves gotcaught on his wrists, but with some necessary teamwork, we finally got the damnshirt off. His undershirt went into the pile of our clothes with littlefanfare.
His lips found mineagain, his heated, muscular chest pressed against my softer, fuller, femaleone.
He was much tallerthan me, but it was like we had been designed for each other. His body toweredover mine, conforming all of my curves to his. He felt like heaven pressing inon all of my sensitive spots, driving my body wild with sensation and seductionand his wonderfully sinful mouth.
“More,” I pleaded.“Ezra.”
His kisses slowed,not lessening, but somehow becoming more… hotter… needier. His hand moved overmy hip, finding the front of my jeans until his fingers disappeared inside. Igasped again, nearly exploding the second he touched me.
It had been so longsince I’d been intimate with someone and I had never felt the way I did aboutEzra. Which was what? I couldn’t even put words to it. Something that burrowedinto my soul and became a permanent, treasured thing. Something that wouldnever let me walk away from this man again.
