He huffed out a breath and faced me, a challenge sparking in those amber eyes. “Look, I don’t understand what changed since this morning. Are you sorry about…you know.” He lowered his voice. “Last night? ’Cause I’m not. But we need to sit down and have a real talk. I have things to tell you.”
His close proximity both intoxicated and confused me. Not to mention I struggled to hold on to my self-control and not touch him, which proved impossible. Frustrated, I gave in to my desire and took his face between my hands. “Okay. Afterward. But as for now…” When my mouth touched his, I lost myself in the wet slide of his smooth tongue and the hard demand of his firm lips as they moved against mine. He gripped my shoulders, pulling me close, and I flattened him against the wall next to the apartment door. When I smelled his skin and tasted him, I lost all sense of time and place, and we clung together in that dim hallway, locked in the present and the past. Ezra’s hot tongue swept over my lips and licked a wet trail across my jaw to poke into my ear. He sucked the lobe into his mouth, and I shivered, my dick hard and aching.
“Monroe? Monroe?”
I dimly heard my name called and shook away the buzzing in my head to see my mother and grandmother, along with Grace, standing at the open door to the apartment, all wearing wide, cheesy grins on their faces.
Well, shit.
“Uh, hi,” I said with a weak smile, and I gave a feeble wave. My head spun, and I hoped no one would ask me to move. Ezra shook beneath me, and when I realized he was laughing, I could’ve choked him.
“Well, no need to ask how you’re both doing.” My grandmother cackled. “We couldn’t imagine who kept ringing and ringing the bell, but now I see why.”
I groaned and rubbed my face. In our maneuverings, I’d pressed Ezra up against the doorbell. God only knew how long we’d pushed against it.
“How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to see that Ezra is a good kisser.”
A smothered laugh escaped Ezra, and he ducked under my arm and greeted my mother first, then my grandma and Grace.
“I’ve never had any complaints. And aren’t you naughty to stand there and watch us.”
His cheeky smile flashed bright, and it was hard to reconcile this man who gently held my grandmother’s elbow as she walked unsteadily into the apartment with the wild-eyed man in the shower this morning, who’d sucked my dick down his throat, giving me a mind-blowing orgasm that hours later still had my toes tingling.
“Hi, Mom.” I bent to kiss her cheek.
“Hi, honey. Wait a sec.” She craned her neck to peer around me. “We’ll be right inside,” she called and took my hand. “Let’s go over here.” She led me a few steps to the side, so we were out of sight of the doorway. She gazed up at me, her eyes soft. Years of worrying over bills, health issues, and life in general had laid a patina of sadness over her face.
“What’s the matter? Is everything okay?” Fear clutched at my heart. “Is something wrong with Grandma you haven’t told me about?” My mouth dried, and I couldn’t swallow.
“No, no. She’s doing remarkably well. Even the doctors can’t believe it.”
Light-headed with relief, I expelled a breath of air. “Okay. So what’s up, then?” My head was in the apartment, wondering what Ezra was telling my grandmother, what story he was spinning. I wanted to be able to walk in there as the two of us together, but something held Ezra back, and I wasn’t sure what. Regret? Fear?
My mom hesitated, pressing her lips together as if weighing what she wanted to say, and I braced myself. She kept out of my private life for the most part, except to ask hopefully every once in a while if I was seeing or dating anyone.
“What’s really going on between you and Ezra? I know you were antagonistic toward him in the beginning, but…” She paused, and even in the dim overhead lighting I could see the sparkle in her eyes. “It looked to me like you’ve worked through that. Unless I’m mistaken.”
Heat prickled through me. I might be forty, but my mother still had a way of making me blush. “I’m so mixed up.”
“But you care. And you never stopped.” She rose up on her toes to press a kiss to my cheek. “Follow your heart. It knows the way home.”
I followed her into the apartment, where Ezra had, as I’d predicted, ensconced himself on the couch next to my grandmother, with Grace sitting in the club chair. The three of them were in the middle of some gossipy story about some television star. I waited until the hilarity died down.
“How are you feeling, Grandma? Better?” I sat on her opposite side from Ezra.
“Good. Very good. Especially now that you’re both here. And from what I saw, you don’t need to tell me how it’s going with you two.”
Ezra tilted his head at me as if to say,Ball’s in your court.
“We’re good.” I didn’t want to say more until we spoke to each other.
“Hmmph. That kiss looked like it was more than good, if you ask me.”
“No one was, as I recall,” I muttered.
“Now, Roe. Respect your elders,” Ezra said with a grin. “Nettie, Roe and I are doing well.”
