Twenty Six
Kaeli
After that reality-defying, brain-short-circuiting confession, which I skillfully (not) ignored, he took a U-turn and dropped me back at my place to freshen up and change after we created a mess of ourselves.
Contrary to what my survival instincts screamed at me, before exiting his car, I invited him in to freshen up, too, because I couldn’t get the image of the wet spot I left, combined with his own release, on his shorts out of my mind.
His hands tighten to a death grip on thesteering wheel, which seems to happen a lot in my presence. He clears his throat and respectfully denies my invitation in his low, timbre voice, which sounded too gravelly for my thighs not to rub together, and the slight action didn’t escape his notice.
His exact words were, “If I step into your house with you, knowing what you look like when you come and that you’re desperate for my cock, I’ll not be held responsible for what would happen when that door shuts. And you’re not yet ready for it, for me. So no, Kaeli, I’m not coming inside. I’ll head over to my place and come back.”
My eyes practically bulged out of their sockets at his words, and I ran inside the house with my heart beating out of my chest. Once my heart calmed down, his words turned me on enough tomake me make myself come to the memory of the car and everything it witnessed.
His warm breath on the back of my neck at my door, the lingering graze of his lips on my hand, the heated stares, and the last shred of his patience deteriorating with my cold shoulder. His dirty words, his kisses, and his hands roving over me, edging me to my release in the middle of the goddamn road.
God, he’s sinfully hot, and I’m desperate for his brand of hell.
So, when I finally met him an hour later outside my house again, I was sated. For now.
That’s how I find myself looking at the empty and isolated trail leading to the top of a small hill. I feel the wind swirling and whistling as it ruffles the tree leaves with no one in sight.
My confused gaze flicks to him as he parks the car. “Is this the part where you off me in the middle of nowhere by chopping me limb from limb and disassociating my head from my body and burying it somewhere no one would ever find me?”
“Kaeli…that’s oddly specific. Are you sure it’s not whatyou’replanning to do to me?” he asks, more bemused than anything.
I roll my eyes at him, only half joking with what I said. If he unalives me here, no one would even realize I’m missing for days. I have no friends or lovers here. And my family is miles away.
Wow, that’s some depressing thought even for you, Kaeli. I’m ruminating on my morbid thoughts when Ezra opens the door for me. I blink, surprised because I didn’t even hear him get out of the car, so lost in my own theoreticaldemise.
I shake my head and unbuckle my seat belt. He holds out his hand for me to take, and when I look dumbfounded at his face, he rolls his eyes and does a come-hither motion.
I put my hand in his large one, and he clasps my hand. I think he will drop it now that I’m out of the car, spoiler alert: he doesn’t.
Instead, he presses a button on the key fob, consequently locking the car, and pulls me with him on the desolate path as the sun finally finds home behind the evening clouds, accompanied by a chilly wind.
He doesn’t drop my hand, and I don’t pull away.
I revel in the warmth that the embrace of his hand offers to mine, as goosebumps litter my exposed skin. He must have felt me shuddering because he comes to a halt and hauls me to stand in front of him.
This time, he wore a jacket, so he unzips it and drapes it over my shoulders without a second thought, misunderstanding the reason for my tremors. But I don’t correct him.
I open my mouth to protest, but he places a finger on my lips, effectively shutting me upwith a glare. Knowing when to choose my battles, I put my hands through the sleeves, and he zips it up for me, until it’s swallowing me whole.
God, he’s so big.
His eyes gleam with possessiveness, but I must have imagined it. Or at least that’s what I tell myself as I follow him on the hike.
Glad that he’s in front of me, I pull the collar of the jacket and take a deep drag of his scent and sweat, loving every second of it as it tingles my nose and makes my heart flip. I get high on the masculine scent that is uniquely him. Woodsy with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Like every other time, I’m so lost in my own little world that I don’t pay attention to when Ezra stops walking in front of me and sidles to my side.
“Did you just sniff my jacket?” His voice so close to my ear, startles me, causing me to jump and lose my footing. He holds me up with an arm around my waist, a big, smug smile plastered on his face as if he caught me red-handed doing something I shouldn’t have done.
On second thought, he did catch me sniffing his jacket like a creepy pervert. Even still, I do what any upstanding citizen of a great nationwould do: I blatantly deny. “Of course, not. You wish.” I roll my eyes for extra measure as if what he’s suggesting is simply too outrageous, even though I can feel my skin flushing crimson.
His eyes spark with amusement as if I were an object of his entertainment. “Oh, I desperately wish it were so, Feather.”
With a squeak, I pull myself out of his grasp, because he’s too close for my heart to beat normally, and stomp ahead of him with an offended huff.
