She licks my lips, and I readily open them forher tongue to stroke my mouth as it tangles with mine. Her hot mouth is the one in charge of this kiss, and I willingly submit.
This kiss isn’t like any other we’ve shared. This kiss is not rough or punishing. There’s no urgency in this kiss, no lust. Only understanding and care. This kiss is no less consuming, though. It might even be more so.
This kiss is acceptance and apologies. This kiss is a promise not to hurt the other one. This kiss parts the gloomy clouds of loneliness that hang over my head every day and threaten to drown me.
Out of breath and chest heaving, Kaeli pulls back. My lips follow her for a second.
She looks at me with a soft smile. “Thank you, Ezra. And I’m sorry, too.”
I rapidly shake my head. “You don’t have–”
She shuts me up with a finger to my lips. “Let me speak,” she sneers.
Stunned, I nod.
“Good,” she says, satisfied with my obedience.
Dick, don’t you dare twitch while she sits on you. This is not the time.
Oblivious to my conundrum, she wiggles in my lap to get comfortable and continues, “So whatI’m saying is I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have taken out someone else’s anger on you. That wasn’t fair to you.”
“Give me their name, and I swear, and I’ll knock their teeth out for hurting you,” I grunt, my jaw clenching and my hands tightening on her waist.
She chuckles, her head falling back, “You’d hit Stacy and the entire senior PR team for me?”
“Stacy is your friend. I think you can handle her, so I won’t touch her. But the rest of the staff is fair game. For you? Iwillhit them. Just say the word,” I lay it out exactly as it is.
Her breath hitches as she stops laughing, searching my face for the barest hint of a lie. She can try all she wants, but she won’t find any.
“You’ll do that for me?”
“Anything for you,” I tell her, nodding my head.
Her brows furrow in confusion. “But why? I thought you hated me.”
My heart hurts a little at her words, but this is about her. “I don’t hate you, Kaeli. I never hated you. Have you seen yourself? Ican’thate you.”
The confession of how I feel hangs in the air for longer than I’d like. But I let her see the nakedtruth in my eyes, tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear.
“But all those arguments, insults, and everything?” she asks, unable to believe me.
“Those wereourthing, Kaeli. That was our dynamic: volatile, intense, and burning hot. I thought you knew that.”
“It was? I didn’t. People don’t really like me, so I thought you didn’t either,” she reveals in a voice so tiny that it looks misplaced on this confident and firecracker of a person.
“Oh, Feather,” I sigh, dropping my head on her shoulder. Her hand reaches out, and she scratches the nape of my neck, pulling at my hair lightly, making me hum in pleasure as I nuzzle in the crook of her neck, taking another dose of that intoxicating scent of hers.
Picking up my head, I hold hers in my palms and make her look at me. “I won’t lie. Sometimes, I did want to hate you, but only because I couldn’t hold you, or kiss you, or fuck you the way I really wanted to. So, it was less hate and more of sexual frustration,” I say with a shrug.
A smug grin spreads across her face at my declaration. “It was, huh? You were attracted to me, Ezra Moore?”
“From the very first moment I laid my eyes on you, Feather.”
Thirty Three
Kaeli
“So, will you please tell me what got you so upset?” Ezra’s questioning gaze locks on me as his thumbs caress my waist.
