I nod. “I did.”
Zeke looks at me like I might do it again. “Why?”
“I need to rest.”
“So rest.”
He turns away like he’s going to run off and leave me, so I grab a fistful of much smaller rocks this time and start throwing them like I’m playing Down the Clown at an arcade.
“Aaargh!” Zeke whips back around and starts ducking the little round missiles. “What the hell is your problem?”
“You!” I aim for his midsection, and the rock ricochets off his glistening abs. He doesn’t even flinch. “You’re my fucking problem, asshole.” I throw another rock, and he swats it away.
“Oh, I see. We’re away from my brothers now, so you finally drop the act.”
“On the contrary. No one knows me better than them.”
Zeke visibly revolts at the idea. It’s like we’re divorced and fighting over who gets the kids. His lip curls as his gaze narrows. The expression is the complete opposite of the adoration and obsession I’m used to seeing even though the face it adorns is the same. “You’re so full of shit.”
“No. I’m just fed up with yours, Ezekiel.”
He looks as if I’d slapped him. “I told you not to call me that.”
“Oops.”
“You’re such a bitch,” he says as his gaze sweeps my face and then my body. It feels suspiciously like he’s checking me out—like he’s seeing me for the first time. And his tone… It was filled with more heat than ice.
I’m stunned enough that I forget to respond.
I don’t even notice that he’s moving closer until Zeke seizes my wrist and twists it, forcing me to drop the remaining rocks in my palm. He then uses his hold to spin me around until my backis pressed to his sweaty chest, and he wraps an arm around my waist while he pins my arm at my lower back.
I can feel his breath skate along my cheek and his lips by my ear. But even more distracting is the long, hard ridge I can feel pressing into my trapped arm. “Let me make something clear to you, princesa. I am not yours. We are not in a relationship. This is not happening.”
He’s clearly rejecting me, so why does it feel like he just struck a match and lit my blood on fire? Confused and eager to get out of his hold before I do something embarrassing—like begging him to kiss me—I nod. “Okay.”
“I am not Seth.” He stalls like he wants the opposite. An excuse to keep me in his arms.
“I know that.” A scoff that sounds more like a sob escapes my throat. “Don’t you think I know that? How can I confuse you when you look at me like you hate me? Seth never did that.”
Zeke spins me around but doesn’t let me go far. He grips my upper arms and pulls me right back in until the front of our bodies are melded together and I can see the small brown flecks in his green eyes. “You look at me like I’mhim,” he accuses harshly. “Like you don’t even seeme. It drives me fucking crazy.”
“I don’t mean to. I just…”I love him.“I miss him.” Zeke closes his eyes as if my confession pains him, and then he nods and exhales slowly. His breath still smells like the mint from his toothpaste mixed with citrus from the orange juice he drank earlier while listening to Khalil curse me out. On the other hand, I’m still falling apart at the seams. “Do you think—is there any way I can talk to him? Just for a minute?”
“No.” My heart drops like a boulder, and Zeke releases me suddenly, moving away as if he’s desperate for the distance. Moments ago, I could swear he wanted to kiss me. My lips are still tingling from that brief but suspiciously deliberate contact. “I’m sorry, Aurelia.” He backs up another step while keeping hisgaze on mine. “It’s going to take a lot more than some pebbles thrown at me to force him out.”
“No, that’s not—”
“We should go.”
Zeke starts running again, but I can’t bring myself to follow, and he doesn’t look back to make sure that I am. He disappears through the trees, and I take a moment to catch my breath.
What the fuck was that?
I think it’s safe to say that Zeke has my head in a tailspin. He’s hot one moment and ice cold the next.
I can’t take it anymore.
This has to stop.
