“No.”
“Because you’re scared.”
“Because you’re dangerous, Aurelia.”
“So? Rumor has it you like courting danger. Maybe it’s why no matter how hard you try, you can’t stop flirting with me, Ezekiel.”
“Is that your version of what’s been happening between us?”
“No. It’s the truth.”
“I don’t want to kiss you, Aurelia.”
“I won’t offer again, Ezekiel.” I use his full name purposely and watch his nostrils flare as he bites back the command that I never do it again. And still he doesn’t take his eyes off my lips. A moment later, this tormented look enters his eyes as if the demons in his mind are divided on what he should do andwaging an all-out war. “It’s okay,” I say softly, taking pity on him and deciding to end this game. “You don’t have to.”
I start to push away when he reaches out suddenly, and I feel his palms burning their brand around my biceps. “Wait. Just…wait.” He sucks in a sharp breath, and a certain resolve settles over his features.
This time it’s my turn to panic when I realize he might do it.
Zeke might actually kiss me.
Suddenly, it’s my demons that are screaming obscenities at me for courting danger.
My heart is thundering when his head finally dips and he leans forward. My belly swoops with want, and I can’t quite catch my breath. When his hold tightens and he pulls me closer, I realize I’m not breathless. I’m hyperventilating.
“No,” I say to my surprise and his.
Zeke stops immediately with a question in his eyes and a confused furrow in his brows.
We’re frozen in place, our lips a hair from meeting while I search pretty desperately for the reason I stopped him after damn near begging him to kiss me.
“No?” he echoes, his voice thick with need but his eyes full of resentment for it.
It hits me then—why this feels wrong.
“Zeke… I can’t imagine what you went through in that place, and I’m sorry for it.” I gently place a hand over his heart and keep my gaze pinned there. I’m not surprised to find his heart racing, but the rhythm is unsteady, as if the war in his head is also being waged in his heart. “You have no idea how sorry I am that you’re hurting.” Inhaling, I drop my hand but cowardly keep my gaze on his chest as I take a reluctant step back. His hold shifts from my arms to my waist so I don’t go far, but the absence of his hard body pressed against mine is enough to strengthen my resolve. “I wish to God that I could take away your pain, butI won’t be your punching bag. I won’t pay for what Tatum did. It doesn’t matter what you feel for me if it isn’t intentional. I’m not a side effect or an experiment. I’m a woman who deserves to be loved.” Finally, I let my blurry gaze meet his, only to find it blank. The resentment is gone, but so is everything else. “You can kiss me when you mean it.”
I go to pull away when his hands tighten on my waist, and I gasp as something dark, possessive, and very much intentional swims across his features—until he doesn’t look like Zeke anymore. He looks like a nightmare and a dream wrapped up into one. It raises the hairs on my arms. The chilling sense that I’m in danger skates down my spine, but when I try to pull away again, he growls and I feel his fingers bite into my spine.
“Z-zeke?”
His gaze narrows at the name, making the harsh planes of his visage that much more frightening.
A terrified whimper tears from my throat.
The sound snaps him out of it, and I watch without breathing as Zeke visibly sheds the violent reaction.
It shouldn’t be possible the way his eyes seem to brighten from seafoam on a stormy night to their usual spring green, but the more his expression relaxes and returns to normal, the more his eyes do too.
“Fair enough,” he says as if he didn’t just scare the shit out of me. His tone is casual but cool, leaving me to wonder if I just imagined the whole fucking thing or if Zeke is wholly unaware of what the fuck just happened. Clearing his throat, he avoids my gaze as he drops his hands from my waist and steps around me. “Come on. We should get back.”
KHALIL
Ido one last coat of wood polish over the newly carved headboard before I drop the oily cloth in the bucket with the other supplies and take a step back to admire my handiwork. On the large headboard is a scene depicting a meadow. A bird with its beak open in mid-song sits on a tree branch in bloom while a she-wolf lounges underneath surrounded by flowers and her three pups dancing around her as she stares at the blazing sun. On the opposite end of the headboard is another tree with a thick trunk and a large bear with its back to it mid-scratch while another slumbers on one of the branches and a third sniffs a flower.
In the middle of the scene, like she’s the center of this alternate universe, is a faceless girl in a dress with a riotous set of curls.
The rest of the bed was easy to construct, but this part had taken me weeks. I’ve never attempted anything as intricate. My own headboard was simple compared to this one.
