Fraud (Antihero Inferno #2) - Lily White Page 0,167
curious fingertips.
When his palm flattens against my breast from over my dress, I freeze again, every muscle tight and painful.
“I haven’t...”
It’s a whisper against his lips, an embarrassing confession, one that catches his attention and forces his eyes open.
Now I feel awkward lying here with a boy straddling my legs and his palm on my tit. We’re staring at each other in the shadowed room, my eyes filled with fear and his telling me nothing at all.
“Never?”
The question falls off his lips, half a tease and half honest shock. Rolling my eyes, I attempt to ignore the embarrassment I feel, my sudden attempt to shove him off a wasted one since he’s twice as big as me.
Even for his size now, I realize Ezra still isn’t fully grown. He’s eighteen just like me, but not a man. I’ve seen men and I’ve seen high school boys. There’s no comparison. It makes me wonder what Ezra will look like when he’s older, when his body has filled out fully and experience has sharpened his mind.
I bet he’ll be even more terrifying than he is now.
“Just let me go,” I breathe out, my eyes dancing anywhere to keep from looking at him. The ceiling, the wall, the door across the room I can use to get out of here and forget this happened.
His fingers squeeze my boob, just a light flinch of his hand before he pulls it away and presses his palm on the mattress by my head.
“Why not?”
“You know why,” I answer, still refusing to meet his eyes. My cheeks are burning from the blood rushing to them, and I wince when his fingers touch my jaw. I struggle against him turning my face so that I have no choice but to look at him.
“Is this about Mason? About the bullshit agreement your parents made for you to marry him?”
Nodding my head, I let go to the feeling of sinking. Mason’s name alone is a weight pulling me down, a shadow that hovers over me constantly.
“He told me you don’t have to follow through with it until you’re thirty.”
“By the time we’re thirty,” I correct him. “My parents want it to happen immediately after college.”
Ezra blinks, his dark lashes full where they line those beautiful amber eyes. “Which means you have ten years, at least, to have fun. Why not start now?”
Annoyance trickles in my head like rain. “Because I’m supposed to save myself-“
“For what?” he asks, interrupting me. “Mason doesn’t care.”
I’m not sure why the comment stings, but it does. Not because of Mason. What he thinks or does means nothing. It’s more because I’ve been trapped in perpetual wait for a marriage I don’t want. Like the only reason for my existence is to be someone’s wife.
“If my parents find out-“
Pressing the soft pad of his thumb to my lips, he doesn’t let me finish the thought.
“Just fun. And they won’t find out. I’ll make sure of it.”
“How?” I ask, the movement of my lips allowing his thumb to brush the front of my teeth.
Taking advantage, he slips it in my mouth, presses down on my tongue so forcefully that I shudder. That small reaction sparks fire in his eyes, his lips slightly parting.
I can’t deny how weird this is, I’m practically sucking another person’s thumb, but it feels right for a million reasons I can’t figure out.
Keeping his thumb in place, he leans down to speak against my ear, his chest softly brushing mine, his breath hot against my skin.
“Because if anybody says a word about it, I’ll hurt them.”
The look in his eyes tells me he means it. But not just that. In a way, it feels like Ezra is arching over my body protectively, like I’m somehow vulnerable and he’s the only person strong enough to watch over me.
It’s a strange feeling to have, but it’s there, just on the edges, a bond formed after he showed me the secret of his bruises and I revealed the secret of my inexperience.
My gaze drops down to the mark on his shoulder again, the direction of it like someone was holding onto him from behind, a punishing grip that causes my fingers to curl into my palms and my fingernails to cut the skin.
Before I can mention it, noise erupts in the house beyond our room, laughter and catcalls and voices rising up. The door opens again a minute later, all that noise rushing at us without being muted.
Ezra’s body twists to growl at whoever dared walk in this room, every muscle tense, like an guard ready to rip out the throat of any person threatening what he protects.
Ava squeaks and looks away, but she doesn’t shut the door. “We have to go, Emily. It’s Ivy.”
Oh, God. What has Gabriel done?
It’s only then that I realize Ezra’s thumb is still in my mouth, the pad pressing against the muscle so that I can’t immediately speak.
Pulling away, I stare up at him. “I have to go.”
He doesn’t appear to care, but he crawls off me anyway, our eyes still tangled together as I sit up and become angry that I can’t finish whatever was happening between us.
I’m on my feet when he grabs my hand, amber eyes locking to mine with a silent promise that I don’t realize will follow us into adulthood.
“I mean what I said,” he reminds me. “I’ll hurt anyone that -“
“Let’s go, Emily.”
Ava’s voice is urgent, which means whatever Gabriel did to Ivy must be bad.
Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath before opening them again.
“I don’t want you hurting anybody, Ezra. And I don’t want anybody hurting you.”
Something unsaid rolls behind his eyes, wild and shadowed. He releases my hand, a quick untangling of our fingers to signal that the odd moment is over.
Forcing myself to break our stare, I run to the door where Ava is waiting, my body hesitating for only a second longer before I rush out entirely to leave Ezra’s and my secrets behind.
To Be Continued…
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