as his fingers curl over the side of my sleep shorts and panties to tug them down. Not far. Not so much that I have to lift my butt so he can slip them off.
“I owe you two more truths,” he whispers, his mouth hot against my ear.
Breath caught in my lungs, I can’t will myself to answer, or to ask the first question.
Anger bleeds out of his voice when he confesses, “The thing I remember most about those weekends is the laughter. William laughed and laughed at what was done to us.”
My eyes clench shut, rage exploding inside me to know his father took joy in hurting them.
“I bet he’s still laughing.” Ezra nips at my jaw. “Want to know why?”
Managing to nod my head, I bite the inside of my cheek, my body vibrating with both fear and fury.
“Second truth then. They’re still laughing because they recorded us to watch later. The weekends might be over, but those bastards are still laughing.”
I wince at the admission, my teeth biting down harder, tears welling at the backs of my eyes.
“Ezra,” I warn on a tremulous breath, but he doesn’t listen.
He reaches up with one hand to press his thumb against my lips, the gesture silencing me immediately.
But then it’s always silenced me, since the first time he did it in a shadowed room when we were kids.
I submit so easily to him.
So willingly.
But not sweetly.
At least until his strength defeats mine and he forces me to be sweet.
When his thumb slips between my lips, I bite, his hand gripping tighter on my hip, fingernails scraping the skin, his head dipping down and teeth nipping at the tender flesh of my inner thigh.
“I can’t help myself with you.”
It’s a soft growl, a complaint and grievance spoken against my leg, a warning before he bites again, and sharp pain explodes out from that spot to transform and settle inside me.
The pad of his thumb presses down on my tongue, my teeth still tight against his skin.
We’ve drawn blood before, not much, but enough that the marks were there for a week after.
Ezra’s violence is brimming at the surface, and the whisper of it is calling to me.
Straightening his posture, Ezra pushes to his full height, his stare locking on my mouth, his fingers tightening over my cheek as his thumb pulls my lower jaw down.
Then he dips his head again and kisses me. Leisurely. Seductively. The soft sensual pace of the kiss a lie that hides his cruelty.
Both hands grip my hips as he tugs me to the edge of the counter with such ease it steals my breath, his body hard where my legs wrap around him.
Still, he doesn’t speed the pace of this. It’s slow, slow, slow. A gentle entrapment. A casual exploration when his hand slides up my body beneath my shirt to palm my breast.
I melt into that touch, a gasp of air slipping over my lips that his tongue catches on one strong lick, a grin against my mouth when my body trembles in his hold.
Voice rough, he taunts, “You can’t help yourself, either, can you?”
No is the simple answer.
Not with him.
Never with him.
Even when he’s the worst thing for me.
With his mouth still against mine, he stills. The length of his lashes brush against my skin when Ezra closes his eyes. But what I feel is tension stretched so thin it’s about to snap.
Weeks, months and years of it, all building up to this point, this moment, this decision of what to do now that we’ve reached this precipice.
Do we fall?
Or do we back away from the edge to safely return to our lives apart from one another?
The only problem with falling is that I’m not sure what’s at the bottom of the cliff. It could be sharp rocks that tear and shred, or it could be a distance that’s never-ending, a perpetual dark hole that leads directly into hell.
“It’s been a long time, killer.”
Yes it has.
Not long since we’ve been together, but years since he’s scared me so much that I feel the need to fight.
Wherever this cliff leads, we’re going over it together. Because the sad truth is that not falling was never an option. Not with us, at least.
Or more truthfully, Ezra may have planted his hand against my back and shoved us both off a long time ago, in a shadowed room in Kevin Landry’s pool house, on the first night we revealed our truths.
We’ve been free-falling ever since.
Despite the lies.
Despite