once.”
“Ezra...”
Pressing his thumb against my lips, he refuses to let me finish the thought. Amber eyes search mine for what feels like forever, but really is only seconds.
“You never called me back.”
I attempt to answer, and he presses his thumb tighter.
“I needed you. We,” he specifies to include Damon, “needed you.”
Pausing, he lets the truth sink in before hitting me with the final blow, a smirk on his lips while doing it.
“You broke your promise, killer. Even when we kept ours.”
Ezra could have stabbed a knife through my chest, and it would have hurt less, his reminder cutting just as deep as he’d intended.
Winking once before letting me go, he pushes to his feet and steps back, that amber stare holding me prisoner while Damon hands me my dress.
A knock on the door breaks the tense silence.
“Emily?”
“I’m coming,” I call out, finally blinking to break Ezra’s stare and letting my hair fall forward so it will shield my face to keep him from trapping me again.
The violence inside him right now is calling to me. The fire.
Sliding off the desk onto my feet, I hurry to pull my dress on, my hands fumbling with the zipper because I’m in such a hurry to go.
“Let me help.”
Damon, the eternal sweetheart. He’s a man with a temper easily triggered, but has a heart of pure gold.
Unlike his brother who continues staring at me with accusing eyes, a hundred promises swirling and colliding together into the singular message that I was the person to break them.
Damon barely has my dress in place when I make a mad rush to the door.
Unfortunately, I don’t reach it before Ezra grabs my arm and tugs my back against his chest.
Dipping his head down, he speaks against my ear.
“Next time I call, you should answer. Or have you forgotten I’m back in town?”
Breath leaks out of me, shallow and slow.
“You haven’t called since you’ve been back.” Turning my head just enough that I can see him in my peripheral vision, I add, “Not once.”
His lips curl at that. “Because you never answer.”
As soon as his fingers release their hold on my arm, I rush forward again to let myself out of the office and into the hall.
Ivy cocks a brow at me and shakes her head.
“It’s like you wanted to get caught. My father’s office? What the hell were you thinking?”
I wasn’t.
Which has always been the problem with my friendship with the twins. I forget how they knock me off balance and threaten me.
“Sorry. They dragged me there, but I-“
Ivy touches my shoulder as we reach the stairs while ignoring the curious glances of the few people around us.
“It’s fine. But you need to straighten your dress and finger comb your hair. You look like you just got fucked.”
There’s humor in her voice, but I can’t laugh with her. I’m too busy worrying about why we’re rushing downstairs.
Not only because of the man I’ll be standing next to for our parents’ bullshit spectacle, but also because of the two I left behind.
Rushing down the stairs, I remind myself over and over why what I did was stupid. Those whispers do nothing to ease the addiction, though.
They do nothing to soothe the pain in my heart.
Ezra wasn’t wrong to call me out for not following through with a promise I’d made to him ten years ago, but then it was the reason they needed me that made it necessary for me to let them go.
I had no choice but to break my word, if for no other reason than to cling on to my sanity.
We’re outside, and Ivy is still tugging my clothes into place, her worried blue eyes catching mine as we approach the pavilion.
Taking our places, I stand facing her as she wipes at my smeared lipstick, a sigh leaking out of her because she’s put me together again as best as she can.
As soon as Mason steps up beside me, every muscle in my body tenses.
I make the mistake of looking at him to find only bitter contempt in his glacial blue stare.
So low that nobody but I can hear him, he comments, “I see it didn’t take long for you to slip into old habits.”
“Fuck off,” I answer, not in the mood for his shit.
He grins at that, his arm wrapping with mine as we give the audience time for photos. As soon as that’s done, we step away from each other.
“Can I expect to bail them out of jail again because of you?”
My