Beautifully Angelic - Charity Parkerson Page 0,13
a towel, shut down the water, and started drying Ezra’s body. Declan fought hard to keep it impersonal. His heart knew the truth, but Declan wouldn’t make Ezra uncomfortable if he could help it. He gave Ezra the towel to hold on to and peeled off his shirt.
“We’ll find you some real clothes in a bit, but this should keep you warm for now.” He dressed Ezra like he was dressing a small child before scooping Ezra into his arms. The shirt looked like a dress on Ezra, but Ezra didn’t complain. Ezra tried drying his hair with the towel while Declan set him in the chair he had vacated.
“It’ll be impossible for me to fix my hair with the mirrors covered.”
Declan shrugged. “You look fine now, but I could do it for you. God knows, I’ve studied your every feature enough to know how you usually look.”
A small smile touched Ezra’s lips. “Have at it.”
With a sharp nod, Declan grabbed a brush and worked on getting rid of any tangles. He traded it for a comb when it came time to style. “Which products do you use?”
“Just that,” Ezra answered, pointing at a pink jar.
Feeling less than confident, Declan opened the jar. It smelled like Ezra. He scooped some out and tried forcing Ezra’s hair to stay in the shape it usually held. It wasn’t working. Ezra made his style look so effortless. Declan was failing. Eventually, he gave up. It wasn’t like Ezra could see himself anyhow, and Declan thought Ezra was beautiful no matter what.
“Um, there. I guess it’s good enough.”
Ezra eyed him like he saw through Declan’s words to the truth. “How bad is it?”
Giving in, Declan found a handheld mirror and let Ezra look at himself. He held his breath as Ezra turned his head from side to side, inspecting the mess Declan had made. After a moment, a snort escaped Ezra. He set the mirror aside and covered his face. Just when Declan started to panic, he realized Ezra was laughing. His entire body shook with it. His laughter grew bigger by the second until he was howling. A smile stretched Declan’s lips. He truly had made a crazy hot mess out of Ezra’s hair. Unexpectedly, Declan’s throat swelled. He hadn’t seen Ezra laugh in forever. In fact, he couldn’t recall the last time he had seen Ezra smile and mean it.
Declan dropped to his knees at Ezra’s feet. He wrapped his arms around Ezra, buried his face against his stomach, and held on. Declan had been killing the thing he loved for so long that he didn’t know if he could save them, but he had to. He needed Ezra’s smiles and laughter.
Ezra rubbed every place he could reach, as if trying to soothe Declan. “It’s okay, sweetie. It’s just hair. Would you like to try putting makeup on me next? That could be fun.”
The backs of Declan’s eyes burned. He had been so in love with Ezra for so long, he couldn’t fight this. Watching Ezra collapse last night had been the final straw. He didn’t want to lose Jessie’s friendship and he loved his job. But nothing mattered as much as Ezra to Declan.
Ezra squeezed his shoulders and felt up his biceps. “Jesus, Declan. How many hours a day do you work out?”
A choked laugh escaped Declan. “Not as many as you’d think. I’m naturally big. It’s genetics.”
Ezra traced a cut line of Declan’s arm. “This is not genetics. It’s hard work, and I just meant that I’ve never seen you work out. How is that possible? We’ve spent a lot of time together over the years.”
Declan couldn’t relax his hold. He settled on his ass and laid his head in Ezra’s lap. “I’ve never seen you do your hair, obviously, but I know you do it.”
“We should change that sometime.” Ezra ran his fingers through Declan’s hair and massaged his scalp. “You should watch me do my hair and I should watch you lift weights. I think I’ve been missing bits and pieces of your life that I don’t want to miss.”
The burning behind Declan’s eyes increased. For the first time, he truly understood that Ezra loved him as much as he loved Ezra. Staying silent and protecting his own ass hadn’t been hurting only him. Ezra had been trying to make him see that. He didn’t understand why this one moment finally broke through, but it did.
“Do you still think about running away?”
Ezra didn’t stop playing with his hair.