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Then he stepped closer, and my breathing went shallow as my mind fizzed out, making me forget everything I was trying to say. I stared up into his too-blue eyes and gulped, wanting him to kiss me again.
“Y-yes?” I whispered, though it sounded more like an uncertain question than an answer, because I’d kind of forgotten what I was even saying yes about. Hopefully it was yes, he should kiss me again.
He smiled at me as if he thought me adorable. “Know what your problem is, Kaity?” He tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “You’re thinking about this way too much, anticipating every possible problem before it can even happen.”
True. “But—”
He grinned and lifted a finger to stop me. Except it was the wink following that that actually caused me to fall mute.
“I’m not asking you to marry me. I’m not even asking for a relationship. Or sex. Right now, all I want is a meal with you and time enough to get to know you. I’m curious to learn more about the woman whose mouth I know so intimately.” His eyebrows lifted. “Aren’t you curious to know more about me?”
Infinitely curious.
Feeling tempted all over again, I sighed. “Yes. Yes, I am.” And I convinced myself no harm could come from simply talking to a guy in a public restaurant while we both ate our respective meals at the same table.
That was until the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Ezra swept out a hand, offering me to go first. I stepped into the hallway, only for all the reasons why continuing any kind of contact with him was unwise to come back to me, standing barely thirty feet away.
“Oh my God,” I gasped and immediately reversed into the elevator. “Back, back, back.”
Ramming my spine into Ezra as I corralled him back onto the lift, I slapped at the close door button before we were fully inside again.
“What the hell?” He reached for the wall to regain his balance.
The door finally closed, and I turned to him beyond relieved we hadn’t been spotted, only to be faced with an entirely new problem.
Oh, crap.
From the look on Ezra’s face, I knew there was no way I’d be escaping this elevator without revealing all, especially when he pushed the stop button and turned to me menacingly. “Okay. What the fuck is going on?”
“I’m sorry,” I gushed, clutching my face as my guts twisted with worry. The worst thing was, I wasn’t apologizing for shoving him, but for ruining our lovely night in the courtyard together, which I’m sure I was about to ruin for him…most thoroughly. “I’m so sorry about all this. But… Lana was out there,” I tried to explain.
He cleared his throat, straightened away from the elevator wall and tugged his jacket back into place before very calmly saying, “Okay… And?”
Huh. That was usually all I had to say to people. But not for Ezra Nash, apparently. He needed the entire story.
No matter how poised he sounded, I could tell he wasn’t very composed under the surface. He was beginning to lose patience with me. I cringed. “And… And she can’t see us together. Ever.”
He opened his mouth. Since I already knew he was going to ask why, I answered before he could.
“She hates me. She absolutely detests the very air I breathe. And she wants you. She wants you bad. So if you think she was ever unpleasant to you before, that is nothing like the holy hell she would rain down on both of us if she ever spotted us together, and I mean even just sharing an elevator together.”
Ezra stared at me with the blankest expression for the longest time. I had no idea what was going through his brain. Finally, he held up a finger before shaking his head. “Alright, wait.” Looking mildly sick to his stomach, he said, “What exactly do you mean by she wants me?”
I sent him a telling glance. “You’re a young, attractive, virile, powerful man. What do you think I mean?”
He recoiled away from me, or maybe he was just recoiling from the ideas I was putting into his head, before he backed into the wall of the elevator. Then he grimaced as if he’d just tasted something vile. “No fucking way.”
A second later, he shook his head, and the disgust on his face told me how much he rejected the very idea. “Are you sure? I mean, to me, it seems as if the only strong feelings she has for me is animosity.”
I shrugged with another wince. “I’m pretty sure. I mean, even Brick has commented on the way she looks at you. She’s definitely interested.”
A full body shudder consumed him before he brushed at the sleeves of his jacket as if to clean such filthy knowledge off him. “But that’s just sick.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, biting my lip and feeling awful for being the one to bring this to his attention.
He shook his head and focused on me, narrowing his gaze. “You know what, even if that were the case, which I’m in complete denial about, who cares if she sees us together? We’re both consenting adults. We can—”
“You do realize we’re talking about Lana Judge, right?” I asked, gaping at him incredulously. “It wouldn’t matter if you paraded a complete stranger in front of her on your arm, she’d hate anyone she saw playing with the toy she wants.”
