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My God, what did he want from me? To confess I had billions stashed away in some Swiss banking account? “Yes!” I hissed. “Not that it’s any of your business, but that’s it. The rest went to Lana and her sons.”
Eyebrows knitting with disbelief, he asked, “And you accepted that?” With a shrug, he added, “I mean, it just sounds fishy to me. He left you so little, yet you didn’t question the will or contest it at all.”
Getting irritated, I pushed to my feet and glared him down. “No, I did not question the will. It was my father’s final wishes. Why would I challenge what he wanted?”
Pushing to his feet as well, Ezra dusted off everything that had had contact with the floor. “Yeah, but—”
“No buts!” I boomed, poking my finger into the center of his chest. “He raised me to believe I had to work for the things I wanted. So why would I truly believe he left me with everything and therefore would never have to work for anything in my life again? That doesn’t make sense to me.” Realizing how close I’d stormed to him as I snarled up into his handsome face, I huffed out a breath and eased a step back. “Why are we arguing about this anyway?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, looking flustered as he took his own step back and ran a hand through his hair, mussing it artfully, which in turn made my fingers ache to play in those dark locks. Lifting his face from his shining black shoes, he said, “Maybe because I don’t want to hear you admit you knew exactly who I was when you stepped into that courtyard with me Saturday night.”
My lips parted.
It was like a punch to the gut to hear him even question it. Our few minutes in the courtyard had been magical—special—and he’d just turned it into something sinister and conniving.
Sure, I’d worried this was exactly what he’d think, but now that he was, it still hurt. More than I thought it would.
“I had no idea who you were then. You know I had no idea who you were.”
“Do I?” he asked, the question in his eyes breaking my heart. “Or are you just that good of an actress?” He lifted his hands. “I wouldn’t put anything past Lana’s daughter.”
Rage, hurt, and shock welled in me. “I am not her daughter.” I was nothing like her. Being compared to her was the harshest blow anyone could serve.
Ezra’s moody blue eyes swirled with suspicion and maybe even a little of his own hurt, as if he felt betrayed. “Then why didn’t you tell me who you were? I brought up your parents, hell, I even doubted your existence, yet you said nothing.”
I shook my head, no idea how to answer. “It didn’t seem to matter then,” I whispered. “At that moment, we were just two strangers in the dark looking for a pair of shoes. It seemed, I don’t know, inappropriate to break the mood between us with facts. And then, later, when I realized who you were and it became important for you to know who I was, then it was too late. This is actually all your fault, you know. You never should’ve kissed me before we learned each other’s names. None of this would’ve happened if you’d just asked me for my name first thing.”
“Or if you had volunteered your name when I started talking about your parents,” he countered through gritted teeth. “And stop looking at me like that, or I’m going to give you what you want and kiss the fuck out of you again.”
I gasped. “I am not looking at you like I want to be kissed.”
He took a step toward me, looking very much as if he wanted to kiss me too. “Yeah, you are,” he murmured. “You want it as much as I do.”
I hated being so open. Grinding my teeth, I muttered, “Well, stop being such a good kisser, damn you, and I’ll stop wanting it.”
He groaned and took another step closer, his hand reaching out, just as the elevator doors opened.
We sprang apart, even though we hadn’t yet been that close. The way we moved, however, like we were guilty of something illicit, made the man wanting to enter pause and eye us as if he had indeed interrupted something scandalous.
My face flushed hot as Christopher Elton shifted his wide-eyed glance away from Ezra to me. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“You’re fine,” Ezra answered stiffly, motioning him into the car with us. I crowded closer to the wall and as far away from Ezra as I could get to make room for Christopher in the middle. All the while, I wanted to sink through the floor and escape.
But
Christopher paused. “Don’t you two need out? We’re on the first floor.”
Oh, Lord, could the moment get any more humiliating?
Yes, yes, it could. Ezra pierced Christopher with a death glare but calmly said, “We decided not to go out to breakfast after all.”
We had?
My gaze shot to him. He sent me a quick glance, only to turn his attention away again and shove his hands into his pockets before studying the buttons on the wall panel.
“Still,” Christopher tried, hooking his thumb over his shoulder as if he had somewhere else to be. “I can just take the—”
“Get in the damn elevator,” Ezra bit out.
