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“He told me you don’t have to follow through with it until you’re thirty.”
“By the time we’re thirty,” I correct him. “My parents want it to happen immediately after college.”
Ezra blinks, his dark lashes full where they line those beautiful amber eyes. “Which means you have ten years, at least, to have fun. Why not start now?”
Annoyance trickles in my head like rain. “Because I’m supposed to save myself-“
“For what?” he asks, interrupting me. “Mason doesn’t care.”
I’m not sure why the comment stings, but it does. Not because of Mason. What he thinks or does means nothing. It’s more because I’ve been trapped in perpetual wait for a marriage I don’t want. Like the only reason for my existence is to be someone’s wife.
“If my parents find out-“
Pressing the soft pad of his thumb to my lips, he doesn’t let me finish the thought.
“Just fun. And they won’t find out. I’ll make sure of it.”
“How?” I ask, the movement of my lips allowing his thumb to brush the front of my teeth.
Taking advantage, he slips it in my mouth, presses down on my tongue so forcefully that I shudder. That small reaction sparks fire in his eyes, his lips slightly parting.
I can’t deny how weird this is, I’m practically sucking another person’s thumb, but it feels right for a million reasons I can’t figure out.
Keeping his thumb in place, he leans down to speak against my ear, his chest softly brushing mine, his breath hot against my skin.
“Because if anybody says a word about it, I’ll hurt them.”
The look in his eyes tells me he means it. But not just that. In a way, it feels like Ezra is arching over my body protectively, like I’m somehow vulnerable and he’s the only person strong enough to watch over me.
It’s a strange feeling to have, but it’s there, just on the edges, a bond formed after he showed me the secret of his bruises, and I revealed the secret of my inexperience.
My gaze drops down to the mark on his shoulder again, the direction of it like someone was holding onto him from behind, a punishing grip that sets my teeth together and my jaw painfully tight.
Before I can mention it, noise erupts in the house beyond the room, laughter and catcalls and voices rising up. The door opens again a minute later, all that noise rushing at us without being muted.
Ezra’s body twists to growl at whoever dared walk in this room, every muscle tense, like a beast ready to rip out the throat of any person threatening what he protects.
Ava squeaks and looks away, but she doesn’t shut the door. “We have to go, Emily. It’s Ivy.”
Oh, God. What has Gabriel done?
It’s only then that I realize Ezra’s thumb is still in my mouth, the pad pressing against the muscle so that I can’t immediately speak.
Pulling away, I stare up at him. “I have to go.”
He doesn’t appear to care, but he crawls off me anyway, our eyes still tangled together as I sit up and become angry that I can’t finish whatever was happening between us.
I’m on my feet when he grabs my hand, amber eyes locking to mine with a silent promise that will follow us into adulthood.
“I mean what I said,” he reminds me. “I’ll hurt anyone that -“
“Let’s go, Emily.”
Ava’s voice is urgent, which means whatever Gabriel did to Ivy must be bad.
Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath before opening them again.
“I don’t want you hurting anybody, Ezra. And I don’t want anybody hurting you.”
