Page 143 of Wrath

He hugs me hard, whispers, “I love you.”

Everything slips out of focus for the rest of the night. It feels like a fever dream—the cool air and the costumes, eating caramel apples Jenna made and searching for Ezra around every corner at the cabin. Kissing in the woods…touching his warm, familiar pecs, his biceps, kissing his throat, whispering, “I love you, Ezra Masters. Just you and nobody else.”

We make it into the bedroom on the other side of the duck bathroom for a minute, and he hugs me up against him, kissing my hair.

“I need to leave. I want you. In bed,” he whispers into my ear.

“Let’s sit on the roof,” I murmur. We still do that sometimes. I like having his head in my lap, wrapping an arm around him.

He rests his cheek against my shoulder. “Love you, Millsy.” And then he’s back through the bathroom. He’s gone—so we can keep this charade up.

We don’t leave early. We stay late, till almost midnight. Brennan knows our parents are away this weekend, which means he’s aware we don’t have a curfew. My mom’s gone to buyers’ market to buy things at cost for the gift shop, and Carl went with her.

I love watching Ezra at the party. He knows everyone now, and even though I think he’s more ambivert than extrovert, I can see him watching people, picking up on little things that charm them, trying to make them laugh. At one point, he lays Jenna out on the couch and pretends to suck her blood, and everybody cheers.

Then he looks at me and looks at the back door—the one that leads out onto the porch. We meet back there a few minutes later, and he leads me into the woods, where he kisses my mouth, wraps his hand around my nape, and whispers, “Let’s go in a minute.”

I nod. “Sounds good, Count.”

He hugs me hard, and smells me. “I love you.” I see his smile in the moonlight.

“I love you too.” I kiss his cheek. “Pretty angel.”

He kisses under my jaw. “You go in first. Say bye. I’m gonna walk around the other side of the place and smoke. Just come find me there, okay?”

“Okay, Ez. See you around.” I wink, and he saunters off, trailing his long cape.

Almost an hour later we’re in my room, stripping off our costumes. We dive into bed together, doing our favorite thing—the sixty-nine pose where we’re on our sides, and he’s got his hand between my legs, his arm pressed on my balls, one of his fingers slipped into my hole with lube he ordered online.

It feels so good tonight. My abs actually ache from comingwhen we’re finished, which makes me laugh. I wait till he’s almost asleep to tell him a secret.

“I got something for us,” I whisper.

He turns to me, curling up against my chest. “Is it donuts?”

He’s been doing so much better with his eating. That makes me smile back. “No, it’s not donuts.”

“Did you get a toy?” His eyes widen on that. He’s been trying to convince me to get something he can push into me.

“Sort of.” I grin. “It’s…a toy for the shower.”

I look at him, and he looks at me. And he realizes what I’m saying.

“What?”

I grin, pressing my cheek to his. “We have this place to ourselves tomorrow. I thought I could use it. And then…we’ll see what happens next.”

He wakes up at night again. It’s been happening more for the last week or two. When I come out of my own dreamland, his body’s stiff and tense, and he’s got his hands up in front of him. The look on his face says he’s bracing. He makes sounds like little groans, but I don’t know what’s hurting him in his sleep. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. As soon as I wrap him up, kiss his cheeks and whisper to him, his eyes open just a little, and his whole damn body sort of goes limp.

“I’ve got you,” I whisper, and he says, “I know,” and wraps himself around me. Then he sleeps through the night.

We get donuts Sunday morning, and he eats two in the car. I can’t help a smug grin as he polishes the second one off.

He thumps my chin lightly. “Whatchu smiling about, Millsy?”

“Nothing.”

“I got something on my face?” he asks.

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