Page 12 of Love You Like That

By the time the wings were damn near bones and our second round of drinks was halfway gone, I felt good. Warm. Loose in the shoulders. My face was flushed and not from the liquor but from him. The way he looked at me, slow and sure, like he was painting me with his eyes and every glance was another brushstroke.

We’d shifted to the same side of the booth somewhere between talking about his former hustling days and me admitting I had a lowkey obsession with old medical journals. Bythis point, my leg was draped over his a little, and neither of us moved to fix it.

Ezra smelled like spice and wood. He talked with his hands sometimes, and when he laughed? It started low and rumbled all the way out like he meant it. It didn’t matter what we talked about; our different upbringings, past relationships or what music we liked… everything felt connected.

The band onstage shifted into something slower. The second the notes rolled out, my whole body recognized it.Free Mindby Tems. On the dance floor, an older couple had stood and moved into a slow sway with the woman’s head on the man’s chest. I watched their bodies rock like they’d done this every Friday night for the last thirty years.

They held my attention for a few moments. Then, I looked at Ezra and without thinking or asking for permission, I grabbed his hand and whispered, “Come dance with me.”

He blinked. “What?”

I stood and tugged his hand again, smiling like I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “You heard me.”

He groaned, but he was smiling. “I got two left feet. You sure 'bout this?”

“Positive,” I said, already pulling him toward the dance floor. “I’ll lead if I have to.”

“I bet you say that to all the poets you seduce.”

I looked back over my shoulder, lips curled. We stepped onto the floor, and the song washed over us like silk. Ezra hesitated for half a second before sliding one arm around my waist, the other holding my hand. His touch was warm, steady, and familiar even though this was new.

“I’m really not good at this shit,” he muttered near my ear.

“You’re doing fine,” I whispered. “Just feel it.”

So he did. And so did I. We moved slowly, my cheek against his chest now, his chin grazing the top of my head. His hand slid a little lower on my back, and I let it. Our bodies lined up like we’d done this before in another life like our souls knew the steps even if our feet didn’t.

“So you never dance like this?” I asked softly.

“Not since my cousin’s wedding in Maryland when I was like… ten.”

I chuckled against his chest and felt his own chest shake as he chuckled. “You’re doing great.” I looked up at him, our faces inches apart now. His lips were parted just a little like he wasabout to say something else but I beat him to it. I kissed him again.

This time, it wasn’t playful or curious and he kissed me back like he already knew what I was thinking. Like his body had already decided. His hand slid up into my locs, cradling the back of my head, his other arm locking me against him like he didn’t want to let me go.

The kiss lingered, melted, and deepened until I had to break it just to breathe. Neither of us said anything for a moment because we didn’t need to. Then I looked at him and into that one steady eye that saw me clearer than anyone had in a long time and I said it.

“You wanna get outta here?”

He pulled back slightly and studied me with a soft smile. “Only if you ready for that.”

And just like that, the rest of the night was ours.

T h er i d eb a c kto my place was soaked in silence but not the kind that made you reach for filler words. It was heavy, warm and electric. Ezra sat beside me in the passenger seat with his hand resting on my thigh, thumb tracing slow circles that made my breath catch more than once. I drove with one hand on the wheel with the other inching closer to his without realizing it.

He didn’t say a word and neither did I but the air between us buzzed. It buzzed all the way down River Avenue, past the quiet intersections, past the corner boys dapping up under streetlights and arrived on my side of town. I could feel Ezra's eyes on me, studying me like he was already writing the next line about how I looked with the city casting gold over my skin.

When we pulled into the underground garage of my building, I didn’t even look at him. Just cut the engine, unbuckled, and whispered, “Come on.”

We took the elevator up in silence but it wasn’t awkward. It was full of everything we weren’t saying. His hand hovered behind my back, not touching but close. The tension was so thick it felt like it had hands of its own. When we reached my floor, I walked to my door without turning around but I knew he wasbehind me. I could feel the heat of him like a sun trying not to burn.

I opened the door, stepped inside, and barely got it closed before Ezra was on me. His hands grabbed my waist, and pulled me back into him so hard I gasped. My purse slid off my shoulder and hit the floor. I turned in his arms and we kissed like we were starved like every second we spent apart before this moment had built into a need that refused to be gentle now.

I pulled him deeper into me, backing into the wall by the door as his tongue locked into mine and his fingers dug into the curve of my waist. My head tilted back when his lips slid down my jaw to the base of my neck. I whimpered, and he moaned all deep and low like my sound fed something in him.

“Damn,” he breathed against my collarbone. “You smell so fuckin’ good.”

We stumbled down the hallway, knocking into the wall once, laughing in between kisses that kept getting deeper, and hungrier. I reached for his shirt and tugged it up, my hands roaming over his chest, and his shoulders, the tattoos inked into his skin like poetry written in pain.

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