Page 26 of Tempting the Billionaire
I try to meet his gaze but find that I’m too ashamed to. “My ex, the one I told you about—”
“Hedid this?” Ezra asks, his jaw tightening.
I nod, feeling more tears fall from my eyes. “He came over to my apartment because—because …” I stutter. “His parents jewelry business was shut down, he blames it on Bishop Jewelers, and he wanted to get back at you—lash out. He told me to seduce you, that it would ruin your reputation. And I agreed because …” I take in a shaky breath. “He has videos of me—of us, doing …” A sob escapes my throat. “He threatened to leak the videos everywhere if I didn’t do what he said.”
Ezra straightens slowly, his hands leaving me and falling to his sides. I stare up at him. While his eyebrows are still scrunched in concern, there’s a new emotion there. Disappointment, sadness, hurt. Atme. I almost want him to be angry. To yell at me, to be furious. His anger would be easier to take than this. Than this devastation I see in his eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Ezra,” I cry, wiping the tears from my eyes. “I never wanted to hurt you, but I couldn’t let him share those videos—I just couldn’t. And as we got to know each other, my feelings were real—theyarereal.”
He looks away, unable to meet my gaze. I reach for him, but he holds up a hand, stopping me. “It’s fine,” he says, but it’s short, and it cuts me to the bone.
I swallow, trying to compose myself.
He looks back at me, staring me down for a long moment. “What’s his name?” he asks me.
“Justin?”
“His full name,” he clarifies, his expression hard.
“Justin Stoll,” I say quietly.
He nods. “Where does he live?”
I frown. “Why?”
“Where does he live, Emma?” he asks me, his voice dangerously low.
I swallow, hastily mumbling his address.
He turns, pulling off the apron he’s wearing and tossing it on the counter. He grabs his wallet from the entryway table, stuffing it into his pocket.
I get up. “What are you doing?”
He doesn’t answer me, simply kneels down to hurriedly slide on his shoes. He stands, giving me one last, hard stare. “It’d probably be best if you weren’t here when I get back,” he says quietly, and it just about breaks my heart.
And with that, he turns on his heel and leaves the apartment.
Chapter 14
Ezra
I grip the steering wheel as if somehow strangling it hard enough will relieve the torrent of emotions welling up inside of me. The GPS on my phone gives me directions, and I follow them.
I keep having flashes of this past weekend in my mind. Emma and I holding hands, talking, having sex—the feelings that had emerged, the clarity I’d felt. That Emma was more to me than just a fling, that Emma was someone I could have something real with. I’d already made plans, gone over things in my head, fantasized about where it all could have gone.
And then this.
What was wrong with me? I should’ve known better than to let myself fall like this.
I slam my hand against the steering wheel. “Fuck!” I yell, but it doesn’t quell the hurt as much as I’d wanted it to. It still sits there, heavy in the pit of my stomach, like it might sit there forever.
I pull up in front of Justin Stoll’s apartment complex, slamming the car into park and storming up the front steps.
Because regardless of how betrayed I feel by Emma right now, the burning devastation coursing through my veins, I can’t stop thinking about that gnarly purple bruise on her cheekbone. How it had spread up along her temple, over her eyebrow. My hands clench into fists thinking about how that had come to happen. Had he hit her? Thrown her against something?
I reach Justin’s apartment, and I bang on the door. When he doesn’t immediately answer, I bang again. And again and again until he opens it, a confused and irritated look on his face.
“What do you—”
