I remember this day. God, we were so innocent back then. Our mother had just passed, and Malcolm was still relatively stable. We took this on the day after her funeral and we’d always laugh about how fucked up it was that this day was the happiest we’d ever looked.
“I started working on it a couple of months ago.” Ezra offers, pressing his lips together in a hard line. “I know it isn’t anything great, but I figured you might still like to keep it.”
I turn to face him, staring at him with glassy eyes. “Ez, this is… this is the best gift anyone has ever given me.”
I wrap my arms around him, squeezing him tighter than I’ve ever held anyone before. He’s solid and warm and beautiful and so fucking tragic and he’s all mine.
“I missed you.” Ezra says, breathing into my hair as he pulls me closer. “And I shouldn’t have lied to you about your sister.”
I slowly shake my head. His lie may have been the catalyst for why I ran that night, but I was already teetering on the edge of self-destruction. If he didn’t push me over the edge, something else would’ve.
“I thought I was doing the right thing.” He says. “Giving you the closure that you needed to move on. I didn’t realize how stupid of an idea that was until it was too late.”
“We both made mistakes.” I say, holding his gaze. “There’s so many awful things I wish I could take back and honestly, I don’t blame you for what happened last night. You have every reason to hate me.”
“I don’t hate you, Angel.” He says, locking his eyes on me. “I never have. Last night was an accident. I mistook you for someone else.”
“You said my name Ez. It’s okay if it wasn’t an accident. I’ve already forgiven you.”
“It was an accident.” He says, shaking his head. “I stupidly mistook for your ghost. She’s been haunting me ever since you left and when I ran into you, I had no idea that you were real. I would never intentionally hurt you, Angel. You’re everything to me. Always have been. Always will be.”
“You can’t mean that.” I say, pulling away from him as I shake my head. “After everything I’ve done, how could you possibly still look at me the same?”
Ezra furrows his brow and cocks his head at me like it’s the most ridiculous question he’s ever heard. “Why wouldn’t I? You know, for the longest time, my world centered on my demons.” He says, stepping towards me. “They were my driving force and the only things really keeping me going.” A bitter smile forms on his face. “I care about my brothers, but if I’m honest, a part of me always felt like they’d be better off without me. I was too saturated in the darkness to get out, but they were still good. They tapped into their darkness when they needed to, but they never felt at home with it, like I did. That was the hand dealt to me and, mostly, I accepted it. That is until I met you.”
His smoky gray eyes come alive as he studies my face, and he stares at me with a mixture of awe and unabashed adoration. “I don’t know how you did it, or if you even meant to do it. But somehow, you shifted something in me. You made me feel things. New things. And I found myself wanting to be different for you. To act better and become the kind of man that deserves you.”
“You want to know why I still see you like that? Why I would still put everything I have on the line to keep you safe? The answer’s simple. It’s because you saved me. When the shit in my head gets to be too much, thinking of you and the good you still see in me is the only thing that can pull me out of the darkness.”
I’m at a loss for words. I always knew he and I had this strange kismet connection, but I never knew he saw me like that. Like this lightness that could pull him out of the dark.
I stare at him and for the first time since I walked through that door; I stop over thinking and just allow myself to just be present in the moment. Ezra cares for me. He wants to be better for me. And right now, all I want to do is show him how much his words mean to me.
I pull him in for a soft kiss, allowing my body to melt deeper into his touch as he slides his hands down my back and picks me up off my feet. He blindly strides across the room, ignoring the piles of canvases that scatter across the floor, before slamming my back against his vast floor to ceiling window.
The glass is surprisingly cool to the touch, and little shivers run up and down my spine as our kiss gets filthier and filthier. Ezra kisses like he fucks. All brutal and rough while still leaving you begging for more.
I whimper against his lips as I claw for the hem of his t-shirt, doing everything I can to rip it off of his back. Ezra breaks our kiss, flashing me a wicked grin as he sets me back down on my feet and starts stripping the rest of his clothes off. I do the same, tossing my shirt aside and kicking off my yoga pants as quickly as I can.
“Turn around.” He snaps, rotating his index finger in a slow circle. “I want those perfect tits of yours pressed against the fucking glass.”
I do as I’m told and am rewarded with his cock filling me to the brim at the same moment his fingers reach around and delicately circling my clit. I snap my head back as he dives deeper into me, feeling every inch of him as he forces his way in, pumping harder and harder inside of me.
I let out a deep groan of pleasure and arch my back even further as he uses his free hand to grip a handful of my hair. He pulls with just the right amount of pressure, and my entire body feels like it’s on sensation overload. The perfect mix of pain and pleasure.
I love that he’s still not afraid to hurt me. That he’s never treated me like I was some fragile, broken thing he needs to handle with care.
A light sheen of sweat coats my skin and I’m slipping down the window now, but his cock is still relentless, pounding into me harder and harder while his fingers circle my clit faster and faster.
He’s fucking me so brutally. So damn thoroughly that my legs are like jelly and after a while, I have no choice but to shift to all fours to keep my balance.
I feel his cock swell inside of me and turn to face him just as my pussy clamps tighter and tighter and the friction of his fingers, and the fullness of his cock, become too much to bear. Pleasure shoots through my body, ricocheting through every inch of my skin and we groan together in ecstasy as we each ride our own wave of bliss.
After we finish cleaning up, I lay beside him and nestle myself against his chest. He wraps his arm around me and pulls me closer as he presses his nose to the top of my head and breathes me in. I stare up at him and as the golden sunlight gleams through his windows; I feel myself melt into his arms. There are still things we need to talk about, and a lot of things left unsaid. But in this moment, feeling the slow rise and fall of his chest beneath me, I know there's nowhere else I’d rather be.