CHAPTER EIGHTThe initial shock of Maleficent’s lips claiming mine left me briefly paralyzed.At first, I was like… What the…? I’m being kissed.Then I was like… Holy wow, I’m being kissed well.After that, it was all just… Mmm. Nice.His lips were warm and soft, more of a tease than a true caress, as if he were testing the waters to make sure I wanted it too. I found myself closing my eyes and swaying toward him, cupping his face between my hands and delighting in the texture of his jaw against my fingers. He was clean-shaven and yet still sandpaper rough.After exerting the slightest amount of pressure, making me whimper for more, he drew himself away, sucking in a soft, satisfied hiss as he went. “Damn,” he murmured.Exactly.I felt dizzy and bereft when his heat and intoxicating smell left me. I wanted him back.“That was…” I shook my head and tried to recapture my equilibrium. “That was…”“Not enough,” he finished for me before
CHAPTER NINEThe menace behind his question rattled through me with doom, mostly because he no longer seemed so welcoming. Now he was distrustful and guarded. He wouldn’t soften toward me until I at least answered him with a name. But the only name I could give him would tear us further apart.I suddenly felt as if I had deceived him in the courtyard, even though I’d had no idea who he was when we’d met out there.He’d never believe I wasn’t one of Lana’s spies if he learned who I was. It was best if we just stopped things here and now while he was none the wiser.“Can’t we just let tonight become some nice, amusing memory and leave it at that?” I asked even as I took a step backward away from him.Except he hissed, “No,” and prowled after me. “Tell me who you are.” When I shook my head, he grinned. “Maybe I need to kiss the truth from you then. Huh?”My lips parted on a silent exhale. I knew I shouldn’t care, but the knowledge that he s
CHAPTER TENI woke up Sunday morning touching my lips as if I could still feel Ezra’s mouth against them.Ezra.It felt so strange to think of him with that name, like someone I didn’t even know. Then again, the man I’d met last night had been a stranger to me, even if he’d ended up being someone I recognized.Nash could stay the haughty but fair CEO I wanted to emulate before I overthrew, but Ezra… Ezra was the kind, compelling, entertaining man with a passion for me that made my head spin and blood heat. Meeting him felt like a dream.I sat up in bed, frowning and worried that maybe he had been a dream after all. Not sure why I would put him in a Maleficent costume and then have a boob war with him in my dream, but hey, dreams were weird things.In fact, maybe the entire night had been a dream. Had Brick really given me a job and called me family? Had Hayden smiled at me and accepted my cookie? It all seemed too good to be true.Acros
CHAPTER ELEVEN“Oh my God,” I gasped, my eyes widening. How the hell had he known where to look for me?Brick glanced up curiously from his phone conversation to meet my gaze across the room. I gaped at him a moment, too frozen to move, before my limbs went haywire and I suddenly dove unplanned behind the filing cabinet where there was a scant foot of space between it and the wall. Perfect for me to hide in.“What in the…?” Brick started to ask as I crouched down out of sight, a split second before a knock rapped against the open doorframe of his office. “Uh, I’ll have to call you back, babe,” he said, and then I heard the squeak of his chair as he must’ve sat forward. “Hey. Come on in.”“Carmichael.” Ezra’s voice was pure Nash: clipped and to the point with his usual CEO tone. It sounded nothing like his Ezra voice he used on me. And yet, I still shivered with the good kind of goose bumps when I heard it, because, yeah, it was him out the
CHAPTER TWELVEAs soon as I acquiesced, Ezra rose from the chair he’d been sitting in. He held a hand down to me. I took his fingers and had to bite the inside of my lip at the thrill that raced through me when his warm touch made contact with mine. Not even glancing down at all the dust no doubt covering my slacks, I continued to gaze into Ezra’s blue-blue eyes as I brushed my knees clean.His smile widened as if he thought my antics were amusing. He kept staring into my eyes and holding my hand as he started toward the exit of Brick’s office.My stepbrother was still on the phone when we entered the hall. He paused talking, and dropped one end of the cell from his mouth so he could rubberneck, his shocked gaze darting from our clasped hands to our faces. I could only imagine how brightly my cheeks were glowing. It felt as if I were under a spell that made me unreasonably content.“Uh…” Brick said, his gaze narrowing on Ezra. “Where do yo
CHAPTER THIRTEEN“Okay, why the fuck did he leave his shoe on my desk?”Brick’s voice from right behind me made my heart nearly leap out of my chest before I spun around in the doorway of his office where I’d been standing and watching Ezra march off. He sat at his desk, Ezra’s shoe in hand.When he waved the familiar black pump, I slumped against the doorjamb and closed my eyes. “Dammit.” Then with a frown, I opened my eyes, straightened, and pointed to my stepbrother. “This time, you’re returning it to him.”Brick lifted a single eyebrow. “This time?”Crap. Said too much.Wincing and then offering him a big smile, I pressed my hands together in prayer before asking, “What’re the chances you could just forget you heard that?”He set the shoe down and folded his arms over his chest as he rocked back in his chair. “About zero, I’d say.”“That’s what I thought.” With a sigh, I fell into the chair across from him and told him everything,
CHAPTER FOURTEENI was still blue when I clocked out of work. It was the first time I actually got to use the JFI time clock to clock out, too. I should’ve been delighted about that alone. I was now a full-time employee at my father’s company. Woot-woot! It felt as if I’d already half reached my dreams. I could practically feel my father’s spirit grinning in pride. The sensation of that’s my girl seemed to shimmer through me as I left the office. I should’ve wanted to celebrate, rejoice.But my encounters with Ezra had left me more maudlin than festive. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d really hurt him. I knew talking to someone a total of maybe an hour and a half all together didn’t make us close or anything, but there’d been something between us, something that made me feel as if I’d always known him, as if my soul had seen his and said, oh, there you are.That was silly, I knew. But I still couldn’t shake the sense that I’d ruined ev
CHAPTER FIFTEEN“Brother?” I whirled toward Isobel, whispering, “No.” I even shook my head to deny it.But then I blinked rapidly as pieces began to come together. Ezra had said his sister was disfigured and still one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen. That description fit Isobel perfectly. She was simply lovely, scars and all.“Oh my God,” I gasped, backing away from her and lifting my hands in apology, though I had no idea what I was apologizing for. “You are. You really are, aren’t you?”She shook her head, smiling out a confused frown. “How do you know Ezra?” Then her expression fell. “Oh, Lord. Please don’t tell me he’s been giving you unwanted attention.”“What? No!” I cried a bit too quickly before flushing. “I mean, it totally wouldn’t be unwanted, if he were… Which he’s not, because why… Why would he give little ol’ me any attention? I’m no one.”Gabby snorted. “I think the girl doth protest too much.”“Definitely,” Ca