“Sweetheart, are you really asking me to think about my aunt’s dating habits? As far as I’m concerned, she’s a virgin,” Ezekiel drawled.
Laughing, Reagan strode across the floor to him. After a brief hesitation, she pressed against him and circled her arms around his neck. Rising to her toes, she kissed him, and the desire that never banked for him flickered into higher, hotter flames.
They hadn’t drawn up rules dictating this new turn in their relationship. Part of her was okay with it—no rules meant she couldn’t break them when she just wanted to casually touch him like this. But the other part of her needed to know what they were doing. Because every time she kissed him, touched him, woke up next to him, she couldn’t stop craving more. Even if her mind warned her against that greed, that it could only end in heartache, her heart didn’t seem to be heeding the memo.
Because somewhere along the line, her heart had chosen him. Maybe when she’d come upon him visiting his ex-fiancée’s grave. Maybe when he’d laid his head in her lap and allowed her to help ease some of his burden. Maybe when he hadn’t judged her after she’d revealed her past.
Did it really matter when? Her stupid, never-learn-its-damn-lesson heart had thrown itself at him, and he was Teflon. At sixteen, her reckless, headfirst dive into love could be chalked up to immaturity. But this dizzying, terrifying leap? She was going in knowing Ezekiel didn’t want her future, her affection outside of the bedroom, and most certainly not her love.
And yet...
Yet he had it. All of her.
“How was your day?” Ezekiel asked, planting one last kiss against her mouth.
“Good.” She forced a smile to her lips even though it trembled. “I spent time at the girls’ home, then headed over to the clubhouse for a meeting with Beth, Harley and Gracie about the masquerade ball. I bought tickets for us, by the way. I wanted to get ours before they were sold out—w
hat? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Go ahead with what you were saying.” Ezekiel shrugged, stepping back and heading out of the small foyer toward the living room.
No, she hadn’t imagined that flicker of unease in his eyes or the tightening of his mouth. Something had triggered his reaction. Running her words through her head, she stared at his back and the tense set of his wide shoulders.
“Zeke, if it’s about the tickets... If you’d prefer not to attend the ball because of everything that’s going on, I fully understand. It’s just that the rest of your family is going, and I thought you’d want to be there as well. But I can—”
“Ray,” he said, voice soft but firm. “We’re going to the ball. Please drop it. Everything’s fine.”
No. Everything wasn’t fine, but he wouldn’t share with her. Since returning from Vegas, Ezekiel had grown increasingly distant. Not physically—he was as passionate and insatiable with her as ever. Even more so in some ways. As if an element of desperation had crept into the sex. But a wall had sprung up around his emotions. Like now. He stood mere feet away from her, but he might as well as be on the other side of Royal. Or at the office, where he spent hours and hours into the night trying to salvage his family’s business.
Speaking of...
“What are you doing home so early?” she asked. “It’s only six, and usually you’re still at the office. Did something happen?”
He shook his head, a faint smile playing at the corner of his sensual lips. “No, sweetheart. Everything’s fine. I just asked Brian to meet me here instead of at the office. I wanted to talk with him about the legal issues with your inheritance. And I didn’t want to do that at the office.”
“I wondered about that. Are you sure you can trust him? I know how you feel about his uncle.”
Ezekiel rubbed his bearded jaw. “I really like him in spite of who he’s related to. I’ve met him before, and he’s always struck me as a good guy. And a damn good attorney. He promised to look into your grandmother’s will and see if there’s a way to get around your father’s hold on your inheritance.”
“That’s good,” she said. “Do you think maybe you could ask him to look into something else as well?” She relayed the circumstances around Gracie and her cousin. “Maybe knowing what legal claim her cousin actually has will give her some ammunition going into this battle.”
“Damn, I hate that for Gracie. This money should be a blessing, not a curse.” Ezekiel pulled his cell phone from his pants pocket, then tapped out something on the screen. “I have something even better. I’ll ask Miles if he can find out anything on this cousin. If he isn’t able to, then it can’t be found.”
Miles Wingate, Ezekiel’s cousin, owned Steel Security, a company that protected high-powered clients both physically and online. No doubt he could unearth any information on Alberto Diaz.
“Thanks, Zeke. I’m sure Gracie would appreciate it.”
“She’s family,” he said simply, and for him, that was it. Family took care of family.
“Oh, I have some potentially good news,” Reagan announced, circling around Ezekiel and picking up the coffee cups and saucers on the table in front of the couch. “I let the supervisor over at the home know that I would be cutting back on my volunteer time since I would be looking for employment. And she said an administrative position might be opening with the organization, and she would put my name in for it. With my experience there, she thinks I would be a good fit. So not only would I have a job but at a place I love.”
“That’s wonderful, sweetheart,” he murmured. “I hope it works out.”
There it was again. That note in his voice. That flash of emotion across his face and in his eyes.
“Zeke,” she said, the cups and plates suddenly weighing down her arms.
“Reagan.” He stepped closer, cradling her face and tilting his head down. He placed a tender kiss on her forehead, then nudged her chin up to look into her eyes. “Seriously, with your passion for their project, they would be fools not to snatch you up.” He took the cups and saucers from her. “How about going out for dinner tonight?”