CHAPTER 16
Lia
It took me a moment to really understand what Zeke was saying. “So you were looking for me so we could talk?”
He nodded. “I couldn’t let you marry him, Lia. Not if I could possibly stop it. And I wasn’t averse to bodily carrying you out of the chapel if I had to. It wasn’t all about me, even though I knew at the chapel that I was in love with you. I wanted to keep you from making a mistake that might hurt you for a very long time.”
I leaned back so I could see him, swiping a tear from my cheek. “I wasn’t going to marry him, Zeke. When I got up the morning of my wedding, I was sick to my stomach. And once I was in the church putting on my wedding dress, it suddenly dawned on me that I couldn’t go through with the wedding because I didn’t really love Stuart. I was going to talk to Stuart so we could end it when his brother found me.”
“So you really wouldn’t have gone through with it?” he asked in an incredulous baritone.
I shook my head. “But I guess I had backup just in case I changed my mind. It’s good to know you had my back.”
I stroked a hand over his whiskered jawline, my heart so full of love that I never wanted to stop touching the amazing man I’d married.
“Maybe I was a little late, but I finally realized that I was lying to myself if I thought I was going to sit through the ceremony while you married somebody else. And somebody like Stuart? Not happening.”
“Exactly how long were you lying to yourself?” I asked curiously.
“Years,” he replied.
“I offered myself to you once, but you didn’t seem to be interested.” That night didn’t hurt anymore, but I wanted to know exactly when we stopped really listening to each other.
“Your twenty-first birthday,” he said in a raspy voice. “Jesus, Lia. Did you really think I was going to take advantage of the fact that you were hammered? I was your friend.”
“I knew exactly what I was doing, Zeke.”
“You never mentioned it when you were sober,” he grumbled.
“I was embarrassed. But I knew what I wanted. I just thought that it wasn’t going to happen.”
“Even then, I wanted it to happen,” he admitted. “But I wasn’t about to fuck you when you were two sheets to the wind, sweetheart. I cared too much about you to do that.”
“We’ve really been dancing around each other all these years,” I said with a sigh.
“Pretty much,” he told me. “Why do you think I wanted to be the one to take you out on your twenty-first birthday? I didn’t trust any other guy to be around you when your guard was down. But when you didn’t talk about what you’d said the night before, I thought you’d forgotten everything that had happened while you were drunk.”
“I never forgot,” I confessed. “I was embarrassed because I thought you didn’t feel the same way. After a while, I guess I buried it because I already assumed you didn’t want me, and I didn’t want to lose our friendship, too.”
I squeaked as he stood up and dropped my ass on the table.
“Assumptions have gotten us both into trouble,” he said roughly.
I nodded as I gazed up at him. “I know.”
“No more guessing for either of us. If we want to know something, we ask.”
“I’ll talk to you,” I agreed.
“And I want you to trust me, Lia. I want you to know that there isn’t another person in this world as important to me as you.”
“I shouldn’t have accused you of seeing Angelique,” I said remorsefully.
“No, you shouldn’t have. But I get feeling possessive. In fact, you make me pretty damn crazy.”
I opened my mouth to answer, but the words were stifled as his mouth covered mine.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I let myself get lost in Zeke.
I wanted to climb inside him, and never come back out again. He surrounded me in passion and love so completely that I couldn’t get close enough.
“Zeke,” I panted as he released my lips. “Fuck me.”
He pushed me back so I was sprawled out on the kitchen table like a buffet.
“You know, this whole bossy thing you’ve got going on makes my dick so damn hard that I can’t think,” he rasped as he pulled off my shorts.
He pulled me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist. “I’d be more than happy to give you a boner any time you want,” I whispered against his neck.
“Do you know why it turns me on?” he questioned.
My body was taut with need, but I asked, “Why?”
“Because I know you’re happy. I know that Stuart didn’t fucking break your spirit. I know that you’re feeling confident again. And I know that you fucking love me.”
He moved back and surged inside me with a force that made me suck in a breath as he lodged himself deep.
“Yes,” I said breathlessly. “I do love you, Zeke. So much.”
“I love you, too, baby, even if you do make me lose my damn mind.”
I melted into him then, luxuriating in every frantic thrust of his cock.
Now wasn’t the time for anything except the frenzy of joining us together. And I wanted it just as hard and hot as I could get it. “More,” I pleaded, my legs tightening around his waist.
He gave me more. Zeke gave me everything, and I felt myself hurtling toward climax as he grasped my ass, his cock pummeling into me with satisfying urgency.
Zeke was mine, and I felt it with every single movement he made.
He claimed me as his.
And I took what I’d wanted for so damn long, my body finally imploding as I shuddered through my release.
“You were always meant to be mine,” Zeke growled as he started to come. “Always. Fucking. Mine.”
I clung to him, my breathing ragged as his words sunk into my soul.
Maybe I hadn’t known it when I was a kid, but I knew now that Zeke had always been my destiny.
My Grandma Esther was right.
“We were always meant to be together,” I said breathlessly as I rested my head on his shoulder, our bodies still connected as we tried to recover from the quick, intense experience we’d just shared. “My grandma was right.”
Zeke stroked a hand over my hair. “Maybe it was easier to see from the outside. But we always made sense, sweetheart. We just took the hard way to find each other.”
I moved back and kissed him, a long, slow, exploring embrace that left me raw and vulnerable.
I put my arms on his shoulders, our faces still close together as I whispered, “I should have known from the moment you put Bobby Turner on the ground for trying to feel my boobs.”
“I never knew his name, but I hated that little bastard,” he said sternly. “You were only fourteen.”
“And you were my hero,” I shared with a smile.
“I always want to be your hero, Lia,” he said earnestly.
“You never stopped being one to me,” I answered. “I love you, Zeke.”
“I love you,” he answered immediately.
I hugged him tightly as he picked me up from the table and headed for the master bedroom.
“I don’t think I’ll ever look at breakfast the same way again,” I muttered.
Although Zeke and I had tried out almost every surface of the penthouse, we’d never christened the kitchen table.
I smiled as he started to laugh, a sound that boomed through the house so loudly that my heart started to gallop wildly.
It had been a long time since I’d heard Zeke laugh like he was the happiest guy in the world.
Maybe I’d never heard that.
“I’m going to make you so happy,” I promised. “We’ll eventually forget all the hard stuff.”
“I’m already happy,” he rumbled. “And I’ll have one more hard thing for you to deal with in another minute or so.”
He dropped me on the bed, and I looked up at him.
His eyes were so full of love that I felt like I could hardly breathe because I loved him just as much.
“Bring it on, stud,” I dared.
He shot me the wicked grin I adored, and he did.