Ezra wasn’t doing a fabulous job hiding his emotions. King Kincaid got contempt mixed with respect. Antonio received watchfulness. His mom, embarrassment. His dad, acquiescence. A passer-by moved directly in front of me a second later, and Ezra didn’t notice me.
“King Venclaire,” I heard him murmur evenly as I moved from behind another individual walking in front of me. That’s when Ezra saw me. His gaze stilled for a moment, his eyes darting back and forth between mine and his nostrils flaring, before he turned his attention back to his King. “Is there something you need?”
King Venclaire rocked back on his heels, placing his hand in his pant pockets. “Since we’re heading to lunch, and you appear to be almost free, we thought you might join us.”
I watched, my anger slowly building again — which I could hardly keep banked and appear peaceful at the same time — as Ezra extracted himself from the woman with the remarkable dark eyes. He yanked his shirt over his head when the woman appeared steady on her feet, then…good God…began zipping his fucking jeans and fixing his belt. Nostrils flaring, I glanced away and stared across the cave’s abyss, more than pissed. He had let me down. Even if he needed to let off sexual tension, he could have fucking waited until I came back to watch over Jack and Pearl.
Not to mention, the damn woman. My nose crinkled. Her scent was cloying, and it was mixed with him. The two scents didn’t mingle together well. I wiggled my nose, then rubbed it as my wrath bubbled. Pretty sure I was interrupting them — and not giving a shit — I stated, “I’ve got to go.” I glanced at Ezra from under my lids as everyone went mute. “Jack and Pearl might need something.”
Ezra’s lips only lifted at my covert, cross glance. “Their parents hijacked them.”
My foot literally stopped in midair as I froze. “Oh.” Said foot lowered to the ground, but bizarrely my temper didn’t lower any. Turning to everyone who was staring, I tried to push the attention from myself, asking Ezra, “Who’s your friend?” Honestly, I was a little curious. I had never seen him kiss a woman like he had been doing her. Normally, he immediately left them after fucking them, not lingering as he had been doing.
Adjusting his belt so it was straight, he stated absently, “This is Jessica.”
I blinked, my attention swinging to the woman, her own natural scent bugging the hell out of me. My gaze roamed over her, taking in her disheveled appearance, which did nothing to distract from how gorgeous she was: her large dark eyes, her skin tone close to Ezra’s, her plump lips swollen like his, her cheeks still flushed, the fitted navy silk robe she wore that accentuated her large, full breasts and perfectly shaped hips. One of her long, shapely legs was showing through the slit of her robe while she rested against her doorframe. My gaze went beyond her into her room, where candles were lit and her bed, like Finn’s, in perfect view, the red satin sheets rumpled, not torn to bits as ours had been. Unlike Finn, she didn’t shut the door to hide the evidence of their time together. My gaze met hers, and I already knew what I would see there: confidence that she had screwed him and screwed him well.
I wasn’t wrong.
I sniffed, turning my attention to Ezra’s green gaze, keeping my voice cool. “Same woman as yesterday.” My eyes flitted to the healing marks I could still see on his arms that peeked out from beneath his shirt’s sleeves. “Impressive.”
I felt satisfaction seeing Jessica bristle next to him.
“Yes, it was,” Ezra murmured, cocking his head.
Scenting the air without making a production of it told me he was telling truth. “Good for you.” I couldn’t have meant it less at that moment. Rolling my shoulders, I turned and brushed past King Venclaire. “I’m going for a run if Jack and Pearl are fine.”
“What?” Ezra drawled lazily from behind me. “Finn didn’t wear you out?”
I flipped him off over my shoulder, not even bothering to glance back.
“Really fucking mature, sweetheart,” Ezra called loudly after me, his voice rising the farther I moved away. “Maybe one day you’ll learn to count past one on your hands.”
I pivoted, walking backward. “Look at that,” I yelled, throwing up both middle fingers, staring at them in mock shock, and then glaring at him. “I can count to two.”
His cheeks flushed in irritation, just as I knew they would. “I didn’t realize you turned into a bitch after a bad lay!”
I snorted and shouted, “That’s fucking priceless coming from the man who puts gigolos to shame and wouldn’t know a bad lay if his cock was buried balls deep in it.” Getting a great view of his infuriated expression, I turned on my heel and continued to march away.
“Lily!” he bellowed. “Get back here, goddamn it!”
By now, everyone was mute and watching the scene unfold.
I continued marching at a fast clip, perverse righteous anger making my eyes glow.
“We are not done with this conversation!” Ezra roared, sounding like he was about ready to pop a blood vessel, he was so livid. “Lily, I know you can hear me!”