I undid his jeans, slipping my hand under the fabric and curling my fingers around his shaft. He groaned as he pulled me up just enough to unfasten my bra and slid the strap down my free arm so he could uncover my breasts. I whimpered as his lips closed around one of my nipples and sucked.
“You’re so goddamn perfect,” he muttered, so quietly that it almost seemed like he was talking to himself. “I’m the luckiest man alive.”
“I’m the lucky one,” I whispered. “I…”
I didn’t know why I still couldn’t bring myself to tell him that I loved him. Probably because I’d only ever said it to one other person before, and that relationship went up in smoke. If I put my heart on my sleeve like that and this didn’t work out or he didn’t feel the same way, I wasn’t sure how I’d survive that.
I rolled us over so I was on top and kissed him one more time, then trailed my lips down his chest and stomach before tugging his jeans and boxers down to free his dick. I’d barely taken him in my mouth when he stopped me, gently pulling me up.
“Come here, angel,” he instructed. “Sit on my face.”
Thank God I was wearing a skirt and didn’t have to strip any more. I turned to straddle his shoulders, and he pulled me down a little more before hooking a finger in my panties and pulling them to the side. His tongue lightly slid through my folds, and I bit my lip, groaning quietly, before bending back down to take him in my mouth. The moan he emitted as he tugged my clit into his mouth vibrated through every cell in my body. I released his dick with a pop, replacing my mouth with my hand.
“Fuck, Ezra,” I whimpered quietly. “Don’t stop.”
A finger slid inside me as I licked at the bead of precum that had leaked out. I slid my mouth back down over him, taking his entire length.
“Oh, shit,” he groaned, not lifting his mouth from me, as his hips arched upward.
He added a second finger and picked up speed as he lapped at my clit, and I groaned around his cock, sucking hard. I felt him start to twitch and I knew he was close, so I picked up my pace.
“Baby, if you don’t want me to come in your mouth, you need to stop,” he panted.
If he thought that was going to make me stop, he was sorely mistaken. I backed off and worked him with my hand for a few seconds while I caught my breath, then took him all the way to the back of my throat, lightly grazing with my teeth as I went. And that was all it took.
“Fuck, Daph,” he growled as he pulsed in my mouth.
As I greedily drank down every drop of his essence that I could, he curled his fingers inside me right where I needed them and sucked hard on my clit, and I followed him off the cliff. When I’d regained the ability to use my muscles, I moved to finish undressing him and used his boxers to clean up what I hadn’t been able to swallow.
Ezra sat up and pulled me into a kiss so intense that I saw stars, then rolled us back over so he was above me. He quickly relieved me of my skirt and panties, then reached into his nightstand for a condom.
“You’re a goddess. You know that?” he murmured against my lips.
“Thought I was an angel. Have I been upgraded?” I teased.
He chuckled and kissed my neck. “No, you’re the queen of the angels. Which makes you a goddess.”
“Dork,” I giggled, pulling him back up for another kiss.
God, I’d missed this. There was so much more to us than just sex, but I missed being this close to him.
“I need you, babe,” I whispered. “Fuck me.”
“With pleasure,” he breathed.
He made quick work of rolling the condom on, then slowly pushed inside me. My mouth fell open, but no sound came out. I had no words to describe what sex with him felt like. When we were together like this, the rest of the world just disappeared.
As I woke up, I saw a little light sneaking in through the blinds, but it was dim, so it was obviously still early. A quick glance at the clock on Ezra’s nightstand told me that it was only six-thirty.
Quietly sliding out of bed, I grabbed Ezra’s t-shirt, which was still on the floor, and a fresh pair of panties. I quickly donned them, then slipped out of the room and shut the door behind me as I made my way to the single bathroom in the house.
Living with just one bathroom between the three of us was a little cramped, but I really did love being here. My house was just that: a house. When I first bought it, my thought had been that I wanted something big enough to fit the family I eventually wanted to have, but I was barely ever there and it was way too big for just me, which made it feel empty and lonely.
Even though this house was small—just big enough for Ezra and Arielle—he’d made it a home. It was warm and inviting and full of love and laughter. I wanted that so much, and I couldn’t help feeling like I might finally be able to have it, with them.
It wasn’t just Ezra that I’d fallen in love with. It was his daughter too. In some ways, I’d already started thinking of her as mine.
When I opened the bathroom door, Arielle was standing there, like she was waiting for me to be done. And here I was, wearing nothing other than a pair of underwear that was hidden by the t-shirt her father had been wearing last night.
“Oh, my God!” I gasped. “Ari. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you were awake. I would have gotten dressed if I knew.”
She smirked at me. “You’re dressed. Sort of.”
Why couldn’t a hole just open up in the floor and swallow me? That would have been so much simpler.
“I…I’m going to go put real clothes on,” I stammered, walking out of the bathroom.
“My dad’s shirt is real,” she giggled before shutting the door behind her.
I dashed back to the safety of the bedroom, closing the door behind me. I looked toward the bed and Ezra had an eyebrow raised, looking at me quizzically.
“Care to tell me why you just ran in here like you were running the hundred-yard dash and you’re the color of a lobster right now?” he asked.
“Because Ari just saw me dressed like this,” I groaned as I crawled back into bed. “I’m such an idiot. I should have gotten dressed before I went to the bathroom. Guess we can’t put off talking to her about us anymore.”
“We shouldn’t have put it off for this long anyway,” he said, sitting up and giving me a kiss. “How was she?”
“Her typical adorable self,” I chuckled. “I told her I was going to go put real clothes on and she said, and I quote, ‘My dad’s shirt is real.’ I wanted a hole to open up in the floor and swallow me.”
He snorted and kissed my shoulder. “Yeah, sounds like her. But maybe put something more real than my shirt on before we talk to her.”
I laughed and kissed him again before getting up and locating a bra, tank top, and sweats. I was almost certainly going to be wrangled into a several-hour-long Just Dance session at some point today, so I needed to be comfortable. Plus, it was so refreshing not to have to wear leather pants and ripped t-shirts every day.
Ezra got up and quickly got dressed, and then I grabbed my phone and we headed out to the kitchen. I started a pot of coffee while he grabbed milk, eggs, and sausage out of the fridge and retrieved a box of pancake mix out of the cupboard. I got a mixing bowl and a whisk and handed them to him.
“Trying to butter her up first by making pancakes?” I teased.
He hung his head and turned a little pink, and I hugged his shoulders.
“It’s okay to be nervous,” I said quietly. “This is uncharted territory for both of you.”
“I just…I’m not really sure what to do if this conversation doesn’t go well,” he sighed. “We go back to work in three weeks. And I don’t just want to leave this unresolved if she’s not comfortable with the idea. You know?”
“One thing at a time, babe,” I soothed him. “Let’s just talk to her first and see where her head is before we start jumping to worst-case scenarios. Okay?”
He nodded; I kissed his shoulder and then grabbed two coffee cups out of the cupboard
and poured us cups before leaving him to his thoughts. When I walked into the living room, Arielle was sitting on the couch playing on his iPad.
“Morning, sweetheart,” I said, curling up on the other side of the couch with my coffee.
She looked up from the screen and gave me that adorable smirk again. “You know I’m not dumb, right? I know you’re my dad’s girlfriend. Why are you guys acting like it’s a secret?”
I felt heat rising to color my cheeks. “Hold that thought, okay? Your dad wants to be part of this conversation too. I’m going to go get him.”
She sighed. “Okay.”
I put my mug on the coffee table and walked back into the kitchen. Ezra turned to look at me, looking like he was about to go to war.
“No time for pancakes. She wants to talk now,” I told him.
He groaned. “Patience is a virtue.”
“Not to an eight-year-old, it’s not. Come on.”
We headed back to the living room, where Arielle was looking expectantly at us. Ezra sat down next to her, and I took the far end of the couch, taking his hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. He took a deep breath, but before he could say anything, Arielle looked at him and spoke.
“Daddy, I’m not stupid. I figured out Daphne was your girlfriend when she had Taylor and Alex come babysit me at the concert. She wouldn’t have done that just because,” she said.
I chuckled. The irony of that statement was that I wasn’t his girlfriend then. At that point, I was just trying to do something nice to help a friend. Or at least that was what I told myself. Because the reality was, if it had been Hector or Garth who was in that kind of a bind, I would have wanted to help, but I probably wouldn’t have called Taylor for them.
“I might have done it just because,” I said. “I like being able to help people who need it. But you’re right. I did do that because I care about your dad, and about you. I know it’s probably kind of weird for you because you like my music, though, huh?”
“It was weird at first,” she said matter-of-factly. “But you’re my friend now, not just my favorite singer. So it’s not so weird anymore.”
“What do you think about Daphne and I dating, Ari?” Ezra asked hesitantly. “Are you okay with it?”
Arielle climbed onto his lap, giving him a hug. He squeezed his eyes shut as he enveloped her in his arms, like he was trying not to get emotional.
“She’s your Anna,” she murmured. “I wanted you to find your Anna.”
Leave it to her to find a way to connect this conversation to her favorite movie.
He chuckled. “And I’m Kristoff in this scenario?”
“Duh,” she giggled.
I couldn’t help giggling with her. As funny as it was, it was also adorably sweet. And very her.
“I want you to be happy, Daddy. You always make sure I’m happy. But no one was ever making sure you were happy too. Now Daphne is,” she told him.
“Yeah, she is,” he agreed, and I could have sworn I saw a tear leak out of his eye.
I slid an arm around his back and rested my head on his shoulder, planting a kiss there, and he released one of his arms from his daughter so he could hug me too. I felt his lips touch my hair, and then I felt another, much smaller, arm wrapping around me. I choked down the lump in my throat as I wrapped my free arm around Arielle.
It would have been so easy, so natural, to tell them both that I loved them right now. But this moment wasn’t about me. It was about her.
“I want both of you to be happy and safe,” I said. “And I promise I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you are. And that starts with me helping your dad make you pancakes. You hungry?”
She giggled again. “Yeah!”
“Okay, munchkin. Go get dressed and we’ll get started on them,” Ezra told her, kissing her head.
Arielle jumped off his lap and headed back toward her bedroom, and I grabbed my coffee off of the table and went into the kitchen. I’d barely set it on the counter before I felt Ezra’s arms winding around my waist. I leaned back into his embrace and turned my head for a kiss, which he happily gave me.
“Did we really just get compared to cartoon characters?” he asked.
I laughed. “Yes. Yes, we did. Though I always thought of myself as more of a Cinderella. Which would make you my Prince Charming.”
That earned me a laugh and another kiss. “Smooth.”
I turned around and wrapped my arms around his neck, but before I could kiss him again, my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket, intending to send it to voicemail, but when I saw that it was Taylor, I decided to take the call. I hadn’t spoken to him in a while.
“Hey, T,” I answered.
“Hey, Tink. How’s everything going?” He sounded upset.
“What’s wrong, babe?” I asked.
“I hate to break the news to you, but Alex and I just ran by your house for the weekly check-in, and it’s been broken into,” he told me. “The police are on their way over now, so we’ve not gone in yet. I don’t know what, if anything, was taken.”
“Shit,” I sighed, sinking down into a chair at the kitchen table and putting my head in my free hand. “Get some pics for me if you can so I can figure out if it’s worth filing a claim with my insurance. And if the cops give you a hard time, get a hold of Aaron. He knows I asked you guys to stop by once a week.”
“Will do. You around if they need to talk to you?”
“Yeah. We’re just hanging out at home today, so I’m here if anyone needs me.”
“Actually, just stay on the line with me. The police just got here,” he told me.
There were muffled voices for a few minutes, and then a different voice was on the line.
“This is Officer Billings with the Ashview Police Department,” he said.
“Hi, officer. I’m Daphne DeVille, the owner of the property,” I told him.
“Daphne DeVille? Like, the singer?”
I rolled my eyes. This was so not the time for him to start fanboying over me.
“Yes, that Daphne DeVille,” I confirmed. “I’m out of town, and I asked Mr. Elton and Mr. Robinson to keep an eye on my house while I was gone. And I’m authorizing them to handle this for me since I’m not there to handle it personally.”
“Understood. Thanks for the clarification.”
I heard a little bit of a shuffle, and then Taylor was back on the line.
“‘Kay, D, I’ll call you back when I know more,” he said. “And I’ll text you pictures of every room so you can see if you notice anything missing.”
“Thanks, T,” I sighed. “Sorry to ruin your Sunday.”
“You didn’t ruin it. The arsehole who broke into your house did.”
“I still feel bad.”
“Don’t. And don’t worry. We’ve got it handled. You just keep enjoying your time with Mr. Hot Stuff and Little Miss Cute Stuff,” he teased.
“Oh, my God,” I groaned. “You did not just say that.”
“Yes, I did. How are things going with her?”
“Good. We went to see Frozen on Broadway yesterday. And Ezra and I told her that we’re a couple this morning. After she caught me coming out of the bathroom in nothing other than Ezra’s shirt and a pair of underwear. Not quite how we wanted to break it to her.”
He laughed. “That’s one way, I suppose. How’d that work out for you?”
“We got compared to Anna and Kristoff. So I guess good?”
“From Frozen? Fuck me. How do I know that? Oh, right. When Penny decided it was her favorite film. That’s adorable, though.”
I giggled.
“There’s a laugh,” he chuckled. “Okay, they just came out and told us it’s safe to go in. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Thanks again. Love you.”
“Love you more,” he said.
I hung up the phone with a loud sigh and buried my head in my hands. Ezra put his hands on my shoulders and kissed the top of my head.
“What’s goi
ng on?” he asked.
“My house got broken into. Taylor and Alex are dealing with the police now, and T’s going to send me pictures of every room so I can see what’s missing and figure out if it’s worth filing a claim with my insurance. My deductible is kind of high, so it might not be.”
“Do we need to go to Ashview for a day or two so you can handle it? Ari can stay with my parents.”
“No. T can take care of it. He’s got a key because he and Alex stop by once a week to grab my mail and check on everything. I just gave the police permission to talk to him, and he’s listed as an authorized party on my insurance policy just in case something like this ever happened, so if I do file a claim, they can deal with him too. Unless it’s bad, I don’t think we need to go. And I’d prefer not to since I’m almost positive my stalker knows I live there.”
“Okay. But just say the word and we’ll go. We can check into a hotel under my name so you’re not tied to it and we can even see if Hector can come back with us if you’re more comfortable having another person there too,” he told me.
I stood up and gave him a kiss. “You’ll be the first to know.”
Taylor: D…I don’t think this was a random break-in. I spoke with Aaron and he agrees. He’s going over your security camera footage now to see if he can find out who it was.
Me: You think it was my stalker?
Taylor: Is Mr. Hot Stuff with you? You’re going to want him there before I show you this shit.
Me: Yeah, he’s right here.
Taylor: *picture of living room with smashed TV*
Taylor: *picture of broken Grammy Award*
Taylor: *picture of piano with broken lid*
Taylor: *picture of hallway with huge hole in the wall and broken pictures on the floor*
Taylor: *picture of bathroom with broken mirror and shower door*
Taylor: *picture of bed with headboard broken*
Taylor: *picture of all drawers turned upside-down*
Taylor: *picture of several expensive dresses cut to shreds*
My hands were shaking as I looked at the pictures of my vandalized home. And my overwhelming fear was that Taylor was right. This wasn’t a random break-in. If it was a random break-in, my stuff would have been stolen, not destroyed. Thank God most of my jewelry was in my safety deposit box and not at the house.
Falling Angel Page 24
