In Covenant with Ezra (Love Unaccounted Book 1)

by Love Belvin

  “So, graduation.” I tried again. “You’re at the end of the course. You’ll be done soon.”

  That was weak, Carmichael!

  Alexis exhaled through her nostrils, widening them adorably. Poor thing. Yeah, she’s not engaged.

  “May 26th,” she hummed, eyes diverted.

  Yup. Disengaged.

  “But you work in the hospital?” Thaddeus asked.

  Christ, Thaddeus! Whose date is this?

  I tried reining in my flaring temper. I had too much riding on her appeal. To me. And so far, I wouldn’t get another date.

  Alexis took her time answering, opting for another sip of that water that she’d found more interesting than any of the humans at the table. Then she regarded him.

  “No.”

  Would you just stop, Thaddeus!

  “Oh, I thought that’s how you know Lillian,” Thaddeus prodded on.

  “Right!” Miranda trilled. “I now recall you from the meeting for her organization!”

  That was the first time she’d acknowledged Alexis since greeting her in the car when we picked her up.

  “Ummmm…” Alexis started, pursing her lips, amusement-filled eyes. “Actually that was the second time you’d seen me. The first was days before when you declined her invitation in the sanctuary, after Bible study, saying you wouldn’t even be in the vicinity the day of the meeting,” she answered drily.

  Jesus. My eyes shut in reaction. She had claws. I knew there was sass beneath her protective shell.

  Thaddeus suspiciously eyed Miranda, who turned her eyes out into the distance, clearly snipped by Alexis’ confrontation.

  “What do your parents do?” I asked. I knew they weren’t members of RSfALC. Perhaps they worshipped at another church.

  “My mom’s dead and my dad’s in prison.” Her eyes flitted anxiously at that answer.

  “I am sorry for your loss, Alexis,” I offered in earnest.

  “Ewwwww…” Miranda cocked her head to the side. “I couldn’t imagine losing my mother. I’d like…jump off the GWB. How old were you?”

  I cringed internally. This made it official: I didn’t like Thaddeus’ fiancée. Could she display just a little more sensitivity?

  “Fifteen.” Alexis coughed and went for her water again.

  The waitress appeared—miraculously—to clear our plates, offering the dessert menu.

  “Yes, please!” Miranda answered enthusiastically, unable to hide her excitement.

  No more familial questions. It was clear in that moment that Alexis endured an eventful childhood.

  I ignored Miranda, watching instead Alexis’ hardly touched plate leave the table.

  Once the waitress left us the dessert menu, I observed out loud, “I see you don’t have a particular taste for French food.”

  I didn’t consider that when I had my assistant make reservations at Le Grenouille in Midtown.

  “I don’t know how. French is everyone’s favorite!” Miranda gloated.

  “Oh,” Thaddeus’ wrinkled face eyed her quizzically. “I thought you said you were relieved this menu had the description in English because you knew nothing about French food?”

  Huhn? Now that was uncharacteristic of Thaddeus. He was usually docile, an amenable temperament. Did I choose the right couple to bring out with me tonight?

  Miranda smiled shamefully, not responding.

  “Have you not had the cuisine?” I turned my attention back to my project.

  “Twice with a professor and a few classmates,” Alexis graciously excreted just a tad more information.

  Well, why didn’t you eat?

  Calm down. Think of another engaging, open-ended question.

  “So, what’s your favorite cuisine?”

  “I love Ethiopian food!” Miranda interjected, though I faced Alexis when I posed the question.

  Thaddeus rolled his eyes, and not inconspicuously either.

  I could see Alexis was once again amused. But by what? Surely not me. I sulked inside. This wasn’t panning out well.

  She turned to me, those long lashes fanning her cheeks and oval faced relaxed from humor. “Japanese. I’m just a lover of plain ole sushi.”

  “Oh, wow.” I fought to hide my elation of her answer that extended beyond one word. “That’s good to know for next time.” I observed keenly for a response via her body language, but got nothing.

  Christ, Alexis! Give me something other than one word answers!

  The waitress returned.

  “Are you interested in dessert?” I asked her, hopeful.

  “No thanks. I’ve had enough.”

  I was defeated. Alexis had put up a wall. I noticed it from when she got into the waiting car. When I’d retrieved her from her apartment she was warmer and polite. Something dissuaded her mood and I couldn’t figure it out. I was also exhausted from trying.

  “Check please,” I requested, not even considering if our other parties cared for dessert or extending the evening.

  While we waited outside in the brisk spring air for the valet, we stood a few feet away from Thaddeus and Miranda. Things had gotten too quiet for my persistent nature.

  “Had I known you had a fondness for sushi, I would’ve chosen a Japanese restaurant. I don’t eat it a lot. Do you like hand-pressed or rolls?”

  “Both.”

  Okay…

  “Well, I hope you’d be interested in going out again. I can at least promise a better meal.” I didn’t even look her way when I tossed out that half-hearted final attempt.

  “Okay,” she agreed with more vigor in her tone.

  My regard shot over to her. She’d been staring at me. I knew that look. It was…undeniable lust. Where did that come from? She bit her bottom lip and turned away, coyly. Talk about confounding. Alexis beguiled me. Nonetheless, we’d go out again. I had another shot.

  Praise God for that…

  Lex

  I didn’t wait for him to open my door. I bolted out of the back seat of the Benz, stomping my heels violently on the cement, not even giving a damn that I hadn’t shut the door. Fuck that! No more. I leaped up the set of steps to my building, yanked the door open and clank my way toward my apartment door.

  Then suddenly my arm was pulled back. Hard. It startled me, but oddly didn’t alarm me. I knew it was him. Only Ezra had the balls to be that familiar with me.

  “What’s your problem?” he growled shifting my body to face him.

  I pushed strands of my wild mane to the back of my head that had fallen into my face at that jerking of my body while trying to catch my breath. He asked, he was going to get it. I was completely over this group dating bullshit, over him and his cryptic behavior. Ezra was weird. He used big, at times antiquated, terms. He dressed up all the time, fluctuating between full suits and hard bottom shoes to slacks, sweaters and oxfords. He sat up straight, regarding me too fixedly. And for the love of all things right, he asked too many fucking questions!

  “What’s my problem?” I repeated incredulously. He released my arm and I scratched my chin tempering my anger. I had to remember people regarded Ezra like the damn Christ the Redeemer statue rather than the human being he was. After three horrible and reluctant dates, I’d learned this more and more, and it annoyed the shit out of me. I took a calming breath. “Listen, Ezra. This thing isn’t going to work. We’re two different people. I go to church from time to time and your belief is…on fleek.” Did I really say that? I even failed at taking the coward route. “I tried giving this a chance, but it didn’t work.”

  “What’s wrong? Tell me, what am I doing that’s so wrong!”

  Forehead wrinkled, nose flared, chest heaving, and hands on his narrow hips, Ezra’s unusually animated, yet I’m meeting his temper as though I’m familiar with it. I don’t bow down to anybody!

  “What’s wrong is we don’t spend time alone together! Must every time we go out be with another couple?”

  His shoulders collapsed and he tossed his head back. “Oh, so that�
��s it!” He gave a dramatic head roll. “I only do this because Miranda and Thaddeus, as an engaged couple, adhere to the single’s ministry’s accountability policy. So, we’ve been double-dating.”

  “Double-dating? Accountability for who?” My arms flayed in the air. “We’re only going on dates. We don’t need a chaperone! We don’t need two people hovering to keep an eye on us!” I exhaled again, becoming exhausted from explaining Dating 101 to a damn near forty-year-old preacher man. “This is frustrating. I’m sorry. This just isn’t going to work.” At this point I’m whining.

  “Okay. Other than going out with Thaddeus and Miranda, you’ve still not presented a compelling argument as to why this wouldn’t work between us.”

  “You don’t get it! What makes you think we’re even compatible? Why do you want to continue to go out with me? What are we doing here? What’s the purpose of it all? You sit and ask me a whole bunch of questions as if I’m on an interview instead of a date! And then you stare at me… a lot, and that makes me feel uncomfortable. Then Thaddeus and Miranda…those two wouldn’t know chemistry if they could spell the word as a pair! You think that’s accountability? This is not the world I’m from and it’s not what I want!”

  “I hear your grievances,” Ezra spoke, conscious of his tone now. “Let’s just give it another try.”

  “No!” I whined again. Why was this so difficult with Ezra? “Shit! We haven’t even kissed! What the hell are we—”

  First he crowded me—scent saturating every inch of my body—then he rammed me into the wall with his hard chest. My arms were pushed above my head, locked by one of his big hands, the other he used to grab the front of my neck—not to kill me by shutting off my airway, but to render me helpless, immobile. Finally, he kissed me, used his teeth to pull at my bottom lip, tugging it away from my face, rapidly traced the top one with his tongue before burying it forcefully into my mouth. He started off slow then gradually worked us into a pace. My legs gave out on me and I was held up by his two hands, vertically pinning me to the wall. He took my mouth savagely and I explored his as though I chased my last breath. At some point I had begun chasing my breaths, unable to breathe from my chin meeting his big hand. I didn’t give a damn. His mouth was too delicious, intriguing, demanding and promising to care if I lived or died. I began to feel lightheaded and I honestly couldn’t tell you if it was from his grip or bewitching kiss. But I could tell you that staying in Ezra’s mouth was far more enticing than breathing.

  Then he was gone.

  I could hear the desperate air sloughing through my empty lungs, paining my chest. What the fuck was that? Ezra’s chocolate pools were smoky, his nostrils splayed again and his chest heaving just as violently as mine. I fell into the wall, unable to stand on my own accord when he released me.

  He moved into me again, my neck collapsed, head toward the floor unable to retract.

  “The purpose is for me to court you,” he spoke hoarsely into my ear, my knees still bucked. “I want you to be my…” He hesitated. “To be my…girlfriend. I will revisit my approach, but you will not give up on me just yet.” That was a demand if I’d ever heard one.

  Things went silent, all but our breathing. My body felt heavy all of a sudden, and…hyper-aroused. He was still suspended over me, inches away from my face.

  “Beloved, please don’t ask me to do that again. I’m not good at restraining myself,” I caught the plea in his gravelly timbre. We were both still fighting for air. “Christ!” he groaned. “I don’t even know if I’m breathing my air or yours; that’s how right we are.”

  Then he pushed off the wall and began down the hall to leave.

  My chest burned for air and my core stirred for him. I’d never wanted a man so bad. In fact, I never recalled wanting a particular man in my bed at all.

  “Next Saturday,” he called out, continuing his incredibly sexy stride, not lazy, without looking back. “I get another shot.”

  “I have an engagement party next Saturday.”

  That stopped him in his tracks. He stood there for a moment, back still to me. And I was still hunched over, ass in the wall, hands on my knees for stability.

  “I’ll call you with prospective dates for during the week,” he tried again before advancing again to the door.

  With my jobs and school, and his unrelenting schedule, it had been a feat trying to sync calendars. That had bothered me, too. We were too busy to ‘court’.

  “No.” He halted at the sound of my voice. “I’ll contact you with the date, location and time. It’s time we switched this up.”

  He stood there for seconds long. I knew I’d thrown him with that call.

  Ezra glanced at me over his shoulder. “Touché, beloved. Just don’t be long. Now that I’ve discovered your flavor, I’ll exercise even less patience.”

  My mouth dropped, and Ezra strolled out of my building exuding his usual undeniable grace.

  four

  Lex

  He faltered en route to the table!

  Shit! I’d caught it!

  Ezra Carmichael, the controlling, straight faced, weird, smooth operator, had been caught off guard. He’d been preempted. I was sure to arrive at the restaurant of my choosing thirty-five minutes before he arrived and told the girl in the front to direct him to my table.

  I watched as he gathered himself and continued to the table. I stood to receive him, it somehow now felt natural. He took me at the wrists, circling them chastely, yet sensually. The innocuous act almost deterring my focus from my agenda. His movements were slow, adoring, and worshipful, in total contrast to last week’s kiss.

  He leaned into me, stammering me with the most fucking enchanting scent I’d ever smelled on a man, and murmured on the side of my face, “I thought this was a reservation,” then pulled back to observe my frame from head to toe. Ezra leaned back in. “You look pleasing, Alexis.”

  I didn’t understand this unusual greeting. When he released my arms, Ezra took to his seat. I was left dumbfounded, standing in place for a moment, hoping after the other day I’d at least get a peck from those charmed lips. Gaining my senses, I sat and watched him adjust himself in his seat, letting out his jacket and smoothing down his tie. That fanned his mouthwatering sent directly across the table into my face as he examined me intently. My eyes diverted somewhere to the side of me, escaping his concentrated gape.

  Get it the fuck together or you’re going to fail miserably!

  I cleared my throat and leaned into the table, picking up my drink. I’d ordered a cocktail purposely, making a statement. I’d never had alcohol on those whack ass double dates. So, this time I made sure to select a drink in a martini glass so it was clear that I was indulging in alcohol and not juice or water.

  “How was your day, Pastor?” I purred, humorously.

  Ezra snorted sexily, turning his head to the side, expressing rare coyness. He bit his bottom lip over his full beard quickly before turning back to me, his teeth now fully exposed. That exceptional sight brought about a dollop in my panties.

  Fuck! Get over it; he’s a church dude!

  One that can kiss his ass off…

  My thighs compressed to the point of pain underneath the table. I recorded every second of that kiss. Those lips. That fucking tongue!

  “I think you know I don’t prefer that reference from you, Alexis.” His smile lingered. “But I also understand you used it to needle me, so I’ll let it slide.” His eyes flickered, contemplatively and brows narrowed. “How was my day? Why such a formal inquiry?”

  “Why do you speak that way?” I blurted impulsively.

  His forehead wrinkled. “Speak what way?”

  “All formal and junk?” My arms thrashed in the air. “Why not use normal words and phrases like the rest of us?” I’d become exasperated so soon into my waning plan.

  “Why do you use broken language strategically when you want to put people off? You’re an extremely bright and articulate woman, who likes to turn it off and on.”


  “How do you kno—” I stopped, refused to let him see how that observation knocked me on my ass. “Look!” I found myself shaking my head, my eyes closed. “That’s the problem, Ezra. You claim to want to date me, but I know nothing about you.”

  “Which is why I’ve been…courting you,” he qualified, enunciating courting as though it pained him.

  “No. What you’ve been doing is inviting me out—each time with your friends—and bombarding me with questions.”

  “Yes, beloved. That’s how I’ve been getting to know you. You won’t share otherwise. You’re so shielded.”

  That’s when I realized he’d been referring to me as beloved. It’s what he called me after that earth-shattering kiss in my hallway. That kiss! I went for my glass and tossed back the remaining contents. After a huge swallow and a cleansing breath, I forged ahead. We’d be getting somewhere before leaving this restaurant tonight.

  “I need to get to know you. That will help me lower my guard enough to do that, Ezra. That’s how relationships typically progress. It’s an even exchange.”

  His lips spread into an enthralling smile. “And the academic Alexis has arrived. Let’s play ball.” He was impressed.

  “First we order.” I handed him a menu.

  “I’m sorry, beloved. I’m speaking tomorrow, so I’m fasting tonight.”

  My face dropped. “Fasting?”

  “Yes, I turn down my plate…don’t eat before a speaking engagement.” He eyed me intensely to be sure I was able to follow, sensitive to my incomprehension to this strange being. “It helps me clear my mind…minimizing my flesh, and focus on the message I’m delivering.”

  I felt my face harden. “For how long? You don’t…die?”

  With a wry smile Ezra shook his head. “No, beloved. I’m a healthy man. How long varies, depending on the event. I eat right after I speak, when I can.”

  I found myself fascinated and confused by this preparation. Untimely, the waiter arrived. I ordered an appetizer and another drink, needing alcohol more than food. When we were left alone, I was prepared to continue.

  “So, how long have you been preaching?”

  That felt like a good place to start.