Now I had a big decision on my hands. I could either go in there demanding him to explain, or I could go back to my room, cry my eyes out and wait to lose myself in some ice cream. I chose option two. There was no way I wanted him to see me crack, and I knew if I went in there and saw him he would be half naked and I would either kill him or start bawling. I hated this house, I hated Ezra.
I found my room and slammed my door. I cried for about two minutes before I fell asleep. I had another dream about Damon. This time I was tied up to a chair and he was teasing my neck. I almost didn’t recognize myself. The ropes that held me to the chair were tearing into my arms, blood was streaming down to my wrists. Dried blood was painted on my face under my nose down to my chin. I put my hand to my mouth in shock. I looked absolutely frightening. We were in a small room. The floor was either extremely dirty or made of dirt. I looked to my right and realized we were in a jail cell. The door was open, but it was too dark to see anything past the bars of the cell to tell where he held me captive. I turned back to look at myself. He was whispering into my ear but I couldn’t hear what he said, but myself in the chair cried out in response to what was said. I was standing across the room watching it unfold. Our eyes connected. Like I knew I was there in the ,room, watching.
“This is only a dream. I need to wake up,” I said out loud, shaking my head. I saw two big tears fall from my eye. I looked terrified. Damon let out a laugh and bit into my neck.
Chapter Eighteen
I let out a scream and realized I was awake. Ezra was on my bed shaking me while Axle and Robert stared at me worriedly.
“What the hell Ezra, stop shaking me,” I yelled, pushing him away. He was the last person in the world I wanted in my room. I would have rather woken up to anyone but him.
“Em, we’ve been trying to wake up for a few minutes now,” he explained with a concerned expression plastered to his face. I couldn’t look at him.
“Well, I’m awake now so could you all get out?” I demanded. I was pissed to have to look at Ezra. My heart was on fire and I was so scared I would burst into tears with all of these men staring at me.
“Emily, what were you dreaming of?” Ezra asked.
“Why do you give a flying fuck, Ezra? I asked you to get out. So leave.” I pushed him off my bed. He took my hint and stormed out.
“You were blocking Ezra while you slept. Emily, that’s impossible. He couldn’t read your mind while you were dreaming. What happened?” Robert asked. I knew he was just trying to be nice, and he was worried, but I was so shook up from seeing Ezra I didn’t want people around me.
“It was just a dream, doesn’t matter. And good that I learned how to keep the blood sucker out of my head, about damn time. He can go sit on a stake for all I care.” I was furious. They finally took my drift and started walking out. Robert looked pissed, but I think he understood that Ezra did something and was going straight to the source. Axle closed the door and stayed.
“Axle, I know you are just trying to help, but really I’m fine and not in the mood for your shenanigans.” The longer I was away from Ezra the better I was feeling.
“I know, hon, I’m not going to try anything. I just have to make sure you’re ok. Sorry, but I’m not leaving,” he answered in the most serious tone I’ve ever heard him speak. I lay back down in my bed giving up and stared at the ceiling.
“I don’t know what is wrong with me. Seriously, it has to be me. There is no way I can only attract crazy men,” I babbled, tears were falling down my cheeks and I didn’t even care if Axle saw.
“Are we talking about the dream or something else? I’m lost,” he admitted.
“Ugh, just forget it.” He was a guy and would never understand.
“You know, I may have played with you a little too hard when we first met. I just saw you standing in my room and as soon as I caught your eye I had this feeling in my chest. I can’t explain it, but I just want you to know that I am always here for you. If you ever need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
I looked at his face. He was such a beautiful man, and I was feeling so down I needed a hug. I jumped into his big arms and hug him hard. It felt good to be held. He wrapped his arms around me and held me like I was porcelain and he would break me. He had a delicious musky smell to him. I felt a tingle in my stomach and begged for it to go away. I made the mistake of smelling his neck as I released my hug. Our faces were so close and he grabbed my face and put his lips on mine. I pushed away before it got out of hand. I just sort of broke it off with Ezra a few hours before.
“I’m sorry, Axle, I’m having a hard time right now, adjusting to all of this attention and I don’t want to give you the wrong impression.”
“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken advantage of you. I know you are going through a lot and need some space. I’ll leave you be, just let me know if you need anything. You know where to find me.” He chuckled and walked out. I already had enough men drama to last me a year, I was not about to add one more. I wasn’t going to sit in my room and feel pity for my loss. I would have to get over it and move on, just today was not the day.
I made the mistake of looking in the mirror as I got up. My hair was a mess, and I had mascara streaks down my cheeks. I looked like hell. I took a long shower, complete with shaving my legs, then did my hair and make-up. I knew it seemed silly, getting all dressed up for my girl’s night but I had a mission. I put on some tiny hot pink shorts. I was going to have to go commando the shorts were so tight. The hot pink made me look much tanner and my legs much longer than they actually were. I found a white tank top and put it on over a sports bra. That way it wasn’t showing my ta-tas but everyone would know if I was cold. I did my hair straight and shiny and was quite proud of the outcome. It was seven so I decided I would walk around the house until it was time to find Kimmy. Plus it would probably take me an hour to find this room. I sprayed on some perfume and started out the door. I grabbed a light pullover in case I ran into anyone in the halls that shouldn’t see me in my sleaziest.
I tried to be quiet but as I was closing the door but Axle opened his. He gave me a hungry look up and down. “Emily, what are you up to?”
“Whatever are you talking about, Axle?” I asked innocently as I started toward him.
He took in a deep breath. “You are playing with fire, little girl, if you come any closer.” I was pretty sure he meant it. I put my pullover on, gave him a little wave and started on a quest.
I found Ezra staring at the fire in the living room. I rolled my eyes, took a deep breath and walked through the room, not even glancing in his direction. I could feel his eyes on me as I walked. I got to the next room and found a library or study of some sort. There was a giant table that could seat thirty people in the center of the room and book shelves for walls that were twenty feet tall. I turned to walk out and Ezra was standing in my way.
“Holy guacamole. Ezra, you scared the crap out of me.”
He just kept walking toward me, hunger in his eyes.
“Ezra, stay away from me. I’m serious.” I really didn’t want him to even look at me or touch me. This had not been part of the plan.
“I can smell the passion you feel, seeping out of your pours,” he growled.
“Ew, well I took a shower.” I’m sure he meant it was a pleasant smell but the way he explained it made it sound disgusting.
“Why are you fighting this? I know you want me, Emily.” He stepped close. I could smell the Gain detergent Nelly used to wash his clothes.
“We can’t be together, Ezra, no matter how much I want you,” I admitted sadly. We were destined for disaster.
“You just think you can never be happy. If you would give me a chance I could show you how happy you can really be.”
I had a flashback of the big busted beauty leaving his room earlier. I glared at the thought.
“Just leave it alone, Ezra,” I warned.
“I can’t, Emily.” For a second, he frightened me.
“Ezra, leave now,” Robert said as he walked in. He was still a douche bag in my book, but he did show up at the most opportune time. Ezra gave me one last look and gave in. He didn’t even look at Robert before he left. I was beginning to see that Robert was definitely the boss. When he said jump, the boys didn’t even ask questions, they just start jumping.
“I, uh, was actually looking for you,” I explained, still shaken up from seeing Ezra.
Robert sat down at the table a few feet from me. “Is there something going on between you and Ezra that I should be aware of?” he asked.
“There was, I guess, but not anymore,” I admitted sadly.
“Did something happen between you two?” he asked in more a professional manner than fatherly so I felt more at ease talking to him.
“Um, well. It’s my fault actually,” I stated.
“How so?” he asked.
“I have really bad luck and when it comes to guys I have the worst luck. Ezra seems like a nice guy, but to be quite honest, I think you have kept all of your guys away from women for way too long.”
“I see. So you think that Ezra only likes you because I kept him away from women?” It sounded worse coming from his mouth and I felt my face getting hot.
“I really liked Ezra, but he broke my heart. And now I think I am getting a thing for Axle. And I think I have some sort of feelings for Gavin also. I really just want to stay away from men. All this male attention is confusing,” I admitted, giving way too much away for him. I’m sure this was hard to hear for a dad, but he didn’t feel like my dad. He felt like a normal person and I felt pleasantly relaxed talking to him about this personal stuff. I just needed someone to talk to that didn’t want to sleep with me.
“That’s not good. How did he break your heart? What exactly did he do?” he asked curiously.
“Well, for one he had a girl in his room earlier and he won’t even have sex with me.” I slapped my hand over my mouth to shut myself up. “What the hell, Robert? Why am I blabbering to you so much? Did you do something to me?” I asked.
He laughed and got up and walked out of the room. Good talk, Dad. I was mortified. I’d just admitted to my father that I wanted to sleep with Ezra.
Since I’d only wasted fifteen minutes of my hour, I went to find Ezra. I really just had to know what who the chick was and finish our conversation. I knocked on his door.
“Come in,” I heard from behind the door. I opened the door and walked in.
“I think Robert just cursed me into spilling everything to him about us,” I stated, hoping to break this awkward barrier between us. He was sitting on his couch in pants and a tee shirt. He still looked incredible.
“He has a tendency to do that. It’s like he relaxes people till they just finally spill the beans,” he explained, looking hopeful that I was there to make up.
“Hmm, well I wish he wouldn’t have. I kind of gave him some juicy details about us,” I said, sitting at the other end of the couch.
“Well, he was bound to do that sooner or later. Look, Emily. I really do care for you. I just want you to be happy. I don’t want you to wake up one day and decide that you made a big mistake by choosing me.”
I was beginning to think that I wasn’t the only one who had been burned in the past.
“I didn’t come in here to patch things up with you. I wanted to ask you something.” I stated. I wanted to feel sorry for him but after seeing the girl coming out of his room earlier, I reminded myself that he was scum.
“I understand that we’re not exclusive but you could have at least waited a day before you replaced me,” I complained. Ok I said I was going to ask a question but I couldn’t come up with a way to nicely ask ‘hey, so who was that chick I saw coming out of your room? And was that your bite mark in her neck?’
“What are you talking about, Em?” he asked, looking sincerely confused.
“The chick in the ugly black night gown leaving your room with a bite mark on her neck. Did you not think I would ever find out?” I asked. I was hurt yet again. I truly wanted things to work between us, but a few hours earlier Ezra was jumping away from my throat and to a new throat.
“Emily, I had to eat. That’s all it was.”
“You said it’s sexual when you eat, so you had sex with her?” I asked, afraid of his response.
“No, Emily, I don’t have to sleep with someone to drink from them, it’s sexual on their part. It’s not like I can control what happens to someone when I feed from them. I didn’t even want to eat but I have to in order to protect you. I’ve been going into the sun a lot lately and it’s making me weaker faster. I am required to eat once a week now instead of once a month.”
I was still pissed but at least I could understand to a degree what happened.
“I offered myself to you, Ezra, and you won’t take it. I was going to let you bite me and you chose her instead? Don’t you know how much that hurts?” I asked I was so proud that I hadn’t started crying. I think with everything going on lately that I was getting stronger. Not in a muscle kind of way but like I was more able to protect my emotions. I usually wear my heart on my sleeve but I was working on it. Although I had cried more in the past two days than I had my entire life.
“Emily, you need your strength just as much as I do right now. Plus, I don’t care if I drain that girl dry but if I were to hurt you I could never live with myself.” He was a slick one. I was starting to believe him.
“Look, I really just wanted to find out about the bimbo and ask where exactly we stood. I have prior arrangements tonight that I need to get to but I needed to ask. I also have other interests and I need to know what to tell them.” If he knew exactly how close that interest came to making it a reality he would kill him. I was trying to be honest with him too
“Who, Gavin? I’m not scared of him. He’s got nothing on me.” He started crawling closer. My stomach turned and I knew where this was about to lead. Unfortunately, my body wasn’t listening while my head was screaming run.
“He could never do the things to you that I could,” he whispered as he moved my hair away from my neck. His nose touched my skin, and I realized that my mouth was wide open. I closed it and cleared my throat, trying to focus.
“Actually it wasn’t Gavin, but you are still right anyways.” I chuckled as he kissed my neck. He stopped suddenly and backed up, looking me hard in the eyes.
“Axle was hitting on you?” he asked. I was surprised he hadn’t pried it out of my head by now and quite pleased.
“Well, it’s not like you didn’t have a girl in here earlier. What is he supposed to think?” I explained.
He threw himself off the couch and was breathing hard, I was actually scared. He started toward the door with death in his eyes.
Chapter Nineteen
“Oh no, no, no. Ezra please don’t do this. Axle didn’t know what was going on. He was just being nice. He didn’t try anything. I was just trying to make you jealous,” I lied.
But he wasn’t listening. He was already in the hall, shouting Axle’s name. He had no issues finding which hall went where and how to get to Axle’s room. Axle answered his door and met us in the hall. He was wearing only a pair of jeans and I really wished he had a shirt on. It may have helped his cause.
“What’s up, bro?” Axle greeted Ezra. But Ezra’s fist landed directly on Axle’s face in reply.
“Oh shit,” I whispered as I backed up. I was pleading with Ezra to calm down but he wasn’t listening.
“You knew damn well that I love Emily. Why do you have to butt in and try to push us apart?” Ezra was yelling at Axle, who was looking pretty pissed off.
“You were already doing a good job of pushing her away, you didn’t need my help,” Axle growled.
Ezra jumped at Axle and they both went down. I couldn’t imagine that Ezra could knock Axle down but they were each holding th
eir own. I heard growling and I was sure that was coming from Axle. If he turned into a werewolf, I would piss myself.
Thankfully, before they both killed each other Robert walked out in the hall and yelled at them to stop. They both stopped. Robert walked over to them, looking pretty angry.
“I know exactly what is going on between you two and it’s a disgrace. You are supposed to be brothers in arms, not dog fighting on the floor over Emily,” he yelled.
Neither of them made a peep. I really wanted to take it as an insult but I just couldn’t. I think he had cast a spell on us all. He took a deep a breath before beginning again. “Now, grow up and get your shit together. Stop this nonsense immediately.”
Holy cow, I couldn’t believe I’d just heard Robert curse. It felt like the first time I had heard my mother curse. It felt wrong. Axle tucked his tail between his legs (not literally) and walked back into his room, slamming his door. Ezra grabbed my hand and started back to his room.
“Actually, Emily, I was hoping I could talk to you about something really quick?” Robert asked as we passed by.
“I have a date but I still have a few minutes before I have to be there.” I gave in, releasing Ezra’s hand. I was relieved I wouldn’t have to go back with Ezra this mad. “But only as long as you don’t put some spell on me,” I added as I followed him. We got in his room and he laughed.
“I promise,” he said as he walked over to his living room area. His room was set up more like an apartment than a room. His place reminded me of a bachelor pad. His living room had a fireplace in the center of his coffee table and I couldn’t tell how it was burning. He sat in a big chair and I sat on the couch. It was a big brown couch that wasn’t very comfortable.
“So what’s up?” I asked.
“I see you and Ezra have patched things up?”
“Sort of, I guess. Although now we’re going to have another talk about that temper,” I answered.
Dare to Bleed (Emily Sullivan Series) Page 12