44. Chapter 43 #2
He smirked, showing off his dimples. “Good. If I ever have you questioning my—” he paused, as if catching himself from saying something else—“affections, I’m doing it all wrong.
” His thumb brushed against her cheek. “The day you come back, I’ll be waiting here for you to take you on a date.
Now, go get on the train before you miss it. ”
The train whistled its last call. “Have a good Christmas, Ezra.” She rose onto her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek. “I’m looking forward to that date.”
“Have a good Christmas, snapdragon,” he said before his hand slowly dropped back to his side and gave her her bag.
She reluctantly turned away from him and rushed onto the train, placing her bag in the first available spot before finding the seat Maeve and Liam had saved for her. A minute later, the doors clicked into place, and the train sounded its horn again before chugging into motion.
“I can’t believe you guys didn’t kiss,” Maeve said with a shake of her head. “I really thought you would!”
“Maybe if you two weren’t pressed against the window, we would’ve,” Ivy teased. She stared out the train window where Ezra stood with a hand touching his cheek where she had kissed him.
It was almost dinnertime when her taxi reached her parents’ house.
She paid the driver before taking her bag and stepping out onto the sidewalk.
The car rumbled as it drove away, leaving her in the quiet of her childhood street.
Soft golden lights shined out of the first-floor windows of the old Dutch colonial home.
Flashes of blue came from the TV behind the sheer curtains in the living room on the left.
On the right, there was a shadow of someone in the kitchen.
Instead of the typical two cars in the driveway, a third one was parked behind her parents’ hatchback.
There must be additional help here. Betsy didn’t mention she’d hired someone when she had called a few weeks ago to let her know she’d be here for Christmas, but Ivy could hear the stress in Betsy’s voice.
Ivy should’ve called more often. Between classes and everything happening outside of them, she barely had time to.
The mirror’s words slithered into the back of her brain, seeping guilt back into her body.
She clenched her jaw, squeezing her eyes shut in her best effort to push the voice away before walking the path to the door.
Ivy opened the door, and the heat from the fireplace roaring in the living room melted the chill away. She kicked off her shoes and dropped her bag next to the door as Betsy came into the entryway from the kitchen.
“Oh, you’re here!” Betsy said with a bright smile. She wiped her hands on the apron tied around her waist before wrapping Ivy in a tight hug. “So happy to see you, hun.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t call more while I was gone. It w—”
“Oh, don’t you worry a bit about that,” she said as she pulled back. “We all know how busy you must be with your studies.”
“Right,” Ivy mumbled. “How are they?”
Betsy’s smile faded, and she nodded her head toward the kitchen. A chicken pot pie baking in the oven filled her senses as they moved to the small table tucked into the corner to sit, and Betsy laced her fingers together on top of the table.
“They’re doing okay,” Betsy said, though her face told another story. “I’ve brought in some extra help because their nights have become a little more stressful. I can talk to you more about it in the morning when everyone is all settled.”
“But—”
“Morning is best, Ivy,” Besty said, almost like she was pleading for Ivy to drop it.
“So I’m assuming this means I should stay in my room at night? Or at the very least, be as quiet as possible?”
Betsy nodded, sighing as if she hated it almost as much as Ivy did.
“Okay,” Ivy mumbled. “I’m going to bring my things up and go to the craft store then, so I have something to keep me busy.”
She needed to do something. She didn’t have Lou with her to take care of and books and movies wouldn’t be enough to keep her occupied the entire time she was here. Maybe she shouldn’t have come after all.
“Ezra,” she moaned. She was back in her room at Arcania, with the moonlight filtering through her curtains onto her exposed breasts. His lips were sucking at her neck as his hands palmed her ass through her skirt.
“Fuck, you’re so beautiful, snapdragon.” God, she really couldn’t get enough of that nickname now. She clutched a hand in his curls as her hips bucked forward. “Eager, aren’t you? You’ve wanted this for so long.”
“Yes,” she cried out. One of his hands left her ass to trail between her thighs. Shivers coursed through her body as his fingers neared her core, and he pulled a choked sob from her with a single brush of his thumb against her clit.
“You’re so fucking wet for me,” he groaned, his lips dragging along the shell of her ear.
She gasped, clutching him closer as he slid a single finger slowly inside her. He cursed under his breath as he pumped a second in. “Oh, Ezra, don’t stop.”
He chuckled, his voice strained as he moved. “I’m sure you want to come, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“There will be plenty of time for that,” he whispered, slipping out of her. “But first…Silas, come taste her.”
Her breath hitched, and she snapped her head in the direction Ezra held out his glistening fingers. The corner of the room was swathed in shadows, and Silas stepped out from them.
His blond hair was disheveled, his shirt fully unbuttoned and lying open to reveal a slender, toned frame. He sauntered closer, his dark eyes half-lidded as he stared at her like she was his prey.
“Open,” Ezra commanded.
Silas listened, his lips parting to make room for Ezra’s fingers to slide inside. She couldn’t stop staring as Silas sucked her from Ezra. His tongue flicked before he closed his mouth around them, causing a heavy groan to leave Ezra.
“So good for us.” Ezra popped his fingers out of Silas’s mouth. “How’s she taste?”
“Fucking delicious,” Silas murmured, flicking his eyes back to Ivy before licking his lips.
Ezra’s hand pulled Silas closer to them. “And do you want her?”
“I do,” Silas whispered. Yet, despite being only a few inches away, he did not touch her.
“Ivy, do you want him?”
She snapped her attention back to Ezra. There was no sense of jealousy in his voice, nor on his face. Only lust. No. Not lust. Love.
“Yes,” she murmured. “Yes, I do. I want you both.”
“Then you’ll have us,” Silas said, his hand finally caressing up her thigh as he moved behind her.
Ezra watched as Silas’s lips attached to her neck, and she gasped when his tongue swept along her skin. A smirk stretched across Ezra’s face before he touched her again. Her eyes nearly rolled into the back of her head, their touch on her body overwhelming her in the best possible way.
She reached for Silas, her hand sliding up his cheek to play with strands of his hair. “Silas,” she moaned.
His lips left her neck, and she turned her head enough to look at him. But it wasn’t Silas behind her anymore.
It was someone in a white mask and cloaked in black.
Ivy gasped, her eyes flying open as she shot straight up in her bed. She searched the room wildly, but…she was back in her childhood bedroom. A new crochet project sat on her lap, and the letters next to her. The small bedside lamp lit up the bedroom, leaving no trace of dark, shadowy corners.
“It was a dream,” she muttered, her hand coming to her chest to calm herself down. “Only a dream.” She took everything off the bed and placed it on the floor before flicking the light off.
She wasn’t sure what caused the dream, besides her obvious feelings for Ezra.
But…Silas, too. There was something intriguing about him.
She couldn’t put her finger on it. Maybe it was how he kissed her hand at the ball, or how he came to their rescue with Wren.
Or how Ezra blushed every time Silas was around, despite him saying what they had was in the past.
And…to her surprise, she wasn’t jealous. Sure, she and Ezra weren’t technically together. Yet. But even if they were, she wouldn’t care if Ezra pursued Silas too. Would he feel the same if she and Silas were to…
She groaned, sinking deeper into the bed. It didn’t matter. Not right now, anyway. Ezra said it was in the past and she had to trust him on that.