His angry stride doesn’t break as he keeps marching forward. Fuck, I need him to listen to me.
I bridge the gap between us and grasp his shoulder. “Ezra, let me explain!”
I don’t see it coming until it hits me square in my face, my head whipping to the side with force. I’m surprised my neck is still intact. The pain in my jaw flares with a vengeance as I stagger a few steps back.
But he doesn’t seem to care or stop as hepunches me exactly at the same spot, this time splitting my lip. Fuck, it hurts.
“What will you explain?!” he roars, giving another punch to my gut, making me keel over in pain. “That you fucked my sister!” Distrust cuts through his voice, his features contorted with betrayal.
I stop his next hit right in the air, both our hands suspended between us, our eyes glaring at each other.
“Say what you will about me. I don’t give a flying fuck. But talk about her like that ever again, then God help you, I’ll forget that you have someone waiting for you at home,” I warn, the threat clear in my words as my teeth grind.
I don’t care if he’s her brother.No onetalks about her like that.
Ezra’s eyes widen, not expecting me to fight back.
For Andie? I’ll face the fucking world.
Done with him being an angry, stupid bull, I grab his collar and haul him with me into the nearest room.
He shrugs off my hold the second we’re behind the closed doors of what looks to be a conference room.
I rake a hand through my hair, turning my back to him, my muscles pulled tight with pent-up adrenaline.
“How long?” Ezra’s question has me looking at him. He’s sitting on one of the chairs, his body slumped over the table.
“Sometime after Kaeli got hurt,” I sigh, taking a seat.
His eyes bulge out of their sockets, his hands fistingover the table. “That long?” I nod. He pinches the bridge of his nose, his eyes squeezing shut as he mutters a curse under his breath. “You betrayed me forthatlong?”
My stomach drops, hating that he’s hurting. His eyes look at me like I’m a stranger, and even just the idea of losing him is like losing a limb.
“Ezra—”
He cuts me off, his gaze flitting back to me. “What is she to you? Was she just a good time?” His icy tone, words and insinuation put me on edge.
My back straightens, hands clasping together. If we continue like this, we’re never going to get anywhere. I need him to see the truth. “Am I sorry that you found out like this? Yes. Am I sorry that we hid it from you? No. Not if it meant Andie felt safe enough to be with me.”
A frown mars his features. “She didn’t feel safe telling me?” I don’t miss the hurt in his tone. Why wouldn’t he be hurt? He’s worried about her. He has always been her safe place, her protector, her big brother.
“It’s not that. It was only because keeping it under wraps allowed us to explore what wehave. If what we have is worth putting our relationship with you in jeopardy. Like how you and Kaeli hid it because you wanted to see where the two of you could go,” I try to explain him the best I can. “And if not telling you about us is how she wanted to go, then even the Gods couldn’t make me confess to you.”
He arches an eyebrow at my curt statement. But it is what it is.
There’s absolutely fucking nothing I won’t do for her.
“So was she?”
“Was she what?” I ask, massaging my jaw that hurts like bitch, my brows furrowing.
“Worth it?”
A smile blooms on my face at the thought of her despite the ache. “A thousand lifetimes over.”
Surprise flashes across his face at my confession. “You love her?” he asks as if he can’t quite imagine my grumpy ass doing so. Can’t say that I can blame him. I haven’t always shown how I feel, not when I keep everything bottled up so tight inside of me.
She changed that, though. My Rainbow changed that.