Damage Repaired

Chapter 26

I left the second he turned his back on me, but as I was walking past the trees to get back to Dylan and Ethan, I felt his eyes on me, penetrating my body before I disappeared out of sight. I had a feeling he purposely gave me that opening to leave, which seemed too good to be true, but I didn't care to over-analyze his actions right now; I wanted to focus all my attention and energy on the date with Ezra tonight.

"Where the hell have you been?" Dylan asked loudly, making several heads turn in our direction as I approached him and Ethan. "You can't go missing for an hour like that without telling anyone." He pulled me into a hug and sighed like he could finally breathe again.

"It wasn't even an hour Dylan," I mumbled, my voice muffled from being buried in his chest.

"Well, it fucking felt like it," he huffed, peeling me off his toned body to look down at me. His long blonde hair looked as if it had been caught in a tornado from him laying on it for so long.

"I was with—"

"King of all evil," he finished.

I squinted suspiciously up at him. "How did you know?"

"Because you're so flustered right now, I can light a candle on your cheeks."

I pushed off of him, patting my cheeks with the back of my hands. "I'm not flustered."

Ethan gave me an apologetic look from where he sat on the blanket. "You're flustered, babe."

I flipped both of them off. "I'm ready to leave now; I have a date with Ezra to get ready for."

"Oh, so you do remember him," Dylan said mischievously with a wide grin.

Ethan choked back his laughter as he folded the quilt neatly, holding it in one arm with my purse in the other.

"Fuck you guys," I rolled my eyes, trying not to smile.

* * *

When I made it back to the hotel, Nathaniel's words played in the back of my mind on repeat the entire time I was getting ready after my shower.

Are you happy with him, or are you happy with him for now?

Maybe it was a for-now thing, but I could definitely see myself with a man like Ezra. He was easy to be with; he didn't make my heart hurt whenever I was around him; he didn't bring back painful memories whenever I looked at him, unlike Nathaniel. Shoving those thoughts aside, I finished getting ready and headed down to the lobby bumping into someone accidentally on the way out when I looked down briefly at my phone. I turned around to apologize to the person I ran into but got startled when the bald stranger with tattoos all over his face glared at me with clear disgust as if I had punched his grandma and then kicked her down a flight of stairs for good measure.

"Sorry," I still muttered politely, shaking off the weird look in his black eyes.

The moment I saw Ezra waiting for me outside, leaning against his Maserati like he always does, looking handsome as ever in his nicely fitted jeans and polo shirt, that weird interaction I had just encountered slipped my mind in an instant.

"Hello, gorgeous," he greeted me in that heart-fluttering british accent as I approached him, snaking my arms around his neck. His beautiful long dark hair flowed down his broad shoulders instead of being pulled in a low ponytail or bun.

"Hello, handsome."

Ezra captured my lips with his tasting like peppermint as he slid his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him.

"I missed you," he murmured once we pulled apart.

I stared into his emerald green eyes, feeling my heart beating steadily inside my chest, accompanied by the light fluttering in my stomach. There was no doubt I had feelings for Ezra outside of our sexual relationship, and being right here with him feeling the warmth and happiness spread through my body, was proof of that. "I missed you too."