Page 16 of Allured (Love and Burlesque #1)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
EZEKIEL
Profound.
A lek’s candor inspired me to open up during our dinner as well. While I wasn't ready to admit my deepest character faults to him, I certainly told him more than I usually shared with most people. All while we sat and shoved delicious greasy food into our mouths.
I couldn’t recall the last time I had been on a date, much less a date this casual and carefree. I wished it didn’t have to end.
During dinner, I told Alek that I am forty—two, a linguistics professor, own a terrible cat named Peaches. Opening up about my childhood, I told him how I grew up with Knight and his mother. It didn’t feel like the time to get into the specifics of my childhood but I did let Alek know how I was orphaned at seven—years—old after my parent’s fatal car accident. I had become mute in response to their death and while I hadn’t really spoken to anyone but Knight during my childhood, I fondly remember picking up books from my aunt’s library and learning bits and pieces of a variety of languages. With time and therapy, I began to speak again at the age of thirteen. Somewhat shockingly, I was able to communicate in several languages due to my independent studies.
Alek listened and offered reassurance, his leg softly brushing against mine under the table while his eyes were a pool of sympathy. It wasn’t the regular pity that many would show when hearing about my past. With Alek, there was a deep understanding only those who have been through the grief of losing a parent can attest to.
“Is that why you’re a linguistics professor now?” Alek asks, pausing his pursuit for the last drops of his milkshake. Earlier, he had let me know it was his cheat day and he was going to swallow every bit down. Unsurprisingly, his words had my face flushing with heat.
“Yes, essentially,” I began, wiping off the oily residue on my hands with a napkin and then applying hand sanitizer from my bag.
“While it was something I wasn’t physically able to do, I became excellent at speaking within my mind, and the love of both written and spoken language stemmed from there.” At my confession, Alek nodded in understanding with a thoughtful and sympathetic look on his face.
I am aware of how my mental processes are different and at that moment, it truly felt like Alek did understand why and how I operated.
“I know it can be hard to share, Ez. I can’t pretend to know what you went through, but I want to say I appreciate you opening up. I was feeling kinda nervous that I spilled too much earlier.” Alek sets his empty glass to the outer edge of the booth beside our stacked, empty plates.
The solid warmth of his leg against mine feels so natural that I immediately miss its presence as Alek straightens in his seat.
“We each had a therapy session over incredible meals, Alek.” I joke, attempting to lighten the mood. Divulging everything we did tonight truly feels like a sort of intimacy I had not experienced before.
Alek’s deep laugh steals some of the heavy sensation forming in my chest. I only hope my accompanying laugh can do the same for him.
Our laughter quiets and only a moment passes before Alek speaks up. “I’m not ready for this date to end, angel,” he admits.
“I couldn’t dare leave your presence right now, Alek.”
His breath hitches visibly and my eyes hone in on the broad muscles of his arms as he digs into his pockets. Within a second, Alek pries his wallet from his tight—fitting jeans and places several bills on the table.
“Take me home then, Ez.”
The short trek back to the parking lot of the burlesque club feels much longer than it did earlier. A welcome tension fills the miniscule amount of air between us as we walk, pressed side—by—side and hand—in—hand.
Not a word is exchanged between us. It feels like we said more than enough tonight and now is the time to fully sink into the feelings growing between us.
Trust, understanding, and anticipation mingle just as our fingers are intertwined.
It is Alek that finally breaks the silence as we enter the now—full parking lot.
“You’ll me if I’m— if this is too much, right?” Alek asks suddenly, and somewhat shyly, as we approach my car.
“What do you mean?” I’m typically at least a little better at reading people, but Alek’s question and expression leave me confused.
“I mean this, Ez.” Alek lets go of my hand and gestures between us as he leans against the bumper of my car. “You haven’t told me outright but I know that this is kinda new to you.”
“You aren’t wrong.” There’s too much distance between us now and I don’t care for it. I want our hands to be wrapped around each other again, for my skin to bask in the warmth of his.
“The extent of my attraction to people, namely women, has— well, it’s never felt like this, Alek.”
I step closer to the taller man, planting my hands on either side of his hips resting against the trunk of my car. Alek undulates slightly as I press against him and I can see there is certainly no qualm at my closeness.
“Don’t know why it’s me but fuck if I’m gonna question a good thing,” Alek murmurs, although it seems the statement was more for himself than for me. His eyes roam my face, my neck, my chest, and down to the sliver of space between us.
I’m bewildered by his statement.
It couldn’t be anyone but him. And I intend to make him believe it.
The slouch of Alek’s body against my car puts us closer to a matching eye level and I take advantage of our positions. My hands caress up his sides and I pull him against me. Alek’s legs fall open immediately, allowing me to step in between them until I have him pinned to the car.
“This all may be new, but I promise you, I’m an apt student if you’re willing to teach me.”
“I thought you were the teacher here?” Alek jests, though there’s not much humor in his lustful tone. His words drip with it.
“I’m willing to reverse the roles.” Grasping where the back of his hairline meets his neck, I launch myself forward and stroke my lips against his.
Alek responds with a needy groan, his hands immediately moving from being crossed at his chest to gripping at the fabric of my sweater.
Not for the first time since last night, I’m transported back to our tryst in the costume closet. The memory of his lips against mine was so prevalent in my thoughts earlier today that the only thing that would pacify my mind was fisting my cock in the shower as a silent scream of Alek’s name fell from my lips.
As I feel that mouth pressing, biting, and licking against my own, I know that memories would never be a substitute for the real thing. My obsession, in the flesh.
“Ez, angel—” Alek pleads against my lips, using his strength to press against my chest to afford us some space. I find the action more attractive than I ought to. “I’m two seconds from getting on my knees and worshiping your cock in the middle of this damn parking lot.” The tips of his fingers curl into the waistband of my pants, mere inches away from my growing arousal.
“And I am two seconds from allowing it,” I confess, my breath coming out in a harsh cadence.
“Oh, fuck.” Running a hand through his already tousled hair, Alek takes a moment to look around the lot. I follow his gaze and find the parking lot and front of the club free of both patrons and security.
“Get in the car, angel,” Alek commands and moves away from the car. He nudges me easily toward the driver’s side. Again, the fact that he can manipulate my body in such an effortless way is only adding to the problem presently making itself shown in my pants.
Entering the car at alarming speed, I slam the door, and see an already buckled—in Alek smirking at me. There’s something diabolical behind the lopsided grin of his and I am more than willing to play with the devil.
“Drive, Ez. I’m not far from here.” Alek punches his address into my navigation while I begin backing out of my space.
I don’t even make it past a single row of cars before Alek stretches his long body over the center console.
“What are you—” My question is cut off when I feel Alek’s dexterous fingers pulling away at my belt and zipper.
“Just need a little taste, angel. Mind if I keep your cock warm on the way home?” Alek begs.
“It is already quite warm in my pants, Alek.” I reprimand him but still invitingly tilt my hips toward him. “Take me out then, you impatient boy.”
“Oh, hell yeah.” Alek notices my body’s eager reaction and quickly obeys my command. In a very purposeful and agitating move, Alek brushes his palm against my stiff erection and applies torturous pressure.
“Baby, I need to be able to keep us alive and I am entirely unsure of how to do so if you’re going to be teasing me,” I reply somewhat gruffly. I do not miss the way Alek relishes the affectionate term.
“Then you better focus, angel. My place is eight minutes from here and I’m gonna fucking use that time wisely.” He reaches his warm, calloused hand into my boxers. I stiffen and hiss at the sensation of Alek’s fingers wrapping around my bare flesh.
“Get driving, Ez,” he demands, and as I said, I am nothing if not a willing and hands—on student. Checking my surroundings, I set the car to drive and begin the eight minute torture session to Alek’s apartment building.
“Good boy,” Alek praises, rewarding me with a single flick of his tongue to the bulb of my aching arousal.
How the steering wheel hasn’t crushed under the stress of my fierce grip as this brat drags his tongue against me, I do not know.