Page 89 of Cruel Betrayal

I throw a punch at his head, catching the side of his jaw. “And you shouldn’t be doing stupid things like trying to get yourselfkilled, yet here we both are, and apparently neither of us knows what to do about it.”

His fist catches me in the side, pain blossoming in my ribs before he sweeps my leg out from under me and gets on top of me.

I rear up before he has a chance to recover, slamming my head into his nose.

There’s a sickening crunch of cartilage before blood starts dripping down his face.

Ezra grabs me by the throat, drops of his hot blood dripping from his chin and onto my face. “Fuck’s sake, Jade. What the fuck do you think you’re even doing here?”

“I don’t want you to do the fight.” I claw at his hands, trying to dig my nails into his skin. I don’t care if I draw more blood. He’s earned the ass kicking of a lifetime.

He hisses, but the fingers on the side of my throat only get tighter.

I struggle to draw in a breath, little spots bouncing around my vision.

Thrashing, I try to get him off me.

“You’re going to kill her if you keep this up.” Tyson appears on the other side of the ropes near my head, looking bored.

Ezra chuckles, looking down at me with a dark look in his eyes. “It might teach her to listen to me for once.”

I drop one of his hands, raising a middle finger to his face before wiping off some of the blood. I don’t know how much longer I can hold my breath for.

Ezra’s lower half presses into me, his hard cock digging into my core. “Besides, she’s enjoying this. She likes it. I bet she’s soaked right now.”

See middle finger again, asshole.

The pressure on my throat releases just enough for me to draw in a breath.

I thrash before he knows what’s happening, slamming my head into his again.

Tyson groans. “Come on, Jade, play nice. You both want the same thing in the end. You don’t have to try and kill each other in the process.”

Ezra grinds his cock into me, and I hate myself because he’s right. I am wet. I want him, and he knows it. And based on the glimmer in his eyes, he’s enjoying this too. He’s going to push it as far as he can.

“We’re not solving our problems with sex. We’re not going to do this and you’re going to actually listen to me.” I rasp out the words, putting my hands on his chest and pushing him off me.

“Have you considered listening tome?” He resists the pushing for a couple of seconds before getting up and helping me to my feet. “Come home with me tonight, or let me come over to your place, and we can talk about this.”

“Yeah, because the two of you are so good at talking about your problems,” Tyson says, sarcasm dripping from his words. “At least if I’m not around when the two of you kill each other, I don’t have to explain what happened to either of your families.”

I look at Ezra before nodding. “Fine, we’ll talk tonight, and then maybe we might be able to figure something out, but I’m notholding my breath. I don’t think you’re ever going to change, and I’m not about to sit back and watch you die either.”

“Nobody is asking you to sit back and just watch, but I don’t want to keep spending time having this fight with you.” Ezra looks like us being apart is hurting him.

Even before I broke his nose, there were dark circles beneath his eyes. His cheeks are hollow, and he’s pale. I don’t think he’s taking care of himself, and if he is determined to fight, that does scare me.

Maybe if I spend time with him tonight, I can talk him out of going to the fight just for a chance to kill Noah.

Ezra humsas he moves around the apartment, loading my plate high with shrimp tacos.

I cross my legs on the couch, leaning back into the cushions as he hands me the plate with a small smile.

This is wrong. Everything about this is wrong.

I should be staying in this apartment with him. We should be working through our issues and getting closer to being happy with each other.

Instead, all we’re doing is fighting, and I don’t know what to do about it.