Page 9 of Single Mom’s Secret Diary (The Forbidden Reverse Harem Collection)

Ezra

S eeing Wyatt so close to Avery sends a pang of jealousy through me, especially when she peeks over his shoulder and her pupils are blown wide. Whatever they were doing, I want to be doing it with her instead.

It’s a strain on my day to keep from crowding her. To leave her alone. I allow myself to bring her coffee in the morning, when she’s most likely to glower at me instead of fight with me. Although if you ask me, I will take fighting with her over nothing.

Knowing both of my friends are attracted to Avery makes me a little more desperate to pull out ahead. I have the biggest hurdle.

Wyatt turns toward me, his chest heaving a little, but he’s otherwise his usual intense self. And Avery has gone back to glaring. It doesn’t matter. I can’t convince my body that she’s not mine. Not after what we shared.

“May I steal Avery for a moment?”

Wyatt nods, shares a look with Avery, and leaves us. Her arms fold over her stomach, feet wide in a power pose. I want to gather her up and pin her against the counter.

“Follow me, please?” I try not to order her around. She doesn’t need me to tell her what to do. It’s not like she’ll do as I say simply because I say it.

After a second’s hesitation, she steps behind me, and I escort her to my office and close the door behind her. We’re closer than usual, a mere foot from each other, and the air is charged. She looks like she wants to murder me.

It’s reminiscent of the first time we met. A challenge to prove I’m not some sloppy idiot who can only think with my dick. That’s not the part of me in control.

Her arms are folded again, creating a barrier that keeps me from pressing her against the door. “Yes?”

Her question is breathy but stern, and I catch the small twitch of betrayal at the corner of her mouth.

“Ezra?”

I’m staring. My plan didn’t make it this far. I just want to kiss her. To hold her captive until she tells me what I did to deserve her running out on me in the middle of the night without so much as a goodbye.

I lean closer, arm above her head on the door, ready to trap her. But her shaky breath closes my eyes, briefly taking me back to the one she made when she invited me inside. I’d let myself go, allowed myself to be hungry and show it to her.

Because I’ve wanted her since the moment I laid eyes on her, and it’s only gotten worse as time’s gone on.

Avery’s always seen more of me than I expected. She didn’t roll her eyes when I dropped ten-dollar words into a conversation. Never distracted or redirected me from geeking out over something just because she didn’t know anything about it.

Although I imagined she was ready to shut herself off from me the moment I did something that revealed my nerdy side, she remained open to me the entire time.

I want that back.

Her hand meets my chest when I get too close, and she slips around me, further into the office.

Avery’s frustration is palpable because I can feel that she still wants me, even if she doesn’t want to want me. And I’ll only get the answers I want if I prod her.

“Why do I feel like you’re always running from me?” I turn against the door, blocking her only way out.

“Why do I feel like you’re always being dishonest with me?” She turns, her long hair taking flight and her hands planting on her hips.

I stalk toward her, trapping her against the back of my desk. I didn’t lie to her once. It was easy not to with the way she shaped our conversations.

“What are you talking about?” The intensity from the past melding with the present pings between us.

“Why am I even here right now?” It’s a hedge. This moment is not what she’s talking about.

“That’s not what you meant.”

She shakes her head, staring at my chest instead of meeting my gaze.

“Avery.” I take a deep breath. “Tell me what you’re referring to.”

Because I need to know. I can’t fix what I don’t know I’ve broken.

Finally, that ice queen she’s been this week melts into the fiery Italian I remember. Her hazel eyes are blazing with anger. Her mouth twists cruelly.

“Does your wife know you get so close with your female employees?”

The question jars me like a punch on the chin. “I don’t have a wife.”

No one’s made me feel even close to what Avery stirs in me.

She rolls her eyes. “Girlfriend, then.”

Dread spreads through my chest, a sinking weight that deflates my pride. “No girlfriend, either.”

“I don’t believe you.”

If I didn’t have her trapped between my arms and my desk, she’d have bolted by now. “Why not?”

Her nostrils flare. “Because you lied about it ten years ago. You had a girlfriend when we were together during Spring Break. I saw her text.”

This blow lands in my diaphragm, sending a gust of air between my lips. I remember that text. The one I woke up to instead of Avery.

I’d been ignoring Maddison’s calls and texts the entire week. Not the mature way to deal with my situation, but I did plan to deal with it regardless of whether Avery was serious about me or not. That text had been more than suggestive, as was Maddison’s response when I told her we were over.

She thought throwing sex at me was going to change things. But it couldn’t.

“That’s why you left without saying goodbye.” She didn’t even wake me up to fight with me about it. To call me out on it. To tell me I’m an asshole.

“Yes.” Such a simple response. It took one text for her to totally give up on me.

Was I not worth the energy? Did she simply want to hurt me more? I search for the answer in her eyes, but I can’t read much beyond the anger.

I take a deep breath, working hard to keep my calm when my body won’t stop buzzing. “I was going to break it off when I got home. I didn’t want to do it over the phone.”

Her sneer only makes me want to kiss her. “So you just cheated on her instead.”

Yeah. Not my smartest move. But at the time, I thought I was being mature. “I was stupid. I thought I was doing the right thing. The moment I felt that spark with you, I knew that relationship stood no chance. I’d only been seeing her for a few months. And I was twenty.”

I’d never had a serious relationship at that point. Nothing that didn’t fizzle out after a month or two. I didn’t grow attached to women that even bordered on love. Not until Avery.

“I was eighteen, and I knew better.” Given the other things I knew about her, it’s true, but I’d already jumped in feet first by the time I knew the deal-breaking mistake I’d made.

I drag a hand down my face. “I never cheated before, and I haven’t since.”

“So you say.” Her words are soft, even with a little bite. It sounds like she’s resigned herself to that truth. I’m a cheater.

“You’re not going to believe me no matter what I say…” I’m panicking. I’m desperate. “Come meet my mom.”

I don’t have another way to convince her—other than introducing her to all of my ex-girlfriends. Which I will do if it’s my only option.

She laughs, incredulous. “Why?”

“Because she’ll tell you. She’ll tell you how fucked up I was when I came back—after you.”

I had been fucked up. I felt like I’d lost a limb, some large part of me ripped away without my understanding why. It was traumatizing.

Avery softens. It’s the smallest fraction, but it makes hope inflate in my chest again. Her silence only makes me antsy, drives me forward.

Tipping closer, I brace my hand at the back of her head and tip her face up toward mine. Desire pumps hard through me when her lips part.

“I’ve never felt anything like what we had since. Tell me you don’t feel it.”

Her hands meet my chest, but she doesn’t push me away. My other hand snakes around her back, more tempting to have a taste of what I’ve been missing all this time. What I’ve been craving, longing for. The ghost of her in my arms is like a physical ache.

“For ten years, I’ve been searching for it. For you. You have no idea how many times I tried to find you.”

Her nails curl into my shirt, and I can’t stop or the world will derail—crash and burn, taking us with it.

Does her mouth still soften when kiss? Does she still taste sweet? Will every part of me burn from that simple contact? I lean in, even if this is nothing like the first kiss we shared—like any of the ones we shared before…

If I don’t do this now, it’ll kill me.

I swoop down and capture her mouth with mine. My office fades around us as I test and press and pry her open to my kiss.

And when she does finally kiss me back, I feel like I’ve won a piece of myself back.