Enough by Matthew J. Metzger

Author:Matthew J. Metzger [Metzger, Matthew J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBT Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Entwined Group Ltd
Published: 2019-08-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The walk home was silent.

Jesse felt—weird. Liam’s voice just kept ringing in his head, and his fingertips burned as if he was touching Ezra’s phone again, going through his texts, finding those messages again—and the card. He’d ripped up the card Liam had handed over with his phone number, slipped it out of Ezra’s jeans and torn it up in that hotel in Norwich—

Except he wasn’t. He wasn’t like that. Was he?

Ezra was giving him funny looks as Jesse chased his own thoughts, and the moment they were home, he dropped his keys on the side table and said, “Jess? What’s up?”

“D’you think I’m jealous?” Jesse blurted out.

Ezra raised his eyebrow. “Well, yes.”

He flinched. It wasn’t what he’d needed to hear. It wasn’t what he wanted to hear, because where was the line? If he went digging through Ezra’s phone and pockets, if he said he didn’t like him seeing Liam, then what? And he didn’t want him to see Liam anymore. He wanted to tell him not to, but—but—

“So why are you here?”

Ezra’s eyebrows hiked higher. “I’m sorry?”

“Why are you here?” Jesse repeated, folding his arms and hunching his shoulders. “If I’m such a jealous, belligerent, possessive—”

“Hey, hey, I didn’t say—”

“You don’t need to,” Jesse snapped.

Ezra was frowning and shaking his head. “Jess, I’m really not following you here.”

“If I am such a jealous prick, why in the hell are you—”

“I never said you were a prick about it, I just said you were jealous, and don’t raise your voice to me,” Ezra said through gritted teeth.

Jesse ran his tongue around the inside of his teeth. He felt jittery, a hot anger burning low in his stomach at the condescending expression on Liam’s face, at the way he’d known—

“Liam thinks I fucking hit you, you know that?”

“Yes, I do know that,” Ezra said coolly. “He texted me a couple of days after we met him in Norwich, and he’s been banging on about it ever since. It’s driving me nuts. What’s that got to do with—?”

“He asked me to my fucking face if I shook you to get you to shut up!”

Ezra’s mouth tightened. “Jesse.”

“And he starts banging on about how it’s not just physical, it’s—”

“Jesse!” Ezra interrupted loudly. “Why in the hell do you care what Liam thinks?!”

“Because he’s right!” Jesse exploded.

Ezra stared at him. For a moment, the silence rang between them and for a moment, the truth yawned open, then Ezra shook his head and slammed the gap shut again.

“Come on,” he said.

He dragged Jesse into the living room by the wrist, pushing him to sit on the sofa. Kitsa lurked for a moment, then darted away under the television with an affronted yowl. Ezra sat on the coffee table, elbows braced on his knees, and frowned up at Jesse from an unusually slouched posture.

“Jess,” he prodded in a much gentler tone. “You know as well as I do you’ve never hit me.”

The anger and the—the hurt were thrumming in Jesse’s veins like a second pulse.

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