The Hunter (Mistress & Master of Restraint) (29 page)

Cortez Abernathy
: Present
-Chapter Thirty-Nine-

“I’m not trying to interfere,” Ezra murmurs near my ear as we enter the café. “I just wanted to be here for the first time. I want to see how my children react when they meet. If you want alone time with Zane after that, I’ll understand. I dominate his time as it is.”

“Zane is your son, not mine.” I uncomfortably chuckle.

“If… I understand if you want a parental relationship with Zane. In fact, Faith, Wil, and I already discussed it this morning. I mean, it’s common to have stepparents when it’s a broken home. If you see Zane as your stepson… I’m more than happy with that,” Ezra mutters, looking uncomfortable.

“Do you… do you want me to be a parent to Zane, or are you offering because I’m situating myself in Zane’s life because of the kids?” I don’t dare look at Ezra, worrying over what I’ll see. I hug Baby Ez to my chest, squeezing him.

“God, Az is getting heavy. Little chunk,” Ezra says with affection, shifting Azriel from resting on one h
ip to his other. My daughter inherited her daddy’s chubbiness. “In a dream world, I’d want you to see Zane as you do Baby Ez- your son. But I know it’s difficult because of everything. So I’ll take stepson, or even amicable silence.”

“It’s up to Zane, too,” I quickly say before a wide grin breaks out over my face. I don’t want to get my hopes up. Zane already has two dads, he doesn’t ne
ed a third in this unconventional life. Katya would be better for him- a matching set of parents. I upset the balance.

“Here’s good,” Ezra picks out a booth that overlooks the street. Learning from past mistakes, the twins are set side-by-side on the inside of the booth and I bar their exit to the rest of the restaurant. Last time, Azriel crawled over the table to sit next to Baby Ez, and then the pair of them wiggled out of the booth and ran all over Hell’s half acre.

“Zane should be here any minute. His school is around the block. We’ve been negotiating over Zane enrolling at Hillbrook for the spring semester. Now that Ava knows…”

“I’m sorry,” I mutter
, voice cracking.

Dr. Faust was called in last night when Ezra, Katya, and I sat Ava down and told her the truth. It was an epic tantrum that left a destructive path through the family room. Ava can’t handle anymore secrets being revealed. In a way, for Ava’s benefit, I hope Ezra chooses Katya over me, because I don’t think Ava can handle the fallout.

I reach down to fix Azriel’s tiny dress so that her tights aren’t showing. Marcus thought it was funny to buy my baby girl a black and purple dress with little demons printed all over the fabric. Even funnier, it was the dress Azriel demanded to wear for her big brother. Leave it to kids to do the complete and total opposite of everything you want. Don’t get me started on the fake tuxedo Az picked out for Baby Ez to wear just because it complemented her dress.

Ezra’s in a business suit minus the jacket, I’m in jeans and a sweatshirt, and the twins look like Adam’s Family rejects…

“I’m sick of living a lie,” Ezra sadly says, running a hand through his hair. “Ava will get over it as soon as she meets Zane in person. That was the rest of the meeting I was summoned to this morning. Faith refuses to lie anymore, too.”

“Faith shouldn’t have to,” I agree. “You shouldn’t have to. I don’t want my kids feeling betrayed and lied to anymore. Zane isn’t a dirty secret,” I angrily hiss.

“Good to know,” Zane says from behind me. Ghostly in appearance, Zane just manifests next to his father. I worry I’ve upset him, but as Zane slides into the booth, he has a private smile on his face. “Hello,” he bashfully says, blushing.

My kids freeze next to me, staring at Zane like they’ve seen a ghost. Childlike eyes flick back and forth between the father and son that sit opposite us. It is surreal to see Zane and Ezra next to one another.

“I’m Zane,” he says, not bothering to do the baby voice people make around children- thank goodness. “I’m your brother.”

Chubby fingers gripping the lip of the tabletop, Azriel pulls herself up until she’s standing in the booth. Eyeing Zane, she says, “Hi.” Looking him over for another minute, you can almost hear Azriel’s silent
you’ll do
, and then she clumsily slides back to sit on her butt.

Baby Ez doesn’t say a word, but he charmingly smiles, picking up my habits from somewhere.

“Your little brother doesn’t say much,” Ezra offers as explanation, looking like he’s about to shit rainbows. I think if Ava were sitting here with us, I’m sure Ezra would. The café would be filled with a kaleidoscope of color.

“Neither
do I,” Zane says to Baby Ez, which makes the toddler ecstatic. “Holy shit,” Zane laughs. “He looks just like me. I know mom’s baby won’t because I look mostly like Dad… wow! No wonder you call him Baby Ez instead of Marcus… or is it Marcus Zane,” he stammers, blushing.

“We’re just going to let Azriel pick when the time comes. She’s the boss,” Ezra says with a happy bark of laughter. “Just like her daddy. We just give into Cort.”

“Bullshit,” I grumble, rolling my eyes. My face blushes bright red.

Cortez Abernathy
: Present
-Chapter Forty-

Falling asleep every night, c
urled around Ezra’s warm and smooth back, my head resting in the crook of his neck, and my arms wrapped tightly around his chest, I marvel on how our sleeping arrangements have drastically changed since Katya and I decided we were no longer fake husband and wife for Ezra’s sake. Katya used to lay in the middle of Ezra and me, with me at her back. Now Ezra is in the middle and I’m at his back.

Our sensibilities are delicate again. Meaning it’s no longer clothing optional in our bed unless your name is Ezra Zeitler. In which case, feel free to be buck-assed naked. Katya wears pretty jammie sets and I wear boxers. I can’t stand the sensation of pajama pants twisting around my legs or shirts sleeves hindering my movements. It’s a good thing this is the last time I share a bed with the two of them. Hopefully, Ezra will still be cuddled up with me.

Ezra hates the clothing issue. I wake to my boxers pushed to the side so he can feel my flesh on his. It’s not sexual. Ezra just hates barriers between us. I’d feel special, but usually Ezra’s hand is up Katya’s camisole, cupping her large breasts. It sucks, I don’t have squishy, stress-relieving breasts to entice Ezra.

There has also been no sex in this bed for the past month. I’m sure Ezra is still having sex with Katya, but not in this bed
, and not while I’m in it or not in it. Ezra and I are like teenagers, hungry for the other. We still use this bed when Katya isn’t in the room. Recently, bedtime is for sleeping only.

I love Katya, I truly do. We still hold hands on Ezra’s chest as we sleep. We still talk.
We still kiss in a passionless platonic sort of way. We still say
I love you
to each other and mean it. We’re amicable. We harbor no hard feelings. But seeing Katya so agreeable makes me wonder. If Katya were me, I’d be worried if I were being nice. It would mean I was up to something. Is Katya up to something?

I can’t continue living like this. It’s why I’m telling Ezra the truth after the meeting t
onight. I love Katya but I can no longer share a bed with her. I couldn’t with Divina, either, and she and I shared a life from the time I was born.

It doesn’t matter what Ezra says, I have to do this for myself. I got into this fake marriage for the wrong reasons. I did this for Ezra, because he wanted it, because he thought it was the right thing to do. But I’m going to make a decision based on what I need for the first time in my entire life. I need to be happy to raise my children, and this feels wrong.

I’m not going to playact the rest of my life like I am some character in a script. I’ve lived the first thirty-three years that way, and I refuse to for another day.

Both of them have sensed my resolve. They know the end is upon us. Katya is relieved, but Ezra is slightly unhinged. Ezra, not the whole person, but his youngster personality has been coming out for the past few days. It scares me.

Ezra hasn’t left us during bedtime in the past week. No nocturnal stalking of any kind. I fall asleep curled around Ezra’s back, but I wake up to him fused to my chest. Our bodies will be in perfect alignment with Ezra’s arms locked around my back. He’s been having nightmares. Muttering
don’t go
, in his sleep.

Like now, it’s early morning. I
t can’t be past four a.m. at the most, and I can sense that Ezra is awake… and staring at me. Our foreheads are resting against each other’s. Our noses and chins are aligned. Ezra is softly breathing against my mouth.

“Merry Christmas,” Ezra whispers against my lips, somehow sensing I’m awake, too.

“Merry Christmas,” I murmur back, lips curling up at the corners. “I’ve woke to you every Christmas, but this is the first that we were so entangled,” I tease, because a hair wouldn’t fit between the two of us right now. I swear Ezra’s heart is beating in my chest, his blood flowing throughout my veins.

“I had a bad dream,” Ezra whispers, and I can tell he’s having a hard time ke
eping control of his personalities. “I thought you left me because you’d realized all of the bad things I’ve done and you couldn’t accept them. But when I woke up you were still here. So… that’s why I’m glued to you. I’m not letting you go,” Ezra says, punctuating his point by squeezing me.

“What if I have to pee or the little ones come in here wanting their Christmas presents?” I’m teasing Ezra for some reason. I should be serious with him right now. But my tone is purely amused affection.

“I can share with my kids… and I can escort you to the potty. I’ll even hold it for you,” Ezra purrs, hand venturing between us.

“Ah,” I gasp in shock
as Ezra’s hand encircles my cock, deliciously clenching. We touch constantly, but he hasn’t touched me like this… with Katya sleeping inches away from us in what feels like forever. A firm squeeze has my back arching and a moan spilling from my lips.

“I’d kiss you,” Ezra murmurs against my throat. “But then I wouldn’t hear the noises I cause you to make. Plus, I know how much you love my mouth on your neck.”

Biting me hard, I jackknife off the mattress. “Oh fuck, you’re like a vampire with this shit. I already have a dozen hickeys like I’m a fourteen year old… Oh, yeah… right there,” I groan when Ezra suckles beneath my ear.

“I love the feel of your cock sliding through my hand,” Ezra hisses as he starts to stroke me in a dizzying rhythm.

“Not as much… oh God… not as much as my dick loves your hand.” I release a series of grunts, panting with every stroke of Ezra’s hand. It’s been forever since I was jerked off. My hips join the action, fucking Ezra’s hand. “Now I’m behaving like the fourteen year old with hickeys. Jesus, I’m gonna cum already. Don’t stop,” I hoarsely whisper, muscles tightening all over my body.

Ezra tears my boxe
rs from my hips- literally rips them down the seams. The shredding sound of fabric tearing is loud in the quiet room, but not as loud as my moans and our combined labored breathing.

“Fuck, you’re an expert with a cock in your hand,”
I praise in amazement, loving the way Ezra’s hand perfectly fits my cock, as if it was made to touch me and me alone.

This openness is new to us. We haven’t ever felt this sexual freedom before. Pure liberation to do whatever you please to your lover. Just take and give whatever you wish.
At least I know
I
haven’t felt this free with anyone- ever.

I’ve fucked a lot of women- just fucked them. It meant absolutely nothing, and I may or may not have even came. I’ve only loved two women as a man loves a woman, and one is sleeping in the bed with us while we touch. Obviously
, I didn’t love Katya enough. Marcus, he is a different story all together, but I reserved myself.

Ezra and me in the past:
we were too young to know what we were doing, we were hesitant, and then wounded… but now, I freely give myself to Ezra without reservation.

“Ezra,” I sharply hiss. My hands grip his shoulders, nails biting into his fles
h. He grunts from the sweet edge of pain. “Ffffuuuuccccckkkk…” I wheeze out in a large breath as my body nearly doubles in half from the pleasure. My muscles spasm, jerking me around on the mattress as I cum. My chest is splattered with my release. Scalding hot cum lands on my skin in plops as Ezra works my cock until it’s drained dry.

Not waiting for my orgasm to ebb, Ezra is on me before I can react. Using my release as lubricant, he
slowly works himself into my body, one tight inch at a time. Sensitive and still experiencing waves of pleasure, Ezra’s invasion has me shouting loudly.

“Cort,” Ezra
breathlessly chuckles. “Do you like my cock in your ass, or what?”

“Fucktard,” I snort. “Show me what ya got before I get bored.”

“Ugh!” I grunt as I’m impaled. “Alright, you got a lot.” I groan through the painful sting as my body tries to adapt to being invaded by a very thick dick. “I want it, though, all of it,” I admit when Ezra looks concerned. “Just give me a few seconds and you can pound the hell out of me if you’re in the mood.”

Leaning down over me, Ezra presses his lips
to my ear and whispers, “Your ass is like heaven.” I bust out laughing, wondering if father and son take notes on what to say to me in the throes of passion.

“
Your ass is like heaven. You enter and never want to leave, but you spew all of your sins at the gates,” I repeat Marc’s words.

“Did you write that in one of your books?” Ezra’s voice is tight from the strain of holding back his thrusts.

“No, I didn’t,” I mutter, voice filled with amusement, trying my damnedest not to laugh. “Fuck me!” I order. “Fuck me hard like it’s Christmas morning.”

“I’m Jewish, ya know?” Ezra says the strangest shit at the most inopportune times.

“And I ain’t converting. Now screw me like you mean it. I want this headboard pounding. It’s not like Katya isn’t awake and watching us like kinky internet porn,” I taunt, seeing the glow of the whites of Katya’s eyes pointed in our direction.

I said I’d be playing dirty. I should feel badly about making Katya watch Ezra fuck me, but I don’t. I don’t have a pussy that makes kids. I don’t have soft breasts and a beautiful face.
I don’t have society’s approval as the perfect spouse. But I give Ezra what he’s always wanted, sole rights to my ass without having to ask to enter.

Ezra not giving a fuck about anything that doesn’t involve getting off, shoves so deeply into me that I slide up the mattress. “This is a religious experience,” I groan. “I love the feel of you inside me.”

“Shit, Cort, I’m only going to last like thirty more seconds. I can’t believe you’re allowing me to do this right now,” Ezra says in wonder, staring down at me and smiling through panting lips.

“That’s longer than I lasted with the handjob…” I get sidetracked by Ezra’s teeth nibbling along my jawline. My body breaks out in goosebumps and my skin tightens, shrinks. “Keep that up and I’ll be joining you in about twenty seconds. I’ve rebounded, and I’m ready to pour on your abs. Fuck, those are sexy abs,” I groan, grinding my erection into Ezra’s stomach. “Jesus, my nuts feel like they’re going to explode.”

Fingertips bruisingly digging into my shoulders, toes gripping the mattress for leverage, Ezra pounds me into submission. Every thrust has the headboard banging, the mattress squeaking, Katya gasping, and me grunting like a wild animal.

The friction of Ezra’s muscles skimming along my cock has me shooting a second time within minutes. I scream my release in the form of Ezra’s name. My orgasm saturates between our pressed bodies, causing us to slickly slide back and forth. I clench every muscle in my body as my balls finally cease to ache.

“Can I cum inside you, please,” Ezra begs, and I pretend that one half of his personality isn’t dominating the man making love to me. Ezra is still whole, but just barely.

“Please,” I beg, experiencing the same pressure Ezra is feeling. His cock pounds a rapid beat inside me, swelling to an impressive thickness. It hurts so good to be stretched that far. His sack
is heavy against the back of my raised thigh. “I want you inside me,” I whimper, and a second later, Ezra is roaring to the ceiling.

While Ezra is wracked with waves of release, I hold him, wrapping myself around him. I don’t want to
ever let him go. The need to cry overwhelms me. If Ezra chooses Katya, I’ll make him reconsider. I’m an asshole for hurting the woman sitting next to us in our shared bed. I’m also disrespectful. But Katya isn’t even trying, I don’t think. Doesn’t she care? And if she isn’t willing to fight to keep Ezra, she doesn’t deserve him.

“That was…” Katya trails off, and she doesn’t sound pissed like I would be. She sounds in awe. “How long have you been… um… since when does Cortez let you take him?”

“A few months,” Ezra says, sounding bashful all of the sudden.

“Do you do it like that a lot?” Katya’s curiosity makes me chuckle.

“Two or three times,” I mumble, smiling as Ezra snuggles deeper into me.

“In the past few months? That’s a lot after… after pretty much never,” Katya stammers out.

“A day,” Ezra corrects.

“What?” Katya gasps. “A day? Why did that change come about? I thought you like to… to receive more than give,” Katya sounds
slightly annoyed that Ezra hasn’t been telling her everything, and the selfish asshole in me- not Ezra- is basking in the afterglow of knowing something Katya doesn’t.

“Two or three times a day I fuck Cort… he screws me like… I don’t know… on average, five times a day,” Ezra computes.

“That sounds about right,” I drowsily say.

“You guys have
sex an upwards of eight times per day,” Katya drawls out in shock.

“We’re getting old,” I grumble. “It used to be
around twenty. I think our record was twenty-three, but Ezra got really sore.”

“I loved summer vacation,” Ezra gleefully purrs, rubbing his cheeks against mine. “Not so much now that we have kids…
since they’re home on summer vacation… and now I’m at work. That kind of takes the fun out of it.”

“Okay, now I don’t f
eel so bad for having less sex in two months than you have in a single day,” Katya growls. “I’m not mad at you guys,” she mumbles. “It was… I’ve never, ever seen anything like that, and it’s not the first time I’ve seen you two together. I was with you when Cort… when Cort fucked you, Ez. You guys are different than you were even six month ago, and so different from when I first met you both.”