Page 23 of Moonflower
He slams his lips to mine, gripping my sides like he’s trying to leave marks. When he releases me, he grins down at me. And even though I’m blushing harder than I ever have, I can’t help but smile back.
Ezra comes up behind me, pressing a kiss to my shoulder. “You’re ours now, Moonflower. That’s never changing.”
This time, I hold Wilder’s gaze. “Yours. Forever.”
Chapter five
Wilder
When Cora comes out of the bathroom, I can’t help but snicker. She’s cleaned up her makeup and straightened her tiara, but she doesn’t look nearly as pristine as she did when we found her.
She narrows her eyes at me. “What?”
I shrug.
“Wild!”
“It just looks like . . . well, either like you got absolutely ravaged by your two best friends or you had one hell of a crying session.”
A slow grin creeps over her face. “It was kinda both.”
With a laugh, I take her into my arms and kiss her. Now that we have her, I can’t seem to stop touching her.
When we break off our kiss, my Cora’s eyes are sparkling. “This changes everything, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” I say softly.
Just like that, her eyes fill with tears. “I’m so stupid,” she whispers. “Oh my god, I had everything wrong. Guys, I’m sorry.” Her voice breaks on the last word, and she covers her mouth with her hand.
“Hey,” Ezra says, pulling her into his arms gently. “Cora, what’s wrong?”
“I pushed you away,” she sobs. “I wanted you both so badly, but I never thought this would happen, so I just . . .” She shakes her head before leaning her forehead against his chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you guys. But every time I looked at you, every time I was around you, it was so painful.”
Realization settles on Ezra’s features. He kisses the top of her head, staring at me, probably expecting me to have a shocked expression similar to his. But I already know all this. I’ve known for a couple weeks.
“I didn’t know you felt that way,” Ezra murmurs. “I never thought you’d want . . . both of us.”
“Of course I do,” she says, pulling away so she can look at him. “Of course I want you both. Ez, how could I not?” Her fingers brush across his cheek while she stares up at him through teary eyes.
Ezra doesn’t know what to say to that, so he just watches her. Then he sighs, wiping away her tears as they fall. “I dunno.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispers, turning to look at me too. “I shouldn’t’ve done it. Even though it was hard to be around you two, I still should’ve prioritized you both. Anything else wasn’t fair to you guys. And I missed you so much.”
I’m not really sure what to say. I’ve been a mix of angry, confused, and hurt for years. Reading her blog posts helped clear a lot of things up, but all her avoidance feels like it was for nothing now. If this was going to be the end result, maybe we would’ve gotten here sooner if she hadn’t pushed us away.
Or maybe we all would’ve suffered in silence for the rest of our lives.
Maybe it’s stupid, but most of me doesn’t care. I just want her. I want the three of us together again. And I’m pretty sure that’s what they want too.
Stepping up to them, I put one arm around Ezra and one around Cora. “I get it, Moonflower. I wish you would’ve said something, but I understand why you didn’t. You were scared.”
She sniffles, staring at me in baffled silence.
“I’ll probably have questions at some point,” Ezra says. “But the important thing is that all that shit is behind us. I’m not wasting the time I have with you by letting old wounds fester. We’ll have to rebuild some, sure. But let’s focus on that. Not the past. Okay?”
She nods. “Okay.”
Cora tries to smile, but she’s still crying. It breaks my heart because I know this has been hard on her, too. She had a horrible choice to make, and both options resulted in pain. Maybe things could’ve been different if she’d said something earlier, but honestly, I’m not sure if I would’ve been willing to share Cora a few years ago. I’ve grown up a lot in the past couple years.