Page 81 of Between Never and Forever
“Ezekiel, it’s my understanding you’re with Trinity Enterprises and were approved as a backstage guest.” Jimmy looked at a sheet he’d been given. “My team is going to clear her room before your meeting.”
With that, two men passed us, and Ezekiel raised an eyebrow. “Fancy, Keelani. You’re getting the superstar treatment now, I see.”
I smiled without letting my mask slip. The deep breaths I took were for my family.
“I think anyone at HEAT gets this type of treatment.” I waved away his comment and turned to Jimmy as his two guys exited my room. “We good?”
Jimmy nodded, but he searched my eyes for a beat longer than I wanted him to before he said, “We’ll be outside your door if you need us.”
Ezekiel chuckled but stepped back for me to walk in before he closed the door behind him. He lifted a brow as if he wanted an explanation. “You telling people I’m dangerous or something, Keelani?”
His tone was joking but I knew that look. “Of course not. It’s just protocol here.”
He hummed and stepped over to my vanity where he looked at more flowers that had been delivered. Dimitri always sent some to my residence before the show and had some sent after to my dressing room.
“Dimitri’s still sniffing around as always, I see.”
“He’s a great friend.”
Ezekiel turned his eyes on me, and they looked more wild than normal. “Is his brother a great fiancé?” He glanced down at my ring.
I cleared my throat and tried my best to stand my ground. “Ezekiel, I appreciate you coming, but I have a lot to do before I go home.”
He curled his lip. The thing about a man in power was that he thought he always had power. Ezekiel exercised it in the worst way. “It’s a PR stunt, isn’t it? Just for the label, though?” He dragged his thin finger along my arm down to my ring where he tapped it.
“Dex and I have a long history.” I wanted to explain without explaining because I needed him to leave. My eyes flicked toward the door. My heart rate picked up at the thought of making a run for it. Would I be able to outrun him? So quick did a woman’s mind have to weigh her options around sleazy men. He shouldn’t have had that power over me but he did when I knew the record label wanted me to appease him.
All the more reason to get out from under the record label as soon as possible. Then, his influence wouldn’t matter.
“Not as long or as good of a history as we have, I hope.” Ezekiel had been around since I was young. His stares were always lingering, his hands always grabby, and his intentions always murky. In the last few years, though, he’d started coming to my shows. A lot of them. And I’d get flowers and lingering kisses on the cheek. He’d send me pictures of myself from afar, like he’d been stalking me.
I never felt alone…until I got here. Here in this casino, I felt like maybe I’d be safe. Yet, I’d miscalculated. “Our history is great. I appreciate all you’ve done for me as an artist with the record label, Ezekiel.”
A woman can feel a man caging them in like an animal. The instinct is there to run, but the social norms hold us back. We question our sanity, our gut reaction, our rationality. Even still, I measured the length of the room and estimated how fast I could get to the door.
I considered, too, how Ezekiel would make it sound. If I didn’t endure an advance, if he wasn’t caught in one, then it would be my word against his. He’d win, and the thought had my throat almost closing in disgust and resignation.
When he shuffled forward and wrapped an arm around my waist, I whispered, “I think you should go.” But the sound was meek, soft, and too nice.
I’d been so freaking nice to him over the years, even smiling when his hands grazed over me in a way they shouldn’t. “Why would I go, Keelani?” he said in my ear, and I smelled the rancid stench of alcohol on his breath as he pushed his length against my stomach. “I’ve been excited to see you all night.”
“I’ll scream, Ezekiel,” I warned, but it was hollow and empty. My bravery was shrinking.
The laugh that rumbled out of him showed he didn’t believe me. “You won’t, Keelani. Can you imagine the scandal? I’d ruin you, this resort, and your family. You’re my little sweetheart. You would never.”
His mouth dragged across my neck, and I felt the tears as I stood without moving. I was frozen in shame and fear immediately. How could I let this be happening?
Yet, how was I supposed to know how to confront a man taking advantage of me? I’d be practically trained by the record label to allow it, to just endure. I’d known this day would come, where he’d take advantage of me like he had so many others. I knew so many women before me had been told to keep quiet about him, to not cause a scene, He was too influential. He’d ruin me and everyone close to me.
And I was in Dimitri and Dex’s resort. I couldn’t bring that publicity onto them. I stayed quiet so as not to cause a scene everyone would have to navigate later. I didn’t need this spreading in the news I didn’t need Ezekiel going to the label about me.
I told myself to take a deep breath, but instead a gasp flew out of me as the door swung open and Dex Hardy stood on the other side of it. His eyes were full of rage, his hands balled into fists, his suit almost too tight around his body as it strained against his muscles. “Ezekiel Ballister, get your hands off my fiancée.”
“Oh, I wasn’t— Of course. It’s…uh…great to meet you. Keelani was just telling me how this arrangement is fake between you two.” Ezekiel chuckled and pulled at the collar of his shirt before he glared at me like I was supposed to come to his rescue.
“Kee.” Dex rasped out my name and his eyebrows dipped as he looked at me with such emotion that I almost broke down as he breathed out, “Heartbreaker, tell me you’ll leave the room while Ezekiel and I chat.”
He was warning me. Giving me an out. It was an invitation to excuse me from what he was about to unleash, something he thought I didn’t want to see.
