“Teaching yourself one of your goddess’s songs?” Marcus asked.
Ethan smiled at the keys. They’d talked about Tori Amos and her music over dinner on more than one occasion. Marcus was quickly working his way through all her albums.
“I think Tori is a little advanced for me,” Ethan said with a smile. He winced as pain throbbed through his cheek. Yeah, smiling was bad.
“Well, I think you—” Marcus stopped midsentence as he came to stand beside the piano and got a clear view of Ethan’s face. Reluctantly, Ethan looked up at Marcus, and it was like watching a violent storm coalesce above his head, preparing to throw a barrage of thunder and hail down on him. “What happened?” Marcus finally bit out.
Ethan shook his head, lowering his gaze down to the keys. “It’s nothing. No big deal.”
He didn’t see Marcus’s hand approach, but fingertips like the touch of butterfly wings pressed against his chin, directing him to look back up at Marcus. There was still anger in his expression, but also worry. So much worry and fear that it caused a lump to form in Ethan’s throat.
“Please tell me.”
“This doesn’t have to do with Meryl or that Cain guy,” Ethan quickly said. Some of the tension relaxed from Marcus’s shoulders, but not nearly enough.
Marcus moved his hand away from Ethan’s chin and motioned toward the bench. “May I?”
Ethan nodded and slid down enough that Marcus could sit next to him. It was a fight not to take a deep breath to draw that wonderful spicy scent of Marcus’s cologne into his lungs. He loved the heat that radiated from him as if it were trying to wrap around Ethan and hold him tight.
Marcus placed his hands between his legs, threading his fingers together tightly. “You don’t have to tell me anything. I just…I want to be there for you. If you need anything, either as an employee or as a friend, I am here for you. You know that, right?”
“I do.” Ethan licked his lips, his eyes back on the black and white keys. “I guess I fell in with the wrong group. At the time, what they were saying, it made sense. Or at least, it helped me to not feel so powerless. But after a while, I woke up and realized that they weren’t the people I thought they were. I had to get out.”
“And this was their response to you leaving?”
Ethan sighed. “Yeah. I probably didn’t handle it as calmly as I should have, but I had to get out. Before something bad happened.”
Marcus leaned closer and brushed his lips against Ethan’s temple. “I’m sorry this was the result.”
“I keep thinking that my mom would have been disappointed in me if she’d known.”
“I think she’d be proud that you were brave enough to walk away. You’re a good person.”
Ethan shook his head. He squeezed his eyes shut, and the tears that had been burning there slipped out. He wasn’t a good person. If Marcus found out the truth, he’d never forgive him. “If I was such a good person, I wouldn’t have joined up with those people in the first place.”
Marcus cupped his face again. His thumb gently caressed his cheek, wiping away a tear. “I said you were a good person, not a perfect one. Good people still make bad choices sometimes. They just try to make it right later.”
Turning his head, Ethan rubbed his uninjured cheek against the palm of Marcus’s hand, wanting to revel in his touch for as long as he possibly could. “I think you’re pretty damn perfect.”
Huffing a laugh, Marcus leaned close so that his breath brushed against Ethan’s ear. “If I was so damn perfect, I wouldn’t be sitting here thinking how I want to find the person or persons who touched you and rip them to bloody, fleshy shreds with my bare hands.” The low growl in Marcus’s voice had a wonderful shiver running through Ethan’s body. Yeah, he definitely wasn’t a good person, because he was sorely tempted to hand over Carl’s name and set Marcus loose on him.
But he wouldn’t.
“But you won’t,” Ethan murmured.
“I still want to.” Marcus lightly kissed Ethan’s jaw. “Tell me a name. Let me protect you. Defend you. Set me free, Ethan.” He kissed up along his jaw to his ear. “They’ll never touch another person again.” The tip of his tongue touched his earlobe and Ethan nearly groaned. Goose bumps rushed down his arms and blood filled his dick.
“But if you go after this asshole, you won’t be here kissing me, and I really don’t want you to stop.”
Marcus chuckled darkly. “I wouldn’t stop. I’d wait until tonight when you’re snuggled in your bed asleep alone. I would hunt this man down and tear him apart for you.”
“Or…”
Marcus lifted his head a little so that he could look into Ethan’s eyes. “Or?”