‘Oh.’ She choked, and her eyes filled with tears. ‘How could you let him browbeat you into saying that?’
‘I didn’t.’ He was shocked.
‘I’ll never forgive you for this—never.’ She sobbed, turned and ran outside leaving Ethan staring after her in thundering dismay!
‘I would go after her if I were you,’ Theron smoothly advised while calmly reading the contract Ethan had just signed.
On an act of sheer frustration Ethan snatched the document out of Theron’s hands. ‘I am sick and tired of other people meddling in my life!’ he announced, then turned and walked out of the study—by the conventional route of the door through to the hallway.
Outside he was a mass of offended dignity. Inside he was bubbling with angry offence at the way Eve had rejected him. He’d had enough. Eve was impossible. He was happy to let Aidan Galloway have her. He strode down the hallway with every intention of leaving this house and never stepping foot in it again.
As he crossed the foot of the stairs, he heard a door on the upper landing shut. His feet came to a stop. Bubbling offence had changed to something else entirely, and he knew he wasn’t going anywhere but up those stairs to open her shut door.
On a lethal curse, he changed direction. As he took the stairs, two at a time, he had even reached the point of asking how he thought he could walk away, when he could feel that lead still attached to his neck.
She tugged, he went where it pulled him.
Eve stood in the middle of her bedroom and shook from fingers to toes. She couldn’t believe he’d said that. She couldn’t believe she’d actually looked her dearest in the face then had turned and had walked away from it!
How could he—how could he stand there in her grandfather’s study wheeling and dealing her life away? He was just like Grandpa: money orientated, power orientated! If she had any sense left she would get out of here. She would disappear somewhere so remote that she would never be found! She hated men—all men. Young, old, they were all the same: arrogant self-obsessed bullies who liked to think they were in control of everything.
The bedroom door suddenly flew open. She spun round to find Ethan standing there. ‘If you’ve come to offer another proposal of marriage then don’t bother!’ she snapped.
‘You will have to get down on your knees to get another one of those out of me,’ Ethan grimly returned.
Her knees tried to buckle. Eve felt like screaming. He looked lean and hard, and tough and angry; the bitter expression on his face was spoiling its handsome lines. She liked it. It meant he was hurting. If he was hurting then it had to be because of her—didn’t it?
‘Then what do you want?’ she demanded coldly.
‘You,’ he said, ‘to explain to me what the hell were you doing wrapped in Galloway’s arms the moment my back was turned!’
The door slammed shut. Eve’s eyes began to fire. ‘What were you doing leaving me to go to her, just because she crooked her little finger at you?’ she countered furiously.
Eve folded her arms across her front. Ethan leaned back against the door and did the same. Stalemate. They’d been here before. Excitement began to fizz in the air. Green eyes flashed with it; grey glinted with it. She wanted to go over there and kiss him stupid.
‘It was hell,’ he pronounced. ‘I didn’t have any idea how rife the rumours were until I saw the way my arrival was received. I half expected to die the death of a thousand cuts!’ He released a short laugh.
‘You are still in love with her,’ she tossed at him in pained accusation.
‘No, I am not,’ he tossed right back. ‘I am in love with you—God help me!’
‘Oh,’ she said.
‘Yes,’ he agreed in grim, tight mockery.
‘Then you shouldn’t have gone!’
‘You should have come. You would have enjoyed the spectacle.’
‘You should have invited me.’
‘If you hadn’t been so pig-stubborn, I probably would have done.’
‘Oh,’ she said again, and silence settled.
Eve wanted to fill it by throwing herself into his arms and kissing her way back into his good graces. Ethan wanted to fill it by throwing her on that bed he could see across the room and loving her absolutely senseless.
Instead they both looked at the papers he held in his hand. Eve recognised them for what they were; resentment began to flare again.