Business as Usual (11 page)

“Try me.”

He cupped my chin, dangerously hypnotic eyes
gazing down at my mouth, our faces tilting, ever closely. Then we started
walking again, bodies shoulder to shoulder.

“When
I was twelve years old my mother ran away with her lover and I never saw her
again. My father is the only family I have.” I tried to hide the hurt in my
eyes, but I could tell by the sympathetic expression on Ethan’s face, that he’d
seen straight through me.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ethan said, linking
his elbow through mine. I tried to shrug him off but he held firm.

“My father gave her millions in the divorce
settlement on the condition that she stay away from me for the rest of her
life. So she signed away her parental rights and never came back. I hated him
for it. Until I realized, he did it to expose her. To show me where her
priorities are.”

“So the only person in the world who ever loved
you was Daddy, and now you feel obligated to pay him back.”
            “Something
like that. I won’t disappoint him like she did.”

“Afraid of disappointing him or afraid
of
him?”
He lifted a brow.

 “Why would I be afraid of my own father?”
I snapped. “You’re the one who’s scared! Just like everybody else.”

 “I’m more afraid of his daughter.”

Ethan came to a stop in front of me. I parked
my hands on my hips, lifting my chin defiantly. “You should be. I always get
what I want.”

Ethan brushed an errant strand of hair away
from my face, fingers pausing to softly caress my cheek, tracing down the side
of my neck.

“Spoken like a true Byron. You’ll get what you
desire
eventually,
Elizabeth…just not on your terms.”

“Is that what happened between you and Daddy?
He got a contract and you won a green card and a little
guanxi
? ”

“Not at all. I’m not interested in moving to
America. At least long term…”

Now
we were getting somewhere.

“Then
what
was the point getting married?”

“You.”

“Me?”

Ethan sighed. “One day we’re going to have a
talk.”

“About what?
The birds and the bees
?”

“I thought I gave you a lesson in that last
night?”

“Touché.”

Ethan’s fixed his gaze on the sidewalk. He was
quiet, but there was an amused look in his eyes.

“I’m
going back to China someday. But it’s nice to get away. I’m not exactly what
you’d call welcome, in my country.”

Ethan tucked his hands into his pockets and his
jaw tensed. For a moment I thought I saw tears welling up in his eyes.

“Decades ago, before you and I were even born,
my father was one of the first rich businessmen in China. He started as
developer of course, building high rises and apartment buildings for years,
before winning a major government contract to build an apartment complex in
Shanghai. One day, four years later, one of the buildings collapsed crushing
hundreds of people to death. The people were rightfully very angry, many of
them looking for their loved ones, many of them demanding answers from my
father. He was arrested and sent to jail. In China, malfeasance that results in
loss of life is punishable by death. My father couldn’t explain why the
building collapsed…toppling like a block of Lego’s’ until he hired an outside
expert who determined that an inferior metal had been used in the building’s
infrastructure. The judge in the case dismissed the charges against my father
after he produced documents that proved he had actually purchased stronger
materials from a contractor who he learned had cheated him. As it turns out,
the contractor had used the same inferior metal in numerous projects around the
city, all of which had collapsed over the years. Needless to say, the
contractor and his men were sentenced to death for their actions. But it was
too late. My father’s reputation had already been ruined. We lost face. The
people hated him. He was effectively blacklisted until he met Eugene Byron.”

“I think I understand why your father helped
Eugene after the Byron Energy scandal. What I don’t understand is why people in
China hate you.”

“I’m a second generation rich kid. Some people
think the contractor who used the inferior steel was a scapegoat and that, as a
second generation rich kid, I’m profiting from the pain of others. There are
people in China who think they’re above the law because of their wealth. I try
to lead a normal life, but it’s hard to escape the stereotypes when you’re rich
in a country with millions of poor people. When I was growing up people teased
me, told me I was from a family of killers…that I was a killer. Hell, I wasn’t
even born when the building collapsed.”

“I’m sorry you experienced that,” I offered
sympathetically, gripping his hand.

“I don’t need pity. It only made me stronger.
Besides, I had something else to look forward to. So I looked west.” 
 

After
wandering along in complete silence, quietly enjoying each other’s presence, we
stopped by the Bellagio and sat near the fountains to watch the fifteen minute
choreographed water show. The fountain shot spiraling water into the air,
coordinated with colorful displays of light and classical music before an
awestruck audience. We sat on the stone surround and finally, Ethan took my
hand, entwining his fingers with mine.

“This is so…beautiful!” I cried, above the roar
of water rocketing into the air.

“Not as beautiful as you,” Ethan replied,
swinging me into his arms. I was held captive by his magnetic gaze as our lips
touched. The wild jets of water soaring above us seemed to exemplify how I felt
in his arms, lips pressed against his lips, body crushed against his now
wrinkled suit. I thought about all the naughty things I would do to him if he
didn’t push me away whenever I got too close. Suddenly, an out of control
stream of water from the fountain rained on our heads like a tsunami. Ethan
swung his jacket above us as I shrieked and ran for cover while lights from the
fountain blinked off, shrouding the entire area in darkness.

“My dress!” I wailed, hair clinging to my face.
Ethan wasn’t far behind. He shook water from his shirt and jacket, laughing.

“You did that on purpose!” I cried.

“That water jet on the end was going crazy the
entire time.”

 “My heels! My dress, my hair!” I whined.

“Take your shoes off.”

“They’re ruined!”
I kicked my heels off, stamping my feet down on top of cold wet cement. Ethan
turned his back and squatted. “Get on.”

“You want me to get on your back?”

“You could always walk barefoot.”

 “Fine…” I whined, begrudgingly climbing
on.

I locked my legs at the ankles across his
stomach as he carried me piggyback style all the way back to the hotel, which
was only a few blocks away. I pressed against his muscular back, occasionally
sliding my hands down ripped arms. He finally set me down when he reached the
hotel lobby.

“That was fun.”

“It’s the least I could do.”

A
few hoity-toity onlookers gawked at us as we shook water from our clothes onto the
floor, laughing. We took the elevator up to the penthouse suite, Ethan
discarding his wet clothes as we entered, starting with his jacket which he
hung on a chair, then his shirt, which he flung across the room. If the Herve
Leger bandage dress was tight before, it was like a second layer of skin,
soaking wet. I tugged at the zipper, twisting clumsily until I fell head-first
behind the sofa, smashing my elbow.

“
Ow
!
Ethan?
”

He unbuckled his pants, stripping down to a
pair of black underwear.

“Can you help me get this damned thing off?
It’s like a straitjacket.”

Ethan was half-out of his underwear as I
stumbled back to my feet. He sauntered across the room, unzipped the back of my
dress, then shooed me away, trying not to look.

“In
the bedroom…
now
.”

‘Avoidance will get you nowhere,” I warned.

He
turned away as I inched out of the dress, stripping down to my underwear.

“Nothing to see here,” I teased, parting with a
sexy smile as I left the living room.

I closed the bedroom door and tossed the navy
blue bandage dress on the bed, unsnapped my bra, and peeled my panties off. A
cold blast of air from the air conditioner slapped my skin, covering me with
chill bumps from head to toe. The door knob turned, and Ethan slunk in. My eyes
slid down his six-pack and followed the angular curve of his waist down to his
muscular thighs. He peeled his underwear off then reached out, swinging me into
his arms. “You’re driving me crazy, you know that?”

A
stream of moonlight poured in through the window, flooding us in luminous pale
light. I slipped into Ethan’s embrace, silken flesh pressed against his
hardened physique. Dark bedroom eyes flickered with desire. I gasped as he bent
his head, moving to trace the swell of my breasts with his mouth, stroking them
gently with his hands in clockwise and counterclockwise motions. Ethan groaned
and gathered me close, his chest tightening as my hand roamed down his stomach,
and further still to hold his thick slippery length until it moved in and out
my palm.

With kinetic waves of pleasure flowing through
us we finally moved from the door, gravitating away from the cold grip of air,
finding warmth in each other’s arms. Ethan’s lips touched mine and between
expert kisses, my feet were off the floor as we slid onto the bed. But I would
be the one to object this time.

 “No!” I said, pushing at his chest.

Ethan blinked, confusion haunting his dark
brown eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m saving you the trouble of stringing me
along,” I droned.

“Not this time,” he answered, slowly guiding my
hand away from his chest.

One
look at his face and I knew he was serious. Ethan kissed me again, feverishly
positioning my body until my legs were slung over his thighs, hips bearing down
until his length was nestled into the slick moist warmth of my core. Moaning
raptures, I clung to his muscular backside, guiding each deepening thrust,
relaxing against him as he pushed deeper, and harder until I was full,
clenching every inch of his manhood until I wanted to weep. Then I remembered
something that no couple in throes of passion should ever forget. His wallet...

“I don’t have anything,” Ethan answered.
“You’re not on birth control?”

“Not exactly. It gave me acne so I stopped
taking them.”

“Just this once, I’ll be careful,” he pleaded.

After making love Ethan, planted a kiss on my
forehead and rolled off, pulling me into the nook of his arms. His body spooned
against my backside as I tried to still my quivering thighs.  

“You okay?” he asked, kissing the curve of my
shoulder.

I nodded, too emotional to speak.

“You sure? It wasn’t too soon, was it? I didn’t
hurt you…”

 “It’s a lot to take in,” I managed. “My
life has changed so much…”

“We’ll take it slow if that’s what you want.”

“We’re way past slow, Ethan. We’re in

Hyper-drive.”

I rolled over, squirming into his arms. He
kissed my forehead.

“You’re not upset?”

“I’m happy,” I assured him, holding his gaze. A
little
too
happy, actually…

I said nothing about our relationship or where
we stood. I didn’t want to scare him. He might push me out of bed or run
screaming and running for the hills the second I mentioned the brevity of our
marriage. Three years, nothing more. The man I was married to had just become
my lover, in every sense of the word. But to accept Ethan completely meant I
was allowing my father to control my life.
He
arranged the husband, the
wedding, and the marriage and I wasn’t about to let him get away with it. In a
few years Ethan would get his green card and then it would be over. Whatever
physical attraction we felt would be out of our system long before then which
strangely, made me sad. Casting my worries aside, I kissed the tip of Ethan’s
nose and then his chest.

We
made love again that night. And once more in the morning just before dawn.
Afterwards, we lay in bed, basking in the glow of post-coital bliss for an
interminable stretch of time, too wound up to sleep.

“What if…” I asked, entwining our hands
together, “there wasn’t a deal between Byron Industries and AmeriAsia?”

“We would still be together… eventually.”

“How is that possible? You would be in China
and I would…”

“Have a boyfriend?” Ethan chuckled, completing
my sentence. “Fate has a way of bringing people together.”