Not For Sharing (Romance with Sizzle) (2 page)

She pursed
her lips to indicate her disapproval. “I see, so you like a drink or three as
well then?”

“Well you
could say I have an addictive personality. I get hooked on anything that gives
me a high. Drugs, alcohol, extreme sports,
you
………name it, I’ll try it,”
he replied, raising an eyebrow teasingly.

Pru’s heart
had skipped at Ethan’s timely pause until she realised he was toying with her.
She wasn’t accustomed to interacting with his sort and she froze her face to stifle
a grin. With his sleeve tattoo, depicting a
nymph
straddling a wolf in the glare
of a full
moon, she guessed he was the sort of rascal that her father had warned her
about.

“You know
Ben told us you were pretty but I don’t agree.”

She looked
up in disbelief, unsure as to how to handle this misfit.

“You’re not
just pretty; you must be the most beautiful girl I’ve
ever
seen.”

Pru could be
forgiven for doubting the rare sincerity that trickled through his words. “That
sounds like it rolls off your tongue on a regular basis,” she said, playfully
kicking out at his feet and crinkling up her nose with a kittenish poise that
was quite infectious.

Ethan found
it the most endearing quirk and he casually sat back against the top edge of
the wall behind him, worried that if he didn’t his knees would give way.

“But it’s
true. You should be illegal looking like that.” As he spoke his eyes shamelessly
swept over her body, perusing her well-formed curves and lingering boorishly,
for a millisecond too long, over her bountiful breasts. His eyes continued
their appraisal and finally rested intently on hers, glinting with devilry. Pru
felt her cheeks turn crimson, finding his virtual un-dress rather crass, which
couldn’t explain her compulsion to stay in his company.

“I’m Ethan
by the way, pleased to meet you.”

He took hold
of her hand to shake it but then loosely weaved her fingers between his, subtly
pulling her closer. He felt an overpowering and unusual shiver catapult up his
arm and deluge his body, flustering him somewhat.
‘What the hell was that?
And what am I doing seducing Ben’s girlfriend?!’

“Oh, it
makes sense now,” she observed, “aren’t you known as ‘Heathen’ to your friends?”

He hesitated
to nod. “Aha, ‘Ethan the Heathen’, yeh, that’s kinda stuck since college.”

“The pagan
tattoo sums you up rather well then really,” she said, loathe to admit that it
looked rather splendid. Her eyes narrowed as if she was scrutinising his every
move and she discreetly untwined her hand from his.

Her surprise
insight had left him feeling slightly outmanoeuvred and he quickly realised that
it was too late to back-track on his controversial lifestyle, which, indeed it
was. Pru had already had the low-down on
Ethan
from Ben and knew all about his remarkable reputation in both of his sporting
passions, bare-knuckle boxing and women. Word had it that a bout with Ethan was
like facing a panther on prozac, and as for his love-making, that had been
dulcetly phrased as sailing to paradise on the ocean waves.

“I hear you
have magic hands…. in the ring
and
in the bedroom,” Pru commented
haughtily.

He raised
them up as if to study them, nodding proudly in approval.

“Well, I
don’t like to brag, but yeh, I suppose they are. The only trick these hands
can’t do is pull a rabbit from a hat.”

His roguish
smile melted away any signs of conceitedness and she was finding his phoney
arrogance highly amusing. She recalled being rather nauseated by Ben’s
admiration of Ethan’s antics, but experiencing him in the flesh had given his
character warmth and charisma.

“Listen, this
may sound a bit sudden but I’m having a get-together with some friends tomorrow
at my house. Maybe you’d like to come?” enquired Ethan, looking sweetly into
her cherubic face.

She raised
her eyebrows with scepticism. “Really? And who exactly will be at this soiree?”

“Erm…it’s a very
last minute thing… so just you and me…
possibly
,” he replied, tilting his
head down and glancing up with hope in his eyes.

Surprised by
his inappropriate invite, she frowned with astonishment. “You’re unbelievable. Wouldn’t
that be unfair to Ben?”

Ethan
deflected all tricky questions in the only way he knew how, with simple oblivion.
“I wouldn’t think so, he prefers to stay home with a takeaway on Sundays.”

She shook
her head and gave him a look of ‘you know damn well that’s not what I meant.’ It
was then she realised that this oddball wasn’t about to reveal his true self
any time soon.

His jovial
swagger was, in reality, concealing his fear of betraying Ben and committing
the most despicable of crimes between friends. However there was just something
about Pru that he couldn’t escape from.

Pru, in
turn, found herself enjoying his brazen attitude, despite her initial apprehension.
She even began to appreciate his tall, tanned body with the most amazing arms
she had ever seen, on the right side of being toned but not bulky. She found
herself sinking into his ocean-blue eyes and one ever-so-cute dimple that all
came to life when he smiled, and a mop of wavy hair that glistened like iced-chocolate
in the sunlight. ‘
My God, his eyes
.’ thought Pru. She had never experienced
an aphrodisiac before but right now those glinting marbles of blue seemed to be
snaring her into a trance, making her tingle in the untouched, intimate areas
of her body. She imagined that he would taste rather yummy but as quickly as
she acknowledged her thought as being absurd, she reprimanded herself for being
so lewd.

“Hmm, I’m
not sure if that’s wise, swapping a drunk for a womanising thug? I wouldn’t
exactly be trading up would I?” she argued, cocking her head to one side as if
still sizing him up.

Ethan
laughed, finding her frankness very refreshing. “Touché Prudence, you know if
you were my boxing opponent, you’d be disqualified for a low-blow like that. But
surely you’d rather have somebody that spends the night looking into your
pretty eyes than the bottom of a shot glass?”

Pru’s
expression revealed an amused disdain for his smooth-tongued flirtations. “Oh
purlease, did you buy that line from the cheese counter?” she asked with a
pitying chuckle.

She was well
aware that players like Ethan took advantage of gullible young girls and she
was determined not to be one of them. Ethan, on the other hand, had never
encountered such stubborn opposition and decided to change tactic from suave to
self-deprecating.

“Surely
that’s reason enough to agree to a date then. Do you really want me putting
these awful moves on some other poor girl instead?” he asked candidly, opening
out his arms to exaggerate his ‘compassionate’ plea.

She was
caught in a daydream as she watched his mouth moving but was deafened to his
words. ‘
Mmm, there’s that cute little dimple again
,
I wonder if I
could dip my tongue in it?’
She startled herself again, confused as to
where these ridiculous images were popping up from. She’d never had the urge to
lick Ben’s face.

Much to her
dismay, his disarming manner was swaying her judgment and she considered it time
for a reality check. So on assuring herself that he was an undesirable, she
made plans to flee his shady company.

“I’m sure
I’ll live with it,” she asserted with a coquettish smile, and then with a flash
of her nut-brown eyes, she turned her back on him.

“You know I
can wait Pru,” he said aloud, very matter-of-factly.

“Ok, it’s a
date. See you in the after-life then,” she called back cuttingly, as she
approached her car.

A triumphant
grin hid beneath her lips. She had blown out the flagrant ‘Ethan Cassidy’ and
she felt quite perky about it. However, she did feel slightly remorseful that
maybe, just maybe, she had inadvertently used Ethan as Ben’s whipping boy.

He crossed his
arms as he watched her strut away without giving him a second glance. He
thought how cute her hair looked, swaying in time to her steps, however, his
casual composure belied his inner exhilaration.

He stayed
there motionless, astounded at this unprecedented response. No girl had ever
snubbed him before and he smiled wryly. Until now, his
only interest had been in a woman’s cup-size but with Pru it
ran deeper. He was enthralled by her unworldly spirit and right there and then
he was smitten. He couldn’t rest until he had sipped from those cherry-brandy
lips. Visions of her radiant skin and luscious pout swirled around his head
causing him to feel rather light-headed.

When Ethan
re-joined his friends in the bar, Riley recognised his friend’s sheepish
demeanour instantly.

“Where did you disappear to? Please
tell me you didn’t.”

“What?” asked Ethan, feigning
innocence and failing miserably.

“Don’t shit me Ethe,” replied
Riley. “You’ve been a dog for too long. You can’t do it to Ben? He’s infatuated
with the girl.”

“Yeh, but I’m
in love with her,” blurted out Ethan, his face unflinching.

A look of
incredulity flitted across Riley’s face, quickly followed by a snigger after
deciding his friend was being facetious. Ethan swiftly joined in the laughter,
too embarrassed, and spooked, to admit it was true.

“No seriously
Ry, she is
something
else, she’s like an angel with heavenly tits,”
interjected Ethan hastily, as he crudely cupped an invisible pair of breasts
with his hands. “I would happily take my last breath smothered by those sugar-plums.”

 He felt a
certain obligation to uphold his laddish attitude, and although it sometimes
betrayed his fundamental beliefs, he was too fearful to act beyond his
stereotype, fearful of losing his peer’s respect.

Riley
listened with a lewd eagerness but spotted a flaw in Ethan’s plan.

“No chance
mate, I’ve heard she’s as wholesome as brown bread so your dick’s never gonna get
an invite to that party.”

Ethan almost
spluttered on his drink.

“Jeez Riley,
as if I’d back down from a challenge like that. Besides, I might have the mind
of a ho but I’ve got the patience of a saint,” replied Ethan nonchalantly,
hoping Riley wouldn’t detect the self-doubt in his voice.

Ethan became
restless, imagining that he may never see her again, and his honour was at risk
for goodness sake. How would he explain to Riley, his wing-man, that Pru was
the one that got away? He was equipped to take an uppercut to the chin any day,
but a slap in the face like that? Never. He knew he had to get her attention somehow.
So in the end that was his plan: flatter, pursue, and exasperate. As long as he
got under her skin, whether she remembered him as pleasant or bothersome was of
no consequence.

After recalling
Ben mentioning that she was employed at an interior design firm, he had five blue
roses delivered to her work-place every Monday. The very first note he
attached, read:

Pru,

Each rose
is a reminder of you, blue is for:

1.
     
the
colour of the striking denim outfit that you wore so elegantly.

2.
     
the
mood I feel each time you refuse me a date.

3.
     
the
indecent thoughts I have when I picture you in my head.

4.
     
how
you ‘blew’ me away when I first laid eyes on you, and then

5.
     
how
you ‘blew’ me out so cruelly before giving me a chance.

(Ok, so I cheated a little on the last two)

Save me from myself,

Ethan x

The flowers
were faithfully delivered for several weeks, each one promptly banished into
the trash by Pru, seemingly immune to any frivolous emotions.

His note
five weeks later read:

Prudence,

I suppose your stubbornness does
have it’s advantages – it means you will always know what you will be thinking
tomorrow.

Therefore I submit to defeat.
I only hope that in a week, in a month or maybe even in ten years, that your
mind is not plagued by thoughts of,

“What
if?......”

Ethan x

This note in
particular, infuriated Pru immensely.

“How dare
he? I am
not
stubborn, I’m just strong-willed!” she exclaimed to Brooke,
her work confidante. Brooke gave her a cynical smile and continued to browse
through samples of curtain fabric.

“Oh thanks
Brooke, I see you’re just going to leave that hanging in the air then,” said
Pru, secretly agreeing with the appraisal of herself and knowing that Brooke
did too.

Brooke was
unwilling to support Pru in her annoyance. She had made it very clear that she
would jump at the chance of taming the bad-boy. “Well you could always date a
choir-boy instead. I’m sure
they
don’t shoot from the hip like Ethan.”

Pru rolled
her eyes; she was in no mood for Brooke’s innuendos that day.

Once again she
tossed the roses in the bin, this time with sheer irritation. However, for some
reason, his final note had impacted on her. When home-time came, she furtively
rescued them from underneath an apple core and torn envelopes, and then
arranged them tenderly in a vase.

A week went
by and an expectant Pru found herself looking out the window to check for any
florist vans.  When none arrived, she left work feeling just a smidge
disheartened. She was rather cross that such an insignificant matter could affect
her in this way and she tried to reject any thoughts of the annoying lothario
from her mind.

Whether her change
of heart was down to fascination or curiosity, his game-plan had been a success
and had prompted a reaction from Pru. She finally agreed to meet him but of
course being ‘strong-willed’ meant that she would wait a further two weeks before
contacting him.