Overture (Rain Dance, Book 1) (Rain Dance Series) (73 page)

     
"For
me."

   
  
After slowly nodding once, he tilted his head.
"Why?"

     
"...Why
not?" I stepped around him and headed into the living room.
Time to
finish that second glass.

     
"What's
wrong?" he asked softly, following me.

     
I picked up my
glass from the coffee table and took a sip, staring at him blankly.

     
His expression
turned to slight worry. "What happened?"

     
I didn't know
how to answer that. A lot of things had happened, most of which had taken place
in my head.
And heart.
Where would I begin? Also…I didn't feel like
talking. Just a second ago, I was about to grieve over us - again. But now that
he was here…I didn't know how to feel.

     
"Talk to
me. Please. I hate it when you're like this."

     
Sighing, I
immediately felt horrible for causing the current look on his face.
"...That time of the month, maybe. I was having a nervous breakdown just
now. Then you had to come along and interrupt it. What are you doing here? You
didn't even call." My voice was extremely weary.

     
"I wanted
to talk in person." He moved closer and stroked the end of my white
feather boa with his fingers. "Are you alright?"

     
"I don't
know," I answered honestly. "Would you like a drink?"

     
"I thought
you didn't drink."

     
I shrugged.
"It's a party, after all. I walked a whole fifteen minutes to get it.
Look..." I held the glass up. "Isn't it pretty? I didn't know wine
came in this color."

     
The smile he
gave me was endearing. Immediately, I began to feel better. It was almost as
though the last minute had never happened.

     
"It comes
in most warm colors. And yes, thank you. I'd love some."

     
After grabbing
a glass for him, we both took a seat on the couch.

     
"This is
good," he said quietly.

     
I hummed in
agreement.

     
"So, what
did you do yesterday?"

     
I remained
silent.

     
"Daphne…" I could feel him becoming impatient. But if we were
going to talk, he was going to have to go first.

     
"Why
didn't you tell me? That you had seen him…"

  
   
He exhaled loudly. "Of course I didn't want
to say anything. You can't be angry about that."

     
"I
can't?" I asked dryly.

     
He focused his
attention directly on me before he spoke again. "Why would I tell you that
the man who nearly raped you wanted to see me? I didn't want to stress you out.
As if you needed any more causes to trigger your anxiety. I remember what you
said back at the inn - how it would hurt you if I were to come into contact
with him. Anyway, once I knew that he had contacted you, I would have told you.
I would have told you Friday night, had you stayed. Now tell me, what were you
really doing sleeping outside my house in the pouring rain?"

     
My body
relaxed. How could I be angry when he was just trying to protect me? It wasn't
right of him to keep things from me, but I understood now why he did it.
"I actually did end up needing my laptop," I stated, earning an
eye-roll from him. "He texted me. I knew he was at the fundraiser and I
was worried about what you might do. Or what he might try to do. I couldn't
stand waiting around, so I left without thinking it through. Next question:
were you planning on telling me about using Karina to throw off the
rumors?"

     
That surprised
him. "He told you everything, did he? No, I wasn't going to tell you
because there wouldn't be much of a point. Before the night was over, I
realized just how much of a shitty plan it was and decided that it would be the
last time I ever tried anything like that again. It wasn't my idea, but I went
along with it, anyway. It was a failure. End of story."

     
Again, I
probably should have been angry about his choice to keep it from me, but I was
glad that he was being honest. "Why didn't it work? And whose plan was it
if not yours?"

     
"Pierre's.
And it failed simply because I don't have the willpower to sit through more
than ten minutes at one of those damn events with that woman. We've gone to
such things in the past before as well, and even back then I could barely stand
it. But because of the circumstances, I agreed."

     
"Is it
true that Wilhelm is keeping tabs on you?"

     
He gazed at me
with another look of surprise. "How…?" Pausing, he shook his head and
took another sip from his glass. "Yes."

     
"...Are
you going to tell me why?"

     
He said nothing
and held a calm expression, but I could feel the tension in him rise.

     
"Will you
tell me one day, at least?"

     
"…Yes."

     
I nodded. That
would just have to be enough for now. "What does Karina know about Noel?
And what did you have to tell her to get her to agree?"

     
"I told
her nothing about you, only that I needed someone to act as a date. She was
well-informed that it would be strictly platonic. Pierre was there, and when he
mentioned the rumors, she knew you were involved somehow. Noel approached me
when I was alone, asking about you. There was talk. Neither of us realized
Karina had returned. I'm sorry." He looked at me, his fingers gently
fixing one of my stray hairs. "She assumed that it was Wilhelm who was
after you. I told her that wasn't it. Nothing else. And anything having to do
with Noel is based off nothing more than her own personal theories."

     
Sitting back, I
took a big sip of wine. Knowing exactly what had happened, for the most part,
made me feel infinitely better. There was only one question left that still
bothered me. "So, did you two really fuck on that office desk?"

     
Ethan stilled
beside me, probably shocked by the sudden change of topic.

     
"Huh." I took another gulp.

     
"I'll get
rid of it," he stated brusquely.

     
"It's
antique, isn't it? You don't have to. How long ago was it?"

     
His eyes were
speculative, trying to determine what kind of mood I was in, I'm sure.
"Four years ago."

     
But do I
really want to know more about them?
Yes. Yes, I do. "Was it
serious?"

     
"No."

     
"How long
were you together?"

     
"…A little
over two years."

     
Wow.

     
At least two
whole years. I haven't even had a full thirty days with the man. She had that
times twenty-four, plus a little more. And here I was thinking that I probably
knew more about him. What a fucking joke. "And it wasn't serious?"

     
"We were
engaged," he admitted with a sigh.

     
Crack
.

     
That was my
heart. Obviously it hadn't worked out - he was mine, now. But that didn't stop
it from hurting. He had come so close to making her his partner for life.
"You must have really loved her…"

     
"No,"
he replied softly. "I didn't."

     
"Right." My voice sounded weird.
Oh shit, am I starting to
cry?

     
Ethan turned
his body to face me and took my chin so I would look at him. "I want you
to understand that you don't ever have to worry about us. What Karina and I
have is…complicated. But I've never loved her."

     
"You were
engaged."

     
"Our
entire relationship was out of convenience. She also comes from a wealthy
family, and with both of our connections combined it became beneficial for us
professionally." He went quiet for a moment, his eyes dimming as though
focused on something far away. "You could say that those few years were my
own little 'zombie phase.' I didn't live by feeling. I was detached and only
acted as I was expected to act. We became engaged because it seemed the logical
thing to do. I didn't propose to her. She suggested it and I agreed. It didn't
last long."

     
"If it was
so convenient then why did it end?"

     
He answered
simply, "She cheated."

     
I felt the air
leave me. "...What?"
Had I just heard him right?
I didn't know
what to expect, but that was certainly not it. What the hell would possess any
woman to want to be with anyone other than this man?

     
"It was my
fault, ultimately," he added.

     
My face
scrunched into deeper confusion.

     
Rubbing a hand
on the base of his neck, he explained. "The business had become my life.
Most of my time was spent getting it back up and running. I rarely had any
moments left to spend with her, and when I did I was…
distant
, as she put
it. One day, I finally had some free time and went to drop off some things she
had left at my place. She didn't know I was coming over." He glanced at me
with a small smile. "A normal boyfriend would have probably started beating
the shit out of the asshole that was fucking his girl. But I didn't care. I
wasn't angry - not even close. I was relieved. I realized then that I had just
been waiting for a reason to call everything off. So you see, there's no need
for you to ever worry about her or anyone else."

     
He picked up
his glass of wine, gently swirling it around in the palm of his hand before
taking a small sip. "You know, I had always assumed that I wasn't capable
of actually loving another being. Of feeling certain emotions…But then you had
to come along. Well, you know the rest." He gave me an almost irritated
look, but the amusement in his eyes was obvious.

     
I didn't know
what to say, so I simply grabbed his arm and leaned against it, needing
desperately to feel the warmth of his body. I inhaled, savoring his unique
scent. Then I was hit with a realization. If Karina had cheated, then she
couldn't really have loved him, right? So why was she still hanging around the
office with his aunt acting as though they still had something going? And why
was his aunt hanging around her at all? "Was she okay with ending
things?"

     
"No. It
was a bit of a disaster on her end, but I couldn't really be bothered to care.
We continued to bump into one another every once in a while. It was
unavoidable, really. Eventually, she moved on. But somehow she and my aunt had
managed to remain friends. Birds of a feather, I suppose."

     
"Your aunt
wants you two to end up together."

     
He scoffed and
narrowed his eyes. "She would. It doesn't matter, though. I'm not close
with my aunt. She has no sway over me in any regard."

     
I wondered then
what had happened between them to make him so bitter towards her. Anyway, while
he might've thought that Karina had moved on, that's not the way I saw it. But
there was no way for me to know for sure. Well, even if she was still hoping to
get her claws on him, I had no reason to worry. She had already fucked up her
chances with Ethan. So if he did end up leaving me, I was at least sure that he
wouldn't be taking her back - not in this life.

     
When I leaned
even further into him, he responded by wrapping his arm around me and pulling
me close.

     
"Now that
we've gotten all that out of the way," he began, "I have something
else to tell you. I've been putting a business trip on hold for a while now. I
can't put it off any longer."

     
Work stuff?
"How long will you be gone?"

     
"A
week."

     
Oh. First Dale,
now him. In reality, a week wasn't too long, but in my small world a week could
feel like forever. "I'll be able to get a lot of work done," I said,
trying to look on the bright side. I didn't want to think about how it might
shorten our time together if I ended up having to leave sooner rather than
later.

     
"I want
you to come with me."

     
Oh
.
"...Where?"