“What are you doing?” Faith asked, stunned by his actions.
“Talking to you.” He reached out and stroked her cheek, the caress sending delicious shivers through her body. “What I did last night was unforgivable,” he said, taking her off guard.
“Excuse me?” She felt as if she’d been slapped. “You’re sorry we slept together?”
“No!” His jaw tightened. “Never that.”
Her heartbeat slowed to a more normal rhythm. The more she tried to distance herself from this man, the more she seemed to be drawn deeper.
To care. “Then what?”
“I took my mood out on you. I was rough with you and—”
“It wasn’t like that for me.” Her cheeks burned at the admission. “It was good. Can we just leave it at that?”
A very male smile worked its way onto his face. “Just good?”
“Beyond good. Amazing. Speaking of, what in the world is going on with you and Tess?” She deliberately changed the subject.
He let her. “We found something we have in common.”
“Music?” she guessed.
“And television and computer games. I needed a distraction and I figured she’d appreciate it.” He shrugged. “I’m just glad it worked.”
“You also found a way to reach her.”
He grinned, the impact devastating as usual. “It’s called bribery.”
Faith laughed. “Well, whatever you’re doing, it’s working. She looks more . . . human. Vulnerable. Not to mention happy.” She paused. “So did you. Does that mean you’re over what happened with your brothers?”
Ethan didn’t want to spend another minute overthinking something he couldn’t control. Not when he had Faith back in his house and he could make up for acting like an unfeeling ass last night. No matter what she said, he could have handled himself better.
“As far as my brothers are concerned, I’m moving forward. I have no choice.”
She nodded in understanding. “I’ve been there myself,” she murmured.
“So you have.” He stepped closer, backing her up to the desk. Undeniable sexual tension arced between them. He threaded his fingers through the back of her hair, cupped her head, and pulled her toward him. “I meant it when I said I’m sorry,” he said gruffly.
She swallowed hard. “And I meant it when I said there’s no need to be.”
He gently brushed his lips over hers, gliding his mouth back and forth in the most delicate way imaginable.
“Mmm.” She sighed into him. “You make it so damn hard.”
“What?” he asked.
“Keeping my distance.”
He couldn’t suppress a laugh. “Then don’t.”
Ethan tugged on her hair and she bent her head, the long strands of her hair falling to one side. Acting on instinct, he pressed a kiss to her soft skin, nuzzling her silken flesh. She smelled like peaches and sunshine and he wanted a taste, so he took one, nibbling lightly, stopping before he marked her. No need to give Tess something to talk about.
“Ethan.” Faith tried to reprimand him, he knew, but her voice trembled along with her body, making her point moot.
Especially since all that held her upright was the pressure of his body leaning into hers.
“Why fight what feels good?” he asked.
“I can’t let myself get so lost in you that I lose sight of me.”
“Eew! Not again!” Tess’s voice interrupted anything he might have said.
“Would you stop sneaking up on people?” Ethan muttered, stepping away from Faith but keeping his back to his sister. At least until he could turn around and not give himself away.
“I thought you said this is my house too,” Tess remarked, teasing him.
Wow. “Wiseass,” he muttered. “Okay, who’s up for a round of Guitar Hero?” He looked from Tess to Faith.
She shook her head. “I came to meet Nick, but he told Rosalita to tell me he couldn’t make it. I should get going.”
But she wouldn’t. He saw the yearning in her eyes, the desire to stay.
“Come on, play with us, Faith!”
“Well . . .”
“I bet I can beat you,” Tess said, urging her.
And just like that, Ethan didn’t have to say a word. There was no way she’d turn down this suddenly happy Tess.
Faith smiled. “Well, who can resist a challenge like that?”
“Yes!” Tess bolted for the other room, leaving Ethan to grin at Faith and follow her into the family room for Guitar Hero.
Ethan won the original round he’d bet Tess. Not by much. He had to admit, the kid was good. But he had more at stake than her. He wanted her out of those awful Goth clothes, and so he’d concentrated like mad. And he won.
He didn’t mention the bet or the clothes, deciding to trust Tess to come to him when she was ready. The kid had honor. He bet she would. If not, he wasn’t above reminding her in a couple of days. He didn’t want to ruin the progress they’d made today.
And to ensure they didn’t, he turned to his new sister. She’d asked for the beach, knowing that meant she’d need to wear a bathing suit. That had to have been a huge request. “We’re still going to the beach tomorrow,” he said.
Tess’s eyes glittered with something unique. Gratitude.
While Faith’s beaming approval caused something deep and meaningful to unfurl in his chest. No wonder she was afraid of losing herself. He was afraid he was halfway gone himself.
They spent another half hour including Faith in the fun. He wasn’t surprised when she found her groove and was able to compete with them. By the time they finished playing, they each collapsed on the floor laughing from the heckling and insults they’d tossed one another’s way.
Ethan couldn’t remember the last time he’d had so much fun. Hell, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d had any real laughter and fun. These two people, who’d come into his life at the same time, gave him that. He knew better than most that good times didn’t last, but he planned to enjoy it while it did.
“Dinnertime!” Rosalita strode into the room. “I set a place for Miss Faith,” she said before turning her back and walking out.
Faith pushed herself up from the floor. “I think I’ve overstayed my welcome. I should get going.”
“Why? So you can go home and eat alone?” Ethan asked her point-blank.
She shot daggers at him with her eyes.
Tess, as if sensing this didn’t involve her, remarkably stayed silent.
He knew he was pushing her. Based on what she’d said earlier, she was afraid of losing her sense of self, like she had in her marriage. Well, he wasn’t thinking that far ahead. He wasn’t a long-term planner, not in the emotional sense anyway. He just knew that right now, being with her felt good. And he’d spent too much time feeling bad.
“Dinner,” she agreed. “And then I need to get going.”
“Fair enough.”
They settled into the kitchen and indulged in a delicious meal. Rosalita still might not be his supporter or ally, but she knew how to cook.
He’d just put his napkin on the table when the phone rang. A glance at the number told him he couldn’t ignore it. “Franklin. What do you have for me?”
Ethan listened to the PI’s summary of his investigation and knew he had trouble, including the fact that Dale Conway was having an affair with Amelia Treadway, Ethan’s married executive assistant in Washington, D.C.
“I’ll take a flight out tomorrow,” he told Franklin.
He hung up the phone, his mind preoccupied with business and all the ramifications of Franklin’s news, to find Tess staring at him with wide eyes.
Shit. He’d forgotten he had responsibilities beyond business.
“What about me?” she asked, her voice hard, her jaw set. She was visibly withdrawing back into herself.
“I wouldn’t go if someone else could handle it,” he said, but he knew his words were hitting her well-built shell.
Just as his had every time his father left the house on business, Ethan suddenly remembered.
His gaze strayed to Faith’s, but she looked as lost as he was, not knowing what to say.
“I’ll call Nash and Dare,” Ethan said. “They already said they wanted you to spend time with them. One of them will take you until I get back.”
Tess didn’t answer. Instead, she bent her knees and wrapped her arms around them. A rude position at the dinner table, but he couldn’t point that out to her now.
He opened his cell to search for Dare’s number. His younger brother struck him as the easiest of the two to deal with right now.
“Dare? It’s Ethan.”
“Don’t bother asking. I’m not staying with either of them. They don’t have any more time for me than you do or Kelly did.”
Ethan frowned. “I’ll call you back,” he said to his sibling.
He placed the cell phone on the table and leaned on his elbows, closer to Tess. “I want you.” It shocked him to admit how true that statement was.
She slammed her feet to the floor. “Yeah, right. And we’re going to the beach tomorrow too, right? You’re so full of it!” she yelled at him.
He ran a hand over his face, knowing she had every right to feel angry, hurt, and betrayed.
Just like his brothers did.
“I’ll make it up to you.”
“Don’t bother.” She folded her arms across her chest in that defensive way that made his heart ache.
“Umm, Tess?” Faith spoke up suddenly.
“What?” She glared at Faith as if she too had suddenly become the enemy.
Instead of getting annoyed with her attitude, Faith softened her features. “I can stay with you while Ethan’s gone.”
Surprise rippled through him.
“You’d do that for me?” his sister asked, obviously as stunned as Ethan was.
“Yeah, I would. I’m guessing you’d be more comfortable with me than with your brothers—at least until you get to know them better?” Faith asked.
Tess blinked.
Ethan thought he saw a hint of moisture in those dark-rimmed eyes but he couldn’t be sure. He knew he had a lump of gratitude in his throat so huge it threatened to choke him.
“At your place?” Tess asked.
“Sure, if that’s what you want. Or here if that’s better for you. That way you won’t have to uproot yourself all over again.” Faith waited, her gaze on Tess.
The girl nodded slowly. “That’d be okay. If you’d stay here, I mean.”
“Then here it is.”
Ethan knew how difficult it would be for Faith to stay in her childhood home that was no longer hers. Yet she’d done it for Tess.
The offer, he thought, was as big as her heart.
Faith needed to get some perspective and fast, which was why when Kate called and asked if she wanted to meet for a drink, Faith jumped at the chance. She left Ethan’s and drove straight to Joe’s.
The bar was crowded for a weeknight, but it was summertime and people enjoyed going out.
Faith was numb. “I’ve lost my mind.”
What else could explain her willingness to uproot herself for a teenager she’d just met and a man she barely knew. Okay, that was wrong on so many levels she couldn’t believe the thought had even passed through her mind.
She knew him. Intimately.
Kate raised her glass and touched it to Faith’s. “To insanity. You first.”
Faith drew a deep breath. “Ethan has to go out of town on business and I said I’d stay with Tess.” When Kate didn’t reply, Faith added, “At the mansion.”
Kate’s eyes opened wide. “You’re right, you’re insane.” Kate drew a long sip of her wine spritzer.
Faith did the same.
“Will you be okay in that house?” Kate asked.
Which was why they were best friends, Faith thought. Kate understood the problems inherent in her offer without Faith having to explain.
“I’m a big girl. I can handle it.” She swirled the champagne-colored liquid in her glass.
“Can you handle sleeping in Ethan’s bed?”
Faith raised her gaze.
“Unless there’s more than the two beds you once mentioned?” Kate wiggled her eyebrows and took another, longer sip of wine.
Faith tried to swallow, but her mouth was too dry and she drew a long gulp from her glass. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
“That’s what best friends are for!” Kate said too cheerfully.
Faith pressed the cold glass to her forehead. “Okay, your turn. What did you do?”
“Nick asked me out and I said no.” This time Kate stared into her glass, looking for answers.
“Why?”
“Because no man goes from head over heels for one woman, then decides to go after her best friend unless it’s rebound. And I’m many things, but I’m nobody’s second choice.” Kate tipped her glass and Faith toasted with her once more.
“But I have to interrupt. Nick wasn’t head over heels for me. He was curious, we had unresolved issues, and one kiss later and we both realized there was no chemistry. None. Nada. Zilch.” She curled her thumb and forefinger into a zero. “Which makes his interest in you genuine, not rebound.”
Kate frowned. “I didn’t know about the kiss.”
“Because there was nothing to know! You know I’m not interested in Nick.”
“Because you’re interested in Ethan.”
“Yes. No. Argh!” Faith glanced at her best friend and together they lifted their glasses and finished their drinks in silence.
After which Faith headed upstairs to pack so she could head over to Ethan’s the next morning to stay with Tess. And sleep in Ethan’s bed.
Hard rock music blasted from Tess’s room. Ethan drew a deep breath—who’d have believed he was afraid to face one tiny teenage girl—and knocked on her door.
No answer.
She probably couldn’t hear him over the music, so he turned the handle and walked inside. Tess lay on her bed wrapped in the army jacket he’d coaxed her out of earlier, sketching. He knew she saw him, but she didn’t say a word, not even when he walked over to her nightstand and shut off the iPod.
“Hey,” he said.
Silence.
He sat down on the side of her bed. His hip touched her pant leg, but she didn’t move or make more room for him to get comfortable. She’d removed her makeup and looked very, very young.
His heart was in his throat. A few weeks ago, he hadn’t known she existed. How had she come to mean so much to him in such a short time?
He knew he’d hurt her and even understood why, but it wasn’t enough. There was more. He wanted to comprehend the anger beneath the surface and he sensed it was all tied to how she’d been raised—how her mother had treated her and later her sister.
“Tell me about your life before you came here,” he urged.
Silence.
If she wouldn’t talk, then he would. “We share the same father. You wouldn’t remember him because you were young when he died, but I do. His name was Mark. You have his eyes,” Ethan told her.
She blinked and raised her gaze to his, obviously interested. Still silent, she watched him from beneath her lashes. But she was listening.
“Since you showed up on my doorstep, I’ve thought a lot about what I was like at your age. I hung out with the same kinds of kids you did and I was arrested like you were too.” He shifted to get more comfortable.
This time she rearranged herself, giving him more room.
“And you obviously heard everything my brothers said about me. And that’s when you started to come around, when you realized we were kind of alike, right?”
When she didn’t answer, he nudged her leg and she finally nodded. Her pad fell to the side on the bed and she picked at a nonexistent thread on her purple and black zebra comforter.
“Then today, while we were shopping for the television and playing Wii, I realized that I never went shopping with my mother or father for the games we had in the house. The only times my father brought something home was after a long trip. Want to know why?”
Tess studied the bed, but her hand had stilled.
If he had to slice a vein, at least he was reaching her, Ethan thought. “My father felt guilty because he’d been with your mother, so he’d bring home stuff to make up for it. And guess what? I knew he was fooling around. I heard my parents arguing about it. I figured, I was the oldest, I had to do something. So I went out looking for trouble, hoping my father would have to pay attention and stay home more.” He paused, letting his words sink in. “Is that what it was like for you? Are you running from something there?”
He studied her, patiently waiting her out. He had all night.
Tess began to bite her nails, twisting one cuticle between her teeth. “Hey, you’re gonna hurt yourself. Talk to me,” he said.
She expelled a long breath of air. “When I was little, my mom used to go out at night. She said she had to work and she’d leave me with Kelly.” Tess pulled her knees up to her chest.
Ethan clenched his hands into fists. “Was Kelly good to you?”
“Real good.” Tess nodded, her eyes brightening when she spoke of her sister.
“Have you spoken to her since you’ve been here?” he asked for the first time.
“She calls every night.”
“Let me guess. She talks, you grunt?”
Tess gave him a reluctant smile. “Kelly’s twelve years older than me, so even after she graduated high school and went to college, she helped Mom watch me.”
Ethan’s admiration for Kelly Moss rose.
“But then she moved in with a friend. Mom said I was old enough to stay by myself at night. She said she had to work.” Tess’s voice cracked.
Ethan put a hand on the bottom of her leg for support. “What did she do during the day when you were in school?”
Tess sniffed. “I thought she worked two jobs.”
Ethan caught the terminology. Thought. “What was she really doing?”
“Men,” Tess said, her disgust plain. “One after another.”
Ethan curled his hand into a fist around the comforter.
“One night,” Tess continued, “it was dark and raining. I was really scared, so when I heard her in the hall, I ran out to meet her and she was with this guy. He had his tongue down her throat and then he promised he’d pick her up again tomorrow night. She wasn’t out working hard for us—she was going out.” Tess studied a point on the wall, holding her emotions tightly inside.
No wonder she was so angry, so troubled. Her mother had basically abandoned her, he thought. “Did Kelly know?”
Tess shook her head. “And when I threatened to tell her, Mom said that if Kelly knew, she’d give up school and her job. She said I’d ruin Kelly’s life.” Finally real tears dripped down Tess’s face.
So much for such a young kid to handle, he thought, wishing he could throttle her mother. Ethan reached for a tissue from her nightstand and handed it to Tess.
Embarrassed, she ducked her head and wiped the tears.
“And that’s when you started running wild,” he guessed.
She nodded. “I guess I thought kinda like you did. That if I got in enough trouble, Mom would have to come home and pay more attention to me.” She cleared her throat. “But nobody cared where I was or what I did.”
Ethan knew better and Tess needed to as well. “Kelly would have cared, but your mom talked you out of going to her for help. You know that, right?” Because it was obvious to him that Kelly loved her sister.
Tess laid her head on her knees and stared back at him with big eyes. “She oughta hate me.”
“Why would you think that?” he asked, stunned.
“Because I was so bad, it’s no wonder my mom left me and took off for a fresh start.”
Ethan pulled in a deep breath, horrified she’d blame herself. “Is that what your mother told you?”
“I came home to a note that said I was on my own. That she needed to get away and this guy could give her the life she deserved. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out she wanted to get the hell away from me.” Tess bit down on her lower lip to keep the tears from flowing.
Ethan had a lump in his throat, thinking that Leah Moss had let Tess believe she wasn’t enough, wasn’t worth sticking around for.
Acid burned in Ethan’s chest. “Did you ever tell your sister the truth?” he asked.
Tess shook her head. “Things were already a mess. And Mom had said if Kelly moved in to watch me, it’d ruin her life. Then she up and left, and Kelly got stuck with me anyway. I ruined her life just like Mom said.” More tears dripped down Tess’s cheek and he silently handed her another tissue.
He wished like hell he could make her past go away. But he knew better than anyone that was impossible. “You didn’t ruin Kelly’s life. Would she be calling you every night if you had?”
Tess sniffed and paused for way too long. “I guess not,” she finally said.
“You just made it more challenging, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.” He grinned.
To his surprise, Tess smiled back.
“Look, I have to go to D.C. tomorrow, but I want you to understand that I’m not leaving you, I’m not abandoning you, and Faith will be here until I get back. Got it?”
“Yeah,” Tess said in a soft voice. Her eyes still shimmered, but he saw the gratitude in her expression too.
He wanted to pull her into a hug but she was still withdrawn into herself and he figured he’d pushed enough for one night.
“I’ll see you in the morning?” she asked.
“You bet.” He rose to his feet.
“Ethan?”
“Yeah?”
Tess held out her sketch pad. “Here. I want you to see.”
Stunned, he accepted the pad. “I’m honored.”
“Don’t look at my drawings in front of me, okay?” For the first time, he caught sight of a real blush on her cheeks.
“No problem.” He paused. “Thanks for trusting me.” He winked at her and let himself out, shutting her door behind him.
At least now he understood why she acted out, and he couldn’t blame her. Nor did he kid himself that things with Tess would change overnight, but at least now they had an understanding.
A starting point.
He sat down on his bed and opened the sketch pad. Dragon warriors stared back at him. At least that’s what he thought they were. But even to his untrained eye, they were damned good. She had talent and deserved to have it nurtured.
He glanced at his watch. It was late but not obnoxiously so. He dialed Kate Andrews to find out about the best local art programs and teachers. She gave him the name of a colleague at the local college the next town over, as well as the dean of Birchwood Academy, a private school that specialized in the arts.
He’d make inquiries in between his business dealings tomorrow. He also planned to put his PI on locating Leah Moss. If Ethan and/or Kelly were going to be her guardians, Ethan wanted it to be legal, so they could make all the right decisions for Tess from now on.
