Page 27 of Fit for Love
Wincing, I screwed up my face. “Pretty painful.”
“How about now?” His hand moved up my leg, tickling the back of my knee.
“Better.”
“Now?” He was sliding dangerously higher and I didn’t dare move for fear of making the entire bowl of soup land on top of him.
“I think you should stop,” I breathed.
I was conflicted. Ethan didn’t really care about me—he was only in it for the cash. But his touch was soothing, erotic even, and I wanted him to carry on. Suddenly my appetite deserted me and I placed the tray on the bedside table.
“Ethan, stop,” I said, more forcefully.
His hand froze, then slid out from underneath the covers. “Is this because I went out with Betsey?”
“It’s got nothing to do with Betsey.” In fact if it had, then it would somehow be more palatable than what I thought was the truth. I patted the bed. “Come and sit down.”
Ethan did as I asked, propping himself up on the spare pillows.
“When I came here, it was because Orlando had strung me along for months—he lied to me about why we were together and once I found that out, my whole world crumbled. I didn’t know how to deal with it, and doing something that was the total opposite to my usual lifestyle seemed to be the thing.” My voice faltered as I went on and I stared at the bedcover, tracing an imaginary pattern with the tip of my finger. “Running away seemed like the best thing to do, and I didn’t expect to find someone—Mal’s best friend, who wanted to help me turn my life back to normal. I didn’t expect to be able to trust someone, another man especially, so easily as I did you.”
“Then what went wrong? I thought we were good together?” Ethan reached for my hand, but I moved it out of reach.
I needed to say my piece first, and sort out how I felt about Ethan before anything else happened between us. If anything more did.
“I thought we were good together too, but it turns out you were only using me for my money. Like Orlando used me to shield himself from the media who would shun him for being gay. I don’t know how I ended up falling for you. Actually, I think I do. I seem to fall for men who only want to use me for their own gain.” I let out a hard breath. There, I’d told him what I knew and it was up to him to defend himself. If he even wanted to.
“What are you talking about? Why would you think that?”
“I heard you on the phone to someone saying that you only needed a couple more training sessions with me and your plane ticket to South America would be paid for.”
Ethan was silent. “Let me explain.”
“Please. Go ahead. I’m interested to see how you’re going to talk your way out of this one.” I hardened myself to hear what he had to say.
“When you said you wanted to pay me for the training, you told me what you’d pay your trainer in London, and rather than argue, I just accepted it. My usual rate is way less than that, as you’d expect around here. Westbourne Water isn’t exactly Kensington and Chelsea, despite all the people from there who holiday in the town. I should have been stronger and said no at the time. I was stupid. And the thought of being able to get away again soon was appealing.” He paused. “But the thing about going on another trip would mean having to leave you. And I’m not sure I want to do that.”
The only words I truly heard from his explanation were the ones about how he wouldn’t want to leave me. My head whirled as I tried to digest his words.
“Betsey Jackson means nothing to me and I shouldn’t have taken her out the other night,” he went on.
“Then why did you?”
“You were blanking me. I asked her out to make you jealous.” He shrugged.
Well, he’d had exactly the desired affect. I was jealous and I ended up with a sprained ankle because of it.
“I think you should go.” I turned my back on him and slid underneath the covers. “Can you take the tray? I’m not hungry any more.”
The bed creaked and I felt Ethan’s weight lift off it. I closed my eyes to shut out him leaving. Only when I heard the door shut behind him did I allow a tear to slip out.
I was so confused. I didn’t know what to do next.
Chapter Fifteen
Ethan
After Cora’s rejection, I went to my own room and stretched out on my own bed, staring at the ceiling. If I wanted any kind of chance with her, I needed to make things right. But how was I going to do that? Obviously not seeing Betsey again was on that list. Mrs Jackson wasn’t going to he happy and I had to hope that she wouldn’t defect to another taxi firm.
