Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64683 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
And he knew it was the truth because it had been the same for him, too. He had been with Guilia for just one night, and love had simply happened.
Anah was torn between confusion and laughter when Ethan suddenly started heaping food on her plate. "Um..."
"I have a feeling we'll be at this for hours," Ethan said without looking at her. "We might as well stuff ourselves while we hash things out." He heard her laugh, and this time the sound made his heart ache.
"I was kinda feeling hungry myself," Anah admitted, "but I was worried you'd think I wasn't being serious if I reached for one of Cook's biscuits." It was Ethan's turn to laugh, and just like before, the sound made her heart race and crack all at the same time.
When he was done heaping food on his own plate, he turned to look at her again, and asked simply, "Truce for now?"
She nodded.
Wicked humor suddenly flashed in his hazel eyes, and Anah felt wary for some reason.
"Can I ask you a question, though?"
She nodded again.
"If you were made to choose between me and Cook Nancy's biscuits," Ethan said gravely, "which one would you rather have in your life?"
"It depends," Anah quipped.
"On?"
"Are you willing to learn how to bake them?"
Ethan grimaced, and Anah laughed even as her heart continued to race and crack. Ethan was flirting with her, and she was, well, she was flirting right back at him. It had never happened before, and the only reason it was happening now was because after this...
Ethan nodded when Anah volunteered to say grace but kept his gaze on her as he saw her eyes close.
"Bless us O Lord..."
He found himself unable to stop staring even as his world started spinning out of its orbit again.
"And these, Thy gifts..."
He heard her voice start to wobble, and the sound carved a hole out of his chest. She was so damn young. So damn beautiful, inside and out, that she would be just fucking wasted...so completely wasted on someone like him.
"Which we are about to receive from Thy bounty ..."
And when he saw her tears start falling again—-
"Through Christ, Our Lord..."
Anah could no longer end the prayer, and she hastily covered her face with her hands because her tears made her feel too vulnerable and exposed. "I'm s-sorry," she whispered. "It just struck me, t-that you will never love me b-back..." Another sob rushed out of her throat, and she found herself crying harder when she felt Ethan turning her face toward him...so he could kiss her tears away.
Oh God.
Why?
Why couldn't she have met him first?
Chapter Seven
ETHAN WAS TIRED AND restless. Had been so for a very long time. Most days, if he were asked about this, he would say it had begun almost ten years ago, the day Guilia had come into his life.
But on the rare days that he was alone, and alcohol had shorn him of his defenses, he would find himself unable to keep up with the pretense. It was the need to constantly hide the truth, to pretend every fucking second, that exhausted him, and it was Anah's feelings that had his soul restless and his heart unable to settle.
There were times when Anah's love was like a brick around his neck. She loved him. She deserved to be loved. But there was nothing he could do. Because it was already too late.
But then there were the other times. Times when Anah's love was the only fucking bright spot in his life, and he was almost tempted to end things with Guilia and start with Anah anew. Times when he was about to lose his mind in jealous rage and bitter despair, and he found himself desperately hanging on to the memory of the softness of her cheek under his lips.
That memory had been his lifeline, the one thing that saved him from going crazy every time he was confronted with yet another irrefutable photo of Guilia hooking up with another man.
When Anah had left for Hartland, he had flown back to Guilia's side in another attempt to work things out. And again, for a while, it had been good between them. But then another media event came out, Guilia had started throwing tantrums, and Ethan was back to being single.
In their first few years together, he had tried to make Guilia understand why Hartland was so important to him and the twins. The helicopter crash that killed their parents hadn't been an accident. Rather, it was cold-blooded murder, and an investigation had eventually led to the arrest of one of his parents' competitors.
It was this kind of attention that Ethan and his brothers didn't want for themselves and future members of their family, and why they had helped set up The Hartland Initiative.
But no matter what he said, it was as if she had been deaf to all his words, and these days, Guilia took her vengeance to a sick new level. She would record clips of her time with other men and send to him like it was some fucking joke.