The Rancher’s Unrequited Love (Billionaires of Evergreen, Texas)

Part One

ETHAN BLACKWOOD HAD grown up in other people's shadows his entire life. With their parents having died early, he and the twins only had each other. And while he would die for his older brothers any day and vice versa, it didn't stop him from looking forward to leading a life separate from them, if only to get away from the constant comparisons.

Unlike Aidan and Thornton, who had been born gifted in every way, Ethan was a terribly late bloomer. For most of his high school years, he had been this awkwardly tall and lanky boy beset with respiratory problems that kept him from getting involved in any sports. And while no one in town had been foolish enough to bully Ethan over it - this would've been suicidal, considering most of them either directly or indirectly worked for Ethan's family - the look of pity in their eyes said it plainly enough.

When compared to his more accomplished older brothers, Ethan would always be found lacking, and it was this that had him packing his bags as soon as he graduated from high school.

In England, Ethan - with the help of his mother's side of the family - was finally able to enjoy a life away from the twins' overwhelmingly large shadows. Free from other people's judgments, Ethan sought help for his respiratory problems, which turned out to be nothing but a psychological manifestation of his childhood trauma. Once this was taken care of, Ethan then focused on building his strength and stamina; he devoted hours each day to manual labor at his cousins' horse ranches, and in a matter of months was as ruggedly muscular as his older brothers.

When Ethan finally flew back home, he was no longer the insecure boy he was once was, and no one was happier to see Ethan's growth than the twins themselves. They had always believed that Ethan had it in him to stand toe to toe with them, but men being men, they had been unable to effectively put their feelings into words.

And now that Ethan was back in the fold...

The twins invited the whole town to celebrate Ethan's homecoming, and it was on this fateful night that Guilia came back to his life.

GUILIA SANTOS' BIGGEST regret was being born on the wrong side of the tracks. From the moment she became old enough to understand the difference between rich and poor, she had lived every moment of her life with envy that eventually fueled her ambition.

She dismissed her Mexican mother as an idiot, with the older woman ridiculously content working as a housekeeper for the wealthy assholes that came up to Jackson Hole every vacation. Her mother was a hopeless case, but Guilia was determined to be different. Guilia knew she was meant to go places, and it was why she had set her cap on Travis Jones, whose father owned a modeling agency.

Guilia knew she had what it would take to become a supermodel, but she also knew that she would have to toil a couple more years before getting the jumpstart she needed. She craved for success, and if she wanted it right now, she would need to use Travis to expedite things.

She had seen the way Travis looked at her every time she served him at the local clubhouse, and she didn't even have to expend much effort in seducing him. Her plan was simple: make Travis fall for her so that he'd get her foot in the door with his father.

And at that time, because she had thought herself so damn smart, Guilia had believed the plan would work.

But it didn't.

The world turned out to be dirtier than Guilia thought, and she had ended up fucking Travis, his father, and later on, Travis' friends and his father's friends...and sometimes, she had to fuck them all at the same time.

She had been sixteen then, a nobody.

A year later, she was somebody, a girl whose face was plastered on every magazine cover, a girl who had everything she once dreamed of, and as she made it to the top of the world, Guilia simply wished she was dead.

IT WAS ONLY ON A WHIM that Guilia had come to attend the Blackwoods' party, and she found herself relishing the nasty looks she got from the other girls. They all thought her a gold-digging bitch, and that was fine with her. She would rather have them hating on her than let them realize the truth.

After grabbing a flute of champagne from one of the servers, she headed straight to Ethan Blackwood to say hi. His time in England had clearly done him good; she remembered seeing him in high school, and he had been so pale and thin in those days. Now, he was just the opposite. He was all tanned and sexy, and simply oozing with charm as all the girls flocked around him.

Guilia only had to clear her throat for the other girls to clear the way for her, but one in particular seemed to hold a grudge against Guilia. She stuck her foot out at the most opportune time, causing Guilia to lose her balance.

She started to fall.

That bitch!

But instead of suffering an embarrassment, she fell straight into Ethan's arms instead.

Looking up, Guilia intended to tease Ethan about staying true to his British side by acting like a knight to her damsel. But when her gaze met his, and she saw the look in his eyes—-

Ethan was startled when Guilia suddenly jerked away from him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Guilia said stiffly. "Nice party, by the way."

Ethan hadn't any time to answer since Guilia had already spun on her heels to walk away.

What the hell?

He had always found Guilia beautiful but had never tried asking her out. In those days, he had thought her out of his league. But it was different now, and in just a couple of strides, Ethan caught up with the now-famous model and grabbed hold of her wrist.

"Not so fast, love."

He spun her around to face him and was only amused by the way her green eyes flashed with fury.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Her voice was cold, but the look of desire in her eyes belied this.

She wanted him , Ethan realized with satisfaction.

Guilia tried tugging her hand out of the younger man's hold. "Will you let me—-"

But instead, Ethan pulled her even closer and took her mouth in a deep, hard kiss that had Guilia's knees knocking against each other.

By the time the young billionaire lifted his head, the whole party had gone silent. Ethan's hazel eyes gleamed down at her, and Guilia's teeth gnashed when she actually felt her cheeks turn red. She couldn't remember the last time she had blushed like this, and for a boy like Ethan to make such a thing to happen—-

She lifted her chin, intending to crush his balls with a few choice words, but everything she had to say was forgotten the moment she looked into his eyes.

Fuck.

Most men only had lust in their eyes when they looked at her, and she had thought Ethan would be the same. In the years that would eventually pass, Guilia would often think back to this day and find herself thinking if only...

If only Ethan had been the same as the rest.

But instead, he had been different. Instead of lust, she had seen something else in his eyes. Something she had thought she would never see again.

And that had been the beginning of her downfall...and his.

TO SAY THAT THE WHOLE town disapproved of their relationship would have been the understatement of the century. Everyone thought Ethan Blackwood was too good for a bitch like Guilia Santos, and even worse, the supermodel seemed to go out of her way to prove them right.

In the beginning, the twins had been willing to give Guilia the benefit of the doubt despite their private misgivings. For Aidan, Guilia appeared too mercenary while Thornton thought her too sly. But because Ethan clearly loved the woman, the twins did their best to focus on what they remembered of Guilia in her younger years: proud, hardworking, and always giving as good as she got to those who tried to bully her.

Things changed, however, when disturbing rumors started to reach the twins' ears, and Aidan finally paid for a private investigator to look into Guilia's personal life.

When Ethan was confronted by his brothers with proof of Guilia's infidelity, it was like the past all over again, but instead of anger, he was filled with self-contempt. In his mind, it was his fault that Guilia had cheated, and he was grimly convinced that Guilia wouldn't have done the same thing if she were dating one of the twins.

GUILIA KNEW THE MOMENT she welcomed Ethan to her home that something had changed. Ethan was usually outrageously charming, and with the craziest ability to make her laugh nearly every second. No other man had done that, and in some ways, it had her hating him for making her feel so despicably human.

But this Ethan before her?

He was quiet and grim, and when she saw the bleakness in his gaze—-

He knew about Travis, she realized sickly.

And it was as if Ethan had heard her thoughts, with the way his lips tightened in seeming response.

"E-Ethan..."

"Tell me why, Guilia. Just fucking tell me why."

Oh God, if only it were that easy. If only her story was like a fairytale, and she could be sure there was a happy ending in the end.

If only it happened once upon a fucking time.

But it didn't.

It happened in the first place because she had been willing to sell her soul for fame. It happened again and again because apparently her soul hadn't been enough. And this time, it happened again because Travis simply didn't like seeing her happy.

"Guilia... please. "

Guilia had the rarest urge to sob. She hadn't cried the first time Travis' dad told her she would have to become his whore before he gave her what she wanted, and she still hadn't shed a tear the night she had woken up from her first forced threesome. But the way Ethan was looking at her now...

The way Ethan so obviously still loved her despite what he knew...

If she broke things off with Travis, the other man would release all the footage he had of Guilia, and if she let that happen—-

Would Ethan still love her , she wondered hysterically, once he knew the truth?

The thought was too frightening to contemplate, and it was as if something snapped inside of her. Before she realized what she was doing, she had already dashed into the kitchen and sliced her wrist with a knife.

GUILIA HAD NOT SUCCEEDED in killing herself, but the Guilia Ethan used to know might as well have been dead. It was as if she had changed overnight, and when Guilia was finally discharged from the hospital, she was someone he didn't recognize at all.

Instead of coming home with him, Guilia insisted on staying at her apartment in New York, and it was there she seemed to spiral out of control. News of Guilia hitting the clubs every night soon filled the Internet, with photos showing her either drunk or getting into catfights with other girls. She had also started taking drugs, and the paps on her trail had caught her sneaking out like a hooker in various instances. There was one where she had climbed out of a window of an actor's RV, another from a rockstar's backstage room, and one time from the hotel room of a professional athlete.

It was one goddamn scandal after another, but since Guilia had asked for space from him following her discharge, Ethan was able to lie to himself about not having any right to expect anything. If she had called him out of the blue and asked for forgiveness, he would have given it. But the one thing he couldn't forgive was when he woke up to her newest scandal. The tabloid sites had released photos of Guilia and Travis inside a car, and even though they were both fully clothed, the position they were photographed in left nothing to the imagination.

It was one thing for Ethan to know of her unfaithfulness. It was another thing entirely if the whole world knew about it as well, and Ethan flew to New York all at once after seeing the photos. He just wanted to be done with her once and for all, but the moment he saw Guilia again, it was like having the heavens playing a fucking joke on him.

"If you're here to break up with me," Guilia said with a catty-looking smile, "then you should've just sent a text."

Bitchy as always, but God...

It was also the first time he had seen Guilia looking at him with love in her eyes.

THE NEXT THREE YEARS for Ethan and Guilia were tumultuous at best and acrimoniously volatile at worst. By now, Guilia knew that Ethan genuinely loved her, but somehow the knowledge only made her want to hurt him more. When all she wanted to do was love him back, Guilia found herself doing everything that would kill his feelings

Stop loving me, damn you!

Stop! Stop! Stop!

But nothing seemed to work. Ethan never left her side. Never tired of asking her what was wrong. Never stopped loving her.

And it terrified her.

To the point that she found herself unable to stop destroying him. She just couldn't seem to help herself. She just kept pushing and pushing and pushing...until finally, Ethan did what she expected him to do.

He left her, loving and hating her, and that was fine with Guilia. All that mattered was that Ethan never knew the truth, and if keeping him in the dark meant being alone for the rest of her life...that was fine, too.