Chapter Seven #3
She worried at her bottom lip, her face drained of colour except for the slash of red across her mouth, as empathy and something deeper, something beyond his grasp, snaked down his spine, forging a connection stronger than anything he’d ever experienced.
All the while his mind whirled as everything he’d believed about her switched gears and changed.
‘That’s why you’re Ivy?’ he clarified, his voice low and husky.
She nodded. ‘Yes. And she’s not going anywhere.’ Her shoulders slumped and she didn’t seem too happy about it. ‘But I wanted to let you know why. I know you were angry that day.’
He hadn’t just been angry, he’d been teeth-rattlingly furious when he’d thought she’d staged the photos, and worse, been so intoxicated by her he hadn’t noticed she’d been acting.
That she’d played him when he’d sworn he’d never let anyone do that to him again, as his feelings had swung from something he had no name for, to something he did—utter abhorrence.
He shifted his feet trying to anchor himself, because for eight years he’d had no doubts about her true character.
But over the past weeks he’d kept losing his balance as she revealed parts of herself that didn’t fit that persona, and now she’d exploded the foundation of everything he’d believed about her.
Compassion and a grudging respect replaced all his former anger. Still, something niggled because he was convinced she was holding something back. Then a suspicion jackknifed through him. Is this what Ben knew? Was he involved? Was that the secret?
‘Does Ben know?’
‘What? No! Absolutely not.’ Ivy vehemently shook her head. ‘Only my former publicist and probably the pap. Not even Ruby knew.’
His grip on the back of the chair eased marginally.
Ruby, who’d defended Ivy, or Annie as she’d called her that day, but Ethan had cut her off.
The one and only time they’d come close to an argument, a memory he hated, because upsetting Ruby was the one thing he’d never wanted to do.
He’d refused to discuss it any further, and Ruby had never mentioned it again.
After that he’d been careful never to be at WillowGlen at the same time as Ivy. Until now.
Was this why Ruby had left the place to both of them? For him to uncover the truth? Because Ruby had believed Ivy when Ethan hadn’t.
Only why did it matter now, after all these years, when it didn’t change that he and Ivy inhabited widely different worlds?
Even with her reason for being Ivy, it didn’t alter the fact that her lifestyle and choices were the complete antithesis to his.
Would always be. Even if they didn’t reflect the person he was getting to know, day in, day out.
A confusing mix of Ivy and Annie. Ivy, who veered from icy to coy and Annie, who was funny and smart and kind.
Unwittingly, the memory from the folly struck hard. Her softness beneath his greedy hands, the breathy moans she’d made, the scent of spring enveloping him as he’d lost all sense and reason.
Momentarily light-headed and queasy, he shook his head. Lust was normal. It didn’t mean anything other than he had a healthy sex drive.
Still, he needed to think logically.
What if the photographer hadn’t captured those photos?
What would have been different?
His life wouldn’t have changed even if they had slept together, because the outcome would have been the same. Nothing permanent, even as his body automatically throbbed at imagining them together, her legs around him, his hands against…
He rubbed a rough hand across his jaw and resisted the urge to knock his head against the wall to obliterate the scorching-hot images it was flooded with.
Instead, he reminded himself there’d never be any future with someone who spent their life pretending; he’d never again allow himself to be constantly trying to figure out what was real and what wasn’t.
‘I want to say again, how sorry I am. I can’t change the past or make you believe me, especially when those photos catapulted my career.’ She didn’t look overly happy about the fact she’d made herself into a household name and commanded millions from her films.
He sighed. ‘I understand the grief of losing parents, Ivy, and how it changes us.’ A look full of understanding passed between them, the shared horror of it. ‘Thank you for telling me the truth. It’s the thing I value above all else.’
She flinched, and something flickered in the hazel depths of her eyes, a flash of sadness, a flare of alarm. ‘Thank you, Ethan.’
He watched as she walked out of the garden, determined he’d keep her at an emotional distance because someone as guarded as Ivy could only mean one thing for him…loss of control, total disaster, and he could never forget that.
Still, they’d evolved into a new territory, sharing things like…
friends would. Friends, is that what they were becoming?
Friends rather than enemies who’d been able to find a way to work together, which would have been impossible for him to imagine before Ruby’s passing.
Ultimately, it didn’t change the fact he’d be walking out of here in four weeks’ time, unscathed by their time together, but with a respect for Ivy he’d never expected to feel.