AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The next afternoon she was quietly transferring her books from the shelf in her bedroom into a slightly water-stained gear bag when a sudden electric change in the atmosphere made her skin prickle.
Ethan was standing silently in the open French doors to the verandah, watching her with sombre eyes.
‘Ethan—’ she sighed. She should have known.
‘Uncle Peter called to tell me what happened,’ he said, confirming her suspicion. Despite all their sneaking around and his claims to be a foolish old man, Peter wasn’t stupid.
‘He dragged you away from your work—’
‘I was coming back this evening, anyway,’ he said, stepping across the threshold and looking at the books. ‘He said you were going back to squat in your half-built house. Were you planning to be gone before I got back?’
He was implying she was running away. ‘No, Ethan, it’s not like that—’
‘What is it like, then?’
She pushed a hand through her hair, her smile wobbling as she trotted out a masterly understatement: ‘Rather awful, actually.’
He held out his arms and she flew home.
‘Damn it!’ he ground out against her curls as she buried her face against his chest. ‘This is exactly what I was afraid would happen.’
‘What—that I would turn out to be a complete impostor?’ she asked in a muffled voice.
‘No—that this would end up in a world of hurt for someone.’
She lifted her head. ‘I think Peter needs your sympathy as much as I do. He feels terrible.’
That’s why he doesn’t want you to leave.’
She unwrapped herself reluctantly from his arms and stood back. ‘I can’t stay, you must see that. Peter really only asked me to move in because he thought I was his own flesh and blood. My staying here is just going to make the truth more difficult and painful to accept—for both of us. I don’t want to strain our friendship like that. It’s not as if I’m compl
etely disappearing on him—I’ll still be coming here to work every day until my studio is rebuilt. But now I have the money to support myself and have replaced my car, there’s no good reason for me not to go back home. The cleaners have been through and my bedroom’s perfectly habitable, the bathroom’s functional and the electrical wiring and plumbing has all been done so I have power and running water.’
‘Habitable but hardly comfortable. Haven’t the carpet and curtains been taken to the dump and all the wallpaper stripped?’
‘I don’t mind roughing it until the builders finish and I can redecorate,’ she said, picking up another book, trying to sound strong and independent.
Ethan was staring at her broodingly. ‘If your scruples won’t let you stay here, why don’t you come with me to Waiheke?’ he said abruptly. ‘You could commute by ferry every day. It wouldn’t take you much longer than it does from your house.’
The book fell with a thump from her nerveless fingers.
‘Are you asking me to move in with you?’ she asked, in a hushed voice of breathless eagerness. ‘To live with you?’
There was a profound silence in which she thought she could hear the sound of her blood pumping sluggishly through her oxygen-starved heart.
Oh, God, she might just as well have asked him for a ring!
‘Well, to stay until your house is finished, anyway,’ Ethan temporised, the sudden wariness in his eyes offset by a sexy smile, reminding her of what she’d be missing if she refused.
Her chugging blood thinned rapidly, flowing out to her skin from her stricken heart, turning hope to an embarrassed flush. She should have known it was too good to be true. Of course he hadn’t been suggesting anything remotely permanent. He had simply made an impulsive offer designed to promote the convenience of their affair, safe in the knowledge he would be waving her goodbye in a few weeks, when the sex got stale.
Now he had even more reasons to be wary. Perhaps it had belatedly occurred to him that he would be giving house room to the daughter of a rapist? After all, who knew what bad blood might flow through her mongrel veins!
Emily knew she was being grossly unfair, but was too hurt to care.
‘Then, thanks, but I think I’d rather settle in at my own place,’ she said lightly, over the sound of her cracking heart. She picked up the fallen book. ‘I’d always planned on moving back there as soon as I could. I never wanted to impose on anyone—’
‘You wouldn’t be imposing.’ Ethan’s smile faded to a frown. ‘Don’t you want to come? I thought you said you liked the place.’
