Chapter 6
What the fuck just happened?
One minute Ethan had been telling Talia where her father was and agreeing she could come to Florida with him, and the next she had been accusing him of not wanting her.
All he’d tried to do was protect her, damn it. To keep her safe from the shit happening in his own life.
Once he knew his being near her was no longer putting her in danger Ethan had every intention of finding her again, begging on his fucking knees if he had to.
She didn’t want to look at him anymore tonight?
Well, too fucking bad, because Ethan had every intention of seeing every naked inch of her, and her seeing every naked inch of him too, before the night was through!
He stormed back to the palace, not even bothering to attempt to knock on Talia’s closed bedroom door as he continued down the hallway to his own suite of rooms. He was pretty sure Talia’s door would be locked and that she wouldn’t unlock it. Not for him.
He went straight to his own bedroom and out onto the balcony, making sure the doors were open into Talia’s room before climbing across the six feet separating his balcony from hers.
Talia had held it together long enough to reach the sanctuary of her bedroom, but once inside, with the door locked behind her, the tears she had been holding back began to fall. And they kept falling, racking her body with deep and painful sobs as her knees gave way and she sank slowly down onto the carpeted floor.
There had been something so absolutely final about her conversation with Ethan just now, leaving her in no doubt, with no hope, she and Ethan could or would ever be together.
It wasn’t until that hope was completely taken away from her that Talia realized she had always secretly harbored the belief it might one day be a possibility. That in the back of her mind, no matter how far or how long she and her father ran, she had thought she might one day be able to go back and find Ethan. Not only that, but that he would fall in love with the older, more sophisticated her, and they would live together happily ever after. The fact the two of them had made love twice in the past twenty-four hours had only succeeded in enforcing that hope.
How childish was that?
Men and women went to bed together all the time. It didn’t mean there was anything more than a sexual attraction between them.
Childish or not, Talia was now crying as if her heart were breaking. Because it was. Not just slightly fractured, or splintered down the middle, but scattered into a million pieces that could never be put back together again.
“Come here.” The voice was husky with emotion as strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her against a rock-solid chest.
Ethan’s voice.
Ethan’s chest.
Talia heard someone make a small inarticulate cry, and then realized it was her. But she didn’t care how weak or heartbroken she sounded as she burrowed against the strength of that muscular chest, only wished she could climb inside that protection in the hope it would somehow take all the pain away.
Ethan had a feeling that Talia’s tears were days, maybe even years, overdue.
The first thing he’d heard when he dropped lightly down onto the balcony outside was the sound of Talia sobbing inside the room. Deep, heartbroken sobs he doubted had anything to do with their earlier argument and everything to do with the way she’d had to live these past three years. A fugitive. Hunted. And, no matter how much she loved her father, everything she’d learned about him since yesterday must have caused her to question why she did. That it was her father’s own actions, his greed, which had set him on the course of one day having a head-to-head confrontation with Viktor Antipov.
Ethan had felt his own anger dissipating, until there was only the need to hold and comfort Talia.
He held her tightly against him now as she cried until there were no more tears left inside her to cry, leaving only the sound of her shuddering breaths and the aftershocks of those tears in the shaking of her slender body.
“Please don’t turn on the light,” she pleaded as he would have reached out to turn on the bedside lamp.
“Okay.”
She breathed out unevenly. “You climbed over the balcony again.”
“I did.”
“It’s dark outside.”
“It is.”
“You could have lost your footing and fallen.”
He chuckled softly. “I wouldn’t have dared to, in case I crushed any of the flowers below.” He reminded her of her earlier comment.
Talia lifted her head to look at him. “I was angry with you when I said that.”
His lips quirked. “Seems to be par for the course.”
Talia wasn’t angry with Ethan now, not really. She had taken out her anger on him earlier because he was the closest person to her at the time.
Nor did she know if the tears she’d just cried had been because of her argument with Ethan and the realization there was no future for the two of them, or if they had been for herself, tears for all the years she had lived in fear, only to now learn her father was completely and utterly to blame for everything that had happened to them since she was five years old.
She had been shocked when she first learned who her father was, who she was, what her father had done, but because he was her father, her one certainty in life after her mother died, she had forgiven him. To now learn her father had not only stolen from his own people, but had also cheated his partner in that embezzlement, seemed somehow worse than that original heinous crime.
As her snapping at Ethan earlier had been. “I’m sorry for the things I said to you.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes.”
“Is it that easy to forgive me?”
He shrugged. “The past eleven days haven’t been easy for you.”
That had to be an understatement. Her father’s abduction. Finding Ethan. Losing him again. Learning that her father was even more of a cheat and a liar than she had thought he was.
“The last two haven’t been easy on you either,” she acknowledged ruefully.
He snorted softly. “Make that the last seven months, and you’ll be closer to the truth.”
Because this man Alizoti had been hunting Ethan for six of them.
“I don’t want either of us to go to Florida tomorrow,” she said dully.
“Why not?”
She could feel Ethan’s tension against her. “Because my father has a way of getting himself out of trouble as much as he gets himself into it. Our being there could just make the situation worse than it already is.” She closed her eyes briefly before opening them again. “I brought those men to your finca in Majorca.” Talia had reasoned that out for herself even in the midst of her tears.
He drew in a deep breath. “I know.”
“You do?”
“Yes.”
When she had tried to find Ethan, her research had shown her he had been living in Majorca on and off for the last six months. It was too much of a coincidence that the man who was looking for Ethan, the Albanian Alizoti, had managed to find him on the same night Talia had. Which meant those men had to have followed her. She now knew they were in all likelihood Viktor Antipov’s men.
In the last few minutes, she had also realized there could be only one reason why they wanted her, and that was to use her to make her father tell them where he had his money hidden away. For her to now go to Florida would be to play straight into their hands. And if she wasn’t going, then she didn’t want Ethan to go either. Why should he? Her father meant nothing to him.
It was unfair of her to have asked Ethan for help in the first place. Unfair of her to have revealed his home in Majorca to Antipov’s men. To have forced him into leaving its safety and so leaving himself vulnerable to this man Alizoti.
She still had no idea what that was all about, but she wouldn’t have Ethan hurt because of her.
Because, no matter what, she still loved him.
Still wanted him.
It was sad. She was sad. But love couldn’t be turned on and off at will. If it could, there would be no poets lamenting about lost love, no romance novels, no reason for living.
“I could have gotten you killed.” She gave a shudder at the thought of it.
“I don’t think it was their intention to kill anyone, just capture us and take us back to Florida,” Ethan reasoned.
“Capture me,” Talia corrected. “They had absolutely no reason to keep you alive.”
“Wow, you really are in a let’s not sugarcoat it mood tonight, aren’t you?” he drawled. “Luckily, I’m harder to kill than you might imagine.”
“I don’t want to get you killed at all.”
“No?”
She gasped. “Absolutely not.”
He shrugged. “It isn’t a question of if we go, only when. Caleb, Asher, and Gabriel are already on their way to meet up with me in Florida.”
Talia looked at Ethan, his face all harsh dips and hollows in the shadows cast by the moonlight shining in through the windows and French doors. “Why?”
Ethan shrugged. “We’re a family.”
“And I’m someone your family would rather forget they ever knew,” she reminded him.
“You’re with me now, and that makes you their concern too.”
Was she with him? It seemed to her they had done nothing but argue since they met up again yesterday. “Ethan—”
The softness of his fingertips against her lips stopped her from talking further. “Shh,” he soothed as he removed his arms from about her before standing up and holding out his hand to her. “I want to stay with you tonight, if you’ll have me.”
Talia hesitated only briefly before placing her hand in his and allowing him to pull her up onto her feet. “Even if Antipov has discovered where I am, I very much doubt any of his men are going to get through Alexandre’s bodyguards patrolling the grounds.” She attempted to tease, not wanting to humiliate herself again by making any assumptions regarding Ethan’s request. He really could just be being overprotective. Or making sure she knew she was no longer alone. “They certainly wouldn’t be able to scale three floors up the wall and enter my bedroom.”
“I would like to stay here with you tonight,” Ethan repeated with emphasis as he maintained his hold on her hand. “As far as I’m concerned, Antipov’s men are welcome to come and watch, as long as they’re quiet about it.”
Talia felt a lurch in her chest, as if her heart had physically leapt in anticipation. She moistened her lips before speaking. “Come and watch what?”
“Me, making love to you.”
That was exactly what she’d thought—hoped?—he’d meant. “I’m not interested in a pity fuck, Ethan.”
He scowled. “Are you interested in having your backside spanked for using the f-word?”
She gave a watery smile. “I’m a big girl now and can use whatever language I like.”
“I can’t disagree with the big-girl comment.” His gaze swept over her appreciatively. “You were gorgeous at nineteen, but you’ve grown even more beautiful in the last five years. But I always knew you would.”
“And you want to spend the night with me.”
“Yes.”
“Aren’t we angry with each other?”
“Then we’ll have makeup sex.” He shrugged. “I don’t care what we call it, as long as I can finally be inside you.”
Talia was almost afraid to breathe as she allowed her gaze to roam slowly over his face. Ethan returned her gaze steadily, making no effort to hide the desire glittering in his eyes and his slightly ragged breathing. His body was tense, and she could see a visible bulge at the front of his jeans.
She swallowed. “First you need to tell me what happened six months ago and why this man Alizoti is hunting you.”
“I do?”
She nodded. “We need to start trusting each other.”
His mouth thinned. “I killed his son.”
Talia’s heart stopped beating for several seconds before starting up again, faster and louder. The Albanian mafia had visibly been around for some years now, rather than hidden deep in the underworld, and they were known worldwide for being vicious and ruthless. More so even than the Russian bratva. And Agon Alizoti was the head of the Georgia part of that organization. “Vaso? Or does Agon have another son?”
Ethan stilled. “Just the one. How do you know about Vaso?”
“I wasn’t asleep all day.” She reminded him of his remark at dinner. “I went online and checked up on Agon Alizoti earlier.”
“I should have known you would do that,” he muttered.
“Yes, you should,” she said quietly. “The report I read said Vaso Alizoti died in a car accident.” Talia had read the newspapers. She hadn’t thought to hack into the police reports. Maybe she should have.
Ethan’s jaw clenched. “He died when my knife pierced his monstrous fucking heart. Agon just didn’t care to have it known that his son was murdered. Not good for business or instilling the fear of God into people to know that the boss’s son had been taken out by someone outside the organization.”
“But surely the police must have known Vaso was stabbed?”
“Amazing how effective a little brute force and threats can be even to the police.” He studied her closely. “You’re taking all of this very calmly.”
Talia wasn’t calm at all inside. Only on the outside, where it mattered. Inside, her stomach was churning. But out of worry for Ethan, because Agon Alizoti would never stop looking for him, not when he knew Ethan had killed his only son.
She shrugged. “I’ve been around my father long enough that talk of mafia and bratva and death doesn’t shock me.” It scared the hell out of her, for Ethan’s sake, but it didn’t shock her. “What did Vaso do?”
“What makes you think he did anything?”
“Because you wouldn’t have killed him if he hadn’t.”
“I didn’t kill him on purpose. Although I’m not sorry he’s dead,” Ethan added.
“I’m going to need you to explain how you didn’t do it on purpose.”
“That’s a conversation guaranteed to ruin the mood,” he warned.
“Even so, I need to know. I also believe you need to tell me.”
Ethan sighed, knowing from the stubbornness of Talia’s expression she wasn’t going to give up on the subject. He probably did owe her an explanation. And she was right, it was time they started trusting each other. “Can I hold you while I do it?”
“We can go one better than that,” she told him softly. “Let’s undress and get into bed and hold each other.”
Ethan liked the sound of that idea even better than his own suggestion. And maybe holding a live and beautiful woman in his arms while he talked, holding Talia in his arms, would succeed in banishing the nightmares for one night, at least.
“Okay.” He nodded, his gaze fixed on her as he pulled his T-shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor. “Five years ago, I used to fantasize about seeing you naked,” he admitted as Talia unfastened and removed her blouse, her breasts bare beneath. Revealing those gorgeous rose-tipped breasts he had made a feast of the night before. “I felt like a fucking lecher while I did it, but I did it anyway.”
“You did?”
“Hell, yes,” he acknowledged self-derisively as he unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans. “It used to keep me awake at night.”
Talia laughed softly under her breath as she unfastened her tailored trousers. “Me too.”
“Thinking about yourself naked kept you awake at night?”
“Ha-ha, very funny.” This was certainly more like the Ethan she remembered, even if the humor was forced. Her mouth went dry as Ethan stripped off his jeans and boxers before straightening. He was so gorgeous, he took her breath away. “Thinking about seeing you naked kept me awake at night.”
Ethan grimaced. “As good as you imagined or not?”
“I saw you naked last night,” she reminded him.
“So you did.”
Talia’s body tingled with arousal as she stared at Ethan in the moonlight, taking in those now-familiar wide and powerful shoulders, the chest with its clearly defined eight-pack and light dusting of dark hair, the taut dips and hollows of his hips, long and muscular legs, before returning to the enormous jutting erection rising up from a nest of dark curls. The bulbous top was slick with juices, evidence of his own arousal.
“Better,” she assured. “Much better,” she repeated as she allowed her trousers to fall to the floor before stepping out of them, now wearing only a pair of black lace panties. “As good as you imagined or not?”
“Better.” His voice was hoarse. “Much better,” he repeated as he reached down for his jeans and removed something from his wallet. “Taking too much for granted?” He held up a condom.
Talia’s cheeks blazed with color. “Sensible.”
He winced. “Sensible can be a turn-off.”
“Not in this case.” Nothing could, or ever had, stopped her from wanting this man. Besides, a pregnancy in her life now would be a serious mistake.
Ethan placed the condom on the table next to the bed before folding back the duvet and holding out his hand to her. “Shall we?”
Talia felt as if the hand Ethan held out to her this time represented so much more than that. That placing her own hand into his was the equivalent of putting her heart in both his hands too. The same heart she had believed broken into a million pieces not half an hour ago. The heart that had always, would always, belong to Ethan.
His hand felt warm and protective as his fingers curled about hers, their gazes locked as they climbed into the bed together.
Instead of cuddling into Ethan’s arms, she turned to him and held out both her arms. “I want to hold you while you talk.” She had a feeling that what he was about to tell her was truly horrible.
After the briefest of hesitations Ethan laid his head down onto her breasts, and Talia wrapped her arms around him and held on tightly.
Ethan breathed out a shaky sigh, his senses filled with the feel and perfume of the woman beneath him. Not in a sexual way. Not yet. This was tenderness and warmth, emotions that wrapped themselves about him as surely as Talia’s arms held him.
He could never remember having a woman hold him like this before. His mother had been dead for over twenty years, and his sister, Lily, had turned into a rebellious teenager overnight. Her four older brothers suddenly became the enemy for trying to stop her doing anything and everything she wanted to do. The women Ethan had bedded in the past hadn’t been interested in holding him either, only in what pleasure he could give them. At the time, he’d been only too happy to oblige.
Being held like this should make him feel vulnerable, somehow less, and yet knowing it was Talia who held him so tightly made him feel warm and cared for. He loved it.
“Are you falling asleep down there?” she teased.
“I wish,” he murmured.
She sobered. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I don’t want to force you to relive these memories if you would rather not.”
“Baby, I live those memories every fucking night in my nightmares,” he rasped. “And I meant that as an endearment, not as a reminder you’re younger than me. I’m not into the Daddy scene.” He grimaced.
“I already know that.” If he had been, he would have taken her up on her invitation years ago.
Ethan breathed out deeply. “I haven’t told anyone what Alizoti did. Not all of it.” His voice shook.
“Not your brothers?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s too… Talking about it just makes it too immediate again.”
“If you would rather not—”
“No, you’re right, we need to start trusting each other.” He breathed out a shuddering breath. “The police will have the details in their report, but not all of them were given to the press, thank God. Probably because they thought they might have had a serial killer on their hands or something. Whatever.” He shrugged. “I’m just grateful for their restraint. My brother Caleb suffered from PTSD when he returned after being a prisoner in Afghanistan, and he’s been seeing a shrink about it ever since. The effect this has had on me feels pretty much like the same thing.”
Talia knew this was going to be as bad as she had suspected it might be when she realized something had changed Ethan from the lighthearted and smiling man she had known five years ago into the grim-faced and suspicious one he now was.
But she believed Ethan needed to talk to someone about this, whatever it was, in order for him to…not move on exactly, but accept it, at least. Maybe then it would stop haunting him.
“Tell me,” she encouraged.