ETHANSometimes, you just know you're going to have a very awful day. From the moment you wake up, you can feel that this is just not going to be your day. That's exactly how I felt earlier this morning when I rolled out of bed. The first thing was when I realized my phone hadn't charged throughout the night. I must have forgotten to plug it in. I groaned and slapped it on the charger, and when I headed for the bathroom, I slipped just as I was about to walk in and slammed my shoulder against the wall. That was just the preface. On my way down, the elevator got stuck and I had to wait for someone to fix it. After that, I came downstairs to find that someone had keyed my car for absolutely no reason. At that point, I wanted to scream. I was ready to just go back up and call it a day already. But then I saw Liv's reply to my 'good morning' message, and it brought a smile to my face. For just a little while, I forgot about the shitty day I was having. Just texting her brightened my da
The Holloway penthouse was at the very top of the Crawford building, which overlooked most of the Upper East Side. From the moment the building came into view, I could tell that we were in for a spectacle. But when Ethan narrowed his eyes at the building, I leaned over and placed a hand on his lap. "Are you okay?" I asked. He shrugged nonchalantly, but it was obvious that something was pissing him off. I sensed there was some sort of history between the Reynards and the Holloways, but I wasn't to ask him about it right now. Rachel and Blake were in the back seat, and I didn’t want to make a scene after the discussion we’d had earlier. He was having a rough day, and it was my job to make him feel better. “What happened to the old geezer?” Blake called from the backseat. “I haven’t heard anything about him in ages.”“He likes to keep a low profile,” I said. “Ever since Nate took over the business, he’s more of a silent partner now. He only checks in every once in a while when there’s
ETHANI hate parties. There might have been a time when I didn’t feel so negative towards them. But I’d come to realize that a party was just an excuse for terrible things to happen. A party was not a simple social gathering where people would exchange opinions and laugh at ridiculous jokes. Instead, they were opportunities to gossip, to spread rumours and lies and any form of scandalous information that you might want to spread. That was the simple gist of it. Something about the Holloway party only amplified this. From the moment we walked in, I knew I was going to have a miserable evening. And sure enough, as I stood there and watched Nathaniel Holloway drag my girlfriend away, I knew what sort of evening it was going to be. Thankfully, there was an open bar. I decided to have a drink, so I would sit there like a recluse and just watch him blatantly flirt with my girlfriend while rubbing it in my nose. I smiled politely at a few faces I recognized, and we talked for a little wh
Never in my entire life have I ever done anything as quickly as I did with finalizing the Holloway deal. To be completely honest, I was barely paying attention to anything that was said at the table. All I cared about was the yes, and once they signed the papers we'd come along with, everything was set. And now I could devote my complete attention to the hottest man I'd ever met. I was a mess as I hurried over to the elevator, barely paying attention to Rachel and Blake as they said they wanted to hang out a bit longer. When Nathaniel Holloway tried to run after me, I ducked behind a large man wearing a turban and rushed to Ethan's side. He was already standing in front of the elevator, and when he turned to face me, a shiver ran down my spine. He looked so handsome with three buttons undone, his bare chest looking so inviting. A shadow hung over his eyes, making him look so sexy that my brain couldn't properly function. I was so turned on at that moment that a part of me wanted hi
Alright. I’m just going to say it. There’s nothing on earth that beats the feeling of waking up in the morning after being thoroughly dicked down the previous night. Ethan and I had gone four more rounds after the first time, and by the time I slept off, I was completely exhausted. I actually woke up with a smile on my face. And as my eyes fluttered open and I found Ethan staring back at me with a smile, my grin widened as I inched towards him and let him wrap his arm over me. “Good morning,” I whispered. “Hi Cupcake,” he replied, kissing me on the nose. “You look so pretty today.”“Don’t start,” I said, rolling my eyes. We were both completely naked under the covers, and I could feel his erection poking against my stomach. I immediately started to blush, and he must have known I was feeling awkward because he actually flicked it a few times, causing me to roll away from him. “Oh no, you don’t,” he chuckled, pulling me back and wrapping his arms around me. Where do you think you
I rushed into the office, thinking there was an emergency. Nate hadn’t answered my calls, and I thought something had gone seriously wrong. Even though I didn’t want to leave Ethan, he told me that he understood that I had to leave, and he even walked me to the cab. I was panicking by then, thinking the deal was about to be called off. So imagine my surprise when I walked into the conference room and find Nate sitting at the table casually, feet up on the table like he owned the fucking building, and a few faces I recognized from the party last night sitting with him and laughing at something he’d said. What the actual fuck?Nate lifted his head and noticed that I was standing right there, and a grin spread across his face as he said, “Oh, hi, Livia. Fancy meeting you here.” “What’s going on?” I asked. “Your text made it sound like something urgent was going on.”“Sorry about that,” he said. “I just needed to make sure you would get here on time. We need this deal finalized today,
ETHANI know I’m an asshole. Liv doesn’t deserve this. I know it as well as I know the back of my hand. But I can’t stop myself sometimes. It’s not like I’m trying to sound like a jealous piece of shit. And it’s not like I don’t trust her. I do. I trust her with my life. I know that I would move heaven and earth for her. But every time I hear that fucking Nathaniel Holloway’s name, I just feel like punching someone Why couldn’t she see him for what he was? It was obvious that he was trying to get under my skin, and he was doing it specifically by targeting her because he knew that was the perfect way to get to me. It was just like him to try something as underhanded as this. The Holloways were like a thorn in my side. They’d always been there, lingering in the shadows and causing a mess wherever they went. I still hadn’t forgotten about the Wrexham incident seventeen years ago, which was the first thing that made our father’s illness known. Everyone told me it didn’t mean anything,
“Toothbrush?”“Check.”“Makeup kit?”“Check.”“Fishing gear?”“Check.”“Sexy lingerie?”“Check.”“Secret gift that will definitely make you the best girlfriend ever?”“Check,” I said, waving the package in front of Rachel. We were standing by the door, waiting for Ethan to pick me up so we could head to the cabin together. Storm clouds were gathered in the sky, and it was clearly going to rain soon. I was looking forward to sleeping during the drive, because I was fully exhausted. I’d stayed up all night planning an itinerary for us, as well as checking the town below the mountain to see if there were any fun activities we could do so we wouldn’t get bored. But apart from a local book club and a flea market, there was nothing else to see or do. And that was exactly what I wanted. Having Ethan all to myself was like an early Christmas gift. Finally, I wouldn’t have to deal with that awful feeling every time he had to leave, and I felt like my world was going to implode without him. I
MARCUSI swear I could smell the pig even from outside the door. My blood was boiling even before I walked into the room, but it took a monumental effort to keep myself in check. I had to be quick. It shouldn't take longer than five minutes. Thankfully, the cop standing by the door didn't say anything as I walked in. He just gave me a polite nod, and he stepped aside as I walked in and shut the door behind me.Chris looked like a man who’d gotten into a cage fight with a gorilla. He was bruised all over, and several parts of his face were swollen, with one eye almost completely shut. His bottom lip was split open like a rotten fruit, and both of his hands were cuffed to the bedrails as if he was some sort of rabid animal. It was an amusing sight, which perfectly suited the bastard who’d tried to take Olivia from me. He shifted slightly when he saw me, then he flinched in terror. I saw the recognition in his bloodshot eyes, then confusion as he blinked several times, then something
The first thing on my mind when I woke up was Ethan. I bolted out of bed instantly, and I had to grip the bed frame as I swayed and nearly toppled to the ground. I felt like my brain was trying to explode from my skull, and the ringing in my ear was constant. I had to sit down on the bed once again, and it took me a few seconds to regain my breath and take in my surroundings. The room was eerily quiet, so much so that I could only hear the low humming of the air conditioning. I shifted slightly on the stiff bed, and I cursed aloud as my joints aches from how long I'd been curled up. My mouth was incredibly dry, and my skin felt so clammy. Every inch of me felt like it was protesting the simple act of waking up, and it was like I hadn't slept at all.But the guilt cut through the fog. How long had I been out? What if Ethan had woken up already? And I was just sitting here like a ditz and worrying about something ridiculous like hunger. Slowly, I dragged myself to my feet and made m
ETHANThe first thing I heard was the beeping. As I tried to open my eyes, a blinding pain shot up my entire body, and I almost couldn't breathe for a second. I felt like someone had smacked me in the face with a sledgehammer, and then gotten several bags of cement and laid them all over my body. I couldn't even lift a finger, and I could barely drag enough air into my lungs as I slowly forced my eyes open. I was lying in what appeared to be a hospital room, and the brightness of the room made my eyes throb. There were several wires and tubes all over my chest, and a large machine which was beeping to the side. The bed was so hard that I felt like I was lying on a wooden plank, and it somehow caused the pain to multiply a million times over. I tried to remember how I got here, but I couldn't. The last thing I remembered was being in the cabin with Liv, and beating the shit out of the guy who broke into our cabin. I didn't remember anything after that, except the relief I felt when
I saw the moment the gun went off, with the brief flash at the end of the barrel, while I threw myself entirely onto Chris' arm in an attempt to shove him out of the way. But the bullet had been shot, and I turned in horror to find Ethan falling to the ground. And in the moment, I felt like the world had gone dark. It couldn't be possible. Surely not. It was a blank. Or the bullet had missed him. Something must have happened, because I just refused to accept that he'd been shot. I didn't even want to look, and I focused instead on snatching the gun out of Chris' hands. "Look what you made me do," he yelled, trying to wrestle the gun away from me. "Look what you fucking made me do. You made me shoot him. You made me do it."I tried to twist his fingers and pull the gun away from him, but he ended up squeezing the trigger and causing the gun to explode in my hands as the bullet smashed through the window and broke the glass. The sound made me jump, and in that brief moment where I was
I'd never felt more fear in my entire life than I did staring down the barrel of a gun, with Chris standing on the other end. To say that I was terrified would have been the understatement of the century. I froze completely, like a deer caught in headlights. And it was as if my brain had switched off completely. I hadn't seen him in months. I hadn't even considered that I might see him again, because it was obvious that things wouldn't work out between us since I chose Ethan over him. And yet there he was, standing in front of me so calmly and tilting his head to the side like he found my fear amusing. He looked different than the last time I'd seen him, with a scruffier beard which made him look homeless and disheveled, like he hadn't taken a shower in weeks. He was thinner than I remembered as well, and his eyes had sunken in so much that his head looked like a skull with paper thin skin wrapped over it. If it wasn't for his eyes, I probably wouldn't even have recognized him. "Yo
"Please tell me you're joking," I said, staring at his canvas in disbelief. "If you tilt your head slightly to the side, it's not so bad," he replied. "Seriously, I think it's even flattering.""Ethan, is this really how you see me?" I asked. "All you've done is draw a slim brunette with huge tits and a large ass.""If you think about it, isn't it flattering?" he smirked. "I mean you look hot.""Unbelievable!" I groaned, wanting to smack him across the face for his. "You're impossible sometimes."I thrust my own canvas in front of him, glaring daggers at him. "That's what you were supposed to do," I said. "I know it's not an accurate depiction of you, but I did the best I could. Notice how I didn't draw you naked, standing over a crowd of people with your dick swinging about."He stared at the painting for a while, and something in me shifted as I stared at him. Maybe it was the mist which came over his eyes, or the way he gently touched the painting with his mouth slightly open "I
By the time we finished having breakfast, the sun had already broken through the trees, and it was starting to feel like early spring. I stood in the kitchen doorway with my arms crossed and eyes squinting into the light as I stared outside at the lake. It was a beautiful day, my stomach was full, I’d had the most amazing quickie just this morning, and life couldn’t have been more perfect. "We should do something today," I said.Ethan looked up halfway through drying the dishes, and he gave me a questioning look. "Like what?"“I don’t know,” I replied. “Something fun. We can go fishing. Or spend the day painting.”“Painting?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah,” I replied. “It would be such a shame if we allowed this day to go to waste. I brought some canvases and some art supplies. I thought it might be fun.""Babe, I can barely draw a stick figure without it looking like a crime scene,” he said. “Trust me, if you look at anything I tried to paint, you’ll instantly decide to brea
Sunlight slowly crept into the room, and I slowly opened my eyes to find Ethan still sleeping beside me, his chest rising and falling slowly. I turned to my side, taking in the peaceful sight of him sleeping and wondering how he could look so handsome even while asleep. It was almost as if his features were softer while he slept, and his sharp jawline was more relaxed while his eyelids fluttered slightly.I briefly wondered what he was dreaming of, and the thought of him dreaming about me brought a smile to my face. I couldn't help but smile as I stared at him. He was so perfect, even in his sleep. I loved the way his hair looked slightly scruffy and disheveled, and the way his lips curled up ever so slightly, as if he was dreaming about something funny. I wanted to rub our heads together so I could get a peek into his head, where I would find the perfect man I’d been looking for my entire life.As I stared at him, my heart swelled with an indescribable emotion. I loved this man so f
MARCUSOne thing I'd come to accept was that every time Richard Jones called, it was never about something good. The last thing I needed was for him to disturb me on a random Saturday evening while I was trying to enjoy a Laker's game. I'd just finished having sex with Emily, and afterwards I'd taken a shower and eaten my dinner. This was not the time for him to be calling me."What the fuck do you want?" I asked as soon as I answered the call. "Is that really how you want to answer a call from an old friend?" he asked calmly. "I thought the animosity was behind us already."“Just tell me what the fuck you want, Richard,” I snapped. “I don’t have time for this shit. I’m watching a game.”“Really?” he asked. “Mind if I join you?”As soon as he said that, the intercom buzzed. I knew it was him, but I half hoped that it would just be someone else. At that point, I wouldn’t have minded if it was Ethan showing up. “I’m sure you don’t mind, right?” he said over the phone. “I just want to