CHAPTER 9

Ethan’s POV

I sat in my car, the engine idling softly beneath me. Unfinished work documents lay scattered across my lap, but I wasn’t focused on them. My gaze drifted out the window, where Isla stood by the side of the road, shivering in the cold as she waited for her driver. She looked so fragile, wrapped in that thin dress, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. She was so vulnerable.

“This is my chance,” I murmured.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. Isla had always been different. She put on a brave front, sure—but there was something underneath, something shy, uncertain, that had always intrigued me.

I thought back to the one intimate moment we had shared. She’d acted confident and daring, as she moved her hands to undo my belt. But I saw it—the slight tremble in her fingers, the way she fumbled with the buckle. Her breath had quickened, and in that moment, her bold front cracked.

Even during foreplay, I noticed her timidity—how she’d pause, unsure of what to do next, wai