Chapter 10

Ethan stared down at me in shock.

“Get out! Don’t look at me!” I shrieked. I tried to cover my body the best I could with my arms, but I knew Ethan had already seen. My face blazed with a fiery red blush and my neck felt hot.

Ethan recovered slightly and started stripping off his suit jacket in a hurry. The water was still pelting against my body, so he turned the faucet off and draped the jacket over my body to preserve at least a little modesty.

“Can you get up?” He asked me, his cheeks were tinted pink as well. I couldn’t tell if it was shock or embarrassment that caused him to blush.

I tried to brace myself on the side of the tub, but my burned hand hurt too bad and my ribs groaned at the exertion. I grimaced and shook my head ‘no’, falling back to the tub.

“I’m going to pick you up, okay?” He waited for me to acknowledge that I understood him before looping one of his arms around my back and the other under my knees. He lifted me up out of the tub almost effortlessly, and carried me out of the bathroom.

The suit jacket did very little to cover my body. It preserved the important bits, but other than that I felt very exposed as the air made my naked skin shiver. Ethan’s arms were hot against me. His white cotton shirt was wet and stuck to the bare parts of my back and thighs.

My face grew even darker as I realized how I was pressed against his body with nothing but a suit jacket draped over me.

Ethan set me down gently on the bed, but as he did so the jacket slipped down my body. I squeaked and hurriedly grabbed my top sheet to wrap myself up in. Always the gentleman, Ethan looked away until I was no longer bare.

He cleared his throat and sat beside me on the bed.

“Are you okay?” He asked gently.

“Mhm,” I nodded. Ethan raised his eyebrow, though, when he saw me favoring my burned hand. It was bright pink and puffy from the water, throbbing relentlessly.

“Did that happen in the shower?” He grabbed my wrist to pull it closer to him so he could get a better view of it. I hissed in pain as he did so and he let go immediately.

“No, before.” I told him, not really sure how to explain it all. Ethan nodded his head and told me to get dressed.

He walked out of the room as I gingerly pulled a shirt over my burned hand and bruised ribs, and called the family doctor to ask how to treat a burn. The doctor called in a prescription for some ointment.

Ethan sent out his beta, the blonde one, to collect the prescription. Once he had it, he came back to my room where I was sitting on the bed, furiously trying to brush my hair with one hand.

“Here,” Ethan chuckled and took the brush. He had me scoot to the edge of the bed and crawled behind me.

“What are you doing?” I asked, trying to turn so I could look at him.

He smiled and grabbed either side of my head, pushing the sides so that I was facing forward again.

“I can help.” He pulled me closer, so that I was sitting in his lap. The warmth of his legs beneath mine made me shiver slightly. He started running the brush through my hair for me.

He soothed my hair as he brushed to calm the pull from knots. His hand lingered at the base of my neck multiple times, using his thumb to stroke the sensitive skin there.

My heart pounded in my chest, I was afraid he might be able to hear it.

After running the brush through a few times, Ethan leaned forward so that his mouth brushed against my ear, “There. Done.” He whispered.

Once he got the ointment from the doctor, he insisted on putting it on the burn himself. I didn’t have it in me to argue with him, I actually really enjoyed the attention. No one had ever doted on me so much, it was a nice change.

“So, how did you burn your hand?” He asked, delicately spreading the substance over the palm.

“Just an accident at work,” I winced when he touched a particularly sensitive spot. “Nothing to worry about.”

I didn’t want Ethan to think less of me for what happened with Mr. Dillon. Flashes of my supervisor’s hand on my waist and the look in his eyes as he encroached into my space. His cries of pain from the boiling water echoed through my mind. I wondered if he would even be able to work the next day.

“Why don’t you quit that job?” Ethan gave me a firm, pointed look. “I don’t mind paying for your mother. I like paying for her and you if it makes you happy.”

My heart swelled at the statement, but I shook off my feelings. The marriage was only for a year, I was lucky he was being kind in the first place considering I’m a wolfless substitute.

“Working makes me happy, Ethan.” I told him. “Baking is my greatest passion in life.”

Ethan shook his head, but said no more.

Ethan pressed a chaste kiss to my bandaged palm once it was all done. My breath caught in my throat when he did so, but he left before anything could be said.

When I got up for work the next day, I could barely feel the burn. My skin was still taught and raw, but it didn’t throb or ache anymore.

I decided that I would need to report my supervisor in case he ever tried to do the same thing to some other girl working at that restaurant.

I went to the restaurant’s manager and asked to meet with him. I gave as much detail as I could muster about what had happened the night before. Mr. Dillon barged into our conversation and started shouting at me and the manager.

He pointed heatedly at his face, claiming that I came on to him and when he rejected me, I lashed out and wounded him. My manager scolded me and said that what I had committed was slanderous and a fireable offense.

“That is not what happened! He backed me up against the table-” I defended myself, but my words fell on deaf ears.

I had no evidence to prove myself innocent, and Mr. Dillon was so passionate with his lies, that my manager believed him over me. I was ordered to apologize or be fired.

When I refused, Mr. Dillon glared at me. Half his face was burned a bright pinkish red, it looked disgusting and I was glad.

The manager opened his mouth to make another demand when, suddenly, Ethan walked into the restaurant with a team of assistants and his blonde beta behind him.

“Ethan?” I turned to fully look at him “What are you doing here?”

Ethan took one glance between my burned hand and the burnt face of my supervisor, his eyes darkened in anger.

“Why didn’t you tell me about what happened last night?” He whispered. My heart shrunk in anxious turmoil.

“How did you find out?” I asked, my voice barely working.

Ethan gestured to the beta with his head. I should have known that he would still be spying on me. My head bowed low, not wanting to meet Ethan’s eyes. I thought he might feel ashamed for me, or disappointed. I didn’t want to face him now that he knew.

I heard Ethan’s beta speaking to the restaurant manager in the background. I turned to see what he could be saying when I heard it.

“Mr. Ethan Velasco, CEO of Blue Moon Group, is interested in buying your establishment.”