Chapter 27

I backed away from him, tears pricking at my eyes. After everything, he didn’t trust me?

My heart felt like it was shattering with each step I took from him. He chased me, walking with me.

“Please, Ava listen to me,” He reached out to grab my wrist, but I pulled my arm back. The tears in my eyes blurred my vision, but I was scared to blink them away. I sniffed and looked at the ground.

“Leave me alone,” I told him, running up the stairs to my room. I didn’t need to hear what he said. I was upset and beyond confused.

Did I not understand Ethan and I’s relationship at all?

I flung myself onto my bed, burying my face into the pillow. I wanted to cry, become a full out sobbing mess, but the tears wouldn’t come. I was more angry than sad.

I plucked my phone from my purse and called Sammy so that I could tell her everything. The phone rang once before she answered.

“That was a disaster!” She shouted on the phone, apparently she watched the interview.

“I know,” I relented.

“He didn’t let you talk at all!” She kept going. “Has he been doing that in all of them?”

“Yes!” I sat up on the bed. The anger was bubbling up in my stomach, replacing my feeling of self-pity. “He just talks over me, and then - get this - I asked him why he kept doing that tonight when we got home.”

“Okay?” She prompted.

“And he tells me it’s because he doesn’t trust me!”

Sammy gasped, “The audacity!”

“As if I haven’t done everything he’s asked me with no complaints. I have tried my best to be an amazing wife, and I feel like he doesn’t get that. The rich world is new to me, but I’m not clueless. I can figure it out-”

There was a knock on my door. I looked over, it was already open and Ethan was leaning against the frame with a sheepish look on his face. I stared at him, realizing he heard everything.

“What’s going on?” Sammy’s voice chimed through the phone.

“I’ll call you back,” I hurriedly ended the call and swallowed. “So? What do you want?”

Ethan came over and sat beside me on the bed.

“I’m sorry, I should have explained myself better.” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at his lap.

“Yea,” I sighed, not sure where to go from there. Ethan placed his hand over my own.

“You’ve never been in the spotlight before until recently,” He started, rubbing his thumb soothingly over my knuckles. “You don’t know how to phrase your words so that people don’t misunderstand them.”

I rolled my eyes a little at that.

“Neither you do,” I pouted. “You said you didn’t trust me, I thought you hated me-”

“No! Ava, no I could never hate you.” He reassured, eyes boring into my own. I wiped my face with my free hand and sniffed.

“So what do we do? I can’t keep being silent, people will start to ask why I never answer questions.” My mouth quirks into an awkward half-smile.

“I’ve thought about that and already made an arrangement.” Ethan explained a proposal to hire a tutor for me so that I could become a competent Luna and curate a respectable image in social media.

I listened to his solution earnestly. I couldn’t think of any downsides to it, and learning more about becoming a Luna could prove to be useful in the future.

“He’s the best tutor in the city, he’s highly rated and has been recommended by several colleagues - Mars actually suggested him personally.” Ethan continued to pitch the idea to me. He waited with bated breath for my answer.

“I’ll accept this,” I told him, and his head snapped up. His face was beaming with a smile, but I stopped him from getting too excited. “As long as you stop treating me like a dress-up doll.”

With a laugh, Ethan agreed.

“Though, I do like thinking of you as a little doll,” Ethan teased, his eyes flickering from mine to my lips. I sucked in a breath and tried to digest the butterflies in my stomach.

“You’re ridiculous,” I playfully scolded him.

Ethan pulled me closer to him, our breaths mingling from how close our faces were. Only inches apart.

“My little doll,” Ethan’s voice rumbled, and he pressed his lips against the sensitive spot of skin behind my ear.

“Ethan,” I gasped, tingles running over my body at the contact.

“Hm?” He hummed, pressing slow, soft kisses down the length of my neck. He started kissing my cheek, traveling closer and closer to my mouth.

My eyes fluttered closed, a sigh escaping despite trying to stay strong in the moment.

“Ethan,” I whispered, not sure what else to say.

I could feel his smile against my skin, “I’m trying to say I’m sorry, here, Ava.”

He captured my lips with his own. The kiss was gentle, but passionate. Not the animalistic way he had done before when we couldn’t control ourselves. It was savory, sweet.

I kissed him back. He bit my bottom lip, eliciting a small gasp from me. His tongue licked the spot he bit to soothe the skin, and he pulled me closer so that our chests were pressed together.

I whined into his mouth, running my hands through his hair. He always wore it slicked back since the day I met him. I missed the mussy locks that brushed against his brow bone.

Ethan’s fingers dug into the fat of my hips, leaving indents. The kiss grew more heated, less controlled, the longer we went on. One of his hands traveled from my hip and up my back, stopping at the clasp of my bra.

My eyes flicked open. This was getting out of hand.

I remembered Sammy’s warnings, and the way our kiss ended at the gala. It was too much, too passionate. If we weren’t careful, real feelings would get involved in our fake marriage.

I pulled back, but Ethan shifted from kissing my lips to sucking on the sensitive spot behind my ear again.

“Ethan,” I whined, half-heartedly pushing his chest away. “Please.”

He growled, nipping at the flesh of my neck. There was something more happening between us, I knew it was more than just attraction deep down. It was unexplainable, primal.

We weren’t being careful enough.

“Ethan!” I gasped and pushed him away with all my strength when I felt him try and bite that same spot from the gala. He was trying to make me smell like him, to stake a claim.

“Ethan, stop!” I stood up, his eyes blinked open as he sat on the bed. His pupils were blown and dark. His eyes were half-lidded as though he was just waking up from a dream.

Our breathing was staggered, heaving and hard. I pressed a hand to my chest to try and soothe my rapidly beating heart.

We were crossing dangerous territory, I could feel it as heat pooled in the core of my stomach.

Ethan looked at me, his eyes widened as if a trance was lifted.

“I have to go,” He swallowed and got up.

“Ethan?” I tried to follow him but he looked back at me with a glare.

“Leave me alone.” He caught his words and his gaze softened, but only slightly. “Please.”