Chapter 30

Ava’s Pov

Frank blinked at Ethan in surprise, and looked back down at the file in his hands.

“Leave, please. I’m asking nicely.” Ethan told him, his lips pulled into a thin line.

Frank looked between me and Ethan, and wordlessly left the house. Ethan let out a satisfactory ‘hmph’ and turned back to me.

“What’s going on?” I demanded, worriedly chewing on my bottom lip.

“I’ll be teaching you from now on,” Ethan shrugged, plucking the lesson plan I had been following off the coffee table. Frank and I finished everything but the dance lessons, I didn’t understand why Ethan decided to intervene now.

I looked at Ethan skeptically, trying to gauge his reasoning. Why on Earth would he fire someone with only a few lessons left? What was in that folder?

“Alright!” Ethan clapped his hands together and resumed the music. “Ready to dance?”

Ethan swayed his body to the music, getting closer to me and bumping my hip with the side of his own in time with the rhythm. I giggled and couldn’t help myself. I grabbed his hand and he swung me around the room.

Ethan tried to teach me the same dances that Frank had, but he was no good at them. Everytime I misstepped, he would make a joke and poke fun at me.

I knew it was supposed to be lighthearted, but after an hour of being teased I was starting to feel angry.

“You’re not a good teacher!” I tore myself away from him during the middle of our dance with a huff.

I surprised Ethan with my outburst. He stared at me.

“What’s wrong?” He asked, looking genuinely upset by my reaction.

“All you do is tease me. You don’t correct me or tell me how to make it right, you just laugh at me for being wrong.” I told him, voice rising to just below a shout. “I need to learn to dance, I need someone to actually teach me.”

Ethan lowered his head, looking a little ashamed of himself.

“Frank was a better teacher, why couldn’t you have kept him for a few more days? What was so bad that you needed to fire him?” I demanded, stomping my foot like a child.

Ethan glanced away from me, his jaw set and tense.

“We can stop here for today, I’ll see you again for lessons tomorrow at the same time.” He said quietly.

I felt a little bad for getting on to him, but left anyway. I needed time to cool off. Dancing always made me so frustrated because I was no good at it.

Around midnight later that night, I tip-toed to the bathroom to grab a glass of water. I didn’t want to wake Ethan or any of the staff so I was trying to be extra quiet.

I was distracted, though, by a light streaming from the cracked door of the library. I silently tread over to peek through the crack, seeing Ethan sitting with his back to the door browsing on the computer. Loud music and narration echoed in the empty room.

He was watching a video on teaching methods and dance. I backed away, warmth rushing to my chest. He was trying to be better for me.

I grinned, practically skipped to the bathroom, and then went back to bed.

The next day, I bounced on the balls of my feet as I waited for Ethan to come in for the lesson. After what I saw last night, I had forgiven him immediately. He only did what he knew how to do, but now he was trying to learn something new for me.

It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Ethan began our lesson promptly. When I started to stiffen up again, stepping on his feet and missing moves, he pulled me close and whispered in my ear.

“You’re thinking too hard, just let me lead you.” His breath tickled the hairs on my neck, but I followed his advice. I took a deep breath and stopped focusing on what I was doing and let Ethan move our feet.

My eyes kept wandering back down to watch our shoes move together, but Ethan gently took a finger and tilted my chin back up so that my gaze met him.

“Focus on my eyes, nothing else.”

My breath hitched in my throat. I stared into his gray eyes as he turned me around the room.

The song was coming to an end, and Ethan had a mischievous glint in his eye.

“Hold onto me,” He whispered. Twirling the two of us around and lowering me so that he was dipping me towards the ground. Adrenaline rushed through my body, my lips parted as my breathing grew heavier.

We paused, the music was over, but he didn’t let go.

His eyes, still boring into my own, flicked to my mouth for a moment. He brought his face closer and closer to mine until our lips were mere millimeters away from each other.

“What are we doing, Ethan?” I asked, lids half-shut, straining my neck to be as close to him as possible.

“I don’t know,” He admitted with a whisper. “All I know is that I can’t stop it.”

He filled the empty space between us and our lips met again. Ethan kissed me like he had so often before, now. It was fiery, passionate, but most of all intoxicating. It confused me, what were we doing?

Ethan lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and, without breaking contact, he pushed my back against the wall to help support me. His hands gripped the flesh of my rear, tugging my hips into his own.

He broke the kiss to catch his breath, but this time I didn’t want it to end. I latched onto his neck, biting and sucking on the flesh, desperate to stake my own claim to him. My mind fuzzed over, leaving me with no thoughts. Only wanting - lust.

I dragged my teeth across the sensitive skin at the hollow of Ethan’s throat; I nipped slightly. He whimpered at the feeling, causing a wicked smile to grow on my face.

I liked the sounds he made.

I lowered my hand, unbuttoning the first few buttons of his shirt, panting and gasping as Ethan’s hands squeezed the soft parts of my thighs.

He groaned my name and it only egged me on. I got a few more buttons undone, and I let myself kiss lower and lower.

Ethan stopped me when I reached the middle of his sternum. I pulled back, lipstick smudges were littered all over his neck and chest - along with a few purple love bites blooming in the areas I spent extra time in.

He pulled back, setting me down until I was standing on my own. He turned away from me, scratching the back of his head with a groan. I rumbling growl sat deep in my throat as he walked away from me.

“Why do you keep doing this?” I demanded, grabbing his hand as he tried to walk away from me again.

Ethan turned back to me, his cheeks pink and lips swollen, “What?”

“You’re so hot and cold with me! You want to kiss, okay. Then I want to stop and you get mad. Then, you want to kiss again, but when I don’t want to stop you get mad,” I furrowed my brow, waving my hands in the air as I spoke. “What is going on between us?”

Ethan uses the grip I have on his arm to yank me to him. He pulls me in so that we are chest-to-chest, heaving and hot. He looks down at me and I have to tilt my head up to look in his eyes.

“You drive me wild, Ava.” He admits, eyes dark and lustful. “I don’t understand it, it’s not normal.”

My mind is running a thousand miles a minute because I know what he means. For the last few weeks, ever since I fell into the pool at the gala, I have wanted nothing more than to be as close to Ethan as possible.

It’s been such a stark change that even my body has gone through a physical transformation. My hair is silkier, my skin is clearer, my senses are heightened, and my heart and being only aches for one thing: Ethan.

Despite the warnings and my better judgment, I fell in love with Ethan Velasco. Even if I didn’t want to.