Your Little Secret (29 page)

It was home away from home.

"Amber?" Ethan yelled as he carried a tray of food.

"In here!" Amber yelled from her comfortable seat. She watched as Ethan placed the tray of food in front of her and felt her jaw drop. "Bloody hell Ethan, I know I haven't eaten for days, but this is a heart attack on a plate!" Her plate was filled with sausages, eggs, bacon and beans. Sitting up, she let the duvet fall around her waist. Sitting comfortably, Ethan put her plate on her lap and handed her a knife and fork.

"What?" Ethan asked as Amber stared at him. Sitting down beside her she gave him a smile.

"Nothing, just you that's all." Amber smiled and tucked into her breakfast.

She had found a foundation to build on with Ethan. They were alike, yet completely different. He cared for her in a way that it made her feel like she was the only girl in the world for him. Like she was all he needed. He had accepted her back into his life in a heartbeat and let her come and stay with him. She did need to go back to Yorkshire and sort out what to do with her life from here on, but she wanted that future with Ethan.

She wanted Ethan in a way she had never wanted Connor. Ethan was beautiful, inside and out. Amber watched as he ate his breakfast. Jeremy Kyle was playing on the TV but she couldn't hear it. All she could hear was happiness, and happiness wasn't a sound.

Amber had found what she wanted, and he was sitting right beside her.

***

"But I don't want to watch 'Die hard!' It's dull." Amber pouted and gave Ethan the look of disapproval.

"Don't
diss Brucey Amber. He's a legend," Ethan defended his movie choice.

"No, he's bald and
y'know how I feel about bald men." Amber laughed and Ethan's look changed from serious to playful.

"Oh, I know," he whispered seductively as he slid his body over hers. "It's a turn on right?"

"Eww no!" She pushed him with her palm against his bare chest. "I need the loo."

"Hurry up."

"Now who's pouting?" Amber giggled as she let the duvet fall against the sofa.

"Fuck my life," muttered Ethan as he watched her dance literally all the way to the bathroom. He couldn't explain what that image did to him, Amber, writhing beneath him as he made her cum. Deterring his thoughts, he adjusted himself and sat with his arms folded until she came back.

He was determined to take this slow, make Amber realise that he wanted to love her, want her, need her. He didn’t want to rush this and find her gone the next morning. Sitting there, lost in a world of thoughts, Ethan hardly noticed Amber literally bounding back into the room towards him.

As she sat down heavily on her end of the sofa, he looked to her and she shot him a bright smile. After the day before, he couldn’t believe how settled she seemed to be. He imagined she would have been a mess, crying, snivelling, questioning why it had to be her, but if he had to admit it, Amber seemed to be liberated.

As he watched her sit down, his shirt covering her in all the right places and still making his body react to her, he felt the need to say something. “So,” Ethan suddenly struck up the nerves to broach a subject that had been gnawing away within him. “I’m guessing you found a little black box when getting one of my shirts.”

Amber said nothing. Her joints froze, making her stiffen and worry filtered throughout her body like icy cold water trickling down her body.

Ethan cleared his throat and shifted a little on his seat nervously. “It’s not Eva’s,” he stated sternly, his voice remaining calm. He looked to Amber. “I know how your mind works and I know that was your first thought.”

“It had to be for Eva,” Amber replied with a small shrug. It wasn’t any of her business at the end of the day what jewellery Ethan hid in his drawers.

“It isn’t,” he fought back at her. “I couldn’t give her something like that.”

Amber sighed and moved to face him from her side of the sofa. “She posted on
Facebook that you two were going to be getting married, Ethan. It killed me to see, the thought is still slightly killer, so do you have two rings just lying around?”

“No,” he pushed back at her. “She found that ring in my stuff and assumed it was for her. I just went along with that damn photo because I thought I had to settle. Damn bitch was playing me.”

“I know how that feels,” Amber scoffed delicately.

“I don’t want my fucking life with her, but she was the only girl that showed interest in me that wasn’t already taken. I just took the opportunity, and when she saw the ring she assumed it was for her,” Ethan stopped himself, closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. “I only ever saw that ring on you.” He looked up at her under a hooded gaze and wondered when she was going to bolt. “It’s a family heirloom, and I can’t see me using on anyone but you. It’s always going to be there waiting for you. I thought I had ruined that opportunity.”

Amber moved, bringing the quilt with her, she crawled onto his lap, her legs straddling him and she shrouded them both with the quilt, her hands reaching for the back of sofa to stabilise her pose. When she finally settled, she felt the pad of his thumb come up to the capture the tears that were silently falling and she closed her eyes against the perfection of the feeling.

“I don’t know where my life is going, Eth. I don’t know what I’m going to do in the next hour let alone next week, but I know that I want to be doing it with you by side, holding my hands, loving me how you always have,” she told him honestly, her heart beating slowly as her truths fell out.

“I knew there was a reason I fell for you the first time I saw you,” Ethan announced, his eyes heavy with lust and remembrance of that day. “I will ask you to marry me, Amber Watson. Mark my words I will and I won’t even let you question the answer.”

“One day,” Amber whispered her vow to him, as if signing her life away to the most perfect suitor. "I just thought you should know that you're an amazing person. Okay?"

Ethan's fingers played gentle strokes up and down her thighs, causing her body to set alight. "You don't have to compliment me, Amber. You're the one with the big heart."

"Yours is bigger." Amber leant her forehead against his and shut her eyes. "You accept me."

Ethan let his fingers roam under her shirt and he let them glide across the soft skin on her back. He let his fingers dip into the dimples at the bottom of her back. "I love these, your little dimples." His fingers began to skim up her ribs, causing goose bumps in their wake. "You're beautiful, Ambi, my little star, guiding me on my way."

"I'm in love with you, I can't stop it," Amber breathed out as if her soul was looking to wrap around Ethan and capture him forever.

"Then don't," Ethan begged. Their breaths entwined as they hovered over each other’s mouths. Amber's tongue licked along her bottom lip and Ethan wound his fingers around the nape of her neck, weaving through her hair.

"Kiss me," she stated delicately, her eyes soul searching with his.

"I thought you'd never ask." Ethan grinned. He pulled her mouth to his and let his tongue work against hers.

Their kisses weren't like others. They were ignited by a spark from beneath them both. Only they had the fuse to alight it. Not Eva, not Connor. You read about it in romance stories, the kiss being electric. But theirs was an ignition.
A bust of flame of love burning through them radically.

Amber broke the kiss. "I could do that forever. You do realise what you've done right?"

"What's that?" Ethan whispered, breathless.

"You have me, now and forever. You can't get rid of me, okay? Don't hurt me, don't let me drown again please, I couldn't cope without you in my life." She was giving her all, literally finding herself falling and waiting for him to catch her.

"You are my always, Amber. I have known that from day one. You have always been the girl for me." Ethan stroked his thumb against her bottom lip and let her pull away.

"Everything feels brand new with you even though we have known each other for years. How does that work?
How could I have never seen what was right in front of me?" Amber fiddled with her fingers and let them weave in and out of each other. "You saved me. You always save me. Every time I get knocked down you bring me back up again. You pick me up from the dirt and brush me off. You save me."

Ethan put his hand over hers, and let himself fall into the blue eyes he had fallen in love with all those years ago.  "Every time is the first time with you,
Ambi. Yeah you drive me insane, crazy even. But I would never give up on you, not even when you're old and grey. I'll love you until the rivers run dry and the stars burn out."

Amber gently thumped his shoulder. "Cheesy," Amber breathed in gently. Pulling his hand to her heart she rested his palm against the shirt. "This will always be yours. It beats for you, for everything we could ever be. I can't explain why I didn't find you sooner. I don't mean literally. I mean in love. Why couldn't I have found everything about you different? I fell in love with you years ago and I hate that it's taken me this long to find you again." Amber swallowed back the emotions and Ethan followed suit and placed Amber's hand on his heart. As her palm hit his bare skin she felt the connection run through her. Taking in a shuddering breath she smiled.

"This is yours. Just you." Ethan went to kiss Amber's cheek but she moved it quickly so he had to kiss her mouth. Falling deeply into each other again, she cursed herself for leaving this so long.

Feeling her curl up against him, Ethan just smiled at how right this all felt. “Always such a perfect fit.”

Amber giggled and just sighed as the heavenly bliss literally dousing her in abundance. Just as she literally melted against him, the quilt on them, his heart beneath her flat palm on his chest.

Ethan looked over to the door after the doorbell went off, only looking back to Amber as she lifted away from him. He had to admit now the carefree Amber was gone. The idea of seeing anyone seemed to throw the fear of Christ upon her. “I’ll get it, you can stay here,” he stated at her, leaning in to kiss her.

Amber twisted on the seat to watch him literally plod reluctantly over to the doorway and she had to bite back the giggle. She watched him open the door and she practically had to fall off the back of the sofa to see who was there.

“Eva?” he asked completely stunned, looking to Amber and then back again at the one woman he loathed.

“We need to talk,” Eva said as she pushed her way into the flat. The moment she saw Amber on the sofa, Eva grinned like a lunatic. “Oh, and one of the reasons is right here! Goodie!”

Amber
gulped, she didn’t like the sound of this.

“I just ran into Connor,” Eva said, keeping her eyes well trained on Amber. “Poor soul is a mess right now and all he could tell me about the culprit was that she looked a lot like Amber Watson.”

Immediately Amber’s jaw slackened as she heard that announcement.

“He said how you slept with another man and tried to force a life upon him,” Eva continued and began to pace across the length of the living room. “He’s got a nice shiner too that apparently you gave him, Amber, when he could have you between the sheets.” Eva stopped, ignoring Ethan’s ever growing rage beside her and chuckled at Amber’s shocked expression, “I can’t believe that guy actually cried over you!”

“Eva,” Ethan’s voice was dangerously tight with his enraging emotions, and he tried everything to release the balled fists that sat at his sides. Hearing Connor’s deceits mount, Ethan felt himself becoming a loose cannon. “You know nothing.”

Eva laughed again. “Actually, I know a lot! Boy, Connor’s a mess, and rightly so. Especially when he mentioned how you and her had slept together, Ethan. You make me out to be the bad guy in all this and you did the deed yourself!” She then looked to Amber, threw an accusatory hand wave her way before looking back at Ethan. “Let me guess,” Eva laughed, “You got rid of me and did a little bed hopping to sleep with that little
skank.”

“You little bitch!” Amber suddenly announced, standing up without a care in the world over her attire. She stood proudly in Ethan’s shirt and her lace knickers. “He never slept with me last night, so take your bed hopping comment back because I think you’ll find it’s you that bed hopped. Ethan literally picked me up and saved me last night after I found Connor was cheating on me. He was the guy that lied, and he’s now the guy that played you, Eva. I hope that satisfies you immensely,” Amber literally
sneered her words now. “Now amuse me with something. Did you even realise the amazing guy you had in your mitts or did you just do it to get back at me?”

"Says the girl in skimpy underwear and my boyfriends’ shirt."
Eva snorted and walked away.

"Hey!" Amber shouted storming after her. "He's not your boyfriend. He's not my boyfriend."

Eva opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine. Opening the cupboard above her, she grabbed a glass to pour herself some wine.

"Eva what are you doing?"
Asked Ethan desperate for an answer. He couldn't lose Amber again and didn't want her to feel stressed because of Eva.

Eva wrapped her red lips around the wine glass and finished off the liquid. Sighing she held the glass in her fingers. She threw the glass at Amber. She ducked in time and watched the glass smash against the wall.