‘And if I tell you that the rest of the world will put a very different construction on your staying here with me?’
‘But I thought you didn’t care about gossip?’ she countered.
‘I care how it affects you.’
‘From the point of view that I’m signed to your record company as the next young singing sensation, which means I must appear to the world to be innocent?’
Ethan took her barbed comment with far better grace than she might have expected. It was almost as if they had got the measure of each other, and for once he was crediting her with some sense—though he drew out the waiting time until her nerves were flayed and tender. Relaxing onto one hip then, he thumbed his chin as the expression in his eyes slowly cooled from passion to wry reflection. ‘That’s a very cynical attitude for a young girl to have.’
‘How many times—?’
‘Must you tell me you’re not the young girl I think you are?’ he supplied in a low voice that strummed her senses.
‘If I’m cynical,’ Savannah countered, ‘Surely you’re the last person who should be surprised?’
‘I’m going to say this as clearly as I can.’ Ethan’s voice held a crushing note of finality. ‘I don’t want you here. Please leave now.’
She waited a moment too, and then said, ‘No.’
‘No?’
‘No,’ Savannah repeated. ‘You’re asking me to believe I must do everything you say. Well, standing my ground where you’re concerned might not be a big thing in your world, or easy in mine, but it has to be a whole lot better than agreeing to be your doormat.’
‘Have you quite finished?’ he demanded.
‘I’ve barely started,’ she assured him, but even she could see there was little point in pursuing this if she couldn’t persuade Ethan to see her in a different light.
And she couldn’t. He pointed to the door.
Lifting her head, she wrapped what little dignity she had left around her and walked towards it—but when she reached it she just had to know: ‘What’s wrong with me, Ethan?’
‘Wrong with you?’ He frowned.
‘Is it because I’m not pretty enough, not desirable enough, or is it the fact that I’m not experienced and savvy enough when it comes to handling situations like this?’
‘Savannah, there is no situation—other than my increasing impatience with you, which means there may soon be a situation, and it will be one you won’t like.’
Walking over to the door, Ethan opened it for her. ‘Goodnight, Savannah.’
Ethan felt nothing for her and she had no answer to that. She was so lacking in female guile, she had no tricks up her sleeve, and it was too late to wish she’d learned them before she’d come here.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Ethan demanded when she turned around and walked back in the room.
If he wanted her out, he was going to have to throw her out, and something told her he wouldn’t do that. Now she just had to hope she was right.
He shook his head. ‘Savannah, you are the most difficult, the most stubborn—’
‘Individual in the world aside from you?’ She held Ethan’s gaze along with her breath, and sent a plea into the ether. If there was anyone listening out there, anyone at all…
‘I was about to say, the most annoying guest I’ve ever had. You will have noted my use of the past tense, I hope?’
‘You can’t just dismiss me.’
‘Watch me. Out,’ he rapped, employing the full force of his laser stare.
‘Why are you so angry all the time?’
‘Why are you so slow to take a hint?’