Flawed (Ethan Frost 4)

“Yeah, well, these days I’m pretty boring.”

“Maybe you just don’t have the right partner.” Geez. The ego on this guy is unbelievable. It would be funny if it weren’t so damn annoying. And when he leans in once more and tries to kiss me, I decide enough is enough.

“Look, Alexander, we had fun for a while. But I try really hard not to make the same mistakes twice. Especially when it comes to men.”

“Are you calling me a mistake?” Outrage brings out the British in his accent.

“I’m calling you a lesson learned. Let’s leave it at that.” Thank God the elevator comes to a stop and the doors whoosh open. I smile at him as I step out, pausing just long enough to push the button to return the elevator to the roof. “Have a good rest of the night.”

His mouth actually drops open. “Are you actually serious about not sleeping with me?”

“I am absolutely serious about not sleeping with you.” I give him a little wave as I step back, then watch in satisfaction as the elevator doors slide shut before he can say anything else.

“The douchiness is strong in that one,” I say in my best Yoda voice as I make my way back to my condo. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little ashamed about the fact that I let that guy stick any part of himself inside any part of me. There’s a part of me that wants to dwell on the bad decision making of my past—that wants to brood on it—but I take a deep breath, tell myself to just let it go. I’m not that girl anymore and I’m never going to be her again. That’s enough, isn’t it?

I kick off my Loubis, then sigh in relief as I sink onto the couch and kick my feet up. I think about getting up and searching through my DVD collection for 10 Things I Hate About You, but the idea of moving again is completely unappealing. Instead I reach for the remote and start to surf my DVR.

As I settle on one of my favorite episodes of Scandal, I tell myself once more that this new Tori—this new me—is enough. She has to be, because right now, she’s all I’ve got going for me.

Chapter 4

Miles

I watch the elevator doors close on Tori and that blond jackass and decide to hell with it. I’ve stayed long enough to be polite—I can head home now and finally get back to work.

I hadn’t wanted to come in the first place—I’ve still got too much work to do on the desalinizer I’m working on—but Jim and I are good enough friends from work that I felt I had to at least show my face. Chloe keeps reminding me that I need to at least pretend that I’m a well-rounded human.

So I came and now I’m regretting it. Not that I care who Tori takes downstairs to fuck—after all, it’s none of my business if she wants to sleep with the biggest asshole at the party. It’s just that I have work to do.

After excusing myself from the very tedious conversation I’m having with a very pretty woman with very boring hair, I say a quick goodbye to Jim and his fiancée, then head for the elevator. If my luck holds, I’ll be back in my workshop in under fifteen minutes. And then, with the whole, uninterrupted weekend in front of me, maybe I can actually work through the latest problem that’s crept up in my desalinizer.

Normally, I’d be able to work for days on end without interruptions—part and parcel of being the resident mad genius. But now that I’m at Frost Industries—after walking away from my family’s company when I found out what my parents had done to Chloe—I don’t get to play the mad genius nearly as often. Partly because Ethan’s IQ rivals mine and he manages to behave in a totally rational, respectable manner ninety-nine percent of the time and partly because he keeps heaping non-project-related responsibilities on me whenever I’m not looking.

Chloe keeps teasing me, telling me if I’m not careful, I’m going to end up being second in command of Ethan’s company. Not that I think there’s a chance in hell of that happening. Chloe has forgiven me for my part in her nightmare, but the people who love her aren’t so quick to forgive—or forget. Tori may be meaner than Ethan, but it’s not hard to tell that he’s reserving judgment for a while.

Not that I blame him. I’ve hated myself from the minute I found out about our parents selling Chloe out and using the money to build a company around my inventions. She’s tried to tell me that it isn’t my fault, but how can it not be? How could I have been so fucking blind when it mattered most? How could I have not seen what they were doing?

These are the questions that keep me up at night, and the fact that I don’t have satisfactory answers to them—even after all these months—eats at me like few things besides my projects can.

I didn’t join Frost Industries because I wanted a shot at the CTO’s office, no matter how lucrative that position might be. I joined Frost Industries because I want a chance to get to know my sister again—and to make up for what my parents did to her. To make up for all those years when she had no family, when she couldn’t come home even if she wouldn’t tell me why.

Oh, I know she has a family now—Ethan and the baby and even Tori adore her. But she was my little sister long before she was Tori’s honorary one and I want that relationship back. So does she.

So here I am, working on my biggest project yet for a man who doesn’t know whether to trust me or despise me. And until he does, I know he—and his subordinates—will continue to watch me like a hawk.

And I’ll continue to put up with it because I know—after everything that’s happened—that I deserve it, even though I have only his and Chloe’s best interests at heart.

The elevator doors finally slide open and I start to step on, only to realize that the car is still occupied by the blond douchebag who hadn’t been able to keep his hands off Tori. Judging from the scowl on his face, he hasn’t gotten nearly as lucky with her as he thought he would.

The knowledge makes me grin like a hyena. I know it shouldn’t matter to me one way or the other, but for some reason it does. I like that she didn’t sleep with him, like even more that she’s a better judge of character than I’ve ever given her credit for.

Then again, I’m not sure what that says about me, considering she hates my guts…

It’s a nice night, and though the walk home from Tori’s building doesn’t normally take more than twenty minutes or so I dawdle a little. Instead of walking along the most direct route, I take off my shoes and walk in the sand instead, just close enough to the water that the ocean occasionally laps over my toes.

It’s been a little over a year since I reunited with my sister, and almost a year since I moved to San Diego. And now that I’m here, I can’t believe it took me so long to make the move. I love the ocean, love the mountains, love pretty much everything about my newly adopted city. And that’s not even mentioning how much I like being close to Chloe and Violet. Or that I never would have had the idea for my latest invention if I hadn’t moved to California. And since I’m pretty sure that this baby is going to be a huge game changer—for Frost Industries, for California, and for the environment—I’m extremely grateful.

When I’m only a couple of minutes from home, I drop my shoes on the sand and then walk a little farther into the ocean. I pull three test tubes out of my pockets and—ignoring the way the water drags at the bottom of my pants—I bend down and wait for a fairly decent-sized wave to roll in. Once on