Ruined (Ethan Frost 1)

“You saw that?” I feel myself blushing, embarrassed that he saw me make such a mess of myself.

“Hard to miss it. The guy had his hands all over you. ”

“No, he didn’t! That’s rid—” I break off as it occurs to me what’s really going on here. “You’re jealous!”

“Of course I’m jealous. I don’t like any other man putting his hands on you. You’re mine, even if you don’t know it yet. ”

“Yours?” The warning bells go crazy, and I scoot farther around the booth, shoving the table back to its normal position as I do. “We haven’t even been on a date yet. ”

“A fact I’m trying my best to remedy. ” I climb out the other side of the booth, but he’s already up, waiting for me. “You agreed to go out with me last night. You were still planning on it this morning in the lobby of Trifecta—I could tell by the way you smiled at me. So what the hell has happened between now and then to change your mind so completely? I just don’t get it. ”

I think about telling him to go to hell, think about just storming away. But now that I’m more sad than pissed off, I can totally see that he deserves an explanation. If a guy treated me the way I’ve treated Ethan—letting him make me come, letting him buy my friend and me drinks and dinner, letting him send me presents—I’d be beyond pissed to be shot down without so much as a word.

“Look, I’m sorry. We just have different philosophies on life and—”

“Are you kidding me? Different philosophies?”

“No, I’m not joking. It’s important—”

“How do you know?”

“That it’s important to share similar values with the person you’re dating?”

“That our values and philosophies are so different to begin with. ”

“I saw you today. ”

He looks baffled. “I saw you, too. ”

“No, I mean with the people from Trifecta. You were brutal with them. They had really valid requests and you just shot them down like they were nothing. Stole those patents from them, even though the owner’s son was totally responsible for one of them. ”

“You can’t be serious. You’re walking away without giving me a chance because of something that happened in a business meeting?”

“See? You can’t even understand what you did. They’re people, with dreams and hopes and ideas. Good ideas. It’s bad enough that you bought up their stock and forced them into becoming part of Frost Industries. But to take away their only chance at making a good livelihood again…I just can’t wrap my head around it. ”

I expect him to make another argument, to try once again to change my mind. But instead he’s looking at me like he doesn’t know me. Or, worse, like he doesn’t want to.

I wait for him to speak, but he doesn’t. Silence stretches between us, tight and angry. The weight of it pushes on me, makes me feel angrier, gloomier, lonelier than I already do. Which, believe me, is not something I need.

I’ve just about made up my mind to walk away when he says, “You really believe that? You really think that’s how I operate?”

“It’s not like I read some ridiculous article from the tabloids. I saw you pull the rug out from under them. Saw you destroy them. Worse, my research had a hand in helping you do it. I’m having a hard time living with that, let alone all the rest. ”

“Must be nice to sit there in your ivory tower and cast aspersions on things you don’t understand. ”

His words, so close to Brandon’s, so close to my father’s, make me see red like nothing else could. “Oh, don’t you pull that self-righteous act on me. I’m about as far from a princess as anyone can get, and I’m not a moron. I understand plenty. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. ”

“I find it rich that you’re calling me self-righteous when I’ve never heard a more sanctimonious load of bullshit in my life. And from a future lawyer. ”

“Oh, right. A lawyer joke. How original. Especially coming from you. I’m the one standing here talking about doing the right thing, for everyone, and you’re condemning me. So don’t you dare talk to me about how amoral lawyers are. ”

“That’s what you think? That backing off and leaving Trifecta to flounder in their own incompetence would be the right thing for everyone?” He laughs, but there’s no amusement in it. In fact, the sound is so painful, so agonized, that it chills my blood. “You know what? You’re right, Chloe. We’re not a good match. You abhor pragmatists, and I—Well, let’s just say I have better things to do than waste my time on supercilious little girls who spend too much time hiding behind their rose-colored glasses. ”

Chapter Fourteen

I’m still smarting over Ethan’s comments hours later, when I let myself into the apartment. He’s known me a week—who the hell is he to call me self-righteous and sanctimonious and supercilious? And does the man not know an insult that doesn’t begin with an s? Although I have to admit, the ones he’d chosen certainly packed a wallop.

And maybe it is wrong of me to think I know him based on a couple hours’ observation of his behavior. But I heard him threaten those people like it was nothing. Watched as he threatened to take everything they had just to get some leverage in a negotiation. I might be wearing rose-colored glasses, but anyone could see that what he did was not okay.