Exposed (Ethan Frost 3)

Yeah, she knows about Brandon, all right. And she obviously knows exactly who Stu is and what his job is.

Once he’s gone and the door is closed behind him, I walk to the desk and click the button that lowers the privacy screen on my windows. My office is pretty isolated as I’ve got this whole floor, but Dorothy’s out there, along with my assistants, Scott and Vikram, and anyone else who happens to wander up to use one of the boardrooms. No one needs to see what goes on between Chloe and me, especially not when I’m about to break her heart—and her fragile self-confidence—wide open.

As soon as the privacy screens click into place, I take her into my arms. She comes willingly, pressing her face against my chest. “I have half an hour before I have to be back to work,” she says.

“Okay.”

“I want you to tell me what’s going on. All of it. I don’t want you to try to protect me.”

“I’ll always protect you.” I press a kiss to her forehead.

“You know what I mean.”

“I do.” Reluctantly, I let her go long enough to lead her over to the seating area I have on the side of my office opposite my desk. I settle at one end, gesture for her to sit next to me.

She does, and snuggles into my side without any prompting from me at all. I exhale the breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding.

For long seconds, we just sit there, absorbing the peace that comes with being pressed against one another for the first time in four days. Finally, though, she pulls away enough to look me straight in the eye.

“Tell me,” she says.

And so I do, explaining exactly what happened at Brandon’s fund-raiser. What I said, how he reacted, how the world is reacting. She takes it all well, only asking a couple of questions here and there. At least until I get to the part about my mother’s phone call.

That’s when she loses it a little. Oh, she doesn’t say a word, but I can see the panic in her pale skin, in her lips pressed so tightly together, in her eyes that are swimming with tears she refuses to shed. And I hate—I hate so much—that I’ve put her in this position. That I’ve brought her to this.

“I’m sorry,” I tell her. “I’m doing everything I can to stop her. I promise, I won’t let her hurt you. I won’t let her tear you apart for her own twisted enjoyment.”

“You’re not going to be able to stop her.”

“Oh, I’ll stop her. Or I’ll die trying. She doesn’t get to use the worst moments of your life as a way to exonerate the bastard who hurt you. She doesn’t get to hold you up as entertainment for the bloodthirsty American public in order to try to save Brandon. I’ll see her in hell first.”

“She’s your mother.”

“Do you think I give a shit about that, right now? She’s a threat to you.”

“She’s your mother,” Chloe repeats. “And I know you’re furious with her right now. God knows, I am after what she said to me in Napa. But, Ethan, I know what it’s like to be estranged from the only family I have. I wouldn’t wish that on you, not for anything.”

“You’re not wishing it on me.”

“No, but I’m bringing it on you.”

“You’re not,” I tell her firmly. “She is. She’s doing all of it because she wants to protect Brandon and the position he might one day achieve. She wants power and influence—she always has. It’s why she left my father before he became the hero he was when he died and it’s why she married the man she did the second time around. It’s why she tried to talk me into politics and why she’s pushed Brandon that way from the moment I said no. It’s why she did everything she could to cover up what Brandon did to you and it’s why she’s so dangerous now. She’ll do whatever it takes to keep the power she does have, and to increase it.

“That’s who she is, Chloe. Who she’s always been. I’ve just ignored it because I was too busy building this company to understand just how harmful and poisonous she’d become. But that’s on me, Chloe. Just like trusting her when she came to me with that ridiculous story about your parents extorting money from her is on me. Everything else is on her. And none of it, not one bit of it, is on you.”

“It’s not about who’s to blame anymore, Ethan. It’s about how to get you and your reputation out of this with the least amount of damage.”

“I can hold my own against her. The press knows who I am, what I stand for. If they want to come at me, they’re welcome to take a shot. But you’re a mystery to them. They don’t know you, yet, and I want to make sure they don’t take you apart just because they can.”

“It’s not about me anymore.”

“It’s always about you. It will always be about you.” How can she not know that by now? I’d do anything for her.

I can tell that’s not what she wants to hear, though. Her shoulders slump and she just looks tired. So tired. I hate that my family has done this to her. That life and circumstances and I have done this to her.

For a minute I think back to that night in my kitchen, when I tried to break up with her. I’d just flown in from Vegas, where I’d beaten the shit out of Brandon and I knew—I knew—I had to break things off with Chloe. Doing anything else was cruel. And I tried, I did, but in the end I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t strong enough to get past her pain and my own. I wasn’t strong enough to walk away when I loved her so much.

And now, now we’re married and I love her so much. But I can’t help wondering what would have happened if I hadn’t caved. If I had let her walk out that door that night and never contacted her again? It would have hurt every day that I woke without her. Every day that I had to live without touching her, kissing her, hearing her voice, seeing her smile.