The Dare Collection: May 2018. Clare Connelly
You are, in fact, our daughter. You moved to Manhattan and assured us you wouldn’t be changed by it. That you’d be the same good girl we raised. And now you’re sleeping with married men and celebrities?’
Pain lashes through me. Because even my mother can see that being with Ethan falls into the same category of foolhardy as my relationship with Jeremy.
‘It’s okay, Mom. This isn’t a big deal.’
‘It’s a big deal to me! And to your father!’
Invoking Daddy is another sign that she’s seriously pissed off.
‘So? Who is this man? Did you really spend the night in his hotel?’
Argh! Possibly the least comfortable conversation of my life and Ethan Ash is watching me, one shoulder propped against the doorframe, his eyes resting on me with undisguised interest.
‘It’s not serious,’ I say slowly, and then wince.
‘Not serious? You’re giving your body to a man and it’s not serious? Good Lord, who are you? I think it’s time for you to come home. Spend some time with your father and me, remember how we raised you.’
‘Mom...’ I shake my head. ‘It’s okay. My immortal moral soul is not in jeopardy.’
Ethan laughs—just a soft sound, but it pulls at me. It pulls at me in a way that makes me need him. Not sexually, though. I need him to hug me.
Everything is spinning out of control—and the irony is that it’s because of him yet I want him to fix it.
‘You’re laughing at me.’ My mother sniffs.
‘I’m not, Mom, I’m really not. But I’m twenty-five years old. I think I can be trusted to handle my own life.’
‘You had an affair with a married man!’ she exclaims, and I cringe, squeezing my eyes shut. ‘You brought him home to us. You clearly aren’t handling your life.’
‘I had no way of knowing that,’ I remind her softly. Her outrage hurts. The facts of my situation were all she cared about, and not the extenuating circumstances—like Jeremy’s psychopathy. Nor the fact that there was no way for me to know that my ‘fiancé’ was a married father of two!
‘I want you to come home.’
‘No.’ I square my shoulders. ‘I know you’re worried about me, Mom. But I’m fine. I’ll... I’ll come for Christmas, okay?’
I instantly regret the promise, but it does its job and mollifies her.
‘And, please, Alicia. No more photographs in the national papers. Your daddy has a reputation to think of.’
I disconnect the call and then hurl my phone onto the sofa, wishing I could throw something else.
‘Trouble?’
‘Yeah!’ I snap, sipping my coffee.
My fingers are shaking. With exasperation, I place the cup down on the coffee table and move towards the window, staring out at Manhattan.
‘Your mom doesn’t approve of me?’
‘She doesn’t approve of me,’ I correct softly.
He wraps his arms around my waist and I close my eyes, leaning back against him, taking strength from his proximity, allowing myself to surrender to this.
‘Because of him?’
‘Jeremy.’
I say his name and it is as though I am invoking his spirit. I shiver at the fact that I’ve done that—that I’ve brought him into this room by speaking his name.
‘They didn’t like him?’
My lips twist in disagreement. ‘Oh, they liked him fine.’
My voice is hoarse. It isn’t the past I fear. It’s confessing to the part I played. Guilt at what I did, even when I know that I didn’t knowingly enter into an affair, colours me. I don’t want Ethan to see me as I see myself.
I don’t want him to know what I’ve done.
And yet the burden of this guilt is a weighty confession that will only be lightened by speaking.
He seems to understand. He is quiet, waiting, giving me a chance to speak.
‘They thought he was a good, sensible choice.’ I sigh. ‘He was a banker. Educated. Wealthy. Conservative. Everything they wanted for their little girl.’
Ethan’s lips buzz my cheek and a heavy smile passes over my lips.
‘But it didn’t work out?’ he prompts after a moment.
‘No.’
It’s a whisper. He spins me around to face him, keeping his hands on my waist, his eyes locked to mine.
‘Why not?’
I’m back in the past. ‘The first time I met him I was just...just blown away.’
A muscle jerks in Ethan’s jaw but I barely notice it.
‘We were at an art auction and we were bidding on the same piece.’ My face is shadowed with the memories I have suppressed for so long. ‘I won the piece. He won the prize.’ A pause. ‘That’s what he used to say. And you know what the worst thing is?’
‘What, Ally?’
‘He was trying to buy the painting for her.’
‘Who?’
‘His wife.’
The words are torn from me and I close my eyes for a long moment, not wanting to see what I know must be on his face. Judgement. Surprise. Pity.
None of those emotions are good.
‘He was married?’
I nod slowly. ‘I didn’t know.’
‘Hell, of course you didn’t. You think I believe you’d get involved in something like that?’
His instant understanding is the last thing I expected and it’s everything I need.
‘You’re not that kind of person.’
‘I’m not that kind of person,’ I agree urgently. ‘He never told me. He didn’t wear a ring. And he was so available. I mean, I saw a lot of him. His wife travelled a heap for work, and his kids were at her mom’s a heap of the time.’ I shake my head. ‘It doesn’t change the fact that I broke up a family...’
Ethan lifts his hands to my face, cupping it and making me face him. ‘You didn’t break up a family. He did. And he broke your heart in the process.’
I nod softly. ‘And not just because I loved him—I did, Ethan.’ Colour floods my cheeks. ‘But he made me into something I despise and that took away every good memory. I have no right to look back on any of the fun we had and smile because it was all wrong. All of it.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he murmurs.
And then he kisses me. It’s a soft kiss, gentle and slow. An apology and an explanation and it’s everything I need. I surrender to it, and in that moment I am weak, because my heart surrenders too.
* * *
Later that day my assistant Lesley pops her head into my office. ‘Ally?’
I put aside the Christie’s brochure I’m leafing through and give her my attention. She’s holding a huge bunch of tulips—huge. At least one hundred flowers crammed together and wrapped in brown paper. They are my favourites.
They can’t be from Ethan, can they?
The very idea makes adrenalin course in my veins