Complicated

by M. M. Koenig

  “What?” I asked suspiciously.

  His eyes and hands were sending a variety of feelings through me. Most of them journeyed south while the rest of me tried to shove our conversation in the car to the side, for sanity’s sake.

  “I love you more than anything in this world. I’ll never let anyone hurt you. I need you to believe me, because I can see in your eyes that you don’t. I’ll always keep you out of harm’s way – even if it leaves me with some ugly choices to make,” Ethan declared devoutly.

  I placed my hands along his hips and took a steady breath. “I know you’ll do everything in your power to protect me, but it’s not just about me.”

  Ethan shook his head as he urged us forward again, leaving one hand in my pocket. I shifted my own to do the same. We continued along silently for another twenty minutes.

  “Can I ask you something?” Ethan spoke up. I nodded. “Why do you put everyone else above yourself? I don’t understand why you hold yourself in such low regard. I can’t figure out if it’s because of this past year or if it goes further back,” he continued, seemingly perplexed.

  “Ethan, we both had screwed-up childhoods. It’s affected us in different ways. Pick something else if you want to interrogate me,” I snapped, increasing my pace uphill. He kept in stride with me as we traveled along the dusty trail.

  I’m not about to discuss my fucked-up psyche. We have more than enough issues as it is without piling that on too.

  “Don’t get mad Mia. You’ve been the one on the inquisition. Awhile back, you mentioned you haven’t traveled around the states much. Which do you want to see the most?” Ethan asked curiously.

  I grinned before pinching his ass in appreciation of him changing the topic. “I liked your suggestion of Hawaii.”

  His grip tightened as he leaned over to whisper in my ear. “Hawaii it is. It’d be perfect for Christmas. It’s coming up faster than we think.”

  “Let’s get through the next couple of weeks before we put anything on the books.”

  “I’m going to break you of that habit yet. I’ll force you to start planning a future if it’s the last thing I do,” Ethan said adamantly before giving my stomach a playful pat.

  “You can try babe. I think we both know I’m rather stubborn,” I pointed out, laughing.

  “You’re the poster child for stubborn. I’m considering contacting Webster’s and giving them your picture so they have a visual to go with the definition,” Ethan quipped.

  He stopped and pulled his hand out of my back pocket and wrapped it around my waist as he urged us off the trail. We were behind the Hollywood sign. The sight in front of us was Los Angeles in all its glory. The skyscrapers popped up in the background, but what caught my eye was the lake that weaved into the picture. Ethan squeezed me against him. I gazed over to see him at peace as his eyes lingered along the lake.

  “It’s beautiful. Thank you for sharing,” I whispered.

  Ethan beamed. “You’re beautiful. This is just a fun place to see a different side of L.A.”

  “Do you make it a mission to find these marvelous gems?”

  Ethan answered with a shrug of the shoulders. I cuddled into him as he edged us away from the commotion of the other tourists. He sat down on some large rocks and pulled out the backpack. I remained on my feet and absorbed more of the view. Ethan produced bottles of water for each of us. I opened mine and took a long drink to quench the thirst that had built up from hiking. He set his on the ground before diving back into his backpack to retrieve a black box. My heart left this plane of existence. The water in my mouth sprayed all over. Thankfully, it was away from him.

  No. No. No. Please tell me that’s not what it looks like. It’s way too soon for that.

  Ethan’s face spread into a megawatt grin. I stood in front of him, panicked by the thought of what was in the box. As I silently freaked out, he watched me with a look of elation. He ran a hand along my side to bring me into his lap. I stumbled right into it.

  “I’ve wanted to give this to you for a while. I was waiting for the right time.”

  “Give me what?” I asked in a rasp.

  Ethan crooked a finger under my chin and brushed his lips along mine. “I’m not asking you to marry me. I’m giving you a ring that’s very important to me. Are you familiar with the Claddagh ring?”

  I nodded. I didn’t have the brain space to search for words.

  “I want you to wear this on your right hand. When you wear it with the heart facing towards you, it tells the world that you’re taken. You’re mine. I want the world to know it,” Ethan said unwaveringly as he slid the ring onto my ring finger. He glided the larger ring onto his own right hand. “And I’m yours.”

  I gazed at the rings. My heart warmed at the prospect of being his forever. I inched closer to capture his lips with mine. “I love you. I won’t take it off,” I murmured along his lips.

  “I love you too Mia,” he said, running his tongue along my mouth before pulling away.

  I snuggled into him even further and let the love pouring from his arms fuel the fire in my soul. We took a moment to appreciate the breathtaking view before hitting the trail back to the car.

  “Our reservation is with one of your friends, right?” I asked, settling into the passenger seat.

  “Yes, Reece is a good friend.”

  “Did you plan on springing all these friends on me? I’ve hardly met any of your friends in Chicago. It’s interesting to meet so many out here,” I replied, buckling my seatbelt.

  Ethan smiled as he pulled the car towards the highway. “I have a few buddies in the city, but most of my close friends are here out west. They left together between high school and college. I wanted to go with them but, as you know, things steer us in different directions.”

  “Are you ever going to tell me what you have planned?” I asked.

  Ethan flashed a cocky smirk while giving me that damn nose-tap again. I shook my head and brought the radio to life. I got lost in the songs and the views as we cruised closer towards downtown Los Angeles. A grin spread across my face at the thought that I was getting the opportunity to meet more of his friends. Ethan grabbed my right hand and brought his lips to the ring for a gentle kiss. My grin grew wider. His heartfelt gesture of the rings had added to the calm he was gradually creating in me.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Slowly Unraveling

  Meeting with Reece was just as entertaining as it was with Dom. I laughed the second I saw him. It wasn’t quite the first impression I was going for, but I couldn’t help it. Ethan had failed to mention that Reece and Dom were twins. Apart from different hairstyles, and the distinctive mole above his left eye, they were exactly alike. I was beginning to realize that his friends liked tattoos just as much as Ethan did. With Dom and Reece, it was the only way to tell them apart aside from the mole.

  The guys had a great time at dinner. I remained relatively quiet, letting them reminisce. Occasionally, they stopped to discuss the proposal that Reece had given Ethan. Reece wanted to buy a shipyard. I saw the intrigue in Ethan’s eyes immediately. He gave Reece some healthy criticisms, but he also told him he’d back him in his pursuit.

  The parting conversation between Reece and Ethan was as strange as the one with Dom. It made me wonder what Ethan had planned for the rest of the trip. He was in the driver’s seat of our BMW Z4 Roadster and enjoying every second of it. I was grateful he was behind the wheel. If I had been driving, we would probably have ended up in Mexico.

  Night was upon us. It was strange to see palm trees mixed in with street lamps. The bright colors that burst from each side of the street had my head whipping around in every direction. It was incredibly different to the hustle of Chicago. We were on one of the famous boulevards, but I paid little attention to the name.

  “We don’t seem to be heading back to the cottage. Where are we going now?”

  Ethan glimpsed at me with a teasing grin. It could only mean that he was up to something else. I shou
ld be used to it by now. He looked back to the road without answering my question.

  “If you won’t tell me where you’re taking me, will you share what we have planned tomorrow – business-wise?” I asked carefully.

  “I have some meetings in the morning that I’m going to handle alone while you shop on Rodeo Drive,” Ethan replied, his grin fading.

  “Excuse me!”

  The serene calmness I had from watching the scenery went out the window as my temper kicked into high gear. Ethan was fully aware that I loathed him making decisions for me. Why he had proceeded to do it was beyond me.

  “Watch your tone Mia. I don’t want to fight,” Ethan warned.

  “You can take my tone and shove it up your ass,” I bit back.

  “I look forward to the day when it’s not so up-and-down between us,” Ethan grumbled, running his free hand across his face.

  “You started this when you thought it was a good idea to plan out my morning, sans your participation. Care to share why I’m being excluded, or is that another question I should add to my list?” I asked, nearly shouting at him.

  Ethan’s expression became as hard as rock. I had pissed him off, but I was right there with him. I had no intention of letting it go either. He could fire up my temper about as much as he did my body. Right now, I was close to boiling over. I inhaled deeply, my focus on my ring.

  “Please tell me why you need to go alone,” I asked, in a more civil tone.

  Ethan glanced at me, the vein in his forehead throbbing frantically. It seemed to always make an appearance when he went into his wrath mode. “These kind of questions are the catalyst for a fight. You know that by now,” he bit back.

  “It might not be that way if we discussed them more,” I answered flatly.

  By his tone, I knew his anger had grown, but it was time for a visual reassessment before I antagonized him any further. I peeked over to try and work out what version of him I was going to get for the rest of the ride. Ethan refused to look at me as his neck and face flushed a deep shade of red. He let out several agitated huffs before reaching for the radio. I stopped him.

  “Please Ethan,” I pleaded, locking my hand with his.

  He gave me a hard glance and said, “I want you to remember that I’m not part of the corruption. The meetings tomorrow are with some individuals associated with Sean and Colin. I’m simply a courier. I won’t know more about it until I’m there. I refuse to have you within a mile of these types of people. They’re unpredictable.”

  The familiar pressure in my chest returned. Waves of unease traveled through every nerve-ending. “Say something,” Ethan whispered, pulling me closer.

  My lips quivered. “Are you sure it’s safe for you to go?”

  Ethan’s eyes flickered back to the road. “The people I’m dropping off information for tomorrow are a fairly new group of extortionists. I’m not particularly pleased this has fallen on me. I agreed to it to keep up appearances with Sean and Colin. Lately, they’ve been overly interested in my whereabouts and clients. In order to get the last pieces in place to get out of there, I need to keep them off my back.”

  I bit my quivering lip. “What about this meeting Harrison wants me at? You said your deals are legit, but you prepared this proposal for them. Are those two things related?”

  Ethan refused to look at me. “It’s a hard line to walk Mia. Anything I work on for them is legit. The meeting coming up is for one of my clients. Sean and Colin are just figureheads for it. I know from my own digging that they’re meeting with the acting boss of one of the major mob families out east that they used to do business with years ago. I’m separate from all that shit. They’re eager for their meeting. I’m not entirely sure why. I’m checking into it.”

  Taking the mob detail into consideration, something tells me it’s Sean and Colin’s meeting Harrison wants me at – not Ethan’s. Why would he blackmail me to be there though? And why would he be so psychotic about it? It makes me wonder even more what he has on me.

  The pieces were slowly clicking together for me. It made sense for me to be at Sean and Colin’s meeting over Ethan’s. For Harrison, it’d mean him having an ear on the inside with two of the largest mob families in the country. He’d get all sorts of details about their operations without putting himself in danger. Every particle of air felt like it had drifted from my body. I was such an idiot to have gotten played by him. If I wasn’t so terrified that he’d kill my friends, I’d force the motherfucker to give me the real reasons behind his motives.

  The depths of evil within F. F. & Sweeney were everything I had imagined and more. It didn’t sit right with me that Ethan had agreed to be an information mule for those crooks. How he planned to escape without having his hands tied to something illegal boggled my mind. My body grew limp as my mind tried to settle on one thought. He had to have some pretty steep connections to be able to walk away without anything coming back to him. My stomach curdled just thinking about it. Even worse, Ethan was playing with forces you shouldn’t mess with under good circumstances. How he expected to pull this off without getting killed was becoming more difficult for me to understand with each question that rolled out of my mouth. I rubbed my eyes to get my head to focus. My body and mind had reached their limit for the night.

  “What time will you be done? I’d rather do something other than shopping,” I whispered.

  Ethan peered at me with a mixture of relief and confusion on his face. “I’ll be done before noon, because we have plans immediately after. Are you saying you don’t like shopping? You go shopping with Bri all the time.”

  I shrugged while doing my best to steady my very uneven breathing. Ethan let go of my hand and trailed his fingers along my arm until he reached my neck. He leaned over for a quick kiss before placing his hand on my upper thigh. My mouth curled into a small grin.

  “It’s her passion, not mine. I go with Bri because it makes her happy. She usually pieces together a damn fine wardrobe for me too. It’s a win-win.”

  Ethan gave me a crooked smile. “I hope you understand why I’m going alone.”

  My anger resurfaced, shoving away the anxiety that had taken over my body. “I’m about done with you making decisions for me without clueing me in. You have to stop doing that because it pisses me off.” Ethan opened his mouth. I placed a finger on his lips to silence him. “I realize why you did it this time, but you have to stop,” I demanded.

  Ethan let out an annoyed huff against my finger. I pulled it away with my eyebrows raised.

  A mischievous grin crossed his face. “I’ll try. You know how we took a break from sex last night?”

  The hand he had on my thigh had started to creep towards the inside of my leg. The further along his fingers went, my frustrations and worries lessened. My shorts were very short, so there was plenty of bare skin for him to caress.

  “Umm … yea,” I panted.

  Ethan’s fingers found the edge of my shorts and dipped underneath. His nails scratched along tenderly. My rational thoughts dwindled with each light graze until he slid a finger into me. He started twirling and sliding as his thumb found my hot spot. I took advantage of his baggy shorts to do the same to him. My fingers ran to the inside until they reached his base. As he became hard, my heart picked up its pace. My body yearned to be on top of him. He wasted no time in sliding his fingers along to match the rapid beats of my heart.

  “Can we take a break from any more questions tonight? I’d really like to spend the rest of the evening appreciating every part of you,” Ethan practically moaned.

  “Yes … God yes,” I answered in between pants.

  My head fell to the headrest. I looked around to see if we were anywhere that would allow us to pullover and satisfy the heady ache he had created within me.

  Who am I kidding? We aren’t going to find a secluded spot. There are as many people here as there are palm trees.

  I closed my eyes as his fingers started to move faster and deeper. It took every ou
nce of effort to not fall apart. I stood a shot at handling the buildup if I knew where he was taking us. I lifted my eyelids when his hands had stopped the meticulous perusing they had been doing for the past five minutes.

  “Are you answering me, or talking to God? You tend to carry on a conversation with Him whenever we’re intimate,” Ethan husked. I retracted my hand with a scowl. “I’m joking babe. We need to cool it so I don’t crash.”

  I refrained from looking at him. He was bulging in his shorts. It wasn’t helping me one bit. My breathing evened out as my heart started to slow down. My body was crying on the inside at the loss of his fingers. I was one unsatisfied mess. The smirk on his face proved that Ethan knew it too.

  “Will you please tell me where we’re going now? You have my word that I won’t ask anything else tonight. Frankly, I’d rather not think at all. You know exactly what that means. Please tell me how much longer I need to be tortured, because I’m about to explode over here. I hate when you do this to me,” I whined.

  “You don’t have to wait much longer,” Ethan taunted with a smoldering grin.

  We went through a few more stoplights before we hit his destination. I gawked at the hotel in front of us. It was one of the most luxurious places I’d ever seen. Ethan kept an eye trained on me as I drooled at its extravagance. He had booked us in at The Beverly Hills Hotel! Ethan squeezed my hand before getting out and crossing over to my side to escort me out of the car. I was grateful for the hand because I more than likely would’ve fallen on my face without it. Ethan hauled me into him on our way to what I presumed was the direction to our room, because he didn’t even bother with the lobby. He tossed the keys to the valet like they were pals.

  “Let’s get settled in our bungalow. I think you’ll enjoy the privacy,” Ethan whispered seductively in my ear, picking up his stride.

  “Don’t we have to check in?” I asked, confused. I attempted to take in everything but he had us moving at a pace that was nothing short of a sprint.