Complicated

by M. M. Koenig

  I flinched. “No. Do you think their interest and Harrison blackmailing me are connected in some way?”

  Ethan looked away. “I’m not entirely sure. I think so, yes, but I’m investigating it further.”

  I gasped. “Will you fill me in when you have more answers?”

  He exhaled heavily and said, “I’ll tell you what you need to know, but I won’t reveal anything that could endanger your life.”

  “I understand you need to keep me safe, but you can’t keep something from me, especially if it’s a fact concerning my life,” I shot back.

  “I’ll certainly fill you in when I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that nothing will harm you,” Ethan snapped definitively.

  I squirmed away. He gripped my sides to keep me next to him. His hands journeyed upward to grasp my face. I resisted at first, but remembered I shouldn’t put any unnecessary pressure on my head. I gazed at him, mostly so he could see the hurt in my eyes.

  “Mia, I love you. Please have faith in me. Believe I’ll tell you what you need to know and protect you from everything else,” Ethan pleaded. His mystical brown eyes begged me to trust him, with all my heart.

  Ethan had done nothing but reassure me on a daily basis that he’d love me forever and keep me safe. This new revelation had me drowning in fear. Despite all that, I was desperately in love with him. I grabbed his chin and looked him square in the eyes so he didn’t miss my point.

  “I believe you. You’ve called me out on more than one occasion for not giving you that trust, but I am. I’m giving you every ounce of me. And just so you know … I love you too,” I said, giving him a soft kiss.

  Ethan gently brought me into him before running tender kisses along my jaw. I moaned when he got to my ear and began torturing the spot beneath it.

  “I want you so badly, but we can’t do that for a few days,” Ethan said breathlessly. I jerked away from him faster than I should have, because my head paid the price. I winced and ran my hands along my temples. “And that’s precisely why,” Ethan observed, scowling.

  “I don’t remember the doctor saying anything about our sex life having to take a break. He said no exercising that can overexert the body,” I protested, pouting.

  “Babe, with us, sex is never anything less than a workout,” Ethan teased, pulling me out of bed. I grudgingly followed him. It was time we joined the others anyway.

  The remainder of Saturday evening was rather quiet. I figured a party would be on the agenda, so it surprised me when we walked outside to find the backyard lit with Tiki torches and everyone scattered between several tables playing poker. The group gave us their attention as we strolled onto the lawn. Ethan released my hand and made his way over to the grill. I wasn’t hungry, but he was insistent I eat something since I had lost nearly two days’ worth of food and fluids. I tried to refrain from blushing, but everyone kept staring at me like I’d disappear. Ethan noticed my discomfort and let out a high-pitched whistle so that all eyes turned to him.

  “Mia’s going to be fine. Now treat her like you normally would or we’re going to have to cancel tomorrow’s plans because we’ll be back at the hospital, only in the psych ward,” he joked.

  I shook my head at him with a glare in my eyes. He flashed his dimples and continued to fill our plates with food. I sauntered towards Bri, who was, surprisingly, without Trey. All four of my friends were at separate tables. She caught my confusion and gave me a cocky grin. Trey shot me a wink while Jackson and Shane remained focused on their respective games. I lightly chuckled and pulled up a chair next to Bri. I should’ve known they’d try to hustle these guys. Olivia and Tristan were at her table along with Ziggy. Ethan settled in on the other side of me and slid over a hot plate of food.

  I grinned at Ethan before turning to the rest of the table. “What did we miss out on?”

  “Not a damn thing. The word on the street is that we have a big day tomorrow, so we’re resting up for it,” Olivia spoke up, poking Tristan. He growled at her before sweeping in for a kiss. She bit down on his lip, but he refused to say anything.

  I glanced at Ethan. The asshole tapped his damn nose.

  “I’m so fucking over that response,” I grumbled, making everyone laugh.

  “Join the club, Mia. We meet on Wednesdays,” Olivia kidded.

  I laughed for a minute then caught the scowl on Ethan’s face as he pointed at my food. I rolled my eyes before taking an overly obnoxious bite of potatoes.

  “You’re such a smart-ass. Just finish your food so we can get in a few games with everyone,” Ethan demanded as he shoved a piece of lobster into his mouth.

  “Mia does have a fine ass. You’re one lucky son of a bitch,” Ziggy jumped in.

  I rolled my eyes before going back to my food. Ethan was close to having an empty plate by the time half of mine was gone. I glanced in his direction when I was completely full. His brow wrinkled in disappointment, but he let it go and picked up his cards.

  We played a few rounds of poker and jumped between tables to make conversation with everyone. As the night went along, more people were grabbing beers and mixing drinks. Ethan drank with them, but I stuck to water. Obviously, Bri wasn’t drinking. It surprised me that Trey wasn’t questioning her on it, but then again, he had hustling people to distract him. I doubted she’d be able to get away with it much longer. Fortunately, Olivia wasn’t drinking either, so there was less focus on Bri. I tended to stay near those two once everyone else got tipsy.

  I had folded my last hand at their table and tilted my head to the sky to see it full of stars. This place was truly beautiful. I was lost in the scenery when Ethan startled me.

  “Want to go upstairs to watch a movie and make-out?” he whispered seductively.

  I giggled. “Sure.”

  “See you all tomorrow,” Ethan said over his shoulder, dragging me along with him.

  “Night everyone,” I echoed.

  “Try to pull the shades tonight,” Wade teased.

  “Yeah, my virgin eyes can only handle seeing so much you know,” Reece heckled.

  Ethan ignored them as we made our way into the house. We settled in our room and quickly turned on a movie. He wasted no time in getting to the make-out portion of the evening. I didn’t even see the opening credits roll. I got lost in his lips while my hands wandered across his abs.

  Once Ethan had turned me on, I had a hard time holding back. Every time I tried taking it to the next level, he hit the brakes. Eventually we stopped, because he made it very clear we weren’t having sex. We tried just cuddling, but even that was a challenge. Our hands wandered far too much for it to remain innocent. His eyes grew heavy, so I let him drift off to sleep. I rolled over to the opposite side of the bed so he wouldn’t tempt me. I found my phone and put in my headphones to listen to his playlist. Slowly, my eyes closed to the world around me. My body welcomed it after the beating it had taken.

  It was pitch black when I woke up. I rolled over to look for Ethan, but his spot was empty. It sounded like we had relocated to a helipad. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I still had a dull headache. The rest of my body was sore from the bruises that covered my entire left side. My ribs were particularly tender. Apparently, I’d be paying the price for that moment of stupidity for a while.

  “Oh good, you’re up,” Ethan said cheerfully on his way out of the bathroom. He had showered and shaved, and was sporting some black board shorts with phrases on them.

  “What the hell is going on?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

  “Our ride is here, so you need to hurry. Hop in the shower. I’ll grab your clothes and get a backpack ready,” Ethan answered, digging through my luggage.

  I made my way into the bathroom and showered at warp speed. He had set my short jean-shorts on the vanity, with my bikini. I dried off and changed into them. With my head still very sore, I decided to forgo a ponytail and kept my hair out of my eyes by shoving my sunglasses on my head. I ran my toothbrush through my mouth and decided against an
y makeup. I was back in the bedroom within ten minutes. Ethan had already disappeared. I slid on my sandals to go find him. As I hit the edge of the stairs, Bri shuffled over to me, with the rest of the girls right behind her. They were in clothes matching mine. Bri appeared a little on the sick side. I refrained from saying anything after she scowled at me.

  “Good morning Mia,” Drew said merrily.

  Whoa, she’s far too much of a morning person. It might be in her best interest to remain silent until Bri fully wakes up or she’s going to get throttled for her perkiness.

  “Morning. Did anyone get clued-in on what we’re doing today?” I asked.

  Kami linked her arm with mine. “Yeah right. Eli told me to get ready without another word.”

  “Lovely. I guess we’ll find out in a minute,” I grumbled.

  “Are you feeling OK Bri? You look a little pale,” Olivia pointed out.

  “Bri always looks a little off in the mornings. She despises them; and early afternoons, if I think about it,” I joked.

  Bri whipped around with a glare, but I saw her appreciation too. “Shut up Mia. I won’t hesitate to throw you down the rest of the stairs. You know better than to poke at me this early.”

  We made our way through the kitchen and out the patio door. Our jaws dropped when we saw all the guys divided between three helicopters that were on the lawn. Ethan gestured for me to join him. He helped me into the seat behind the pilot. Once I was safely aboard, he strapped me in before taking the seat next to me and gesturing a thermos in my direction. I opened it and breathed in the lovely aroma of coffee.

  “Where are we going?” I inquired, taking a quick sip.

  “You’ll see. We’re about to take off,” Ethan replied, picking up his headset.

  I placed mine on my ears. After a few minutes of waiting for everyone to get in the other helicopters, our pilot announced our departure. Once I was able to keep my stomach from losing itself, lift-off was pretty unbelievable. My eyes bugged out when the sun really started to flood in around us. We were approaching the Grand Canyon. Depending on what angle you caught, the walls of the canyon reflected back at you in red, burnt orange, and even pink in some spots. I couldn’t follow the different paths of the canyon fast enough as we soared along them.

  We flew along the canyon for a bit until the pilot swerved in another direction. I turned to Ethan to see what he was up to. He gave me a crooked grin and pointed for me to keep my eyes on the window. We were approaching what looked like a reservation. Once we were on the ground, I eagerly scrambled out of my seat.

  “What did you think?” Ethan asked, pulling me in for hug.

  “Amazing. Just like you,” I replied before giving him a quick kiss.

  With his hand in mine, I took in the scenery. Before we hit the trail, he stopped and pulled off his backpack. He retrieved my running shoes and gestured for my sandals. The rest of the girls were doing the same thing as their guys handed them their shoes. I made the switch as Ethan checked the trail map before leading us onward. It was still rather early, so the chatter was at a minimum. From the looks of some of them, a handful had hangovers. Confirmation of that came about a mile later when Kane puked all over a bush.

  We hiked for several miles. I was ready to ask Ethan if we were lost when he hit a final turn that led us to a stunning waterfall tucked into the canyon walls. The jagged shards of the rock were such a different shade of red compared to what we had seen so far. Dark green moss climbed along the walls towards the bottom of the waterfall. My eyes got lost absorbing the enormity of it. It was at least a hundred feet above us. The plunge pool was breathtaking, with hues of blue varying in intensity. Ethan towed me closer to the water. The rest of the group followed and scattered onto the different ledges lining the large pool of water. I noticed Eli, Kami, Dom, Wade, Reece, Drew, Tristan, and Ziggy went right past us to get on a new path.

  Ethan shook his head, seemingly amused. “They threatened to ban us for life if we did it one more time!”

  Dom gave a dismissive wave of the hand and yelled, “So they ban us for life. It never stops us from coming back.”

  “You’d be right behind us if you weren’t pussy-whipped,” Wade taunted.

  “I’m not bailing any of you out of jail,” Ethan warned.

  “Blah … Blah … Blah … Don’t you have a really hot girlfriend to fawn over?” Ziggy teased, winking at me.

  My boys joined Ethan’s friends. I cocked an eyebrow. They shrugged with mischievous grins before jogging to catch up with the others. Ethan tossed his shirt aside along with his shoes, so I did the same. He clutched my hand as we waded into the water.

  It was by far one of the coolest places I’d ever seen. We made our way over to a large area of red rocks that were above another set of smaller falls cascading from all directions into another whirlpool area. He pulled me into his lap and nuzzled his head into my shoulder. Kane, Wyatt and Karissa joined Ethan and me. Olivia and Bri wandered our way right as the rest of the group reached the top of the falls. Dom and Reece were hollering like giant apes. They backed up several feet to take the jump at a sprint. They flew off the side of the waterfall with their hands waving as they made their way down. Their splash once they hit the water was deafening. They popped up and started to playfully fight with one another.

  “Wow. That looks like so much fun,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Absolutely not,” Ethan shot down quickly.

  I scowled. “I’m not an idiot. I just said it looked like fun. That’s all you keep pestering me to have lately.”

  Ethan squeezed his hands around my waist before pinching my thighs. I jumped at the unexpected assault. “You irritate the fuck out of me most days,” he growled.

  I glared while rubbing the sore spots on my legs. “Believe me, the feeling is mutual.”

  Olivia burst out laughing. “You two are comical when you’re like this.”

  We watched the rest of the gang go off in pairs. I’d have to say that watching Kami and Drew go down together was by far the best. If it wasn’t the high-pitched scream that only dogs would have understood, it was watching their legs and arms flail about until they hit the water. Jackson and Shane came in a close second, mostly because when they hit the water they started bickering about who landed it better. Trey ended the debate by doing several flips on his way down and miraculously landing feet first on the bottom. When everyone had jumped, Ethan let out a long whistle to call them over. They swam towards us so we could move on to the next spot on the trail.

  We hiked about a mile to another set of falls that was much wider. It ran about hundred feet wide and was probably thirty feet or so high. The same group headed towards the top to jump off again. This time Ethan led us towards a ledge behind the falls with a much smaller drop. He clutched my hands tightly as we made the small jump into the water below. I could tell he was skeptical about letting me do even that much. I was recuperating from a concussion – not terminal. I made sure to express that to him when we hit the bottom. We stole a moment alone behind the falls. It was incredibly romantic, straddling around his waist as he held us underneath the waterfall and kissed me like there was no tomorrow.

  The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the waterfalls and the surrounding area. The guys produced various containers of food from the house that we could munch on. All the men got lost in a football game against each other in the water. The girls and I hung out on one of ledges and let the water spray all over us as we sunbathed. It pleased me that our worlds knitted so well with one another. I had heard all my friends at one point during the afternoon exchanging numbers with all of Ethan’s. There was already discussion about making it a monthly thing for us. It was the perfect end to a challenging trip. It bummed me out when it was time for us to pack up and head back to the helicopters. I wasn’t ready to return to reality.

  The helicopters were ready and waiting when we hit the top of the trail. Ethan strapped me into my seat and fastened the headset on. He le
aned forward for a quick kiss before hopping in behind me. The pilot rambled out our next destination, but I paid little attention. I got lost in the background as we glided into the air. The sun was starting to set. The canyon filled with a different set of shades. I gasped after seeing the familiar outline of Las Vegas in the distance. I glanced at Ethan in complete shock. He gave me a movie-star smile and waved his phone at me. I retrieved my cell from my back pocket.

  Next time, we’ll spend some time in Vegas. It’s our drop spot this time. We’ll be at the airport soon. I like watching your face light up. Thank you for a wonderful trip.

  I flashed a huge grin in his direction before texting back.

  Thank you for opening up to me. I can’t wait for our next adventure together!

  We were on the ground moments later and preparing to go our separate ways – that was after Ethan clarified some things. It turned out he decided to have everyone’s belongings and the vehicles taken care of this morning. He handed everyone tickets to get back to their respective destinations. I stared at him in awe while Bri stood next to me gaping at him with just as much wonderment. We went around exchanging quick hugs with everyone. Before long, we were in first class and on the runway. My head rested against Ethan’s arm. The trip had more than wiped me out, physically and emotionally. He grasped my chin and stared at me for a minute before shaking his head.

  “I see the worry again. Let it go or I’ll force you to forget,” Ethan demanded.

  “I thought you said that was off the table for a few days. Doctor’s orders and all,” I retorted, with a salacious grin.

  His eyes gleamed as he nibbled on my ear and whispered, “Fuck doctor’s orders. I know what’s best for my girl.”

  I did everything in my power to keep from moaning as his tongue licked further down my throat. The pilot came over the speaker to announce that takeoff was minutes away. I cursed the asshole for not saying it was happening now. I brought Ethan’s mouth to mine. He laughed lightly against my lips before delving deep. By the time we were in the air, both of us were ready for a release. Ethan hauled me up from my seat so we could join the mile high club.