by Sarah Barrie
The woman that had addressed Ryan sent Jill a glare. “The what?”
Lexi erupted into a gale of laughter. “Oh, that’s priceless!”
“Let’s go, Lexi,” Ella prompted. As she walked past Ryan she glared from him to the blondes and back again. “Guess the rumours were right after all,” she muttered.
She’d only made another two steps before her elbow was taken in a biting grip and she was steered off the trail. “What the hell do you mean by that?” Ryan grated.
“You know exactly what I mean,” she hissed, turning on him and wondering what had happened to Lexi.
“Considering the way you operate, Your Highness, that should suit you right down to the ground.”
Ella gritted her teeth. Yes but… “I am not, never have been and never will be one of many.”
“And you wouldn’t have been, but you made the rules here, Ella. So live with them. If all you want is an occasional fuck-buddy, you don’t get a say in who the hell I take a damn swim with, are we clear?”
Ella dropped her gaze to her feet and nodded slowly. He was right. And she couldn’t do this. “It was a mistake. I can only thank you for making it obvious so quickly.”
She heard him groan. “Ella, wait.”
But Ella wasn’t listening. She caught up to a suspiciously quiet Lexi and continued back to the car in silence. Tossing her bag in the boot, she slipped elegantly into the back seat, content to stew out the window on the trip back to the train. Lexi shuffled in beside her and Hannah and Jill took the front. “All good?” Hannah asked, starting the car. “Marco’s heading back with the guys.”
“Yeah, let’s get going,” Lexi replied, glancing at Ella’s blank profile.
The silence stretched and Jill finally cleared her throat. “So… we’ll be in Darwin tonight.”
“Yes, we will,” Hannah replied, “and the motel is gorgeous.”
Ella let the conversation flow around her, grateful that in a couple more days this first assignment would be over. She’d still have to work with Ryan, but she’d have more space, more breathing room. Just a couple more days.
Chapter Eleven
“We should all go and freshen up, then meet in say, an hour? There’s a lovely area near the pool where we can sit and chat before dinner,” Hannah said to everyone as they finished checking in at the Darwin motel.
“Sounds good. I think I might try out that pool,” Jill commented.
“Another swim…” Lexi considered the suggestion, “I could be in that.”
“I might hit the gym,” Marco thought out loud.
“Show us up why don’t you?” Phil complained.
“Did you say gym?” Ella asked, thanking God. It was the first time she’d spoken voluntarily all afternoon.
Marco grinned. “Yeah, you in?”
“Absolutely. Do you know where it is?”
“Nope – let’s dump our bags and find out.”
They found the gym and Ella noted there was a small shop attached to it. She bought herself a crop top and shorts that clung like a second skin and a new pair of boxing gloves. Satisfied she had everything she needed for belting the crap out of the Wavemaster punching bag she’d spotted during their quick tour, she headed to the locker room to get changed.
“Nice,” Marco said, looking her up and down as she reappeared.
“Marco, go flirt with Lexi. I know you want to.”
“I do, but hey, I’ve got to appreciate what’s in front of me. Besides, I don’t like the way those guys over there are looking at you.”
Ella began her stretches and glanced across the room at a pair of perfectly harmless-looking young men lifting smallish weights. “Oh yeah, they’re scary,” she replied wide-eyed, “Protect me, Marco.”
His grin was huge. “You just call if you need me. I’ll be over there.”
Nodding with a smile, she did a few more stretches, then pulled on her new gloves.
And damn, it felt good to pound on something. The music was a decent volume, there weren’t too many people about and Ella gave it all she had.
Just under an hour later, everyone but Ella and Marco had gathered in the lobby on their way to the lounge. “So where are they?” Hannah wondered, “surely they’re not still torturing themselves?”
Lexi pulled a face. “Probably.”
“Then let’s head over – we’ll pick them up on the way.” Hannah suggested.
They found Marco leaning up against the far wall of the gym with a few other men, and spotting them he grinned, nodding his head toward the far corner.
“What’s he on about?” Lexi asked.
“Whatever it is it’s got an audience,” Steve replied unnecessarily, moving past them to get a look.
Ella was too busy annihilating the punching bag to notice her audience. Her face was a scowling mask of determination and concentration, the bag was her whole world. Every bit of frustration she felt towards Ryan Edwards was being drilled into the red canvas in series after series of jabs, crosses, hooks, back-fists, kicks, elbows and knees; everything pouring out of her, draining her, energising her.
“Fuck me,” Phil said inelegantly, “The woman’s a weapon.”
“In fast forward. Holy crap.” Jill shook her head as Ella’s leg went flying above her head and crashing into the bag.
“I’m glad it’s not me she’s pissed at,” Lexi said, looking straight at Ryan.
“Surely, she can’t keep that up for long,” Hannah remarked.
Marco strolled up beside them, heard Hannah’s comment. “I don’t know, she‘s been like that coming up on thirty minutes. The lady has an admirable amount of rage.”
When Ryan copped another look, he snapped. “She’s not the bloody entertainment.” He strode over to the rest of her audience. “How about you guys stop perving and go find something to do?”
Ella caught enough background noise to make her stop and look over her shoulder. She ripped off her gloves, walked across. “Am I late?”
“Getting there,” Hannah nodded, frowning towards Ryan. “You about done?”
“Yeah I’ll just stretch out, shower…give me ten minutes?” she asked, following Hannah’s gaze to see Ryan snarl at some strangers out of the corner of her eye. “What’s that about?”
“You. We’ll be waiting. Oh and Ella?” Hannah added as Ella bent herself in half, beginning her stretches and pondering Hannah’s response, “If I ever piss you off, give me a head start?”
Ella just grinned, waved and started another stretch. She watched them head out, saw Ryan hang back. When he stopped close by she raised her eyebrows. “Can I help you?”
“Feel better?”
“Much.” When he didn’t move, she added, “I won’t be long.”
“I’ll wait.”
She sat, stretching her legs an impossible distance apart and reaching for her toes. “Don’t you have someone – I mean something – else to entertain you?”
He sent her a narrow look. “If you’ve got a problem with our arrangement, just say so.”
“I don’t have a problem with ‘our arrangement,’ Ryan.” She switched feet. “It’s the guilt-trip you put on me on about it ‘meaning something,’ I have a problem with.”
“Let’s get one thing straight,” he bent down, eye to eye, “You wanted to play the friends with benefits card, correct?”
“Yeah. And now I’m calling game over. Go away.”
He dragged her to her feet. “Look at me.” When she did, he asked, “What the hell do you want?”
“Right now I want you to let me go.”
“You are so infuriatingly evasive! What is it going to take?” She attempted to pull her arms from his grasp and when she failed, when he gave her a little shake, she spun her hips and kicked, knocked his leg out from under him and almost, almost, brought him down.
He let her go, obviously struggling for control. “I’ll let you get away with that once. Don’t do it again.”
“Or what?” she demanded. On a spike of temp
er, she planted her hands against his chest and shoved him back. “What are you going to do?”
“That’s enough,” he replied, a dangerous edge to his voice.
“What’s the matter, Ryan?” she asked, shoving at him again, “I thought you could ‘handle’ me?”
This time she couldn’t move him from the spot. “Take a step back, Ella. Now,” he threatened.
Instead she got in his face “You’re scaring me Ryan,” she taunted, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“You want me to push back? Is that it?”
She lifted her arms out to the sides, her eyes hostile, challenging him to do just that. “Alright, let’s go. Free shot.”
His hand flew out and caught her ponytail, using his grip on it to hold her still while his head lowered and his lips found hers. The kiss was rough-around-the-edges with frustration, but not as hard, as punishing as the last; as she’d expected. “I’m not going to hit you; no matter how damn tempting it is right now. You’re looking for excuses to back away from us and I’m not giving you one. Go shower, cool off. We’ll drink champagne, eat some dinner and then, Ella, I’ll take you to bed.”
She greeted his suggestion with disbelief and with a small amount of very real fear. Because she knew she had no real defences against him, that he just had to touch her and he could take what he wanted.
His eyes glimmered with a single-minded determination that dared her to argue and she took a couple of steadying breaths, wondered if she was capable of it. She wanted to run, but it just wasn’t who she was. Instead of stepping around him, she bumped into him, hard, as she headed toward the showers.
Ryan watched her stride off, smiling wryly in spite of his temper. Attitude; she certainly didn’t lack for attitude. But what the hell was she so scared of? And what would she do if he told her he was in love with her? No, she wasn’t ready to hear that. This last wall of hers may as well be seven-foot thick, reinforced concrete. But he knew he was close, because the closer he got the harder she fought. He just needed to stick it out, know when to push, when to step back.
Ella ignored him at dinner, pleaded a headache when asked if she’d be joining everyone for drinks after their meal. She didn’t want to drink and didn’t want to get into anything with Ryan. No, she just wanted to close her eyes and have a good eight hours reprieve from thinking about him. At the first available opportunity, Ella disentangled herself from the others and crawled into bed hoping for just that.
About fifteen minutes later a pounding on the door began. Reluctantly she opened the door a fraction to see Hannah, Jill and Lexi on the other side. “What’s going on?”
The women held up various bottles of alcohol. “Man-hating party,” Hannah announced.
Taken aback, Ella stepped aside. “Oh, well…”
“We have white wine, bourbon and vodka – what’s your pleasure?” Jill grinned.
“Look, this is very nice of you but – ”
“Got an objection to a couple of drinks with good friends?” Hannah enquired, a line of steel behind the question.
“No of course not,” Ella replied, feeling trapped. “I’ll ah…have a white wine.”
“Atta girl,” Lexi cheered, opening the bottle.
“So,” Hannah began as they sipped their first drinks, “while we’re all very aware of the ‘Ryan must die’ vibe you’ve been projecting throughout today’s activities, we can’t truly sympathise until we know exactly what happened. Spill.”
Ella put her hand to her forehead. “Oh, God.”
Jill giggled, “Hannah you’re freaking her out.”
“I know. Fun, isn’t it? But I want to know. Because you may not be aware of this Ella my dear, but I’ve known Ryan for about fourteen years and I’ve never seen him so hung up on anyone.”
Ella swallowed the rest of her drink in a single swallow, choked. Wiping the resulting tears from her eyes, she shook her head. “I don’t know what you mean. It’s not like that.”
“I mean,” she replied, refilling Ella’s glass, “I’ve seen him chase the odd female, seen him use some charm here, some wit there – not that he ever needed to try too hard. I’ve also seen him have a good time and walk away without a backward glance. You’re very obviously the exception to his rule. So what gives?”
“I’m hard on his ego, that’s all.”
“Oh no – not the way he looks at you – that is so not all,” Lexi objected. “I would melt into a puddle if he looked at me that way.”
“Did you sleep with him?” Jill wanted to know.
Ella considered lying but decided it was pointless. “Hmmm.”
“Yes? That was a yes, right?” Lexi asked the room at large.
“I don’t really want to talk about it.” Ella replied.
“Yes, you do. You just haven’t had enough to drink yet.” Hannah again topped off her glass and Ella took another large swallow. Her head was already beginning to spin.
Maybe it was the fact Ella had never participated in a man-hating party before, maybe it was because she’d never really done the female get-together or possibly just because she was fast becoming as drunk as she’d ever been in her life, but eventually she blurted it all out. From the very first time he picked her up at the office to the current evening.
“So you see,” she waved a glass at the room, “I’ve been railroaded by Ryan Edwards from day one and so what if I have a mental collapse after the most incredible sex of my life…surely a woman is entitled to a small freak out now and again?”
“Absolutely. The bastard.” Lexi agreed, tapping Ella’s glass.
“Here, here.” Hannah added. “What did he do Lexi?”
“Ah…forget. But wow – what a bastard.”
“I’ve got a story that will make you feel better Ella,” Jill said. “It begins with ‘my fuckwit of an ex-husband’…”
They laughed. Ella couldn’t remember ever laughing like that. By the time Hannah decided they should dress up and head down to the bar, Ella was feeling entirely too reckless. With just a small amount of coaxing, she slipped into her little black cocktail dress, threw on some heels and a decent amount of makeup and started on her hair. Her hands paused in the act of containing it, she considered her options, and dropped it again, leaving it to fall loosely around her shoulders.
“Oh my God. Look at your hair!” Hannah exclaimed as Ella emerged from the bathroom. “It’s spectacular!”
“Thank you,” Ella replied.
“Oh yeah…” Lexi added, “I knew there had to be a reason you kept that up. You’d have men falling over their eyeballs in the street otherwise.”
“I’m pretty sure there’s only one guy she’d like to see fall on his face this evening,” Jill said. “Let’s go see if it works.”
“Wait,” Ella stopped at the door, struggling to force the sensible, logical part of her brain to overcome the generalised, spinning, fuzziness of her head. “I’m not going down there to act childishly.”
“Of course not,” Hannah replied, with a grin. “But I’d be very surprised if it’s not at least a little entertaining anyway!” Lexi and Jill laughed and Ella pulled a face.
“Hannah, I realise it’s your job to make a production out of things, but can we leave that for the show? I’m not so drunk that I can’t see you’re setting up a scene here.”
“Oh, don’t stress. We’ll just go down, have a drink or two, cheer you up and call it a night. How’s that?”
“Ok. But my hair…I shouldn’t…I’ll just put it up. It’ll only take a second.”
“Why?”
“Because I shouldn’t have left it out.”
Hannah just shook her head. “Do you always question every move you make?”
“Generally. It’s not sensible to do things on impulse.”
Unsurprised, Hannah took Ella’s arm and Lexi looped hers through her other one. “Come on. It’s staying out and I’m not leaving you behind to mope. Let’s go.”
The bar was going off. Loud music
was playing, coloured lights were bouncing off the walls and the dancefloor was packed. “There’s our boys,” Jill nodded across to a table close to the bar. “Let’s get a drink!”
“Another one?” Ella asked helplessly.
The men were seated around a table chatting, drinks in hand until Gav said something that had them looking over and watching the women approach.
Marco wolf-whistled loudly and Lexi curtseyed playfully. Ella allowed herself to be pulled along until they reached the bar and sat down next to Hannah on the only other empty stool. Glancing around, her eyes met a pair of large hazel ones in a handsome face. A little too pretty, a little too young, she quickly decided, then thought where did that come from?
“Hi,” he greeted Ella, with a mile-wide smile. “I’m Sam.”
“Nice to meet you, Sam, I’m Ella,” she returned amicably.
“Let me buy this round, ladies,” he offered, throwing a fifty at the bartender, “and what are you doing here, Ella?”
“Participating in my first man-hating party,” she replied conspiratorially. “No offence.”
He laughed out loud and out of the corner of her eye, Ella saw Ryan glare at them and get to his feet.
“Well then,” Sam said with a dramatic deep breath, “I guess it’s going to be my job to convince you we’re not all bastards.”
Ella sipped the drink she knew she didn’t need and considered him. “Sam, I have to warn you, I’m just going to break your heart.”
Ryan was suddenly beside them, towering over Sam. “Believe it. And if you don’t step away, I’m going to break your nose.”
Ella’s mouth fell open and she slid off the stool, her eyes shooting daggers at Ryan. “Why don’t you find someone to go take a swim with while Sam and I both step away?” She grabbed hold of Sam’s arm and began walking, pretty sure Sam sent Ryan a ‘so there’ look over his shoulder before taking her hand and twirling her out onto the edge of the dance floor.
Hannah studied Ryan and assessed his mood as volatile going on violent. “Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it?” she commented.
“She left her hair out,” he muttered unnecessarily.
Hannah gasped. “Arrest the woman!”