Page 42 of Enemies Under One Roof

How much he threatened everything she had to hide.

How much their one time had affected her.

Except she didn’t want him to think what she’d experienced in his bed was anything other than real. Breath-stealing, heart-racing, forget-what-year-it-was-in-all-the-best-ways real.

He’d looked so hurt, so outraged, Ivy had been instantly forgotten as Annie had taken over, yelling her denial that she hadn’t been acting. Far from it.

A truth she could no longer run from.

When he’d arrived in the kitchen, looking all rumpled and delectable, as if she’d conjured him and it had been years not minutes since she’d seen him, shock and excitement had brought her to her feet.

Had he followed her on purpose?

She’d wanted to launch herself at him and take up where they’d left off. Until she recalled with sickening clarity their one-time-only arrangement and why it could never be more than that.

So instead, out of necessity she’d called on Ivy. It had never been effortless, even though she’d perfected it over the years, but tonight it had felt wrong, foreign, and instead of protecting her, it had repulsed and exhausted her. Like every bit of her energy had gone into holding that grotesque facade in an attempt to stave off her growing feelings for him, far beyond what she could ever allow herself.

Her Ivy mask was crumbling, and she didn’t know how to halt it, or even if she wanted to. That terrified her, because Ethan was right in front of her and she had no idea how she could keep pretending to be Ivy for another minute, never mind another two weeks. And she needed that protection. Because even though Ethan knew she’d created Ivy in the aftermath of her parents’ deaths, he still didn’t know the real reason why.

Could she leave WillowGlen now and make all contact virtual until they finished out the remaining two weeks? Bile rose, burning her throat, but she swallowed. She’d never do that to Ruby, and she’d given Ethan her word.

Could she drop the pretence of Ivy until she left, while it was only her and Ethan, and bring her back as soon as she left? Because surely it was his presence and the length of time they’d spent together that made it impossible for her to hold the facade?

Could she take the risk and be Annie and keep Ethan at an emotional arm’s length, without revealing anything further to him?

The answer resonated through every fibre. She’d have to.

It was only two weeks. Then Ivy would reappear, and all would go back to normal when she left and no longer had to see Ethan, day in and day out.

Decision made, she dropped her hands to her side, dismantling Ivy’s signature pose.

‘None of it was an act, Ethan,’ she said quietly, honestly, as Annie.

He stiffened and a muscle pulled at his jaw.

She’d done it. Revealed herself, and the world hadn’t tumbled down, although her legs had turned to jelly, and she gripped the kitchen bench to steady herself and wrapped her other arm around her waist.

He took a step towards her, his brow furrowed.

‘Are you’re okay?’ His voice was soft.

Okay? She frowned.

About what?

That she’d just stripped herself bare, in every way, before him.

That she’d dropped her protective persona.

That she’d just had the most amazing sexual experience of her life.

‘Did I hurt you? Was I too rough? Do you need to sit down?’ Concern rippled over his forehead.

‘No.’ She cleared her throat. ‘I don’t need to sit down and you didn’t hurt me. It was…’ Out of this world, sublime, incomparable. ‘Fine.’

‘Fine?’ His mouth dropped open and he huffed, before putting a hand against his heart. ‘Ouch.’

She laughed, her real one, natural and rich, when only moments ago she’d been vulnerable and edgy. Yet his hammed-up self-depreciation was like a tonic for her rawness, lifting her spirits and putting her at ease in a way no-one else could. ‘Okay, more than fine,’ she said, joining in the banter, wanting more of this feeling.