Page 27 of Ethan: The Untouchable CEO

I take two steps back in the water, putting distance between me and Ethan.

Without daring to check if he’s looking at me—or if anyone has noticed—I plunge my arms into the cold water and swim fast toward the other side of the natural pool.

I just need a moment alone.

A moment away from them, to steady my breathing and kill the trembling in my body before I climb out and pretend nothing ever happened.

We return to Theo’s house just in time to prepare dinner.

The guys head outside to play tennis and relax, while we stay in the kitchen to cook and talk about girl stuff.

Neither of us is particularly skilled, but we decided to try our hand at a pasta recipe—something classic, like a creamy fettuccine Alfredo with garlic and parmesan.

The day passes quietly, without incident.

I manage to speak only when necessary with Irina, who showed up a few hours after we returned from the mountains. I have no idea what she did all day, but she acts completely normal around me. And I do my best to keep up appearances, making sure I don’t give myself away in front of her or the others.

And yet, when I lay my head on the pillow that night and try to fall asleep, my thoughts inevitably drift back to Ethan—how I let myself get carried away by the moment, how good it felt, how intoxicating it was to feel him beneath me.

But then guilt crashes down, unforgiving and relentless, keeping me awake all over again.

My second sleepless night in a row.

Thalia, you have absolutely no morals.

TWELVE

Ethan

After two nights of barely any sleep, this morning I’m the first one awake. We won’t be leaving until lunchtime, maybe even later, but I just couldn’t stay in bed any longer.

The spare room I found on the first night is right here on the ground floor. Irina didn’t say a word when I appeared in the room soaked and told her I’d found myself a free room. As I suspected, she had absolutely no problem with it.

Thirty minutes ago, I got up, grabbed a coffee, and stepped out onto the terrace at the back of the house.

Slowly, one by one, everyone begins to show up, and within an hour we’re all in the yard, soaking up the sun and enjoying the quiet.

Tonight, we’ll be back in the chaos of the city, and though we’ve built our world away from London’s noise and pollution, it still doesn’t compare to the calm, the clean air, and the sense of peace we found here.

“I’d like to know if we could come here more often,” Ryan says from a hammock. “I could get used to this peace.”

“And you’d give up going out, clubs, women?” Sierra asks, skeptical.

“I’d give them up for a few days each month, yeah. But just that,” he replies, smirking.

“You can come—or any of you can—whenever you want to, of course,” Theo answers.

“I want to know why you have such a huge house out here,” Thalia asks from a single-seat swing.

“I built it a few years ago for this type of getaway,” he responds, smiling at her.

And that’s enough to stir up a storm inside me—anger, guilt, and a mix of other things I don’t even want to name. I keep my expression neutral, pretending none of it exists, but the feeling settles heavy in my chest anyway.

Guilt is the worst of it.

Because every time Theo looks at her like that—easy, warm, natural—I feel it again, acute and merciless.

What happened two nights ago can never happen again. But that doesn’t mean Theo doesn’t deserve to know. And the thought alone makes my stomach twist.