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The Ruthless Billionaire’s Virgin

Page 15

by Susan Stephens


  ‘Yes,’ Savannah admitted, wriggling away from him and sitting up. Truthfully, she had a lot more in mind for Ethan than the occasional coaching session. She wanted him to take a much fuller role in the scheme for which he had already proved to be an inspirational figurehead.

  ‘It’s only weights landing on my back I have to be careful about,’ he explained. ‘My legs are fine.’

  ‘Then…’ Hugging her knees, she rested her chin on them, staring up at him.

  ‘Then?’

  ‘Stop pretending you don’t know what I mean. And stop growling at me,’ she added when Ethan made a mock-threatening sound. She fixed a stare on him. ‘If there’s nothing wrong with your legs, there can’t be any reason why you can’t take part in the training programme—just part-time, of course,’ she added before Ethan could get a word in. ‘Plus, the occasional guest appearance would make all the difference.’

  Having buckled his belt, Ethan sat up beside her and swung Savannah onto his knee. ‘Is that what all this has been leading up to?’

  ‘Not all of it,’ she admitted truthfully.

  ‘Well, at least you’ve got the decency to blush,’ he observed dryly, drawing her into his shoulder.

  ‘You still haven’t given me your answer, Ethan.’

  ‘Well, why don’t I do that now?’

  It was some time later when Ethan drew Savannah to her feet. As he helped to brush grass and twigs from her clothes, she sensed something had changed.

  ‘My answer is no,’ he told her quietly, confirming her worst fears. ‘How can I let those kids see my scars? They’ll see nothing else—they won’t concentrate on the game, on my coaching—I’d hold them back.’

  ‘No, you wouldn’t.’

  ‘For the last time, Savannah, no coaching sessions.’

  Seizing his hands, she stared into his eyes. ‘What if we brought other youngsters here—youngsters with disfigurements like yours—would you do it then? Would you bring everyone together so that no one was an outsider?’

  She had silenced him and touched him as only Savannah could. ‘I’ll think about it,’ he promised, silencing her in the most effective way he could. ‘Now, will you be quiet?’ he demanded when he released her.

  ‘Of course I will,’ Savannah agreed, tipping her chin to stare lovingly at him. ‘The moment you agree.’

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  THE REST of the day passed in whirl of activity, with Savannah and Ethan falling naturally into the role of host and hostess. They were a good team, Savannah thought, smiling across the crowded club-house at Ethan. No, she’d got that wrong—they were an excellent team—but she must stop looking at him as if she had to convince herself he was really there. She was feeling more confident he would agree to a little coaching. Hadn’t he said as much when they were making love in the meadow? Or was it coaching her he’d had in mind? Time to pin him down, she decided as people started to drift off home.

  When Ethan came to her he raised both her hands to his lips. Had the tender lover returned to her? She had to believe that was so. Conscious of her mother and father watching them from the other side of the room, she sighed with pleasure as Ethan brushed her cheeks with his lips.

  ‘It’s been a wonderful day, Savannah,’ he told her gently. ‘Thank you so much…’

  ‘It’s nothing,’ she murmured. She was still staring up at him, feeling like she could fly.

  ‘I want to thank you on behalf of everyone,’ he added, still holding her hands in his firm grip. ‘And I promise to give serious thought to your suggestion.’

  But? She could hear a ‘but’. ‘Thank you, Ethan.’ Savannah’s smile faded. There was something wrong. She could see no answering warmth in Ethan’s eyes, just a rather detached interest. ‘You’re not going to take an active part, are you?’

  ‘I’m the patron, and I’ve already donated a large amount of money.’

  ‘I’m not talking about money, Ethan, the scheme needs you—hands-on you.’ There was something else, Savannah suspected—something Ethan hadn’t told her.

  He released her hands. ‘Anything else at all, you only have to ask.’

  ‘I am asking. If everyone else can find time, why can’t you?’

  ‘You know why,’ Ethan said grimly.

  No, she didn’t—and now he was being drawn away. She’d monopolised him too long, and all the people who had been waiting to say goodbye to him were jostling for his attention. She waited on tenterhooks until he was free again and then pounced. ‘Ethan, look at me.’ But there were more interruptions. How hard was it to do this in public when you were trying to capture the attention of the most important man in the room?

  Ethan freed himself this next time. He’d seen her concern and he crossed the room to her side. ‘Tell me,’ he said.

  ‘Everyone needs your magic,’ she said. ‘Just look around you…’ There was a group of youngsters clustered round the team captain. They might be with one hero, but they were all looking at Ethan, the most formidable man in the room, with awe-struck stares. ‘They need you. Just a few hours of your time, Ethan. They rate you so highly.’

  ‘You know my position.’

  ‘No, I don’t!’ Savannah exclaimed. ‘Your scars? They know about your scars—they don’t even notice them. What else is holding you back?’

  Ethan’s eyes narrowed. ‘What makes you think there’s anything else?’

  ‘I know you, Ethan.’

  ‘Enough,’ he said sharply, leaning close. Putting his arm out, Ethan rested his clenched fist against the wall so that Savannah’s face and his were shielded from the crowd. ‘I’ll do anything I can for these young people.’

  ‘Then give them your time. Or can’t you bear the thought of being on the same pitch as a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs? Aren’t they good enough for you, Ethan?’

  He knew she was goading him, reaching deep, and that she didn’t believe it for one moment. ‘Savannah,’ he warned, his mouth almost brushing her lips now.

  ‘No, I won’t be quiet,’ she replied, confirming his thoughts. ‘You’re due a wake-up call.’

  ‘And who better to give it to me than you?’ He didn’t wait for her answer. Freeing the latch on the door behind her, he backed her through it holding on to her while he closed the door behind them, and then frogmarched her across the yard.

  And still she peppered him with accusations. ‘You paint wonderful pictures and hide them away—that’s one precious gift wasted. You’re an inspiration, a positive role-model for young people and a force for good—a second—’

  Savannah gasped as Ethan thrust her through the entrance of the hay barn. Slamming the door shut, he shot the bolt. ‘This time I talk and you listen,’ he said. Bringing her in front of him, he held her firmly in place. ‘I live my life causing the least inconvenience I can to everyone around me.’

  ‘You mean you’re stuck in the past and won’t even glance into the future?’

  ‘I’m sure my business analysts might have something to say about that,’ he said with all the confidence of a hugely successful tycoon.

  ‘Your business analysts? And I bet they keep you warm at night.’

  ‘You don’t know me, so just leave this—’

  ‘I know enough about you to care.’

  As her voice echoed in the lofty barn they both went still. Ethan’s eyes were so dark and reflected a truth so terrible Savannah almost wished she hadn’t brought him to this point. ‘What is it, Ethan?’ she said, reaching out to touch his face. ‘Who did this terrible thing to you?’ They both knew she wasn’t talking about his scars.

  Ethan moved his head away.

  ‘And this time tell me,’ Savannah insisted gently. ‘Don’t insult me with some pallid version of the truth because you’ve decided I can’t take the facts. I can take anything for you—share everything with you—good and bad.’

  Everything hung on this moment, Savannah realised, and yet all she could do now was wait.

  After the longest moment, Et
han shrugged. ‘My stepfather beat me.’

  She knew that.

  ‘When I grew too big for him to beat me, he paid others to do it for him.’

  She knew that too. ‘Go on,’ she prompted softly.

  ‘There is no more to tell.’

  No more Ethan wanted to tell, perhaps. ‘I don’t believe you.’ Her voice barely made it above a whisper, but he’d heard her.

  Ethan stared over her head as the seconds ticked past, and then he revealed his innermost demon. ‘When I had recovered from the accident I visited my mother to try to heal things between us. Whatever had happened in the past, she was still my mother, and I had to believe she didn’t really understand what had been going on.’

  As Ethan stopped speaking Savannah felt the pain of his disappointment so keenly she didn’t even need to hear the rest, but she knew she had to let him say it.

  ‘She had known,’ he said in a voice pitched low. ‘My mother had known all along. She knew all of it.’

  What hurt Savannah the most was that she could still hear the surprise in Ethan’s voice. For a moment she found it impossible to speak or even breathe, and could only communicate the compassion she felt for him with her eyes.

  ‘She told me I got in the way…She said I was always in the way, and that she wished I had never been born. She said she never wanted to see me again, which I could understand, really.’

  ‘No!’ As Ethan made a dismissive gesture, Savannah caught hold of his hand and held it firmly. ‘No, Ethan, no; that’s not right. You must never think that. You did nothing wrong—not then, not as a child, not ever.’ She understood now why Ethan kept so much hidden. Having been betrayed by his own mother, how could he ever reveal his feelings to anyone again? He had to know she was here for him on any terms, Savannah determined, and that part of the bargain said she would be strong—even strong enough to let him go, if that was what Ethan really wanted.

  But as he shifted position, and she saw his wounded face set in that distant mask, she knew she had to give their chance to be together one more try.

  ‘What better scheme than ours to bury those demons in your past once and for all? What greater triumph could you have, Ethan?’

  Ethan remained silent for the longest moment, and then he murmured with a flicker of the old humour, ‘Our scheme?’

  ‘Why not our scheme?’

  ‘Because you seem to be doing pretty well on your own.’

  ‘But we can do so much more together.’ She waited for his answer, tense in every fibre of her being.

  ‘Is that right?’ he said dryly, flicking a glance her way.

  At least they’d made contact, Savannah thought with relief. ‘I’m sure of it,’ she said fiercely.

  ‘So you’ve found a way out of the darkness?’

  The glint was back in Ethan’s eyes—and that was more than a relief, it was a reminder of their first night together at the palazzo. He had come back to her. Seizing his hands, she brought them to her lips. ‘We’ll get through this,’ she promised him.

  ‘I already have.’

  ‘Then you have no excuse.’

  ‘Not to shine a light?’ As Savannah smiled, he wondered how he could ever have been foolish enough to imagine life without her.

  ‘I need you, Ethan,’ she told him passionately. ‘We all need you.’

  ‘Well, I don’t know about everyone,’ he admitted gruffly. ‘But you’ve got me, Ms Ross—and for keeps.’

  ‘What are you saying, Ethan?’

  ‘I’m saying that I love you, and that I want to be with you always.’

  Savannah swallowed deep as Ethan looked at her. ‘I take it you’ll be staying on, then?’

  ‘Even a rugby match couldn’t keep me away from you,’ Ethan assured her. ‘Unless England was playing, of course…’

  EPILOGUE

  THE SUN blazed down from a clear, blue Tuscan sky, and there were no shadows on the day that Savannah married Ethan. The world’s press had gathered in the exquisite ancient city of Florence for what everyone was calling the celebrity marriage of the year.

  For the farm girl, and the tycoon better known to the world as the Bear, this was quite an occasion, Savannah thought. As the bells rang out and the crowd cheered, it was a struggle to wrap her mind around the fact that she really was married to the man she adored. Standing on time worn steps next to Ethan outside the Basilica de Santa Maria di Fiore, a cathedral church only exceeded in size by St Peter’s in Rome, she only had to see the guard of honour formed by the youngsters Ethan now made time to coach on a regular basis to know that miracles did happen—and that, yes, dreams did come true.

  ‘All right?’ Ethan murmured, squeezing her arm.

  Better than all right. She adored him. He was without question the most wonderful man in the world. And apart from making her so happy he had extended the reach of the training scheme—which had meant leasing more space from her parents in order to house the office of the newly expanded training business, saving the farm, as well as giving them the little luxuries they’d lived so long without.

  And her recording career? Well, she’d just signed a contract to complete a new album, and after that studio work and the occasional personal appearance at the world-famous opera house Glynebourne in Lewes, Sussex, just down the road from Ethan’s new home that adjoined her parents’ farm. He’d told Savannah she was to have her cake and—for the sake of the large family they planned to have—to eat it as well. Their mission, the newly married couple had decided, was to fill all of Ethan’s homes with love, laughter and lots of light—and if possible with a rugby team of their own.

  ‘You look so beautiful,’ Ethan said, standing a little behind Savannah so the crowd had a good view of her.

  ‘And you are the most beautiful man on earth.’ To her he was and always would be. Now Ethan’s inners scars were healed, he had no blemishes. ‘And I love you,’ she said.

  ‘More than life itself,’ Ethan agreed, smiling into Savannah’s eyes. ‘Now, let them have a good look at your dress.’

  Oh, yes, her dress…Her very special dress in ivory silk, lavishly embroidered with seed pearls and thousands of twinkles that sparkled in the sun. It had been lovingly made for Savannah by her regular team of seamstresses in the far north of England, who knew a thing or two about showing off the fuller figure to best advantage. Who else would she have chosen to make her wedding gown, to ensure there wasn’t the slightest chance she would suffer a wardrobe malfunction similar to the one that had brought the crowd at the Stadio Flaminio to its feet in Rome? In this dress her assets were displayed to full advantage, a fact that had not gone overlooked by her adoring Bear.

  ‘Cover yourself, woman,’ Ethan growled as Savannah’s silk-chiffon veil billowed back and away from her naked shoulders.

  ‘If I don’t, will you carry me off and keep me safe as you did on the day we first met?’ Savannah asked him.

  She managed a solemn face for as long as it took her to ask Ethan that question, and as his mouth tugged at one corner he allowed, ‘With one small change.’

  ‘Which is?’

  ‘I wouldn’t waste so much time before taking you to bed.’

  ‘Is that a promise, husband?’

  ‘You can count on it, wife,’ he murmured as they posed for pictures.

  ‘Then I may just have to stage-manage a wardrobe malfunction.’

  ‘And I might just have to put you over my knee, and—’

  Ethan paused, seeing the official photographer was hopping from foot to foot.

  ‘Smile, please,’ the man begged, indicating that a formal pose, rather than a lover’s confab was called for.

  He barely had to ask.

  Special thanks and acknowledgment to Susan Stephens for her contribution to the International Billionaires miniseries.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-3239-0

  THE RUTHLESS BILLIONAIRE’S VIRGIN

  First North American Publication 2009.

  Copyright © 2009 by Harleq
uin Books S.A.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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