by Ruby Scott
"Something wrong?" He said. When she met his eyes again, she felt jarring sensation like she'd been jostled on a train.
"Uh..no," she mumbled. "I was expecting your last name to be Burney."
He smiled pleasantly, and it didn't reach his eyes. She felt a desperate swooping feeling in her stomach. Ella closed her eyes. "My grandfather's name," he explained. "I understand you expected a lot of things."
"Sir," Ella started, reaching for words that weren't there. "I'm so sorry." Ethan held up a hand, and Ella was glad because she was done. "I understand regime changes aren't the easiest things to deal with. But I'd like to clear some things up. This is not a soulless conglomerate or anything like it."
Ella felt her face burn with embarrassment and hoped her skin wouldn't show it.
"Like Jacob---and I gather you've realized I knew him before his death---I want to make insurance a reality for shifters like it is for everyone else. Like Jacob, I believe workplaces are better when you're a family."
Unlike Jacob, you don't know what it is to be a real shifter, Ella thought bitterly, feeling her blood start to boil. Who did this guy think he was? Surprisingly, Ethan laughed. "I see you don't like me comparing myself to Jacob."
Ella blushed again, flustered. "I didn't say---"
"You didn't have to. You should know that your aura gives off your emotions, Ella."
Ella stared at him. Could he read her aura? She let her confusion seep through her anger, watching him carefully.
His eyes widened. "Oh. You didn't know I was a shifter." He laughed heartily, and it infuriated her.
"How was I supposed to know the owner of a huge chain was a shifter? You don't exactly go around publicizing it."
Ethan narrowed his eyes at her. "You know I knew Jacob. Why would Jacob pass his business along to a non-shifter? A business meant to benefit shifters specifically? Why would he even get a non-shifter involved?"
The last of her patience snapped away. "Just call me useless if that's where you're headed with this, Mr. James," She spat. She stood up angrily.
"Whoa!" Ethan threw up his hands and stood as well, his height making the move more impressive. "What's going on? I'm not insulting you." The wispy white tendrils of confusion creeped into his aura. "Why would you think..."
Ella stepped back involuntarily as his eyes burned into hers and she felt the air in the room change; he was feeling her out with his powers. A curious unlocking sensation spread through her body like a wall was crumbling away inside her mind. He must have felt it too, because his eyes widened and leaned against his desk.
"You're not a shifter," He said slowly. "But you can read my aura? How?"
Ella shrugged. She didn't to go into it. When she first met Brandon, she'd found that something about her body made her susceptible to whatever metaphysics made shifters...well, shifters. It was why, Jacob told her, she felt so at home with him; after spending two years with Brandon, she was especially in tune with bears. Their town was dense with bear shifters despite being so small, and it was like being in a constant healing sauna if you opened yourself up to it; the energy flowed both ways. When she bonded with Brandon, that energy was incredible and unique, almost breathtaking. But she could never find that energy again, so she took comfort in familiar energies.
Her aura couldn't spell out words, so Ethan only got a swirl of colors and sensation. Ella was stunned he could read her closely at all, but she was still raw and open after Jacob's death, so she was expecting weird side effects. Ethan stared at her, waiting for her to explain anything. When it became clear he wanted something, Ella decided to give him an edited version.
"My body is different. I can sense energies and read auras, I just don't have whatever that shifter essence is. Jacob understood that and took care of me along with Rachel and the rest of this company when I was in a bad spot. I love them, and they love me. We're a family. I'm a rare exception to a shifter rule, but I have loved more shifters in my life than I've loved humans. And that is why he'd get a non-shifter involved." Her voice took on a hard edge as she spoke, and she realized she was holding back tears.
Ethan wasn't looking at her curiously anymore; his look was gentle, and maybe mixed with pity. "I'm sorry I insulted you, Ms. Morales. I thought you had a less valid reason to rail against me, but I realize now that I may have been insensitive in my judgment. I know that Jacob made an excellent choice in bringing you into his family; I can read that very clearly."
Ella couldn't move her eyes from his gaze. She felt a tugging sensation in her chest, and the air became harder to inhale.
"Thank you, Mr. James." Ella could feel her pulse thrumming through her whole body. A small sliver of dread started to blossom in her stomach. His aura was swirling and changing colors so fast she thought she might be sick.
"Please, call me Ethan." She felt the sensation of a barrier being collapsed again, but stronger, and the ground swayed under her feet. She was grateful she was sitting. Ella gripped the arms of her chair, wanting to leave somehow as badly as she wanted to keep gazing into his eyes.
"Okay. I'll take down my banner...Ethan. For the customers."
He smiled brilliantly. "Thank you, Ms. Morales."
Ella forced herself to stand and propelled herself toward the door. She turned back. "You can call me Ella," she said and hurried out the doorway.
She closed the door behind her and leaned against it, breathing deeply and slowly to steady her heart rate. Now that she was away from him, she could breathe and think. The tension between them was too much to be physical. She walked briskly away, going into the break room to pour herself some too-strong coffee after she took down the banner. Rachel drifted in a few minutes later, and Ella hardly noticed until she spoke.
"Everything ok, dear?" Her voice was gentle, and she could feel the kind energy roiling from her.
Ella smiled. "Yes. Why do you ask?"
Rachel grinned and motioned to her coffee cup. "You've been stirring your coffee for about three minutes."
Ella pulled her hands away. "I like my sugars nicely blended."
"I think," Rachel said under her breath, "that it has something to do with Mr. Ethan."
Ella scoffed, shaking her head vigorously before she remembered that Rachel could definitely read her like a book.
"I made a fool of myself," she said miserably. "And I have some silly crush. That's all." She felt slightly better saying it.
"No," Rachel said then. "That's not all." She sounded so sure that Ella's illusion of comfort was shattered.
"What do you mean?"
Rachel took off her glasses, peering at her intently. "I think you know, Ella. You seem different since you came out of that room. Your energy signature is just...different. You know that only happens to a person when something significant happens. Or..."
"No," Ella said desperately. She grabbed Rachel's hand. "No. He can't be."
"You know fighting against it will only make it worse," Rachel warned. "You've experienced this before. When you met Brandon---"
"Don't!" Ella shouted. Rachel fell silent immediately, frightened. "I'm sorry, Rachel. I just can't talk about this. Not now. Everything is changing, and I can't deal with this too."
"I understand," Rachel said sadly. "I just hope it doesn't start to become dire before you decide you're ready."
"It won't," Ella promised. She smiled and squeezed Rachel's soft hands, but the look of sadness didn't fade from her face.
Rachel turned out to be right. Ella shouldn't have been surprised. Her method of dealing with things she wasn't ready to face was simply to avoid them, so for two weeks, she didn't speak to her boss or go near his office unless she absolutely had to. That meant a lot of asking for favors, and soon everyone who knew Ella was refusing to let her stall any longer The tension between she and Ethan was getting uncomfortable, and he was starting to notice it, but because he knew she was human, he wrote it off as sexual. Ella heard him talking to Ralph, a junior salesman who he'd promoted to his ass
istant, after work in the parking lot.
"I can't get her out of my mind," Ethan said. Ella was in her own car which was two cars behind Ethan's and he we were standing just behind his. He didn't see her scrunched down in her front seat with her window open. "She's so beautiful, but she seems to want nothing to do with me. If she's in the room, I end up staring. I've written her a hundred drafts of emails, asking her to dinner."
"You can't date employees," Ralph said uncertainly. He was a good listener but wasn't great at giving advice.
"We can if we give HR notice," Ethan said. "But it's like I don't have a choice. I'm pulled toward her, and it's not just her charm. I want to be with her. Not like that, Ralph. I mean, yes like that, but it's...no. It's insane. I can't feel this way about someone I barely know."
"You can," Ralph side wisely. He was already married to a woman he proposed to after two months, and they'd been blissful for five years. "Shifters are different."
"She's not a shifter," Ethan said, agitated.
"So?" This was the most she'd ever heard Ralph speak about her, Ella realized. "She's great. You clearly think so, and you're not gonna just get over her overnight."
"So what do you suggest?" Ethan said, exasperated. Ella smiled, knowing that his forehead wrinkled when he was frustrated and it made him look extra cute. Her heart sped up, and she saw him pause. She ducked lower as he turned around, looking for something that caught his attention. "Do you smell that?"
"No," Ralph said, but Ella saw him look right at her. Her heart stopped. "Quit deflecting. Here's what you do: find a way to be alone with her. If the connection is still there after you guys mash it out---whatever way you choose to do that," he said mildly. "Then it's real. Take her back to your den. See if it feels right."
Ethan was quiet. Ella watched the tension melt away from his shoulders and back. "You're right," he said, sounding inspired. He walked toward his car and got in. Ralph followed him, and Ella watched them drive away, the rest of his words lost.
Well, Ella thought as she started her mint green fiat. I just won't let you get me alone.
That proved to be easier said than done. She woke up to an email informing her she was "randomly" chosen to accompany her boss to a new meeting that would discuss the possible acquisition of a new branch. This trip was a great opportunity to see how the sausage was made and to feel like Burney Insurance was really welcoming you to the company. Ella made a mental to smack Ralph in his unexpectedly wise little face; this email had his name all over it.
She told Rachel about it over tea the next morning, and Rachel gave her a knowing look.
"Stop doing that!" She said, and Rachel laughed.
"It's good to see you getting out there," Rachel said. She did look cheerier than usual, and Ella realized the tension between her and Ethan really was having a toll on everyone else.
"I'm not 'getting out there', my boss is trying to trap me into having a date with him." Ella sounded as stubborn as she'd ever felt, and she knew it was childish, but she couldn't help it. "It won't work. I'm not going to be with him. This isn't going to happen to me again."
Rachel patted her shoulder and looked at Ethan through the window to his office. He was shooting glances at Ella when he thought she wasn't looking. "I think it's already happening."
Ella wanted to reply, but she knew it was fruitless. Rachel was always right.
A week later, after still trying to avoid him, Ella was in his SUV for the three-hour drive upstate. After running out of music, the car filled with an awkward silence that Ella was too stubborn to break first.
"Are you excited?" Ethan asked when they were a few minutes away. "These people are a joke, so the meeting will probably be easy. But it will be fun." His face covered in a thin sheen of sweat. "I wouldn't want you to be bored."
"Thanks," Ella said. "I'm always grateful for a nice hotel room."
"You'll love this place," Ethan said. The company has already approved room service, they have a spa, in-room coffee bar."
"Wow," Ella said, blushing. "You really went all out."
She turned and looked him in the eye, daring him to keep talking. He faltered, and seemed confused. Then his eyes hardened and took on a strange heat. A frisson of desire rolled through Ella's body. He was going to take her bait.
"I thought it was a special occasion. I expect you to be pretty tired after all of our activities."
Ella smiled despite herself. "Really? You think you can tire me out?"
"I know I can." They stared at each other for a moment. Then Ella realized the car wasn't moving. He'd already parked.
She got out, embarrassed, promising to behave better for the rest of the weekend. Ethan easily lifted both of their suitcases from the back of the car.
"I stay here a lot on business, so we don't have to check in right away. I own a cabin not far from here." He was walking toward the building, and Ella trotted after him.
"Really? For hunting?" Ella teased.
Ethan smiled. "I go there to be alone with my thoughts. I travel so much, and being around shifters constantly means a lot of energy and new relationships. It gets draining." His face was contemplative. "So I go there to think. It's in the woods past Rudy's diner. If you turned off there and went up the trail behind it, you could find the cabin. Not easily, mind you. You'd have to go west past a bridge, a little waterfall...I've walked it a million times."
His handsome face became beatific while he spoke of his cabin, and Ella wanted to kiss him so badly she actually put her hands in her pockets. They'd stopped in front of a door. "Here we are." He set down his suitcase and unlocked the door.
The door opened on to a spacious room with the biggest bed Ella had ever seen. He set the suitcases by a dresser, and Ella watched his muscular body move through the room. He took off his jacket and slung it over a chair next to an ornate oak table. There was a doorway leading to a bathroom with a huge glass encased shower and a sunken tub. A flatscreen television took up a whole wall. The bed looked like it could fit eight people comfortably. Ella felt happiness flood her body. Then something clicked.
"Wait," Ella said. "Are we sharing this room?" The sound of running water distracted her from the question.
She turned toward the doorway in time to see Ethan walking away, completely nude. Desire ripped through her, and she gasped though he was already out of the room when she did.
"Yeah," Ethan called. "I hope you don't mind."
Ella sat on the bed gingerly, mind casting about for an escape. When she found none, she sat quietly and tried not to think of water cascading down his body, finely muscled and defined like the statue of David. His ass had been so well sculpted that she could picture it pumping as he drove himself into her, maybe pushing his cock into her wetness from behind, massaging the plumpness of her ass while he sank into her so deep---
Stop! Ella shut her eyes and buried her face in her hands.
"Why did you bring me?" She said out loud.
"Because you're charming and qualified," Ethan said. Ella hadn't known he could hear her. He was apparently out of the shower.
"I just don't understand why you chose me to come with you to this conference, and not a shifter."
There was the sound of running water from a tap, and shaving cream being sprayed from a can. "You know shifters. You've worked with them for years, and you knew them before you started working here---you said so yourself." She scoffed at the answer but felt the familiar press of emotional energy around her heart.
"Sure. Like Rachel isn't more knowledgeable."
"Rachel isn't personable like you. She's less business-savvy."
Ella seethed silently. It made sense, but she still didn't like it. She knew now that the potential for a bond was there, but she didn't want it to be. He was so busy he hardly had time to see his actual family, and he was rich, but that made him less relatable to her. Ethan was a lot of things, but she didn't think boyfriend material was one of them.
"Put on that red thing you w
ere wearing the first time I saw you tomorrow, won't you? It's really distracting, and I think the company we're meeting with is full of a bunch of walking STDs."
Ella felt rage stir inside of her. "Why the hell would I want to be appealing to those people?"
"Because it's in our best interest to knock them off guard. Also, I hear you're their type."
Ella was silent.
"Ella?"
"My type?" Ella said angrily. She looked down at her thick thighs and curving belly. Her hand gathered into a fist. "What? Fat? Exotic? Feisty?"
Ethan poked his head through the doorway, frowning. "Confident, witty, and please forgive me for saying this, but built like a brick house. You look great Ella, but I'm sure you don't care about my opinion. Or, at least, you don't want me to think you do."
"I don't---"
He held a hand up. "Please. You've seen the way I look at you. It isn't professional at all, and for some reason it's really hard for me to stop."
"I don't care about you being professional, I just want you to be honest. And not an asshole."
Ethan came around the doorway and Ella gasped. He was still naked. She turned away quickly, but she saw his partially erect penis before she could stop herself from looking, and the heavy pressure in her chest became a little weightier.
"Oh my god," she murmured. Ethan was amused.
"You're around shifters all the time, surely you're used to casual nudity."
"Well, you're my boss!"
"You never saw your boss nude?"
Ella remembered seeing him shift several times. He'd ambled around nude then, but his belly was enormous and made his Ella’s less obvious, plus he was a father figure to her. Ethan was built like a linebacker, and it would take a big belly to make his bathing suit area less conspicuous.
She turned to look him in the eye, and he smiled. He walked toward her slowly.
"I didn't know you were shy," he teased. He looked her up and down, and Ella shivered. "That's a shame."
He was inches from her now, and it was like someone was wrapping rubber bands around their bodies, making it impossible for them to pull away.
