Page 3 of The Damaged Billionaire's Obsession
Crap. It was the worst possible outcome, considering that if there’s been any dark cloud on this otherwise wonderful holiday, it’shim.
Ethan is the one person I’ve heard so much about but somehow never got to meet until the rehearsal dinner yesterday.
He and Jordan, Sabrina’s husband are close friends, and in the year that I’ve been friends with Sabrina, it so happens that Ethan and I never got to meet.
To hear how Sabrina talks about him, you’d think he was an angel fallen from heaven with halo and wings still intact, and I’d been looking forward to finally meeting him on this trip, but I have to say, it’s turning out to be the worst anticlimax of my life.
Suffice it to say that he wasnotas Sabrina had advertised.
The only angelic thing about him is his face. And perhaps his body. Otherwise, Ethan Hawthorne is the rudest, most judgmental man I’ve ever met.
And let’s not forget, the keeper of a giant stick up his ass.
And I can’t imagine how on earth he’d think those yellow glasses are in any way flattering?
I mean, who wears yellow glasses?I’ll tell you who: pimply, nerdy weirdos who fancy themselves an avatar in their favorite video game.
Only this time, nature must have lost the memo and dropped him into a ridiculously attractive body.
The moment I walked into the wedding rehearsal yesterday, the way the man’s gaze had raked over me from way across the room like I was a homeless urchin had made me almost regret my choice of a tight, black leather mini dress and four-inch, thigh-high boots.
Almost.
When Sabrina eventually introduced us, I managed to hide my shock in discovering that the man who’d appeared to be shootingdaggers at me through thoseTerminatorlenses was, in fact, the famed Ethan Hawthorne.
He on the other hand, had his eyebrows flying up in obvious surprise before he schooled his features into polite curiosity.
What was that initial reaction supposed to mean?
Those raised brows, coupled with the fact that I couldn’t see his eyes behind the reflecting lenses, irritated me to no end.
Usually, I welcome interest from men. Thrive on it, actually. But this time, I felt like a lab rat under his perusal.
His attitude rubbed me the wrong way, so I blurted the first thing that came to my mind about him being a poorly designed avatar for a Harvard professor.I knew as soon as it left my mouth that it was the wrong thing to say.
“I’m surprised you know what they’d look like in Harvard,” he’d given me another slow, derisive once-over, his voice a deep baritone, smooth as velvet. “You don’t seem to me like the type to have a clue about such things.”
That stung.
Because I dropped out of high school. Twice.
By the time I eventually found my way into to college, I was already making too much money as a hacker to take school all that seriously. So, I gave up on college, too.
Sabrina immediately slapped him on the arm. “Ethan, come on, that was harsh. I’ll have you know Bonnie is an amazing freelance cyber-security expert. She helped out the gallery when we ran into major problems with our online security. And she built my website from scratch.”
The fact that he couldn’t hide his shock at that piece of information disgusted me. It was those damn eyebrows.
What did you think I was a paid escort?
“I see. So, you’re a hacker, basically.” He murmured, his voice lowered so only I heard him clearly. He might as well have said ‘hooker’ for the expression on his face.
“You bet, Harvard. And if you piss me off, you might wake up to find your precious Acercraft all pwned up.” I replied just as softly, referring to his multi-billion-dollar online gaming company.
“I highly doubt that, sweetheart.” His almost whispered tone was condescending.
It was true; I was bluffing. I wouldn’t do that to Jordan, who co-manages the company with Ethan. Besides, law enforcement would easily trace it to me after the threat I’d just made.
However, just the thought of bringing the proud man to his knees had me smirking in satisfaction.