Marrying Mari (15 page)

Irene hooted. “They have! Oh, fantastic!” She laughed again.

“Irene!” Allison shook her head. “And you’re a bike messenger.”

“Yes, ma’am. Allison. I’m going to school at night. I hope to go to med school in a couple of years.”

“Oh?”

Hearing the doubt in Allison’s voice, Mari went on, “I stopped taking classes last spring. I couldn’t afford to go to class and keep working.” Mari heard herself and cringed. She so wanted Ethan’s family to like her. Gabriel and Ethan’s family.

Irene said, “I admire your ambitions. Well, money will not be a problem if you’re going to mate with Ethan and Gabriel.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I just mean they’re both ridiculously rich. Helping you realize your dreams won’t be any hardship for them.”

Mari flashed back on the morning’s conversation and the agreement she’d made to let Gabriel and Ethan give her money for a semester’s courses. The chilly feeling in her chest expanded to include a tight stomach.

“Perhaps Mariella doesn’t feel comfortable discussing her financial arrangements with Ethan and Gabriel in front of us.” Allison’s voice was cool.

“We don’t have any financial arrangements, of any kind.” Now she was blushing for a different reason. Mari stood up. “Where can I wash my hands, please,” she asked.

“Upstairs and to your left,” Allison said.

“Thanks.” She fled inside. Behind her she could hear Irene say, “Mother!’ and simply walked faster.

Mari was struck by the elegance and luxury throughout the house. Just like the duplex. So unlike her own tiny apartment. She stopped looking and focused on finding the bathroom. She locked the door behind her and sat on the edge of the tub.

Taking a deep breath, she covered her face with her hands.
Oh my God,
she thought,
I’m a gold digger.
His family thinks—
oh my God…

There was a knock on the door. “Mari, open up. Right now.”

She stood up and checked her face in the mirror. Smiled.
Okay.
Unlocked the door and opened it. “What?”

He crowded her back into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

“Ethan,” She shoved at him.

“Mariella?” Ethan put his hands on her upper arms and studied her. “My incredibly dumb sister told me what she said. She was afraid she upset you.”

“She didn’t—” She stopped. “It wasn’t—”

Ethan just looked at her.

She looked at him. “How rich are you?”

He sighed. “Disgustingly rich. Family money, adding up since the seventeenth century. I have mine in trust, plus a third of my parents’ money after they’ve passed on, years from now. Practically inflation-proof, depression-proof, recession-proof. Ridiculous salary. The very smart investments I’ve made have increased it too.”

“How rich is Gabriel?”

“Worse. He’s an only child, and comes from a long line of only children on both sides. Plus Insatiable and Crave are terribly popular and make him, and by the way me, his business partner, even more ridiculous amounts of cash. Which I have also intelligently invested for him, so there’s more.”

“Oh God. I’m a gold digger.”

Ethan laughed and pulled her close. “No, you’re not.”

“Your family thinks so.”

He held her against him and she could feel the rumble of his deliciously rich voice in her chest. “Hardly. They’re just grateful some woman is willing to take me. The money won’t compensate you for my many, many faults.”

“Don’t laugh.” She looked up at him, fiercely. “I don’t want your money. I want—”

“What, baby? What do you want?” His voice was low, rough.

She looked away, then back at him. “You and Gabriel, all right? Not your bloody money.”

“Sorry, it’s a package.” He stroked her hair gently. “Can’t get rid of it. Gabe and I try. We give it away, invest it everywhere, dump it into stupid things like wind power and solar farms and small entrepreneurs. It just keeps growing.”

She thumped him with a fist. “You’re laughing at me!”

He nodded. “A little bit. You see, it’s nice to have someone
not
like our money, to be totally and completely uninterested in it. Makes me very happy.” Ethan cupped her face. “Very, very happy.” He kissed her, a soft kiss that turned into more. Mari parted her lips for his tongue and pressed back, wrapping one arm around his waist, sliding the other up to circle his neck and pull him down, closer, tighter.

He slipped both arms under her bottom, lifting her. “Up,” he gritted against her mouth. She pushed up off her toes as he lifted, and wrapped her legs around his waist, both arms now around his neck, never breaking the contact between their mouths. He held her easily, setting her on the edge of the vanity. Nipping her lip, he bent to her throat, tasting and kissing her skin under her jaw, stringing open-mouthed kisses down her neck to her collarbone, then across the taut edge of her jaw to her chin and back to her mouth. “God.”

She slipped one hand under the back of his collar, and the other to the front of his shirt, loosening the top buttons so she could push her hand inside, against his burning skin.

Ethan pulled her close, kissing her deeply again and again. He pulled her body flush against his and strummed the fingers of one hand across the rigid tips of her breasts. She gasped. “Your nipples are hard,” he said against her lips. “Do they ache?”

“Yes,” she answered, panting.

“Good. Because I ache all over.” His voice was hard and rough. And he kissed her again.

She buried her hands in his hair and pulled, hard. In response, Ethan snarled against her mouth and kissed her ever more passionately. He shoved his hands under her top and pushed it up, cupping his palms against the curves of her breasts. “I want you,” he said. “Now.”

“Yes,” she moaned, pulling open the last button on his shirt. She shoved open his shirt and stared at his beautiful, lean body. She kissed his chest and slid her hand down to cover his erection.

“
Now
,” he said, and pushed her back to grab her waistband.

And someone knocked on the bathroom door. “Ethan,” Irene’s voice made Mari freeze. She covered her mouth with her hand.

Irene knocked again. “Mother is about ready to come up here after you. Aunt Jessica is here, and so are Peter and Samantha.”

“Got it,” he gritted out. “Now go away.” They listened as Irene loudly walked away from the door. Ethan looked at her. “Are you all right?”

She nodded, pulling down her top, fiddling with it.

He tipped up her chin. “I’m not. Fucking hell, Mari, I want you, here and now. My cock is so hard I’m ready to come in my pants just from looking at you sitting there. Knowing you want me. If my aunt and cousins weren’t downstairs and if I didn’t know that my mother will be up here in two minutes, which would embarrass you even more, I’d lock that door and not stop until I had you bent over than vanity and was so deep inside you neither of us knew where you started and I stopped. Believe me,” he ground out. He cupped her cheeks and stared at her. “Your eyes go pure silver when you’re aroused. Did you know that?”

“No,” she whispered.

“Other times, they’re a deep, stormy gray, but when you’re turned on they go absolutely molten.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “You are highly dangerous to my control. Now stop trying to seduce me and let’s go meet the relations.”

They straightened their clothes, which took twice as long because Ethan kept “helping” her. Opening the door, they ran smack into Allison, who looked a bit frazzled.

“Thank you. Come downstairs and don’t make me explain where you were.”

“Mari got the door stuck.”

She elbowed him behind his mother’s back.

“Don’t use that excuse, dear, no one will believe it. Especially if you don’t button your shirt straight.” Allison said acidly.

Mari gasped and saw Allison was right. Ethan flushed and sent Mari a meaningful glance. He re-buttoned his shirt while Allison tucked her arm through Mari’s and led the way downstairs, where a heavy-set red-haired woman waited.

“Jessica, this is Mariella Amorini. Her mother is Colony-born. She’s considering becoming Ethan and Gabriel’s third. Mariella, this is my sister Jessica, Ethan’s aunt.” With that, Allison began introducing Mari to Ethan’s relatives and close family friends.

She was caught up in what became an endless parade of relatives. When there was a break and Allison disappeared into the kitchen to check on dessert, Mari took the opportunity to pull another bottle of water from the ice chest.

As she was bent over, searching, someone said, “Cousin Peter, meet Mari.”

She straightened. Tony and another man, about Ethan’s age, stood behind her. She suspected they’d been checking out her ass. She was sure of it when the man smirked at her and held out his right hand. “I’m Peter Wynn, Jessica’s son. Ethan and Tony’s full-blooded cousin.”

Mari put her hand in his but he didn’t shake it. Instead he rubbed his thumb across the back and gave her an up-and-down look that missed no details, especially her breasts. Her eyes narrowed. If he wasn’t Ethan’s cousin, she’d think he was leering at her. And not too subtly. She glanced at Tony and saw a tinge of what she thought might be embarrassed color along his cheekbones. But then he shoved his hands in the pockets of his neatly pressed khakis and smirked at her, too.

Well, at least he’d changed his clothes, Mari thought. She shifted her attention to Peter, who was still caressing her hand. She tried to pull it back, but his grip tightened.

“Can I have my hand back?” she said.

“I don’t know. Can you?” Peter said. His eyes focused on her face. She didn’t like the way he looked at her.

She glanced again at Tony, but he was gazing off as if nothing was happening.

“So how did Ethan and Gabriel get mixed up with you? Such a hot little outsider.”

“You should ask them,” she said flatly. And jerked her hand out of his.

Peter grinned. “Wild. I like that.”

She rolled her eyes.

Irene stepped up to the group. “Hey, guys.” She glanced around, frowned. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Tony shrugged.

Peter settled an arm around Irene’s shoulders. “Just teasing the new kid. I like her.” His tone was casual, without the smirk. Mari blinked at the change. All of a sudden, Peter seemed harmless. He kissed Irene’s temple and gave Mari a wink. “I see what attracted Ethan and Gabe to her. She’s great.” He walked away and after a second Tony followed him.

Irene watched them, then turned back to Mari. “Sorry about that. Sometimes my cousin is a jerk.”

She forced a smile. “No problem.”

Irene nodded and sighed. “Look, about what I said earlier, it was stupid.”

“Don’t worry about it. I know about your brother’s money. He and I fight about it daily. I just don’t want you to think that’s why I’m with him.”

“I saw how you looked at him. Gabriel too. And how they looked at you. I know exactly why you’re with him, girlfriend.” Irene bumped hips with her and they laughed. “Is there any more beer on ice?”

Ethan cornered his mother in the kitchen. Allison was setting out a couple of pies, carefully slicing neat triangles in the crust. He watched for a moment, then said, “Mother?”

Smiling, she looked up. “Darling. Help me lay out napkins and forks.” She went back to the task under her knife.

Ethan stepped to the familiar drawers and cupboards of his childhood. “Thanks for being so kind to Mari. She was afraid you wouldn’t like her.”

His mother spoke without looking away from the movements of the knife. “That’s silly, Ethan. Tell me more about Mariella. How did you find her?”

Ethan told Allison about Okuni and his notion of looking for young women who had left the Colony. “Do you remember her mother?” he asked.

“No. Have you met her yet?” Allison responded.

Ethan shook his head. “It’s all been so fast.”

Allison looked thoughtful. “Don’t you think you should, both you and Gabriel should meet her as soon as possible, just in case?”

“In case of what?”

Allison shrugged. “I don’t know. This Okuni didn’t give you very much background on her or her family. We don’t know why her mother left the Colony, and you don’t seem to know much about the father. They’re divorced, which is unfortunate. He seems to have some kind of bad blood, if what Mariella tells me about his infidelity is true.” She turned and looked at her son. “Ethan, Mariella is an outsider. She wasn’t brought up here, doesn’t know our traditions. Now, wait,” Allison held up a hand as Ethan started to speak. “She is a pretty girl and I know you like pretty girls, but you could be dealing with some kind of deeper problems. Why is she a bicycle messenger? If she wants to be a doctor she must have some ambition, but spending years riding a bike and delivering packages doesn’t sound very mature.”

“Mother.” Her concern touched him and irritated him at the same time. “She works as a bike messenger because she’s on her own financially. She had savings, but tuition and fees ate it all up quicker than she imagined. And she didn’t quit school, she’s just taken a hiatus to earn enough to continue.” His mother pursed her lips and focused on the food in front of her on the counter. “What?” Ethan smiled indulgently. He knew that look.