“I’m sure. I hope he knows just how damned lucky he is,” Ethan said, eyes turned to hers for a few intense moments that caught Mandy’s breath before he suddenly grinned and said, “Hang on, beautiful.”
Mandy’s heart pummeled as he shot them off into the night at a speed that had her feeling as though the car was flying. Mandy felt the hard vibrations of the powerful engine rumbling beneath her while she watched, very impressed, as Ethan handled the powerful car with ease as it ate up the miles.
Mandy didn’t know how far out of the city they’d gone, but with a car like this, Mandy couldn’t blame him for his need for speed and long, open roads. She had to admit it was kind of exciting - Mandy felt like she was in a Fast and Furious movie. Damn, this car could move like the wind.
“Where are we, anyway?” she asked curiously.
“We’re not that far out of town. We’re actually close to the place I used to live in when I was a kid. That is, after I was adopted.”
“Oh,” Mandy said slowly. She’d read up a little about that. There wasn’t much there, just that Ethan had lost both his parents when he was five and then moved from foster home to foster home before being adopted at age ten by a successful writer. Robert Tyler had just lost his wife at that time and had two daughters of his own.
By the time Ethan was twelve, Robert remarried the starlet Kylie Barnes, who was fifteen years younger than the forty-year-old Robert. Mandy had seen pictures of the woman who became Ethan’s mother; Kylie had been a beautiful, winsome redhead and one of the most desirable women in the industry. Now, she worked mainly in theater and was still making all the sexiest-women lists at age thirty-five.
Mandy was sad to hear that Robert had died a couple of years ago from some kind of cancer. She couldn’t help but feel for Ethan, thinking of his tough upbringing, his rough background, and how far he’d come despite it all. Not many people really knew he’d been an orphan and then adopted, taking Robert Tyler’s name. And now, here Ethan was, a very talented member of an insanely successful band. Each one of them was famous in their own right, but Ethan had always stood out in so many ways - his sinful blond beauty, his on-stage fearlessness…now she understood where it all began. The desire to be loved, to be accepted, and wanted. The desperate need to feel as though he had family…from the hardcore fans to the soft, loving groupies, he found what he needed in everything and anyone around him.
“It must have been hard for you, losing your father.”
“He was the best person I knew. When he died, my sisters – his daughters – put the house on the market. They didn’t want to keep it because it was too big and they have homes and families of their own. So I bought it, did some remodeling, and turned it into a kind of secret hideaway where I can go when I need to just get away from it all. It’s only just finished and no one but me has really had a look yet. I was hoping you’d like to see it.”
“Ethan, I’d love to, but I don’t know that I should be brought into that part of your life. The private part of your world.” She glanced his way cautiously. “I mean, considering that you and I barely know each other, it’s rather,” she fought for the right word, “inappropriate, and...”
“Because I want you?” he asked, his tone calm. “I won’t lie, Mandy, I do. So much that it’s hard to think straight. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you ever since we met and for some reason, no other woman remotely interests me now. There I was with the usual handful of groupie chicks tonight and all I could think of was, I wonder what Mandy is doing.”
Mandy went hot and cold at the same time. Her mind had sort of shut down halfway through and she had to remind herself to breathe and get the oxygen running through her brain again. She turned to stare at him, but all she got was his profile, his expression sober.
“I’ve never really had a crush before,” he murmured thoughtfully. “It feels…great. But frustrating. Because now I want to be with you all the time. I want to tell you all my deep, dark secrets, want to take you all around the world and show you the beautiful places I’ve seen and have always wanted to share with someone special. I want to make you laugh and cry…but in all the best ways. You’re the first woman to push me to extremes – half the time I want to be your hero, and the other half all I can think about is fucking your brains out. So yes, Mandy – this is all totally inappropriate.”
He was still staring out onto the dark highway, his words coming out smooth and calm, while Mandy stared at him in disbelief. The lights, the movement, the speed of the car all blurred into a stream of distorted color, and she found herself fumbling for the right words, the right reaction, the right way to say it all. She came up blank.