The Billionaire's Marriage Contract(35)

“My grandmother raised me. My parents were young and dumb, and my father got my mother pregnant on her prom night. They weren’t even a couple. He was a friend of a friend or something like that, and my mother never told my father about me. Anyway, my mother had gotten into college, and she deferred the first year to give birth, but then she went, and left my grandmother to raise me. My mother hasn’t really been in my life. She got a job in California when she graduated from college. She ended up marrying her boss. They’ve got two kids and live on the coast. I don’t blame her for the way things happened, but I don’t exactly want her in my life either. I think she understands.”

“I didn’t know,” Amy replied. She felt bad for having teased him like that.

“I’ve done my best to hide that fact,” Ethan said. “Especially since it doesn’t fit the devil-may-care persona you and I created for tech wunderkind Ethan Cole. My grandmother was really the only family I had. She passed away four years ago. I took her death really hard. She meant everything to me. I think she’d have approved of you. She liked strong-minded women, and she didn’t approve much of the women I started dating on the ‘Haven Plan.’ She was about one of three people in the world who knew the real me.”

“And who are the other two?” Amy asked.

“You and me,” Ethan said. “Everyone else in the world has bought our little lie.”

“Which one?” Amy asked. Seeing as only a handful of people knew about their marriage, Amy knew which lie Ethan was talking about, but she liked the verbal back and forth a bit too much to let go at this point.

Ethan smirked and laughed. “That I am the biggest jackass in the world.”

“You know, when you’re not being a jackass, you’re really quite sweet,” Amy said. She smiled and reached forward, placing her hand on Ethan’s cheek.

“Now you just feel sorry for me,” Ethan said.#p#分页标题#e#

“Yeah, I have a lot of pity for the young and handsome billionaire,” Amy replied.

“You forgot humble,” Ethan added.

“Yeah, that’s right, I forgot,” Amy said. “What else do we have to work on?”

Ethan reached forward and placed his hand on Amy’s waist. He pulled her onto his lap, and she felt a rush of excitement as she pressed her chest against his. “Let’s talk about kissing,” Ethan replied.

“What about it?” Amy was half disappointed to feel Ethan’s bathing suit between them.

“I was just thinking back to this morning, and I wanted to know what you thought about it.”

“I thought it was pretty convincing for a fake kiss,” Amy replied. She had a pretty good idea of what Ethan was suggesting with the question.

Ethan smiled at her. “If that was fake, then I’d love to hear what you think a real kiss should be like,” he said.

“So, Mr. Experienced, tell me, what’s a real kiss supposed to feel like?”

“Besides good? There are many different kind of kisses, Amy. There are first kisses, and there are the uncertain, hurried ones that follow, and there are the kisses of couples who have known everything about each other for years.”

“Are you finally showing me some of that charm I’ve heard so much about, the charisma that seems to get you in trouble again and again?”

“Well, why don’t you tell me what you think?” Ethan replied. “Let’s start at the beginning. What do you think a first kiss should be?”

“I think a first kiss should be like a barn fire.”

“A barn fire?” Ethan asked.

“Yeah, have you ever seen one burn before? I was twelve when I saw one. It was a summer before my first kiss, but I can still remember the heat and the way the flames curled up around that barn like a fist. I want a first kiss to take hold like that, to completely devastate me.”

“If you’re going to go with the flame idea, then a first kiss should be a candle,” Ethan replied.

“How so?” Amy asked.

“You have to be careful not to build it into something it isn’t. A first kiss is a promise. It’s a hint, a hope. It makes you feel like your standing at the edge of a cliff looking down. It’s disorienting. It’s new, and it leaves you with just enough that you know you want more. You know you’ll do whatever it takes to see where the next kiss will take you.” Ethan reached over and placed his hand on Amy’s shoulder, tracing his finger toward her collarbone. Even in the hot tub, she shivered in anticipation. “That’s a real first kiss. It’s a promise. And in that first kiss, as I run my hands over your shoulders or down your sides, as you press your frame against mine, you’ll know what I mean. Everything else will fade away, leaving only that need, burning deep inside you.”