fingers tightened rather than relaxed, her leather jacket proving no barrier to the pain of his fingers biting into her arms.
‘I’m hurting you?’ He thrust her firmly away from him, his gaze raking over her mercilessly. ‘Do you have any idea—any idea at all—of the heartache you caused your father—have continued to cause him—by just disappearing in that way five years ago?’
‘But I’m sure my leaving didn’t affect you in the same way—did it, Ethan?’ she murmured scornfully.
‘Would you believe me if I were to say yes?’
‘No.’
His mouth tightened.
‘God, I was such an innocent. Such a fool!’ She gave a pained groan.
‘Because you were attracted to me?’
‘Because I was stupid enough to think that you were attracted to me!’
He frowned darkly. ‘I was attracted to you—’
‘Oh, please, Ethan.’ Mia gave a fierce shake of her head. ‘What you were attracted to was my father’s bank account and Burton Industries. You and your mother, both!’
‘I should be careful what you say next, Mia …’ Ethan’s tone was icy with warning.
A warning Mia had absolutely no interest in. ‘At least I had the good sense to get out. Whereas my father—’
‘I said stop, Mia.’
‘It’s really not important now anyway.’ She gave an uninterested
shrug. ‘Five years later you both appear to be exactly where you always wanted to be—your mother is married to my father and you’re running Burton Industries!’
Ethan’s face looked as if it had been carved out of stone. ‘You really do believe that’s all I wanted all along?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Mia assured him with feeling. ‘You’ve always done exactly what was in the best interests of Ethan Black! And—to set the record straight—I didn’t disappear five years ago. I left.’
‘You disappeared, damn it!’ Ethan grimaced. ‘Just dropped out part-way through your second year of university, dropped me, and left!’
‘I was twenty years old. And, unless I’m mistaken, in this country that’s classed as being an adult, capable of making your own decisions. Besides, I left my father a note—’
‘“Don’t bother looking for me because you won’t find me.”’ Ethan quoted disgustedly. ‘What the hell sort of letter is that to leave anyone—least of all the man who had loved and cared for you since the day you were born?’
Mia’s eyes narrowed. ‘Even that was more than he deserved!’
‘More than he deserved …?’ he repeated softly.
‘Yes!’ She didn’t at all care for the revulsion she could read in Ethan’s expression. ‘And I only left him that much so he wouldn’t decide to report me as missing to the police!’
‘And what about me, Mia? What did I deserve? The two of us were dating, sleeping together, when you decided to pull that disappearing act!’
‘It was the boss’s daughter you were sleeping with, Ethan. Not me,’ she dismissed scathingly.
‘That isn’t true.’ Ethan frowned.
‘Whether it’s true or not is unimportant—now as well as then. Just knowing of your connection to the woman who helped to make a fool of my mother was—and still is—enough reason for me never to want to see or hear from you ever again,’ Mia stated flatly.
Ethan drew in a ragged breath. ‘Okay, let’s forget about our own relationship if it makes you happy—’
‘Oh, it does!’
‘But William is your father—’
‘Something—along with you and your mother—I’ve been trying to forget for the past five years!’ She turned her back on him to walk away, and sat down on a wooden bench looking out over the parkland. She was hoping that Ethan wouldn’t follow her, but was not altogether surprised when, after a few seconds’ hesitation, he walked that same short distance and sat on the other end of the bench.
The two of them sat in uneasy silence for several long minutes.
‘He didn’t report you missing but he—we certainly looked for you.’ Ethan finally broke that silence, his voice huskily soft.
‘Don’t bother with the “we”, Ethan,’ she cut in dryly. ‘My father may have been too lovestruck by your mother to have realised it, but I certainly know that it wasn’t in your best interests for me to be found.’
‘Another piece of your own unique logic?’
‘Not at all,’ she said. ‘Once I had been removed from the equation it allowed both you and your mother to move in on my father.’
‘Damn you—’
‘No doubt,’ Mia accepted ruefully.
‘Okay, I can see there’s no reasoning with you on the subject of my mother or me—but what about your father?’
‘What about him?’
‘How could you just turn your back on him in that way?’ Ethan gave an impatient shake of his head. ‘William searched for you for months. Years! No lead was too small for him to follow up. No possible sighting of you too ridiculous for him to investigate.’
Mia didn’t so much as glance at him. ‘And to think that I never left London.’
‘You—?’ Ethan gave a disbelieving shake of his head. ‘You were here in the city all the time?’
‘Yes.’ She gave a humourless smile. ‘Don’t look so shocked,
Ethan; haven’t you heard that the best way to avoid detection by the enemy is by staying right under his nose!’
‘None of us were ever your enemy.’
‘No?’
‘No!’ Ethan eyed her in frustration. ‘Damn it!’ He began to pace. ‘So where exactly were you in London?’
Mia’s cheeks warmed at his obvious disgust. ‘I stayed with friends for the first couple of months.’
‘We—William contacted all of your friends to see if any of them had seen or heard from you and they all said they hadn’t!’
She raised her brows. ‘They were my friends, Ethan, not his.’
‘With friends like that …!’ His jaw tightened. ‘Where did you go after you
