Chapter 18

“That was amazing!”

My voice resonated in the air as I spoke excitedly into the mic. The reporter before me had a sly grin on her face.

“Tell me about your honeymoon, Skylar. It looked like you had good fun.” She smiled as she spoke, and I was obliged to reciprocate.

Zac was watching me over the throng of people, widening his eyes, trying to convey something to me. I ignored him and responded to her.

“That’s because it’s so true.” I chuckled. “I’ve always loved going to London. It’s one of my favorite places. I totally love my husband for taking me there.”

Zac facepalmed and I could see that he was inwardly groaning. He gestured me not to do anything stupid, but I could just do so much as frown at him. We were done partying and just came out to have a bunch of reporters ready to bombard me with questions. Zac came later so he was still not their target yet.

As soon as they saw me, they started asking me questions. I answered most of them, but Zac kept glaring at me. I didn’t get why he was worried. I was handling everything amazingly well so far, what was the problem? I didn’t see why he was overreacting. He was definitely drunk.

“Oh, did he plan it for you?”

“Yes,” I said, clutching the microphone. “He surprised me. I didn’t know about it at all. I could really love him for just that.”

Zac shook his head and started to make his way towards me.

“Well, you’re seeming to have a lot of fun with your co-stars here.” Another one asked.

“What can we say?” Zac stopped me before I could say anything. “We’re almost done with the filming, so it called for a party. It’s been a long time we hung out like this, so we’ve had a lot of fun. Thank you very much for your questions, but we gotta go now.”

Zac and I smiled into the cameras and made our way through the media. Zac kept a neutral look on his face until we reached his car and got into it.

“Skylar, are you insane?” He asked. “You just gave a drunk interview!”

“Oh, please don’t exaggerate.” I rolled my eyes, as the driver hit the road. He gave me a flat look. “I’m not drunk. Okay, maybe a little, but I can handle it.”

“Skylar, you just told them you love your husband! You’re definitely drunk.”

“What, every wife loves her husband. Is it something to be worried about, George?” I bent over and asked Zac’s driver, who was giving me a small smile.

“Not at all, Ms. Skylar.”

“George, don’t support her.”

“What? George is on my team. Shove it up your ass.” I said and leaned back.

“Ethan is going to skin me alive.” He mumbled to himself and put his head in his hands.

“Ugh, shut up, Zac-”

“Skylar, you don’t know what you just did.” Zac said, “You gave an interview while you were drunk. What if they find out about this?”

“I didn’t speak anything wrong,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

“We don’t know that until tomorrow morning when we read the news articles.” He said. “I’m never hanging out with you again.”

“Aw, don’t say that. I thought we’re close.”

“Don’t use it against me now.” He rolled eyes at me. “You know I should have never let you talk me into this. Seriously, why did I agree to go partying with you? I’m really an idiot.”

“Hey, don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it. You literally flirted with every girl that crossed your path.”

“Skylar just goes to sleep. I’ll wake you up when we reach your house.”

“We’re here, Zac,” George announced from the front.

“Thank god.” Zac heaved a sigh of relief. “Skylar, I need you to head home straight and not do anything stupid on the way.”

“Of course, I’m too tired anyway,” I said and got out of the car.

Minutes later, I found myself going up the elevator. I leaned back onto the metal until I heard a ping, giving me a heads up that my time to leave it has come. I sighed and made my way to our house and dug my purse for the keys.

Before I could find the keys and open the door by myself, it swung open from the other side. A stern and serious look was observed on Ethan’s face.

“Thank god you opened the door; I couldn’t find the keys...” I trailed off as I walked past him.

Ethan closed the door behind us and caught hold of my wrist. “Where were you?”

“I went to a party!!” My face beamed with excitement, “You have no clue how amazing–”

“God, Skylar, are you insane?” He snapped at me. “There is a bunch of men looking out for you and you let yourself get wasted and hang out in a party with no bodyguard around? Are you even for real?”

“I’m not wasted.”

“You are.” He snapped at me again in anger. “Christ. Do you know how worried I was? William doesn’t know where you are. You weren’t taking any calls! How was I supposed to take all that?”

I stumbled back as he spoke angrily with me. “Don’t yell at me.”

“Then what do you want me to do, I’m worried shit about you!”

“Stop worrying about me, I’m fine!” I yelled at him. “Why are you always yelling at me Ethan, I’m sick of fighting with you. I need a breather!”

He looked at me in annoyance. “Don’t you understand? I’m yelling at you because you don’t take care of yourself. You don’t know what it feels like to be helpless when you’re abducted by some bastard. And that mere thought scares the hell out of me, and you don’t understand anything of that.”

“Stop pretending like you love me or you care about me. We both know that it’s not true.” I said, clutching my hair. “Why are you even this worried Ethan? You should just get rid of me when you have the chance.”

“I’m not going to get rid of you-” He said, trying to take hold of my hands, but I pushed him away.

“You should. Just let Jake take me away and you don’t have to worry about me anymore. I’m gone for good. Just do it and it will be the end of your miseries!”

“Skylar calm down. You’re drunk–”

“Don’t you dare say I’m drunk. I’m absolutely fine.”

He sighed. “I don’t want to fight with you. Skylar just head back upstairs and sleep. We can talk tomorrow.”

“No, I’m not sleeping now,” I said. “I’m not even going to stay here for a second. Give me your car keys.”

He looked at me with an incredulous expression. “Are you crazy?”

“Yes,” I said. “I can’t stand you. So just let me go.”

“The hell I will.” He said as he bent down and threw me over his shoulder.

“What the hell, Ethan! Put me down!” I yelled but he ignored all my protests. He walked upstairs and threw me onto the bed as we reached his room.

“I- what are you doing,” I said when I found him tying my wrists with handcuffs.

“I’m tying you up so that you stay home.” He said and went to cuff my legs too.

“How- where did you even get those!”

“Owen gave them to me to protect us from Jake and Luke. But guess I should be protected from you first.”

“Ethan, you’re insane!” I yelled at me, as he pulled a stool and sat in front of me.

“Tell me something I don’t know.” He said, resting his elbows on his knees.

I shook my head in annoyance. “I hate you.”

“That’s not something I don’t know.”

“No, this time it’s real.”

“You mean it wasn’t real for the last one million and five times you told that?”

I stopped for a second. “Don’t confuse me with your words.

A smile broke on his lips. “You’re so drunk, baby.”

“I told you not to call me baby. You can’t just yell at me and then call me baby the next second. It won’t work.”

His smile was still dangling on his face. “How was your day today?”

“Well, if you ignore the part where you literally yelled at me for a good half hour for not taking your calls, then my day was splendid. I partied so much and hit on so many guys, they didn’t even know I’m married.” I chuckled.

Ethan narrowed his eyes at me. “Not funny.”

I just chuckled. “How was your day?”

“Well,” he shrugged. “Despite the fact that I spent the entire day worrying about you, it was very productive.”

I smiled at him. “You know you don’t have to worry too much, right? I can take care of myself.”

“You really took good care of yourself when Luke abducted you.”

“Hey, Luke won’t lay a hand on me this time.” I said. “I’m sure my husband won’t let that happen.”

He grinned at me with mirth glistening in his eyes. “Yes, your husband cares a lot about you.”

“Way more than what is required.”

“Do you ever try to reciprocate his action?”

“I never needed to do that for him.” I shrugged. “He has a line of crazy ex-girlfriends to do that for him.”

“Don’t exaggerate. I barely dated anyone in these seven years!”

“Don’t you dare lie to me! You dated 17 girls in these seven years! I can name them. And you slept with 6 of them!” I accused him.

He frowned at me. “I slept with just 4!”

“No, you slept with Natasha on her birthday in Vegas.”

“I just went to her room and came out clean that night. I didn’t even touch her!”

“You had lipstick stains all over your shirt!”

“She tried to kiss me, but I didn’t let her! Why would you even-” he cut himself off and gave me a skeptical look. “Wait, how do you know all this?”

I shrugged. “I have my sources.”

“You-” he pointed his index finger to me. “-actually had someone spying on me?”

“Just like how you had William spy on me today.”

“Don’t change the subject.” He said. “I dated Natasha two years ago, Skylar. Why the hell would you have someone spy over me five years after we broke up?”

“Maybe because I wasn’t over you?” I suggested, raising my eyes at him.

He gave me a blank look and leaned back in his chair.

“What?”

“I was totally not aware of your side of the story. I thought I was the only one who wasn’t over the.”

The last words weren’t audible to me as he drifted off mumbling silently. “What?”

“Nothing.” He snapped back. “I guess we should just go to sleep. It’s late.”

I looked at the clock hung on the wall. “Right.”

He nodded and went to turn off the light. I rode my wrists up for him to see and spoke, “What about this?”

“You promise you won’t run away from me?”

“I’m stuck with you, don’t worry,” I said.

He came over and got me rid of that thing. He rubbed soothing circles over my wrist to examine if I was hurt. Satisfied with the fact that it didn’t cause much harm, he walked over to the other side of the bed and got onto it.

I leaned back and pulled the covers up to my chin. I turned around to face Ethan’s back.

“I wish we could do this every day,” I mumbled silently into the thin air. My voice resonated in the calm air.

He twisted his body to face me. “Do what?”

“Talk to each other about the day. Like normal couples do. I liked it.”

His lips twitched. “I liked it too.”

“I don’t like it when we fight a lot,” I said, my face instantly saddening.

He reached over to brush off a rough strand of hair that fell over my face. “I don’t like fighting with you too.”

“You always yell at me.”

“Well, you always slap me. And slap me hard.”

“Because you always try to control my life.”

“I’m merely trying to protect you from a bunch of morons.” He said, leaning in closer to me.

I sighed in his face and groaned. We stayed like that for a few seconds until he spoke again. His breath fanned my face as he spoke.

“There’s a way we can end this.”

“Really?”

“Can you promise me two things?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

He cupped my face. “Please take my calls.” He leaned in closer. “And please take care of yourself when I’m not around.”

“I don’t know if I have charged battery on my phone always, but yes, I can promise you the latter.”

His lips twitched up until a small smile dangled in his face. I gave him a small smile in return as his face softened. He stroked my cheek with his fingers that were caressing me and leaned closer until our lips met.

I stilled for a second, before responding to his kiss. He pulled back soon than I expected and gave me a small smile.

“Sleep tight.” He said.

“You too,” I replied, my lips longing for the taste of his again.

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