Page 31 of The Powerful Boss She Craves

She nodded. ‘Okay, I’ll spend the weekend with you.’

Ella turned back to her cupboard to grab some clothes but Micah’s hand on her arm kept her in place. ‘Not so fast, sweetheart. What happened earlier?’

She wrinkled her nose, thinking of what to say, how to explain.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ she told him.

‘It does to me.’

Micah walked to the nearest wall, leaned his shoulder into it and crossed his ankles. He didn’t push her to speak, just waited her out. And she knew that he would stand there until she told him what had upset her earlier.

She couldn’t think of an excuse and she wouldn’t make up a story. So that meant telling him the truth. As much as she could. But would he understand? Could she trust him with this?

Ella sat down on the edge of her bed and placed her hands down beside her, her fingers digging into the fabric of her cotton bed cover. ‘As I said, my mum died when I was sixteen on the most stunning summer’s day. A day much like this one, actually.’

Micah didn’t drop his eyes from hers, neither did he speak, so she carried on. ‘My mum liked to drink at lunchtime over the weekends and she had a couple of G&Ts that day. She stood up from the lunch table and, basically, her legs crumpled. She dropped like a stone. I rushed around the table and she was muttering, speaking but making no sense.’

Ella rubbed her fingertips across her forehead. ‘I knew, at that moment, that there was something wrong with her. I told my dad to call an ambulance but he said no, that she was drunk—he hated her drinking—and that she just needed to sleep it off. I knew she wasn’t drunk, but he wouldn’t budge. I screamed, yelled, pleaded and, when I tried to call for an ambulance on my phone, he pulled it out of my hands. He put her to bed to sleep it off.’

‘But she wasn’t drunk.’

‘She died later that afternoon, a few hours after she collapsed.’ Ella shook her head. ‘She had a massive brain bleed, some sort of stroke. Apparently, the worst thing to do when that happens is to go to sleep.’

Micah didn’t issue any platitudes, didn’t fuss. She appreciated that. ‘Is that why you and your dad don’t speak, because he didn’t call an ambulance?’

‘I was upset that he didn’t call an ambulance—still am—but I’ve never blamed him for her death. Not really. How could I when he blamed himself? He fell apart so completely when she died,’ she explained. She shrugged. ‘I don’t know why he’s cut me out of his life. Maybe it’s because he feels guilty, maybe I remind him too much of her. Maybe it’s because he wishes I’d died, not her.’

Micah’s eyes widened in horror. ‘El, don’t say that!’

Pain spiked and flared. ‘Why not? He doesn’t want anything to do with me and doesn’t care what happens to me.’

She heard her voice rising and winced. It was time to pull back, to take control of her emotions. After taking a few deep breaths, she spoke again, and was happy to hear her voice sounded normal. ‘All I know is that I lost two parents that day. Because my dad didn’t believe me and, having recently experienced being disbelieved and diminished, I’m currently super-sensitive when I think my opinion is being dismissed.’

He nodded. ‘And you thought I did that when we were talking about Alta and Thadie?’

She nodded. She fought the urge to apologise for being silly, to mock her feelings. And she prayed that he wouldn’t either.

‘I’m sorry.’

It was a straightforward apology, and she saw the sincerity in his eyes. Tension flowed out of her body and her shoulders dropped from just below her ears.

After a few seconds of silence, Micah rubbed the back of her neck. ‘Talking of your recent past...’

Oh, God, where was he going with this?

‘Were you okay with everything we did in Clarens? I think you had a good time but I just want to make sure that you are completely okay. Maybe I was too demanding, maybe you needed me to be—’

‘You... It wasperfect, Micah,’ Ella rushed to reassure him, touched that he’d asked. She stood up to walk over to him and placed a hand on his chest, needing to feel connected to him.

‘I was lucky, so lucky. I spoke to a therapist after it happened and I’ve worked through it. You gave me exactly what I needed, Micah, a fantastic experience. I don’t have any hang-ups about sex, I promise you. Even before I spoke to my therapist, I never equated what he did to me with sex. It was about power and control.’

He gently brushed her hair back from her forehead. ‘You didn’t deserve that, Ella.’

‘No, I didn’t.’

Micah’s thumb skated over her cheekbone. ‘If I ever do something, make you feel something that...well...that reminds you, will you tell me?’

That he’d even thought to make that offer heated Ella’s blood and made her heart flutter. Kind, gruff, occasionally edgy...now she could add ‘sweet’ to her list of descriptors for Micah she had running in her head.

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