Page 17 of In Bed with the Enemy

"Yeah," he said. "You scare me. You could ruin us."

I shook my head sadly. "I don't think that's true, Ethan."

Ethan yawned. "It is. And me, you could ruin me, too."

"How could I ruin you, Ethan?"

"I like you far too much for my own good," he said. My heart beat rapidly in my chest and I let myself look at him. His eyes were still closed and his hand was thrown across his eyes. He had a light smile on his face, and I didn't know what to make of it all.

"You like me?" I managed to ask.

He chuckled. "Yeah. Clever. Beautiful. Whip smart. Cares about the birds. What the fuck's not to like? Not many like you, Amy. Not many like you," he said, his words trailing off.

I stayed quiet for a long time, unsure of how to respond. Did he even want me to respond? Did I need to respond? I didn't even know how I felt about Ethan.

Of course, this afternoon I hated him. Or, at least I thought I did. But, it seemed like there was so much more to him than I had originally thought.

No.

That wasn't right.

I knew there was more to him.

It's why my feelings about him had been on a rollercoaster ride since the first time he'd stood up to embarrass me. I knew there was more to him than he was letting the rest of the world see.

"Ethan," I started to say, but as I looked over to the other bed, it was obvious that he had fallen fast asleep.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. I briefly considered trying to wake him up. Then I thought about calling the concierge to help me get him back to his room.

But, I ended up doing neither of those things.

Instead, I just let him sleep.

It seemed like he needed it.

12

ETHAN

My head was pounding as I rolled over in the bed. The room felt smaller and stuffier than I was used to and I blinked my eyes open at the soft light that was coming from the nearby window. I tried to remember just what had happened last night. I certainly remembered my presentation and the whole debacle that had caused with Amy. Then I remembered seeing her at the bar later that evening, clearly not doing well before I was forced to leave her and go out with a host of other trust fund baby investors.

I rubbed my temples to try and get the throbbing to stop. I hadn't been in a good mindset last night after seeing her, and I knew I probably drank way too much. Turning to my right to try and climb out of the bed only confirmed my suspicions.

I clearly was not in my own hotel suite. Instead, I was in a standard room with two queen beds, and lying in the other bed was none other than Amy Reid. I looked down quickly and realized that I, in fact, had all of my clothes on. So, presumably, nothing of that nature happened between us. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but I tried to push the bits of disappointment away.

The duvet rustled despite my best attempts to be quiet and sneak out of the bed, and Amy's eyes fluttered open at the noise.

"Oh," she said, rubbing her eyes as I tried to act natural. "I didn't know you were awake."

"Yeah," I said a bit sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck. "Not sure how I really got here last night, but uh, I suppose I owe you a thank you."

I suddenly became more than a little worried about what I may or may not have said to Amy about the company in my inebriated state last night. I had a tendency to talk a lot when I drank, which was why I didn't do it often. Plus, whatever I thought about Amy, it was very clear that she cared a lot about her invention and her intentions for it, and I was the one that was getting in her way. I wasn't going to assume that she would do right by me, especially when I wasn't really doing right by her.

"So, what, uh," I hesitated, trying not to be too obvious about everything. "What ended up happening last night?" I finally asked.

Amy sat up opposite me, still wearing the hotel bathrobe, but it had opened up a bit too much in the front and I tried my best to keep my eyes raised up. "Nothing really," she said and I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Besides you showing up drunk to my hotel room, yeah, nothing really."

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