The Privileged and the Damned

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Focus on what you’re doing. Maybe he’ll get the hint. “Uh-huh.”

“And do you like living here at Hill Chase?”

She could hear the teasing impatience in his voice at her distracted, vague answers, but she was getting impatient to end this conversation. “Not to be rude, but can I ask why you’re asking all these questions?”

His eyebrows went up in surprise, and she regretted the sharpness of the question. “Being friendly?”

There’s friendly and then there’s freaking me out. “Why?”

“Maybe I’m just a friendly guy. Is that a problem?”

Yeah. “I realize we got off to a weird start, but please don’t feel like you have to be nice to me or anything. I just work here.”

Ethan was silent for a moment. Maybe she’d gone a little too far. He finally nodded. “Then I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thank you.” Lily grabbed the empty wheelbarrow and rolled it away, feeling Ethan’s stare on her back as she left. Once outside, she parked the wheelbarrow by the wall and sagged against the building.

She’d just been horribly rude to her boss’s grandson, but she couldn’t help it. Why, exactly, she didn’t know. It wasn’t like no one had ever asked her those questions before. They were simple enough conversation, nothing really out of the ordinary, and until now she’d been able to fake her way through. There was something about having Ethan ask her, though, that made it harder.

Clarity arrived a little too late, and she banged her head against the wall gently. Her little crush wasn’t harmless at all.

Thank God Ethan wouldn’t be staying long at Hill Chase this time. She’d just have to make her way through it as best she could. And by his next visit she’d have it—hell, everything—better under control.

Ethan watched Lily turn the corner, the tension in her shoulders so fierce it had to be painful. She was acting like a few simple questions were the equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition. He looked at Tinker. “What is Lily’s deal?” The horse rolled his eyes. “You don’t know either, huh?”

However, anyone who thought Lily was shy was blind and possibly stupid. That much he knew for sure now. Lily simply didn’t want to talk, and that was a far cry from being shy. He fully understood the feeling; he’d just never been on the receiving end before.

The correct thing to do would be to leave Lily alone, respect her privacy, and forget the way those big brown eyes moved over him like a breeder evaluating a stud.

That last bit was unlikely, since just the memory was enough to make his skin burn. And that made the chance of him doing the other two “correct” things also rather slim.

More importantly, he didn’t want to. Something about Lily’s fresh-faced earthiness intrigued him. Unlike the over-polished women from the country club Nana kept pushing at him, Lily seemed real. And, unlike the women who wanted him for his name or his money or his status, Lily acted like those were marks against him. Lily was different and she posed a challenge—

two things he suddenly, and oddly, found irresistible.

His phone vibrated in his pocket as a text came in.

Need you to make an appearance at fundraiser Saturday. Black tie.

Not likely, he thought, and deleted the message.

As if Brady knew what he’d done, a second message appeared.

The Grands will kill you if you don’t show.

Boy, Brady was really pulling out the big guns. First some lecture on the “greater good” to appeal to his sense of reason, and when that didn’t work going back for the bigger ammunition of Nana and Granddad. He suddenly felt the need to visit Finn in California on Saturday. No one expected Finn to play nice, to put on the happy family face for the donors and the voters, and Ethan envied that. At the same time, things had been much harder for Finn: he’d been too young to understand what was really going on, and his and Brady’s attempts to shield Finn had only made things worse in the long run. As far as dirty laundry went, it wasn’t enough to derail the campaign in any way, so while it wouldn’t serve any purpose ever to air it, it still galled him to play along.

He deleted Brady’s second message and put the phone away. Ignoring the unpleasant, pretending it didn’t exist, putting a positive face on … That was just the Marshall family way.

And he was, as everyone liked to remind him, a Marshall.

But at the same time …

He pulled his phone back out and sent Brady a short message: No.

Two hours later, Lily felt like the biggest idiot on the planet. But not because of her little crush. She could deal with that. It was embarrassing, but not shameful. And it was the shame driving her feelings of idiocy right now.

She’d overreacted. Taken everything in the wrong context. Let her own feelings and fears color what, in retrospect, was obviously completely innocent. Ethan, it seemed, really was just a friendly guy. While Tinker was off getting shod, he wandered around the stable, talking to everyone from Ray, the stable manager, to the guy delivering feed, and pitching in to help with whatever that person was doing at the time. At one point she walked around a corner—thinking he had left already—only to find him amusing the barn cats with a frayed piece of rope.

Quite the idiot, indeed. And now the mental self-flagellation was giving her a headache. To make the whole thing even worse, a glance at the clock said it was only just past two. This ridiculous day was barely half over. She needed aspirin.

The fact a room came with the job had been a big plus when she’d applied, and was even more so today. A couple of minutes alone would help the headache as well as give her a chance to regroup.

But it seemed this day wasn’t finished messing with her head just yet, because of course she had to run right into the cause of her headache. Dammit, the Marshall estate was practically the size of her hometown—why did she have to see him every time she turned around?

Lily attempted what she hoped was a casual, non-committal yet friendly nod as she passed, but when Ethan returned it the quirk of his lips had her picking up her pace, mounting the stairs and climbing them two at a time. Honestly, she didn’t care what he thought.

Halfway up, she missed a step. She grabbed for the handrail, but didn’t quite manage to stop her fall.

Her foot went through the riser space, sending pain shooting up her leg as the wood stair dug into her shin and her knee twisted. Falling sideways, she saw stars as her head banged the handrail.

A second later she felt hands on her shoulders, steadying her, and she was able to catch her breath. She knew without looking who her savior was. This day couldn’t possibly get any worse.

But then Ethan was tilting her chin up, his eyes scanning her face for damage, and she had to rethink that idea. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Just clumsy.” Embarrassment combined with close proximity to Ethan had her face feeling sunburned.

He helped her untangle her leg and pulled her gently to her feet. She winced as she put weight on her leg, and Ethan frowned. “Let’s get you inside and assess the damage.”

“I’m fine,” she protested, only to end up sputtering as Ethan bent slightly and hooked an arm under her legs. A second later she was cradled against that chest she’d been admiring yesterday—and it felt even better than it looked. She inhaled, liking the simple smells of sunshine and man and soap, allowing herself to enjoy this feeling for just a brief moment. Her skin heated, but she wasn’t sure if that was her or the warmth of his skin seeping through his shirt.

He climbed the remaining stairs easily, as if she weighed nothing, and turned sideways to carry her into the apartment. As he eased her down onto the bed, moving pillows behind her so she could lie back against the headboard comfortably, Lily felt her heartbeat stutter.

“Just a bang. It’s fine.” Granted, she did feel a little addled, but it had nothing to do with hitting her head. In fact, she was starting to get used to the feeling.

Ethan crossed to the little kitchenette in two steps, and Lily realized how tiny her apartment really was. He seemed to fill the entire space, making it feel even smaller. Returning a second later with a wet paper towel, he dabbed at a place above her eyebrow, and the stab of pain surprised her.

The hissing sound she made caused him to frown. He fished in his pocket and produced a cell phone. “I’m calling a doctor.”

“That’s not necessary. I’m okay. Just a little banged up. No big deal.”

Ethan didn’t seem convinced, but he put the phone away. “We’ll see. Do you have any ice packs?”

“Not up here.”

“I’ll go down to the office and get some, and a couple of bandages, too.” The ease with which Ethan took charge was oddly comforting. “Do you need help getting your jeans off?”

Shock cut through her. “Excuse me?”

“We need to look at your leg too.”

Lily looked down and saw blood seeping through the fabric over her shin. Suddenly the throbbing pain intensified. “I can handle it.”

“Then I’ll help with your boots.” Before she even processed what he was doing, or could form a protest, her cropped boots were off and Ethan was almost out the door. “I’ll be back in a second.”

She was still reeling in various stages and kinds of shock, but she had no doubt he’d be back in no time. Ethan seemed to want to play knight in shining armor at the moment. And, while she wasn’t exactly the average damsel in distress, she had to admit it was kind of nice to be fussed over a little.

Especially by Ethan.

That didn’t mean she wanted Ethan’s help removing her clothes, though, and she shimmied out of her jeans as quickly as she could, wincing as the denim peeled away from a raw-looking scrape that nearly covered her entire shin. This was the last straw: even if she had to give up eating, she was buying new boots with her next paycheck. Tall ones. She was tired of wet feet and banged shins …

The sound of feet on the stairs brought her back from her mental grumble, making her realize that she was nearly naked to the waist and that her T-shirt barely reached the tops of her thighs. She reached under the pillow for her pajamas and slid the short bottoms on just as Ethan opened the door.

He carried cold packs from the freezer, and the stable’s bright red first aid kit. Her heartbeat kicked back up again. Maybe she had hit her head harder than she thought …

He dropped the red bag on the bed next to her. “Towels?”

She pointed to the closet.

He was efficient and oddly professional as he wrapped a cold pack in a small towel and indicated she should use it on her head. Another towel went beneath her leg before he produced a bottle of saline from the first aid kit. “This might sting a little,” he warned.

“You don’t have to—ouch!”

“Wimp,” he teased, and grinned at the dirty look she shot him. “How’s the head? Any blurriness or double vision?”

“Nope.” She pulled the towel away from her forehead and noticed the blood on it. “Boy, I’m really a mess. I don’t need stitches, do I?”

“It’s just a nasty scrape. Keep the ice on it. Anything else hurt?” Ethan dabbed at her shin with gauze.

“That does,” she gritted out. “Look, I’m okay—really. I appreciate the help, but I can take care of it.”

He waggled his eyebrows. “And give up the chance to fondle your leg? No way.”

It was such an odd, out-of-place comment that the absurdity of it made her laugh out loud. Ethan grinned. She sat back against the pillows and put the ice pack on her forehead. She wasn’t concussed, and she wasn’t imagining things. Ethan was actually flirting with her. In the privacy of her apartment. While she wasn’t really wearing all that much …

Maybe he was just the kind of guy who flirted with every woman who crossed his path. Maybe it was just part of that whole “being friendly” thing. She really shouldn’t read anything into it—after all, hadn’t she already made that mistake once today already? It was still fun, though—except for the blood and pain part.