Ethan turned to Anah. "You heard the tyrant..."
Frankie rolled her eyes. "I totally heard you, too."
But Ethan pretended not to hear this and flashed Anah a brief smile instead. "I'll see you around then?" Ethan began walking backwards. "I'd have loved to spend more time talking about books—-" Frankie snorted loudly at this, which Ethan ignored even as Anah couldn't help giggling. "But duty beckons..."
Back inside the meeting room, Ethan was bemused to find the other members of The Hartland Initiative gazing at him with interest. "What?"
Instead of answering, everyone instantly became busy, with Oliver Winterbourne, the town mayor, suddenly finding something to ask his secretary while the others rifled through the daily reports as if their lives depended on it.
Ethan shook his head as he returned to his seat. Crazy motherfuckers. He picked up his own copy of the day's agenda but was unable to concentrate. Instead, he found himself remembering Anah's expression when he referred to himself as a pretty face.
She really was an intriguing little thing, Ethan mused. She was like a little sister he never knew he wanted, and for the rest of the summer, he found himself indulging his explicable whim for her company.
He liked how quiet she was without being shy. Most people mistook her for the latter, but Ethan had sensed from the start she wasn't what everyone thought, and his time with her proved that. The kid simply didn't believe in speaking unnecessarily, but it didn't make her any less friendly - or troublesome - when she was so inclined.
When he was with Anah, it was hard to remember she was just sixteen and almost a decade younger than his twenty-five years. He could talk to her about anything, and in times when there wasn't anything to talk about, her presence alone settled the disquiet inside of him. If someone were to tell Ethan she was an enchantress in disguise, he would've been half-inclined to agree, with how Anah practically had him under a spell.
BillionaireRancherHeartbreaker
by Marian Tee
Copyright 2020 by Streak Digital Publishing
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Part One
Ethan Blackwood had grown up in other people's shadows his entire life. With their parents having died early, he and the twins only had each other. And while he would die for his older brothers any day and vice versa, it didn't stop him from looking forward to leading a life separate from them, if only to get away from the constant comparisons.
Unlike Aidan and Thornton, who had been born gifted in every way, Ethan was a terribly late bloomer. For most of his high school years, he had been this awkwardly tall and lanky boy beset with respiratory problems that kept him from getting involved in any sports. And while no one in town had been foolish enough to bully Ethan over it - this would've been suicidal, considering most of them either directly or indirectly worked for Ethan's family - the look of pity in their eyes said it plainly enough.
When compared to his more accomplished older brothers, Ethan would always be found lacking, and it was this that had him packing his bags as soon as he graduated from high school.
In England, Ethan - with the help of his mother's side of the family - was finally able to enjoy a life away from the twins' overwhelmingly large shadows. Free from other people's judgments, Ethan sought help for his respiratory problems, which turned out to be nothing but a psychological manifestation of his childhood trauma. Once this was taken care of, Ethan then focused on building his strength and stamina; he devoted hours each day to manual labor at his cousins' horse ranches, and in a matter of months was as ruggedly muscular as his older brothers.
When Ethan finally flew back home, he was no longer the insecure boy he was once was, and no one was happier to see Ethan's growth than the twins themselves. They had always believed that Ethan had it in him to stand toe to toe with them, but men being men, they had been unable to effectively put their feelings into words.
And now that Ethan was back in the fold...
The twins invited the whole town to celebrate Ethan's homecoming, and it was on this fateful night that Guilia came back to his life.
GUILIA SANTOS' BIGGEST regret was being born on the wrong side of the tracks. From the moment she became old enough to understand the difference between rich and poor, she had lived every moment of her life with envy that eventually fueled her ambition.
She dismissed her Mexican mother as an idiot, with the older woman ridiculously content working as a housekeeper for the wealthy assholes that came up to Jackson Hole every vacation. Her mother was a hopeless case, but Guilia was determined to be different. Guilia knew she was meant to go places, and it was why she had set her cap on Travis Jones, whose father owned a modeling agency.
Guilia knew she had what it would take to become a supermodel, but she also knew that she would have to toil a couple more years before getting the jumpstart she needed. She craved for success, and if she wanted it right now, she would need to use Travis to expedite things.
She had seen the way Travis looked at her every time she served him at the local clubhouse, and she didn't even have to expend much effort in seducing him. Her plan was simple: make Travis fall for her so that he'd get her foot in the door with his father.
And at that time, because she had thought herself so damn smart, Guilia
