Tied Up With Love. Holly Martin

nodded and Bex left.

      Ethan turned back to face Izzy.

      ‘I’m sorry…I didn’t –’ she started.

      ‘What are you sorry for? For defending my brother? No one has ever done that before.’

      She looked down, still clearly embarrassed. ‘I like Gizmo.’

      ‘He’s very likeable. However you should know that technically your friend is right.’

      Izzy’s mouth fell open. He sat down opposite her with a sigh.

      ‘Gizmo did sleep with a minor. He was sixteen, she was fifteen. There’s only four months between them. They grew up together, were best friends, they had been going out since they were thirteen. If anything she seduced him, he was always too innocent in that side of things. Anyway, they had sex, her father found out and had him arrested. It didn’t matter that she consented, that she stood up in a court of law and said that she loved Gizmo. She was not considered to be legally mature enough to be able to consent. It was a total sham, but the judge sided with her father, made Giz out to be some sexual predator and he went to prison. We only found out later that the judge was a very good friend of her father’s.’

      ‘That’s horrible.’

      ‘It was. Gizmo stood in the dock and cried. It was heart-breaking, for all of us. I felt so bad that he was my little brother and there was nothing I could do to protect him. Initially, when the police came to arrest him I fought with them to stop them taking him. Something else your friend will probably tell you. At that stage I don’t think any of us thought he would actually go to prison over it. But he did. The press were heavily involved and even they were on our side. In the end it went to appeal and we got the conviction overturned, his record wiped clean. But that doesn’t erase the eight weeks he spent behind bars, or people’s opinion of him. Regardless that he was eventually found innocent, there will always be people that look at him like he’s some kind of paedophile.’

      ‘What happened to the girl?’

      He smiled. ‘Gizmo married her. They’re expecting their second child in a few months. Needless to say, relations between him and his father-in-law have always been a bit strained.’

      ‘But surely people must see that he is innocent when the girl he is accused of raping married him.’

      ‘You would think wouldn’t you, but people don’t remember the victim, just the culprit. It’s a lot easier to believe that someone is guilty than it is to believe they are innocent.’ He looked at her with approval. ‘Well for most people it is.’

      ‘You should have told Bex all this.’

      ‘It was none of her business.’

      ‘It’s none of mine.’

      ‘It is when you’re defending him so vehemently.’

      She looked down and that awkwardness between them returned. He stood up. ‘I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell Gizmo you know, he gets all funny about it.’

      She nodded.

      ‘Then I’ll let you get back to work.’

      *

      Ethan watched Izzy run round the side of her house towards the van, dressed now in suitable kidnap attire. She was wearing black combat pants, black walking boots and a tight black hoodie. She looked like a ninja and an incredibly sexy one at that. Even more annoying was that, apart from Gizmo, everyone else in the van was openly staring at her too. Jim looked like he wanted to devour her. Ethan leaned forward in his seat, snagging Jim’s attention away from her.

      ‘You look at her like that again and I’ll gouge your eyes out. Do you understand?’

      Jim stared at him for a second, clearly wondering if Ethan was serious. Whatever Jim saw made him get up and move to the furthest point away from Ethan, leaving the chair opposite him empty.

      The van door slid open and Izzy, beaming like the Cheshire Cat, climbed in, clearly unaware that both Jim and Kyle were now too scared to even look at her.

      What the hell was wrong with him? Jim and Kyle had always openly admired his women and it had never bothered him before. He didn’t want anyone looking at her like that. He didn’t want to look at her like that himself but he was damned sure no one else would ever look at her like she was a piece of meat, least not while he was around.

      She looked up at him and the smile fell from her face. He couldn’t take his eyes of hers and she didn’t look away either. Gizmo took off and she lurched forward in her seat. He caught her, his hands on her arms to steady her, as he pushed her back gently into her seat.

      ‘Put your seatbelt on,’ he growled.

      She nodded, suddenly compliant as she fumbled around with the clip.

      ‘When we do the collection, I want you over there out the way. I don’t want you to get involved at all. We’ll take Kirsty into the house and you can come in with us. There’ll be a short period of time where we can hang around at the beginning of the role play, sometimes the husband wants us involved, sometimes not.’

      ‘Involved?’ Her eyes were wide. Her innocence was achingly endearing.

      ‘Not in the sexual part but sometimes the husband likes to give us commands, talk to us as if it’s all part of some criminal underworld arrangement. As soon as anything remotely intimate starts, we are out of there. Our company is not into voyeurism and we certainly don’t remove any clothes, that part is all down to the husband. Once we leave them, I’ll show you around the rest of the house too.’

      She nodded again, obviously taking this very seriously.

      Why could he not stop staring at her?

      The grey of her eyes was made up of a multitude of different shades, ranging from specks of slate grey to the lightest silver. Her eyelashes were so long, casting dark shadows on her pale cheeks and the lip she was currently chewing on he wanted to soothe with his tongue. He tore his eyes away from her, disgusted with himself for having such poor self-control. She continued to stare at him, her gaze burning into the side of his face.

      ‘Ethan, is that her?’ Gizmo called from the front and he stood up, glad to be away from Izzy and her incredible grey eyes.

      ‘Yep that’s her and the fact that she’s waving at us is quite a big clue.’

      He looked back at Izzy to tell her to move but she was already unclipping herself from her seatbelt and standing up too. A nervous excitement emanated from her like a kid on Christmas morning and it made him smile, just briefly before he swapped it for his habitual scowl again.

      Gizmo stopped the van and Ethan grabbed the side door and slid it open.

       Chapter Five

      Izzy watched Ethan step out. Despite the wintry cold of the day, he was only wearing a black t-shirt. His strong forearms and muscular upper arms almost gleamed like bronze in the weak winter sunlight.

      Kirsty, the intended target, was obviously going for an Oscar and Izzy was somewhat grateful that they were in the middle of nowhere.

      ‘Help! I’m being kidnapped,’ screamed Kirsty before Ethan had even taken a step towards her. ‘Someone help me.’

      She turned to run away but if Kirsty thought Ethan was the type of man to give chase she had another think coming. Before she had even taken one step away from the van, Ethan had grabbed her, one arm round her waist, one hand over her mouth and hauled her tight against his body. Jealousy slammed through Izzy, unwelcome and unbidden. Kirsty struggled a little bit but it was quite useless being held so tight in Ethan’s arms.

      ‘We’re from KMW, do exactly as you’re told and you won’t get hurt,’ Ethan said, his voice a menacing growl that only added fuel to the desire raging through