Tied Up With Love: A feel-good, romantic comedy to make you smile. Holly Martin

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СКАЧАТЬ ‘forced’ sex is only part of the role play.’

      ‘Yes but that really doesn’t do anything for me.’

      ‘How did you get started in this business if you don’t actually like this sort of thing?’

      Ethan sat on the bed. ‘It was a mate of mine, he wanted to do something different to surprise his girlfriend. He asked me if I would help him to kidnap her. I wasn’t keen to do anything that might scare the crap out of her so we made sure she knew that I was going to be involved and when, although we didn’t give her all the details. She loved it. After, he said to me they’d had the best sex they’d ever had. When one of his friends asked me to do the same thing I started to realise that we could offer something here that no one else was really offering. I didn’t expect it to be so popular. It took off really quickly, especially with the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey. I thought it would just be the kinky couples that would get involved, but even with the seemingly normal looking couples, they were willing to try it for a bit of fun, something a bit different. I poured everything I had into this, especially refitting the house. Every hour, every day, every penny. And for the first time in my life it felt like I had actually made a success of something.’

      Izzy stared at him as he pulled at a stray thread on a tiny hole in his jeans. She had not expected such raw honesty from him today.

      His head suddenly snapped up, horribly aware he had said too much. He stood up and the frown he wore almost as part of his uniform was already back on his face. ‘Are you ready to go, we haven’t got time to hang around here all day.’

      ‘I… Yes of course, but I haven’t seen the last room yet.’

      ‘That’s nothing, we don’t use it.’

      ‘Is it open to the public?’

      ‘Yes but no one is ever interested in using it. I rarely mention it now.’

      ‘I want to see it, maybe we can change something about it to make it more appealing.’

      ‘Fine.’

      Ethan strode out of the room and she followed him onto a brightly lit hallway, lined with thick red carpet. Some more stunning landscapes graced the walls, these were ocean views and were incredibly detailed. He opened the door opposite and gestured for her to go inside. But she could already see what the room was. An artist’s studio. There was a large, comfy looking sofa up one end and a large easel and no other furniture at all. But the walls were lined with pictures of women in various states of undress, in a variety of different mediums; chalk, oil, charcoal, watercolours. They were stunning and obviously painted by someone with a ton of talent.

      Izzy had never had any kind of artistic talent, there wasn’t one single creative bone in her body but she could still appreciate the talent of others and these pictures and paintings were beautiful.

      ‘You know the scene in Titanic when Jack draws Rose, I was kind of thinking people might want to create their own personal masterpieces. Stupid really,’ Ethan said.

      ‘I think it’s a wonderful idea. The artist and his muse, now that’s a sexy role play.’

      His eyes burned into her for a moment before he looked away. ‘No one is interested in it. No one has ever used it.’

      ‘No one?’

      Ethan smirked and lifted one of the used sheets from the back of the easel and pulled it over to the front. She laughed at the pictures of stick men in several sexual positions.

      ‘Oh well, at least they had fun. To be fair these pictures are pretty intimidating.’ She gestured around the room.

      ‘Intimidating. In what way?’ The snap to his voice was back.

      ‘Well they’re incredible. Any would-be artist is going to be completely put off trying to create something when there’s this impossible ideal to live up to.’

      He blinked. ‘Oh I get it, Gizmo told you they were mine did he? Thought you’d wind me up? Very good. Come on, tour’s over.’

      He moved to walk out but she stepped in his path. ‘Wait a minute. These are yours? Seriously? I had no idea. You have a real gift here.’

      ‘We should get back.’ He gestured for her to leave the room and she walked out into the hallway, glancing at the landscapes with more interest.

      ‘Are these yours too?’

      Ethan didn’t answer as he closed the door on his studio and walked down the hall.

      ‘And the picture of the lovers, in the bedroom, you did that too didn’t you?’

      ‘Yes, that’s mine, they’re all mine. Happy?’

      Izzy stayed quiet, not sure what to do with this new information. Underneath his huge, gruff exterior was a man with talent and passion and vulnerability. Urgh. She preferred it when he was the moody, controlling, slightly perverted, chauvinist – because at least then she could easily compartmentalise him into the box marked ‘not her type.’ Now, being inside his childhood home, seeing his talent, knowing some of his history, the box was tumbling open. Sexual attraction she could deal with. Love and affection was not something she wanted to feel for this man.

      They rounded the corner to head down the stairs and came face to face with a stark naked Kirsty.

      Kirsty screamed, Ethan screamed, immediately shielding his eyes. Nick came running out of the bedroom also stark naked and it was all Izzy could do not to burst out laughing.

      ‘What the hell, you said we had the house to ourselves,’ Nick said, ushering his naked wife back into the safety of the bedroom.

      Ethan was clearly too embarrassed to want to deal with it, as he deliberately stared at the floor.

      ‘My apologies Mr O’Shea,’ Izzy said, oozing professionalism even though Nick was making no effort to conceal his nudity. This was a man that was rightly proud of what he had. ‘One of the fuses had blown, we had to fix it now or you’d be in complete darkness tonight. We are leaving right now and we’ll make sure a bottle of champagne will be delivered later to apologise for the inconvenience.’

      Nick nodded at this begrudgingly and as Kirsty called him from the bedroom, he turned to join her, obviously forgetting all about Ethan and Izzy seconds later.

      ‘Thanks,’ Ethan muttered.

      ‘Who knew that the great Ethan Chase could get so embarrassed about a bit of nudity?’

      She walked down the stairs and he quickly followed. ‘I have no problems with nudity, well my own, or the woman I’m with.’

      ‘Kirsty is very beautiful, I expected a bit of ogling as far as she was concerned.’

      ‘She’s not mine to ogle.’

      Izzy thought about this. In one way that was quite sweet and respectful, to not stare at women that weren’t with him. But the possessive way he said ‘mine’ smacked of seeing those women that were with him as his property. That was a whole other argument she didn’t want to get into.

      There was a sudden thud behind her and she turned to see Ethan СКАЧАТЬ