Chapter 10 - The Supercar at Midnight
At midnight, the estate was quiet.
The stars hung like scattered diamonds over the dark hills of North Carolina.
I stepped out onto the wide stone driveway, wrapped in a dark blue cashmere shawl Ethan had left on the back of my chair.
Parked near the edge of the circular drive was the sleek, black supercar—the exact same car that had pulled into the rain-soaked parking lot of Vance’s Highway Diner ten days ago when my life was ending on a cold tile floor.
The carbon-fiber bodywork caught the starlight, looking like a sleeping shadow.
Footsteps echoed softly behind me on the gravel.
Ethan walked up beside me, slipping his hands into the pockets of his trousers.
“Thinking about taking it for a spin?” he asked, a soft, teasing lilt in his voice.
I laughed, looking up at him. “I don't think I could even figure out how to turn the engine on.”
“It’s easy,” Ethan said, stepping closer to me. The scent of rain, cedar, and subtle cologne drifted from his skin. “You just have to trust the machine.”
I turned to face him, looking into his silver-grey eyes—the eyes that had refused to leave my bedside in the hospital, the eyes that had marched into a burning hell to bring my brother back to me.
“I never got to say it properly,” I whispered, stepping closer to him until the toes of my sandals touched his leather shoes.
“Say what?” he asked softly, reaching out to gently tuck a strand of dark hair behind my ear.
“Thank you,” I said, my voice thick with emotion. “Not just for saving my life that night. But for seeing me, Ethan. For making me feel like I mattered when the whole world was treating me like trash.”
Ethan looked down at me, his gaze softening into something so deep, so profoundly tender that my heart skipped a beat.
He reached out, his warm, strong hand resting gently against the side of my neck, his thumb tracing the soft line of my jawline.
“You’ve always mattered, Megan,” Ethan whispered. “The world was just too blind to see it. But I saw it the second I looked through that broken glass.”
He bent his head down.
His lips met mine in a kiss that was slow, deep, and full of incredible warmth—a kiss that erased the cold pain of the bullet, the dark memory of the diner, and the long, lonely years of fear and debt.
When he finally pulled back, his forehead rested against mine, his dark eyes shining in the starlight.
“Where do we go now?” I murmured against his lips.
Ethan smiled—a brilliant, breathtaking smile that looked like the sunrise breaking over the mountains.
May you like
He reached into his pocket, pulled out the sleek black key fob to the supercar, and placed it into my palm, folding my fingers over the cold metal.
“Wherever you want, Megan,” Ethan whispered. “The whole world is waiting.”
