His To Keep

Chapter Four

The drive to the airport was quiet. I sat in the back of Ethan’s town car, my new luggage in the trunk, my stomach doing flips. Marcus drove while Ethan sat beside me, his hand resting casually on my thigh like it belonged there.

The last two days had been a whirlwind. Claire, Ethan’s assistant, had taken me to boutiques I’d only seen in magazines. She had filled suitcases with dresses, shoes, and lingerie that made me blush just looking at them.

“Mr. Blackwood wants you to have options,” she had said with a knowing smile.

Now those suitcases were in the trunk, and I was on my way to the airport to fly to Dubai. Dubai. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it.

“Nervous?” Ethan asked, squeezing my leg gently.

“I’ve never been on a plane before,” I admitted.

He smiled. “Then I’m glad your first time is with me.”

We pulled up to a private terminal, not the main airport, but a smaller building that screamed money and exclusivity. A uniformed attendant opened my door before I could reach for the handle.

“This way, Mr. Blackwood,” he said.

I followed Ethan through the terminal, which was more like a luxury lounge than an airport. Leather couches, a full bar, and floor-to-ceiling windows. And then I saw it.

The jet.

“Holy s**t,” I breathed.

It was massive and white with BLACKWOOD printed on the side in sleek silver letters. Like something out of a movie about rich people, I never thought I would be living in.

Ethan grinned at my reaction. “Come on.”

The inside was even more insane. Cream leather seats that looked like recliners. A bar. A bedroom in the back. An actual bedroom on a plane.

“This is how you travel?” I asked, still standing in the doorway like an i***t.

“This is how we travel now.” He guided me to a seat, his hand warm on my lower back. “Relax. I’ve got you.”

A flight attendant appeared, looking gorgeous and professional. She offered champagne, and Ethan accepted before I could even process the question.

“We’re celebrating,” he said, handing me a glass.

“Celebrating what?”

“Firsts. Your first flight. Your first international trip. Your first time in Dubai.” He settled into the seat next to me, close enough that our legs touched. “I want to be there for all of them.”

The way he said it made my stomach flip.

The plane took off, and I gripped the armrest so hard my knuckles turned white. Ethan’s hand covered mine, steady and reassuring.

“Breathe,” he murmured. “You’re okay.”

Once we were in the air, I finally relaxed. The flight attendant brought food, actual gourmet food, not peanuts and pretzels. We watched a movie on a screen bigger than my TV at home. Ethan worked for a few hours, but every time I looked over, he was already looking at me.

“What?” I asked the third time I caught him.

“Nothing. You just look happy.”

“I am happy. This is insane.”

“Good insane?”

“The best kind.”

I slept for a few hours in the actual bed, under sheets that felt like clouds. When I woke up, Ethan was sitting beside the bed with his laptop, working quietly.

“How long was I out?” I asked, my voice groggy.

“A few hours. We’ll land soon.” He set aside his laptop and brushed hair from my face. “Slept okay?”

“Better than I have in months.”

Fourteen hours later, we touched down in Dubai.

The heat hit me the second I stepped off the plane. It was like walking into an oven, even though it was barely morning. I’d never felt anything like it.

“Welcome to Dubai,” Ethan said beside me, his hand on my lower back as we descended the stairs.

I couldn’t respond. Couldn’t do anything but stare.

The city stretched out in every direction, a forest of buildings that looked like they belonged in a science fiction movie. Glass and steel reaching towards the sky. The airport itself was massive, gleaming, almost obscene in its luxury.

Now we were here. Actually here.

A car was waiting—a Rolls-Royce, because apparently that’s just how Ethan traveled. I slid into the back seat, and the cool air conditioning was a relief.

“First time in Dubai?” the driver asked.

“First time anywhere,” I admitted.

Ethan’s hand found mine, squeezing gently. “Then we’ll make it count.”

The drive into the city was overwhelming. Everything was so big, so new, so different. Gold accents everywhere. Cars that looked like they cost more than houses. Women in designer clothes walking past women in traditional abayas. The contrast was stunning.

“Is it a lot?,” Ethan asked, watching my face.

“It’s incredible.”

We pulled up to the Burj Khalifa, and I actually laughed. Of course he had a penthouse in the tallest building in the world. Of course he did.

The elevator ride made my ears pop. When the doors opened directly into his apartment, I forgot how to breathe.

Floor-to-ceiling windows wrapped around the entire space, showing the city spread out below like a toy model. The Persian Gulf sparkled in the distance. Everything was white marble and gold, modern and sleek and so far removed from my world that I felt like I’d stepped into someone else’s life.

“I’ll never get used to this,” I whispered.

Ethan came up behind me, his arms sliding around my waist. “You don’t have to get used to it. Just enjoy it.”

I leaned back against him, letting myself have this moment. This view. This feeling of being somewhere impossible.

“I have meetings this afternoon,” he said after a while. “But I’ll be back by evening. Make yourself at home. Order whatever you want. The concierge can arrange anything.”

“Okay.”

He turned me around, his hands cupping my face. “Thank you for coming with me.”

“You’re paying me to be here.”

“I know. But still. Thank you.”

He kissed me then, soft and sweet, and I felt that same pull I’d felt in his penthouse back home. That dangerous want that made me forget this was supposed to be business.

Then he was gone, and I was alone in a penthouse in Dubai with nothing but time and my spiraling thoughts.

-----

I spent the afternoon exploring. Took a bath in a tub the size of my bedroom. Ordered room service that was better than any restaurant I’d ever been to. Stood at the windows and watched the city move below me, trying to process how my life had become this in less than a week.

My phone buzzed around six. Ethan said he was on his way back, that I should get ready. We were going out.

I pulled on one of the dresses Claire had picked out—emerald green, fitted, with a neckline that showed just enough. The kind of dress that made me feel like someone else. Someone who belonged in this world.

When Ethan walked in an hour later, still in his business suit, he stopped dead.

“f**k,” he breathed. “You look incredible.”

“Claire has good taste.”

“It’s not the dress.” His eyes traveled over me slowly. “It’s you.”

Heat flooded through me. He was good at this. Too good. Making me feel like I was special, like I was more than just another girl he’d hired.

“Where are we going?” I asked, needing to change the subject before I did something stupid.

“Dinner. Then I want to show you the city.”

-----

Dinner was at the Burj Al Arab, the famous sail-shaped hotel I’d only seen on the internet. We ate on a terrace overlooking the water, the city lights glittering around us like stars had fallen to earth.

“Tell me about your grandmother,” Ethan said over dessert.

The question caught me off guard. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything. She’s clearly important to you.”

I hesitated, then found myself talking. About how Granny had raised me after my parents died in a car accident when I was eight. About how she’d worked two jobs to keep me fed and in school. About how she’d never complained, never made me feel like a burden, even when I knew I was.

“She sounds incredible,” Ethan said quietly.

“She is. That’s why I had to save her. Why I…” I trailed off, not wanting to say it out loud.

“Why you started dancing? ”

I nodded, not trusting my voice.

Ethan reached across the table, taking my hand. “You did what you had to do. That’s not something to be ashamed of.”

“Isn’t it?”

“No.” His thumb stroked my knuckles. “It’s something to be proud of. You’re twenty-one years old, and you’re willing to sacrifice everything for someone you love. That’s rare, Aria. That’s special.”

Tears burned my eyes, and I blinked them back. “Thank you.”

After dinner, we drove through the city. Past the Dubai Mall with its massive aquarium. Past the fountains that danced to music. Past neighborhoods that looked like they’d been plucked from different countries and dropped here in the desert.

Ethan told me stories about the city, about his business deals here, about the first time he’d visited and thought it was the most ridiculous place on earth.

“What changed your mind?” I asked.

“I realized ridiculous doesn’t mean wrong. Sometimes the biggest dreams look crazy from the outside.”

The way he said it made me wonder what dreams he was really talking about.

Back at the penthouse, the city glowed below us. Ethan poured wine, and we stood at the windows in comfortable silence.

“I’m glad you came,” he said after a while.

“Me too.”

He set down his glass and turned to me. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“The no s*x rule. Is it because you don’t trust me? Or because you don’t trust yourself?”

My breath caught. “What?”

“I see the way you look at me, Aria. The way your body responds when I touch you. You want this as much as I do. So I’m wondering what’s really holding you back.”

“This is a job,” I said, but my voice wavered. “I can’t… if we cross that line, it gets complicated.”

“It’s already complicated.” He stepped closer, and I could feel the heat radiating off him. “From the moment I saw you on that stage, this stopped being simple.”

“Ethan—”

“I’m not pushing. I promised I wouldn’t, and I meant it.” His hand came up to cup my face. “But I need you to know something. When we do finally cross that line and we will it won’t be because of the arrangement. It’ll be because you want me. Just me.”

He kissed me then, slow and deep, and I melted into it. Let myself feel everything I’d been trying to hold back. The want. The need. The terrifying realization that he was right.

This had stopped being simple the moment I’d agreed to his deal.

When we finally broke apart, both breathing hard, Ethan rested his forehead against mine.

“I should let you sleep,” he said, his voice rough. “Long day tomorrow.”

“What’s tomorrow?”

“Whatever you want it to be.”

He kissed me once more, then headed toward what I assumed was his bedroom. At the door, he paused.

“Aria?”

“Yeah?”

“Sweet dreams.”

I stood there for a long time after he was gone, touching my lips, feeling the ghost of his kiss.

Then I went to the guest room he’d set up for me and lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.

Six months. That’s what I had signed up for.

But lying there on the bed, my body still humming from his touch, I wasn’t sure six months would be enough.

Or if I’d even make it that long before I completely fell apart.