The teenage girl that was shyly looking down. He thanked his tanned skin for hiding his blushing cheeks. He was arrested by her beauty and delicate movements.

Eve was average height, with a lean body full of curves in the right places and peachy cream skin. Her hair was long and ink-black. Her nose was up-turned and her mouth small and full. She was wearing an expensive light-pink dress and pink and white flats. His grandfather had described her perfectly: a shy girl that had just left a Catholic boarding school.

To Ethan, she looked like an angel.

An angel he had a sudden and uncontrollable desire to touch.

“Eve is starting at your school this month, Ethan.” Isis softly nudged Eve in Ethan’s direction. “Eve, say hello to Ethan. He is going to help you adjust, aren’t you, Ethan?”

Ethan nodded and opened his mouth to say something, when Eve raised her eyes and, with an enchanting smile, greeted him, “Bonjour.”

He discovered that her eyes where a beautiful shade of chocolate. He felt as his grandfather pressed a hand on his back, motioning for him to kiss the girl. He stepped forward and kissed her cheek. She blinked twice, smiled a bit more and then looked down again.

“Good morning, Eve.” He liked the way her name sounded. “Nice to meet you.”

Isis smugly smiled to Niarchos, who said, “Let’s move to the terrace and have some coffee while Athena arranges your things in your rooms.”

11.43 a.m.

“And do you like to read?” Ethan asked Eve as they strolled through the gardens. Books and studies were the only topics he didn’t have any problem talking about.

She looked up at him and a smile graced her naturally pink lips, hypnotizing Ethan.

“Oh, yes, I do. You know, the Abbess at my old school was very strict about what we could read.” She giggled and the sound went directly to Ethan’s heart, making it beat quicker. “But my friends would always smuggle a forbidden book to my room at night.”

“I see.” They had reached the end of the enormous garden by the beach. “Do you want to sit a bit? The view here is incredible.” Ethan loved the wide square gazebo his grandfather had built especially for him. It had a white trellis with pink and orange bougainvillea. In the spring, the flowers attracted hummingbirds. When it rained, he would spend hours there, reading, admiring the transparent blue Mediterranean Sea and listening to the sound of the rain on the wooden roof and the leaves. The gentle lapping of the waves on the sand brought Ethan peaceful and happy thoughts. It was his favorite place.

He waited for her to sit on the sofa and admired her shapely legs as she shed her flats and tucked her feet under her thighs, leaning on the pillows. He sat beside her, keeping a respectable distance. “So, what kind of books did you read?”

“Oh, you know...” she giggled again and bit her bottom lip, looking down at her fingers.

He shifted a little closer keeping his half-arousal concealed. That girl was doing things to him he didn’t understand and, although he was afraid of those feelings, he was unable to stay away. He wanted to touch her skin to see if it felt as smooth as it looked.

“I don’t. Tell me.”

She raised her puppy eyes to him and whispered conspiratorially, “Promise you won’t tell my mother?”

The way she was confiding in him made him feel bold and he scooted closer to her. “I promise.”

Eve shifted on the seat, slid one of her bent legs closer to him and her double buttoned dress with pleated skirt, climbed up a bit, revealing more of her soft rounded thighs.

Ethan’s mouth dried. He licked his lips. “So? What kind?”

With her knee touching his hip, she leaned over, balancing herself with a hand on his thigh and put her mouth near his ear. Her warm hand sent electric shocks through him and her soft breath tickled his ear when she murmured, “About sex.”

“Sex,” he repeated hoarsely as a thrill of desire ran directly to his crotch. Jesus! I want this angel.

His breathing became uneven. He raised his hand to touch her face. When she didn’t recoil, he put his open palm on her cheek, the tips of his fingers touching her silky hair. His eyes fluttered closed. Such softness. I want to touch her all over. But I don’t know how. What-

A soft kiss on his lips interrupted his thoughts. His eyes flew open and he gasped.

Eve backed away, blinking. “I’m sorry. I-” She put her hands over her face and her hair covered her lowered face.

He looked at her and awkwardly put his hand on her bare knee. “I’m sorry. I don’t...” I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do. I’m so clumsy.

She looked at him between her fingers.

“Please? Eve?” Ethan squeezed her knee lightly. What should I do?

Eve took her hands slowly from her face. “Don’t tell anyone. Please? It’s just that you are so... handsome,” she put her hand over his and moved it further up her thigh, under her dress, and she pressed her hand down on his. “I have never seen such a handsome man. You know,” her eyes fluttered innocently, but her gaze never strayed from his, as she once more leaned in his direction and, a breath away from his lips, whispered, “I never had a boyfriend.”

Ethan didn’t resist temptation and closed the space between them, putting his lips over hers. Oh. Soft lips. Sweet lips. Angel lips.

His platonic thoughts gave way to fierce feelings as her tongue slid over his lips, her hands wandering gently in his hair and she murmured on his closed mouth, “Oh, Ethan, you make me want forbidden things. Open your mouth.” Her soft tongue probed and found entrance.

Ethan succumbed.

He forgot all his mother and father had done to him.

He forgot all about that awful night and worse morning.

Eve’s kiss was all he could think about.

7.37 p.m.

“Ethan, come in,” Niarchos welcomed his grandson into his bedroom.

Ethan entered and shifted on his feet, unsure.

Niarchos closed the door and smiled inwardly as he quickly surveyed his grandson. “You dressed nicely.”

“Err... Well, I- We have visitors. I thought-”

“You did very well, my boy.” A pleasant smile graced Niarchos’s face. “Isis and Eve are very refined. You know women like well dressed men. Specially French women.”

“They are very beautiful.” And I want Eve, Grandpa. What should I do?

Niarchos finished buttoning his long-sleeved shirt, zipped up his tailored trousers and buckled his belt. He turned away from the mirror and faced his grandson with his mind set on his course of action. One way or another, he would see Ethan transformed into a confident man. “How do I look, Ethan?”

“Handsome and powerful as always, Grandpa.” He shifted from one foot to another and looked away, blinking nervously.

Niarchos put a hand on Ethan’s shoulder and guided him to the veranda, sitting in one of the armchairs. “Sit, Ethan. Tell me what is bothering you.”

Ethan blushed even more. He didn’t know how to talk about sex, so he sat silent by his grandfather and looked down at his black Ferragamo shoes.

“Ethan?” he coached.

Ethan peered at his grandfather from beneath his lashes and said, “Eve. She’s- I want-” His hand smoothed his white shirt and whispered low, “She makes me want things...”

Niarchos took pity on the teenager and said gently, “Ethan, desire and sex are the most natural things that can happen between a man and a woman. There is no need to be ashamed or shy about it.” He stifled his smile when he noticed that under Ethan’s tanned skin his blush deepened even more. “Look at me, Ethan.” He waited patiently for him to look up and continued, “You’re a handsome man-”

“But, Grandpa, I don’t know what to do, how or where to touch her. I don’t know how to kiss. She’s so graceful and I’m so clumsy.” He gibbered as his feelings played havoc inside him. “I- Help me, Grandpa. Please.”

It was exactly the reaction Niarchos wanted. And he had his speech ready.

10.21 p.m.

Ethan watched his grandfather carefully all through the evening, learning from the older man; the small gestures of politeness and the subtle way he touched Isis; his answers to her questions and the way he made her talk about the topics that interested her.

Niarchos was completely different from Ethan’s father and mother. Not that George or Calista were rude. No. They were refined and polite, although Calista was never interested in what one could learn from a book. But Niarchos was the epitome of politeness and refinement, and there was a subtleness to his passions that made Ethan decide that he would rather emulate his grandfather than his parents. Ethan disliked exhibitionism.

He wanted love and trust. He wanted to belong. Ethan was sure that he would find everything he wanted in Niarchos. His grandfather had always been caring. That night especially, Niarchos had been gentle when he explained to him that he would like sex very much.

Ethan decided he would learn from his powerful grandfather how to seduce Eve.

And how to seduce the world.

London, Park Lane. Ethan Ashford’s Penthouse.


Tuesday, March 16th, 2010.

 8.07 a.m.

Ethan stretched in bed and looked at the woman next to him, who was sleeping. What am I doing? She’ll never replace Sophia in my heart.

He rose from the bed and called his assistant, “Good morning, Scott. I want a full report in fifteen minutes, downstairs.”

“Of course, sir.”

Ethan headed to the bathroom musing about Scott.

Scott Mulberry was a thin, blond, and pale thirty-five year old man. He had been working for Ashford Steel since he was twenty-five and was the assistant to another director. Ethan noticed him during a boring meeting when Scott filled in for the missing director. He had spoken with such certainty and clarity about the problem at hand that Ethan promoted him that day to his assistant. He always dressed impeccably and was very polite, almost subservient.