Loving A STRANGER 235 Chapter 235: This Will Be Your Home Forever

Tears came to Kylie's eyes as she looked up at the Finch House. She looked at Ethan and asked him why he would take her there. He met her eyes, smiled, and squeezed her hand. In a rea.s.suring voice, he said, "Trust me. I would never do anything to hurt you."

After a moment, she nodded and followed him up the driveway. When they reached the fence, Kylie was surprised to find that the gate was ajar. She smiled, and she said, "That b.i.t.c.h, Khloe, has always been way too careless."

Ethan did not respond verbally. Instead, he clutched her hand tighter, pushed the gate open, walked straight up to the house, through the front door, and into the living room. Looking at the familiar furniture and decorations, Kylie couldn't help but cry. "Since my mother died," she said, "this hasn't been my home. I still don't see why you've brought me here. There are so many bad memories…"

Ethan pressed his hands on her shoulders and, in a low voice, he said, "From now on, this will be your home - forever."

"What do you mean?" Kylie wondered.

"In order to buy more shares," Ethan replied, "Khloe had to sell off all the real estate under her and her mother's name at rock bottom prices. I purchased everything. Some of it I will sell off for profit, but this house and the property around it is for you. Consider it an early birthday present."

"Ethan Parker!" Kylie exclaimed as she playfully punched his chest. She was very happy, but then a thought occurred to her, and she looked up quizzically. Her brow furrowed, and she began to look around the house like a woman gone mad. Ethan took a cinerary casket out of the closet and asked her, "Are you looking for this?"

Kylie's face lit up, and she said, "Ethan Parker, I love you so much! How did you know what I was looking for?"

Ethan smiled faintly, and he said, "Kylie, I have known you for a long time. Of course, it was a slap in your face to have had your ancestral home stripped away from you. Knowing you, though, I had to know that what really bothered you the most was having your mother's ashes all but forgotten in the back of a closet."

Kylie wrapped her arms around him, and she said, "You know me so well. What would I do without you? I love you so much."

Ethan returned her hug, and he said, "I love you too, and I would give you the world if it were mine to give."

Kylie snorted with laughter, and she said, "I want to bite you."

"Go ahead," Ethan laughed. "Bite me."

Kylie smiled, lifted his hand, and bit him as hard as she could.

Kylie pulled his hand away and saw that little pools of blood had filled the indentations that her teeth had left, but he hadn't even flinched. She took his hand to her mouth again. At first, she only licked his blood, but once she got a taste for it, she began to suck greedily. Ethan moaned, and Kylie could feel his hand on her breast, squeezing the fatty tissue and pinching her nipples.

After a couple of minutes, Kylie let his hand go, and she said, "Our love is bound by blood now. From now on, you're mine."

Ethan smiled slyly, and he said, "The bond is not complete unless I drink your blood too."

Kylie offered him her hand, but she pushed it away. "I will take your blood," he said, "but not from your hand…"

Kylie looked at Ethan, and she said, "Not in front of my mother's ashes, okay?"

"I want to do it in front of your mother," Ethan replied. "I want her to know how much I love you."

Ethan tried to kiss Kylie, but she pushed him away. "Stop it," she cried. "I don't want to do it in front of my mother. I tell you, she would disapprove!"

"Fine," Ethan laughed. He picked up the ashes and said, "Before we do anything, let's find a place for your mother to rest. I will have Elliot take us to the cemetery."

The staff at the cemetery were accommodating. They helped them find a plot, had someone bury the earnings right away, and they had an on-call priest to do an impromptu service – As Kylie said goodbye to her mother, she allowed herself to cry for the first time.  

Ethan kneeled down on one knee and laid down a bundle of blue roses. Looking at the plaque that had been laid in place of a tombstone, he said, "I am sorry that I didn't get to know you. I will take care of your daughter, though, and do my best to make her happy every day of her life."

 ***

Once they arrived back at Garbo Palace, Kylie made herself comfortable and began to review her script. She was only a few pages in when she was struck with an idea: because she was expected to play the role of a blind person, she should try being blind in her real life.

Kylie pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and wrapped it on her head so that she couldn't see. Her first observation about the world of the dark was that it was a little scary. She stood up, took two steps, and immediately lost herself in the living room. She didn't know which way to go in order to get to the kitchen, bathroom, or even back to the couch!

She'd only been blind for a minute, and she was lost. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to be blind your whole life. Not only was it scary, but it was also lonely. She groped awkwardly in the dark with her arms stretched out.

She was trying to find the stairs when Steven called out to her in a voice that mimicked that of Ethan. "What are you doing?" he wondered.

"I'm pretending to be blind," she replied, "for the movie. Why don't you lead me into the garden so that we can go for a walk?"

 Steven looked at her skeptically and waved a hand in front of her eyes. When he saw that she actually couldn't see, he smiled and took her hand. "All right," he said. "Let's go."

As they walked into the courtyard, Kylie was surprised by how sweaty Ethan's hand was. She turned to him and asked him why his hand was so sweaty. In reply, Stephen let go of her hand, wiped his hand on his s.h.i.+rt, and gave it back to her.

Even though Kylie trusted Ethan, she was still nervous. He was going too fast, but she didn't want to say anything. They were going at a normal pace, and she wanted to learn to walk at a normal pace, even when she was blind. She wondered if all blind people were this nervous, or if they got used to it eventually. She a.s.sumed, though, if you were born blind, it would be normal for everything to be black, so it would be no big deal.

Suddenly something brushed the top of her head and, startled, she screamed.

"I'm sorry," Steven said. "It was just a low-hanging branch. I didn't see it."

"Hey!" Kylie snapped. "Can you pay a little more attention to where I'm going? If I hadn't had the blindfold on, it could have taken out my eye!"

"I said that I'm sorry!" Steven said. "I don't know what else you want from me…"

Kylie sighed, and she said, "I'm feeling unsettled. Can you lead me to a bench? I want to take a break."

Steven led Kylie quietly to the closest bench and put her hand on the armrest so that she could sit down. As she sat down, she sighed and said, "I would never have guessed that being blind is as hard as it is. Even walking is hard!"

Suddenly, Kylie realized that Ethan was being exceptionally quiet. "Cat got your tongue?" she wondered. "Penny for your thoughts? What's your story, Morning Glory?"

Steven coughed, and he said, "My throat is sore."

Kylie nodded to say that she understood.

Suddenly, Kylie heard Pupu barking, and she turned in the direction that the noise had come from. "Pupu!" she called, "Come! Mommy wants you!"

Stephen also turned in the direction that the noise had come from, but what he saw made his face turn a pale shade of green, and his heart began to beat fast in his chest. Pupu was on a leash and, on the other end of it, was Ethan – and he was walking right towards them.

 Lucky for Steven, though, he hadn't been spotted yet. Not knowing what else to do, he dropped to his hands and knees and scurried away like some kind of beast.

When Ethan arrived at the bench where Kylie was sitting, the first thing he noticed was that she'd used a handkerchief to blind herself. He looked around and tried to figure out how she'd gotten there without killing herself, or at least sustaining injuries.

She must have had help, he thought to himself, but who was it that had helped her?

Kylie took Ethan's hand, stood up, and said, "Let's go."

Once they were walking, Ethan asked her what she thought about being blind. She said that it was hard, scary even. "Everything is black," she explained, "and there is a sense that I could run into a wall at any moment, or that someone could trick me somehow…"

"That sounds hard," Ethan replied. "I have a lot of respect for what you are doing. There aren't many people in Hollywood that would take on such a difficult role."

Ethan leaned down and surprised Kylie with a kiss on the mouth. She smiled and said, "Kiss me again. I wasn't prepared for the first one."

Ethan obediently kissed her again, and she kissed him back, much more pa.s.sionately than he'd expected. He pinched her chin and said, "How dare you kiss someone without seeing who he is? What if someone posed as me and tried to kiss you? Would you kiss him back?"

At the thought of Kylie kissing another man, Ethan became furious, and his interest in kissing quickly fizzled away.

"You are overthinking this!" Kylie protested. I could never mistake another man's kiss like yours. A kiss is like a fingerprint. No two kisses are the same!"

Ethan thought this over and saw that she was right, and his anger dissipated. "I'm sorry," he sighed.

"It's nothing," Kylie laughed as she kissed him again.

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