Safer to hide up here like a naughty child. If she espied Ethan looking for her she could speed off to her lair and play 'sleeping lions', a favourite game of Chloe and her friends.
It was at this point in Maggie's musings that Ethan grasped her firmly about the waist and swept her to her feet, her back held tightly to his chest.
'What do we have here?' Ethan whispered into her ear.
'A person having a heart attack, that's what. What do you think you're doing sneaking up and grabbing a girl like that?' Maggie tried unsuccessfully to twist around in his embrace 'I wasn't sneaking. I never sneak. You were so engrossed in the festivities below that you just didn't hear me. As for what I'm doing? I'm looking for a tired, worn out soul whose last action before passing out was to organise a most wonderful birthday party for me. Have you seen her?'
Ethan's hand, pressed against Maggie's chest, searched for and found her madly beating heart.
'Me neither. All I've found is this very much energized, not sleeping, beauty whose heart is dancing to a beat faster than the tune being belted out downstairs. I would have thought that the fright I gave you, quite unintentionally, would have worn off by now. But nooo, it's still going ten to the dozen. Now why is that? Anything to do with this?'
Ethan clarified his question by pressing his full length even closer to Maggie's. His hands molded her torso into his groin making him aware of not only how delightfully short she was but how aroused he was.
'Let me go.' Maggie beseeched in a whisper. 'All a guest has to do is look up and they'll see us.'
'Oh, they're going to see us sweetheart, a lot more of us-host and his hostess.' Passion warred with duty and the latter won as he drew back his wandering hands and gently turned Maggie to face him. The look on her face told Ethan he hadn't won yet.
'But Magnolia…'
"Ssh! No…Magnolia. Yes…Cinderella. It's time you got ready for the ball.'
Moving quickly for such a big man, Maggie, for the second time in as many days, was scooped up into his arms. Striding purposely towards her bedroom Ethan's hold allowed no room for squirming. Maggie's resentment at his high handed manner shimmered in her glare. Not knowing what he had planned she appeared dumb struck when he crossed her bedroom, entered her ensuite and plopped her straight into the shower cubicle. Her vocal cords came back to life when Ethan began to tug at her dressing gown belt.