EmberHearing them from him was exactly what I’d been wishing for, a sign he wouldn’t run and write me off if I said them first. Hearing those words for the first time in earnest from any man who wasn’t related to me surely should have elicited a more appropriate response.There was only one conclusion to be drawn for all this. Something was wrong with me. Any other girl would have turned around, run to him, thrown her arms around the gorgeous, incredible man who said he loved her for the first time, and told him she loved him too.Only, I hadn’t done that. I had, in fact, reacted in the exact same way I was afraid he might have had I said it first. I turned and ran.I blamed my reaction on my overactive imagination. I was halfway to the street when I realized I hadn’t actually imagined what he said. By then, it was too late.Forgetting I meant to stop by my own office first, I marched straight to Mr. Marx’s office. I was so out of it, I didn't even realize I was still ten minutes ear
KADENAfter Ember practically ran out my door, I stayed in the kitchen for a long time. At first, I had half a mind to run after her. I decided against it only because she was an economically productive member of society and had a meeting with her boss.Her career trumped my slip of the tongue. Talk about inconvenient timing.Sighing, I eventually got up and padded to my bedroom. I wasn’t going to wallow in despair because she didn’t say anything.It wasn’t the kind of thing that anyone could be expected to deal with on the fly, literally on their way out to a meeting. Obsessing about her reaction, or lack thereof, wasn’t going to get me anywhere.What I needed was a plan.Hot water sprayed onto my shoulders in the shower as I tried to think of the logical next step. It might have slipped out, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. I did love her. I was serious about Ember and sure of what I wanted with her. If she didn’t feel the same way, I could be whoever and whatever she needed me
KadenI texted him on the way down to the parking garage to ask if he had time for a coffee. He replied almost immediately with a thumbs-up emoji, telling me he had taken the afternoon off.We met at a coffee shop near his office. I got there first since he was still wrapping up at work and snagged a table around the back corner. It was the most private table I could get, and we were going to need at least some semblance of privacy while having this conversation.Ryan arrived about twenty minutes after I did, his dark hair windswept and his cheeks tinged with red from the increasingly cold weather. Green eyes sparkling, he was grinning and undoubtedly relieved to have the day off work until he saw the expression on my face.Sliding into the seat across from mine, his eyebrows pushed together. “You look like shit, dude. What’s up? You can’t be jetlagged from a flight to Houston.”“I’m not jetlagged.” I just hadn’t gotten much sleep because I was up half the night making love to his sis
KADEN“Remind me again why we’re awake at the crack of dawn on a Saturday?” Lying in bed with my arms hooked behind my head, I watched Ember getting ready for the day with a lazy smile on my face.Ember bounced on the balls of her feet, tugging on a pair of skinny jeans she paired with one of my royal-purple dress shirts. She femmed it up by adding a chunky silver necklace and earrings that matched the color of the shirt. She looked hot. I loved her in my clothes.Shooting me a look, she fastened the button on her jeans. “I told you. I’ve got some things I have to take care of.”“Look at you, Ms. Successful CFO,” I teased, sitting up in bed and running a hand through my tousled hair. “Too busy to spend the day with your boyfriend.”She stilled, her hands hovering in midair as she lifted her hair out of the back of the shirt. “I’m not… It’s just...” Trailing off, her eyes found the floor, and her hair flopped down around her shoulders as she moved her hands to her sides.I frowned, rea
KadenShutting off the water in the shower, I reached for a towel and dried my hair before knotting it around my waist. There was something up with my girl, and I needed to find out what it was. There was a pit forming in my stomach that it was about her telling me she loved me too, that perhaps in the bright morning light, she was regretting saying words she didn’t really mean.The muscles in my jaw tensed, but I forced myself to loosen up. I refused to believe she didn’t mean them. It was just my mind playing tricks on me, projecting old insecurities about no woman ever loving me after my mom died onto an unrelated situation.Ember had been honest and sincere when she said she loved me. Her green eyes were open and expressive. I saw the emotion shining from them when she said it. Whatever was bothering her, it couldn’t be that.I dressed fast, hearing the news coming from the television in the living room and suddenly eager to make sure Ember was still even here. God, I didn’t know
EMBERHiding the truth from Kaden was going to kill me. My heart pounded too erratically in his presence now, and my brain kept misfiring. I couldn’t concentrate on anything else when I was around him than what I was keeping from him.Sitting on my couch on Sunday morning, I wrapped my fingers around my warm cup of coffee and stared out of the window across the room. I didn’t have much of a view, mostly of the building next door and a sliver of cityscape, but I wasn’t really seeing it anyway.I was too caught up in my head, thinking about everything going on. Leaving Kaden yesterday had been hard, especially since I wanted nothing more than to spend the day with him. I didn’t want him thinking I regretted telling him I loved him. I really did. More than anything.I just didn’t know how to look him in the eye now. I had been able to put it aside on Friday night, focusing only on him and me and letting him know what I felt about it. It had been easy then, the pressing need to tell him I
EmberObjectively speaking, though I didn’t think of him that way at all, he was good looking. He clearly had a great body. He was intelligent and funny and kind—at least, I thought he was. He was also a successful architect with a promising career ahead of him. He should’ve had girls lined up around the block, but it didn’t look like he did.There were no traces around his apartment suggesting he’d had a girl over last night or that there was one stashed in his bedroom. In fact, his apartment was surprisingly neat and orderly.It was the first time I was there, and I was shocked to see not only the apparent size of the place, but how impersonal it was. Aside from a framed picture of our parents with us at a fair when we were little, there was some sports memorabilia I could see, but that was it.The furniture looked like it had been picked out of a “Masculine living” catalog, all dark leather, wood, and steel with stainless appliances in the open-plan kitchen.It was jarring that my
KADENThree days since I’d last seen Ember, and I was really starting to get worried. Despite how loathe I was to go there, I put my feelings aside and drove over to Marx Inc. on Tuesday morning. I still had a parking spot, even though my training with Ember was fast coming to an end.I could have called and asked to see her later, but something kept making me come back to the office. I knew she didn’t need me around for much anymore, but I still wanted to check on her and make sure she was okay. If she needed me, I wanted to be there for her. If she didn’t? Well, I still wanted to spend time with her.I didn’t want our training to end. I couldn’t stand the thought of no longer seeing her during the day, missing those times her eyes lit up when she did really well at work or figured out something new or came up with a great plan. There were hundreds of moments every day I didn’t want to miss with her.Working together was how we finally found each other after all these years. It made