KADENOur room was a vision of white and different hues of blue, but surprisingly, the blue and white theme was where the typical oceanside décor ended. It didn’t have any nautical paraphernalia on the walls. Dad booked us in at an exclusive resort right on top of one of the more secluded beaches in Tampa. The resort had its own private stretch of beach, which our room overlooked from one of the suites on the top floor.A massive four-post bed with white gauzy drapes sat in the center of the suite, with an en suite bathroom off to one side and a living room and bar on the other. A wide balcony with a hot tub in the corner stretched along the entire front of the suite, providing a magnificent view of green palm trees blending into the blues of the sky and ocean. “So this is Florida, huh?” Ember stood on the balcony of our hotel room, a soft breeze lifting her hair and rustling the white sundress she was wearing. She looked beautiful set against the backdrop of the sparkling blue ocea
Kaden“I haven’t been there in real life,” she said, grinning as she gushed. “I have done extensive research and procrasti-traveling. I’ve watched lots of tourists’ videos and—”“Wait a second.” I frowned at her, my brow furrowing. “Procrasti-what now?”“Procrasti-traveling,” she repeated, a little slower this time. “It’s like procrastinating, but taking a trip while you do it.”“So instead of working, you ‘take a trip’?”She laughed, shrugging her shoulders. “Well, I haven’t done it recently. I used to do it a lot when I had to study. People find lots of stuff to do when they should be studying. For me, I used to look up places I wanted to go to and do research like I was really going. It’s a great way to dream.”“Did it motivate you to get to studying so you’d be able to afford to go eventually?” Although I’d had a lot of free time since I left Marx Inc., that had only been a couple of weeks after my training Ember had effectively ended.Before that, I didn’t remember the last time
EMBERKaden’s cheeks were a little flushed from the sun, and his pupils dilated as he hovered above me. My breath caught in my throat at his words. I still couldn’t believe someone like Kaden could be looking at me the way he was, the way he had been for months now.As if I was everything he’d ever wanted out of life and more. As if I was his favorite part of the day, which he’d just confirmed to me I was.It wasn’t because I was self-conscious that I couldn’t believe he was looking at me that way. It was just because I’d never been looked at like that. I didn’t even think it was possible to see such love, want, and absolute acceptance of another person in someone’s eyes.The fact that it was Kaden looking at me like that just made it a thousand times better, a hundred times more intense, and ten times as unlikely. He was that guy every woman who found herself in his general vicinity wanted, and he had chosen me. Just like I chose him every day and was doing again right now.Sitting o
EmberDeciding to drag out his pleasure the way he so often did with me, I sank down between his knees and teased my tongue all around him. My hands kneaded his thighs, and I let my hair tickle his lower stomach. The muscles there clenched, the ones in his thighs quivering as I ran my fingertips over them.“You’re really in the mood to torture me?” He finally moaned, his neck arching over the side of the mattress and his cock twitching right in front of me.“Not really.” I grinned up at him before taking his tip into my mouth, my hands digging into his hips.Kaden’s hips came off the bed, his moans sending frissons of pleasure right to my very core. “Ember. Yes. God. Yes.”I wrapped my hand around his shaft, bringing the other to his balls. Massaging him with my tongue and hand, he started writhing beneath me.He hauled me up by my shoulders far more gently than I probably would’ve managed to be under the circumstances, and that was when I finally stopped. Kaden was breathing heavily
KADEN “Is it beach time yet?” I asked Ember after breakfast. She was back in the white robe that had driven me out of my damn mind not twelve hours ago, and I was wearing the matching one from the hook behind the bathroom door.To room service, we probably looked like a not-so-old married couple, and to my surprise, I loved it. The level of domesticity Ember and I had reached would’ve been laughable to me a year ago, but now it was nothing short of natural.We asked the waiter who brought our food to the suite to bring up some newspapers and sat swapping out the financial and business sections once we were done reading them. All the while, we munched on fluffy pancakes and crispy bacon.It was hot as hell outside, but we turned off the air conditioning, threw open the balcony doors, and just enjoyed the heat. Even the humidity that smacked me in the face when we first got here was welcome now, a reminder to enjoy everything about Florida while it lasted.Ember’s smile drew me out of
Kaden“That wasn’t what I was thinking,” I protested weakly. At the waggle of her brows, I shrugged. “Okay, maybe that was what I started out thinking.”She rolled her eyes, pushing her sunglasses up so I would be able to see the movement. “You’re insatiable.”“Only for you.” I winked, lifting my own glasses to return her favor. “Now lie down and let me get your back before you burn.”“About time,” she said, flopping down onto her lounger. “Make sure you get the area beneath the straps too. It’s always a bitch when you think you’re covered, and then the strap moves, and you end up looking like a striped lobster.”“No striped lobsters here.”A woman walking past us at that exact moment proved I was wrong, prompting me to laugh and Ember to look up to see why. She buried her face in her elbow crooked on the lounger to stifle her own giggles.“Okay,” I said. “So maybe there are a couple of striped lobsters here, but you won’t become one of them.”I lathered her properly with the sunscree
EMBERJeez. This guy. The feel of his lips against my skin while we were actually taking an honest to God walk along the beach while the sun was starting to set? It was like living my own personal version of the romantic comedies I liked to make fun of and secretly swooned over.His words played on a loop in my mind as the warm sand cascaded over my feet on our way to the ice cream parlor. Whatever you want, kitten, it’s all yours.My heart did a skippy, palpitating thing that would’ve had me worried had I been with anyone else. With Kaden though, I was getting used to it. My heart didn’t function the way a normal human’s did when around him. And I was perfectly okay with that.“You want to get a booth or eat and walk?” he asked as we stomped some of the sand off our feet on the welcome mat.“Eat and walk?” I suggested, letting go of his hand on our approach to the counter.The parlor was small and decorated in soft pink and baby blue. There were only a few booths, decorated in the sa
EmberIt was the same position I found myself torn between so often since he passed. Wanting to offload my secret to assuage my own guilt and wanting to be there for Kaden. I knew the guilt would be weighing heavily on me until I came clean, but I couldn’t do it. Not yet.There would be a time where it would be unavoidable to tell him, and I would take the consequences when that time came. It just couldn’t be now.With the moon and the sun saying their hello to one another, both shining down on us in their own ways with the one greeting while the other said goodbye, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him.Instead, I finished my cone and took his hand, offering him a silent show of support.“After everything we went through, I just can’t believe it all came down to a video. It’s a wonder he went through all that for me.” Kaden didn’t sound bitter about it, only resigned. “That he went through all that to put everything in place for me and to make sure I knew what he wanted to say even aft