Share

Meeting Hank

Author: Ali Parker
last update Last Updated: 2024-10-29 19:42:56

EMBER

“Mr. Marx isn’t in the office today,” a perky receptionist on his floor told me snidely. The tone she used made me wonder if there was something more going on between them, but I dismissed the thought.

She was probably simply bitchy. Like Gracie pointed out, people here had their default setting set to rude. I smiled, refusing to stoop to her level. “Do you know when he’ll be back? I have some important business to discuss with him.”

What I wanted to discuss with him wasn’t business or particularly important, but I was tired of waiting for him to come to me. I needed to figure out if the air needed to be cleared between us, and I was over wondering about it.

If he didn’t have the balls to come to me, I would come to him. Or I would try, anyway. Apparently, I had chosen the wrong day to do so.

The receptionist, whose name I didn’t know and didn’t care to learn, glared at me. “I’m not his personal assistant, so I don’t know when he’ll be back or where he is. Would you like to leav
Locked Chapter
Continue to read this book on the APP

Related chapters

  • Getting Lucky   Even Better News

    EmberHank’s grip was so strong, it nearly strangled my hand, but I wasn’t one of those girls who shook like a limp fish. One of my female professors back at Harvard had impressed upon us ladies the importance of having every bit as strong a handshake as the men who we would inevitably end up working with.I returned his handshake with more confidence than I felt, curling my lips into a smile. “Mr. Marx, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”“I’ve taken the liberty of ordering up lunch for you. I was hoping you would join me.” He motioned toward the seating area with the waiting salads, looking at me expectantly.Like I was going to say no to an invitation to lunch with the biggest boss I had? “I would love to.”“I’m sure you’re wondering why I called for you,” he said once we were settledI nodded, mentally crossing my fingers that this wasn’t all an act and that he wasn’t going to fire me anyway, despite having gotten me lunch first. “The thought has crossed my mind.”Mr. Marx chuckled good

  • Getting Lucky   Busted

    KADENGoing back to work on Wednesday morning, I stopped to pick up two more coffees. It was take two for me trying to talk to Ember. I refused to let anyone stop me from doing it today. Not even my dad was going to stand in my way.When I got to our building, I went to my office first to drop off my stuff and check in with my assistant to let her know I was back. From there, I would go to the training floor to find Ember.Rounding the corner to my office, I was surprised to find Ember already there waiting for me. She stood up from the black leather couches in the executive waiting room when she saw me, smoothing out her skirt.Her very tight, very sexy fucking skirt.My mouth went dry at the sight of those curves, so very clearly displayed in the skirt and a form-fitting jacket.Holy shit. Was it possible for a person to become sexier in two days? It had to be. That was the only thing that could explain how she had gone from sexy to devastating in less than seventy-two hours.“Kaden

  • Getting Lucky   Sharp

    KadenI shrugged. “In this case, it’s the truth. Ryan wouldn’t ever have figured it out if I hadn’t told him straight out.”“Well, thank you,” she said. “I owe you one.”“You don’t owe me a thing,” I told her. “I was happy to do it. I just hope things get better between the two of you. He wants it too, you know? He just doesn’t necessarily know how to make it happen.”“We’ll figure it out,” she said confidently, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “Okay, well, I should probably get going. Thanks for the talk and for talking to Ryan.” Getting up from her chair, she lifted the coffee. “Thanks for this too. You may just have saved my life with this. I’ve been dying for Joe’s.”A chuckle worked its way out of my mouth. “That’s a little dramatic, don’t you think? You wouldn’t actually have died.”Her head bounced from side to side as if she was actually considering it. Then she shrugged. “Luckily, we’ll never have to find out. So, thanks for that too.” “Anything else you’d like to thank

  • Getting Lucky   Disrobing

    EMBERAfter my conversation with Kaden on Wednesday, the rest of the day and the next dragged on and on. I found myself checking the elevator banks again when I heard one stop on our floor.It became annoying. I thought I might be developing a crick in my neck because of it. My head snapped around to those things at least twelve times a day, if not more. The people in this building were seriously lazy. Was it too much to ask for them to start taking the stairs instead?She wonders while standing in one of the elevators. I smiled to myself. I wasn’t taking the damn stairs, not in these heels. They were pretty as hell, all red and sexy, but functional, they were not. As soon as I hit the sidewalk, they were coming off. I had a plain pair of pumps in my purse with my name on them.Literally. I bought them while I still had roommates at Harvard.The elevator car stopped on too many floors on the way down, leaving me to wonder if anyone else was as neurotic about their arrival on their flo

  • Getting Lucky   Just the Beginning

    Ember“Disrobing? Really? Who says that?”He laughed. “Me. Kaden Marx. I thought we were messing around yesterday, but do you actually have memory problems? Do I need to remind you who I am?”I rolled my eyes, but the corners of my lips tugged into a smile. “No need. You’re the cocky bastard I work for who used to be the cocky bastard hanging around my house ignoring me all the time.”“I didn’t ignore you,” he protested.I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think I’m the one who has memory problems.”“Fine.” He shrugged. “I was a teenaged idiot back then. All teenage boys are idiots, haven’t you heard?”“Yup,” I replied cheerfully. “I just wanted to hear you say it out loud. Why were you following me out here anyway?”Scoffing, he shook his head. “I was not following you. I happened to see you standing here disrobing and thought I might come offer a hand.”“Ever the gentleman,” I muttered, fighting another smile. If someone told me the only person in New York who was a sure thing for getting

  • Getting Lucky   Take Me

    KADENIf I had known Ember was this much fun to hang around, I definitely wouldn’t have ignored her back in high school. She would have been my best friend instead of her brother. Ryan was the best, but Ember was even better.Well, she would have been my best friend for five minutes, and then I would have made her mine. So it was probably actually better that I hadn’t known her back then. Making her mine that early would never have worked.I would have broken her heart because it wasn’t immodest to say that was just what I did, and then where would we have been now? Definitely not a couple of beers and a bottle of wine strong after a b-rated horror movie, doing shots at a hole in the wall bar near the park.Ember lifted her tiny glass filled with only the bartender knew what, a slightly drunken grin on her full lips. “To you, for broadening my horizons by introducing me to the most awful movie known to man.”I clinked my glass to hers and downed the shot. It burned all the way down, d

  • Getting Lucky   With My Teeth

    EMBERBack when I still read women’s magazines, I read a few articles claiming many women enjoyed stripping for their men. Apparently, it gave them some kind of rush.I remembered being horrified when I read it the first time. Stripping was already one thing, but stripping for just one person in such an intimate setting with no lights blinding you and being able to see every reaction on that person’s face was downright terrifying.Unlike most, I respected people who had the necessary self-esteem to strip for strangers. Seriously. I’d heard all the arguments about it being a profession born from desperation, but anyone had to admit it took guts to take off your clothes for the viewing enjoyment of others.My self-esteem wasn’t lacking in any way, but never in a hundred years would I have the confidence to strip for just one man.The shots Kaden and I drank earlier probably had a bit to do with this new-found confidence, but I was by no means drunk. Not anymore, anyway. I had been well

  • Getting Lucky   Moans

    Ember“Both,” I replied, bringing my hands to the buttons on his shirt to start undoing them. He let me snap two of them through their holes before suddenly lifting me up and throwing me over his shoulder caveman style. “What are you doing?”“You said both, which means it’s too chilly in here for you to stand here butt naked, and I’m not putting your clothes back on. I’ll light a fire for us later. For now, we’re going somewhere warmer.”He took off across the floor of his living room, which I noticed as I hung upside down was actually an entrance hall, living and dining area opening up to his kitchen. It was bigger than my entire loft.The walls and floors were white, while the furniture was dark wood and darker leather with metal accents. What a boy’s place.I didn’t have much time to think about it though, as he marched me down a hallway. I counted four doors before he carried me through a fifth and finally dropped me on a bed the size of our kitchen at the loft.“Do you have a fam

Latest chapter

  • Getting Lucky   Gender Reveal

    KadenAs an adult, I’d always been too busy to spend too much time on hypotheticals like if I wanted to settle down and have a family someday. I used protection religiously to avoid conceiving a child with a woman I didn’t really know in my younger days, and after that, I kind of gave up on ever finding a woman I could imagine myself spending the rest of my life and having kids with.Until Ember.Everything I used to want, worry about, think, or believe changed the day she walked back into my life. She still teased me some about my previous life of being a jerk as a kid or a player, but I could hardly remember what that was like either. Just like with my apartment, those were vague memories I didn’t care to recall.All my life, I’d heard people say you couldn’t change. I was living proof those people were wrong. To be fair, I’d started making changes before I even met Ember, but the guy I used to be wouldn’t have taken the whole day off work to go to the doctor and then to stock up on

  • Getting Lucky   Ultrasound

    KADEN“Everything is looking good so far,” Doctor Kruger told us, holding the ultrasound wand still on Ember’s growing stomach. She was really starting to show now and thought she looked more and more like a whale every day. I couldn’t disagree with her more. “The baby is growing well, and everything looks the way it should at around twenty-four weeks.”Doctor Kruger was the gynecologist Ember chose. She came highly recommended by the girls at the office. She looked a little bit like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, with hair so thin you could see most of her scalp, but there was a whole wall of awards in her office speaking to her ability.Ember smiled up at her, squeezing my hand tightly. Her eyes were glued to the screen beside her though, as were mine. It was hard to believe the black and white smudges we saw was an actual baby growing in Ember, but now and then, we could make out a hand or a foot or something that drove the point home.The doctor moved the wand higher, squeezing ou

  • Getting Lucky   A Dozen

    Ember“Have you felt it move yet?” Kaden asked, dragging his chair around to my side of the table so he would be next to me instead of across from me. “And should we be eating Mexican? Isn’t it too spicy?”“I ordered it mild,” I reminded him. “But I don’t think eating Mexican is a problem. Sushi is probably a no-no for me until the baby comes, though.”He nodded, and I could practically see him adding the information to some kind of mental checklist. “So, you didn’t tell me if you’d felt it move yet.”“Not yet,” I said honestly. “I would have told you immediately if I had.”That much was true. Despite my misgivings about his reaction, I wouldn’t have kept him from anything involving his child. Something as major as feeling it move for the first time especially.“When do you think you’ll feel it?” he asked, cocking his head and shifting back on his chair to make space for him to get his phone out of his pocket.I lifted my shoulders, shaking my head. “No idea, but it will probably be s

  • Getting Lucky   Four Months

    EMBERFor four weeks, I had been waiting to find the right time to talk to Kaden about this. There just never seemed to be enough time. Though we were practically living together and had adjoining offices now, we were also busy and running around for work.My heart hammered against my ribcage so hard it was almost painful as I leaned forward, forcing myself to look into Kaden’s eyes. I had no idea how he was going to take this news. We had so much on our plates as it was, and we’d never even come close to talking about anything like this.Every word I knew suddenly disappeared from my brain as I looked into his gorgeous eyes, questions darkening them while he waited for me to tell him what I’d been waiting for the right time to talk to him about.Grasping for words, any words at this point, I ended up just blurting it out. “I’m four months pregnant.”Kaden paled, his eyes going huge. His jaw loosened, and his throat worked. Oh crap.This was exactly the reaction I’d been afraid of. Me

  • Getting Lucky   Home

    KadenA faint line appeared between Carol’s eyebrows before she schooled her expression, shaking my free hand again. “We’ll be in touch soon, I assume? If you could email the paperwork to my assistant, the same one who set up this meeting, I’ll have the lawyers look it over and send it right back.”“It will be in your inbox before the end of the day tomorrow,” Ember promised. If I knew her, she was already planning on firing off a text to Scotty as soon as we were out of Carol’s sight.Ember and I were sharing Scotty as our main assistant now. We each had a second assistant working under Scotty, but he was our go-to guy and the one who organized our respective second assistants. It was a system that was working really well for us.Once we were settled in my car, I glanced at her before putting my hand on her headrest and backing out of the parking space. “Did you ask Scotty to send her the documents yet?”She smiled, holding up her phone to show me the text she was typing. “Just about

  • Getting Lucky   How Far Along?

    KADEN“If you consider we only started putting this together for you last week, I think you’ll appreciate the growth you would already have seen if we’d started making these moves only a few days ago.” I was speaking to our new potential client, an older woman with her dyed black hair pulled back in a severe bun.She was the CEO of a hotel group that was starting to pop up everywhere. The company was only a few years old, but they were expanding at an impressive rate, and Ember and I both really wanted to sign her.“We can do great things together, Carol,” Ember added, clicking a button on the remote in her hand to move onto the next slide we had prepared for her. “Both our companies have shown exponential growth over the last six months, and together, I think we can keep that trajectory going.”I could feel Ember’s excitement coming off her in waves from where she was sitting next to me at a mahogany conference table at one of Carol’s group’s hotels. The group had two new boutique ho

  • Getting Lucky   Together Again

    EMBERWhen Kaden’s lips crashed into mine, it was with such passion and fervor that a fresh wave of tears welled up behind my eyes. Different tears this time, happy tears. I couldn’t believe he was here, that he was in my arms and kissing me the way he was.An hour ago, I was convinced our relationship was toast. When I didn’t hear from Ryan, I thought the worst. I thought Kaden was so mad at me, he’d convinced Ryan he was right, and I was wrong. I thought Ryan wasn’t going to speak to me ever again either.I thought so many things, all of which were apparently wrong. It was hard to have faith in people when you felt as guilty and as badly as I did, though. In my defense, those weren’t feelings I had much experience with, and now that I’d felt them in their fullest glory, I had no intention of ever finding myself in a position like that ever again.From now on, I was going back to honesty. I still regretted the way I handled things with Mr. Marx, but I’d also learned from it. With Kad

  • Getting Lucky   Big Brother Talk

    KadenShit. I even made her promise to stop avoiding me. I shoved her even deeper into the impossible corner she was already in. I made her look me in the eyes and sleep in my bed, even when she couldn’t do it, and now I was pissed at her for doing exactly that?I groaned out loud, bringing my forehead to my desk.As if Ryan could tell what I was thinking, he said, “She loves you, Kaden. She loves you more than anything in the world. You’re everything to her. Trust me when I tell you she never meant to hurt you. She was stuck in purgatory about this for weeks.”Lifting my head only enough to catch a glimpse of his eyes, I frowned. “Is this a big brother talk? Because I don’t think I can stomach one of those right now.”I really couldn’t bear to hear him tell me how much she loved me after the way I acted. Sure, I was shocked, and she shouldn’t have done what she did, but I honestly didn’t know what else I could have expected her to do under the circumstances.Even if she did, would sh

  • Getting Lucky   You Don't Listen

    KADENMy head was spinning. I felt nauseous, my stomach twisting and turning as I tried to focus on the screen in front of me. I was trying to get everything with Ember out of my head and get some work done, but it was proving to be harder than I thought it would be.Despite everything, I still didn’t want to let my dad down. Sure, he told my girl he was dying and not me, but—“Fuck,” I muttered, dragging my hands through my hair. Again. I shuddered to think what I looked like by now. At least no one was bothering me.Scotty was keeping his distance, and most people would probably be leaving soon. They were giving me the day to get settled in, which was a fucking blessing since I had no idea how I would be able to handle meetings or making any big decisions today.I’d been so damn optimistic just this morning, determined to make this work no matter what. I was so damn sure I had this under control, that I was going to walk in as CEO and things would just fall in place.I was prepared

DMCA.com Protection Status