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
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
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
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
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
KADENWhen I woke up, I knew from the sunlight streaming in through the windows I’d slept through my alarm. It was way too bright to be my usual time to rise and shine, which meant I would have to miss my workout this morning.The sun was also bright enough to send little elves with sledgehammers into my eyes with its rays. I groaned, suddenly remembering the jet-fuel shots. That explained the elves hammering my brain and eyeballs. Along with that realization came memories of the fucking gorgeous girl I shared said shots with, which was when I started becoming aware of a warmth against my side and on my arm. Turning my head slowly so as not to wake her, I saw Ember’s dark hair spread out across my skin and contrasting sharply with my white sheets.Warmth that had nothing to do with the sunlight spread through me. It had everything to do with waking up with Ember beside me. When I told her before we fell asleep that I didn’t think her coming to New York was coincidence, I hadn’t been
EMBER“I feel like I haven’t seen you all week,” Gracie told me on Saturday morning. We were making coffee in our kitchen, both still wearing our pajamas.Gracie had bought some new caramel and toffee-flavored blend we were brewing, filling the air with a sickly sweet smell with the rich scent of coffee beneath it. It smelled very much like heaven to me.As close to what I imagined my heaven would smell like anyway, provided it wasn’t already going to smell like Kaden. If I closed my eyes, I could still smell his expensive cologne mixed with a musky spice that was all him and all man.“Did you just moan?” Gracie asked, confusion marring her delicate features.My eyes widened. “No way. I mean, yeah. Maybe a little. The coffee smells great.”“Uh huh.” She crossed her arms, arching a manicured eyebrow. “I’ve heard your coffee moans, Em. That wasn’t one of them. Spill. What’s going on?”“It’s kind of linked to what you said before about us not seeing much of each other this last week or s
Ember“A temporary distraction, huh?” It didn’t take a rocket scientist to hear she didn’t believe me. “You can be a career-driven, young, professional woman and have a boyfriend, you know?”“Don’t say the B-word.” I groaned, bringing my cooling mug to my forehead. “He’s not that, or anything but the other B-word, really.”“What’s the other B-word?” she asked.“Boss,” I replied immediately. “Or bastard because even though he’s been nice to me the last few weeks, I’ve seen him be the worst kind of bastard there is.”“Don’t hold what he did as a kid against him,” Gracie reasoned, but I waved her off.“Enough about him,” I said. “Okay, one last thing about him. He took me sightseeing the other night. I thought we could do some of those things together today. You in?”“Always.” She actually looked excited, bouncing on couch. “I think I’m starting to come around to New York after your lesson the other night. I’d like to see more of it. The trip between here and work is becoming tedious alr