EMBER“Wow.” Kaden paused in the door at my loft, his eyebrows lifting as his eyes swept across the living space.“Wow?” I brushed past him, tossing my keys into the basket on a small table in the entrance hall. “What’s so wow about it? It’s nowhere near the size of yours.”“True, but it must have at least twice as much stuff in it.” I felt him entering behind me. “Did it come without closets?”Turning to shoot him a look over my shoulder, I tried to see the place through his eyes when I walked into my living room. Gracie and I fell in love with the loft the first time we saw it in pictures online, and our love for it only grew once we moved in.By Kaden’s standards, it was a small place, but it was more than big enough for me. The ceilings were high, there was plenty of natural light, even if it didn’t have a view, and the exposed brick and beams, combined with some brightly colored walls, gave it an industrial, chic feel.Looking around though, I realized what he meant when he asked
EmberA new reality without Hank at the helm of Marx Inc., where I knew Kaden would be, or at least, I knew that was where Hank wanted him to be. With that in mind, I cleared my throat and laced my fingers with his.“You said your dad was sending us on a trip, but then you said you’d explain everything to me later once I was packed and we were on our way. I’m packed, and we’re on our way.”Kaden squeezed my fingers, flashing me a glimpse of pearly whites as he smiled. “Fair enough.”We stopped at a red light, and Kaden flipped the blinker to turn out of the city and, hopefully, away from most of the traffic. “When I went to see Dad’s lawyer this morning, we discussed the will. As it turns out, Dad also made a video for me. He left it with Mr. Kent, who gave it to me and told me I could watch it in his office. After I watched it, I went to my place to get my stuff and pick up the arrangements. Then I came straight to you.”“A video?” My eyes grew wider. Shifting in my seat so I was fac
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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