Kaden“Nothing.” I shrugged, sighing when she narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “I guess I’m just feeling a little melancholic over what we’re doing this morning.”“What are we doing this morning?” she asked gently, knowing just from the way I was acting and without having to ask that it was a tender topic for me.“I haven’t been back to Houston since my mom passed,” I told her finally, grief winning out between the emotions that had been warring for recognition in my chest. “The last time I was at her grave was at her funeral. I want to go see her.”Empathy and sympathy flooded Ember’s eyes, shining as brightly as the tears she was trying to fight. “Of course. I didn’t realize you hadn’t been back here. I’m sorry, Kaden. I know how much it hurts every time you let yourself revisit thoughts about the funeral and the grave. No matter how much time has passed, the hurt comes back as real and as raw as it was when it happened.”I nodded. Having someone around who really understood th
EMBER“New York, New York.” I smiled as the plane’s wheels touched down in the city I now called home. I was torn between being sad and being excited about getting back to work now that I knew what dealing with clients was like.I didn’t know all the clients of the firm yet, but I was looking forward to meeting with them. The trip really helped me to understand that the names on the files I dealt with in the office weren’t just names. They belonged to actual people just like those we met with. It was strange. I always knew the names belonged to clients, but having actually met with clients now, it was like it was suddenly real. I knew the meeting had changed my perspective slightly, like it had been the twist on the binoculars that finally brought everything into sharp focus.As thrilling as it was to know I would be throwing myself into my work with renewed vigor and understanding, I was sad about being back because New York wasn’t the same as it had been when I left it.There was a
EmberI needed to figure this out for myself first. Kaden had made me no promises, and I couldn’t go blurting out any words that might cause me to lose another best friend this week. So instead of saying the words sitting on the very tip of my tongue, I smiled and said, “Thanks, Marx. I’ll call you if I need you, but let’s go home.”“At least you’ll have some good news to give my dad when you see him tomorrow, so that’s a bit of a silver lining,” he said on our way home. We were in his fancy Bugatti, his leather seats as soft as butter beneath me and a control panel to rival those of a space ship on the console.“What do you mean I’ll have some good news? Shouldn’t it be we have some good news to give him? Don’t you want to be there when I tell him?”“No.” He didn’t even take a beat to think about it. “It’s your news to give, kitten. Not mine. He’ll be happy though. As happy as he ever is, anyway.”Kaden dropped me off at my empty loft, Gracie’s absence obvious in everything from how
KADENThe penthouse was dark when I got home after the trip. I dropped my bag in my room and flipped on lights as I went. It struck me how quiet it was in here. I’d gotten so used to having Ember around the last few days that being without her, especially now that I was at peace with how I felt about her, felt downright wrong.It didn’t help that I was tired as balls and there wasn’t much left in my fridge or bar. My mood worsened when my phone rang and I pulled it out to see my dad’s face glowering at me from the screen. Yeah, no.I had nothing to say to him. Hitting the button to mute the call, I ignored it and tossed my phone onto the couch. Taking a seat beside it, I grabbed the TV remote and switched it on, surfing to channel after useless channel and not finding anything that caught my interest.My phone started ringing again, and I cursed softly, thinking it was my dad calling again. I reached for it so I could mute the call once more when I saw it wasn’t dad, but Ryan calling.
KadenLocking her eyes onto mine, she shimmied out of her jeans and stepped out of the denim. She planted her hands on her hips, standing in front of me in a matching set of pale pink lace underwear. My eyes begged to run down the length of her body, but they were still being held captive by hers. The intensity in her gaze lit up the air between us. Electricity generated by lust and desire coursed through the air currents, but the usual pressing urgency was missing.The tension between us was different. The desire was there, but something else was going on too. Maybe it was because I had just realized I loved her, but it felt like the same emotion was coming off her too. It felt like the urgency was gone because, for tonight anyway, we didn’t feel like we had to rush. Our time together didn’t feel like it was limited or linked to some unseen clock counting down before one of us called it off. It felt like we had all the time in the world, like we had both come to the conclusion that
EMBERKaden brought his lips to mine in a kiss so soft, so gentle, it was unlike any of the thousand we had shared so far. Our mouths moved together in an unhurried rhythm that left me breathless and my heart a puddle of goo.I kissed him with every ounce of intensity and emotion he was showing me, pouring my unspoken realization of love into him and hoping against all hope he would feel it, tell me he loved me too, and wouldn’t run screaming for the hills.In the time I had known him, Kaden Marx had been many things. Jerk, friend, protector, mentor, heartbreaker, player, idiot. But he had never been a boyfriend. The guy was so allergic to commitment it was like he was afraid he was going to go into anaphylactic shock if he so much as thought about committing.At least, he used to be. After hanging up with Gracie, I spent some time thinking about what it meant that I was in love with him. As terrified as I was about losing him if he ever found out how I felt, I also found myself wonde
Ember“What are you doing?” I managed to ask, my breathing already becoming labored. “Why shouldn’t I move?”“To answer both of your questions in one, I want to show this pretty pussy some love, and if you scoot back, you’re going to ruin it for both of us.”I vaguely registered him using the L-word, but I hardly thought it meant anything in the context he used it. My heart missed that memo and went ahead to skip a beat just because he said the word out loud anyway.“I won’t move,” I agreed huskily. Expecting him to drop right to his knees and dig in like he had done before, I was surprised when I felt the dip of the mattress on my left when his knee hit it, the warmth of his body hovering above mine, and the soft press of his lips on my mouth.He kissed me lavishly, passionately. My hands slid up the toned muscles on his back and into his soft hair. My moans disappeared into his mouth.When he finally stopped kissing my lips to pay attention to my neck, my shoulders, my ear, and my c
KADENI loved sex. I adored fucking. It was one of my favorite pastimes, and I didn’t care if that made me a manwhore. It wasn’t like I did it more often than most single, reasonably attractive guys in this city.The reason why we got so much of it was because New York was equal opportunity. The women loved sex as much, arguably in some cases more, than the men. If you knew where to look and how to play your cards, the place was a veritable den of fucking iniquity.As a result, there had been no shortage of sex in my life. Sure, as I got older, I grew tired of the game and played it less often, but that was by choice. I was simply over the typical hookup.When I was young, the game was borderline addictive. Getting drinks after work, scoping out potential hookups, the pick-up? It was a finely honed skill developed over time that was almost a rite of passage for the thousands of young professionals who flooded the city after graduation.But after the first couple of years, it lost its