EmberKaden hadn’t come up once, nor had the fact that I had the same last name as his best friend. Although I couldn’t even be sure Mr. Marx knew who Ryan was. Kaden and his dad certainly didn’t appear to have the kind of relationship where they shared about their lives over a beer.“What did he talk to you about?” Kaden asked, drawing me back to the present. Everything about him seemed harder and more edged than ever. I battled with whether to throw up my defenses because of his tone or to be sympathetic.Eventually, I realized my defenses could stay put for now. I doubted his sudden attitude change was because of me. His dad seemed to be a sore spot, and it was quite clear he was worried about what he’d said to me. Why he was worried, I didn’t know.“Nothing really,” I said. “Just work. He told me he’s been keeping an eye on what I’ve been doing since the Morrison thing. Apparently, he’s read a few more of my proposals and looked over some credit agreements I drafted.”“Okay.” Kade
KADENWalking to my dad’s office, I knew something was about to go down. I had no idea what, but I could tell something was about to happen, all the way down to my bones.When Dad called me to his office, it was usually me alone. Sometimes, other senior members of staff would join. Other times, it was clients. The Morrison thing had been an example of that.In the five years I’d worked for Marx Inc. though, I’d never been called in at the same time as a recruit. The fact that he was calling both me and Ember to his office immediately and at the same time made me think this might be personal.Whatever he might have to say about Ember and me about what we were doing, I wasn’t fucking stopping. It had nothing to do with him. We both worked our asses off for him and got our jobs done.We didn’t flaunt our relationship at work, and we didn’t hookup in storage closets or conference rooms, though the thought had crossed my mind more than once. Okay, so we fucked in the office that first time
KadenThe reality, however, was that all roads would always lead me back to Marx Inc. It would be mine once Dad decided to retire, and it seemed stupid to leave when I knew I would eventually have to come back.And what would it look like to the employees then? I started here, had a fight with my dad, and then fucked off until he retired and moved to Florida. They would never respect me. So I stayed and toughed it out.When Ember had asked why I took the job with my dad, I had told her it was because it was a fast track to money. While that had been true, it simply hadn’t been the whole truth.Dad offered me a lot of money as a signing bonus and for a first-year salary to lure me into starting with him right away. If I’d had a brother or a sister, if there were any other possible heir to his empire, I doubted he would have been so generous.But he was stuck with only me, just like I was stuck with him now. One of the other big firms in the city even countered his offer to me, but they
KADENI blinked, and my chin dropped to my chest. Blood pounded in my ears, making me wonder if I’d just heard my dad correctly. Surely, I couldn’t have.“Are you serious?” I asked. “You’re demoting me and appointing a recruit who has been here less than a quarter as the Chief Financial Officer of one of the biggest investment banking firms in the city?”Saying it all out loud convinced me. I’d definitely misheard him. There was just no fucking way he could have said he was appointing Ember Jordan to my position as CFO. It wasn’t that I didn’t think Ember could it—I had complete faith in her ability to do anything she set her mind to—but she’d only been at the company a few months.We had people working for us who had dedicated their entire lives to this company. People who were more than qualified in both education and, more importantly, experience to take on the role of CFO. If we needed a new CFO, that was, which we didn’t because I was sitting right fucking here.Ember—gorgeous, s
KadenI told him enough in the text to make him clear his schedule. When I arrived, he was finishing up with work. Striding toward me in the lobby, I was struck again by how much he and Ember looked alike.They were both dark haired, so dark their hair was almost black. Eyes the color of emeralds framed by thick, black lashes looked out over the world with burning intensity and easy humor, all at the same time.It was only their body types that were different. Ryan was as tall as I was at six-two and almost as muscular. Ember was five-foot-something and fit with her shoulders perfectly under my arms, her face in the crook of my neck when she was in my arms. She was soft and curvy, with none of Ryan’s muscled planes and sharp edges.A deep line cut between Ryan’s eyebrows as he walked up to me. “What’s going on? I just saw you a couple of hours ago.”“Yeah, I know, but between then and now, a couple of things have happened. I quit my job. I’m not going back to Marx Inc.” Anger laced in
EMBER My heart raced, my palms were clammy, and my ears were ringing. What in the holy hell was happening?I heard Kaden speaking to his dad, but it didn’t sound like he was standing right next to me. It sounded like his voice was coming from underwater. My eyes darted around.Nope. No water had somehow sloshed into the office. There were no candid cameras anywhere. No talk show host jumping out from behind Mr. Marx’s hulking frame to yell, “Gotcha!”Blinking hard, I tried to make sense of it all. Before I could even start, Kaden glared daggers at his dad and clenched his fists. “You know what? Fuck you. I’m not taking this shit from you. Fuck you, and fuck this company. I’m out.”Without waiting for a response from either me or his dad, he turned and stormed out of the office. I sat in my chair, watching all this unfold around me in utter disbelief.“Well,” Mr. Marx said finally, breaking the silence that reigned in his office. “I thought he would handle that better, but I should ha
EmberBut let’s face it, it is insane. I squashed the thought quickly, even as I wanted to bob my head in agreement with it. Sliding my eyes to the clear blue sky beyond Mr. Marx’s expansive windows, I took a second to compose myself.“Who will train me?” I asked, blinking at a passing puffy cloud before turning my eyes back toward his. “Like I said, I’m willing to learn, but I’ll need to learn from someone.”I doubted Craig, the recruit trainer who I had been working under since I started, was going to be training me for this position. Traditionally, I supposed the handover would have been done by the person retiring or departing from the company, but in this case…“Kaden,” Mr. Marx said simply, as if said Kaden hadn’t just stormed out of his office after cursing him.I cocked my head, not sure if I understood what he meant. “Kaden, sir? I doubt he’s going to be willing to come back here.”“Your first duty as CFO will be getting him back here to train you,” he told me, his icy gaze c
KADENHangovers sucked. If someone could invent a genuine cure for the things, I would invest every penny I had into that business. It would be totally worth it, especially if that someone could have just appeared in my bedroom this morning with a vial of the miracle cure. Rolling over in my bed, I groaned as a stab of pain shot through my head. Shit. It felt like someone had stuck a knife into my temple and twisted.There was a thudding sound coming from somewhere, though I couldn’t tell if it was inside my head or an actual sound. My mouth tasted like a large animal had emptied its bowels into it, and without moving much, I could tell my body was shaky.The thudding sound grew louder. More insistent. Slowly, I realized it was someone knocking on my door. I risked cracking my eyes open, only to flinch at the brightness of my room.My blackout curtains were open, allowing the sun to shine mercilessly into my bedroom. The evil rays were creeping up my bed already, telling me it was we