We flagged down a cab and made our way to the hole in the wall burger joint that had been there for twenty-five years. It smelled of grease, onions, and grill in the small, packed dining space.Ryan and I got a table as a couple of other guys left, and we ordered a beer on tap and their daily special burger. After getting caught up on work, I shifted the conversation to Ember.“So, you know your sister’s working for us now, right?” I started, sipping on my lager.Ryan nodded, a smile on his lips. “Yeah. She told me. I’m glad she’s there. I didn’t know she was starting with you, or I would have given you a heads-up about it.”“No worries.” I shrugged like it didn’t mean a thing to me that she was there. “She’s doing really well, Ryan. You should be proud of her.”Surprise flashed in his eyes. “She is? I was wondering if she was going to cut it there. Don’t get me wrong. She’s smart as hell, but I didn’t know if she had it in her to make it at a firm like yours in a town like this.”His
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
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
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
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
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