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
KADEN“Do you have any plans for this weekend?” Ember asked me as we headed to work together on Friday morning, a week after the first time we made the trek together.I shrugged, shifting in the seat of the cab we were sharing. My pride and joy was my brand-new Bugatti, but Ember refused to drive to work in it with me. She claimed people seeing us getting out of a cab together could easily be explained away, but getting out of my car was too suspicious.“People share cabs all the time,” she had argued when I led her to the parking garage of my building one morning. “We could live close to one another, or we could be coming back from an early meeting, but getting out of your car says we were together wherever we were coming from.”“That makes no sense,” I’d told her, grabbing her hand and pulling her to my side. “We could have been together at the early morning meeting we shared the cab from, too.”“Yeah, but it just looks suspicious,” she had said, promptly bypassing my car and walkin
Kaden“You’ve done more work in the time you’ve been there than all the other recruits combined,” I countered. “You could take the next month off and still be ahead.”“Not if I want to stay ahead,” she said firmly, green eyes blazing. “I’m sorry, Marx. If you’re looking for a play date today, you’re going to have to go elsewhere.”I mock pouted, winking. “I don’t want to play with anyone else. I only want to play with you.”Sighing, she curled her lips into a soft smile. “That’s good to know, but I still can’t take the day off. You should, though.”I thought about it. Asking her to take the day off with me was done on the fly. I hadn’t actually been planning on taking it, but now that the idea was in my head, it was an attractive one. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with my dad, I had no meetings scheduled, and my team would be fine without me.“I might.” I played around with the idea for a little while longer before making up my mind. The cab stopped in front of our building, and since
EMBERThank god I didn’t take the day off with Kaden. I hadn’t been at the office an hour when Craig told me Mr. Marx wanted to see me. If I hadn’t been at the office when that came through, I probably would’ve been receiving a call about now, telling me to come pack my cardboard box with my stuff and never come back again. Mentally, I breathed a sigh of relief.I had been tempted when Kaden asked me to spend the day with him. We were spending more and more time together after work, but the thought of spending an entire day with him was tantalizing.What was he like when he wasn’t tired from work or half-distracted by it? When we were together, he never made me feel like he was distracted, but I knew he had to be. He had a high-pressure job, and he could say what he wanted, but I knew he got stressed out by it at times.A full day with only the two of us, away from work and everything that came along with that, sounded heavenly. I hoped we would be able to carve out some time to do it
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