EMBER“Happy birthday to you,” Gracie said, raising her glass of champagne toward me. “I hope all your dreams come true this year.”“Thank you.” I smiled, clinking my glass against hers. We had completed our trek to New York and moved into our loft that week. It was all finally starting to feel real, and it was thrilling.Neither Gracie nor I had ever been to New York before, but it was turning out exactly like I thought it would. Both of us had seen enough movies shot there and read enough about it to know what to expect, but what books and movies couldn’t possibly convey was the electric atmosphere in the city.It didn’t smell great, and our loft was a little smaller than what we had imagined, but I was already falling in love with the city. Waking up here on my birthday and knowing I was going to be calling it home for the foreseeable future was incredible. It really did feel like a new beginning where anything was possible for the year that lay ahead. An eternal optimist, I was no
EmberGracie pulled me back to our conversation. “Well, banish those thoughts right now. We could end up working for some old codgers. You don’t want to be thinking about that when it’s a wrinkly old man you report to.”“Codgers?” I choked on the sip of wine I had been taking as I laughed. “Really?”Gracie pouted, but the corners of her lips betrayed her smile. “No, not really. I don’t know why I said that. I just get nervous talking about it.”“Sex or the job?”“Both,” she admitted. “Speaking of old codgers, do you know who we’re going to be working for?”I lifted my shoulders and shook my head. “Does it matter? They’re not going to be bothered with a couple of lowly college graduates anyway. I don’t know who owns the company or who the managers are, but I don’t really care either. Do you?”She sucked both lips into her mouth, a contemplative glaze coming over her eyes as she thought. “I would have liked to know a little bit about them. It might help us feel more prepared. Did you me
KADENMonday, fucking Monday. The office was a hive of activity when I arrived, and phones were ringing off the hook. Several of my colleagues were involved in a heated debate about something. Secretaries and personal assistants were bustling around, delivering stacks of paperwork and snapping into phones.Printers hummed because who needed the rain forests, right? Heels clacked, and the coffee machines were working overtime.The silence in my private office was almost deafening by the time I closed the door behind me. My own assistant had been busy this morning, I saw as I approached my desk with my coffee in hand and sat down.A few neat piles of paper waited for my signature, colorful flags marking the spots I had to sign. My computer was already on, but I had to enter my password to get into it. The screens mounted on my walls were also on and set to the channels I needed.Dropping my hands to my jacket, I unbuttoned it and was starting to take it off so I could roll up my sleeves
KadenCubicles made up of white partitioning spread like a maze across the floor. There were no personal effects around the workspaces yet. No doubt, the picture would be a little different in a couple of weeks as the recruits settled in.But for now, it was stark. White. Impersonal and organized. The energy here was different too. The air was thick with nervousness, apprehension, uncertainty, and hesitation, with just a touch of pride and cockiness for having made it this far.If only they knew what was waiting for them. Half of them wouldn’t last a month, and that was out of those who would still have a job come lunchtime.I found the recruits and the trainer, a guy I thought was called Craig, in the big conference room at the back. He was in the middle of a slideshow presentation showing the layout of the building and the emergency exits when I opened the door.He did a doubletake when he saw who was disturbing him, his brown eyes widening as he stammered, “Mr. Marx. Sir, I, uh, I
EMBERKaden fucking Marx. There was a blast from the past I hadn’t seen coming. Of course, I probably should have put it together.Marx wasn’t such a common last name, and I always knew my brother’s best friend came from a family with more money than god. In the back of my mind, I also knew Kaden was in New York with Ryan. He mentioned it once. I just never thought I would end up working with the dick who held the top spot in my list of middle-school crushes. Crap. My heart nearly burst out of my chest when he walked into the conference room with that familiar swagger and the same smirk I had never forgotten.Kaden Marx. Well how about that?The beautiful bastard was just as beautiful and just as much of a bastard as he’d always been. Really, being as hot as him should have been a crime. And that was back in school.Time had been far too good to a dick like him. If anything, he’d grown to become even more good looking than ever before. And he’d always been a showstopper.He had the
EmberCraig tried to lighten the mood by saying, “He’s not usually quite so brash. Don’t worry too much about it. He’s a fair boss and a good person.”The raised eyebrows around me were enough to convince that no one believed a word of what Craig said. Moving along swiftly, he finished his presentation and sent us out to our cubicles.Gracie and I snagged two next to each other and started packing away our purses and the few odds and ends we’d brought with us. For me, it was a small stuffed elephant Ryan had won for me at a fair when I was four.It was ratty, but clean, and the same good luck charm I’d had with me throughout every single phase of life, from the day he proudly presented it to me at that fair. He was eight at the time, missing a few teeth, and when he handed it over, his chest was swollen with pride for having won it.“Okay, everyone.” Craig’s voice boomed from the front of the massive office—bullpen, I corrected myself mentally. “Insert your name as a username, and a c
KADEN“Do I have to do everything myself?” I muttered the question to my empty office. My cursing rang out in the air, along with the low hum of the air conditioning, the lights, and the soft rain pelting my office window.My assistant’s voice came through the intercom shortly after my door had closed behind her. “Did you say something, sir?”“No,” I snapped, shaking my head at the folder she had handed me not a minute before. The work was stuff that could be done by the recruits downstairs. I had no idea how it had filtered up or down the line to me.She should have picked up on it. After five years, I’d think she’d know how to do her job as well as I could do mine. Yet I was going to have to run the file down to the training floor myself now.I contemplated calling her back in and making her take it down, but then I decided against it. I wanted to check on the recruits anyway. The beautiful girl popped into my mind every so often, and I thought if I could get another look at her, it
KadenEmber followed me without needing to be told or waiting for an invitation. Good. She didn’t need to be coddled. She was shaping up to be exactly the kind of recruit we needed more of in the firm.“You have a bit of an accent,” I told her as I motioned for her to precede me into the elevator. “Where are you from?”“Texas,” she replied, seemingly holding back laughter. Her eyes crinkled at the corners, amusement shining in her eyes. The more I looked at her, the more familiar she was.Cheekiness wasn’t something I valued in underlings at all, but in her, it felt kind of natural. The quality made me want to smile instead of pointing her to the door.“Texas, huh?” I smirked. “I’ve spent some time in Texas.”“Imagine that.” She bit her lip, but not in the wannabe sexy “I’m trying to draw attention to my mouth” way that some women did. It was in a genuine “Oh god, I’m about to crack up laughing” kind of way.It was a young, almost carefree reaction most recruits wouldn’t dare show in