Chapter 003 - Unexpected Twist

Ember felt as though they had met before.

The way they dance aches with familiarity. Even the sweet scent of his manly perfume swept her with an unexplainable nostalgia. Weird but she also felt with a striking awareness that it wasn't the first time he held her in his arms.

“I'm Thunder Steel's fiancee, I mean ex-fiancee.” She replied. For a second, her voice quivered.

Icen tensed in response.

She felt the moment it happened and something urged her to look at him, and what she saw made her freeze.

His eyes didn't just look cold, but Ember swore she saw a hailstorm in them at the mention of her ex-lover's name.

Why? Ember inwardly asked herself, wondering if the two had some kind of history.

“I see. I remember you now.” He replied after a brief pause.

His eyes shifted to her face, recognition shone in them as they looked at her. “The lady dubbed by tabloids as Cinderella. The one lucky woman Thunder Steel had fallen in love with.” He murmured. “That explains why you looked familiar.”

Tilting his chin, he asked, “Amber, right?”

“Ember,” she corrected.

He got her name wrong but still it surprised her that he knew her. But then, ever since her name was linked to Thunder Steel, people just knew who she was.

Intently he continued to survey her face until she couldn't take it anymore, and her eyes evaded him.

“Ember.” His lips savored her name like a sweet vintage wine.

Men had said her name before but she never responded to them the way she did to him. There was something in the way he pronounced Ember that made her warm inside.

“I hate to tell you this,” He began, jolting her awake. “But you aren't on my guest list.”

The spell broke and Ember swore she heard it shatter to the floor like silvery dust.

A cold water had been doused on her face. The words sent her crashing back to reality and she paled under her skin.

She stumbled on her feet. If he didn't quickly come to her aid her butt could have slipped on the floor.

“I could have you arrested.” He added to her dread.

She felt as though she would pass out from fear.

“Y-y-you are joking, right?”

“I don't joke around.” He replied grimly.

Fierce fear crawled through her spine like a vine.

If she were arrested for gatecrashing it would ruin her reputation. Chloe, her cousin, will make her a laughingstock.

“I'll do everything you want but please don't call the cops.”

He paused, “everything?”

She nodded her head. Clenching her fists into tight balls she waited for his response.

“Kiss me.”

Ember gasped for air. She had expected him to ask her to beg on her knees. A kiss was something she'd never even put in her lists of his demands.

She shook her head in disbelief.

Had he gone mad?

She had been warned about how dangerous Icen Clayton might be, but no one had ever been so forthright as to tell her that he was also incredibly clever and insane.

“Seriously?” She peered at him through her long lashes.

“Yes. Kiss me and I will let you off the hook.” He told her, sounding like he was doing her a great favor.

“You’re trying to coerce me to kiss you!”

He gave a casual shoulder shrug. “Be free to use that term, but I won't insist.”

“Hah! With everything you've just told me, do you really think I'll come to you willingly? She flushed deeply. She fought the urge to act out in a childlike manner by stamping her feet on the floor.

Should I call the cops to pick you up now?"

Her scorching anger melted away any lingering respect she may have had for him.

“You can kiss any woman in this room if you ask them,” Ember said with a glare. “Why force me?”

“I’m not forcing you. So would you do it or not?”

“Fine, I'll do it!” She snapped.

His facial expressions didn't change at all. She wondered what he was trying to prove with a kiss.

There's no way she would kiss a man who's in a relationship like what Chloe did and so she asked, “Do you have a lover?”

“No.”

“Are you married? Do you have kids?”

“Is this an interview?” His thick eyebrows scrunched in annoyance.

“Just please answer me.”

Ember tried to keep her tone gentle but still it went off as harsh. “I will never kiss a dirty old married man with five kids.”

Icen lifted an eyebrow.

“I'm not that old, and definitely not that careless or horny.

“So are you married or not?”

His face darkened. Ember’s sharp eyes caught as his jaw clenched.

“Divorced.” He replied.