KADENThree days since I’d last seen Ember, and I was really starting to get worried. Despite how loathe I was to go there, I put my feelings aside and drove over to Marx Inc. on Tuesday morning. I still had a parking spot, even though my training with Ember was fast coming to an end.I could have called and asked to see her later, but something kept making me come back to the office. I knew she didn’t need me around for much anymore, but I still wanted to check on her and make sure she was okay. If she needed me, I wanted to be there for her. If she didn’t? Well, I still wanted to spend time with her.I didn’t want our training to end. I couldn’t stand the thought of no longer seeing her during the day, missing those times her eyes lit up when she did really well at work or figured out something new or came up with a great plan. There were hundreds of moments every day I didn’t want to miss with her.Working together was how we finally found each other after all these years. It made

EMBERI watched Kaden’s face smirking up at me from the display on my phone. It was painful not to answer, but I couldn’t talk to him right now. Keeping such a big secret from him was becoming harder and harder.I couldn’t even look at him earlier when he came by, knowing that if I spent too much time looking into those deep blue eyes, I was going to spill my guts without giving it so much as a second thought. I hated not being able to be honest with him. It went against every fiber of my being.Staying away from him was just as hard, but I couldn’t very well spend time with him when I couldn’t look him in the eye and lie right to his face. I missed him so much I couldn’t stand it. I had become so used to being with him all the time that spending so much time apart was much harder than I ever could have imagined. Knowing he was feeling it too and not being able to do anything about it was even worse.I missed his laugh, his sense of humor, his way of being there and just getting me ev

KADENA knock at my door broke the bore-fest going on in my penthouse. I was sitting on my couch watching reruns of a reality show documenting ludicrous renovations to celebrity homes. The shit people spent money on boggled my mind, but that didn’t mean I was interested.There were empty packages of snacks all around me. Coffee mugs and water bottles littered the coffee table and floor. I wasn’t expecting anyone, but that didn’t matter. Any visitor was welcome after I spent the entire day at home alone. At least I’d showered, but I only did that around noon.I was going to have to find something to keep me busy, and I was going to have to do it soon, but for now, I gratefully left my television and couch behind me and went to get the door. Yanking it open, my smile died on my lips when I saw who was there.“Kitten? This is a surprise.” My heart raced at the sight of her. I was so relieved to see her it should have been funny, terrifying, or both. Instead, it felt like there was a vise

EMBERKaden and I ripped at each other’s clothes, each getting the other naked in record time. After days of not seeing him or speaking to him at all, I needed him so badly it hurt. Just to be with him, to be close to him. To be held by him and loved by him.The culmination of all those things was making love to him, and I wanted that more than I wanted anything else in life at this very moment. It was about more than pleasure or sex. It was about the connection of bodies, hearts, and souls. It was a connection I craved desperately. One I needed to reassure myself and to enable myself to believe he really had forgiven me.Okay, and there was also a small part of me, a part below my waistline which was currently aching for his attention, that wanted the pleasure I knew only he could bring me, too. After months of him bestowing that pleasure on me every chance he got, I felt starved of it after nearly a week without.The thing about Kaden was that he awoke and enlivened every part of me

KADENAll was well in my world now that Ember and I were okay again. We stayed up half the night last night talking, eventually making our way back to the kitchen to finish our dinner. After that, we had a couple of glasses of wine out on the balcony before going back to the room and making love again.Ember’s alarm woke us only a few hours after we eventually went to sleep. She was out of bed in a flash, remembering she had to swing by her apartment to get dressed since she hadn’t brought a change of clothes over.There wasn’t time to talk to her about that drawer I offered her again, but I would have my chance soon enough. Later that day, she texted me to let me know she was almost done at work, so I was getting ready to meet her.Pulling on a pair of dark jeans and a light blue button-up shirt, I fastened the cuffs when I was done and was ready to go.I didn’t think driving to Marx Inc., knowing I wasn’t actually going to work, was ever going to stop feeling weird. It was almost li