Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 63741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63741 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“You okay, Ember?”
I can barely hear her when she answers. “I’m okay.” Then she lets out a breath and turns to face Zeb and me. “We need to pretend that none of this ever happened.” She gestures to the kitchen in general, conjuring memories of last night’s confessions.
“I can’t jeopardize my management job,” she goes on, “and I don’t want anything to come between the three of you, so nothing can happen between us.” As I nod, she softens. “You’ve been like brothers to me, and I don’t want to mess up the friendships we have.”
“You see us like brothers?” They’re the first words Zeb’s uttered today.
She draws another visible breath before answering. “I do.” But the pause isn’t the only thing that gives her away. Her eyes tell me something completely different.
“We have to work together,” she says, “but I’ll find someplace else to live.”
I shake my head. “No, Ember. Stay here. You’ve been through a lot, and we’re not going to make things harder for you.” Zeb’s turned away, getting milk from the fridge. “Isn’t that right, Zeb?”
He shoots me a look that says he’d like to respond at length, but his only comment is, “I’m not making any trouble.”
“Things will be fine,” I tell her. “You’ll see.”
EMBER
“Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?” My sister sounds both worried and irritated, and I don’t blame her. If she’d been living in a building that got condemned and didn’t tell me about it, I’d be giving her an earful.
“It’s not that big of a deal, Hazel, but please don’t tell Mom. I don’t want her to worry.”
“Are you sure you’re okay? Who did you say you moved in with?”
“My coworkers.” I called my sister from a corner table at a coffee shop, where I’m sipping on a cappuccino and trying to sound nonchalant.
“Wait. Didn’t you say you work with three men?”
“Yeah. They share a house and they were kind enough to let me stay with them while I save for a new deposit.”
“You’re living with three men?”
I’m regretting letting her in on this, but with us being only a year apart in age, I usually tell her everything. “It’s not like that.” It’s really not, though it’s definitely more complicated than I intend to let on.
“What do they look like?” She’s not going to let this drop, and again, I can’t blame her. If she were sharing a house with three men, I’d be making a trip home to make sure they were decent guys with good intentions.
“It’s not as if I have pictures of them, but they’re on the Beasts Ink website.”
She asks their names and goes quiet for a moment as she looks them up. “Holy shit, Em.” A few more seconds of quiet. “Holy shit. These guys sure are beasts.”
“Yeah, they’re big guys.”
“No, I mean … well, yeah, they’re big, but also grrr—those men are hot!”
“Hazel!” I don’t need to hear my sister growling like a tiger in heat.
“What? I’m not a kid anymore. Are they single?”
“You can’t date these guys, Hazel.” Living apart from her now, I forget how exasperating my sister can be.
“No, but you can. Are you seeing one of them?”
I must hesitate a split second too long, because Hazel’s onto me like she’s about to win a game of Clue.
“Which one is it, Ember? The beefy redhead? The one with the dark, disheveled hair? Oh my god, how could you possibly choose?”
“I’m not seeing any of them, Hazel. I’m their boss, remember?”
She’s silent for a moment, and I think she’s finally going to drop it, but no. “Oh, so you have a past with one of them.”
I pull the phone away from my ear and stare at it, trying to figure out how my sister knows what she knows. “What are you, some kind of witch?”
Laughing, she says, “I just know you too well. What happened? Please tell me. Life has been boring here lately, so give me all the tea.”
I suppose there’s no reason not to. She and I live hours apart, and I know I can trust her not to spill my secrets. Turning toward the wall, I lower my voice, even though there aren’t many other people in the shop and no one knows me. “I’m not involved with any of the men, but recently I had a … slip up.”
“Ooh, this is going to be really tasty tea. Go on.”
And I do. I tell her exactly what happened, minus all the X-rated details, though those play like a movie in my head as I talk. Memories of my encounter with Griffin are never far from my mind, no matter how hard I’ve tried to forget about it.
“It was only one time?” Hazel asks.
“It can’t happen again. I’m his boss, and I could get fired if the owners of the company ever found out what I did. But Hazel, it gets worse.”