7. Orion
CHAPTER SEVEN
ORION
I ’ve imagined this moment over and over for months.
It’s all I’ve thought about.
What I would say when I finally had her in front of me again. How I would remind her of what we shared. How I would grovel at her feet if she asked me to because I can’t imagine living another day without her.
The penthouse is quiet. Too fucking quiet. She may have only been there a week before she ran, but it was the best damn week of my life, and every day since has been like its own personal version of hell.
“You’ll always be my Little Flame, Ember,” I admit.
I push off the door and close the distance between us slowly. Contrary to what she may believe, I never want to cause her any pain. Never want to scare her. But I’m not so egotistical to think that my very presence isn’t doing both of those things.
Panic flashes in her eyes, almost making me pause. But I need to touch her. I need to feel her beneath my palms to reassure myself that she’s here. That she’s alive, and that I’ll never let anything happen to her again.
I’ve never known fear like what I’ve felt for the last three months. Never knew I could feel the emotions I have since she disappeared without a trace.
“Get out,” she snaps, but there’s a tremble in her voice she can’t disguise. Maybe someone else, someone who hadn’t spent months studying her every move, would have missed it. But I see it. I see everything my little flame tries to hide.
“I don’t think I will.” I shake my head, a smirk playing on my lips.
“Orion,” Ember warns. “I’ll scream.”
I chuckle. “I fucking hope you will.”
Her breath hitches, and I fight the urge to laugh again.
She walked in here thinking she’d be able to ignore me, that I’d ever allow her to continue on as if she isn’t the heart that beats on the outside of my body.
Perhaps it was denial, or maybe she underestimates just how deep my obsession with her runs.
But either way, she was wrong, and there’s a smug satisfaction in that fact.
I’m just feet from her now, and my hands twitch to reach for her, to wrap her in my arms where she’s safe and nothing can ever hurt her again.
But I hold myself back, pausing with enough space that it gives the illusion of space.
“You look breathtaking, Ember,” I murmur, allowing my eyes to track over every inch of her.
The scars on her wrists are still dark and angry, but she doesn’t hide them, and there’s something about that fact that has pride beating in my chest. She doesn’t feel the need to cover that part of herself.
The woman who was broken by one too many people betraying her.
I hate myself for the part I played in that pain, but that doesn’t mean I’m not proud as hell that she weathered that storm by herself.
“You look like an asshole,” Ember replies, but the distaste she thinks she’s injecting into her voice is flimsy at best.
I laugh, the sound foreign to my own ears after months of worry. “I guess I deserve that.”
“You deserve a bullet.”
“Perhaps I do.”
“There’s no perhaps about it. You killed my brother. You lied to me. You made me love you, just to break me.” The last words come out in a choked whisper, and I can’t help but reach for her.
My fingers brush softly over her cheek, careful not to smudge the carefully applied mask of makeup.
Ember flinches at my touch, but I don’t recoil. I can’t. Not as my entire body releases its tension for the first time since she disappeared. Not when my heart finally feels like it can beat again.
“I never meant to break you, Little Flame,” I admit. “All I ever want to do is help you thrive. To make you queen of my empire.”
Her eyes widen, and a startled laugh tears from her throat. “You’re joking? Please tell me you’re kidding, because there’s no fucking way I want anything to do with your business. Ever.”
I smile at her insistence, unable to stop myself because she’s so fucking cute when she gets riled up and insistent about something. “We’ll see.”
“No, we won’t. We’re done, Orion. I want nothing to do with you other than for you to pay for everything you took from me.”
“A brother who was selling you for his freedom?” I raise a brow in challenge.
“That’s a lie. Travis never would have done that to me.”
“But he did, Ember. He made that deal with Lucas. Travis was to find out my identity and report back, as well as hand you over, and he would be given his freedom.”
“No,” she snaps. “You’re just trying to make what you did okay. You’re trying to make it okay that you took the only person who has ever loved me away.”
“But that’s not true either, Ember. Because I love you.
And I love you a hell of a lot more than your asshole brother ever did.
He would have sold you earlier if he’d had the chance.
You have no idea what a piece of shit he was.
” The words pour from me of their own volition.
I never meant to tell her any of this, never wanted her to know just how willing Travis was to betray her.
Her hand comes from nowhere, slapping against my mask-covered cheek, and the shock of the move has her eyes widening.
I catch her hand in mine, holding it firmly so she can’t try again. As amusing as it is that she thinks a slap is going to cause me any kind of pain, I don’t want her to hurt herself trying.
“Did that make you feel better?” I rumble.
“No. The only thing that will ever make me feel better is when you’re six feet under.”
I chuckle and place a kiss to her palm, suddenly thankful the mask doesn’t cover my mouth. “You might think that’s the case, Little Flame, but I think you’re underestimating something.”
“And what would that be?” she asks in a huff.
“You’ll see.” I smirk and release her hand.
Ember rolls her eyes. “I’m going to kill you, Orion. I know you think it’s a big joke, that there’s no way I could ever hurt the great Hunter, but I promise you that your last breath will be at my hand.”
I chuckle. “I look forward to watching you try, Little Flame.”
And without hesitation, I turn on my heel and stride toward the door.
Having Ember’s love was intoxicating, but having her hate is going to be a lot of fun.