26. Ember
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
EMBER
D oes he have to look so fucking hot first thing in the morning?
The man has a six-pack so defined I’m not sure it’s not photoshopped, and the V that dips at his hips, disappearing into the too low hanging gray sweats he pulled on…Lord, have mercy.
“I needed to check in with Max,” I tell him quickly. “You promised I’d call every twelve hours.”
He nods. “I did.” His body dips, and he lifts me easily.
I wrap my legs around his waist instinctively, my arms coming around his neck as his hands settle on my bare ass.
Why exactly did I not put panties on when I climbed out of bed?
“I was worried,” he admits.
“Oh.” My mouth drops open in surprise. I’m not sure why exactly, but it never occurred to me that a man like Orion, or the Hunter, could be worried.
Obviously, it’s a natural human emotion, but he seems so…invincible. Worry just feels below him somehow.
“I hope it was okay that I was in your office. The rest of the penthouse echoes a bit, and I didn’t want to wake you after you came to bed late.” My voice sounds uncertain, and I hate it.
What happened to the woman who was set on her revenge plot? Where the hell did she go?
She remembered how it felt to be safe.
The thought hits me in the chest, stealing the breath from my lungs. The truth in the admission makes it hard to remember why I ever left.
Obviously, I know he killed my brother, and I don’t think I’ll ever truly be able to forget that.
But he also showed me what it was like to not feel afraid for once in my life.
Orion gave me a sanctuary I never knew I needed, and being back with him is like breathing for the first time in months.
He chuckles, pressing a kiss to my temple as he carries me into the kitchen and perches me on the edge of the bench.
“You can go wherever you want, Ember. I could have found you snooping through my computer or rummaging through the paperwork in there, and I wouldn’t have blinked. This is your home.”
Home.
God, that word.
I’ve been thinking about it so much recently.
I thought Las Vegas would become my home. But it never felt quite right.
The apartment I shared with my brother came close, but it was probably more so the familiarity than the space itself.
The one I moved into when he died felt cold and lifeless, just like my heart.
Even this penthouse doesn’t feel like home in a way that you read about in books or see on TV.
No, the place that feels like home isn’t a house at all.
It’s a person.
It’s Orion.
And I hate myself for admitting that. For feeling it all.
His dark eyes move over my face, and his features turn down into a frown. “Ember? Are you okay?”
I press my eyes closed, but I can’t shake off the self-hatred that rains down on me like acid. How can I even consider the idea of forgiving him when he took everything from me?
“Little Flame?” he prompts.
My eyes open of their own volition, and I find his entire body looming over mine in a comforting gesture, like he’s guarding me from the rest of the world, and it’s just the two of us.
This is why my body aches for him.
Because Orion might be the devil outside these walls, but with me, he’s gentle. He takes my feelings into account, and he constantly puts me first.
Everything he does is to keep me safe and happy, and even though he killed Travis, everything else he’s done has been with me at the forefront of his mind.
How can I discount that?
“I’m okay,” I whisper.
He looks like he’s about to push, but instead, presses a sweet kiss to my forehead before stepping back to look at the contents of the fridge. “What do you want for breakfast? I can make you pancakes. Or bacon and eggs. Or there’s probably some oatmeal around here somewhere.”
“Do you have Cap’n Crunch?”
His dark eyes flicker to me, his brow furrowed as he considers me. “No. But I can get you some. Give me twenty minutes.” He pulls his phone from his pocket and starts typing out a text.
See? This is what I mean. The man is incapable of denying me anything, and that makes my heart do flips in my chest like a teenager with her first crush.
Hell, I may not be a teenager, but Orion sure as hell was my first crush.
“You don’t have to do that,” I rush to say. The last thing I want is for either the media or the criminal underworld to get wind that he’s running around trying to please me.
Does my affiliation with him put me in danger?
Am I going to be used as a pawn in a game I never agreed to play?
His gaze flicks up to meet mine, and he gives me a panty-melting smile. Before I met him, I was sure that was just a saying, but fuck me, if I was wearing underwear, they would spontaneously combust at the way his face lights up when he smiles at me.
“Ember, you could ask me for anything, and I’d find a way to give it to you. I think some cereal is well within my abilities.”
I can’t help the grin that tugs at my own lips.
I’m so fucked.
W hile we wait for my cereal to be delivered, I decide to get some much-needed space between me and the too hot for his own good billionaire-slash-drug kingpin.
I pad into the bathroom and close the door, leaving it slightly ajar the way he’s told me to, but an idea forms in my mind.
As much as I love the soft version of Orion that he’s shown me this morning, I also crave the depravity that comes with the darker side of him.
Smiling to myself, I close the door all the way with a decisive click.
I strip out of the shirt I pulled on when I got out of bed and move to the shower, turning the dials until the temperature is just this side of hellfire.
Exactly how all showers should be if you ask me.
If your skin isn’t red as a lobster when you get out, you’re doing something wrong.
It takes longer than I expect for Orion to appear.
I’m halfway through washing my hair when the door swings open, slamming into the wall and making me jump.
“Little Flame,” he rumbles.
“Yes, Orion?” I say, trying to keep the amusement out of my voice as I wash the suds from my hair.
“What did I say about closed doors?” There’s an edge to his voice that has heat pooling in my core, and I press my thighs together, desperately trying to get some kind of relief.
“That you won’t tolerate them,” I reply.
“And yet this door was closed?”
“Yep.”
Silence greets me, and I think he might have left, but then strong hands grasp my hips, and my stomach dips with excitement.
I should not get this much enjoyment out of pushing his buttons, but there’s something about being at Orion’s mercy that I can’t quite describe.
“Are you pushing me on purpose, Ember?” he murmurs against my ear.
He presses his body against my back and walks us forward until my warm skin makes contact with the freezing cold tiles, tearing a yelp from my throat.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But my response comes out breathy, giving me away. Not that I think Orion didn’t see right through the game I’m playing.
“Is my girl being bratty because she’s all worked up?” he asks, trailing his fingers down my side until they reach my hip and wrap around my thigh, stopping just short of skimming my aching core. “So wet for me, baby girl.”
A moan slips from my throat without my permission, but the jig is already up, anyway. By his own admission, Orion knows me almost as well as I know myself, and I’m sure he knows how fucking badly I need him.