Chapter 10 Ember
“Hello?” Tabitha’s voice sounded from the other end of the line, and relief washed through me.
“Hi,” I whispered as I sat on the window bench in the kitchen that overlooked the backyard. It was cold, freezing really, since the snow still hadn’t stopped, but I was all comfortably bundled up thanks to Asher. “Are you busy?” I asked, trying to make sure I wasn’t too loud.
“Em? Is that you?” she asked. I could hear the concern that laced her tone.
“It’s me,” I confirmed just as softly. “I think… I think I need your help.”
“Shit! I knew you going off to a cabin all alone was a bad idea!” I heard her shuffling in the background and could almost imagine her looking all over the place for her shoes. “Call the cops, and I’ll get in the car and—“
“No,” I giggled as a little bit of the weight on my shoulders relaxed. “It’s not help like that. I’m okay.”
“You sure? You’re safe?”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been… safer,” I admitted and meant it. “Snowed in but safe. I promise,” I added, glancing out the window.
The morning sun was trying to peek out the clouds, but the storm wasn’t letting it.
Out further, by the shed in the back of the yard, was Asher.
Wearing a cable knit sweater and flannel over it with a beanie on his head, his huge jacket tossed over a huge stump, was this handsome billionaire from LA. Chopping wood.
And doing it like he had been doing it a lifetime.
A billionaire from LA.
Shit, no, that’s not who he was to me.
He was so much more than that. He was daddy. He was… mine. I couldn’t think of him as anything else. I wholeheartedly trusted him, not just with my body but my heart.
“Ember? You still there?” Tabitha called out. I nodded even though she couldn’t see me.
“Yeah, I’m here. Sorry about that. I got… distracted.” I swallowed. He pulled off the flannel and beanie, wiping sweat off his brow. “I need your help,” I said out loud.
“Okay,” she drawled slowly. “Do you need me to call work for you or—“
“I met someone,” I blurted and was met with silence. “Tab?”
“Wait, the line must have glitched because it sounded like you said you met someone.”
“I did. I met someone and—“ That panic that I couldn’t shake off due to how I was feeling started to mount. “I think I fell in love, and I needed to talk to you because you have so much more experience than I do with this, and—“ I knew I was rambling, but I couldn’t stop myself.
Nerves were getting the better of me. Who could have possibly blamed me?
Waking up with the man of my dreams holding me close all cozy and warm in his embrace had been too much for me.
I’d been ready to spill my guts to him right then and there, but something stopped me.
As wild as it was to fall in love with someone at first chill, I couldn’t kill off the realist inside of me.
The fear of what could never be lit up inside me.
“Okay, first off, breathe,” she cut me off, and I did as she ordered. “Inhale… exhale…” she instructed, and we both breathed a couple of times. “Better?”
“A lot.”
“Okay, how about we start from the beginning,” she said, and I told her all of it.
Mostly deciding to keep the dirty bits to myself.
Not because I didn’t trust my best friend but because it almost felt wrong to tell her about the most intimate parts of what I’d experienced with Asher.
From making love twice last night to waking up before dawn to the howling wind and reaching for one another again and again.
Both of us insatiable for the other. And each time had somehow been better and more earth shattering than the last.
Now he was outside, chopping wood, because he said my body needed a break and he needed to burn off the energy flowing in his veins.
So, I shared with Tabitha about how we met.
From bumping into him at the grocery store to inviting him to stay when he found out he was stuck with nowhere to go when he discovered his nephew had been renting his place out, to waiting out the storm together and feeling so connected and seen by another person I couldn’t believe it.
“And now he’s chopping wood outside?” Tabitha asked.
“Yes.”
“And you love him?”
“Yes.” I didn’t even take a moment to think about it. I knew it. I was head over heels in love with Asher Tilbury.
“But you didn’t tell him? Because that scares you?”
“Terrifies me,” I answered honestly. “You know me, Tab. I’m not this person.
I hardly date. I don’t fall in love. I genuinely…
I know this is going to sound stupid, but other than the love I feel for you girls and my family, I didn’t think I had that in me to love someone else, much less like this. ”
“Like this?”
“Like he’s… he’s the one, Tab.” I knew it down to my soul.
“Wow.”
“And now I feel like...” My voice drifted off to nothing because I wasn’t sure I had the right words.
“Like the world suddenly makes sense yet it’s upside down?” she guessed. A chuckle escaped from me.
“And inside out,” I added and heard Tabitha’s own laughter on the other end.
“Sounds about right,” she said softly.
“You felt like this?” I asked.
“Of course, I did. Falling for Brewster was not anywhere on my bingo card, Em. You know that. You know me. But…when you know, you know.” She sighed. “I can’t tell you what to do, but I do know that you can never go wrong with following your heart, and I say that from firsthand experience.”
“But what if it gets broken?” I whispered, my eyes pinned on the man finishing up chopping the wood.
“Babe, if that happens, you know you have your friends, who you can always count on. But honestly? From everything you’ve told me about him, it makes me think that’s not going to happen, babe.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You’re absolutely right. Just like I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t taken a chance on Brew. And now look at us. Heck, anything can happen and change in the blink of an eye, Em.”
“Right,” I whispered.
She was living her very own happily ever after. And I had a feeling if I asked Abby this, she would tell me the same thing. And if I talked to Rosie? She would be cheering on whatever it was that was happening with Ash after she pointed out the power of manifestation was real.
“You just have to trust your heart.”
“Right.”
“If you need me, call me, ‘kay?” That was Tab. The older sister I never had, watching over me.
“I will. I promise.”
“And you’re sure you have enough food and water and—"
“Yes. I promise. I’m super stocked up.”
“Okay, good. Love you, Em. And if I’m allowed to say this…”
“You know you can say anything to me.”
“In that case, I can’t wait to meet him.” Her words made me smile.
“He’s coming back in. I should let you go,” I said.
“Love you.”
“Love you, too.” And with that, the call ended just as he walked in, stomping his boots on the snow-covered mat at the door.
“It’s cold out there,” he said with a grin the moment his eyes touched mine. I smiled.
“Need help getting warmed up?” I offered. The salacious grin he gave me was answer enough. I pushed off the blankets he’d bundled me up in and walked towards him.
Trust your heart. Tabitha’s words floated through my head, and when I touched his hard flannel-covered chest, the material icy and wet from the elements, all so he would have peace of mind that we’d have enough wood to keep a fire blaring for me to stay warm, I silently peeled the flannel and then the cable knit sweater off his body.
“Ember?” he called, but I didn’t answer. I simply took his hand in mine as I led him to the master bedroom and straight to the bathroom. I opened the glass shower doors and started the water, setting it as hot as it would go.
“Princess, you okay?” he asked, but again, I didn’t answer.
Trust your heart. It was such a simple but risky idea.
As I stared into his eyes, I knew it was going to be the best decision I ever made in my life.
Carefully, I fell to my knees and glanced up at him.
His gaze was intense and set on me as I slowly helped him out of his boots.
First the left, then the right before working taking off his socks.
His whole entire body felt ice cold to the touch.
And he’d done that for me.
Because Asher loved me.
Actions spoke louder than words, and as I kneeled in front of him, helping take his pants and boxers off, everything he’d done from the moment he’d stepped foot into the cabin collided inside my head.
He’d not just said he loved me, but he had shown me. With the way he took care of me. Because he loved me. Completely. It was crazy fast and maybe a little irrational, but it didn’t change the fact it was true. True love.
“Baby,” he rasped as I stood. Unable to keep my hands off him, they skimmed over his abs and chest. The lightly smattered dark hair tickled my palms, and when he was standing naked in front of me, I took off my own clothes, leaving the two of us in our birthday suits.
“Ember.” I took his hand, and we stepped inside the shower. The deep guttural sound he made echoed inside the stall. “Ember,” he called my name again, this time tipping my head up “What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”
“I love you,” I whispered. “I’ve never said that to anyone… not like this. I’ve said it to my family and my friends, but never a man I wanted more from,” I confessed, impressed that my voice didn’t shake.
“Fuck,” he groaned, pressing his head against mine.
“I’m sorry I didn’t say it last night. I felt it. I’ve felt this… connection, this pull to you, from the moment we bumped into one another at the store, but… I got scared,” I admitted.
“You have nothing to be scared about or apologize for when it comes to me, do you understand?”
“You would think that, but… it feels like there is so much stacked against us.” The words slipped out, and I winced. This wasn’t the moment to say this, but he wasn’t letting me off the hook.
“Like what?” he asked as water fell on us and steam surrounded us. I loved the fact he wanted to tackle the issues headfirst.
“Where do you want me to start?” I shrugged.
“Whatever’s in your head.”
“Ash… we’re both workaholics. There is an eight-hour drive between us.”
“But you feel this?” He took my hand and pressed it against his chest. “You feel that?” he repeated, and I blinked through the water streaming down between us.
“Your heart?”
“Yeah, it beats for you. Only for you,” he said, and I believed him. How could I not when my own heart beat for him? “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but we will figure it out.”
“Ash—“
“I promise you we will,” he said steadily. Honestly. Genuinely. And again, I let the hope inside of me not just bloom but thrive. “You have to believe that.”
“But what about—“
“Baby girl, you think I finally find you, my other half, my woman, my princess, and I’m not going to move heaven and earth to keep you in my life?
We will figure it out,” he added and kept rocking my world with the genuineness in his voice as he kept talking.
“Trust me, I don’t mind hard work. I wouldn’t be where I am in life if I did.
And if I got that far with just my career, what do you think I’ll accomplish when it’s something that actually matters, princess?
Because you, Ember Thomas, matter more to me than life itself. ”
“I love you, daddy,” I said, unsure of why I’d called him that in this moment other than the fact it fit him. His lips quirked up, and he pressed his mouth to mine before pulling away.
“And I love you, princess, with everything I am.” He stepped forward. I stepped back until I felt the tiles press against my back. Asher’s body caged mine. “I’m going to show you just how much.”
“I thought you said I needed a break.”
“You do,” he growled as his lips moved to the crook of my neck, “but daddy’s going to show you how much he loves you with some special kisses.”
“Oh.” My breath hitched, and true to his word, he showed me how much he cared and just how much he loved me.
Over and over again until long after the water turned cold, but by that time, I was burning up just for him, so it felt wonderful against my sensitized skin.