Chapter 23
Ramsey~
“T hese are just projected figures,” Adaline stated. “We ran them based on last year’s-”
“I don’t care about last year’s numbers,” I snapped. “Have you researched any financials these past few months? Everything from the cost of living, interest rates, to a goddamn Snickers bar has gone up exponentially. Do you honestly believe that distribution costs haven’t risen or are going to rise?”
The entire table was silent, but I didn’t care. Honestly, if this group had no clue of what it cost to live in America these days, then we were paying them too fucking much. While I had no problem with achieving the level of success that we’d had, I did have a problem with becoming so wealthy that a person lost touch with the real world.
“Mr. Reed-”
“What are the projected figures in the real world, Adaline?” I asked, my voice darker than normal.
Before she could answer, the door to the conference room opened, and all heads turned to see Emerson storming her way inside like a hurricane hellbent on total destruction. She also looked absolutely beautiful with her hair down and fire in her eyes.
“Everyone out,” she ordered, and all I did was lean back in my seat, wishing that she was here to ride my dick, but knowing better.
Knowing who she was, no one said a word as they gathered their things to beat one another to the door. I watched with a smirk on my face as Dash stopped to whisper something in her ear before Deke grabbed him by his arm to hurry him along. Knowing Dash, he had probably begged her to go easy on me since he knew exactly what it felt like to be a husband coming into the race from behind.
As soon as Deke shut and locked the door behind him, I asked, “Need something?”
“Have you lost your goddamn mind?” she hissed, only stopping when she was finally standing in front of me.
“I already told you-”
“You didn’t tell me that you hit him!” she yelled.
“He threatened to fire you,” I informed her as I stood up for this fight.
Her head reared back like she was seeing me for the first time ever. “And you thought that hitting him was the way to save my job?”
“The motherfucker said that he was going to shoot his shot with you, Emerson,” I snapped. “What the fuck did you expect me to do?”
“Honestly, I don’t know,” she replied as she shook her head slowly. “I’m not sure I even know what the hell is happening anymore.”
I reached for her. “Emerson-”
“Don’t touch me,” she bit out, making me see red.
Grabbing her arm, I yanked her towards me. “Do not ever tell me not to touch you, Emerson. You belong to me, and I don’t give a fuck what year we’re living in,” I growled down at her. “You belong to me, so I’ll touch you whenever the fuck I want.”
“Watch yourself, Reed,” she warned.
“Just as soon as you do,” I fired back.
Emerson’s silver gaze was on fire as she let out a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Normally, she’d respect that I was at work, but having had disrespected her workplace earlier, turnabout was fair play it seemed. I also knew that everyone was going to be whispering about how Mrs. Reed disrupted a business meeting in a rage, but I didn’t care about that. I was perfectly okay with the world seeing just how much power my wife had over me.
“If I lose my job, you will have hurt me more than whatever it was that you did to me in high school,” she said, and I could see in her eyes that she wasn’t exaggerating.
At that, I loosened my hold on her. “Would that be such a bad thing? You’ve been mentioning retirement as soon as grandkids started popping up.”
She looked like she wanted to eviscerate me.
“What? You have,” I repeated.
“Are you deliberately trying to make me lose my shit?” she hissed. “There’s a big difference between retiring with a heads up to the kids that I’m in charge of and just suddenly disappearing from their lives because I’ve been fired, Ramsey. We’re talking about kids that have been let down by the people that are supposed to love them, and you think it’s okay for me to just be erased from their lives?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I bit out. “You know I didn’t mean it like that.”
Emerson yanked her arm out of my hold, and when she lifted her fingers to massage her temples, I knew that something serious was happening, only I didn’t know what. While I wasn’t worried about her leaving me or anything detrimental like that, Emerson was more than just pissed off at me; she was genuinely upset.
“Baby, what’s going on?”
Her silver eyes looked back up at me, her hands dropping to her sides. “He said that he could always sue you for assaulting him…” She let out another tired sigh. “Unless I was willing to make things right.”
I could feel the blood in my veins turn cold.
I could feel a dangerous calm settle across my chest as I stared at my wife.
I could feel myself going slightly insane.
“Would you like to repeat that?” I finally asked.
Instead of answering me, she said, “This is all your fault, Ramsey. If you trusted me, none of this would have ever happened.”
“I do trust you-”
“Quit lying!” she yelled.
“I’m not!” I yelled back. “I know that you’d never cheat on me!”
She shook her head again. “That’s not what I’m talking about,” she said angrily. “If you trusted what I feel for you, then you would have seen Adrian as inconsequential as I do. Instead, you’ve ruined everything. I no longer have a happy marriage, my forgiveness isn’t good enough, and now I might lose my job, and for what? All because you don’t think that you deserve to be happy? Because you think you don’t deserve my love?”
“Emerson-”
“What the hell am I supposed to do with that?” she went on, cutting me off. “You don’t think that you deserve my love, but at the same time, you won’t allow me to love someone else.” I stepped to her at those words. “What the fuck do you want from me, Reed?”
“The truth?”
“That’d be nice,” she snapped.
“I want to be the only one, Emerson,” I told her truthfully.
Her head reared back in shock. “What? What are you talking about?”
“You asked me what I wanted,” I reiterated. “I want to be the only one, Emerson. I want to be the only one, and when I say that, I mean that I want to be the only person in your life.” I didn’t care that I sounded unhinged or how wide her eyes grew with my honesty; it was the truth. “I want you to give up everything in your life, so that it’s just you and me. As much as I love every single member of our family, and as much as they mean to me, my idea of a perfect life is just me and you. It’s me and you on some private island somewhere, and our life is one where I’m with you every fucking second of the day. That’s what I want from you. Now, am I going to get it? No. I know that. I know that’s not how the world works. Still, when I’m willing to forsake my own fucking children just so that I can spent every second of my life in your company only, then what in the fuck do you think another man coming after you is doing to me?”
“Ramsey-”
“When you tell me that you love me, it’s by the definition of the word,” I continued, on a roll. “When I tell you that I love you, it’s something much more, Emerson. I am obsessed with you. I’ve always been fucking obsessed with you, and it’s just gotten worse over the years. You’re this miracle that just keeps on giving, and I can barely breathe when I’m not with you.” I let out a deep breath as her eyes began to shine with unshed tears. “You like to say that we have this unhealthy co-dependency in our marriage, but it’s way more than that for me, baby. What I feel for you burns inside my chest like the fire of a thousand suns, and it’s the most exquisite fucking thing that I have ever felt in all my life. For me, you’re the moment that God presented Eve to Adam, and that’s why I behave the way that I do when it comes to you.”
A couple of tears escaped, but Emerson was nothing if not stronger than the both of us. “How can you even live like that, Ramsey? That’s so much more unhealthier than I ever imagined.”
“It’s the only way I want to live, baby,” I told her honestly.
Emerson let out a troublesome sigh before she turned, then walked out of the conference room, and I let her.