Chapter 14
Emrys
By the end of my shift, I’ve replayed what Kade told me so many times that Priya takes the stack of pastry boxes out of my hands.
“You’ve folded three of these wrong,” she says, fixing the top one without looking away from me.
I glance down at the bent cardboard, then back toward the kitchen where the ovens are cooling and the last trays are already wrapped for morning.
The bakery is in that strange almost-closed place, still warm from the day but quieter now, the front cases half-empty and the floors needing one last pass.
“Kade thinks the attack might be connected to his work.”
The teasing leaves her face. She sets the box down and comes around the prep table, close enough that the noise from the front counter does not swallow us. “What kind of connected?”
“He doesn’t know yet but he apologized this morning like he personally dragged the whole thing to my door, which is very Kade and also very stupid.
” I press my thumb into the crease of the box until the cardboard gives under it.
“He kept stopping between kisses to say he was sorry. It was a little hard to take the apology seriously after the third time he said it into my neck.”
Priya’s brows go up, but she manages to keep most of the smile off her face. “I’m trying very hard to be concerned and not ask follow-up questions.”
“I appreciate your restraint.”
“I don’t. It feels unnatural.” Her expression softens again as she reaches over and takes the ruined box before I can crease it further. “And what did you tell him?”
“That I’m not blaming him. I’m scared, obviously, and I hate that someone might’ve looked at me and seen a way to hurt him, but I don’t blame him.
” My mouth pulls despite everything, because the memory of Kade’s face in the nest this morning still warms me in places fear hasn’t managed to reach.
“I also told him I have two men trying to protect me now, so apparently I’ve upgraded from one terrifying problem to a full security plan. ”
Priya watches me for a second, then laughs quietly enough that it does not feel like she is laughing at me. “Two men.”
“Don’t make that face. You look like you are mentally rearranging my entire life.”
“I did that three days ago, baby. Keep up.” She leans a hip against the table, arms folding over her apron. “So Kade is officially a thing.”
“Kade is very much a thing.” The words come out softer than I mean them to.
I pick at the edge of the pastry box so I don’t have to look directly at her face while I say the next part.
“It feels like he was always a thing and I was just standing there in the hallway pretending I didn’t want him to be. ”
“And the detective?”
Skylar is harder to place into words. “He’s getting there,” I say. “I think he wants to get there and doesn’t know what to do with that yet.”
Priya’s face softens in a different way. “That can be scary.”
“Yeah.” I fold the next box carefully, corners clean this time. “Kade says we can go slow. Skylar looks like he might run if anyone says the word feelings too loudly, but he came over with donuts two days ago and let me kiss his cheek, so I’m choosing hope with mild supervision.”
“That sounds like you, trying to make something sound reasonable because you’re afraid of how much you want it.
” She reaches out and squeezes my wrist once before letting go.
“I’m happy for you. Scared, because someone hurt you and I’d like to do something very creative with a vegetable peeler, but happy too. ”
A laugh slips out of me before my throat can close around it. “That is a concerning amount of detail.”
“I care deeply.” Her eyes stay on me, warm and serious under the threat. “You deserve people who show up, Em.”
My phone rings before I can answer, Kade’s name filling the screen.
Priya sees it and points toward the back hall. “Take it before you start glowing through my labor budget.”
I take the call near the shelves of flour and sugar, where the bakery is quieter and Priya can pretend not to listen from fifteen feet away. “Hi.”
There’s a pause, and I can hear the smile in his voice when he answers. “Hi, sweetheart.”
My face goes hot fast enough to be embarrassing. “Everything okay?”
“Yes.” His voice lowers. “Baxter called. The charge is fully dropped. I’m no longer a suspect in the assault.”
For a second, I forget how to breathe. I grip the edge of the shelf with my free hand and stare at a bag of flour until the words settle into something I can understand. “You’re not a suspect.”
“No.”
“They dropped it all the way.”
“All the way.”
“Kade.” His name comes out too soft and too cracked, and I turn farther toward the shelves because Priya has stopped pretending to wipe the counter. “You’re done with that part?”
“With that part,” he says carefully. “There’s still work to do. We still need to figure out who attacked you, why that first call came in early, and what they were trying to get from my company. I don’t want you thinking this means there’s no danger.”
“I know. But they’re done looking at you like you hurt me.”
His breath shifts. “Yes.”
That’s enough. Maybe it shouldn’t be, but it is. Enough to make my chest feel too full, enough to make the last two days of bliss crack open into something brighter.
“Where are you?” I ask.
“At Rourke.”
“Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” I grab my coat from the hook by the back door.
Kade’s voice sharpens. “Rys.”
“I’m coming to you. My shift is basically over, and Priya is standing behind me making a very aggressive supportive face.”
“I am being graceful,” Priya calls from the prep table.
Kade makes a low sound that might be a laugh if he were not trying so hard to worry. “Rys, just wait and I’ll swing by—”
“I’m calling a rideshare,” I say, suddenly needing to see him, to be around him. The need has been growing since he saved me and only made worse with the fact that he’s been in my nest for the past few days.
Kade goes quiet as I start rummaging around for twenty bucks and request a ride in the rideshare app. There’s a car two minutes away, my heart nearly beating out of my chest. Kade’s chuckle comes through the earpiece. “Sweetheart, stay on the phone with me the entire ride, okay?”
I mumble a yes as I zoom past Priya, apologizing about leaving early.
She doesn’t seem to mind as the rideshare pulls up to the curb and I slip inside, keeping Kade in my ear while the city moves past the window in blurred lights and wet pavement.
He talks low the whole time, asking if I ate, if Priya is letting me leave without threatening the driver, if Clarence behaved today.
I tell him Clarence asked whether my glow was vitamins and was banned from commenting on my face until further notice, and Kade’s quiet laugh goes straight through me.
The closer I get, the harder it is to sit still. My fingers twist in the strap of my bag. My knees press together and then apart. Kade hears the change in my breathing, his purr rattling through his chest. “Almost here?” he asks.
“Two minutes.”
“I’ll meet you downstairs.”
My body vibrates with anticipation and when the cab pulls up, Kade is already there pulling my door open, one hand already reaching as I shove money at the driver and scramble out. I barely make it a step before Kade catches me against his chest.
The impact knocks a breath out of me. His arms close around me, cedar and whiskey wrapping around me until my knees forget they have responsibilities. I bury my face in his coat and hold on.
I pull back enough to look at him, and whatever he sees on my face changes his. His hand comes to my cheek, his thumb careful near the last shadow of bruising, and then he bends to kiss me in front of the building.
“Upstairs,” he mumbles against my lips.
I nod, Kade guiding me to the elevator. “Where is everyone else?”
“Not here. I gave them the day off so I could work through some things.” His voice has gone husky and the moment the elevator doors close, he’s back on me, his tongue slipping between my lips as he presses himself against me.
The full length of his cock presses into my stomach, heat pooling there as I try to keep myself present. A whimper pulls from my lips as slick starts to slip into my underwear, Kade only pulling back when the doors open.
My legs feel like jello as we make it to the office, Kade pushing me against the wall, the moment the doors closed.
Kade turns the lock, then turns back to me.
For a second, he only looks. His gaze moves over my face, my mouth, my hands gripping the strap of my bag, and the want in him is so clear my breath catches.
Then he slips the strap off my shoulder, his lips connecting with mine a third time.
I can’t breathe but I don’t really want to as his hand slides to my waist, the other braced beside my head, and when his body settles against mine, I feel myself go slick so fast it scares me.
Slick fills my underwear, my scent sweetening brighter than it usually does, stronger than I know how to hide.
I turn my face away, embarrassed and breathing hard. “I’ve… this doesn’t usually happen.” No other Alpha has ever made me want.
Kade’s laugh is low and warm against my cheek. “Do you want me to stop?”
“No.” The answer comes too fast, and his mouth curves against my skin. My face burns hotter. “But this is your office. What if someone sees?”
Kade leans over without moving away from me and presses a button on the wall. The glass turns frosted.
I stare at it for a second, then look back at him. “That is extremely convenient.”
“It has uses.”
I grin, hook my fingers in his shirt, and pull him back down to my mouth.