Chapter 24:

"Let me get that for you ma'am." I smiled politely at the man that was trying to help me with my suitcases.

"It's okay, I can take it from here." He looked shocked before he gave me back my suitcases, I wasn't use to people catering to me like this and I didn't want to start now. "Thank you for your help."

The jet ride back was awkward and saturated with tension and Adaline could feel it as well, but she thought it was for other reasons.

I didn't dwell in it because I saw her being engulfed into a big hug by her boyfriend when we stepped off. "Hey!" She exclaimed overjoyed with happiness.

I stare at the scene in awe.

He let's her down but she turns towards me and she motion me over. "Josh meet my friend Embre, Embre meet my boyfriend Josh." She introduced us to each other.

I hold out my hand to him and he takes my hand shaking it. "Nice to meet you." I took an his appearance, she wasn't lying when she said he looked like a Greek god. His hair was buzzed cut and he had grey eyes, he had a stumble forming around his full set of lips. He had on a pair of black jeans on with a dark blue shirt and that's when I noticed he had tattoos- even when it was almost night time the ink was noticeable. Where did she say she found him again? "She hasn't stopped talking about you since we've been gone."

I let go of his hand and he looks at Adaline giving her a smirk and he pulls her close to him. "Have you?"

She blushed and she looked away before scoffing. "No." She denied the whole essay she had written back in New York to me about him.

The feeling of someone's hand wrapping around my side made me flinch away before realizing who it was. "Are you ready?" Landon asked me, and calling a cab didn't sound so bad right now.

"Well, we better get going." Adaline chimed in and Josh picked up her suitcase for her while she clung her hands around her backpack straps. "Thank you for the trip, Landon." She acknowledged him. "It was nice seeing my family for a little while."

"It's not a problem, it's the least I could do." He acknowledged her back. "See you for work?"

"You bet." Then she had a light skip in her step to me before Landon let me go into her arms. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do." She whispered in my ear before she pulled away grinning. "See you guys later!" And with that the couple took their leave.

And then it was just the two of us. "Are you going to tell me what I did or do I have to go another 25 minutes without talking to you?"

Shifting my eyes up to him, I shrugged my shoulders. "You don't have to worry about that and you have a meeting to attend to right? I would get a move on." I checked my phone to see Regina texting me back: 5 minutes away :) "Thank you for the trip." I stuffed my phone back into the pocket of my hoodie.

"At least let me-" He tried to reach out for my suitcase and I stopped him with a hand.

"Landon I'm fine, you should go."

"You're serious right now?" He scoffed. "What the hell did I do?"

"You didn't do anything." It was my fault anyway.

"Then why the attitude?" Attitude? Scoffing back at him, I started to roll away from him with my belongings. "Could you stop doing that." His hand reached out to stop me.

"Could you just leave me alone?" I threw back at him, I wasn't good with my feelings because I didn't know what this was.

"You want me to leave you alone?"

No. "Yes."

"Fine then, I'll leave you to it." He let go of my hand and he left a burning sensation behind. "Travel safe."

"You too." And seeing Regina's car pulling up, I made quick work to get my stuff into the car before we pulled away.

"So how was New York-" She halted once seeing a tear slide down my face. "Who do I have to fight?" She began tying up her hair. "Is it him? What happened?"

"I'm probably just overreacting." I sniffled before bringing my hand up to stop any more tears from rolling like the river dam. "Can we just go home?"

"Okay. But we're going to talk about this." She reversed the car around. "Did he hurt you?"

"No." I quickly shut down that thought, I knew he wouldn't do that. "It's what I heard."

"Heard? Please don't tell me you heard him having sex while you were there." She turned on the blinker to go left before she sat back seeing that the light changed from yellow to red.

"No." I pulled on the sleeves to my hoodie. "I overheard him on the phone."

"And?"

"And he said he missed someone, couldn't that someone be a another girl? His phone kept going off throughout the day."

"Or it could have been someone else." She continued to drive seeing the light change. "Sweetie, I love you really but you suck at this relationship shit."

"Huh?" I should have called her about this but she probably was still sleep. "It doesn't matter anyway we just ended whatever that was."

"Oh sister from another mother." She laughed before she turned up the radio just a tad. "It's only begun."

I definitely didn't miss the loud music she played, even if I was gone for a day.

The next day wasn't any better. I had never experienced jet lag until just now and it wasn't the best feeling in the world but I had to get up for work. Dressing how I felt- which sadly couldn't be sweats- which consisted of a grey long sleeve bodysuit and my black high waisted jeans and my black heels.

Taking my time with my hair, I was satisfied with my look before walking out with my purse and phone to peek into Regina's room to tell her bye but she was already a step ahead of me. "Get out."

"Love you too." Closing her door, on my way out I picked up my granola bar and yoplait, setting off for work.

~~~~~

"Wait hold the elevator." And not thinking twice, I threw my hand out to catch the door and it protested against my hand before reopening for the man to enter.

He was a little clumsy to say the least, as it seemed he just woke up and forgot that he had work. His suit jacket was hanging off his shoulders before he pushed it back into place. Pushing his glasses back so they settled nicely back in place, he thanked me.

He was taller than me that was for sure and my heart picked up, but it wasn't from me feeling anything, from being in the presence of another human being- a male to be exact. I couldn't get a good look at him because he stood right in front of me.

"Are you new?" I asked, he seemed friendly enough to try to make conversation.

He turned to face me, and I got a good look at his eyes that were light brown before he pushed his dirty blonde hair out of his face. "Yes I am, are you?" He asked me back, with a shy smile on his face.

"Not really, a started a few weeks ago." Before the silence could settle, I threw my hand out awkwardly. "I'm Embre."

"I'm Seth." He accepted my hand, before he paused. "Wait... Embre Daniels? His personal assistant?" He said it but more to himself. "Shit."

"I'm sorry?"

"His personal assistant just saw me late to work."

"And?"

"You could report me, after all you are like the second boss here."

"I just take notes and sit in my office and hope the phone doesn't ring so I don't have to answer it." I laughed, trying to make him feel comfortable. "Trust me I won't be reporting you."

"Thank you Miss Daniels."

"Embre." The elevator doors slid open and I stepped out. "Well I'll see you around Seth."

The elevator doors closed and taking a deep breath, I greeted people as I walked to my office, setting my little breakfast that I brought down and my phone. I didn't have a chance to settle in as my intercom buzzed. "Embre I need coffee."

"Yes sir." And with that he hung up.

I was starting to feel a little bit more comfortable walking around and knowing exactly where to go in this building. Black and two sugars later, I watched the steam roam around the cup before knocking on his door before entering. "Anything else?" I ask, once placing his coffee down.

He doesn't look up from his papers. "No."

"You deserved that." I felt as if the angel on my shoulder was betraying and I returned back to my office without a glance back.

Rolling my eyes at the prank calls I would receive, complaining they thought this building complex was Pizza Hut, I put my self to use doing something else.

Going through my files that were placed on the edge of my desk, I sorted them out, marking them off before getting up to go to office again for him to actually decided what to do with these businesses and what he wants to happen proceeding forward.

Walking into his office to see that he had another gentleman in the room with him, I paused. "Oh, I'll come back another time sir." It felt strange to even say the last word that uttered but being in front of others was mandatory.

"It's fine." He shook the man hand. "I'll have my assistant contact you with further information."

But wasn't I his personal? I stopped complaining in my head, Miss Jones did know better than me and I still had to play catch up.

"Could you close the door behind you on your way out Phil?" He asked him and with a smile and nod in my direction- me sliding out of his way so he could leave- he did what he asked.

My fingers drummed on the file before walking over to his tall frame and handing him it. "Here you go." He flipped it open before closing it, he didn't seem to even be bother with it.

He looked like me, with being tired and all, but nonetheless he still was put together. He discarded his jacket like before and his dress shirt clung to him in all the right places and before I could let my eyes wonder down, he cleared his throat before throwing the file on his desk.

"You're mad at me." He was blunt with that statement and I knew he was watching me carefully as I fidgeted from side to side.

What happened to us leaving each other alone?

Regina's words rang in my head from last night. "It's only begun."

"No, I'm not." I swiped my hand up my arm before resting it on my elbow. Not anymore I wasn't.

"Bullshit." He sat on the edge of his desk, folding his arms together.

"I have work- your work- to do so unless this is about-"

"Why?" He interjected, not having my excuse in this exact moment.

"Who's the other girl?" I mimicked him but it wasn't on purpose.

"What other girl?" He seemed dumbfounded.. Was it because he was caught?

"That girl you were talking to in your room in New York."

"Why? Did it bother you?" He took a different route and my face scrunched up seeing that I was right. Regina would have to get a load of this.

"Oh? So I was right?" Unfolding my arms, I tried to walk out of the door with the rest of my dignity but his hand closed around my wrist.

"You really need to stop doing that." He twisted me around before dropping his hand. "I'm not done talking to you."

"And if I am?"

"You really believe I could be talking to another woman while I'm trying to pursue you?" He asked, he wasn't for my shit today.

"Need I remind you, who you are?" As much as anybody wanted to comment on it, they would feel exactly how I felt if this happened to them.

"Need I remind you I'm not the stereotypical millionaire you see? I have standards Embre, that's who the core of me is, and I thought we had a deeper-"

"Do we? You shouldn't want anything to do with me, I'm nothing special."

"You're special to me." He got up from where he was sitting. "Don't utter that shit out of your mouth again, do you hear me?"

Here came the water works, I didn't usually cry in front of people and I don't know why I'm even starting right now. "N-no." I started to say but he caught me off guard and I stumbled back after he bruised me with a kiss to silence me.

I regained my balance, resting my hands on his arms as his went around my face and my breathing hunched just as his did. There was no point of resisting him, because a part of me longed for this and I really thought whatever we had was over.

Seeing that I was giving into him, his left hand came down to my waist pulling me closer to him and my hands travelled up around his neck and our bodies pressed together, my breast touching his front.

He groaned after feeling them brush against him and he moved back so he was once sitting down and we were height leveled. "We should stop." I mumbled against his lips.

"No." He craved me like I did him and it scared me and with shaky hands my hands fumbled to his shirt and he chuckled before stopping me, our hands resting in between us. "That's not what I meant either." His right hand gripped my jaw almost roughly before devouring me again.

And that's when reality hit me. "Kissing me won't make me forget." I pulled away and he didn't let me go that far.

"Embre, that was my sister."

Pause.

"That was my sister." I replayed in the back of my mind like it was a scratched tap and I wanted the ground to swallow me whole.

I didn't realize my mouth was dropped open until I felt myself shutting it. "Oh," I mumbled, trying to hide my embrassment.

"You know you're cute when you're jealous."

"I was not jealous!" I exclaimed, maybe a little but not a lot.

"Yes you were."

"Whatever." Rolling my eyes, that was all I could say. "But you said-"

"I knew exactly what you were talking about when you said it, it's fun seeing you flustered." He grinned and I smacked his chest.

"You were trying to get back at me?"

"Did it work?" He asked and I sadly had to agree with him.

"I should get back to work."

"Or you can stay in here with me."

"There's someone out there waiting for you I'm sure, it's rude of me to take up all of your time."

"And I wouldn't mind that at all." He became more playful, rubbing our noses together and I couldn't help but smile.

"Landon." I warned. "Get to work."

"Yes ma'am." That made me laugh, as that brought back a memory, and he smiled his breathtaking smile before he released me to go back to my office.