Chapter 53
1529words
“That will be hard.” I said
“She doesn't want to speak to you, so why force it?"
I slowly turned to William and narrowed my eyes, " I didn't speak to you."
"It doesn't matter. I'll defend my friend regardless."
"friend?" I sneered, "You and I don't know, you desire to be more than Ember's fired."
"Maybe I do. In any case, it doesn't concern you." William said, and Ember reached over to cover her hand with his,
"That's enough," she said quietly, but that move only irked me even more,
"I still need to speak to you," I said, unable to hold in my temper anymore,
"He's right though." she said, getting up, "I'll speak to whom I choose. And right now, I don't choose you. Excuse me."
I watched her begin to turn away and grit my teeth as she walked away, leaving me alone with William.
"Happy now?" William asked, getting up, but I grabbed him by his collar before he could turn away from me,
"you. This is all your fault." I spat.
“My fault? It’s my fault you couldn’t be a proper man?”
“And you are?”
"Have you gone mad?" William asked through gritted teeth, "You let go of me, right now."
"or what?"
"You want to find out so bad, don't you?" The bloke said, and I watched as his eyes began growing crimson. I’ve heard tales of this particular Alpha. His eyes grew deeper and darker as he became more angry. I might have admired it, if he didn’t want to take my woman and oies me right off by the mere act.
"you think you can go around with another man's woman, and get away with it?"
"Before I begin this conversation with you," he pushed my hands off him and fixed his collar, "don't touch me again." he spat, and looked me square in the eyes,
"What woman?" he finally asked, "the one you abused and treated like crap? That one?"
"You don't know what you're talking about." I spat,
"I know everything I need to know. I know that you don't deserve someone like Ember, and as long as I have a say in this matter, you're going to stay away from her."
"you think it's enough to follow her around like some kind of lap dog?"
"At the very least, I'm not a pathetic loser. Admit the fact that you ruined things with her, that you messed up and lost her. Maybe we can start from there."
"I'm not going to stand here and talk to the likes of you, or I might just disfigure your face."
"Perhaps if you had stood by, and watched over her the way you try to do now, you might have never lost her in the first place." he sneered.
I stared at him down, fighting the urge to engage in a fistfight. After all, the Alpha king and a few elders were probably still around. The last thing Ember needed after this meeting was a scene featuring one of her partners,
"get lost," I said, then walked away from him to go find Ember. She said she had nothing to discuss, but she would have to deal with me eventually. I was simply going to try and speed up the process.
I found her having a conversation with the Alpha king and thought it was odd the way they interacted. He smiled at her softly, while she spoke and she didn’t have the air of someone who feared being in the king's presence.
"At what point did those two become so close?" I wondered out loud.
I waited till their conversation was over, and when it was, I saw the surprise in her face when she turned to face me. The king, however, looked displeased.
He seemed to ask her something, to which she shook her head, before he walked away, leaving her to stand there alone.
"Is something wrong?"
"Ember, everything is wrong," I said, sounding sad and sorry to my ears,
"As far as I'm concerned, the meeting was productive today. The elders are in favor of our ideas, and they are going to do all they can to help us. How can that be wrong?"
"I'm not talking about the youths, Em. I'm talking about you and I."
Her eyes clouded at my words, and I could see the shutters closing, but I wasn't giving in. I would do it all. All that it took to get her back.
"I don't want to talk about this. Especially not here."
"Then where? Do you want to go to a restaurant? Have lunch? A boat ride maybe?"
"All of those sound nice, but I simply don't have the time."
"You just don't want to make time."
She only shrugged and I groaned, and prayed for patience, "Ember-"
"Where is Kate?"
"Excuse me?"
"Where is Kate? How come she's giving you all of this free time to chase after me?"
I blinked and ran a hand over my hair, "she's well. She-"
"will be upset to know that her beloved mate is trying to get with his ex-wife."
I drew her into my arms, glad that she didn’t try to pull away, "you can't possibly be my ex-wife. I didn't sign those papers."
"You should," she said quietly,
"I can’t. Not when it means losing you forever."
"I wish you wouldn’t; speak this way," she said quietly, her molding softly against mine.
There were a million things I could say to make her change her mind about how she felt, to make her change her mind about us, but right then, all I truly wanted was the taste of her. And I took it, pressing my lips against hers, ravishing the softness. She didn’t fight me, and I allowed myself to take even more.
Time passed, and perhaps there was a world around us, but it fell away,
"Ember?" she jumped away from me, at the sound of William calling her name, and I swear I nearly cursed all the powers that were against me.
I watched the expressions on her face, confusion, surprise, and lastly, guilt when she finally faced William,
"William, are… are you ready to go?"
He looked from Ember, and then to me, and when he looked at me, I saw the anger. I might have smiled, but I wasn't happy. He had come to interrupt something beautiful.
Then he turned to Ember once again,
"I am. Are you?"
Ember nodded, and without a word or glance at me, went to join him, leaving me to stand there alone, with my many needs and emotions.
"damned bloody William."
EMBER'S POV
The drive back to my place was a quiet one, with William at the wheel. I had come with him and thought it best to leave with him rather than my father.
Before the meeting, my greatest worry was my father and Paris alone in one room, but who would have believed that things would become so muddy so quickly?
I was the one who had asked William to help me divorce Paris. But here I was, smooching the same Paris, in the middle of the streets. And worse yet, it was William who had found us. So much for wanting a divorce.
The guilt I felt was worse because I knew of William's feelings for me.
But what could a woman do, when she still felt feelings for the man she was supposed to hate?
It still didn’t excuse what had happened, and I knew I had to fix what was breaking between William and me.
"you've been quiet." I finally said, breaking the deafening silence. He merely glanced at me before looking back at the road,
"So have you."
"I haven’t wanted to trouble you."
"safe to say my mind isn't the quietest place actually," he said, and when he reached out to take my hand in his, I nearly died.
"don’t do that." I moaned
"do what?"
"be gentle with me when I'm the worst possible friend ever."
"you aren't the worst possible friend ever, em. My feelings aren't your fault."
"maybe not. But I still feel responsible for some things. Like asking for a divorce, asking you for your help, and going ahead to kiss the man I'm supposed to be done with. That's like a slap in your face."
To that, he didn’t have a reply and I supposed I had my answer,
"That's between you and Paris, I should think. I'm still going to help you get the divorce if it's what you want."
"it is." I hastily said, and he nodded.
"Then I'll help you. But this doesn’t ruin our friendship," he said and I brought our linked hands to my lips in gratitude.
We didn’t say much to each other after, and I went back to being lost in my thoughts.
Perhaps, he meant it when he said our friendship was okay, but that did not change what I finally realized today, and that was no matter what I did, no matter how hard I fought to divorce Paris, I was probably still in love with him.
