A brow arched, she shook her head, and bagged up both the pastries, handing them to me over the counter top along with my coffee. “It’s convenient that you remember my coffee order.”
She stared at me before she let out a scoff. “Your order is a black coffee, Carragan. It isn’t complicated to remember.”
I handed her the cash for my order and shrugged. “Still. It’s nice.”
“Okay, well enjoy your day.” She started to walk off, and I panicked. I wanted to talk to her. No—needed to talk to her. It was paramount to my mental health and life’s ambitions that she speak to me. I knew she knew it was me, and I knew it was her. If she didn’t want to confess to that, it was fine. I’d wait. I’d send more flowers and gifts and take her out and woo the pants off of her, literally and figuratively. But shehadto speak to me.
“We should get married,” I shouted, letting the intrusive thoughts win today, evidently. She didn’t move, she didn’t turn and look at me, nothing. She just stood as still as astatue, and I forced my gaze to remain on the back of her head and not take a perusal of her ass again. That had gotten me into enough trouble today. I cleared my throat, trying to save face and come up with a plausible explanation for my comment I’d screamed in the middle of her bakery. “What I mean to say is thank you. Your—um, pastries are so delicious I’d consider a proposal just to ensure I never have to be without your baking abilities.”
Ember finally turned and stared at me, her brows pulled together. “Thank you, I guess?” she questioned. She didn’t sound angry, just really confused. I’d take that as a win, an improvement some would say. “Anyway, have a good day.”
This time, when she turned and walked back into her kitchen, I let out a breath and left Buns of Delight with a new plan. One that would ensure I’d have more time to say insane shit to my little flame.
She was testing me.I still wasn’t completely convinced shedidn’tknowwhoI was—her very not-so-subtle stalker—but as I watched her scroll on the Silk and Spice app, clicking on other men’s profiles, I was seeing red. I had half the screen dedicated to her app activity, and the other half had her apartment camera’s pulled up—truly a stalker full on now.
I should be working right now, but alas, my mind had other ideas tonight.
Why was she back on the app? Why did she care about the other men on there? I was available. I’d literally been talking to her on the damn app. Had I canceled our last two dates? Yes, but only because I wanted to see her as us. I wanted to be Wyatt. I wanted her to be Ember. I wanted allof her, not just the slice she played out in secret anonymity through the app. I’d even told her I wanted to take her to dinner.
I wanted the real and true Ember Brady.
I pulled out my phone and opened the app, my gaze checking her activity on my computer every few moments. Typing out a message, I hit send and then watched her.
ImVengecock: How was your day?
Was it creative? No. But I just needed her to remember I was here, I gave a shit. More than a shit if I was honest, but we weren’t going down that road just yet.
I watched the camera as she read it. She was staring at our messages before she shook her head and closed out of our conversation. But instead of closing the app, she went through and matched with the next six guys she saw.
Logically, I knew I had options here. I could ignore her, carry on with my plans of wooing her. I could send more flowers, love letters, gifts of jewelry, and chocolate. I could show up in the middle of the night and lay in bed with her until she woke up and we could make sweet, intense love. I had it all planned out. However, I ignored the logic as I went through and blocked every single man she liked on the app. They wouldn’t even see a message pop through because they wouldn’t have access to my girl—ever.
I smirked at the thought as I continued on my way, digitally kicking them all to the curb without her even noticing. One message did pop up, but as she opened it, I deleted his profile from the app entirely.
Julian may actually kill me for this one, but I couldn’t find it in me to care. I was a crazed man on a mission, carried forward by an in-depth love I couldn’t get away from. Ileaned back in my chair and smiled as nothing else came through for her. Let my girl try to fuck someone else. I pulled up our message thread again and typed out another message.
ImVengecock: Nice try.
I watched her through the screen as her eyes narrowed on the message and she let out an exacerbated sigh. “Mother fucker,” she muttered.
I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. I was so happy that I’d picked a camera with audio.
24
CONSPIRATORIAL GRIN
Ember
Now that Iknew it was him, I couldn’t unsee it. Everything about it made sense to me, and I couldn’t believe I didn’t realize it sooner.
While looks-wise, I wasn’t mad at myself—every time we’d spent time together, it had been dark, blind folded, adrenaline had been flowing, and so on. I hadn’t been worried about his face. I’d been so busy intently staring at his cock, that it made sense why it didn’t click until the facts were staring me right in the face.
Growing up in a small town like Raven Creek, I’d always known of Wyatt Carragan, but he was a few years ahead of me in school, and we didn’t hang out in the same circles. He had his family, and I had one friend I spent time with, and it was in high school that almost all of my life went to shit. Once I stopped talking toher, I spent all of my time helpingmy Grandpa Joe or studying. I learned at a young age that parents didn’t like their kids talking to me because of my father, so I didn’t bother after a while.
By the time I was old enough to go out to bars and places where someone like Wyatt would’ve been, I was neck deep in work and trying to build my business.
With all of that being said, not putting it together at the Halloween party just made me feel stupid. He was Rowan’s twin brother, at Rowan’s house, and it should’ve all clicked. But it hadn’t—as if I truly didn’t want the fantasy of what Drew and I had created to be erupted in such a way.
On one hand, I was grateful to know who I’d been with all this time. On the other side of things though? This made it real. I felt as if two worlds were colliding. My thoughts and feelings surroundingDrewand Wyatt. If nothing else, I needed to stop separating them in my head—they were both Wyatt.
