Ember (Constant Flame Duet Book 1)

by Christi Whitson

  Owen stowed his personal belongings in the coat closet alongside hers, and they sat down to discuss the rest of their agenda for the day. As Lena went over their list of tasks, Owen was struck once again by how competent she was in her father’s workplace. It was clear that she knew both the people and the operations of GC, and he’d immediately recognized that he could learn a lot from her. That was a new and strange sensation for him, since most of the time he tended to identify more easily with his elders than with people his own age. No one in his age bracket had really ever been in his league in terms of intelligence… until Lena.

  She was the first person who was truly on his level, and Owen found that to be comforting as well as arousing. Being highly intelligent had often made him feel like a freak, not that there had been a shortage of reasons to feel that way. He’d spent years trying so hard to blend in, to be normal, but now that desire was absent. Lena made him feel normal now, and she did so in a much better way than any of his clueless high school classmates could have. She accepted him just as he was; he never felt the need to pretend to be something he wasn’t for her.

  Owen had been paying close attention to the way Lena interacted with the employees at GC, and it was clear to him that they trusted and respected her. They didn’t see her as a product of nepotism, or at least most of them didn’t. They addressed her with the respect she’d earned, and Owen was incredibly proud of her for that.

  A knock on the open door interrupted their day planning, and they both turned simultaneously to greet the newcomer. Lena kept her expression polite and neutral, but Owen’s features soured perceptibly.

  “Hey, Lena,” Wes grinned as he strode confidently into the room. He didn’t so much as glance in Owen’s direction.

  “Morning, Wes. You’re here awfully early on a Saturday. Who’d you piss off?” Lena asked blithely, her eyes returning to the laptop that sat open between her and Owen.

  “Now, who says I didn’t ask for this shift just to see your pretty face this morning?” He leaned casually against the conference table, less than a foot away from her, but she didn’t spare him more than a glance and a quick smile.

  “Is there something we can do for you?” Owen spoke up, glaring openly at Wes. They’d met the previous week, and there was certainly no love lost between them.

  “Just came to drop these files off with Lena,” Wes sneered, placing a small stack of manila folders on the table next to her.

  Lena looked away from the computer screen and flipped through them quickly, recognizing them as information she’d requested from their Research and Development team earlier that week. She nodded in satisfaction and looked up at Wes again, finding it awkward due to his close proximity.

  “Thanks, Wes, I appreciate it. Enjoy your day,” she dismissed him with a polite smile.

  Wes blinked in surprise and murmured something unintelligible before leaving the room. Owen grinned happily and leaned over to kiss Lena’s cheek with exaggerated fervor. It made a loud, wet smooching sound, which only seemed to please him more.

  “We’re at work,” she admonished, her lips twitching involuntarily as she made a show of wiping off the remnants of his over-dramatic kiss. “Come on, we need to head up to Marketing. Joan wants to talk to us about a new project.”

  Once they were in the elevator, Lena pushed the button for the twenty-first floor, and the doors closed, isolating them from the eyes and ears of their coworkers.

  “I really hate that guy,” Owen grumbled. Lena didn’t need to ask who it was that he hated.

  “I don’t know why you let him get to you. I treat him the same as everyone else. He can’t possibly think he has a chance with me.”

  “He wants to get in your panties, Eleanore.”

  Oh, I’m Eleanore now, she thought, smiling a little as she rolled her eyes.

  “I’m starting to think you believe everyone wants in my panties.”

  “Maybe not everyone, but certainly a lot more than you think. You don’t even notice it.”

  “Owen, I’m pretty sure my panties are safe from everyone but you,” she laughed. He growled a little and backed her against the wall, thrilled at the power he had to make her breath catch in her chest. He whispered two words against her lips as he claimed them.

  “Damn right.”

  Owen watched Lena closely as she spoke to Jeff Phelps later that afternoon, wondering if he was the only person in the room who could tell that his girlfriend couldn’t stand the guy. She put on a good show of polite respect and even friendliness, but Owen knew her tells. Her stance was defensive, with her feet slightly further apart than usual, and there was an air of defiance in the set of her jaw.

  Years of social training and people watching had taught him to pay attention to the little things, and it was clear to him that Lena didn’t trust Phelps any further than she could throw him. Owen had suspected as much during Nate’s business dinner, but now he was certain of it. His first impression of Phelps hadn’t been particularly positive either. The man seemed to be a smooth talker, but Owen hadn’t missed the fact that his eyes had rested on Lena’s breasts more often than on her face.

  As soon as he could politely do so, Owen led her out of the conference room and down the hallway to a small breakroom. His hands moved soothingly up and down over her arms.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah…? Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “You looked like you wanted to grind Phelps up and eat him for breakfast,” he shrugged. Lena’s eyes widened.

  “Did I really look like that? Like I was mad at him?”

  “Well, maybe not to anyone else, but… I notice things.” Owen was confused by her reaction. “What’s going on?”

  “We can’t talk about it here. Actually, for your sake, I think it might be better if we don’t talk about it at all.”

  “Lena…”

  “No. Please just let it go, okay?” She changed the subject quickly without giving him time to respond. “My dad asked if we could do dinner tonight instead of tomorrow. I said I’d ask, but I figured you wouldn’t mind. It would give us all day tomorrow with nothing to do but homework.”

  “That sounds fine, but we will talk about the other thing later.”

  Lena sighed and gave a noncommittal grunt as she turned and left the room. She felt Owen’s presence behind her but pretended to ignore it as she returned to the conference room. There were still a few people milling about after the meeting they’d had to discuss a new acquisition. Those sorts of meetings generally took place during the week, but there had been some developments that required prompt decisions. Lena and Owen had been invited to observe.

  As she gathered the half dozen files she’d brought with her, her gaze flickered briefly to Jeff Phelps, who was deep in conversation with Nate. Lena hadn’t forgotten the suspiciously locked down accounts that Phelps was personally overseeing, but she’d been unable to find the right moment to talk to her father about it. If she were being honest with herself, she’d have to admit that she had been more than happy to focus on other things.

  Lena knew that Owen would demand to know what was going on eventually, but she hesitated to share her suspicions with him. There was every possibility that Owen would end up with a full-time job at GC after he graduated, and one thing that was sure to derail that plan would be for him to get on the wrong side of Jeff Phelps. As the CEO’s daughter, Lena was somewhat immune to whatever tactics Phelps might employ, but Owen was not.

  By some stroke of divine mercy, Phelps declined Nate’s invitation to join them for dinner, and by the time Lena left GC with Owen, she actually felt a bit more relaxed. Owen had a way of calming her with little more than his presence, and she found it both odd and wonderful at the same time. He could tell that his questions about Phelps only seemed to make her more anxious, and she was grateful when he didn’t continue to push her for more information. Lena sighed and squeezed his hand as they drove toward Mercer, knowing that there was at least one mildly uncomfort
able conversation on the horizon.

  It was time to properly introduce her boyfriend to her father.

  Chapter 21

  To Lena’s surprise, Nate was anything but disapproving when she admitted out loud at the dinner table that she and Owen were in a relationship. Where she had expected troubled frowns and advice about ‘keeping her eye on the ball,’ she was met only with broad smiles and congratulations. Owen gave her an I-told-you-so grin as he took her hand and brought it to his lips.

  “It’s about damn time!” Nate teased. “Watching you two trying to pretend there was nothing going on was getting downright frustrating. Hilarious though, since you both thought you were doing such an amazing job at it.”

  Lena blushed slightly, but Owen merely laughed.

  “Thank you for your support, Nate. It just took me a while to bring her around to the idea. She’s pretty stubborn.”

  “Don’t I know it.”

  “Okay, we can talk about something else now,” Lena rolled her eyes, unable to keep the smile completely off her face.

  “Oh, come on, Lena. This is the first chance I’ve had to really do my job on the whole boyfriend thing,” Nate reminded her, giving her a fake pout before turning back to Owen. “Now, Owen, I know you’re a good person and a very smart man… Smart enough to know that if you hurt my little girl, I have abundant resources at my disposal to make you regret it. I haven’t forgotten how to shoot either. Are we clear?”

  “Of course, sir,” Owen grinned. “I’d expect nothing less, and I would never dream of hurting Lena. We actually met briefly a long time ago, but we didn’t recognize each other until recently.”

  “Is that so? When was that?”

  “Fifteen years ago.”

  “In Chicago,” Lena added. Nate’s look of confusion was replaced with one of shock. His eyes darted back to Owen and widened as he studied him more closely.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” he murmured. “You were the little boy at the foster home?”

  “Yes. Lena was my first and only friend.” Owen and Lena smiled sadly at each other, and he gently squeezed the hand he held in his lap.

  “And you just happened to run into each other in one of your classes?” Nate asked incredulously. They both nodded. “Wow… You know, I actually tried to look you up back then, Owen.”

  Now it was Owen and Lena who looked shocked.

  “You did?” Lena asked curiously. “You never told me that.”

  “Because I couldn’t find him. The records were sealed, apparently. A couple years had passed by that point, but I remembered the lady running that home said you were due to be adopted, Owen. I just assumed your new parents wanted to protect your privacy.”

  Owen nodded absently, certain that even if Nate had managed to track him down, his mother would never have allowed him to see Ellie. She had made it her mission to eradicate every positive element from his life. Lena’s eyes were slightly glazed as well, wondering what had led her father to think of Owen after they’d returned to Seattle. Although Owen had been on her mind quite often during the years they’d been apart, she’d never mentioned him to Nate. She’d been able to tell that her father had been uncomfortable discussing the accident and the fact that it had taken him two weeks to get to her. She knew now that he’d probably just been feeling needlessly guilty, but as a little girl, she’d worried that he might have suspected her role in causing the accident and been angry with her.

  “Well,” Nate sighed, reclaiming both of their attention. “If that’s not fate, I don’t know what is. I’m glad you found each other again. That’s pretty remarkable.” He raised his glass to salute them, and they both copied the gesture, smiling softly at one another.

  The conversation eventually shifted to work, and Nate took the opportunity to praise Owen’s efforts at GC. He’d had nothing but good reports from the various department heads, and everyone seemed optimistic about Owen’s future at the company. Lena made more of an effort to contribute to the discussion, pleased that Nate had refrained from grilling them about the change in their relationship. It was the best outcome she could have hoped for, and as dinner wound down, she was more relaxed than she’d felt around her father in years.

  “Nate, there was one thing I wanted to ask you about, if you don’t mind,” Owen said as they were finishing dessert. “Lena mentioned that she had a bodyguard for a while, and that you have one full time…”

  “More than one. The guy’s gotta sleep sometime,” Nate chuckled.

  “Right. Well, in all honesty, I hadn’t realized that either of you would even have a need for something like that, but I’m wondering why Lena doesn’t have a security detail anymore. It doesn’t seem like the kind of situation that will just go away.”

  “Because I’m nineteen years old and don’t need a babysitter,” Lena huffed, scowling at her boyfriend. So much for being relaxed.

  “Now, Lena, you know it’s not about that. We’ve had this discussion before, and Owen makes a valid point. People who want to do bad things don’t always make threats about it beforehand. It has nothing to do with your age or anyone else’s.”

  “Dad…” Her expression was pleading, and he sighed in resignation. They’d rehashed this particular argument more than once.

  “I know how you feel, and I respect it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Nate replied sternly. He turned back to Owen, who was frowning in confusion. “Lena and I agreed when she turned eighteen that, as a legal adult, she has a right to decide for herself whether or not to have personal security. I want her to have a full-time detail; she doesn’t want one at all. The compromise is that any time there is an active threat that implicates her, she has round-the-clock protection, at least covertly. Otherwise, it’s at her discretion.”

  “But like you said, not everyone will take the time to make a threat before they act. I would think the ones who don’t are the bigger concern,” Owen persisted, his eyes tight with worry.

  “You’re absolutely right.”

  “And while I understand that, it’s still my decision,” Lena spoke up again, addressing Owen directly. “I can’t live in fear like that with no privacy, no freedom. Would you really want an armed guard following us around everywhere?”

  “No, but I’d put up with it to keep you safe, Lena.”

  She sighed, not wanting to argue with him in front of Nate. The security detail issue had been a hot-button one between her and her father at one point. As Nate had explained, they’d eventually come to a compromise, but the issue still came up in conversation occasionally. It was the only time Lena had ever argued for the right to make her own decisions and gone against her father’s wishes. It had been a victory hard-won, and she resisted the urge to give her boyfriend a good swift kick under the table.

  “I appreciate that, but it’s my decision,” she repeated calmly. He continued to frown, and Lena shook her head, reminding herself that his heart was in the right place. Still, she thought, he didn’t have to bring it up with Dad.

  “You already knew she was stubborn, Owen,” Nate said with a tiny smile. Lena pursed her lips but opted not to take the bait.

  It wasn’t until Owen and Lena were heading back to her apartment that she reopened the discussion with a snap in her voice that caught Owen off guard. Although they were still learning about one another, their relationship had been going very well thus far. They’d realized that they had already been acting like a couple in many ways even before they’d put an official label on their relationship. Since making it ‘official,’ things had been relatively comfortable. Lena had helped him get the run of things at GC, and Owen and been helping her with her business classes here and there. He’d kept his promise not to distract her from her goals, and it had been going so well that Lena had begun to feel silly for having been so nervous about taking that ‘next step.’

  At the moment, however, she was irritated with him, and Owen shrank a little beneath her disapproving glare.

  “Why did you bring th
at up? The security thing. If you had questions, you should’ve just asked me.”

  Owen sighed, choosing his words carefully. He didn’t want to argue with her, but neither did he truly feel sorry bringing up the matter of her safety in a conversation with someone who, he’d hoped, would share his perspective and was in a position to do something about it.

  “The fact that someone could want to hurt you just because of who your dad is makes me anxious. No, actually, it terrifies me, Lena. I get wanting to enjoy your privacy, but isn’t your safety more important than that?”

  “I’m just as safe as every other college student, Owen. That’s the point. If you didn’t know who my dad was, the question of whether or not I should have a security detail would never have crossed your mind. It’s not like I go around broadcasting it. Ninety-five percent of the people I interact with at school have no idea.”

  “School isn’t your entire life,” he interjected.

  “It’s the place where I’m most exposed. There’s security in my building and at GC. I don’t need a bodyguard. You’re overreacting.”

  “I just don’t think it’s worth the risk.”

  “Well, I do. It’s the only thing I’ve ever pushed back on with my dad, the only thing I’ve ever fought him on, and I actually won. I’m not giving that back. There’s nothing you can say that’s going to convince me to change my mind about it. If someone threatens me, then I’ll deal with that, but in the meantime, you’re going to have to get over it.”

  She was doing her best to control her temper, but it was difficult. Since they’d reconnected months ago, Owen had been one of the least stressful parts of her life, and she didn’t want that to change.

  “Look,” he sighed. “I just… I worry about you, alright? I worry that you’re happy, that you’re eating enough, that you’re sleeping enough, that you’re satisfied with your life and with… me,” Owen admitted. “I don’t know how to not worry about those things. There’s no ‘getting over it.’”