But then there was Ember. Last night had been even more incredible than the first night they had spent together. It was not a question anymore; he was falling head over heels in love with her. He had never believed in the idea of a “soulmate” or any of that lame lovey crap, but it was like overnight his mind had been changed and he wanted to be with this woman.
And now he might have blown it.
Was she going to be this insecure about him running this club? If club Privaat was going to cause that much of a riff in his life and mess up his relationship with Ember, if it hadn’t already destroyed it, then he was willing to walk away right now.
His heart sank a bit at the possibility, but then again, he did not need this club. It was a fun idea and something he knew would be awesome under the right guidance and the right devotion which he’d been prepared to offer, but he was trying to see things from Ember’s point of view. If he was working with all of these amazing women all the time and he was going to be actively involved in the selection process for the auction (this was the only way it would work) then she was always going to feel jealous. Any woman probably would. It was just in the biology. If the roles were reversed he knew that he would be feeling a bit jealous of her. He laughed at himself. He just realized that he had never been close enough with a woman to really feel jealous of her or the other men she might have been involved with.
He was really changing, wasn’t he? And he knew what he had to do now. It was going to set Harrison off into a storm of a psychotic rage he knew (which was actually kind of fun) but this was the best way for him to be able to show Ember that he cared for her and that if something he did was going to make her uncomfortable and have her constantly questioning his motives then he was not going to do it.
Zander grabbed his phone and made the phone call. Harrison picked up on the third ring.
“Hey, you are just full of ideas this morning, aren’t you?” Harrison said.
“Did I catch you at a bad time?” Zander asked.
In the background, he could hear what sounded like a locker room on Harrison’s side of the phone.
“Nah, I just finished up a workout. You know I gotta stay sharp looking for the ladies.”
“Ah, the mouth game isn’t working for you anymore?” Zander joked. He was hoping that by making a few jokes he could smooth this whole thing over a bit.
“No, but I do like to keep the energy and the stamina going. What can I do for you?” Harrison asked.
“Well, I’ve decided that due to other commitments I have I won’t be able to come aboard the Club Privaat train after all.”
The line was silent for a moment. Then Harrison spoke. “Are you kidding me?”
“No, I’m not. I appreciate the offer man, but I am just not going to be able to give it my full attention.”
“So, over the past few hours you just totally changed your mind? Hell, you called me at five o’clock this morning bursting at the seams with ideas and now you are just backing out. Color me puzzled.”
“I would rather not go into the details, but circumstances have changed. I wish you the best of luck with the club though.”
“No, no, no.” Harrison was getting angry. “You listen to me. We had a deal. I’m not going to let you come in and learn everything about my club and then just walk away to develop your own thing with it.”
“Calm down,” Zander said. “That is not what’s happening. I’m not moving in on your turf.”
“The hell you aren’t! Do I look that stupid to you? Have you forgotten who I am? You think I don’t know that you suddenly got some other investors on board to open up your own club—hell, your own club franchise from the sounds of things—and that you are going to screw me over again? No, that is not going to happen. You and I made a deal!”
“We haven’t even had the contracts drawn up yet. We had a handshake, that is all. I am not doing this and from the sound of things I definitely made the right call.”
“You know I will destroy you. You keep forgetting all the things I can do to you!”
Zander laughed. “Have a good life.”
He disconnected the call and went back to his breakfast. He was suddenly aware of just how psychotic Harrison really was.
17
Ember
“Are you sure you aren’t mistaken?” Liza asked. “You know how you have a tendency to blow things way out of proportion.”
“I do not have that tendency,” Ember said. “I am one of the most level-headed people you know.”
Liza laughed and Ember had to join in. She knew she could get a bit crazy at times. That was not exactly a secret. Ember shoved frozen yogurt into her mouth and enjoyed the sweetness.
The two girls had decided to grab some lunch, but after failing to decide on a good place they both chose frozen yogurt as a great back up. It was not technically lunch, but more of a lunch dessert. It was still amazing and it had definitely been too long since Ember had it.
She’d just finished telling Liza everything about her night with Zander and what she’d overheard on the phone. Liza being the more practical of the two had automatically jumped to the conclusion that Ember might have been mistaken. She hated to admit it but Liza might have been right; she usually was about such things. She hated that about her friend sometimes, but she was always glad later when she turned out to be right.
But not this time. Ember felt it in her bones that she knew what she’d heard.
“Are you sure you aren’t just letting your mind go there because you are scared?” Liza asked.
“Scared of what?”
“You know what. You told me yourself that you have been hurt before and starting a whirlwind romance this quickly, this intensely—that is the sort of thing that would scare any normal, sane person. And you are neither normal nor sane.”
Ember laughed and rolled her eyes. Liza always had that way about her that could make everything feel alright. It was just the sort of thing that you always searched for in a best friend.
“I know. I am scared, but I don’t think I’m letting fear get in the way of this. I don’t feel like I’m just searching for something to go wrong here. I woke up and there it was,” Ember said.
“You heard something very vague and your imagination ran wild with it. That is where the fear comes in.”
“When did you become Dr. Phil?”
“It’s always on in the break room at work; I must have picked some up.”
“I don’t know,” Ember said. “I just feel like I’m losing control over every aspect of my life sometimes, and it’s just so much easier to stop everything, you know?”
“I do know,” Liza responded. “That’s why I’m always trying to get you up off the couch and get you to do something. You have to get that blood flowing or your brain will rot.”
“I think the damage is already done,” Ember replied.
“You don’t think there is the slightest chance that you are wrong about Zander? Why don’t you talk to him?”
Ember sighed heavily. “I know there is a chance, but I also know my guts and my instincts. I want to run away from this. There have been too many signs and I can just see the writing on the wall.”
“Is that what it is? If you really think about it are you sure that you don’t want there to be something really wrong? Because that way you could just forget it all and say it’s not your fault.”
Ember groaned. “I don’t know. I hear everything you are saying and honestly, I’ve thought a lot of the same stuff, but there is this other side of me that is wrestling against it. I just don’t know what to do here. And that is scary because I always feel like I’m in control of my life, not the other way around.”
“I know you like to think that,” Liza said. She took a huge chunk of yogurt into her mouth and swallowed hard. A moment later she was grabbing her head with a cold headache.
Ember laughed at her idiotic friend. Liza had probably done this just to give her a giggle and it worked.
; “So, what do I do? Should I call him and hear what he has to say? I mean what is to stop him from just lying about it? How will I know what is right or not?”
“You might not, but if what you guys have together is actually real then I think you owe it to yourself to give it a real shot. Your instincts are pretty good; I think if he is feeding you a line you will know about it.”
Ember took a sip of her soda. What was it about cold soda that made it suddenly warmer yet ultra-delicious when combined with frozen food?
Her phone vibrated right then. It was Zander. She showed the call ID to Liza.
“What are you going to do?” Liza asked.
Ember shrugged and waited until the voicemail picked up. It was then that she noticed her call history.
“Apparently that is the fifth call he has made today,” Ember said.
“Now, I’m not exactly an expert on guys, although I do consider myself knowledgeable, but I think that is a sign he really wants you to not be mad at him. If this was any guy then I might say he could be full of it, but this is Zander Michaels. He is model gorgeous, super billions in the bank, and he is a total alpha sex God. Why would he waste all this time and energy chasing after you if he just wanted sex, which he already got?”
Ember smiled. Liza had a really good point. She looked at her phone.
“Call him back,” Liza said. “But you have to do it here so I can listen,” she giggled.
Ember laughed as she picked up her phone and called Zander back. She put the phone on speaker phone so that Liza could listen in. It was a nice day so they were sitting outside and the place was relatively quiet. Ember didn’t think that anyone else around would be able to hear the conversation and she hoped that Zander wouldn’t hear anything that might tip him off.
“Hello?” Zander answered.
“Hey,” Ember replied. She wanted to play it cool. Liza gave her a thumbs up and a smile.
“Hey there,” Zander said. “I’m glad you decided to call me back. I hated the way we left things earlier.”
“Yeah, well so did I.”
Ember was silent now. She wanted to let Zander speak. He was the one who had something to explain after all.
After a few seconds of silence, he did begin to speak.
“Listen, what you heard on that phone call was not what you think you heard. As I tried to explain earlier you were only hearing one side of it.”
“Well, it sounded to me like you were talking business and I seem to remember you basically saying how you wanted to sample all of the girls and make sure they were to your liking. I’m all ears if you want to explain that.”
Liza’s eyes were wide. She seemed to think that Ember was being a bit harsh. Maybe she was right.
“I was talking business with the current owner of Club Privaat. I was telling him my ideas about expansion. When I mentioned sampling, I was telling him he needed to upgrade to the best liquor. Right now, he is serving medium shelf liquor and charging higher prices for it, as if he thinks that no one can tell. What he does when someone orders drink is start them with the good stuff and then after they are a bit under the influence he switches it out to something inferior and keeps charging the same price. It’s an unscrupulous practice I don’t want to be a part of in an establishment I’m going to invest in. So, I am telling him we will serve only the best. He is struggling with the idea because he thinks it will mean less revenue, but with the expansion that will take care of itself.”
As Ember listened her mind became a bit more open. What he was saying did make a lot of sense, but how did she know it was the truth? He’d had all morning to concoct this story; it might have been total bunk.
“Ok, but how do I know that is true?” Ember asked.
“Listen, you can believe me or not, but that is the truth. Remember I told you this guy is a bit of a jerk and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to do business with him. This is why. In fact, I’m not doing business with him. I just called him a little bit ago and told him that I changed my mind.”
“You aren’t going to go into the Club Privaat business?”
“No,” Zander replied. “I can see that it makes you uncomfortable and that is the last thing in the world that I want to do. So, to prove how much I really care about you, I’m out of that business.”
Ember could not stop the smile spreading across her face. Liza giggled silently across the table and did a little dance in her chair.
“I don’t know what to say. I mean, since we’ve been together I have been on a roller coaster where one minute I think we have something real and the next minute I think it was all a business arrangement and that you are still trying to get your money’s worth or something,” Ember said.
“No, you were never a business arrangement to me. The moment I met you I knew that there was something special about you, about us together. I’ve always been the kind of guy to follow my heart in any situation and that is exactly what I want to do right now.”
Ember leaned back in the chair and tried to keep it together. Her heart felt like it was mending itself back together in her chest and it was kind of painful followed by tears that welled up in her eyes. Liza handed her a napkin and she blotted her eyes with it. She swallowed hard and exhaled trying to hide the fact she was fighting tears from Zander.
“Ok, so what happens now?” Ember asked.
“Well, I was hoping to see you tonight,” Zander replied. “I have a special evening planned if you are interested.”
Ember took a deep breath and tried to get ahold of herself. A huge cry was threatening to take her over and she did not want Zander to hear her being that emotional. She didn’t want to hear it either. Why was this happening? How had she fallen for someone so hard and so fast? It was just not like her and right now everything was coming through that Liza was talking about. She was terrified of it all, just like Zander probably was. The experiences of her past where she allowed her emotion to win out and dictate the course and the direction of her life and just let things happened, it had always worked out badly for her. What was going to make this time so much different?
She didn’t know how it would be different this time around, but she decided right then and there that she didn’t care. Whatever cosmic force had brought the two of them together and was working right now to keep them together was talking to her. She could feel it and with every fiber of her being she knew that this was what she wanted to do whether it turned out right or wrong. She had to give it a chance.
“Ok, that sounds great,” Ember said.
She could practically hear Zander smiling on the other end of the phone.
“Ok, fantastic. I will pick you up then at six.”
“Great,” Ember replied ending the call.
“OH MY GOD!” Liza giggled. “That was so cool!”
“Yeah, it was. I guess I feel stupid now,” Ember said.
“I told you so. I told you so…” Liza said in a sing song tone of voice.
“Yeah, I guess you did,” Ember replied. She already felt like she had a huge weight that just fell off her shoulders. It was weird but the entire day already seemed brighter than it did a few minutes ago. The idea that she was becoming a cliché from some romance song or old movie was becoming a depressing reality.
“So, what do you think he has planned?” Liza asked.
“I’m not sure, but knowing him he might pull out all the stops.”
“What does that even mean?” Liza asked.
“What?”
“Pulling out all the stops… The stops to what?”
Ember almost choked on the yogurt she’d just put in her mouth. Liza had this thing where she would randomly ask really odd questions completely out of nowhere.
“Anyway,” Ember continued. “I’m going to be an excited nervous wreck the rest of the day.”
“Why? You have the best guy in the world who just said that he really cares about you. To say I’m jealous would be the understatement of the century. You have to get him to h
ook me up with one of his rich billionaire friends.”
“Why Liza, I had no idea you were such a gold digger.”
“Hey, look who's talking!”
“I am not with Zander for his money. Truthfully, I think I would have fallen for him if he was a high school teacher or something. The fact that he has money is just an added bonus. But it’s not about the money; it’s about the security.”
Ember could hardly keep a straight face as she said that last line.
Both girls burst out laughing. It was true, kind of. Money was fun, but it was not the reason she was with Zander. It was his passion, his zest for life, the way he always had everything under control. A man like that just attracted success. Money was just a symbol of who he was and the kind of life he lived really. That was what had first drawn her to him and that was the fire that kept her coming back for more.
Ember decided that she didn’t care what other people thought about it.
“So, did you get paid from the auction yet?” Liza asked as they walked along the strip. They had toyed with the idea of doing some shopping, which was guaranteed to cure any sort of blues. Of course, now it would be used for celebratory purposes.
“Yes! My bank called me to make sure it wasn’t some kind of an error,” Ember said.
“Wow, that is sweet. So, I guess you won’t have any problem paying off your student loans for a while will you.”
“That’s a relief.”
“What are you going to buy?” Liza asked. She stopped in front of a clothing shop, smiled at Ember, and the two girls walked inside. The place sold beach themed clothing. Mostly Hawaiian shirts, cockle shell necklaces, cool hats, sunglasses, flops, etc.
Ember had never been inside it before. It must have been new.
Gunner (The Bad Disciples MC Book 1) Page 25