by Mia Ashlinn
When it didn’t, she theatrically threw her hands up and screamed,
“What are you waiting for? Come and get me.” 66
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Chapter 7
Present day…
“Caedon, this isn’t about forgiveness,” Ella said. “I forgave you a long time ago. And neither is it about how I feel about you. I love you, and I will always love you, but we can’t do this to each other again. We just can’t be together. It won’t work.” Without uttering another word, Ella spun on her heel and walked out of her office, leaving the men behind. She strode through the store and then out the front door before continuing on the path to where she’d parked on the street earlier. She didn’t stop—until she got to her car and realized that she’d forgotten something essential.
In reality, she’d forgotten several important things like her keys and her wallet. But that had nothing on the fact that she’d left behind her heart and her soul—again. And she wasn’t about to go back in there and try to get either of them. Or anything else she needed.
Looks like I’ll be walking home tonight. She sighed and started to do just that.
* * * *
Oh hell no you don’t, Ella Embry Dawson.
By the time Ella had made it through the door leading to The G
Spot’s showroom, Micah was on his way after her. She wouldn’t get far—because he wouldn’t let her. If he allowed her the freedom to run this time, he would lose his chance to tell her how much he loved and Three Rings and a Rose
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wanted her. He would forsake the opportunity to share his big secret with her.
Unlike earlier, he no longer had a choice about it. When he’d tried to tell her before Caedon had showed his handsome face, he’d chosen it willingly. Even with her stubborn, overprotective sisters on his ass, he had wanted to finally confess everything. Now it wasn’t an option.
It was a necessity. He had to do it.
With Caedon back, Micah had only one shot at winning her over.
And it had to be right now. He had to lay his heart and pride on the line. He had to tell her the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Otherwise, she would choose Caedon by default, and he would lose her forever. That was something he couldn’t and wouldn’t contemplate. It was one thing if she didn’t love him or want him. But it was completely another to not even try to win her hand with his undying love and unconditional commitment.
“Ella,” Micah shouted as he shot through the store then out the door behind her with the speed of a bullet. “Get your ass back here.
Now!”
Did she listen? No. She kept moving. Only he wasn’t sure if it was that she hadn’t heard him or if she was just disregarding his command. It didn’t matter either way. He had to either get to her or get her back to him.
Since demanding her return had not worked for him, he decided to chase her. Picking up his speed, he sprinted toward Ella who had stopped by her car but didn’t get inside. Instead, she pivoted and started heading in the direction of their apartment.
When he saw where she was going, the truth dawned on him. She had left everything inside the store—her keys, her wallet, and even her purse. Thank God. Relief coursed through his veins, and he slowed to a jog. But he kept following her and quickly gained on her.
“Ella Embry,” he called out again. “Stop right there.” Like earlier, she ignored him. However, this time, she faltered midstep, and he knew she was purely pretending to not hear him.
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Shaking his head, Micah took those last few steps separating them. He jumped in front of her, coming face to face with her. Their gazes locked, and she attempted to step around him. But he wouldn’t allow that.
Grabbing her around the waist, he pulled her lush body against his. Surprisingly, she didn’t fight him. Instead, she sagged and snuggled into his embrace with a soft mewl of pleasure. “Thank you, Micah. I needed a hug from you.”
Are you fucking kidding me? “You think I’m holding you to make you feel better?” Okay maybe a little but not a lot.
Ella frowned. “Well, yeah. I figured that you followed me out here because you knew that I would be upset. Am I wrong?”
“Yes.”
Her eyebrows shot up, and her lips turned down. She looked delightfully disconcerted in the cutest way. Instantly, he felt bad for even thinking about how adorable she looked. He shouldn’t find her disbelieving expression to be sweet, not with the gravity of the moment. Hell, she’d kick him in the balls if she had a clue what he was thinking.
“Then why?” she asked before lowering her voice to a mere whisper. “It isn’t like you want to hold me, not the way that I want you to.”
Aha! He had no doubt that she’d thought he couldn’t hear her.
Well, she was wrong. He’d heard her. He’d heard what he’d always hoped—she wanted him. Even if she wasn’t head-over-heels in love with him, he could work with lust. He could build on that. He would.
If she’ll give me the chance—once she knows the truth.
“Micah?” she asked hesitantly. “What’s wrong with you?” As soon as she spoke, he realized that he’d gone silent, and she was apparently worried about him. Well you can worry no more, my sweet snowflake.
“Nothing is wrong with me,” he told Ella then cradled her head in his hand. The soft wisps of her hair tickled his palm, and he couldn’t Three Rings and a Rose
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stop a happy smile from forming on his face. “There’s not a damn thing wrong with me right now. You’re in my arms, and that’s what I need. I need you.”
Ella gasped but seemed to settle down immediately. “I need you too, Micah.”
It’s time. Micah took a breath in hopes of calming the nerves in the pit of his stomach. He’d always heard of butterflies fluttering inside of a man in love. Now he could confirm it. They were there, and they were as annoying as hell. But he could deal with them if it meant he could have Ella for all time.
“Ella Dawson, I love you,” he murmured.
“And I love you, too,” she replied without pause, obviously still missing the heavy meaning behind his words. She pulled back enough to see his face. A thoughtful expression appeared on her face, and she seemed to contemplate everything about him—his actions, his words.
She seemed to be observing it all.
Micah smiled down at her broadly, allowing the love he felt for her to shine through his entire body. “No, Ella. I love you. I have always loved you. I will always love you.” Releasing her waist, he cupped her face then brushed his lips across her furrowed brow. “I’m not gay. I’m bisexual. And you’re the woman I love, the woman I want to be with.”
Clearing his throat, Micah reminded himself that his Ella was a demonstrative thing. She would want to hear that words that made him squeamish. He wasn’t saying anything he didn’t feel, but he felt awkward and girly by sharing his innermost feelings for the woman in front of him.
“You’re what?” she screeched as she stomped on one of his sneakers with her red fuck-me platforms. He cursed viciously from the sharp pain of the spike stabbing through the fabric of his shoe and connecting with the top of his foot.
Ella jerked away from Micah, nearly stumbling as she side-stepped him, before she caught herself. She teetered and tottered on 70
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the sky-high heels she insisted on wearing. Reaching out, he helped steady her but she swiftly stepped further away from him. “You’re not gay?”
Micah shook his head. “No. I’m not.”
Ella ran a noticeably trembling hand through her wavy brown locks. “Then why? Why did you not tell me? Why did you lie?” He’d known those questions were coming. He’d expected them all, but they still caused his heart to accelerate, and he paused because he didn’t know what to say or how to explain it. Even after years of practicing and planning what he’d say when he got the chance to tell her, he still found his tongue stuck
to the roof of his mouth.
Eventually he found a way to move past his fears and insecurities.
Willing himself to speak, he sighed and said, “I didn’t lie to you, Ella.
I would never do that. You know better.” Pausing, he waited for her to agree. But she didn’t. Instead, she nodded. So he continued on with his explanation. “When we moved in together four years ago, I needed a place to stay. I had just lost my roommate, and you were the perfect solution for me. As I’m sure you remember, we’d known each other for a couple of months by then. I knew that I liked you as a person, and I figured that you would make the perfect roommate for me. Since I was dating Jon at the time, it didn’t cross my mind that I would fall in love with you.” Micah smiled sheepishly. “I guess I didn’t really know you that well.”
Ella’s frown deepened but she stayed quiet.
“Anyway,” he said. “I didn’t realize that you were under the mistaken impression that I was gay until late one night after I’d moved in. You told me that you loved the idea that you might be my gay girlfriend one day. You even asked me whether or not you would need to apply for the job.” He chuckled, remembering that odd night.
“You were drunk, and I have to say it was adorable.”
“So? Why didn’t you correct me?”
“Do you actually remember that night?”
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She glowered at him, and he knew that she didn’t have any recollections of that night, but she gave no other response to his probing question. Instead, she clamped her jaw shut and said nothing at all.
“Fine,” he said, “I’ll fill you in on the rest then you’ll know exactly why I didn’t tell you that night.”
“Fine.” She crossed her arms in overt irritation. The movement drew his attention to her beautiful, bountiful breasts, and he had to recite multiplication tables to calm his suddenly raging libido.
When he finally got his body back under control, he said, “I tried to correct you, Ella. Really, I did.” And he had. It just hadn’t worked.
“But you told me that you didn’t want me to fall in love with you.
You said that you didn’t want to live with a man who would be attracted to you or want to spend his life with you. You felt strongly about us not having any sort of romantic relationship.” Shuffling his feet back and forth, he stared over her shoulder. He feigned interest in an empty, old building where Katie-Anne Jacobs used to run her jewelry store before it had been vandalized. “At the time, I needed a place to stay, and I figured that I wouldn’t live with you for more than a few months or maybe a year. I loved Jon. You and I were just friends. So it was easier to let it go.” He cleared a nonexistent speck of dust from his throat. “After that, I didn’t know how to tell you. Jon and I broke up. I fell in love with you, and I was…” He knew exactly what he was. He knew what he wanted to say, but, for some reason, the words stuck in his throat.
“Scared?” she asked, obviously filling in the blank for him with the exact word he’d been thinking.
With a jerky nod, he admitted, “Petrified. I didn’t want to lose you, Ella.”
“You wouldn’t have lost me,” she replied in a clear voice. The naked truth lay bare in her vulnerable tone and her moist eyes.
Averting her gaze, a blush started in her neck and crept up into her face. “I loved you when I asked you to move in.” 72
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It was his turn to screech, “What?”
“I–I–I,” she stammered. “I already loved you, and I wanted to be with you. But since you were gay, I figured it was better to be your friend than to not have you at all. That’s why I asked you to move in with me. I wanted to be with you.”
Oh, my God. Speechless, he just stood there like a bump on a log.
However, she didn’t. She spun around and gave him her back. “If you’re bi, why haven’t you dated any women?” He knew the answer to that one without a doubt in his mind or a reservation in his soul. So he answered her with an honesty that should have appalled him but somehow didn’t. “Because they weren’t you, Ella.”
She gasped. “Please don’t say that.”
“But you love me,” he replied simply. “And I love you.”
“I know, but this is about more than me and you,” she murmured, the tears making themselves known in her husky voice as she stepped away from him. “I’ve dreamed of this moment, of you telling me those words, Micah. Every day for as long as I’ve known you, but I c–
c–can’t do this right now. You and Caedon are confusing me. I just…I need to go home and think and be alone for a little while.” Hearing her voice crack and watching her leave, panic settled in his arteries. The ice-cold feeling was too much for his chest to take, and he lost his breath momentarily. “Ella,” he finally managed to say.
“Please don’t go.”
Ella didn’t stop. She continued to walk, drifting further and further away from him. With each step she took, his heart throbbed for her. And he was willing to beg her to stay with him yet he didn’t.
He knew it wouldn’t work. For whatever reason, she was going to go, and there was nothing he could do, nothing he could say that would change that fact.
As she left him in the middle of the street by himself, she said over her shoulder, “I have to. I need to…process all of this.” Then she added, “I’ll see you sometime.”
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Micah opened his mouth to respond but immediately stopped when a woodsy cologne drifted under his nose. A mere second later a giant hand touched his shoulder, and he jerked away knowingly.
Fuck. Caedon.
* * * *
A piece of Caedon’s heart broke when Micah pulled away from him abruptly, the harsh movement saying more than words ever could. Micah didn’t want him anymore. And it wasn’t just his love or lust he was rejecting. It was his friendship, too.
Overlooking his personal pain, Caedon told Micah, “Let her go.
She needs time.” The sound of his voice echoed off the buildings in the now-desolate street, and he cringed. This was a personal matter, not one he wanted to be heard in a public place.
With his career choice, Caedon always considered the possibility of paparazzi hiding in some nook or cranny while snapping pictures and recording his words. Scanning the area, he glanced down the street then switched his attention to the upper part. He checked the buildings surrounding them and peeked at the few alleyways nearby.
But he thankfully saw nothing and no one. They were alone .
Whirling around, Micah charged at Caedon, his bloodthirsty expression nearly knocking him over. “Don’t tell me what to do. I’ve been here. You haven’t. And hell, you’re the one who came here today of all days and fucked everything up—again. I was going to tell her. I was going to break it to her gently. But you took that away from me. I had to win her over before you did. So now I bungled it all to hell and back.”
Another chink fell from Caedon’s heart. This wasn’t a mad Micah in front of him. He was a hurt one. And Caedon hated to see him like that. Whether or not he loved Micah—which he could certify that he did—Caedon always felt uncomfortable when he saw the cracks in Micah. The strong self-assurance he carried around was one of the 74
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things that Caedon respected most. To see him in any other light was excruciating.
“Micah, I was trying to help you”—halting, Caedon pointed at Ella, who’d made it to the end of the street and had just turned the corner—“and her.”
“I’m sure you were,” Micah muttered in a sardonic tone that would have normally pissed Caedon off. If he weren’t so damn worried about him, he’d have probably lit into him. “Fucking over the opposition gives you what you want—in this case, Ella.” Micah didn’t give Caedon a chance to respond before he stalked through the night. He walked toward The G Spot with long, deliberate strides.
Following behind Micah, Caedon
snorted. “Do you really think I’m going to get the girl now? She won’t have me. She wouldn’t have me before. Even if I hadn’t messed up, she wouldn’t have ever been mine—not completely.”
Micah didn’t pause, but he did shake his head in obvious confusion. “Then why are you here?” he asked as he came to a halt in front of the door to The G Spot. Retrieving keys from his pocket, Micah locked up Ella’s store without going back inside and turning off the lights, grabbing her belongings, or anything else.
“Hell if I know,” Caedon replied with a shrug. “I guess I wanted to see if I could work everything out with Ella. I wanted to see if you and I could be”—he hesitated, unsure of what to say—”friends again.
But it’s obvious to me that isn’t the case. She doesn’t want me because of you, and you hate me.”
“So that’s it?” Micah asked as he whirled to face Caedon. His gorgeous face changed before Caedon’s very eyes, the angry expression he’d been wearing earlier disappeared, and a thunderous one replaced it. “You’re just going to leave again? You came here and upset Ella. You screwed everything up for me. Now you’re going to hightail your ass out of here. I don’t think so, asshole. I won’t let you go anywhere, goddamn it. Not this time.”
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Micah’s eyes widened as though he hadn’t meant to say what he’d just said. But it was too late. Caedon had heard him—loud and clear.
Mr. Blunt appeared to have spoken before thinking, and Caedon now knew that he didn’t want him to leave.
Thank God. Caedon breathed a tiny sigh of relief then informed Micah, “I didn’t say that either. I’m not going anywhere, jackass . Just because you two are on a different page than I am doesn’t mean I can’t turn it for you.”
A small smile appeared on Micah’s sexy lips before he extinguished it, his expression hardening again. Only it was fake.