Grayson
“Michael here wanted a tour of the company, as well as a presentation, and since he was so gracious, I thought I would give him the opportunity.” Emmalin gave a half smile as she still stood near the door. She cleared her throat.
“Mr. Mandrake, do I need to be present for your presentation?” Before I could speak, Carson did.
“Ms. Ross, I would love it if you would stay. The more the merrier, right?” He looked at me and smiled. I looked at Emmalin who seemed to be fidgeting. Michael stood up and pulled out the chair next to him. Guest or no guest, no fucking way. Edith and Kevin took that moment to walk in. I watched as Emmalin walked around the table to the seat next to me. I gave her hand a squeeze under the table. She shot me a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. In fact, she looked completely different.
“Mr. Leaks, can we get you anything before we start?” Edith stood in front of the room, ready to begin, with her usual annoying, bouncy self. A few minutes into the presentation, I looked over to Carson and noticed he wasn’t even looking up front. He wasn’t looking up front at all, nor did he seem to have any interest as to what was going on. He was staring at Emmalin with a slight grin on his face. I looked at Emmalin, and her eyes were cast down. She was gently rocking herself back and forth and silently whispering something. I suddenly stood up.
“Everyone out!”
Edith stopped talking. “Mr. Mandrake?”
“I said, everyone out! Now! Edith, have Chace finish with Mr. Leaks.” As everyone filed out, I slowly turned Emmalin’s chair toward me. Her eyes were closed. Tears were falling. She was gripping the sides of the chair so tight her knuckles were white. I gently laid my hands on top of hers, kneading them.
“Emmalin. Baby, look at me. Listen to my voice, okay?” She wasn’t moving. Fuck. I cupped the sides of her face, wiping away her tears. “Emmalin, I’m here. It’s just me. Only me. Follow my voice. You and me, remember? Stay with me, baby.” Her eyes started to flicker. I slowly smiled. “That’s it. It’s just me. Focus on me. Look at me, baby.” Her eyes fully opened as her breathing started to calm. I ran my hands down her arms to the death grip she still held on the arms of the chair. Suddenly her head snapped right, in the direction of the chair across the room. She then looked around, seeing that no one else was in the room. She looked back at me. “What happened?” I studied her closely.
“You had another panic attack,” I whispered.
She looked down at her hands still gripped tight and loosened them. “I’m…I’m sorry, Grayson.” I shook my head and walked over and grabbed a bottle of water off the tray.
“This is the second time this week, Emmalin. You went from once a month, maybe, to two this week alone.” I slammed the water bottle down harder than I anticipated and she jumped. She slowly stood up.
“I’m fine. Maybe I just need more sleep.” I slammed both hands down on the table, creating a loud boom. I walked over to her, grabbing her by the shoulders. “You had the same frightened look in your eyes from the last time. I think it’s about time you stopped lying to me.”
“You’re hurting me.” I let go of her and took a step back. “Emmalin, you need to talk to me. We said no lies, remember?
She smirked before rolling her eyes. “Yeah, I remember. Took a lot to get that out of you, didn’t it, Grayson? Took me finding out you bought my apartment complex for you to finally agree to the whole no lying thing, and that was only because I found out.” I shut my eyes, remembering that day. We were still at Caliscades.
“What is this?”
I looked down at the paper Emmalin just threw on my lap. Fuck. I sighed, looking up at her. Her arms were crossed and pure rage was blatant on her face. I’ll be damned, but my dick got hard. I cleared my throat. “Well, it’s something you clearly weren’t supposed to see.” She stared at me a moment longer before walking out of the room and heading up the stairs. I followed after her. “What are you doing?”
“I’m not doing this with you right now. You said you would change, but you clearly haven’t.” She began taking stuff out of the drawers.
I went on alert. “Emmalin, stop. This was before all of that.”
She faced me, arms crossed. “So what, Grayson, that makes it all better? When did you buy my apartment?”
I took a deep breath. Might as well jump in the fire. I held out my hand. “Can you sit with me?”’
“Grayson, just tell me.”
“Emmalin, please. Just sit with me.” She sighed before placing her hand in mine, and I led her to the bed. I was quiet for a minute. “Remember when you declined my first offer to move in with me, after our game of pool?” She slowly nodded. “That morning.” Her eyes grew wide as she covered her mouth with her free hand. “Why would you do that?”
“Emmalin, you know how I felt about that place. How unsafe it was.” She tried removing her hand from mine but I held on tighter. “Emmalin, look at me. It’s still yours.”
“Grayson, you don’t get it. That place was mine. It was all I had. By you buying it, you took the one thing I had. Because you had to stake your claim. You had to stake your ownership. You can’t just decide something is yours by pissing all over it, Grayson. That’s what you did. You pissed all over what was mine and took it.” She stood up and headed back to the dresser.
“I’m sorry.”
She continued to pack, not saying anything. “Are you leaving me?”
She finally stopped and looked up at me. “No.” She barely got the word out, and I walked over to her pulling her into me tightly.
“I love you, Emmalin.”
“I love you too, Grayson,” she whispered back. “I’m not leaving you, but I think a night or two apart would be good for us. I think we need it.” That was the last fucking thing I wanted. I sighed. “This isn’t up for discussion, Mandrake.” I took a step back to prevent myself from saying anything as I finished watching her pack a small bag. So, like the dumbass I was, I shouted out the only thing I could to prevent her from leaving, even if only for a day or two.
“Marry me.”
She paused. I held my breath, as she slowly turned toward me. “What did you say?”
I stepped toward her. “Marry me?”
She narrowed her eyes, and slowly walked the rest of the way toward me. “Are you kidding me? You’re using a marriage proposal to get me to stay, because I said a little time apart would do us some good? Did you even listen to anything I just said, Grayson?”
“Making you my wife was always in the cards, Emmalin. You just had to say yes.”
She looked down at her hands. “This isn’t the time to talk about this, when we’re both feeling out of sorts right now.” She zipped up her bag, and headed downstairs.
“I asked Alistair to take me to the apartment. I’ll see you in a few days.” She closed the door, and I refrained from punching the wall.
She said a few days. I waited. But it wasn’t a few days. It turned into two weeks. Two fucking weeks. If she was trying to teach me a lesson, she was definitely mastering it. By then, I had already gotten rid of Caliscades and was ready to show her the new place. She just hadn’t come home yet.
She had just come in to tell me goodnight like she did every night before she left the office, and I finally had it. I locked the office door the moment she walked in. She gave me a questioning look at the sound of the click. I stalked toward her, ready for a fight.
“You said a few days. It’s been a little over two weeks. Two weeks! How much longer?” I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. “I can wait. However long you need me to. I can. I miss you. I don’t see enough of you, and quite frankly this is bullshit. But, like I said, I can wait.” She looked at me, trying to suppress a smile. I narrowed my eyes at her. “This isn’t funny, Emmalin.”
“I don’t like what you did. I don’t need you doing shit like that anymore; do you understand? I don’t need that from you. I can take care of myself without you swooping in just because you can. No more lying to me, or hiding things from me, because if you do it again, I will leave. Do you understand? I will leave, and you’re not going to stop me.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. I’m totally stopping her.
“Words, Grayson. I need the words.”
I stepped forward getting into her space. “I understand.”
“Good. Now take me home, Grayson.”
“That was different, Emmalin, we’re talking about now, and you know it. I haven’t lied about anything. I’ve kept my promise. But I’m beginning to wonder about you.” Her head shot up at my accusation, and she quickly diverted her eyes. “Grayson, I’m handling it. That’s all I need for you to know right now.”
I shook my head. “That’s not good enough.” I reached for her. “Come on. I’m taking you home, and don’t start with me.” She rolled her eyes and started for the door. “I’m not fragile, Grayson.”
“I know you’re not. I’m just concerned.”