"I'm doing the thing I promised to do—stand for integrity and defend those who need it. That’s what an honorable man does, Mr. Reed. That's what the Lightkeeper would do. So unless you intend to strip me of the title, I think we've said enough today." I hung up and set my phone on my desk with shaking hands, then leaned back in my chair, still reeling.
I didn't understand how a few men's opinions about Ember's age could make the entire committee doubt me and my character.
Besides, what I did behind closed doors was none of their business.
Ember was a consenting adult and it wasn't like we were flaunting things in public.
Heck, I didn't even know if anything would come of this or if it was just a fling.
It didn’t matter to me.
It felt like they were just saying that if a man my age dated a woman her age, there was something ethically wrong with it.
And even though the disparity was great, I wasn't ashamed of it.
"Dr. Bradley?" I heard, and I looked up to see Ember hovering in the doorway with her tablet in hand.
She looked well put together, though I was sure she'd heard some of the same whispers or seen the same gossip on her social media that I'd seen.
"Yeah, come in," I said, gesturing for her to enter.
She pushed the door shut, but it didn’t click into place, and then she walked around to my side of the desk and set her tablet down, leaning over my shoulder.
"I wanted your opinion on this." Her manicured fingernail pointed at the screen where a discrepancy in my calendar showed overlapping meetings with board trustees and department chairs. "I think one of these needs to be moved."
I wanted to focus.
I swear.
I tried so hard, but having her close to me made it impossible.
I was a nervous wreck after that call, hands shaking, breathing still constricted, but I breathed her in and it was like every ounce of tension melted in her presence.
I turned to look up at her but got an eyeful of cleavage and a lungful of her perfume and when our eyes met, she blushed.
"God, you're beautiful," I breathed, as every single thought about how much I wanted to protect and shelter her came flooding back.
"Nate," she said shyly. "We're at work."
I opened my mouth to reply but the door swung open again.
I looked over to see Laura Mitchell, head of HR, standing there with her jaw hanging slack and her eyes high and wide.
She cleared her throat as her face shifted to a guilty grin and said, "Sorry, was I interrupting?"
"Knock, Laura," I grumbled, and she smirked as she looked up at Ember, who was now standing, twisting her hands together.
"Sorry, sir. Just stopping in to talk to you about your new assistant. Wondered how it's going… I can come back later." She backed through the door and shut it, but the look on her face said the damage was done.
As if it wasn't bad enough that everyone was already talking about things they had no business even thinking.
Laura Mitchell would make sure everyone knew that I was looking down Ember's shirt and standing a bit too close to her.
Christ, I felt like things were going to blow up out of control, and I was powerless to stop it.
It made me regret ever saying yes to the Lightkeeper duties.
But it didn't make me regret Ember.
