“I don’t see how they could. And why over the baking competition? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“You’re right. It doesn’t, which only makes this more volatile. We’re clearly not dealing with a stable person. Who could want you out of the competition?”
“Other contestants? Ashleigh?”
“What about your boss, Ciro? Do you think he would threaten you to keep you working for him?”
Ember’s dry laugh filled the room. “Ciro wouldn’t do that. He’s a busy, world-renowned baker. He doesn’t need me to run only one of his bakeries. There are thousands of people out there who could do the job.”
Kai nodded, but he wasn’t so sure. Ember had a natural talent. Maybe Ciro should be on his suspect list. He would get some of his staff to look up the baker, dig into his past. He already had them running extensive, if not entirely illegal, background checks on all the film crew and other contestants. What was one more?
If Ember insisted on putting her life on the line, Kai was going to have to double his efforts to make sure his mate was safe. Though why she couldn’t just walk away, he would never understand. He was getting gray hair just thinking about letting Ember leave the apartment now that she had received a second letter.
Tie her up. Do not let her leave. Do something.
Kai considered his lion’s suggestion. For a second, he even considered doing just that, tying Ember up to the bed or to a chair to make sure she couldn’t leave the safety of her house.
That wouldn’t go over well.
He might not have known his mate for very long, but she was a strong, stubborn woman who was likely to never speak to him again if he stood in the way of her dreams.
Damn it all to hell.
She was going to be the death of him, and all for some goddamn cupcakes.
Chapter Thirteen
Ember
The huge timer on the back wall was set at eight hours. For those four-hundred-eighty minutes, Ember was going to have to keep her fear and apprehension on lockdown and focus on the task at hand.
Winning.
The second letter she had discovered that morning had set her on edge. Kai’s reaction to it had done nothing to put her mind at ease. She was surprised the man had let her leave the house at all. For a second, she had really thought he would hold her captive in her own apartment.
It had passed, and he had walked her to his car.
If Kai had tried to stand between her and the competition, he would have had a serious shit storm heading his way. She would have broken up with him right then and there. She wasn’t a shifter. She didn’t care about this whole mate thing.
Well, that wasn’t strictly true.
She had to admit that she did feel a profound connection, an insane pull toward Kai. He was a sweet, attentive man when he wasn’t fucking the daylights out of her. Just looking at him made her insane with desire, but that didn’t mean she would be self-effacing and stop wanting to be her own person. Ember bit down on the inside of her cheek as she listened to the three celebrity bakers and judges explain the day’s challenge. Her focus was split between the competition and her new relationship with Kai.
Maybe, she thought, tightening her apron for the millionth time, if he wasn’t so intense, she would have been able to walk away from the competition. The Brady women all had a stubborn streak. It was just a fact of life for Ember, Sparx, and Cinder. But Kai was a shifter. He was part of a whole other world that he wanted to bring her into. And then what? Who would she be? What would she be? Just a mate?
Kai had explained the process and connection to her, but it was as foreign as an Italian cookbook. She recognized the numbers and measurements, but the ingredients were a mystery. Love and relationship, she could understand. But the way Kai felt about her, and the way she felt about him, was overwhelming at times. It made no sense, and his explanation, though clear, hadn’t been enough for her.
Love at first sight?
Soulmates?
That was fairytale stuff. Not real life. Kai believed in it because he was a man who was a lion sometimes. But Ember had always just been herself: a pastry chef.
If Kai wanted her to be part of the shifter world, if he wanted her to be his mate, then she would have to hold on tight to her identity and what made her—her. She wouldn’t just be his mate. Ember liked herself. She liked baking. She wasn’t going to give up her dreams just because a tall, sexy man walked into her life and told her that they were destined to be together.
If Kai wouldn’t support her, then there was no point in having him in her life. Boyfriends or partners weren’t supposed to sabotage your dreams.
Even if someone was out to destroy you.
Ember had to believe that.
After all, when her sister Sparx had a stalker, no one had pulled her off the set of The Town. She had kept on working as if nothing was wrong, and she was an actual famous person. Ember was a nobody, a baker with no real reputation and no fanbase. The letters might have been disturbing, but whoever was sending them wouldn’t actually hurt her.
That made about as much sense as a man turning into a lion.
Ember needed this. She needed to make a name for herself. She needed to be good and important at something. Her gift was baking, and she needed to make her mark on the world. Maybe it was because she had two famous siblings or maybe it was because she’d always been the shy, reserved Brady sister.
Cinder’s words rang out in her head. She’d told Ember that a good man added to his partner’s life, that her life couldn’t be built on her man’s world.
If she let Kai dictate how she behaved in this situation, then wasn’t she doing precisely what Cinder had warned her against? Even if Kai was the network’s head of security, he still saw her as his mate. His opinions and decisions on the matter were seriously skewed. Maybe they should consult with his father and brother, who were also security experts. They might have differing views on the topic, and maybe they would tell Kai to ease off with his me-man-me-make-decision-for-your-future attitude.
After all, the police had done nothing after the first letter was reported. That had to count for something. Their whole mandate was to serve and protect.
Ember was going to stand her ground for once in her life. She rolled her shoulders back, cracked her fingers, and held her breath until the judges shouted, go.
Immediately, the seconds started ticking away on the giant timer. Ember had eight hours to make one-hundred macarons in five different and original flavors. The judges wanted the presentation to be as edible as possible. It wasn’t impossible. It was completely doable if she just found the right ingredients for whatever original flavors she would pair together.
The first flavor that popped into her head was chocolate mint. That would be easy enough. She raced to the large pantry, grabbed the cocoa container, peppermint extract, and a few leaves of fresh mint. Loaded down by her ingredients, another idea flashed in her head. Chocolate orange. And just like that, Ember had the theme for her challenge. She would do all chocolate-based macaroons with different accents — mint, orange, marshmallow, coconut, and caramel. A similar base would allow her to make tiny little chocolate plates to sit the macarons on.
It was going to be brilliant.
She quickly grabbed the rest of the ingredients and ran back to her work station. Quickly, she mixed in the almond flour with cocoa powder to create the base batter for all five kinds of macarons. Meanwhile, she started melting nearly one pound of chocolate to make the edible plates. Ember was a flurry of activity.