Betrayed (24 page)
Authors: Kelly Harper
Subject: Business School Application
Ms. Ellis,
I hope you’ve had a great winter break and I hope you’re looking forward to returning to school in the coming days. The review committee received your early submission, and I wanted to be the first to congratulate you. You’ve been invited by the college to a final interview. Please give me a call first thing next week and we’ll schedule a time.
Best Regards,
Charlotte
(520) 555-4228
I sat in shocked silence as I finished reading it.
“What is it?” Ethan asked.
“It’s my advisor,” I said. “She wanted to congratulate me on being invited to a final admission interview. I’m supposed to call her next week and schedule an appointment.”
“That’s great,” he said, throwing his arms around me in a tight bear hug. “Congratulations, Kayla. I told you you had nothing to worry about.” He threw his arms around me again and squeezed me tight. Then he pulled away and I looked deep into his eyes.
“It’s all because of you,” I said. “Without your help on the business plan, I never would have finished it.”
He grinned. “Don’t be ridiculous. You would have come up with something.”
I reached up and pulled his head down to me. Our lips collided into one another, and our tongues began their familiar dance. It felt like the most natural thing in the world. I couldn’t remember what it was like to not have Ethan in my life. I didn’t know how I had ever managed those weeks we had spent apart.
But I never had to worry about that again. We were in it for the long haul, for better or worse.
“I think it’s time for your first business lesson,” he said after we pulled ourselves apart.
“Oh yeah?” I said. “And what lesson might that be?”
“Have you ever heard the word ‘synergy’?” he asked.
I frowned. “It sounds familiar,” I said, shaking my head.
“Synergy is a phenomenon that occurs in the world. All good business leaders use it to build their empires. Without it, we’d still be living in the dark ages with rampant war, famine, and plague…”
His eyes went distant; it was a look with which I was familiar. Ethan was dangerously close to going off on one of his tangents - a nasty side effect of putting on the professor cap.
“Sounds great,” I said, cutting him off. “So what is it?”
He grinned, and his cheeks blushed red.
“Right,” he said. “Synergy is when the sum of the whole is greater than the individual parts. It’s when one plus one equals three, or five, or ten, even. It’s when people come together and accomplish something more fantastic than they ever could have done on their own. It’s how we send rockets to the moon, or discover the cure for small pox.” He smiled down at me; a warm smile. “It’s what makes the world go round.”
I laughed. “You sound pretty excited about all of this.”
He grinned at me again. “It’s just that I had a realization just now.”
My eyes squinted together as I quirked my head to the side. “What do you mean?” I asked.
“You and me,” he said. “We complement each other in so many ways. Just like I helped you with your business plan - you helped me on my research proposal.”
“That was nothing,” I said. “You were in a tight spot and I was around to help.”
He shook his head. “Not anyone could have helped; just you.” He looked at me long and hard, and I realized that there was something more he wanted to tell me. His heart was pounding through his chest. “You’re not the only one that got an email today,” he said.
“What are you saying?” I asked.
“You remember that guy from the New Year’s party?” he asked.
I nodded. “Jerry Sandberg?”
Ethan nodded. “He sent me an email this morning. The committee received my proposal and they’re very excited about it. He said I should expect to hear from him within a couple weeks to discuss the next steps.”
“That’s so great,” I said. “Congratulations.”
I reached up and kissed him again.
“I couldn’t have done it without you,” he said.
I bit my lip. “We couldn’t have done it without each other.”
His eyes burned bright and fierce. Flames burned ins his eyes. I knew, in that instant, they would never burn out.
“I love you,” he said.
My chest tightened, and my stomach fluttered. I felt exposed; like he could see right through me. But I wasn’t afraid. I wasn’t worried. It felt right. It felt like home.
“I love you, too,” I said.
The End
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kelly Harper is a lover of the written word - especially the sexy ones. She spends most of her free time fantasizing over her laptop, and pecking out all of the steamy images going through her head. Go hang out and leave a message on
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Books by Kelly Harper
Sinful Nights (Calvin Black Series #1)
Sexual Negotiations (Calvin Black Series #2)
Calvin Unleashed (Calvin Black Series #3)
Calvin’s Control (Calvin Black Series #4)
Frisked 2 (Frisked & Fucked #2)
Frisked 3 (Frisked & Fucked #3)
Frisked 4 (Frisked & Fucked #4)
The Wild One (Spring Break Sluts #1)
Betrayed
