“Just sign here, here and here”, said a man in a grey suit to Grace. Grace signed all the paperwork as instructed by the man. “Congratulations, you are now the owner of a new Apartment waterfront apartment over by Bluey Beach. I hope you will be happy there as it is not crowded, has great Ocean views and also is not far from the Central Business District”. Grace was so elated to finally have her own apartment in Straco City. It was becoming very cumbersome living out of a hotel as she was missing having her own kitchen. She couldn’t wait to video call her parents and show them the apartment.
It will take about 6 weeks to process and then once all money due is paid, it will all be legally yours. The Land Title can be forwarded to you in the mail at that point but I like to personally to deliver it to my clients with a bottle of champagne we can celebrate with. Grace lived in a motel for 1 week when she moved into town, after that she moved into a small 3 star hotel in the City knowing it would only be until she purchased her own apartment. “Thank you Mr Ford, I so look forward to moving into my apartment and you can send me the Land Title by priority mail. There is no need to trouble yourself.” Mr Ford was not one to give up, “Perhaps I can take you out to celebrate your purchase, how about dinner tonight, my treat of course? There is a fancy new Steak restaurant in town that is usually hard to get into but I have my connections and can get us in tonight”, he suggested as he checked her out from top to bottom with his beady eyes and salivating mouth. Mr Ford was a burly, short 60-year-old, bald man that enjoyed the company of beautiful girls. He would often pay escorts to service him and he was salivating at Grace’s beautiful figure and bust. Grace had come across men like Mr Ford before. They were bad news and she saw no reason in staying there any longer. “No thank you Mr Ford, I already have plans with some friends. I really must get going as I have a lot of things to do today”, she answered just as she picked up her stuff and walked towards the door. ‘Ew, what a creep’, she thought to herself.
Just as she had opened the door, Mr Ford grabbed her, pushed her body against the door wall which was directly next to the door. His sweaty body was coming close to her as he held her in place and stared at her with his big beady eyes and salivating mouth. As his lips were getting closer to hers, she could sense his breathing speeding up. At once, she twisted her body to release herself from his sweaty hands, then used her fist to give him an upper cut under his chin, and used the power in her right leg to kick him which had his body landing outside of the office onto the footpath. Grace walked up to him as he was groaning in pain. “That will teach you to keep your dirty and disgusting roaming hands and body to yourself!”, she shouted at Mr Ford and then started to walk away as she shook her head in disbelief.
At that moment, Carter and Tyra whom had taken the opportunity to go out for lunch together and happen to see Mr Ford’s body flying out of his office onto the footpath hurriedly walked over to her. “Are you ok?” Tyra asked as they followed Grace as she was walking back to her hotel. “What happened there?” asked Carter. Grace had recognised these two people being that annoying Mr Sebastian Gibson’s friends from ‘the Shore Café’. Even though she though that Sebastian was annoying, these two people had been quite polite in the little interactions she had with them at the café. Grace smiled at them, “I just signed the paperwork for my new apartment”. Shen then turned and pointed at Mr Ford and continued, “As I did not accept a dinner invitation extended to me by him, this grub took it upon himself to get his grubby hands, smelly body and disgusting lips onto me, so I taught him a lesson”, she answered. “You certainly did just that”, Carter responded with a huge grin. ‘This girl is really something. I wonder if Sebastian or Sean could handle her’, he thought to himself. ‘I think she’d be too wild for Sean, maybe she’d be better suited to Sebastian. Hmm, actually she could help Sean lighten up a bit after not having a girlfriend for 5 years, so maybe she’d suit Sean’.
Tyra interrupted Carter’s thoughts by introducing both her and Carter to Grace. “I’m Tyra and this is my boyfriend, Carter. We’ve seen you at ‘The Shore Café’ a few times, it’s really nice to meet you”, she added. Both Tyra and Carter shook hands with her. “I’m delighted to meet you both, although I’m sorry you had to witness what I did in the café a few days ago to that annoying pervert and then again today”, she shyly told them. Grace was not one that commanded attention but somehow things that happened meant that she inadvertently made herself the centre of attention. “Don’t sweat it, I think they both dearly deserved it. You have some power in those fists and legs of yours”, he commented. “Yes, I’ve had a lot of training, mostly by my grandfather as I grew up. He always told me that I would always put his training to good use and I can say that it has come in handy on many occasions”, she responded to him. Although she was born in Australia, her family was from Sicily. Her dad was one of three children and not long after he got married, he decided to break away from the family business and start a new life in Australia. Every year, her family would spend 2-3 months in Sicily with the family and that was where Grace was taught from a young age self-defence by her grandfather as well as her grandmother teaching her about natural medicine. If it weren’t for her grandfather’s teaching from such a young age, she would not have been able to defend herself against the man she ran away from in Australia all those years ago.
“I’m new in Town. I’ve been very busy apartment hunting and moving my business from Boston to Straco City, looking for new office space, recruiting new employees, working on one of my biggest projects and just trying to ground myself into this new city. I’ve not had much time to meet many people or even explore the city too much. I go to that Café for breakfast every Monday after my morning run on the beach. The Café has a nice view which I enjoy with some breakfast as I go through any urgent emails for the day”, she told them. “Wow, I thought I was busy, but you really have been busy”, responded Tyra to what Grace just told them. Hearing that Grace had been looking for an office space for her company, Carter had a thought. “I can help you with your company office lease if you like. I have a few contacts that can accommodate whatever your needs are”, Carter told her. In actual fact, even though Sean and he both had a number of office buildings, he didn’t have any space available but he knew that Sean had recently acquired a new 12 storey office building that he was slowly getting occupied with tenants, so he may have some space available. “Actually, I’m already sorted, I signed a new lease yesterday for an entire floor over in Collins St. We are starting our move this Friday, so wish me luck. It is fully furnished, so the move won’t be too difficult” she said to Carter.
“Do you have time for a quick coffee with us”, Tyra asked Grace. “Apologies, but I’m going to have to take a raincheck on that. I’m on my way to meet my assistant so that she can organise the logistics of our move and go through the resumes with her that I have shortlisted for interviews. I’ll tell you what Tyra, here’s my mobile number, maybe we can organise a coffee date after 2 weeks. By then, I am hoping the move and interviews would have been completed”, she told them. “Let us know if you need any help with any of that, we are of course familiar with Straco City and have many contacts. I guess we’ll see you at Shore Café next Monday”, said Carter. Grace shook her head, “Unfortunately not, as I’ll be working in Boston Monday to Wednesday for the next 2 weeks, wrapping things up there, moving the few staff that I will retain there to a smaller office. Can’t wait for it to be all over to be honest”. With that they bade her farewell and Grace walked away in a hurry.
As they watched Grace walk away, Tyra looked at Carter and said, “I think she’d be good for Sean or even Sebastian, but I’ve seen Sean quietly stealing glances at her at ‘Shore Café’. We just need to figure out if she already has a boyfriend and my senses tell me she does seem a little nervous around Sean as does he around her, so maybe there is some sort of attraction on both sides. I’ll organise a coffee with just her and I in a few weeks.” Carter grabbed Tyra, hugged her, gave her a lingering kiss on the lips. He loved her dearly and knew how lucky he was to have met such a beautiful, capable and caring woman to be part of his life. He only wished his two best friends could meet someone just like Tyra. It wasn’t as if there weren’t a steady stream of girls throwing themselves at Sean and Sebastian but most of them were gold diggers or just women that were very entitled due to money from their families. What he liked about Tyra was that she was honest, incredibly beautiful, worked hard and didn’t care about his money or status. It was a refreshing change from the women that chased him because of his status and wealth.
(Two weeks later)Carter, Sean and Sebastian met up for some dinner and drinks at the ‘Oxford Club’. They tried to meet every few weeks. They occasionally discussed a bit of business but it was mostly just to catch up with each other about the what was going on their individual lives. They grew up together and these three friends were just like brothers. They always had each other’s backs whether it be in their personal lives, or in business. They were as tight as brothers could be. They had their own private room, so they could discuss whatever they liked and it stopped the girls always eyeing and approaching these three handsome men and bothering them. These three men were a great catch and were never short of admirers. Everywhere they went girls admired them and threw themselves at these men.“Grace is really something, isn’t she? It was priceless seeing Arlo’s reaction as she dealt with him. He’s such a creep. It really upset Tyra and Carter the way he tried to man handl
Grace and Tyra just finished their run along beach over by Grace’s new apartment. Grace was going to be moving into her new apartment in 3 weeks and pointed out to where her apartment was. “It’s the top level one over there. Of course, it’s not a mansion or a Penthouse, but it is absolutely perfect for me. In the evenings, I can sit out on the balcony overlooking the gorgeous view of the beach. I’ve got a dedicated room for a small home office when I work from home in the evening or when I choose to not go into the office. It’s close to convenience stores and not far from my new office”, she told Tyra. “Sounds like a dream, I’d love to see it when you move in”, Tyra told her. Grace had a good feeling about Tyra and somehow in her heart she knew she could trust this girl in front of her. “You’ve got a deal, maybe I’ll even cook you one of my famous lunches when I have you over”, Grace responded. Tyra squeezed her hand in response as she also had a similar feeling that Grace could
(A few days later)Now that Grace had settled on staying in Straco City (at least for the time being), she had settled on a new Lease for her company. It was over in the centre of town about a 5-minute walk from the Shore Café. Her new office was also a 12–15-minute drive from her new apartment she had just purchased at Bluey Beach. She hadn’t purchased a car yet, so was either using a motorbike she had bought as soon as she came into town or caught a cab where she had to go. The apartment was spacious. It had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a small room she could use as her home office. A nice sized kitchen that she would definitely take advantage of as she loved cooking and it also had a nice sized lounge and dining room. The garage under the apartment building was accessed via a secured roller door that only the residents in the three apartments in her building could access. She also had a balcony that she could sit on and watch the wave
Grace met her employees outside Blue Moon. She had paid for cabs for all her staff to and from the club. Once they arrived at the venue, Grace could see that the queue was very long. However, the owners of Blue Moon had arranged those waiting in the queue to be given a bottle of water each and some finger food whilst waiting to get in. The venue had beautiful lights shining onto the façade. There were security personnel at the main door checking bags for weapons and drugs and of course checking identification to ensure that those only 21 years old and over could get into the club.Although the line was long, those that had a room booked could go via a different door which had a much shorter queue, they just had to show their pass. Grace and her contingent lined up at that door. Grace was wearing a black tight skirt with sparkles that was just above her knees coupled with a mid-riff white top and black wedge espadrille shoes. The white
Once Sean and Carter returned to their VIP room, they explained to the others what they had heard. “So, the lease she signed a few weeks ago was with Harper Group. Her company is a tenant in one of the buildings you own which just so happens to be next door to the Harper Group building and to this day, she has no idea that you are Harper Group”, said Tyra to Sean. “Talk about coincidences, or fate”, said Kiara as she winked at Sean. “How ironic that Grace is the big boss of Messi Group. I would never have picked it. We all thought there was some bloke in charge. Goes to show that women should never be underestimated”, added Kiara. Sean was lost in thought, ‘hmm, there really is more to this woman than meets the eye. Not only is she smoking hot but she definitely has some business acumen’.Sean picked up the phone and went to a private part of the room and called his assistant Leo. “Leo, I need you to find
It was 11:00pm, there were numerous drinks being consumed and Grace was feeling a bit tipsy. Arlo happened to be there and sidled up to her with the help of one of his bodyguards. “Hey beautiful, remember me?”, he asked loudly over the loud music. She looked at him with scorn and tried to move away from him, but as she was a bit tipsy, she tripped over. Grace knew, her head was about to hit the dance floor, and in that split second, she was caught securely around the waist by Sean. They then locked eyes. ‘It’s him again, why is he always around’, she thought. Sean stared into her eyes and again there was a familiarity that he could not put his finger on, except that his heart was beating against his rib cage as he held her. At that moment, Grace released herself from his hold. She thanked him and then ran to the bathroom to get herself together. Arlo kept a watch on her as he was intent on having her. “No-one, I mean no-one gets away f
Sean and Sebastian left Carter’s office to head to their respective workplaces. Sebastian was meeting with a new band that he had managed to sign on and Sean had some paperwork and evidence to revise for a court case he was working on. As Sean was approaching the Harper Group building, the video of Grace using her swift defence and attack techniques to deal with Arlo and his bodyguard kept playing on his mind. Her capability put a big smile on his face. He was wondering where she would’ve learnt such fighting techniques as some of her moves looked to be a bit unique and not the usual martial arts type moves and at the same time, he wondered when he would see her again. Grace was on her way back to her office with a coffee in her hand after returning from inspecting the building site of the ‘Del Mare Hotel’ that was starting to go up. She was lost in thought about her next few meetings today, when she bumped into someone’s chest. His chest was so solid that she not only spilt he
With a determined and icy face, Grace stood up from her chair, turned around and marched over to the booth in the café behind where she had been sitting. There was a group of people sitting at the booth that were staring at her as she made her way over. Grace looked at the male closest to her, “Excuse me Mr Gibson but I did not ask you to pay for my meal, thank you but I can look after myself”. Grace then angrily slapped the money for her meal on the table in front of Sebastian, picked up her laptop bag and strode out of the café with her long curly hair bouncing around, whilst lots of people staring at her admiring her beauty and her curvaceous figure. (EARLIER THAT MORNING)Walking into the ‘Shore Café’, Grace spotted the same table she had sat at the last two times she came to this café. It was in a quiet area of the café, near the window facing the beach. Growing up near the beach in Sydney Australia, it was one of the things she missed the most about living there. Having the