Chapter 1

Sam-

I could barely move while I rolled myself out of bed. The gym kicked my ass yesterday and I can feel it today. I roll off the bed and walk to my mirror, standing in front of my full-body mirror, I could see the efforts I put in starting to pay off. My body appeared slimmer, and I was starting to curve in the right places while flattening out in the wrong ones.

“Sam!” My roommate Lily called from the kitchen. I could smell bacon and eggs all the way in my room which meant she had a good night last night with her date. “Come and get it!”

“I'm up, Weirdo!” I shouted back, slowly pulling on a tank top and some pajama bottoms, and then I made my way to the kitchen.

Coming into the kitchen I noticed we weren't alone. Lilly had brought her date back home and he was something to look at. He stood about six feet tall and extremely bulky next to Lily’s petite body. Lily only stood five foot and six inches; a couple of inches shorter than me. Tying back my long black hair in a bun, I walked up to the island that split our kitchen in half.

“Good morning” I giggled.

“Shush it and eat some food, Brat.” Lily laughed as she slid me a plate.

Lily’s date reached out his hand with a steaming cup of coffee. “Good morning, I'm Liam.” He said, his voice oddly deep.

Taking the coffee, I brought it to my lips, while slipping a few looks at this man over my cup. I always wonder where she finds these drops of glory, but she really outdid herself with this one. His brown hair was messy, and his sizzled abs were almost perfectly sculpted. It was almost like looking at one of those Greek sculptures but in person with dark-colored skin. Something about him looked familiar, almost like I had met him somewhere before now.

“Where did you come from?” I squeaked over my cup and shot Lily a sideways wink.

Lily giggled and bumped into Liam who was in the process of making another cup of coffee. “Don’t you remember? We met at the club a while back.” His laugh echoed off the kitchen walls. I do remember that laugh but it's much different now.

“Holy hell! Liam?” I cracked. I was wasted that night because I went on an alcohol therapy binge. Work had been kicking my ass and the boss I had at the time kept trying to slide his hand in my skirt during meetings. I cringed at the memory.

Liam was one of the hottest guys that I had seen that night, considering that was like two months ago I suppose they kept in touch after that night. I thought he had disappeared, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say, my goodness, I could check him out all day. He was like a tall drink of water in the desert. He had a friend with him that night too, but I couldn’t remember the guy's name.

“Jesus, you grew up!” I laughed a little bit at how aggressive that came out. My surprise was covered in pure astonishment. “How long have you guys been hanging out?” I joked.

Liam looked at me with challenging eyes. “Actually, we have been talking since I ran into her at the coffee shop last week.” Liam leaned down and planted a kiss on Lily’s cheek as she started blushing.

Before I knew it my brain was talking for me, I couldn’t catch it in time and my mouth spit it out. “Tell that other guy you were with that I said hi when you see him. Let him know I'd love to catch up if he has time.”

I froze, watching Liam. Jesus the way those muscles moved when he walked. Liam walked over to a bag on the counter and grabbed his cell phone. Within a couple of seconds, he was sliding it to me, face up with a name and a number on it. The name only said brother, so I suppose I'll have to wait to find out the mystery man's name.

“You call him and tell him.” Liam ruffed back.

Shaking my head, I laughed at his suggestion. “That's not how this works, Gorilla boy. He probably doesn't remember who I am after all this time. Maybe he doesn't even care. Either way, I'm not doing it.”

“Okay.” Liam shrugged, grabbed the phone off the counter, and pushed the call button. I heard a couple of rings and soon a very tired voice answered.

“Good morning, brother,” Liam chuckled. “Do you remember Sam Kerns?” He asked while he looked at what felt like my soul. I couldn’t make out the mumbled words, but it made Liam do another world-shaking laugh. “Let me tell ya, she doesn't look like that anymore.”

Liam walked around the counter and did a whole once-over on me while I was reaching for another piece of bacon from the plate. “My Lanta, she's not the same at all brethren. I'd say she's a solid six now.” As he said this a huge grin broke down his face.

“Here.” Liam held out his phone.

Nervously I took it. “Hello?”

“Sam?” Came a very annoyed tired voice.

“Yes?” Then the phone hung up. “What the hell Liam?”

“What?” He turned around to see that the call was over. “He’s always such a dick in the mornings, don’t worry about it.”

I looked over at the clock and realized I was running late for work. “Shit, shit, shit! I'm late!” Running back to my room, I changed into my work clothes, ran to the bathroom to slap on a quick layer of make-up, and then headed out to my car.

My two-thousand seventeen charcoal black Chevy Sonic was basically a roller skate, but it was easy on gas and pretty good to look at. Reaching over I flipped through the radio stations for a few moments until I landed on a news station and decided to leave it.

“The attacks are on the rise...” the sound faded out as I put my car in dive and headed to my mundane job. I switched over to autopilot and spaced out the rest of the drive.

I found my normal parking spot and gathered my things. Then I walked through the big double doors to the open lobby and continued through to my office.

“Good morning, Sam” I turned around to see my best friend Bradly leaning in the doorway, his amazingly cute boyish face had a huge wide grin across it. Bradly ran his hand through his dirty blond hair, his green eyes sparkled at me. Bradly stood six foot even but he was a smaller build than most gym rats.

“Well, hello, Sir. What's the good news today?” I threw an eraser across the room, and it struck him in the chest.

“We get our new CEO today; I'm hoping he's not a real asshole like the last one,” Bradly said as he leaned down to pick up the small pink weapon, I attacked him with.

“That makes two of us, Mr. Sparks was a real prick, plus he thought he was God's gift to women nonetheless.” I turned my office chair around and sat down.

Bradly sat my weapon on my desk and started to walk out, turning around the last time he looked me dead in the face. "The meeting is at ten, try not to be late.”

“Hey, I'm always on time.” I giggled back at him. To be honest I'm never on time but no one needs to know that. I looked over and saw it was just shy of half an hour to ten. Meh, I have plenty of time I thought to myself as I started organizing the paperwork that had been put on my desk in what seemed to be overnight.

After sifting through everything and signing the ones I needed to and organizing the rest I looked at the clock and it read that it was now two minutes past ten. Fuck! I'm late! After gathering what I needed for the meeting, I headed over to the conference room. Ugh, I’m not prepared for this at all.

Everyone only wanted to talk about workplace harassment after Mr. Sparks was forced to resign. Mr. Sparks thought he was the best thing on earth. He wasn’t terrible looking with his blond hair and lean body, but that personality was not recommended.

Bradly was standing at the top of the meeting table; he stood just short of five feet, eight inches. He had sandy blonde hair that had been cut in the typical jock style. He had amazing blue eyes, and dimples that made all the girls in the office blush. He’s cute in the ‘I don’t know I'm cute’ kind of way.

Next to Bradly was a guy who looked familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on how I knew him. This strange man ran his hand through his dark brown hair. The dark tint of his skin made all his facial features more exotic, and the suit, oh my god the suit, hugged every inch of his body like butter on bread. This odd, but amazingly hot, man stood at what had to be at least six foot two to six foot four and had arms the size of my head. Where did I know him from? Who was he? My Lanta he was gorgeous.