From where she approached, Katie could see Nick's tall frame leaning against the body of his Rolls Royce. A million and one thoughts ran through her curious mind as she came closer, wondering why on earth Nicholas Smith was parked in front of her home at this time of the day. As soon as she was within range, he threw her something. Taken off guard, the only reason she had caught it was because she had fast reflexes, plus she'd used both her hands. They were the keys to his car.Katie was about to ask what was going on, when he spoke. "There are some places I need to get to today, and my chauffeur called in sick." He said. Katherine was bewildered. Was this bugger actually suggesting that she work as his chauffeur on her birthday, today of all days?! Never! Katie wanted to yell at him. To give him a slap right in the face, and pull his hair out from the roots. But she couldn't find the strength within herself to do such. "Hey, Nick, now's not a very good time." She found herself a
Katherine Cooper approached Nicholas Smith with maddening fury. She walked right up to him until they were staring eyeball to eyeball, their noses almost touching. He'd remained rigid on the spot he stood all the while, waiting for her. Not that she had expected him to flinch or take a step backwards, anyway."I just said, that you will not be taking up to an hour with whatever shit you gotta do in there, before you get your ass down here, so I can drive your sorry ass home!" She glowered, poking his rock hard wall of a chest with her finger. At that moment his lips hardened into a firm line, his expression darkening. Katie didn't care."Now, this is what is going to happen." She said, taking another step forward. Any more and she'd be walking right into him. "I give you ten minutes, Nicholas Smith!" Katie said, punctuating each word of his name with a poke. "Ten minutes no later." She reemphasized. Nick remained silent, a smirk tickling the corners of his lips. 'Ah, there she wa
Another well fulfilled day at Cole Corp had ended, and Katie couldn't have felt more elated. It was as though she'd received this…more bubbly, more optimistic, ten times more energetic version of herself recently. Or should she rather say- the day she'd had her birthday. Nearly everyone on the sixth floor had left, or was packing up to do so. That left her and Nick alone. It'd been days since they last worked on the policy together at the apartment,so Kate was not so sure what to do after shutting down her system that evening. Throwing a glance at him, Katie realized Nick was still as busy as ever on his system, his fingers typing with a speed she considered impressive for humans. Walking over to his office space, she leaned over the cubicle wall. "I know." Nick growled before she could let out a breath. "Why don't you wait for me in the car outside? I'll be down in a jiffy so we can proceed to the apartment." He added, his eyes still glued to his system. "Oh." Katie exclaimed. "O
Kate pulled out the old leather bag full of uncle John's handy tools from the drawer in the basement with a huff. Now that the wiring of her house was finally back on track again - thanks to Nicholas Smith once more, she had decided that the next repairs to be made to her beloved old house from her renovating list, was the plumbing. Recently, she'd had a lot on her mind with formulating the policy every evening after work with Nick, so her plans for renovation of home sweet home had been pushed off to the farthest part of her mind. Not since this morning, though. When she'd nearly been cooked alive in her tub with the water that ran down her pipes after she'd turned the faucet for a cold bath. That was the end of procrastination for her. She'd decided it right there and then that today would be the day she'd roll up her sleeves and get to work. All by herself. Katie couldn't lie, she was no plumber. In fact, she'd never even done anything related to fixing a leaky pipe before. But
In a moment Nick rose to his feet, stretching his tall frame to its usual height. "I-Is that it?" Katie asked, bewildered. ''My pipes are fixed?" "Yup." He replied. "Just like that?" "One hundred percent good as new." He answered, a taunting edge to his tone. Kate gasped in glee. Moving closer to the sink, she turned the faucets, and everything was working great to her delight! A smile found its way up her face. "Thanks for helping me with the plumbing, Nick." She lilted, her gratitude overwhelming her. "Believe me, I'm not doing this for you at all." He returned, smirking when her expression transformed, her eyes narrowing. "Infact," He continued, his tone aloof. "I'm doing this more for myself than for you. The sooner we get your problem fixed, the sooner we can get back to completing our work concerning the policy." Katie cast him a glowering look. Seriously, where did this rude jerk even get the nerve?! "Where to now, Katie?" He probed, ignoring her expression. Katherin
The horrendous flames were back again, but this time, much worse. The smoke that covered everything and everywhere was so dense it could as well have been black fog. Somewhere amidst the nightmarish destruction unfolding all around him, Nicholas Smith could make out the agonizing cries of Anna in pain, and another sweet sickening smell swirled with the acrid smoke encircling all around him.The smell of cooked human flesh! "Anna!" He screamed in terror, fighting for control over his paralyzed limbs amidst the dreadfulness devouring him whole. "Anna!" He yelled again, crawling towards the horrendous sound of her screams, which seemed to be death throes now. But then a deafening blast sounded, and an orangey-yellow fireball burst upwards and outwards from nowhere, cutting through the solid wall of smoke and stink and swallowing him into oblivion.**Nick jerked up from the chair on which he sat, letting out a strangled cry. The smoke, the heat, and much worse. . . The insufferable pai
A dull tap sounded as Katherine Cooper dropped something atop Nicholas Smith's table. He grudgingly tore his eyes away from his system to glance at it. All the blood in his body jumped back to his heart at once. This was the capsule of suppressants he'd been looking for all weekend! Eventually, he'd given up searching, concluding that he'd misplaced it somewhere perhaps, but now, somehow, Kate had gotten hold of it. That could only mean one thing. He'd forgotten it at her house in his haste to leave, the day he'd helped out with her plumbing. Nick turned his gaze back to his system, reluctant to look up at her lest she catch a glimpse of the shaken look on his face. "What is that?" He quizzed, his tone wintry. "I don't know, you're supposed to be the one who tells me." Kate stated, arms across her chest. "I found this at my house the day you came over. It isn't mine, definitely, plus, I haven't had anyone over in ages, so it has to be -" "It's not mine!" He sharply cut in. "Of c
One week later. . .Katie swung the panel doors open, and all eyes in the room turned on her as she walked in. Where was Nick? Slightly Clearing her throat, she slowly began to pick her way past the tangle of bodies present in the hall for the meeting that had been called all of a sudden. She was making her way to the front so she could have a better view of the stage when Christy Wagner rushed towards her dramatically. "Congratulations, Katie!" She said, giving Katherine a warm hug. Kate was bewildered. First of all, Christy was in the accounting department so they barely ever saw eye to eye, and secondly, even when they saw, the relationship between them was a little more than official. She wondered how Christy had gotten to know that something great enough to be congratulated about, had happened to her. But that wasn't what was bothering her most. What exactly was the incident, and how was it that Christy had come to know before her? "I knew that even if everyone else had fail
This time, Katie cried out in fear. Nick swiftly caught her to himself. She buried her face in the crook of his neck. “It's alright, Katie. It's going to be alright.” He tenderly whispered. He held her tightly to himself as she sobbed softly. “Just don't move. Remain as still as possible.”Katherine bit down so hard on her lower lip She was certain if she didn't let go she would taste blood. In her mind, she could already see a mental picture of the horrible ways many of the victims of these monsters had died. Most of them being from all the horror movies she liked to watch. Was she going to die in such a gory manner as well, now? Through her state of panic, she felt Nick's hand soothingly running up and down her back, and she relaxed a little. She found herself nestling further into him, her face well hidden in the crook of his neck, his body temperature so warm and inviting to her skin when compared to the coolness of the water surrounding them. Instead of the doom looming roun
In no time they had all their swim gear on and were ready to dive. Katie had seen how beautiful the waters of Conrad Island from above. Now she got to see them from beneath. It was a wonderful warm day. The water shone a lovely turquoise-jade green color. “You ready?” Nick asked, and she nodded. She'd been hesitant to go snorkeling in the beginning, so why was she so excited now?“Let's stay close to each other just in case, okay?” He added, and then he put on his snorkel. Katherine dove in first, and then a second splash from above told her Nick was in too. They'd been submerged for less than an hour, and it was already a daydream. From colorful tropical fish, to seahorses, sea turtles and beautiful coral, there was much to see in the waters of Conrad Island. This underwater adventure was the most wonderful thing she done in all her life!Katie knew that these moments with Nick would be branded in the warmest part of her memory. The experience was sublime!It came as a mild surpri
Katie's nightmare started like this. She was bolting full force across a deserted little road, in the midst of a violent storm. It was the middle of the night. A furious gale ripped at every tree and bush in sight. The pace at which she fled mirrored the pounding of her own heart in her rib cage. She was terrified of something…someone. Not far behind, a bearish growl of a voice cut through the storm. Menacing. Urgent. Advancing swiftly. “Don't let her escape!” It yelled. Her lips were quivering, and it had nothing to do with the ice-cold water drenching her from head to toe. Katherine dashed around a street corner and faltered. She'd run into a dead-end courtyard full of shops. “Looks like you've got nowhere else to run eh, bitch?’’ The monsterous voice called out suddenly. No time to backup! The dread that sliced through her was enough to drive her already tasked heart to cardiac arrest. Instead her body froze, and for a moment every other sound- but the rain pelting down
All of a sudden, the water seemed to turn to ice! No wonder! She thought she'd felt that uncanny uneasiness one is apt to feel when being surreptitiously watched.“My goodness, Nick, you nearly gave me a heart attack!’’ Katie snapped in a panic, failing in a desperate attempt to reach for her robe, or at least cover herself.A part of her consciousness chided her for being so silly. After all, she wasn't naked. She was putting on a ‘very appropriate’ two piece bathing suit. “And nothing more!” A naughty voice chipped in, flawing her newly built armor of confidence before it was even fully on.Katie gasped in a quick breath, forcing herself to relax, yet she still shyly dunked upper body into the water so only from her shoulders upward were left exposed. If only she'd seen the amused look on Nick's face at her little panicky display of shyness.Unknown to her, he'd seen it all already.At first he was a little surprised when he sighted Katie coming over to the pool. He'd been right t
After moments of anticipation, Katherine was fully aware of where they were going before their plane touched down in Malè, the Maldives. But where exactly in the Maldives were they going? That part, to a great extent, remained a mystery as Nick refused to spill the beans no matter how deviously she coaxed. Eventually, Katie gave up, leaving the answers to her questions to be provided by time. A part of her was still having a hard time believing that everything she'd experienced in the last two days was real, and not just another sweet dream. The Maldives was such a ‘hot’ place to be. Recently, a friend of hers had returned from her ‘picture perfect’-as she'd described it, honeymoon in a special resort in the Maldives, and she'd said it was so romantic. Actually, now that she thought about it, her friend wasn't the only one. Everyone was talking about how great a vacation to the Maldives was. Much so that even she, curious for a personal experience of such a dreamy place, had p
Katie couldn't explain why her heart skipped a beat as soon as a knock finally sounded on her door early that morning. Perhaps, it was because she'd been anticipating it since she had an early rise by six. Maybe it was for some other reason, either way she couldn't tell why.Dashing up from her bed, she skidded to a halt at the large dressing mirror, taking a moment to scrutinize her appearance.Kate pushed back a loose strand of hair behind her ears, and by then another knock sounded. Hurrying off to the door full of smiles, she dragged it open and her face fell.The cheery gray eyes staring back at her were those of a stranger.“Good morning, miss.” “Good morning.” Katherine replied dryly. The young hotel attendant flushed at her tone. “Oh. I'm so sorry. Were you expecting someone else?” She asked. She was quite calculative. Katie affected a small smile. “No, it's fine. What are you here for?” “Oh. W-well, since it's late enough for you to be awake, I was sent to ask what you'd
"Did I say our? I meant your hotel room." He said, smirking at the breath of relief she let out in that instant. "Unless you prefer we made it ours?" He teased, lowering his face to hers. Nick chuckled at the bright red color she turned in that instant. Easing the door open, he parted way for her to enter, before going in after her. The match had just begun by the time they'd arrived the massive stadium and Kate could already feel thrilled.Surprisingly, everywhere was already packed with mostly Emiratirs. A few foreigners poked out here and there too. Nick had somehow gotten them VIP seats with the most wonderful view of the pitch.No sooner had they taken their seats that the match kicked off with frenzied excitement. Katie kept a steady flow of comments the entire time, unable to hide her excitement. Meanwhile Nick remained silent, watching intently all the while."Which team do you think is doing better?''Katie tapped his hand gently, her excited face beaming with smiles. Turni
Katie woke up to the sound of the P.A. announcing that the plane would be touching down soon. Instinctively her eyes moved to the side in search of Nick, but to her surprise he wasn't there. Then how was it that the earthy scent of him was all around her? Looking down, Katie realized his suit jacket was over her. He must have put it over her when she'd slept in case she got cold. Katherine knew she was crazy to think this, but a part of her was willing to be deluded for the sweetness of it. It was so enthralling to know that somehow, in some way, Nick cared about her. She sat up at once, turning her head from side to side in search of Nick, slightly concerned. Thankfully she caught sight of him coming back towards their seats in a moment. "You're finally awake, sleeping beauty." He teased, a sarky gloss to the edge of his tone. "I was thinking you were going to remain that way until I woke you with true love's first kiss." He continued, and Katie snorted out a laugh to hide her t
By now some of the other security guards had smelt a rat and were all rushing towards them already because they'd started attracting attention. Katherine was barely a few heartbeats from pouncing on Nicholas Smith when the security guard pulled her back by the collar. "Katie, when did you leave my side?! I've been looking for you all over!'' He said with affected concern and they both froze. Katie in bewilderment, the security guard to see who it was that spoke."You know this woman, sir?" He asked, turning to Nick now. "Yes. She's with me." Nick answered, going round the width of him so that he was now standing directly beside Kate.In a twinkling, his quick hand snaked itself around her waist and firmly pulled her body to his. Letting out a gasp in shock, Katie whipped her head to the side as soon as she felt his hand burn a sizzling hot path along the cool material of her dress. "Can you not play along just once!" He subtly hissed into her ear, his warm breath tickling the sensi