Chapter 1
The room is dark and cool, sconces in the far corners give it a Gothic, eerie feel. Mist covers the floor and starts to creep up the walls. "Do you want more Kate?" A deep male voice demands. I look around surprised by the sudden noise. The fog has crept higher and has made it harder to see. I try to step forward and walk towards the voice but I cannot move. I look down at my naked body. My arms and legs are pinned to the wall by an unseen force. I start to panic and writhe against the invisible bonds. A hand comes out of the fog and touches my cheek. "Shh baby. I've got you" he drawls in a relaxing tone. My body instantly goes lax and my breathing steady. The hand starts to travel down my neck and towards my breast. "You are so beautiful" he says admiringly. His hand stops on my breast and a long slender finger circles my nipple. "Who are you" i manage to choke out. I hear a sigh "oh, beautiful Kate. You know exactly who i am. I'm your..."
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!.. my alarm squawks and pulls me out of my dream. I roll over sluggishly and repeatedly hit it until it is silenced. I squint at the time. 6 am! I don't have to be in work today... do I? I reach to check my phone, Saturday September 22. "Damn Lizzy." I grumble. My flatmate has a random sense of humor. This is her idea of a joke. Especially if she knows I've been out late the night before and by the way my head is pounding it was some night! I was only supposed to be going out for a couple of after work drinks with a few friends. I don't even remember how I got home. I stretch out in bed and rub my face, something on the back of my hand catches my eye. Its a stamp. Its probably from one of the many clubs we fell into last night, it looks like a flower of some sort. Normally I would try to piece together my alcohol fueled night, but its far too early for me to care, so I roll over, unplug the alarm clock in case Lizzy has programmed it to beep every hour like she has done in the past and drift off into a blissful slumber.
"Kate, wake up!" Lizzy is in my room shaking me awake. "Go away! I unplugged the damn alarm so I wouldn't be woken up, but you decide to come in and do the job yourself anyway? What gives?" I grumble from under my pillow. "God Kate, your so dramatic. Its two in the afternoon. Get your lazy ass up. We`re supposed to be going shopping, you promised, come on." She slaps me on the ass making me jump. Ah hell no! I'd forgotten we were meant to be shopping today. I don't even know why I agreed to it. 5 hours being dragged around store after store while she tries on a million different outfits and only buys two. But, a promise is a promise and I can't let her down. I groan and pull back the covers "OK I'm up, I'm up! " I crawl to the end of the bed and sit there staring at her. "You can leave the room, you know. I promise I won't get back in bed" she looks at me suspiciously "hmm, OK. But if your not out in 15 minutes then I'm coming back in here with a bucket of water" and with that she saunters out of my room. I get up off of the bed and wander over to the closet. Wow my feet hurt! I knew those 5 inch heels were a bad idea. I open the closet and pull out a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and my comfy worn out converse. After a quick wash, I brush my teeth and put my hair in an elastic and I'm ready to go, with 3 minutes to spare too. I pick up my purse from the dresser and head out into the living room to check in with Sgt Lizzy. "All dressed and ready to go, sir!" I say and give a quick salute. She looks at me and shakes her head "jeez, I should have given you longer to get ready, you look like shit" she chuckles. "Come on, lets go. We`ll take my car."
Three hours later and we're sat in a coffee shop sipping a well earned caramel macchiato after a hard afternoon shopping. "So, what did you get up to last night? You didn't roll in until after 4 so I'm assuming some little hottie kept you out" Lizzy says with a suggestive wiggle of her finely plucked eyebrows. I almost choked on my coffee, she's so blunt about everything. I don't think anything shocks her. "Ha! I wish." I laugh. "I was way too drunk to even form a proper sentence" I said taking another delicious sip. It really is the best coffee in town, now I know why the place is always packed. "You need to learn your limits." Lizzy says in a scolding tone. "Liz, its not the end of the world, ya know. I'm 24 years old. I'm young. Why shouldn't I get a bit drunk now and again. Its not like I'm out doing it all the time". She shakes her head, her blonde curls bouncing back and forth around her pixie like face. "I know, I just worry about you that's all. What if your so drunk one night you go home with some random guy and he turns out to be crazy. What would you do then, huh?" I sat looking at her and could see the concern in her eyes. She's only trying to be a good friend and I really should be more aware when I'm out drinking. " OK point taken, I`ll be more careful when I'm out, I promise. Its just I work my ass off all week. When it comes to the weekend I just want to go wild and let off a bit of steam." She looked as if she was about to say something else when she stopped and stared, her eyes narrowing at something behind me. "Erm, Kate, do you know that guy sitting over near the window cos he's been staring at you for the past few minutes" I turned around to see who she was looking at and met a pair of the most amazing, piercing blue eyes I have ever seen. His dark brown hair was tousled and messy looking, like he'd just run his fingers through it. His crisp white shirt was open at the collar showing a small V of smooth, tanned torso. He looked as if he'd just stepped out of a photo shoot. He was staring straight at me. A small mischievous smile played on his lips and he gave me a quick wink. I blushed and turned back around to face an open mouthed Lizzy. "What?" I said still blushing. "You know him don't you? Is he the reason you were out so late last night? I knew you were holding out on me" she whispers excitedly. Now it was my turn to sit there with my mouth open. "I didn't stay out with any guy. I don't even know who he is." I protested. "You sure? Cos from the way he was looking at you he looked like he wanted to eat you up!" She says across the table. "Yes, I'm sure" I said rolling my eyes. Jeez, and she says I'm dramatic, she got all that from some random guy in a coffee shop winking at me. I shake my head. "Well, your about to find out who he is cos he's on his way over" she hisses. I stop lifting my coffee, midway to my lips. Oh my god, he's coming over! My heart starts to pound a frantic beat. I place my drink back down on the table and glance up. Sure enough, there he is. Stood next to our table with that sexy mischievous smile still on his lips. Hmm and what luscious lips they are. What! Where did that come from? I take a deep breath. "Well hello again Kate" says the stranger, his deep sultry voice sending a shiver through my body. "What, this man knows my name? How drunk was I last night?" He must have been able to tell I was confused from the frown now etched into my forehead. "Ah, you don't remember me do you? And i thought i made a lasting impression last night. I'm losing my touch" he says in a mocking tone shaking his head. "I'm Nicholas." I cant believe i had a conversation with this gorgeous stranger last night and I don't remember him at all. I really need to know my limits, Lizzy is right. Though I'd never tell her that because I'd never hear the end of the "I told you so". The only thing I can do right now is pretend I remember him and save my dignity a little. I try for a smile and hold my hand out to shake his. "Oh, hey.. erm, how are you?" I mumble. He takes my outstretched hand, his thumb grazes over my knuckles sending a jolt of electricity through my arm. It startles me so much I snatch my hand back."I'm great thanks. How are you feeling today?" He says with a smirk. "Oh, I'm great too." I say feeling the heat rising in my face. I must be a lovely shade of scarlet by now. I try to change the subject. "This is my flatmate Lizzy" I gesture in her direction. She is now staring blatantly at Mr Gorgeous stood in front of us. He holds out his hand to shake hers "Er, nice to meet you Nicholas" she shakes his hand and smiles. He turns his amazing blue eyes back to me. My breathing increases. Why does he effect me so much? "Pull yourself together woman!" "So, Kate. I was wondering if you`d like to go for lunch sometime as I didn't get a chance to ask you last night" My heart pounds harder in my chest. That wasn't really what I was expecting to hear that. But before I can answer, Lizzy pipes up. "Why didn't you have the chance to ask her last night?" She asks. His eyes didn't leave mine but his smile grew a little bigger. "Well she disappeared on me. She said she was going to the ladies and I didn't see her again." He says looking amused. "So you can imagine my surprise when I stop for a coffee and in you walk ten minutes later" I could feel my face heating up even more, I had to come up with an excuse quickly "Erm, I'm sorry. I started to feel ill so I decided to go home. I was going to say goodbye but I couldn't find you at the bar. So I stepped outside and got in a cab." I lied hoping to sound convincing. "Oh, right. Well that explains why you just vanished. I'm sorry you couldn't find me. I was just hoping I didn't scare you away" he said with a glimmer in his eye. Now I was even more confused. What were we talking about for him to think that he'd scared me away. He looked at his watch and frowned "I'm Sorry, but I have to get going." He reaches in his back pocket and pulls out a card from his wallet. "My number is on there if you would like to meet for lunch sometime. Just give me a call". I reach for the card to put it in my purse and my fingers briefly touch his. It makes my whole body tingle. I don't understand why this man elicits such a reaction in me, but damn I wanna find out. "Y-yeah, OK, I will" I stammered. A small smile touches the corner of his lips "I'll look forward to it" he purrs. Then he nods to us both politely and turns to leave. I turn back to Lizzy. "Why didn't you tell me about him. He's gorgeous Kate!" She squeals. I put my head in my hands, suddenly I feel exhausted "Because I don't remember him" I say through my fingers. "What? But you said..." I look up and sigh "I know what I said Liz but I didn't want to look like a complete idiot who talks to random people then not remember. I wanted to keep the last shred of dignity I have intact" She shrugs "Fair enough. So, are you gonna call him?" I stir the spoon absentmindedly around my cup "I dunno. Do you think I should?" "Oh yeah! Why would you even have to think this through? Did you not see him? Any woman would jump at the chance to go out with a guy who looks like that. I think the alcohol has damaged far too many of your brain cells if your even having to second guess this." She was right, of course. "OK then, I'll call him tomorrow. But right now I just want to go home, get a shower and curl up in front of the TV with a movie. Sound good to you?" "Yeah, sounds great, a girls night in. Can I pick the movie?" She asks with a hopeful expression. "Yeah sure, I'll buy the popcorn" I say, picking up my purse and standing, ready to leave. "Great! Let's go!" She jumps up, grabs her bag then links her arm through mine. "It been so long since we've had a girly night in. You work too much" she says as we make our way to the door. "I know, but if I don't put in the hours then who will?" Since my mother figured she would rather be out partying than actually planning them, its me that has been left to run the family business. Hamilton party planning would have gone under if it wasn't for me working my butt off. Lizzie's voice pulls me out of my reverie. "She doesn't deserve a daughter like you Kate, she needs to get herself together and and act like the 45 year old woman she is. Not some 21 year old party animal." Lizzie knows exactly what my mom is like. We've known each other since junior high and been best friends ever since. "Yeah I know" I sigh. "But she's only been like this since my dad died. I think its sort of a midlife crisis kinda thing." I walked round to the passenger side door. "Still, she shouldn't just expect you to run the business single handed. Don't you still have to plan that huge 30th birthday party for some lawyer. I thought she was going to help with that since its a big account." She said fumbling around in her handbag for her car keys. "She was, but I've not heard anything from her so I've had Tara working overtime to help with the preparations. It will be fine. I always find a way to get the job done." Lizzy pulls the keys triumphantly out of her bag. "You really should get a smaller bag, then you can't put so much in it. Its like Narnia in there." I chuckle. "Hey!" She mock protests. "Just get in the car and stop disrespecting my bag." "Sir, yes sir!" I salute and open the door. "Mature Kate, real mature" she laughs. "Let's go get that movie, soldier" she says and starts the car.