Chapter 1


Chloe Lane laughed as once again Brady Black told a corny joke. He was so different now than when she first met him. Back then he was Mr. angry at the world, yelling at his parent's and telling off anyone who would get in his way, her included.

Now of course that was not the case. Brady had really mellowed out in the last year, having a loving relationship with his father and stepmother, a protective one with his sister, and a mature and thoughtful friendship with herself. Yep Brady Black was exactly the kind of man you would want to know. Seemingly rough around the edges but with a heart of pure gold. Plus it didn't hurt that he was sexy as all hell, tall with a beautiful smile and a beautiful body. Not that Chloe noticed any of these things, nope she was perfectly happy in her single hood mixed in with the occasional backslide of her relationship with Phillip Kiriakis. At least that's what she fervently told herself on the occasion that she would find herself longing for something more. Now was one of those times, when they were simply drinking coffee outside of the Java Cafe while he recounted an encounter with a movie attendant who didn't even know where the movies were playing in his own theater.

"So, I eventually had to sneak out of the theatre cause I told the guy I was just coming back from the bathroom and that the movie was still going on, when in actuality it had ended like five minutes before. You know, it's their own fault for having the good movies so far apart from each other. Makes it more of a challenge," Brady said, his eyes sparkling, "You know how I can't resist a good challenge."

"So," Chloe said, turning to throw out her cup then turning back to look him directly in the eye with a smirk on her face, "you were just proving a point right, not trying to skip out on a ten dollar ticket to Shrek."

"Exactly!" Brady affirmed throwing her a grin before tossing out his cup as well.

"Exactly." Chloe mimicked holding back a chuckle.

Pushing back his chair to dust off his pants before standing up, Brady laughed silently, enjoying himself immensely. "Ready to go Diva?" Brady said extending his hand to her after putting his wallet back in the pocket of his jeans.

"Sure!" she said taking his hand before letting go to straighten her skirt and brush a lock of hair behind her ear. "Where to?" she said hoping to spend some more time with him before he had to get back to work. It was a half-day at Salem High and they had agreed to meet for lunch at Salem Place during his lunch break from Basic Black.

"Actually," he said reluctantly rubbing the back of his neck, "I have to get back to work to put the finishing touches on a project dad has me assigned to before filing a report, but that should only take me an hour or two so after that I am all yours. How about I drive you home and then we can figure out something to do after I get off from work. I promise I'll try not to be too long." he said bringing up his hand to cup her jaw while brushing his thumb against her cheek, secretly marveling at the softness of her skin.

"Okay," she said softly while gazing into his eyes with a shy smile. Reaching up to hold his hand against her cheek, "but I'm holding you to that." she said before bringing his hand down and reluctantly breaking eye contact.

"Cool." he said in relief, letting out the breath he didn't even know he was holding. He wanted to spend as much time with her as possible but it was difficult to work around their busy schedules. They were lucky to have a light workload that day so they could hang out with each other, but, he reminded himself, it's almost summer so that means a lot more time to be with the one I want. "So..." he said licking his lips nervously, "I'll come to your place around three and we'll do something special to celebrate this day of refreshing freedom."

"Special?" she said hopefully, "What are we going to do?"

Winking, Brady stated, "Well that's what we still have to figure out." Grabbing her hand and walking toward his Jeep that was parked at the end of the block Brady said to her, "C'mon I'll take you home. The sooner we leave the sooner we can meet up again."