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  Their weekend lunch socials became time to unwind from their busy professions and to trade gossip about their failing romantic lives. Marcy’s equally stressful job as an accountant offered little downtime during the tax season, but the pair of roommates met every Saturday for time together away from their work loads and clientele.

  “A damn shame, the way money and success turns men into absolute assholes,” Marcy grumbled. “Paul did that same shit after his promotion, remember?”

  “Yeah. You can do better than him,” Chloe said. “His mustache made him look like a German porn star anyway.”

  Marcy’s giggles nearly made her choke on the next sip of her tropical daiquiri. “You know how we used to troll the bars together in college and go home with any hot guy we met? God I miss those days. We should do that this weekend.”

  “Actually, I kind of met a hot guy while on my trip.” A hot guy who, according to her memory, was also large enough to fill the cafe. To salvage her sanity, Chloe had convinced herself that it didn’t happen and that they’d parted on good terms. He didn’t climb out of the cavern and fly away. He didn’t transform from a giant… warm-blooded lizard into a man. He was just some handsome stranger who happened to take pity on an injured woman.

  He fixed my ankle. I know it was sprained. I should have limped for days. But he… he did something to it. Magic isn’t supposed to exist but somehow he touched and healed me.

  Marcy’s brown eyes widened. “You little slut. Dish!” she ordered Chloe. “Don’t skimp on the details either. I need to know dick size and everything.”

  Chloe choked on her mixed drink. “I twisted my ankle or something, okay? I didn’t have service and I was afraid some fucking spelunker would come by and find my cold, rotting corpse. Anyway, he comes by and carries me like a superhero to his camp. Even cooked a deer over the fire.”

  “You’re pulling my leg. He caught a deer and cooked it?

  “Yeah,” Chloe answered quietly with a faraway look in her eyes, reminiscing over the quiet dinner with Saul. Now she understood why he took offense to her comments about wasting the dear. He’d eaten it, most likely in his natural dragon form.

  “And? Did you get the goods or what? You’re way too dreamy-eyed over this guy for nothing to have happened.”

  “It was really chilly and I wasn’t up for moving around yet… so he kept me warm in his sleeping bag. It was amazing. I wouldn’t call him hung like a horse but… he had some serious girth,” Chloe sighed. “And a body like a Norse god or something.”

  “So, once he finished ‘hammering’ you, what then? Did you get his phone number? Did you at least get a photo of him for me? Why aren’t you out with him right now on your Saturday?” Marcy demanded.

  What am I going to tell her? That he up and flew away? “It was just a fling, Marcy. Passing ships in the night and all that.”

  The spicy Latina gaped. “Oh come on, Chloe! Not even a picture?”

  “Well…”

  “Gimme!” Marcy snatched the cellphone from Chloe’s grasp and quickly slid her finger through the passcode. She pulled up the photo gallery and the most recent picture expanded onto the screen. Saul smiled uncertainly up at the two women with Chloe at his side. They were practically cheek to cheek, her smooth skin against his bearded jaw.

  “Oh my god he’s gorgeous! You seriously didn’t get his number? Did he come off like a crazy stalker or something after it?”

  “Not really…” Saul’s crime wasn’t that he behaved like a crazy person, but that he wasn’t a person at all. She shivered involuntarily and glanced up to see Marcy frowning at her in concern.

  “Was he horrible in the sack?” Marcy asked gently.

  “It was the best sex I’ve had in, well, ever. He doesn’t really believe in foreplay but… he cuddles really nice after.” In hindsight, Saul’s behavior made complete sense. He’d mounted her for a rough round of wild, animalistic sex, and now she knew exactly why.

  “Did he say he was married?”

  “No. He’s single. He…”

  “He…?” Marcy coached her, urging her to continue. Her friend eagerly sat on the edge of her seat, cupping her frosty drink between both hands.

  “Asked me for more and I chased him off like a ditz.”

  “Wow. So he wanted to what? Get married? Totally creepy.”

  A quiet shake of Chloe’s head answered Marcy’s assumption. “The word marriage never left his lips, but… it was just really intense. Let’s leave it at that.”

  “Well, maybe you’re better off then. But… damn.” She took another lingering stare at the picture on the screen. “What’s his name? Please tell me you got that at least.”

  “Maybe… His name’s Saul. Which makes him the first Saul I’ve ever met. I guess it’s a really old-fashioned name.” Chloe sighed heavily and dropped her shoulders. “Look, we’re supposed to be having a good girl time, not chatting over my latest relationship blunder.”

  “Fine, though I wouldn’t mind the details on this one.”

  “Really?”

  “You met a Viking god in the mountains and you’ve barely said a thing about him.” Marcy fanned herself.

  “He’s sweet. And… like I said, intense. And I think he’s too good to really exist. This is the first time I even looked at the selfie we took because I convinced myself he wasn’t real.”

  “So maybe you need to seek him out. Here, share this big ass muffin with me, and then we can go sweat it off together in the park. The weather’s perfect for a jog.”

  “Fine. To the muffin, I mean.”

  Marcy slid a plastic knife through the rich chocolate muffin and passed half of the fudge delicacy to her friend. They wolfed down their treats and sipped up the rest of their tea in silence.

  Later, she and Marcy hit the jogging trail to enjoy the spring breeze and radiant sun, but no amount of running cleared the memory of Saul from Chloe’s thoughts.

  Chapter 5

  Chloe hated to write co-parenting plans and put them into black and white, but it was a grave necessity of the job. More often than not, some jerk ignored the stipulations in the legal document anyway and decided the effort to visit his children took too much time. Or a mother hoping to punish her ex refused to allow a good father his visitation privileges.

  Then the slighted member of the pair ended up right back in the law offices of Cooper and Associates to hash it out and demand his or her ex to be taken to court. It was tedious, and it broke her heart because the kids were the ones who suffered. Her mother, may she rest in peace, had been one of those women.

  “Hey gorgeous.” The smooth voice reached her from the doorway of her direct supervisor’s office. She had a desk right beside it that allowed him to bellow orders on a whim.

  Ugh. Not now. I don’t need this today.

  Chloe smiled through her teeth and put on a friendly countenance. “I placed the Benson account’s portfolio on your desk, Mr. James.”

  In the year since their cataclysmic split, Malcolm and Chloe had transitioned back to formal titles. Recently, however, the man up top had transferred her up to the family law level and placed her directly under Malcolm as his assistant.

  Mr. Cooper claimed it was a promotion. He’d given her a generous raise to accompany his supposed good news.

  Chloe considered it living hell.

  “Mister? Really, Chloe? C’mon, you don’t have to be like that when we’re alone. And I didn’t come over about the Benson file. The father has the money, he’s getting the kids.”

  The father is an adulterous creep who just wants to stuff it to his ex-wife.

  It was another example of what she hated about her job.

  “I noticed. If Mr. Benson didn’t delete those photos from his wife’s phone, she’d have him on those adultery claims,” Chloe said dryly. “You know, and half of his money.” The sly little barb appeared to fly over Malcolm’s head, or he merely chose to ignore it.

&nb
sp; The smartly dressed lawyer rounded the desk and Chloe resisted the urge to retreat. She refused to let him run her out of her own office. Wearing his most charming smile, Malcolm leaned up against her desk and raked his eyes over her. It used to make her tingle with goosebumps and feel desirable, but now it only churned her stomach with disgust.

  “You’re looking good, Chloe. Working out again?”

  “Here and there,” she replied tersely. “What may I do for you, Mr. James,” she tried again, repeating her earlier words. The smile felt frozen on her face. Plastic.

  “Where’d you go on your vacation a couple weeks back? You have a tan.” He grinned at her and his attractive, closely trimmed black goatee only made his bright smile even sexier.

  “Hiking in the Appalachians.”

  “With your new man?”

  Freddy wasn’t exactly new, and Malcolm had fired him swiftly once he discovered the two of them were an item.

  Against her better judgment, she decided to answer him truthfully. “No. We broke up for good this time. He’s a creep.”

  “Can’t say I’m sorry to hear that.” Malcolm placed his hand on her knee and skimmed his fingers beneath the hemline of her skirt. His fingers, brown as rich dark chocolate, contrasted against her fairer skin. Once upon a time, Chloe had been fascinated by their paradoxical complexions. Still was. It was just a shame that a cheating bastard was always a bastard, and he wasn’t bound to ever change.

  “You have five seconds to remove your hand before I sharpen my pencil in your eye socket.”

  “You’re cute when you try to talk big. Always were.” He slipped his touch up another half inch. “I’ve been thinking about you, you know.”

  I know what you’ve been thinking about, you slimy bastard.

  She rose swiftly from the seat to escape him.

  “I know how to file a sexual harassment claim. Do not fuck with me, Malcolm. You ended whatever we had when you decided to bounce up and down on a tramp in our home while I was away taking care of Daddy. You did that. Why come to me now? Your current post-divorce lay not floating your boat anymore?”

  “Fuck you, you ungrateful bitch. I got you this job. You’d still be in the records room without me.”

  “No. Fuck you,” she raged. “Fuck you and fuck whatever you did to get Mr. Cooper to reassign me to your floor.”

  “Chlo--”

  “No! You do not get to come in here and touch me at your liberty like I’m whatever two-cent whore you slept around with last.”

  She stormed to the door and threw it open wide. The wood smacked against the outside wall. “Out. Now.”

  “I’m your supervisor. You don’t get to kick me out.”

  Chloe swiftly lost her temper. “Get out!” she yelled. Every eye in the outer lobby turned their way.

  “Keep your voice down,” Malcolm hissed. He crossed the room and grabbed Chloe around her bicep. She jerked away and backed into the main room.

  “What is going on out here?” The loud voice belonged to a rotund man with spectacles perched on his broad nose. Despite his age he sported a full head of silver hair. Jokes around the office claimed his numerous marriages and divorces were at fault for the premature graying. “Mr. James? Miss Ellis? Do we have a problem?”

  “No, Mr. Cooper,” Malcolm swiftly interjected. “Sorry for disturbing you.”

  “Miss Ellis? Is this true?”

  “No. It’s not.”

  “Chloe,” Malcolm warned.

  Mr. Cooper frowned. “Come to my office, the both of you.”

  “Please, Mr. Cooper, it’s nothing to worr-”

  “He fucking slid his hand up my thigh,” Chloe seethed. At this point she didn’t care if the whole practice heard it. “And no, I didn’t invite him. He invited himself into my office and decided to make an inappropriate, unwanted advance.” She didn’t budge a step and turned her head to glare daggers at Malcolm. She dared him to lie.

  “Let’s take this into my office.”

  Half a dozen people watched the show in enraptured silence. It was as if a soap opera had left the screen and entered their office. For a moment, Chloe resented each and every one of them. Then again, they hadn’t placed her in the awkward situation. One man, and one man only, was to blame for the showdown occurring in full view of all the staff.

  Mr. Cooper held up both hands in a plea for silence and calm. “I am certain it was a misunderstanding,” Mr. Cooper began. “You two were in a relationship at one point, were you not?”

  “Once,” Chloe gritted out. She resisted the man’s efforts to sweep Malcolm’s poor behavior out of view. “Are you trying to claim that he’s entitled to touch me whenever he wants because we were once in a relationship? Because if you are, I should remind you that unwanted sexual advances may incur punitive damages in a court of law.”

  “Wait, wait a minute. I never said anything of the sort, Miss Ellis.”

  “You began to imply it, Mr. Cooper. I expected better of you. There’s no way that you didn’t know what he does in this office, and that makes you as guilty as him.”

  Chloe turned her back on the two men and stormed away. She returned through the doorway into her small, cramped office, and she picked up the African Violet on the corner of the desk. She grabbed her favorite wireless mouse and dropped it into the purse she claimed from the desk drawer. She packed her belongings in under thirty seconds flat and stormed to the elevator.

  “I’m going to miss you, Chloe,” the quiet receptionist said to her in passing. “Don’t be a stranger.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it, Mrs. Dennis. I’ll take a call from you anytime.”

  Later that night, Chloe sent an anonymous message to Mrs. Benson from a new email account.

  ‘Contact your phone service provider and tell them you need to learn how to access the Cloud. You’ll find what you need there.’

  For the first night in a long while, she fell asleep without the weight of her job on her shoulders. Unemployed life had never felt so good.

  Chapter 6

  “So word around the coffee shop near Cooper and Associates is that Malcolm’s looking for a new job.” Marcy set down two steaming to-go cups.

  “That was almost a week ago. They’re only just now sacking his dumb ass?”

  “Apparently some secretary came forward and said he sexually harassed her, too. Your tantrum was inspiring.”

  Mrs. Dennis… I never would have guessed it, Chloe thought. She shook her head and smiled in spite of the situation. “Good. That brings me a little comfort while I update my resume and search for new work.”

  Chloe raked her fingers through her pale blonde hair and sighed. The words on the laptop screen blurred and jumbled together into a mess of professional text listing her skills and accomplishments. She was sick of looking at it, and even more sick of phoning her contacts in search of a job opening.

  “You okay, hun? You look tired.”

  “Hmm? Oh, I slept like crap. Dreams I guess…” Sexy, erotic dreams often awakened her in the middle of the night and left her in desperate need for her vibrator. As many times as she’d used it the past three weeks Chloe feared she was going to burn the motor out. And I still feel achy afterward...

  “Bad dreams?” Marcy asked sympathetically. She nodded her head and smiled. “How’s your dad doing?”

  “Pretty good. I thought I’d have to fly out to take care of him after this recent surgery, but he has a new girlfriend. She sounded really nice on the phone,” Chloe mused softly. While it had surprised and disappointed her to learn her father wouldn’t need her assistance, deep down she was glad to know he wasn’t alone anymore.

  “Speaking of significant others, given any more thought to your mystery sex god?” Marcy waggled her brows. “

  “I doubt he even remembers me. Guys that hot diddle a dozen girls a week.”

  “Oh please. You’re a fox, Chloe. If he forgets you he’s an idiot.”


  “You’ve got me beat. You’re like a Latin sex goddess. Maybe you should find him for yourself,” Chloe joked awkwardly in a futile attempt to change the subject. She had to play it safe. Marcy would never believe her super Prince Charming had turned into a fire-breathing beast. She didn’t know if she believed it herself.

  “C’mon, tell me what you remember. We’ll try and look him up.”

  “I dunno. He said he worked at Drakenstone Studios.” Drakenstone… Drake. Dragon. Fuck. How didn’t I notice that before?

  “What did you say his name was again?

  “Saul.”

  “And does this Saul have a last name?”

  Chloe shook her head. “I never asked for details.”

  “Hold up, check this out. According to the studio website the CEO is listed as a Saul Drakenstone. No picture though.” Marcy maximized the profile on the screen and read the vague details out loud. Saul Drakenstone, age 34, inheritor of the Drakenstone legacy at the age of 29.

  “You found some sort of elusive billionaire, girl. Congrats.”

  “I can’t believe it,” Chloe breathed.

  “Sweetie, unless he lied about his name and stuff, this means you slept with a bigtime exec.”

  “He never… why wouldn’t he tell me that?”

  “Don’t gold diggers chase after men like him all the time?” Marcy pointed out gently. She resumed her internet search in vain. Despite all of the best tricks, Marcy’s work yielded no fruit since it appeared Saul lacked a Facebook page, Instagram, and all other forms of social media. No other record of him existed on the virtual world. He was a ghost who had never attended the premieres for his company’s produced movies over the past five years since taking over for his grandfather.

  Is that a ruse to conceal that he’s an unaging immortal creature or something? Chloe wondered. She shook off the strange feeling and put on a humorous tone to playfully feign taking offense to Marcy’s words. “Hey, I had no idea who he was and he’s the one who wanted more from me.”