Page 1

Chapter One
GARRETT
Garrett Chapman dropped the pillow onto his plush new mattress, resisting the urge to climb up and roll around on it.
“You are way too excited by a bed that doesn’t stand a chance of seeing any action,” Fletcher said, barely looking up from the contract he was perusing. “And I don’t just mean because it’s the one being installed in your office.”
His partner was too wrapped up in their current deal negotiations to appreciate the joys of a thousand thread-count percale cotton sheets.
“You would be excited too if you had spent a week straight sleeping on the couch in the office.”
Fletcher put the sheaf of papers down and raised a bushy black brow. “Here’s a crazy idea. What if instead of spending a hundred grand on an office remodel, you go home to your luxurious penthouse and sleep in the king-sized bed there?”
He fluffed the pillow and smirked. “Easier said than done these days.”
Fletcher sighed, slumping a bit so that the incipient paunch he was developing hung over his belt. “True enough, I guess,” he said, somehow managing to appear around ten years older than Garrett despite being several months younger.
Next Chapter Enterprises, their investment company, was in a period of expansion. That was a line he’d said in various forms for the last two years and it was still true. Their little group, which dabbled in everything from microprocessors to real estate, had gone from him and Fletcher and thirty-eight staff to nearly double in that time. They had grown so much that they’d had to pull up stakes from their old office to their new one.
Their new office suite took the entire top floor of the new Lumen tower, a joint enterprise between his company and his friends including Rainer Torsten, Ian Quinn, and Elias Gardner.
The luxury office building had opened only six months ago. It provided many amenities including security, two state-of-the-art gyms, spacious balconies, three full-service dining rooms, and a car service. All of this was in addition to the café-slash-bakery on the ground floor and coffee carts in a communal space located on every other floor.
Add that to the modern open design, competitive pricing and location, and it was no wonder they were already ninety percent occupied with a waiting list a mile long for their small and midsized suites.
The only reason the floor underneath him was unoccupied was because Auric Security, Quinn and Gardner’s private security firm, was waiting for their current lease to run out before moving their West Coast operations here.
“Just go ahead and jump on the damn bed.” Fletcher sighed. “You know you want to.”
Garrett snorted. “Like I’m going to do it in front of you.”
His partner got to his feet. “Fine, I can take a hint.”
He saluted with the contract in hand, nearly giving his eyeball a paper cut.
Refusing to acknowledge his near miss, he ducked out, leaving Garrett alone.Finally.
Pulling out his phone, he set his alarm to go off in half an hour. Then he pulled off his jacket and kicked off his shoes. Taking a running start, he leaped on the bed like a four-year-old. He landed, bouncing twice before his body weight sunk into the thick pillow top.Almost moaning with pleasure, he turned over and clapped, turning off the lights, then settled in.
However, his power nap couldn’t undo the last few weeks of burning the candle at both ends. With only a few minutes before he had to jump on to his London conference call, he decided to hit the coffee cart on the floor below. But the Back in 5 Minutes sign, along with the three guys ahead of him made him bite back a growl.
Wishing his assistant hadn’t chosen yesterday to start their vacation, he was about to give up and head back upstairs when he caught what the guys ahead of him were saying.
“Wish she’d hurry that glorious ass up,” the man with a visible bald spot said.
“You think it’s good? I say she’s too fat.” His thinner friend paused. “Although those tits are spectacular. Even better than her lattes.”
“What can I say? I’m an ass man,” the first guy said. “And hers makes me want to take a big bite out of it. Speaking of her lattes, I’ve got some foam for her?—”
“Hey,” Garrett snapped, unable to listen to another second of their shit. “I hope you’re not talking about anyone who works here.”
The man in question spun around. As tall as him, the balding guy was a middle-aged example of what his best friend Rainer calledhard fat. He reminded Garrett of an aging boxer gone to seed, but he had the air of a man who still loved to brawl.
London be damned, the arrogant and belligerent twist of the jerk’s mouth was tempting him to give the man his unspoken wish.
“What’s it to you?” Baldy asked, sticking out his chest like a pufferfish. Any more and Garrett would lose an eye when the buttons on his shirt popped off.
His voice dropped to the register that sent his staff running for the hills. “I think it would be wise if you kept those kinds of thoughts to yourself. We don’t needDe Ollacoffee filing charges for sexual harassment—although they would be justified.”