Chapter 1
Danielle
“Get up,” I say, grabbing the edge of Sophie’s blanket and ripping it off of her. She gasps as the chilly air beings to rush her body and squints into the morning light.
“What the hell, Dani?” she groans, turning to check the time on her bedside table. “It’s only 6.30,” she whines, reaching for her blanket and attempting to pull it back up.
“Nope, sorry Soph,” I say, fighting the blanket back off her. “You said you were going to start working out with me. It’s a new year and we're starting it right.”
“No,” she grunts, digging her face into her pillow.
I steal that too, getting an odd satisfaction out of the way her pretty face bounces off her mattress. “Please… You promised,” I beg, giving her my best puppy dog eyes.
She glares at me then lets out a frustrated huff. “Fine,” she says with a moan as she forces herself into a sitting position. “But you’re buying me breakfast after.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” I grin. “Trust me, you won’t regret it.”
“I’m already regretting it,” she mumbles.
I scoff at her as I make my way out of her room, giving her a bit of privacy to get dressed. “You’ll be thanking me when you’re rocking the hottest bikini body on campus,” I laugh.
“I already am, you bitch,” she calls after me.
I head into the kitchen and grab two water bottles out of the fridge before taking a seat on our couch to do up my Nikes. A few minutes later Sophie emerges from her room, looking much more awake as she pulls her blonde hair up into a bun. “We’ll take my car,” she says, walking to the front door and picking up her keys as she checks her hair in the hallway mirror.
“Ah, no,” I smirk. “We’re walking.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. It’s the first day of semester. Are you trying to kill me?” she groans.
“Don’t be so dramatic,” I say, joining her near the door to check my own reflection. “It’s like a 10-minute walk to the gym, it will give you a chance to wake up properly.”
“Whatever,” she grumbles taking her water bottle from me and tossing it into her bag.
I smirk at her and push my way through our front door. I’ve lived with Sophie and our friend Jared for the last 4 months in a beautiful little cottage style house which we rent for next to nothing and seeing as though each of us holds only part-time jobs, we consider ourselves pretty, damn lucky.
We walk the 10 minutes it takes to get to the Denver campus gym, swiping our student passes to gain access. We push through the large door, head straight to the lockers and throw our things in.
Sophie turns and studies the gym as I dig through my bag for my iPod. “Wow,” she says. “It’s like a sexy sausage fest here, this morning.”
I smirk, knowing she is currently living the dream, “Yeah,” I laugh. “Why do you think I come?”
She leads the way over to the small floor space where we sit and stretch before our workout. “You ready for classes?” she asks as she reaches for her toes.
“Yeah,” I smile. “I’m pretty pumped for our communication class,” I comment. She nods back at me with the same enthusiastic smile. We're both in our last year of university and are in a few of the same classes this year, particularly our communication class. Sophie is studying a Bachelor of Communications in Journalism and I’m doing a Bachelor of Media and Communications in Public Relations and then a photography course on the side, so a lot of our study goes hand in hand, which is how we became such good friends.
Sophie and I met our first year of college, both newbies living in dorm rooms. Neither of us knew a living soul on campus and were fumbling around without a clue of what to do. We were paired up for a project and instantly became great friends. Now I can’t get rid of her, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
We get up off the floor and head over to the squat rack which I’m surprised is actually available with all these guys crammed in the gym. We get to work loading up the bar, taking turns completing our sets.
“Hey,” a low, husky voice asks from behind as Sophie raises out of her squat. I turn to look at the newcomer while Sophie watches on from the reflection in the mirror before her. The largest man I have ever seen stands before me, good looking and most certainly an athlete with a body like that. The guy has got to be at least 6’4 with beautiful tanned skin and a sexy smirk that is enough to knock any woman off her feet. His eyes glance in my direction but it is Sophie he has in his sights.
A seductive smile comes over Sophie’s lips as she takes in the huge man behind her. “Hi,” she purrs to Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome.
His eye flare at her cheeky smirk, though I'm not surprised. Sophie is beautiful. She has the body of a model, blazing blue eyes and thick, blonde hair. She is definitely a show stopper. If I was the casting guy for Victoria Secret, I’d be getting this girl.
“I thought a pretty lady like yourself could use a spotter,” he suggests, coming on strong, though I know Sophie would eat this all up.
“What’s your name big guy?” she asks raising the weights off her shoulders and bending in slow motion to place the bar back on the rack. Making sure to keep her firm ass high in the air.
His eyes don’t leave her as he answers. “Name’s Tank, but you can call me whatever you’d like.”
She smirks at him once again. “You know, I think I might need a little help,” she says.
Yep. That’s my cue to leave. “I’m heading to the treadmill,” I tell her, though I’m not entirely sure she heard me.
She glances at me and gives me a cheeky smile that tells me she won’t be coming home with me “K,” she says.
“Alright,” I nod. “Just don’t be late for class.”
She nods and I turn in the direction of the treadmills and take a few steps. I turn back around once I am out of Tank’s eye line. “Be safe,” I mouth to her. She covers up another cheeky smile but focuses her attention on Tank, who steps up behind her and places his hands on her hips while she puts the bar back on her shoulders.
I step onto the treadmill and fiddle with the buttons until I’m in a comfortable jog. I hit play on my iPod and focus on my run.
Watching Sophie out the corner of my eye, she gets through half her set with the monster behind her and I recognize the look in her eye. She puts the bar back on the rack and turns to face Tank, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him in, which of course, he goes willingly. He picks her up and she winds her legs around his waist while he walks them in the direction of the bathrooms, neither of them caring one bit about the people staring at their display and I realize, Sophie has just met her match.
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“You better get going before you’re late,” Jared tells me as I run around our lounge room collecting my books.
“I know, I know, I’m going,” I say rushing to the door and blowing him a kiss, making sure I grab my camera on the way out. “Love you.”
“Love you too, Dani girl,” he says as I shut the door.
I fiddle around in my bag searching for my phone as I make my way down the path to the campus and begin hashing out a text to Sophie.
Dani – Hey, you never came home… You ok? Class starts in twenty minutes.
Sophie – HOLY SHIT! Best morning EVER! I’m on my way, I’ll tell you all about it.
I make my way into our communications class and take a seat up the back. The first class of the semester always seems to be a bludge day when it comes to Professor Whitaker and I know Sophie has got a lot of gossip to spill.
After another few minutes, I see the familiar blonde, bombshell making her way up the stairs, positively glowing from her morning activities, still in her gym clothes. She smirks at me as she flops into the seat beside mine with a satisfied sigh. “I told you, you wouldn’t regret coming to the gym with me,” I tell her.
She scoffs at me but agrees all the same. “Oh, I never regret coming,” she smirks as she jumps straight into her story. “You should have seen the size of it, he was a beast and God, he knew what he was doing,” she says not skipping out on a single, dirty, detail. “We got kicked out of the gym so he took me back to his place for round 2 and 3 and far out, don’t get me started on his tongue. He was a machine.”
I laugh at her enthusiasm. “Wow, so I’m assuming he was pretty good.”
“Hands down. The best sex I’ve ever had,” she says in all seriousness.
“Geez, must have been good to deserve that title,” I smirk. “Are you sure though because you said that about that guy you met during the photography exhibition a few weeks ago.”
“Oh yeah, Jack,” she laughs. “I forgot about him. He was great, but compared to Tank, he’s got nothing.”
“So when are you seeing him again?” I ask.
“What?” she scoffs. “You know that’s not how I roll. I never go back for seconds, no matter how amazing it was.”
My response is cut off when Professor Whitaker strolls into the room, calling the room to silence. She stands front and centre looking as professional as ever in her grey pantsuit. She slides a pair of glasses up her nose and welcomes us all to our first class. “I trust you’ve all had a great break and are motivated for a hard year,” she says jumping straight into her lecture.
An hour later I’m scribbling notes on my notepad when Professor Whitaker drops a bomb on us. “Alright, your first assignment is going to be a big one. In fact, it is going to last your whole final year and count for 50% of your grade. So, take this assignment extremely seriously,” she says fixing us all with a look.
We all listen intently as she continues. “We are roughly 50/50 between journalism and PR students, so you need to partner up, one from each area. Your brief is to follow a sporting team which will be chosen from a hat, you will follow that team through the year, specifically their training and games. You are to promote them in new ways and write a story each week on their progress and events. Your article will then be published in the Denver News, so make it good.”
The room falls into hushed whispers of excitement while Sophie reaches for my hand, instantly claiming me as her partner, like as if I would have chosen anyone else. Professor Whitaker places a written outline of the project on the front desks and the students begin passing them back.
I grab my brief and begin reading through it as Professor Whitaker grabs a hat from the boy sitting in the front row then takes a seat at her desk. “You have a few minutes to work out your partner and then we will work out who is taking what team,” she says as she begins tearing up little pieces of paper and placing them in the hat.
Five minutes later she begins calling students down the front and one by one they begin choosing their sport. The baseball team, the swimming team, the football team, even the cheerleaders get a mention. It’s my turn to head down the steps and pick a team. Sophie gives my ass a good luck slap as I pass her and I cross my fingers hoping I pick out a good team.
I stand before Professor Whitaker who holds the hat up high. I reach up onto my tippy-toes and begin shuffling the leftover teams between my fingers before landing on the winning team.
I pull it out and open the folded piece of paper. Oh shit!
Damn, how do I break it to Sophie that we’ve just got stuck with the worst team on campus… Well, that was probably a bit much?
They are certainly not the worst, they are extremely talented, but they waste it on alcohol and parties. Though, maybe that could be a good thing, I’m sure we would get a lot of great stories that we could exploit, I’m sure there are probably secret pregnancies and drugs all around them, though, I can’t say it would do any good for the whole ‘promoting’ part of the project. But after last year’s epic fail during the championship game. They are easily the most hated sporting team on campus. Their plummet from stardom happened almost overnight after their last game, and now I guess it’s our job to return them to the previous Gods they were known as.
I look up at Sophie who is watching me intently from the back of the room. “Well?” she asks.
“We’ve got the Dragons, The Ice Hockey Team.”