Spraying myself lightly with my favorite perfume, I stopped to give myself a quick once over before turning off the lights. My best friend, Angie had been pounding the horn of her new BMW M5 for the past ten minutes. I’m sure the neighbors were relieved when Angie stopped as she saw me come out the door.

“Damn, give it a rest! I told you I was coming.” I shook my head as I strapped into the seat. She’d just gotten her car last week and it still had that amazing new car smell.

“God, I love this car,” she sighed as she turned out of my driveway.

“So, tell me where we’re going tonight. What’s got you all hot and bothered?” I laughed as she kept checking her makeup in the rearview mirror. She’d already swerved a few times to keep from rear ending the Explorer in front of us.

“Who says I’m hot?” She turned winking at me.

I’d known Angie Curtis since we were five years old. We’d met underneath the ping pong table during indoor recess in kindergarten. We were both hiding from the same bully, Gretchen Talley who loved to pull our ponytails yanking us to the ground.

Instant BFFs with a mutual enemy.

Now as new college graduates we had the world at our feet, so to speak. Angie had just landed a lucrative position as a PA for one of the hottest romance authors in the country, Tabatha Raven. Her job easily minted her close to six figures. Not bad for a twenty three year old.

I hadn’t been so lucky financially. My major had been Psychology with a minor in Social Work. My passion was helping people specifically foster children, so I’d gotten a job as a case manager.

The pay was awful, but getting to help those children in need was amazing.

“You really think I look hot?” Angie turned to me as we pulled to a stop in front of a tall apartment building.

As always, Angie looked beautiful. With her long blonde hair and green eyes, men always thought she was hot. She was tall with a model’s figure. It was insane for her to even ask.

“What do you think?” Little Miss Model had been both Homecoming Queen and a Sorority Sweetheart of Delta Nu.

Me, on the other hand….

Cute would be the word most people would’ve used to describe me. I wasn’t what most people thought of as beautiful, but I wasn’t a total slouch in the looks department. With my shoulder length light colored hair which was neither brown nor blonde, blue eyes, and an average figure meaning I wasn’t model thin like Angie, I supposed I was attractive. I wasn’t very tall only about 5’2 which led most people, namely men, to dub me ‘cute’.

“Who lives here?” I asked as Angie pulled into a parking space close to the front door. This was the upscale part of town. None of our friends lived here. I wondered if she’d bought a new place to match her fancy new car.

“Some very hot guys.” She winked at me.

I rolled my eyes. Not again. She was forever meeting men on Tinder and hooking up. I suspected she’d found one and he’d asked to meet her friend.

Lucky me.

As we walked up to the building, I marveled at the doorman dressed in a grey concierge uniform. The floors of the building were white and grey marble. Our high heels click-clacked as we walked to the elevator.

“Wow, nice building.” I murmured to Angie on the ride up.

“Wait til you see the guy.”

“Guy? You said they were both hot.” I narrowed my eyes. In typical Angie fashion, she’d left out the part where she sticks me with his unattractive, loser friend.

“I’ve only met Devlin. He assured me his friend, Cade is hot.”

“Devlin? What the hell kind of name is that? Is that his last name?” I dissolved into paroxysms of coughing as I inhaled my gum.

Angie was in the middle of slapping me hard on the back when the elevator door opened.

My first glimpse of him was at the black leather biker boots he wore.

“Oh shit, are you okay?” His deep voice sent shivers down my spine even as I struggled to breathe.

Finally, with a huge cough, the piece of gum came flying out of my mouth and of course, landed right on his boot.

Mortified, I wanted to disappear into the floor.

Completely nonplussed, he swept the gum off of his boot and flicked it into a nearby trashcan in the hall. He turned and walked away before I could catch a glimpse of him.

“Who was that?” I whispered to Angie.

A door swung open and there stood just as she promised a fantastically handsome man. He was tall with sandy blonde hair styled to perfection.

“This is Devlin. Devlin, this is Alyssa.”

I stuck my hand out awkwardly. I looked around for his friend who I assumed was going to be nowhere near as handsome as he was.

“Hey, I see you already met Cade.” I spun around to face the guy whose boot I coughed my gum up on. Feeling my cheeks flush red, I wanted to hide behind Angie.

“So these are the gorgeous girls I’ve been hearing about.” He smiled flashing white even teeth. His tattooed biceps bulged beneath his tight t-shirt. His windblown dark hair was perfect.

I felt like I’d been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer.

Boom.

Heart and soul, he had me.

I was dying. Slowly.

This date with Devlin was going to be the death of me. I knew it was going to be a terrible idea before I’d even seen the girls. Ever since we’d started working together I thought he was somewhat of a tool. Pompous, arrogant, little rich boy is more like it. He was the newest salesman at the custom boat and yacht shop where I worked. He was a ‘superstar’ as they called it and he handled our wealthiest clients.

Not me.

I was the ‘Lead Designer’, the title bestowed upon me by our new CEO. I preferred the term mechanic.

Grease monkey.

So, here I was a mechanic hanging out with a white collar ‘sales manager’ or ‘client concierge’. I rolled my eyes every time I thought of those ridiculous terms.

Call it like it is was my philosophy. Still, I was new to the area and was looking for some action. Devlin constantly ran his mouth about all the hot pussy he was getting from hooking up on Tinder.

Of course, I had tried Tinder myself. I’d met some sexy women and had some scorching hookups, but it was getting old fast. I just really wanted to meet someone down to earth, someone to have fun with not just in bed.

When I first arrived at Devlin’s apartment, I felt distinctly out of place. Here I was, a guy from Chicago’s South Side hanging out with a guy living in a Manhattan high rise. The modest house I’d bought in Queens would fit in this guy’s fucking living room.

Crazy.

He handed me a glass of Macallan 25. The shit cost $1200 a bottle. A total waste if you asked me. It was good, but give me Jack Daniels any day.

I preferred to save my money for the really important things.

Like my Harley.

“Hey, Cade, do you want another drink?” The blonde asked me. I looked up as the trio stared at me. The blonde was hot, but pushy. Her voice annoyed me. Her friend, Alyssa something was quieter. As I studied Alyssa, something in her eyes intrigued me.

There was something deeper in her eyes like she was reflecting upon everything that was said trying to weigh the importance of it.

As if this was more than just a potential hookup.

I liked that.

“Alyssa, what do you do for a living?” I asked ignoring the fancy bottle of Macallan in front of me. I popped open a bottle of ice cold Bud Light.

Her eyes widened as she stared at the tattoos covering my biceps. Her gaze lingered on the one that read, ‘Samantha’.

“My daughter.” I explained as I downed my beer.

“What?” She asked twisting her hands in her lap.

“The tattoo you’ve been staring at. Samantha is my daughter.”

“Oh. How old is she?”

“Five.”

Our words hung there like a bad odor everyone wants to pretend isn’t there. Sighing, I glanced at my phone. How much longer did I have to endure this bullshit? I wasn’t a fucking kid. Why did I agree to this?

Alyssa gave me a shy smile as she leaned forward.

“Got another one of those?” She gestured at the bottle of beer.

I caught her eye as I handed her the bottle. Expertly, she popped the top off.

As I admired the way she wrapped her lips around the bottle, I thought to myself maybe this date wasn’t a total loss after all.

But this would be for one night only. I wasn’t ready for a relationship.

Not after what happened with Lacey.

No, I wouldn’t let anyone near my heart again.