Eye of the storm, p.1
Eye of the Storm, page 1
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Epilogue
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Also by Samantha Chase
About Samantha Chase
Copyright 2022 Samantha Chase
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this book, with the exception of brief quotations for book reviews or critical articles, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover: Kari March Designs
Edits: Leah Francic
Previously Published in 2013 and 2018
Praise for Samantha Chase
“If you can’t get enough of stories that get inside your heart and soul and stay there long after you’ve read the last page, then Samantha Chase is for you!”
-NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Melanie Shawn
“A fun, flirty, sweet romance filled with romance and character growth and a perfect happily ever after.”
-NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Carly Phillips
“Samantha Chase writes my kind of happily ever after!”
-NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author Erin Nicholas
“The openness between the lovers is refreshing, and their interactions are a balanced blend of sweet and spice. The planets may not have aligned, but the elements of this winning romance are definitely in sync.”
- Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
“A true romantic delight, A Sky Full of Stars is one of the top gems of romance this year.”
- Night Owl Reviews, TOP PICK
“Great writing, a winsome ensemble, and the perfect blend of heart and sass.”
- Publishers Weekly
“Recommend Chase to fans of Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Well-written and uniquely appealing.”
- Booklist
Chapter One
“I could do without this rain,” Holly mumbled under her breath as she ran from the front door of her home to her little Toyota SUV in the driveway. “Two o’clock in the morning, and he feels the need to call me for help.
“I mean, who calls their assistant in the middle of the night to come and pick them up with no explanation? It’s unreasonable! It’s selfish, it’s obnoxious, and it is so going to stop tonight!” Feeling better after her little pep talk, Holly drove off into the stormy night to pick up the man who was persona non grata at the moment.
Stephen Ballinger.
Just thinking his name made Holly grind her teeth in agitation.
Checking her GPS and trying to figure out where exactly she was, she continued to stay the course down the highway for another twelve miles until her exit. The sky was illuminated with a steady stream of lightning strikes, and Holly shivered with the fierceness of it.
“I could quit! I have money in savings,” she began. “It’s not like I’d starve to death or anything. Most companies would love someone like me.” Thinking she sounded a little smug didn’t stop her from continuing. “I mean, I am a hard worker, I don’t take frivolous amounts of time off, I’m never sick, I’m available almost 24/7 because I have no social life, and…”
Having worked for Stephen for three years, Holly thought she had seen and done everything humanly possible that could be expected of a personal assistant. She wouldn’t mind so much if it didn’t all have to be done on top of the twelve hour day she normally put in with Stephen at the office. But the extra work was becoming a problem. The call tonight had made her suddenly feel as if it were all coming to a head. That phone call—that stupid two a.m. phone call—was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
The man had friends; why not call one of them? He had a personal driver! Why not call him? Why, oh why, had he insisted on dragging Holly out of bed at this ungodly hour—in the pouring rain, no less!—and making her come get him? It made no sense whatsoever.
A strong wind shook the silver SUV, and Holly held the steering wheel a little tighter. The rain seemed to be coming down harder. What had the weatherman said on the news tonight? She wondered. Wasn’t this the outer bands of some tropical storm? Great, just what she needed: to be out in the middle of the night in a tropical storm, looking for a place that she was unfamiliar with. Pulling into the parking lot as directed, she pulled out her cell phone and texted Stephen to alert him to her arrival. Hitting the send button, she sat back and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
With each second that passed, her ire grew. “What in the world?” she yelled to no one, slamming the steering wheel. Picking up her phone once again, she dialed his number and waited to hear his voice. The phone went directly to voicemail. Turning the car off, Holly threw the door open with a huff of frustration, pulled up the hood of her jacket, and hopped out of the car, cursing like a sailor the entire time. A strong wind nearly blew her into the bushes, and she screeched at the closeness of a lightning strike.
Stalking to the heavy wood door of the bar, she yanked it open and stepped inside. She spotted Stephen practically slumped over the bar. Not really caring what kind of shape he was in, she stomped over to him and said his name.
Loudly.
The place was fairly deserted, but the eighties hair metal music coming from the sound system was ridiculously loud.
“Stephen!”
He stirred a little and lifted his head. It seemed to take a minute for things to come into focus. With a grunt of thanks toward the bartender, Stephen stood and threw a twenty down on the bar before walking out the door straight to her car and climbing in on the passenger side. For a minute, Holly was too dumbfounded to move. She glanced at the bartender with raised eyebrows and questions written all over her face.
“He drank. He fought.” The man shrugged. “He lost. Thanks for getting him out of here. Now I can close up.” With those few short words, the bartender turned his back on her and went about his business.
“Thank you,” Holly mumbled, and walked out the door. Climbing into the car, she fought off a chill from the rain. While her first instinct was to yell and rant and rave and demand to know what in the world had gone on tonight, her main need was to get the heat going in the car once again.
Stephen’s head was turned away from her, and for a moment, she thought he was asleep.
“Absolutely not,” she murmured and summoned all her courage to confront this man who had ruined her night.
She just needed a moment to keep herself from screeching like a lunatic.
“Stephen,” she snapped, and waited for him to face her. He finally did on the third try. “What went on here tonight?”
“Nothing.”
“Really? So, I had to come out in a monsoon in the middle of the night to a place I don’t know over nothing. Is that what you’re telling me?”
He sighed wearily. “Look, if I had any other option, I would have called someone else—”
“There are cabs,” Holly interrupted. “Ubers. Rideshares. Then there’s your driver, George. I thought his sole purpose in life was to drive you where you needed to go! Then there’s Will and Derek, who probably would have—”
“They were here earlier, and they are the reason I had no ride.” His tone was quiet, serious, and sleepy.
“You fought with Will and Derek, and so they left you here? You are grown men! Why would they do that?” Her voice was raised, and she noticed Stephen wince at the volume. Clearly her brain was still not fully awake because none of this made any sense, and Stephen always made sense.
“I don’t want to talk about it, okay? I need to go home and get some sleep.”
The man had some nerve!
“Oh, you want sleep?” Holly asked sarcastically. “Well, you know what? So did I. As a matter of fact, I wanted it so badly that I already was asleep, as is most of the normal population at two o’clock in the morning!” Taking a moment to calm down, she pulled the car out of the bar’s parking lot, unsure where they were going. If she could have, Holly would have avoided any more conversation, but she had no other option.
“Um, Stephen, I know this is an odd question, but I have no idea where we’re going.”
He punched the information into the GPS and then leaned heavily back against the seat, looking away from her again. “My house,” he said.
“Well, I figured that much, genius. But you moved last month, and since I was handling all the stuff at the old place, I haven’t been to the new one yet. Geez.” A small chuckle had her turning her head ever so slightly to look at him. “Something funny to you?”
“You’re not normally this snippy at the office,” he observed.
“That’s because it’s never two thirty in the morning while we’re at work, and I’ve normally had a full night’s sleep. A full night’s uninterrupted sleep.”
“Cute. Sarcasm. That’s never been an issue in the office either. This is a side of you I’ve never seen before.” He yawned and settled more comfortably into the passenger seat, clearly not having a problem with all the frustration she was feeling.
“Wake me up in the middle of the night again, and you won’t have to worry about what is and what isn’t an issue in the office because I won’t be there,” Holly snapped.
“What?” That got his attention.
“You heard me, Stephen. You may be my boss Monday through Friday, but you know what? You have no respect for my personal time! Do you have any idea how inconvenient this was for me?” Before he had the chance to answer, she went on. “No, of course you don’t, because you don’t care who is inconvenienced as long as it’s not you. I mean, I would never call someone in the middle of the night unless it was a dire emergency and—”
“It was,” Stephen tried to argue.
Holly silenced him with a hard glare. “No, it wasn’t. You could have called a cab. You chose not to. Why? Because you didn’t think it was any big deal to wake me up in the middle of the night to jump through fiery hoops for you!”
“Holly, it’s a drive in the car—”
“It’s two in the morning, Stephen! And have you noticed the weather? Do not try to make it seem like I am wrong to have a problem with this.”
“Fine, I’ll pay you for the time.”
If there could possibly be one wrong thing to say in this situation, that was it. Holly jerked the car over to the side of the road, threw it into park, and turned to face Stephen, full of fury. “Seriously?” For a moment, it was a toss-up as to who was more surprised by what she said. “You think it’s okay to do something so inconsiderate and then throw money at me? What is wrong with you?”
Rubbing his temples and finally snapping out of the stupor of the last few minutes, Stephen turned to face her. “Look, had I known this was going to turn into such a fiasco, believe me, I would have walked home!” he growled, full of frustration. “I didn’t think calling a friend was going to cause all this, for crying out loud, Holly! Stop being such a drama queen.”
Drama queen? She saw red. Everything around her seemed tinged in a bright, fiery red. “How dare you! And friends? Friends?” she shrieked. “Since when are you and I friends?”
“We’re not?” His voice was instantly calm, and he seemed perplexed by this knowledge.
“No, we are not! I work for you. I work hard for you. Five days a week, fourteen hours a day at times, and that’s not including the weekends when you give me extra projects! We don’t pal around, we don’t socialize, and we don’t hang out outside of the office.” It occurred to her how she clearly had some major anger issues going on and took a moment to calm down. After a few seconds, she looked up, met his eyes, and said quietly, “We work together. You are my boss, and I am your assistant. I don’t know how to be friends with you, Stephen.”
“Why? What’s so hard about being friends with me?”
“Well, for starters, everything we have together at work is all about you. It’s your company. You are in charge. Everything we do is focused around you and your needs or the company’s needs. While we’re working, we’re talking about work. When we stay late and while we eat dinner, we still only talk about work and your plans for more work. You know nothing about me that wasn’t on my résumé, you never ask about me or my life, and you are rather inconsiderate of my personal time. That’s not friendship, Stephen, that’s being a boss. And an inconsiderate one at that! Do you know where I’m from? Do you know how many siblings I have? What I wanted to be when I grew up? Why I chose the college I did? What’s my favorite color? Or my favorite flower? Did you know that I have a fear of water because of a boating accident in high school? No! Because you do not care about my life. All you care about is Ballinger’s.”
He stared at Holly for a long moment, barely blinking. When her green eyes had met his minutes ago, something weird happened. It was as if he was seeing her for the first time. His brows furrowed as he continued to stare at her. That was the most she had probably ever said to him at any given time, and other than the fact that he would have preferred a nicer tone, Stephen realized that he liked this interaction with her. People rarely interacted with him; they played to him, and they catered to him, even Holly.
Until now.
This was fascinating.
“What?” she finally asked uncomfortably.
“Nothing, it’s that you not only sound different but… look different.” He continued to stare at her.
Self-consciously, Holly ran a hand over her hair. “Well, it is two thirty in the morning. I don’t sleep in a suit with my hair pulled back, you know. I threw on sweats and ran out the door when you called. I didn’t realize I was expected to be in ‘personal assistant’ mode all the livelong day!”
Holly knew she wasn’t beautiful—men didn’t normally give her a second look—but the way Stephen was looking at her right now made her wish they weren’t in this particular moment, fighting. Why couldn’t he look at her like that while they were at work? Or at one of those blasted charity events he was always dragging her to? On those occasions, Holly went crazy trying to dress in a way that would make Stephen see her as a woman, and apparently there wasn’t enough makeup and sequins on the planet to do that. But sure, bring her out in the middle of the night in sweats with no makeup, and the man couldn’t take his eyes off her!
Clearly, he’s drunk…
Yes, her dark hair was down and longer than he would have thought it was, but there was something else. Studying her face, it finally hit him.
“Your glasses. You’re not wearing your glasses.”
Without them, he could see high cheekbones and a silky-smooth, creamy complexion. He stopped his hand from reaching out and touching her.
“Oh, yeah, well… um… I don’t really need them,” she stammered, uncomfortable with the way he was watching her. “I mean, they have a tiny prescription to them, and I use them more for when I have some eye strain.”
“You wear them every day,” he stated.
“Yes, well, with the amount of time I spend on the computer, it makes sense to keep them on.”
“Oh.”
They sat in silence for a minute before she finally looked away, put the car back in gear, and headed toward Stephen’s house. Glancing at the GPS, she noticed how far away it was.
“Thirty miles!” she cried.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Stephen…” Holly whined, ready to start arguing again, but realized there was no point. She would get him home and get herself home—probably somewhere around five a.m.—but luckily it was Saturday, so she could sleep all day if she wanted. Well, as long as he didn’t call her later with any work-related issues.
“I’m sorry, Holly. Believe me when I tell you that this was not the way I saw the night going either.”
“Well, I would hope not.” She sighed at her own snippy tone and decided to try to be pleasant. “So, what happened? What did you fight with the guys about? It had to be pretty intense for them to leave you there.” When he didn’t answer, Holly prodded a little more. “I mean, I can’t imagine you guys fighting at all. You seem to always be laughing and having a good time.”
Not taking the bait, he simply replied, “Like I said earlier, I don’t want to talk about it.”
By silent agreement, they dropped the subject and drove the rest of the way without speaking another word. The only sounds came from the rain pelting the car and the roar of thunder.
When Holly finally turned into his subdivision, she gasped with surprise. With nothing more than the light of the street lamps, she could tell that the homes were beautiful. Large wooded lots gave way to homes that took her breath away. They passed a sizeable lake on the right side of the road, and she saw a gazebo off in the distance. At the prodding of the GPS, she turned into Stephen’s driveway, drove up the winding drive, and had to stifle another gasp. His home was very rustic-looking, with stone facing and cedar shingles. She couldn’t see the colors in the dim light, but knew they would be stunning. As much as she hated having to be here at this ungodly hour, suddenly she wanted to get out and explore—rain and all.
