by Liz Peters
City Minute
A When Opposites Attract Romance
By: Liz Peters
Copyright 2018 by- Liz Peters -All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
The characters in this book are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
WARNING: Contains mature themes and language.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter One
Samantha Crawford sat at the desk in her new office staring out the window distractedly. Normally, she loved her job, but there was somewhere she would much rather have been today. It wasn’t every night that the guy you’d just had a fling with turned up unannounced at your front door telling you he loved you. It wasn’t every day that you started what you thought was the job of your dreams either. Today was turning out to be a very weird day for Sam.
If someone had told her two weeks ago that she was going to be a junior partner at Anderson, Ingersoll and Swift then she’d have definitely believed them. That was the thing she’d been working for since she started here as an intern still in law school. She’d been stubborn enough about it to let her goal be more important than anything else, including maintaining any kind of relationship for more than a few dates.
However, if that same person had told her she’d have admitted she was in love with a guy who she’d met in that two weeks and mean it, she’d have called them a liar. But, Reid was back at her apartment waiting on her to end her first day at work. It was the one thing that held the power to drag her attention away from here. Normally, she was completely on her game. Today, something was different.
It was easy enough to blame it on the fact that it was her first day on a new job. She needed to get a new office set up, had to get used to having an assistant and a whole new set of responsibilities. There were going to be interns working under her now and even more on her plate than there had been before. To be honest, Sam had no idea how she was going to juggle all of that along with whatever she had going on with Reid, but she was going to try.
“Miss Crawford,” Debbie’s voice broke the silence in the office unexpectedly. Her new secretary was an old friend of hers from around the office. Most of the women who worked here were secretaries and personal assistants. A few of them were paralegals, and even less were attorneys. Debbie MacIntyre and Samantha had hit it off from the day she’d arrived as a lowly intern who was wide-eyed and lost on her first day here in a new place. It was weird to hear her best friend call her by her last name, even if that was a formality here in the office when they were both working in their official capacities.
She laughed and leaned down to press the button on the intercom that went out to Debbie’s desk. “Yes, Debbie?”
“Mr. Anderson is here to see you.”
Sam’s voice caught in her throat. Anderson was one of the founding members of the firm, and it wasn’t often that he’d had the opportunity to deign to see her before. That job usually fell to one of the junior partners. Though, she supposed now that she had been promoted, she was responsible for directly reporting to the senior partners. That was yet another thing she was going to have to get used to. She couldn’t help but feel like she was being called into the principal’s office every time she had an encounter in the office with one of them, but she put on her game face and tapped the intercom button again.
“Send him in please.” Sam stood up and tugged on her jacket to straighten it up as she cleared a space on her desk to make it at least look like she’d been working at moving into her new office instead of sitting here daydreaming about the handsome man who was probably stretched shirtless across her bed like he had been this morning when she left for work.
She was getting lost again when the older man entered the room and shook her out of her thoughts. Sam was really going to have to get herself together if she was going to make it. First day jitters and excitement could explain away a lot of today, but it wasn’t going to be an excuse that much longer. The firm expected all their partners to keep their heads in the game all the time. Sam’s head was very far from in the game today.
“Morning, Samantha.” Jim Anderson’s smile was warm and friendly. If she hadn’t watched him as long as she had, Sam would almost think he was being genuine, but she knew the difference between his real smile and his work smile. This one never quite made it all the way up into his eyes.
Sam returned the smile with a nod as she pushed herself up to stand from sitting at her desk.
“Good morning, Mr. Anderson. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” She offered him her hand, and he took it, giving it a small shake.
“Well, I like to make it a habit to check up on the new junior partners on their first day on the job. See how they’re all settling in.” He looked around the office. Boxes were stacked on the desk and in the corner of the room and various things were in the process of being put away. There was still a lot to do, but she imagined that the other two who’d gotten the promotion along with her were in pretty much the same situation.
“So far, everything is going well. Just getting things in place so I can get to work as soon as possible. I’m sure you’ve got a lot of clients coming down the pipeline, and I plan to be ready as soon as you are for me to get started.” She was ambitious. The partners had to know that about her already. It was the reason they’d brought her into the firm to start with. She had to admit that she was eager to get the ball rolling with work. It was what she was good at.
Work was Sam’s comfort zone, the place where she knew exactly what to do. Looking like she wasn’t a hundred percent organized was something that got on her nerves. She had to admit she was a perfectionist.
Mr. Anderson looked around the office again, appraising it with what she could only describe as a critical eye. There was something about Anderson that always made her feel like he was judging everything that she did. Maybe he was. She was never quite certain, but she did know that she needed to get things moving with this unpacking and settling, because something told her that tomorrow she was expected to hit the floor running.
“Alright then,” he cleared his throat and straightened his tie, reaching out to gently clap a hand across the back of her shoulder. “Just let us know if there’s anything you need. Your assistant should be able to take care of most things, but we’re here if you have any questions or concerns.”
Samantha knew he meant it to an extent, but she would have done just about anything to find the answer to something herself before she went to ask one of the senior associates about it. Letting one of them think she didn’t have everything on the ball was the last thing she was going to do, even if she wasn’t entirely certain she did.
“I’m sure I’m going to have everything under control, Mr. Anderson. I look forward to working with all of you more closely. Thank you for deciding I was worth the promotion.”
He nodded and moved towards the still open door. “I’ll take you
r word on that, Samantha. We have high hopes for you, and I’m certain you’ll rise to the occasion. See you soon.” The older man turned and walked through the door as she followed close behind, pausing in the doorway.
Sam breathed a sigh of relief as she watched Mr. Anderson walk away down the hall and back towards his own office. She slumped against the door frame and closed her eyes, brushing a stray strand of hair off her forehead and tucking it back into place. An unexpected throat clearing shocked her into standing up straight and opening her eyes.
“Everything alright there, Miss Crawford.” She could hear the laughter in Debbie’s voice even before the giggle she only half tried to stifle bubbled up.
“Oh, shut up with that Miss business, will you? Get into my office and help me unpack before the rest of the old men who run this place decide to come traipsing through.” Sam shot her friend a grin. Debbie was probably one of her best friends here, even if the two of them had had almost no chance to catch up since she’d come back from the retreat. Sam had thrown herself into her work and wasn’t sure she wanted to talk about Reid with anyone here at the office. Now that he was here, and things were settled with the promotion, something in her was itching to share all of the news with someone else.
Debbie pushed up from the desk, finally ending her laughter as she straightened her skirt with a nod.
“Alright, alright. Let’s go get you moved in before any more of the big wigs decide to come poke their noses around here to ‘see how you’re doing.’ We all know they just don’t know how to handle the fact that they’ve hired a woman to do this job for the first time, and they just need to come to look at the spectacle like you’re the new monkey at the zoo.”
Debbie was the same age as Samantha, at least within a few months, but the two of them were different. Sam had dark hair and eyes with skin that tanned the minute she hit the sun. Debbie had auburn hair and green eyes with the porcelain skin to match it all. She’d have burned long before she ever tanned. Where Samantha liked dark blacks and navy blues, Debbie enjoyed the brighter colors of the rainbow. If she wasn’t wearing something bright blue or green then it was purple or pink. Subdued wasn’t exactly the word someone would use to describe her. She was full of life, had a great sense of humor and a temper to match. All in all, Debbie would have made a terrible attorney, but she made a great assistant and an even better friend.
Sam closed the door behind them and flopped in the chair that sat on the opposite side of the desk with a sigh.
“I kind of wish I didn’t have to be here today, Debs.” She glanced over at the other woman, registering the look of shock on her face with a raised eyebrow.
“You running a fever over there, hon?” The look of mock concern that was painted across her features couldn’t hide the mischief in her eyes. “Cause I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that you didn’t want to be at work. Half the time we have to chase you out of this place so the night janitor doesn’t just have to clean around you.”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just have something a lot more interesting waiting at home. Well, someone…”
Debbie didn’t even let Sam finish her sentence before she let out a soft squeal. It was low enough that she wasn’t scared anyone else would hear, but it was loud enough that she knew Debbie had latched onto the ‘someone’ and wasn’t going to let it go until she got the full story out of her.
“Someone? Ok, you’re going to tell me all of this story, even if it means I have to unpack all these boxes by myself while you spill the beans.” She opened up the box on the desk and started tucking the books from inside it into their place on the shelf, arranging them in groups by their topic and author in alphabetical order. Sam should have known she would know exactly the way they were supposed to go and shook her head.
“Alright, alright. I guess you should know. I met someone at the retreat.” Debbie glanced over the top of her glasses at Samantha as she examined the cover of a book before sliding it onto the shelf.
“Tell me it’s not one of the stuffed shirts who work around here. Because I’m going to personally choke you if you hooked up with another attorney. John was bad enough.”
Sam shook her head, turning to grab her college diploma out of the top of another box and hang it on the nail that was already waiting in the dry wall.
“No, not anyone who was there with the firm. One of the ranch hands.” She tried to sound nonchalant as she hung the picture frame and rummaged around the box, not daring to look up at her friend’s expression. She heard the gasp though, followed by the sound of a book falling on the floor.
“Samantha Crawford! Well, I never…” It was in moments like this one that Debbie’s southern accent grew heavy and distinct no matter how hard she might try to hide it. She was good at blending in for the moment, but when she was surprised or upset it came right through. Sam found it endearing, even if Debbie was terrified that no one was going to take her seriously because of it.
Debbie bent over to grab the book she’d dropped on the floor, shooting a glare at Sam as she stifled a laugh. She dropped the book on the desktop and rested a hand on her hip.
“So are you going to make me beg? Or do I get the details?” Her eyes went wide as Debbie had a sudden revelation. “And what do you mean waiting at home? Do you mean to tell me that you brought a cowboy home with you from the retreat? You must have lost your mind.” The grin on her face didn’t match the mock disapproval that she tried to put into her words. In truth, she was tickled pink that her friend had been up to more than just brown-nosing at that retreat.
Sam could only shake her head and lean backwards onto the chair with a soft sigh. “Not exactly. It’s kind of a long story. It was just a fling, just a couple of nights at the ranch that I wasn’t ever going to forget. And then he showed up at my door here last night, and it just felt… right.” Sam wasn’t usually at a loss for words, but everything about Reid made her feel like she’d lost complete and total control of her faculties. She hadn’t wanted to tell anyone about the whole thing when she thought it was just a one-night stand. It made her seem too impetuous, but now that he was here, she had to tell someone. And no one was more perfect than Debbie.
“And does Mr. Right have a name?”
“Reid, actually.” Sam didn’t even raise her head to answer her friend. Instead she got a little lost in studying the pattern of the textured ceiling.
“Sounds like something you could scream all night and still have your neighbors’ respect the next day.” Debbie didn’t miss a beat with that one. It was deadpan, like she was talking to Mr. Ingersoll about what he’d ordered for lunch the next day. That was the thing that made Sam absolutely lose it and nearly fall out of her chair.
“Christ. I mean…” She stammered over her words, not sure of how much to tell her friend and how much to keep to herself. “So… there may have been a little screaming.” She grinned and felt herself blushing a little. It wasn’t so much that Samantha was shy, just that there hadn’t been much of a sex-life to talk about for so long, she didn’t even know how to begin.
“Ok, that’s it.” Debbie slammed a book down on top of the box she was unpacking. “We are getting the hell out of here for lunch, and I’m buying you a drink while you tell me the rest of this story. This isn’t something I’m going to miss just because you’re too prudish to talk about it at the office. And in the meantime, I’m going to make sure this office gets set up like you paid me to do it since you’re my boss and everything now.” She grinned and pulled the box over to the bookshelf, setting to work at pulling the books out and ordering them as quickly as she could.
Sam began to try to protest. She didn’t have time for any kind of a leisurely lunch today. Without even looking over her shoulder Debbie cut her off.
“Don’t even think about arguing me down. You might be the lawyer, but I’m not taking no for an answer.”
All Sam could do was shake her head and laugh. “Fine, but you’re buying more than just the drinks.”
/>
Chapter Two
It was Reid’s first time in a city since he’d been maybe about thirteen years old. His mother dragged them all on a family vacation one summer that involved a weekend spent fighting traffic and meandering through crowds. It wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time. There was a reason Reid had avoided living in anything bigger than what someone might call a town in all of his life.
He didn’t like the sounds. It was never quiet. At least not quiet enough to hear yourself think. There was always something going on, and the number of people who were around meant getting space to yourself was almost impossible. Even back at Samantha’s apartment he could hear the sounds of the people above, below, and on either side moving around and just living, the sounds of televisions, dogs barking, sirens out on the street below. The middle of the night was the same thing. The one thing that had made it all better was having Sam curled into his side. He could focus on the sound of her breathing and let it lull him off to sleep.
In spite of all of that, he’d willingly come into the city to at least give being with Sam a chance. When she’d left, he’d tried to tell himself it was all just a casu
al thing. He’d done casual before. He was good at it. At least, he’d thought he was, but he wasn’t good at forgetting Sam once she walked out that door and disappeared into a cloud of dust down the road that lead back to the airport and out of Reid’s life.
The next few days had been spent with him trying to get his head back on the job and off of the long brown hair that had felt absolutely perfect splayed across his chest when she’d fallen asleep the first night they’d spent together. He’d felt stupid. The fact that a woman had given him some attention shouldn’t have affected him that way. Plenty of women had given Reid attention in his life, wanted and unwanted. Why was Sam any different?
It had taken him a week to realize she was a whole hell of a lot more than those other women had been. Two days. Two stupid days was all it had taken, and he’d fallen for her. He wasn’t sure if it was the way she’d walked into that ranch like she knew exactly what she was doing, the way she’d ridden his horse like she’d been born doing it, or the way she seemed to just take all the air out of the room when she walked in. Maybe it was a combination of all of them, just who she was as a whole package. All he knew for certain was that it was impossible to get everything about her out of his mind.