Shadows Read online

  Copyright Amber Lacie ©2015

  eBooks are not transferrable. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Formatted by @Sassie Lewis

  Content Warning:

  This books contains scenes of adult sexual nature and may contain graphic violence. This is for mature audiences only, especially those wanting a roller coaster ride and wet panties

  Acknowledgements

  For my husband and children, who have supported me since the very beginning, and have watched me unravel, put myself back together, and become an emotional train wreck while taking on this adventure. I love you all, so very much. Thank you, for everything.

  For Jaci, my rock, my best of friends who tolerates my rants and outbursts as the story took over my life, my first beta, my thought picker, my sounding board. I love you.

  For Sarah, my friend, my beta. Thank you.

  Shadows

  Eve was content getting lost in her books, while living with her best friends. She’s a beautiful girl surrounded by her friends and family. In her twenty six years of life, nothing exciting has ever happened to her. Everything is going perfectly for her. Little does she know, one summer at the beach could change her life forever. . .

  Theron is the son of a cutthroat multi-billionaire business tycoon. He thought he left behind the world his father created, but things change. Now, he’s devoted himself to his eccentric grandma. His only hope at overcoming his past, is finding the one person he lost so very long ago. . .

  When Eve bumps into Theron, their worlds collide. Nothing can prepare them for the instant fireworks and roller coaster ride waiting for them.

  But…one has a secret. Can their love overcome tragedy, lies, and secrets?

  Chapter 1

  After scrolling through my Facebook account for the third time today, I check the time. I'm completely bored. By noon I had finished logging all of my accounts. I should have taken a lunch break with Kayla, but I was on a roll and decided to skip lunch. A lot of good that did, my boss isn't even here to notice. She left for a business meeting at ten and hasn't been back since. Crumpling up a piece of paper, I throw it at Kayla. Of course, I miss and it hits Ben's cubicle instead. Crap. I slink down in my chair, hoping he doesn’t realize it came from me. It's sure to have pissed him off, and I don't want to deal with angry Ben. Kayla coughs and I peek out from my cubicle. Ben is standing there with his hands on his hips straining the buttons on his shirt. I wonder who shops for him. Does he know that his clothes are this tight? They look so uncomfortable.

  "This is not a playground, Eve. Some people are here to actually work. We like our jobs and want to keep them. Keep your garbage to yourself."

  His fake Armani pants are literally up his ass as he walks away. I let out a giggle, which causes Kayla to start laughing hysterically. We can barely contain ourselves. Anne walks out from her office and heads straight towards us. I give Kayla a look and we both immediately get back to work, or at least pretend to.

  Anne's sitting on the edge of my desk, completely making herself at home. She starts rearranging my sticky notepads by colors. "You two need to stop. You know he's going to call his aunt about this."

  "Oh come on, Anne. It was funny. Did you see him? He was huffing and puffing. I totally thought today was the day he was going to blow a button." Kayla starts laughing again.

  "Kayla! He is going to hear you. Don't you want to keep your job? You are making it hard on everyone here in the office, you know." Anne is trying her best to play her manager role, but we both know better. She's only keeping up appearances. As soon as we get to the bar tonight, she will change her tune.

  "Okay. We're sorry, Anne. I promise next time I won't hit Ben with the paper. I'll make sure to hit Kayla directly in the back of her head. "

  "You do that, and I'll hit you back with some paper clip rockets." Kayla looks around innocently twirling her blond curls between her fingers.

  I give Anne my biggest smile. Mumbling something about immature brats, Anne walks back to her office.

  "Eve, you know that was funny right?"

  "I don’t think Anne or Ben thought so. Do you really think he's going to go crying to Sharon again? I hate that he's her nephew. He does absolutely nothing, but play games on his computer all day. Not to mention what a pain in the ass he is. "

  "The creep hit on me again this morning. He makes my skin crawl."

  I have been subjected to his pickup lines before. They are completely inappropriate and I've told him off more than once. He's never complained to his aunt about it before, but I wouldn't push it past him. I warned him if he did it again, I was going to report him. He hasn't bothered me since. I guess Kayla must be his new target.

  It is one minute to five. Kayla and I are standing next to the time clock watching, for what feels like forever, for the clock to change. Finally! We punch out and head out for the day. We drove separately today, which normally doesn't happen since we're roommates. She wanted to hit the gym after work and I wanted to browse the bookstore to see if they got anything new in.

  "Eve, are you cooking tonight?"

  "Of course, Matt said he's got tomorrow night."

  "Cool. I'll be home a little late. Paul is meeting me at the gym. He has some more techniques I want to try out." I raise my eyebrows at her and she blushes. "Not those kind of moves, he'll show me those later." She laughs sliding in to her car. I'm shaking my head at her as she pulls away.

  The bookstore is only a few blocks away so I decide to walk. One nice thing about walking around our town is no one notices you. I'm alone with my thoughts when I notice the snow is starting to melt. Mother Nature needs to make up her mind. It's the end of March, but she hasn't decided if it's spring or winter.

  Getting a rush of warm air, I stomp the snow and slush off my boots. I walk into the quaint little bookstore. I love this place. The owners are older and this store has been in their family for generations. Harold is rebinding books behind the counter. Olivia, his wife, is probably shelving books somewhere. Harold gives me a sweet smile as I set my purse down on the counter.

  "My dear, Evelyn, how are we this evening?"

  "It's Eve, Harold, and I'm fine. Did you get anything new in?"

  "I think Olivia spotted a few you might like. She was making a pile for you earlier. Let me see where she's at." He walks out from behind the counter to find her. Taking a deep breath, I relax against the counter. I love the way this store smells. I'm pretty sure it's what heaven smells like. Hearing Olivia's shoes clicking on the hardwood floor, I look up as she walks to the counter.

  "I only found four this time. It's getting harder to find some you haven't read before. We might actually have to order new ones for just for you."

  "No, don't do that. I like buying them second hand. There's no sense in buying a brand new book, when there are so many used ones waiting to be read." Olivia pats my hand. She probably thinks I'm just saying that to appease her, but I'm not. I won't shop at another book store. I have ordered some online, but only books they wouldn't carry. There's not much they won't sell. I even bought my copy of Fifty Shades of Grey here. I hand Olivia my card. She hands me my receipt as I put my books in my purse.

  "I've never understood why someone would need such a big purse."

  "How else do you expect to carry all of these? Thanks for the books." I give her a wink and head back into the cold. The wind has picked up. It's starting to nip at my face. Clutching my purse to my body, I walk back to my car and I notice a note
tucked under my wiper blade.

  This is not a parking garage!

  There's no signature, but I know it's from Ben. Crumpling it up, I toss it into my car. I crank up the heat as I head to the grocery store. I stop and get what I need for dinner. As I'm walking back to my car, I see a couple of teenagers pushing each other on the carts in the parking lot. The girl is hanging on to the end of the cart for dear life, and the boy is running as fast as he can. He jumps up and stands on the front of the cart as it races across the parking lot. Screaming with laughter, he puts his foot down slowing the cart. She lifts her head, smiling up at him. They look so incredibly happy. I watch them for a couple of seconds. When he turns, I notice his sunglasses. Getting an odd déjà vu feeling, I decide to shake it off and head home.

  Not noticing the cold, Matt walks over to my car to help me with the bags. He's in a white t-shirt and grey flannel pajama pants. He must have seen me pull up.

  "Hey, I got those."

  "It's only a few bags. Shouldn't you be wearing a coat?"

  "Coats are for wimps, besides I'm trying to be a gentleman."

  I raise my eyebrows at him in complete disbelief. He's never been a gentleman before. We are on the second floor, so thankfully it's not a long climb up the stairs. The number six has spun again and now resembles a number nine. I make a mental note to fix it later. Matt starts putting the groceries away and pushes me towards the hall. He knows I'm going to want to change out of my clothes right away. It takes everything in me not to shed my shirt and pencil skirt as I walk to my bedroom.

  Our apartment isn't huge by any means. The kitchen is small and opens into a living room. We each have our own bedroom, mine being the smallest. There's a twin size bed tucked into one corner and a dresser in the opposite corner. I feel better after changing into black yoga pants and a tank top. If Matt wasn't home, the bra would be gone as well.

  I find Matt standing by our kitchen counter holding the bottle of wine and two glasses. Nodding to him, I start working on dinner. Matt pours us each a glass of wine and I can tell there is something bothering him.

  "Hey, you okay?"

  "I had a shitty day, just leave it."

  "Um, okay." I stir the food some more wondering what's eating him. It's not like him to snap at me.

  "What's for dinner?"

  "Chicken stir fry. It says I only have to add water." I shoot Matt a huge grin and he walks away shaking his head. I'm not the world greatest cook. If it comes out of a box or a bag, I can probably handle it. I should never bake under any circumstances. Kayla has had to help me fan our fire alarms more than once, when I've tried to bake cookies. Making us each a plate, I plop down next to Matt on the couch as I hand him his.

  "Sorry I snapped at you. I had a long day at work. Some jackass intern in the accounting department entered a bunch of inventory accounts wrong. He realized his mistake, but it took him three months to notice it. So, now I have to go back and redo all of his accounts and logs. It's a pain in my ass. I don't have time to do his work and mine."

  "That's shitty. Why can't he go back and fix his own mistake? Why do you have to do it?"

  "Well, I'm trying to get a promotion, so I took the initiative to look into why his accounts were off. If I would have known it was this bad, I wouldn't have volunteered."

  "That would explain the pajamas, then. It's only a little after five and you never wear pajamas this early."

  "That explains the pants, and why I opened the wine. Anyways, so enough about my shitty day, how was work?"

  "Meh. It was rather boring. I finished all of my work before noon, so I mostly killed time on Facebook. I managed to piss of Ben before I left though.'

  "What did you do this time?"

  "I may have accidently tossed a crumpled piece of paper into his cubicle."

  Matt laughs shaking his head at me. "His aunt didn't come out to save him?"

  "No, she was already gone for the day. Kayla and I were cracking up, but Anne came out of her office to lecture us."

  "I'm sure that did a lot of good. One day Ben is going to realize you are all friends."

  "So, there's nothing in our handbook about not being friends. We just can't socialize at work." Shrugging my shoulders, I pop a piece of chicken into my mouth. I start thinking about my day and then I remember the weird feeling I got.

  "Hey, have you ever had déjà vu before?"

  "I don't know, maybe once or twice. Why, what were you doing?"

  "I was watching a couple of teens race around on grocery carts." I see Matt cock his head just a little. "Please don’t look at me like that." I lean back on the couch as he starts to randomly flip through channels. Deciding I'm too tired to wait and see what he picks, I put my plate in the sink, then head to bed with my glass of wine. Opening one of my new books, I flop down on my bed. My finger swipes open the Pandora app on my phone and I just let it play.

  I'm sitting on a park bench with my mom near the lake. I'm drawing pictures in the sand with my toes, while eating an ice cream cone. I laugh as I watch a boy try to ride one of the handrails with a skateboard. A DNR officer pulls ups next to him and lectures him, clearly pointing to a no skateboarding sign. The boy looks up and smiles at me. He's got such dark sunglasses on, I wish I could see his eyes. I feel like I know him. I'm assuming it's his dad that walks up behind him. He's starts screaming at the boy and pulls him away, dragging him by his ear. Looking up at my mom I start crying. I don't know why, but I'm really hurt he took the boy away. My mom rubs my back. "Don't worry. He will be back another day."

  "No, he won't! He told me he won't be back again." Clinging to my mom, I sob into her shoulder.

  Opening my eyes, I find myself back in the comfort of my bedroom. My book is lying on the floor. Ellie Goulding's voice fills my room. Not being able to stomach any music, I turn off my phone. I'm sitting in the middle of my bed and I can't shake the feeling of how real that dream felt. It's not the first time I’ve had that exact dream, and I doubt it will be the last. Gathering a change of clothes, I head to the bathroom. The hot shower definitely helps relax my muscles. I slip into some comfy pajamas and pull my wet hair up into a knot on top of my head. Double checking to make sure my alarm is set, I slip into bed, pull my covers up around me, and drift back to sleep.

  I’m in a dreamlike state, but a loud noise is pulling me out of it. I smack at my alarm a couple of times before I actually make contact with it. Since I work from home on Thursday's, I don't need to log in online until nine. It's about ten till so I have time to make a cup of coffee, set up my laptop on the couch and get comfy. I love not having to wear business clothes. I wish yoga pants were acceptable for casual Fridays, but since they aren't, I make a note to hit the laundry mat later.

  At eleven, I shoot Kayla a text asking her how work at the office is going and if she will be home tonight. It only takes her a few minutes to respond. She lets me know that Ben took a personal day and she will be home right after work. This most likely means Sharon is going to send out another email about team work. Honestly he's not even a team player, but I can't complain since he's her nephew. I log out of my work program and decide it's time for lunch. Most days when I work from home I skip my morning break. This way I get a two hour lunch break. It's just enough time to wash and dry a couple loads of laundry.

  I'm sitting on one of the washing machines reading a book. When I hear the bells ring on the door, I take a second to check the time on my phone. There's still an hour or so before I need to get back home. Turning the page I get lost in my book.

  "Are you using that washer?"

  I look up to see the man the voice belongs to. He stands just a little over six feet. His dark hair combed back out his face. It's long enough to grab on to, just passing his ears. Dark stubble lines his perfectly squared jaw. He’s wearing a blue t-shirt which is tight across his broad chest. As my gaze drifts south, I notice his dark blue jeans that are sitting perfectly on his hips. I bet if I lifted his shirt I would find the band to his und
erwear exposed, as well as amazingly sexy defined abs. Drawing my gaze back up to his face, I notice his eyes. One eye is green. The other is a deep chocolate brown. How is this even possible? It’s like his eyes are swirling with sexiness. I’m distracted. I have no idea how long I have been sitting here, just staring at him. It must have been past the amount of comfortable time for him, because he clears his throat.

  “So...the washer, are you using it?” Wait, he’s speaking to me.

  “Right. Sorry. Um, no. Let me move my stuff. It’ll be just a second.” He laughs, but I don’t find any of this funny. I hope he's not laughing at me. "The machines here work great. My clothes always come out clean." Oh my god. I need to shut up. I mentally slap myself.

  “I should hope so.” He laughs again. Great, now I know he's laughing at me. I grab my basket and take my clothes out of the dryer. Setting my basket back on one of the washers, I watch him as he sits down at one of the tables. I keep having thoughts of his lips brushing against mine. What's the matter with me? I glance over at him and he’s staring straight at me. Shit! He caught me looking at him. I start folding my laundry to make myself look busy. I hear his chair scrape across the tile floor, but I refuse to look up. "I think it's done washing."

  Looking up at him confused, I notice my other basket is on his washer again. He places his hand on mine to stop me when I try to move the basket. My breath hitches and he quickly pulls his hand away. His touch brands me. My nerves are electrified. What was that? He looks at me confused and possibly hurt. I don't understand what happened. Static, maybe? He shakes his head and a piece of hair falls on to his forehead. I want to put it back into place. I want to run my fingers through his hair and feel his breath on my neck. Thinking better of it I laugh at myself for being so ridiculous. People don’t just randomly run their hands through a stranger’s hair. This isn't one of my books.

  "What's so funny?"