Seduced By Danger

                                CHAPTER ONE

I scowled with frustration at myself in the mirror. Damn my hair - it just will not behave. I tried to brush it into submission. I must not sleep with it wet. I must not sleep with it wet. I must not sleep with it wet. Reciting this mantra several times, I attempted, once more, to bring it under control with the brush.   I rolled my eyes in exasperation, stared at the sallow-skinned blonde with a full fringe and grey eyes staring back at me, and gave up. My only other option was to let my wayward hair fall down pass my shoulders and hope that I looked presentable. I would be interviewing one of the richest lawyers in the Upper East Side for the magazine I worked for, DECADE, so I had to make an impression. I was shitting it. This was my first interview and it was with a celebrity.

When I entered the living room, my roommate and best friend, Lucy Millis, sat on the floor amid half a dozen moving boxes. “We should head to a bar to celebrate.”

I was not surprised by Lucy’s emphatic pronouncement. Lucy found any excuse to celebrate no matter how small and inconsequential. I had always considered it part of her charm. “I’m pretty sure that drinking the night of my first day of work is a bad idea. Plus, I’ll have to live with the consequences tomorrow morning.”

“Come on, Valerie” Lucy flashed her winning smile. We had been unpacking for days, yet she still looked gamine and gorgeous as always. Slender, dark-haired and brown-eyed, Lucy was a girl who rarely looked anything less than amazing on any day of her life.

“I’m not talking about a bender,” she insisted. “Just a glass of wine or two. We can hit happy hour and be home by nine.”

“I don’t know if I’ll make it back in time. The interview might take a while.”

“Hurry it up a bit.” Lucy’s perfectly executed arched brow made me laugh. I fully expected her million-dollar face to appear on billboards and fashion magazines all over the world one day, that’s if she quiet dance instructing and accepted the hundreds of perfume or clothing advertisements she had been offered by modelling agencies all over New York. No matter her expression, she was a knockout.

“How about Friday after work?” I offered as a substitute. “If I make it through the week, that’ll be worth celebrating.”

“Deal. I’m breaking in the new kitchen for dinner.”

“Uh…” Cooking was one of Lucy’s joys, but it was not one of her talents “Great.”

Blowing a wayward strand of hair off her face, she grinned at me. “We’ve got a kitchen most restaurants would kill for. There’s no way to screw up a meal in there.”

Dubious, I headed out with a wave, choosing to avoid a conversation about cooking. Taking the elevator down to the first floor, I smiled at the doorman when he let me out to the street with a flourish.

The moment I stepped outside, the smells and sounds of Manhattan embraced me and invited me to explore. I was merely across the country from my former home in Forks, and seemingly worlds away. Two major metropolises - one endlessly green and sensually lazy, the other teeming with life and frenetic energy. In my dreams, I had imagined living in a walk-up in Brooklyn, but being the dutiful daughter, I found myself on the Upper East Side instead. If not for Lucy living with me, I would have been miserable in the sprawling city and an apartment that cost more a month than most people would made in a year.

The doorman tipped his hat to me. “Good evening, Miss Cross. Will you need a cab this evening?”

“No thanks, James.” I rocked onto the rounded heels of my high-heels. “I’ll be walking.”