The Pretend Boyfriend novel Chapter 27

To hell if he's going to let that happen.

Brian takes a long swig of his beer and slaps it down on the bar. Then he elbows his way through the sweaty, shiny bodies until he reaches Sam.

"Take a hike," he says to the dude. "I wanna dance with my former girlfriend."

The smile that lights Sam's face up brings a pang to his heart.

She puts one hand on his shoulder and the other in his hand, and together, they dance the night away.

THE PRETEND BOYFRIEND BOOK 2

She sticks her downloaded Internet photos of him onto the corkboard. She pins them up by the edges, taking care not to deface his beautiful face in any way.

Not yet, at least.

BRIAN MORTON. President and CEO of Vanguard Advertising, the hippest, most avant-garde advertising firm in Chicago. The firm corporations flock to when they want something different, thought- and mood-provoking ... and sexy.

It is so unfair. He has everything - good looks, charm, brilliance, money, success. And she has nothing.

This will be rectified very soon.

Because she's going to make him pay for what he did to her. She's going to make that promiscuous, no good, lying son of a bitch suffer as he has never suffered before. And when she's through with him, he's going to rue the day he was born.

She stands a little distance away from the corkboard, studying his photos from an angle. He's so handsome with his huge bedroom eyes, fantastic hair - always maintaining that 'just out of bed' tumbled look - and his wide sensuous lips. Lips that she has kissed repeatedly when he was fucking her. She can still feel him inside her, even though it's only a memory. A ghost of a memory. An imprint of emotions turned topsy-turvy; of love turned to hate.

She sure as hell hates him now. She clenches her fist, harnessing the accumulated vitriol which is manifesting in the bile that curdles her throat.

Brian Morton, when I'm through with you, you will have nothing left.

In the boardroom of the company he founded with his cousin, Brian Morton stands in front of a screen. He loves doing his own presentations, especially if he has coined the idea himself.

In this instance, his client happens to be the mayor's office - a real coup for Vanguard. The mayor has long been with Barstow Advertising across the street. But for this particular ad, the mayor's office had wanted something different. Something provocative.

Vanguard has acquired the reputation for provocation, thanks in no small measure to Brian's own efforts.

He has no idea then that all hell is about to break loose.

Samantha Fox walks nervously into the reception area of her office. Over here, all hell is about to break loose as well.

Two maintenance men are in the midst of taking down the 'LANDRY AND SONS' sign. She knows they will replace it with the blue diamond-shaped logo of 'SAPPHIRE', the competitor company which had bought over her old one in a hostile coup that came slinging out of nowhere.

Fiona, the receptionist, is nowhere in sight. Nevertheless, the reception area is bustling with people she has never seen before. They carry folders, files, stacks of documents - all presumably from Sapphire. The whole office is in bustling upheaval.

What the hell is going on? Well, other than the obvious fact that they have been taken over. But she didn't expect such a massive and sudden shift. No one in the former Landry and Sons had.

Peter Goodwin from Human Resources comes out, his face ashen. He carries a box filled with photo frames, vases and bric bracs. Sam's heart sinks. She recognizes the silver-framed family photo of Peter, his wife and their three kids that he'd had on his desk forever.

"Peter?" Her own voice is tinny and scared.

Peter stops. His lined face wears the expression of someone who has just lost a spleen in a near-fatal car crash.