Surprise Sleepover by Sara York

An Excerpt

Nick stared out of the fifteenth floor window of the Hayson building in 
downtown Dallas. His plane to Cancún was scheduled to leave in the 
morning, but based on the ice falling from the sky nothing would be 
taking off or landing at the airport. He’d called the airlines again and 
still got the same answer. He guessed he would keep calling until they 
cancelled, or it was so close to flight time he would try to make his 
way to the airport.

His floor had been empty for hours. Everyone with brains had left 
Jackson and Reeves Corp except him. At lunch someone had dumped fifteen 
contracts on his desk. Nick wanted to curse them and ignore the work, 
but leaving the contracts for when he returned wasn’t his style. No 
question about it, he would finish the work before his week of vacation. 
Of course, he hadn’t believed the snow would hit this early either. Now 
a drive to the airport looked like a trip to hell.

Only one more contract to review and print and he’d be done. Lucky for 
him the deal was easy, no special add-ons or exclusions. Time slowed as 
he drew closer to finishing. Only a few more minutes, then party time 
started. Hell, who was he kidding? The roads were crap. It would take a 
miracle to drive more than a few miles in this muck.

The eerie hush of the streets made him jumpy. Usually cars zoomed past, 
but not today. It’d been thirty minutes or more since he’d heard 
anything outside.

A loud noise broke the silence. He mistyped a few characters, which he 
corrected before getting up to look for whoever was sneaking around the 
building. The noise had been the door by the elevator, he was sure of 
it. That particular door made a loud popping sound anytime it opened. 
Had someone come back to work? Impossible, with the roads the way they were.

Nick stepped closer to his door and hesitated. The smart thing would be 
to lock the door and call someone, but he wasn’t a baby. And who would 
he call? Sure, he was afraid to leave the safety of his office, but no 
one who wasn’t supposed to be in the building could get in.

The pounding of his heart and the sweat on his brow made him laugh. He 
was being ridiculous. This wasn’t a slasher film. Some guy wasn’t going 
to jump out from behind a corner and stab him or shoot him.

Nick shook off his fear and walked out of his office and straight into 
another person. He screamed and flailed his arms. The rapid beat of his 
heart echoed in his ears.

“Oh God, I didn’t mean to run into you.” The man stepped back, grasping 
Nick’s upper arms in his hands.

For a moment Nick fought the stranger’s grip. Fear shot around his 
thoughts before he realised the man holding him was James from accounting.

“I didn’t know anyone was still here.” His heart still hammered in his 
chest and his breathing was erratic, but he wasn’t sure if it was from 
the fright or the fact that James was touching him.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. How about you? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I was just looking to see if anyone else was in the building. I’m 
James, by the way. I work down in accounting.” James dropped his hands 
from Nick’s arms and laughed. “I guess I don’t need to hold on to you 
anymore.”

Nick laughed too, not because James had laughed, but because he wanted 
James to touch him and so much more. But he was used to hiding those 
desires. So he laughed to cover what he really wanted, hoping the other 
man wouldn’t see the desire he felt. “I’m Nick.”

“I know who you are.”

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