Free Save the Night for Me by Selena Sexton

Chapter 1
    Nina woke, disoriented,
in a large, soft bed in a beautifully-appointed hotel room. She sat up and
looked around, struggling to remember the night before. She was naked; her
clothes from the day before were hung neatly over the back of a nearby chair,
but she did not remember doing that. She was alone in the room; no sign of any
companion. She stepped to the window and parted the heavy curtains a bit,
looking out onto the city as morning light shone in. As she gazed upon the
buildings below, she began to remember the prior evening...
    Her meeting at the ad agency had run very
late. Usually she liked brainstorming meetings at the beginning of an ad
campaign, but this was a more stressful kind than usual, because her team had
pitched their best ideas to the client that afternoon and every one had been
soundly rejected, sending them back to the drawing board, literally. To make
matters worse, the client had no clear vision of what he wanted, just
apparently a strong sense of what he did not want, so they didn't have any
guidelines within which to operate, other than trying to come up with
different, creative ways to promote electric heating pads. Things had devolved
down to having a talking mascot pad with an electrical cord tail when they
finally decided to pack it in at ten o'clock at night.
    After 7pm, there was only one train every
hour from the city back to the suburbs, and she had just missed the 10; she
would have to kill almost an hour before she could get the 11. Three of her
coworkers were going to share a cab rather than wait; they offered to let her
squeeze in, but that seemed uncomfortable. Her friend Melanie actually lived
downtown and offered to let her crash, but Nina just wanted to go home, feed her
fish and chill out in front of some late-night TV. Nothing personal, but she
wanted to leave work and all things work-related, including her coworkers,
alone for the night.
    Nina walked toward the train station,
gazing at various store displays, figuring that she would duck in somewhere for
a quick bite to eat while she was waiting-there were a few restaurants farther
down. She passed a building with a reflective surface and slowed down to take
stock of herself. She thought she looked very tired, but overall not bad: her
thick dark hair hung in shiny waves over her shoulders, setting off her pale
skin and bright green eyes fringed with dark lashes.
    And those bright red lips! She had tried a
new lipstick that day that was supposed to last all day without smudging or
fading, and she was pleased to see it was holding up well, still looking shiny
and delicious, like a fresh juicy strawberry. She'd actually forgotten she was
wearing it, so seeing how it looked out here in the lamplight, how it set off
her dark hair and pale skin in a sexy and romantic way, was a pleasant
surprise. She had wondered why the male passers-by seemed to be staring
appreciatively. Otherwise she was not provocative in appearance; she was
wearing a beige trench coat to ward off the evening mist, buttoned and belted
over a simple black dress and stockings. A pair of black leather boots
completed the ensemble. They were somewhat sexy, with a three-inch heel, but
not outrageous. She could walk in them comfortably enough.
    She heard someone clear his throat just
behind her, and she turned, startled, to see a man approaching on the sidewalk.
As he passed, they exchanged a glance that shot through her like a bolt of
electricity; it was that sudden and powerful. He was unreasonably handsome,
with thick dark hair, bright blue eyes ringed with dark lashes, a firm,
chiseled jaw setting off full, sensual lips. He smiled at her, and his intense
gaze made her weak. She was embarrassed at the strength of her reaction to this
man, gorgeous as he was, and she was also embarrassed because she hadn't even
noticed him in the reflection of the mirrored window-she must have really been
staring at herself, she thought, blushing a little, self-consciously.