Late couldn’t even begin to cover how behind Cassie Jenson was when she finally reached the Fuse Network office. She’d missed her normal train into Penn Station so she was forced to take a cab, resulting in a number of obscenities and various choice threats being hurled at the traffic from her spot in the backseat. If it hadn’t been over ten blocks from her apartment she would have just gotten out and ran. Worst of all, she’d somehow swapped phones with the man she’d all but mowed down in the hall. Some person named ‘Flyzik’ had been repeatedly calling and texting for the past hour and she had no doubts her boss had been doing the same to her phone. Now, as she stood outside of her boss’s door, she wondered if staying at home and calling in sick would have been a better choice than this.

“JENSON!” Cassie flinched and jumped back from the door as if it were about to attack her. The yell came from behind her and she spun around to come face to face with her boss, the Fuse News Producer, Mr. T. J. Desoto. Desoto looked…well, he looked like a bull would if you dressed it in Armani suits and taught it to walk on its hind legs. Standing at a towering 6’4”, he was just as muscular as he was tall, with slick black hair and a perfectly manicured moustache. Rumor had it that he had mob connections in his family—Cassie had the sneaking suspicion Desoto was a hit man in his younger days.

“Do you have any idea what time it is! I have five anchors about to go on with no edited material from you! Where is the final copy for the teleprompters? Why aren’t you in the studio with Michaels and Lucas?”

Startled by her boss’s questions and anger, Cassie gulped and tried to quickly put her apology together. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Desoto, it won’t happen again, I swear! I missed my train and I—”

“I don’t have time for your excuses!” Desoto’s harsh words cut her off and she instinctively took a step back into the door behind her. He had her pinned like a mouse in a corner but his expression finally softened and he sighed heavily. With one long arm he pointed in the direction of the studio. “Move. Now. Do not let this happen again.”

Cassie didn’t need telling twice. She hurried past calling, “Yes, Mr. Desoto! Right away, I’m sorry again!” as she went.

Jack had maybe thirty seconds to assess his situation before all hell broke loose in their lavish New Yorker Hotel room. Rian and Zack were on the second king sized bed and had the Xbox hooked up to one of the large flat-screen televisions in front of them. Both were hardly maintaining a seated position while they fought off zombies, yelling and furiously punching buttons on their controllers. The bathroom door was open and Alex was somewhere in there amongst a cloud of hairspray. But what Jack was least looking forward to was seated in the far corner of the room on his laptop.
Matt Flyzik looked up suddenly from his laptop when he heard the hotel room door open. The man he’d been trying to get a hold of since 9 o’clock in the morning had suddenly strolled into the room and he was ready to tear him a new one for making him so stressed out.

“Hey, before you say anything, this time it really wasn’t my fault,” Jack started hurriedly, putting his hands up defensively. Calming down their tour manager took a lot more than that so he didn’t waste any time going into his excuse/apology. “See what happened was I was coming out of this girl’s apartment and--”

“I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!”

Jack was unprepared by Matt’s sudden outburst, even more so when Matt tossed his laptop to the side and leapt up from his chair. Jack was significantly taller than his friend but he couldn’t remember a time when he’d ever been more afraid of him. For the second time that morning, Jack was knocked to the floor.

“Matt!” Jack gasped under the weight of his manager. Punches were coming in from every direction and showing no signs of stopping.

“You are so lucky you have to be on live TV later or these would be going in your face!” Matt growled through clenched teeth as he kept the punches coming. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve been freaking out? How am I supposed to keep the four of you together when the only directions you follow are from your dick?”

“I’m sorry! Come on, Matt! This time it’s really not my fault!” Jack yelped pleadingly from the floor. He looked over and saw Rian and Zack watching them while caught in hysterical laughing fits. “Guys! Help me out here!”

Laughing, Zack spoke up first. “No way man, you brought this on yourself.”

“Yeah,” Rian snickered along. “We told you not to go home with that girl from the bar last night!”

It took almost ten minutes and an innumerable amount of half-hearted punches before Matt had calmed down and Jack could get up from the floor. After explaining how his little run-in in the hall had resulted in his cellphone being traded Matt was a little less irritated about being ignored for the past two hours.

Huffing, Matt looked to the bathroom and saw Alex finally finishing up. “Jack, you’ve got an hour before we have to be in Fuse’s studio. They’re going to be interviewing all four of you before you play, so I suggest you get in the shower now. Oh, and I’m pretty sure the time slot they gave us is long enough for four or five songs so Alex, you should start warming up soon. As for you two,” he paused and looked at Rian and Zack with a grin on his face. “One of you are giving up a controller, someone’s got to teach you how to kill those zombies properly.”

An hour and a half later, Jack found himself in yet another makeup chair inside of Fuse Network’s studio. Apparently he hadn’t done a good enough job on his own hair to be live television ready. He wasn’t too annoyed though since Rian, Alex, and Zack were all in chairs getting primped as well. Their interviewer, Alexa Chung was in the dressing room with them chatting up Alex—of course—but was still stealing glances his way every chance she got. After the fourth time Jack just got annoyed and started playing with the phone he pulled from his pocket. The green-eyed girl had it locked but Jack could at least pretend it was more interesting than Alexa—which, coincidentally, it was.

The interview itself was more of the same questions they got all the time about their band, their day to day life, and what projects they were currently working on outside of the band. It was particularly boring for Jack, as his mind had been elsewhere ever since it started. He tried keeping up with the conversation that mostly consisted of just Alex and Rian going back and forth about funny stories from tour, but Jack just found himself looking absently around the studio from his seat.

From the corner of his eye he could see the teleprompter Alexa was reading off of and attempted to keep a straight face. The news room scene from Bruce Almighty flashed in his mind and he wondered if Alexa would be dumb enough to read the prompter word for word if he were suddenly able to change the words being displayed at will.

To the right of the chubby man operating the camera/teleprompter stood a guy that looked like he could have been Hulk Hogan’s better looking Italian brother. Judging by the way he was dressed, Jack wagered a guess that the man was one of the show’s higher-ups, probably a producer or something. But the thing that really caught his eye was the young woman who had recently appeared beside Mafia Dude carrying a large cup of Starbucks coffee for him.

Jack’s jaw dropped. The green-eyed girl from the apartment building had taken a minute to fix her hair and straighten out her clothes, but it was definitely her standing there not twenty feet away. From his seat on the couch Jack could finally get a good look at her, not caring if anyone noticed him staring off, seemingly into space. It wasn’t often that anyone could hold his attention for very long, especially some girl, but there was just something about her that made something stir inside him. It was carnal, almost an animalistic desire. He wanted her.

“Coming up after the break, All Time Low will be preforming here in the studio!” Alexa Chung’s words dragged Jack out of his thoughts temporarily. That was their cue to get up to start setting up for their live performance. “Stay tuned, music fans, you’re not going to want to miss this!”
At that very moment, the green eyed girl looked up from the coffee she had just delivered and her eyes locked on Jack’s. An unmistakable expression of recognition crossed her face and her mouth dropped open in a silent ‘O’ of surprise.

“Jensen,” Desoto’s sharp address made Cassie jump slightly and she was finally able to tear her eyes away from the man across the room. “Don’t you have some drafts you’re supposed to be putting on my desk by Monday?”

Thankful to have an excuse to immediately leave the studio room, Cassie gave Desoto a quick, “yes sir,” and turned sharply on her heels. She had made it safely out of the room and was walking briskly down the long corridor to the main office to where her cubical was when something caught her by the wrist. Stunned, she whirled on the spot and came face to face with the dark-haired man from this morning. As if her heart wasn’t pounding hard enough already.

“What’s your hurry, cupcake?”

The smoothness of his voice and the way his brown eyes seemingly saw right through her made her voice hitch in her throat. This man had a sort of unconventional sexiness to him that exuded confidence. He was dressed casually; a pair of black jeans hung low on his hips, a faded blue t-shirt stretched across his broad chest, and his leather jacket looked as if it had seen better days. But he could have been wearing nothing but that smirk now on his lips and he would have still carried himself with the same manner. It was unnerving for her, and the way he was staring at her like a choice cut of meat was making it very hard for her to keep her composure to find her voice again.

“Work,” she blurted stupidly. The right side of the man’s lips curved up more into a devilish smile and she felt the blush rising in her cheeks. “I work here,” she started again, attempting a recovery from this already disastrous second encounter. She could feel the words spilling from her mouth and she desperately wished she could keep herself from sounding so stupid. “And I really need to be going so if you could please just return my phone, I’ve got yours at my desk and I could go—”

“Hey now, not so fast,” the man cut her off and Cassie became increasingly aware that he still hadn’t let go of her wrist. She tried to take a step back and if it were possible his grin widened.

Down the hall a ways, a Fuse employee suddenly came around the corner leading a small group of tourists. They paid no mind to Cassie and the man as they passed, but the distraction allowed her to wriggle her wrist free from his grasp. Not looking back, she took off as fast as she could. The only thing that was clear in her mind was that she had to get away from the man, at least for a moment so she could compose herself. She hadn’t been so flustered in all her life. What was wrong with her? It was just a man. Sure he was attractive but she shouldn’t be ready to jump his bones at a single touch.

Cassie expected him to eventually catch up to her again, but she wasn’t expecting the sudden hard tug on her arm. She gasped in surprise and before she knew it she was being pulled into the janitor’s closet to her immediate left. Instinct told her to scream, but the man’s hand was faster. She heard the door click shut and felt her back hit it seconds later.

“How am I supposed to ever give you your phone back if you keep running away, huh?” he asked, laughing as he uncovered her mouth. He let his fingers linger on her lips just a little longer and Cassie felt her knees go weak.

Cassie couldn’t think, couldn’t hear anything over her heart beating furiously in her chest. Surely she should have been terrified that she’d just been dragged into a closet by a complete stranger, but the emotions she was feeling were definitely not from fear. He was so close to her that she could smell the faint scent of his Old Spice deodorant and feel his hot breath on her face.
“P-please,” she stammered. “I can’t…”

“Can’t what?”

From the tone in his voice Cassie could tell this was amusing him. She gulped, feeling her adrenaline rising. “Please give me my phone back,” she squeaked out. “I really need to get back to work.”

She heard him chuckle and move slightly. With a faint click, the closet was suddenly illuminated by a single bare bulb above their heads. The man’s face was now barely inches away and Cassie suddenly wished the light was off again.

“What if I don’t want to give it back?”

He was taunting her and by the mischievous glint in his eyes he was definitely enjoying himself. Not waiting for her to answer, he leaned in closer and put his hands against the door on either side of her face, trapping her. “Nothing ever comes free, cupcake,” he grinned.

“I-I have something of yours too,” she piped up, suddenly regaining some of her confidence. As much as she wanted to, she didn’t break eye contact.

The man tipped his shaggy head back and laughed. Smirking, he let a single finger trace inside the open top of her white Oxford shirt along her collar bone. She felt goose bumps rising on her skin at his touch but still had the sense to swat his hand away.

“There’s that fire I was looking for.”

Cassie gulped and felt her legs shaking on her heels. “W-what do you want?”
The man’s grin seemed permanently etched on his face and she felt heat pooling in the pit of her stomach with every second. He leaned in even closer until his mouth was just below her ear. “Don’t move,” he whispered.

Cassie couldn’t move from her spot against the door even if she tried. The man’s lips ghosted against her neck and she felt one of his hands at the other side of her cheek, holding her in place. Moving lower, he kissed the spot at the base of her neck, just above her collar bone. An involuntary moan escaped her lips and she felt him smile against her skin. She hardly noticed that his hand was slowly working down her shirt, undoing a button each time he kissed a new place on her neck. When he reached where her skirt was tucked into the top of her skirt he stopped kissing her neck and locked eyes with her.

Never taking his eyes off her, he traced a line around the waist of her skirt starting from her hip. When he reached the button in the front he popped it open as easily as he’d done the ones on her shirt. Her heart was thundering in her chest when she felt him slowly pulling down her zipper. His touch was leaving a trail of fire in its wake and Cassie bit down on her bottom lip to hold back another moan. His finger was at the waistband of her black lace panties but she dared not look away from his eyes, not even when he slipped a single long finger inside of her.

Cassie let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been withholding, feeling him push a second finger inside her and drawing them almost all the way out before sliding them back in again. “You’re wet,” he commented and she could see his eyes clouded with as much desire as her own. “You like this, don’t you.”

Not wanting to admit it to even herself, she shook her head no. He grinned at her lie and started to curl his fingers upwards each time he pushed them back inside of her. “Liar,” he laughed darkly. “How long has it been since anyone’s touched you?” he groaned hungrily when he heard her whimper. “Damn, you’re so tight…has anyone ever touched you? Has anyone ever made you cum before?”

His impertinent questioning matched with the steady rhythm of his fingers was sending Cassie’s mind into a frenzy. Each second was bringing her closer and closer to her release, but it wasn’t until he added his thumb against her clit that she let her eyes roll back in pleasure.

Jack couldn’t help himself. The minute he saw those green eyes roll back at the pleasure he was giving her, he leaned in and caught her lips in a fiery kiss. While his right hand was busy below her legs, his left cupped the base of her neck and held her hard against the door. He could feel her breath growing ragged and knew she was getting close. With a few last hard thrusts from his hand, he kissed her again hard when he felt her convulsing around his fingers, quieting her moan with his lips.

Breathless, Cassie looked up still stunned at what had just happened. The stranger only laughed at how speechless she was and pulled her phone from his back pocket. “Thanks, cupcake.” With a wink, he stole a quick kiss and tucked her phone in her exposed bra. Before she could say a word, he moved her aside and slipped out the closet door.