Chapter Five

Sam’s POV

Hours after that beautiful, but much dreaded night I had spent with a total stranger, I tried so much to return to my usual life.

The idea of forgetting about my current life conditions and pretending I was someone else hadn’t worked out so well after all. It felt like I had just briefly moved through someone else’s life, and now I had to return to mine.

I went back to work at Royale Lodge that morning like nothing had happened. I cleaned the rooms, my mind still hooked on the stranger who seemed to have crawled up under my skin.

I smiled politely at everyone, but inside me, everything waschaos. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about him.

The masked stranger. My totally unexpected one-night-stand. The way his touch had felt against my skin… like I belonged there.

It was like I went on with an invisible string tied to him, which I couldn’t seem to discard. And there was the way my heart behaved… like it had lost something.

I’d catch myself turning suddenly, expecting to see him behind me. But he never was. I’d literally ran out of his apartment… hoping we never get to cross paths again.

“You okay, Sam?” Nora had asked me that morning as we walked to the bus stop.

I forced a smile. “Yeah. Just tired.”

She studied me. “You’ve been quiet since the party.”

I looked away. “It’s nothing I just… did something stupid.”

Her eyes widened and rolled with excitement. “You mean with that mystery man of yours?”

I groaned softly. “He isn’t my mystery man, Nora… you literally blackmailed me into that.”

“But look on the bright side, huh? You finally lived a little!” she said happily. “I’m proud of you.”

“I don’t even know if I’m proud of my self at this moment,” I whispered, frustrated.

“So?” Nora pushed, “Are you ever going to tell me about the fun part?”

“That’s because there was any… I mean, it doesn’t feel like funnow,” I said quietly. “It feels like I have committed the gravest sin around, and it’s coming back to haunt.”

Nora frowned slightly. “Sam, it was one night.”

I nodded in agreement. But it didn’t feel like just one night to me. It felt like I had been pulled out of my life, dipped into an alternate universe of it, and then pulled back into my old life.

Even when I decided to use my break time to check on Clara at the hospital, the stranger still seemed to haunt me through her.

Clara smiled weakly when she saw me. “Did you meet anyoneinteresting at the party?” she asked in a cute but slightly teasing manner.

I laughed softly. “You sound like Nora.”

“Well… did you?” she insisted.

I hesitated a little, then decided how harmful could it be telling Clara about the stranger.

“Maybe.” I answered her with a firm smile.

But my response brought the opposite of what I had hoped, as her eyes lit up immediately.

“Who’s he?! Tell me everything!” she sang.

I sat beside her bed and brushed her hair gently.

“It was just someone I met at the party,” I said. “Nothing much.”

But my heart twisted as soon as I said the name. Because it didn’t feel like nothing. The night had been replaying in my mind like a movie on a constant loop.

By mid-afternoon, Nora was helping me finish my shift at the hotel. Sometimes she came along like that just to keep me company while I worked.

She leaned against my cart scrolling through her phone.

“Ugh,” she said dramatically. “Why are basketball players so damn hot?”

I laughed weakly. “You and your athletes.”

“I’m serious,” she said, eyes glued to the screen. “I’ve been stalking this one guy on I*******m...”

“Oh, yeah?” I teased.

But it didn’t get to Nora at all.

“Yeah! Plays for Oceandale Rockets, can you believe it?”

“Good for him,” I said absentmindedly.

“Look at him,” she said, shoving her phone in my face.

I glanced briefly. He was handsome, no doubt. But my mind was somewhere else entirely.

“Tell me this guy isn’t the hottest guy you’ve seen?!”

“I can’t. He’s not even my type,” I said gently.

Nora gasped. “Sam, are you blind?”

Before I could respond, the elevator rang at the end of the hallway. I barely paid attention at first, not until I felt it.

That similar pull I’d felt yesterday here at the hotel. And then again later that night. My chest tightened suddenly, and mybreath started to spike.

I slowly looked up and saw a group of men stepping out of the elevator. They were all dressed in black suits. And in theirmiddle… him.

The stranger from the party who haunted my mind and entire body, ever since our steamy night together. I didn’t even know his name, but somehow, I could sense him even before my eyes landed on him.

His dark eyes scanned the hallway intensely. And when they finally landed on me… everything stopped that instant, including my heart.

I grabbed Nora’s arm quickly.

“Nora,” I whispered urgently.

“What?” she asked, still fixed on her phone.

“That’s him,” I breathed.

She looked up slowly.

“Who?”

“The man I told you about. From the party.”

Her mouth dropped open slightly as she took him in.

“Sam… he looks like he owns the building.”

“I know,” I whispered.

My heart pounded wildly in my chest with countless questions. Why was he here? Had he followed me? Had he been searching for me after I ditched him at his apartment this morning?

The men around him stopped a few feet away as he stared at me like I was the only person standing in the hallway.

My knees nearly gave out.

“Oh my God.” I then heard Nora say.

“What?” I whispered frantically.

She looked between me and her phone.

Then back again.

“Sam…”

Her voice was shaky now.

“Sam, look.” She shoved her phone at my face.

On the screen was a photo of a basketball team standing together. And right at the center… was him. The same man staring at me right now across the hall.

“What…” I whispered, still confused about the whole thing .

But Nora’s eyes grew wide with realization.

“Sam,” she said slowly, “that’s Riven Black. He’s like… the most famous man in the city.”

My head spun.

“That’s impossible,” I whispered.

But it wasn’t. Everything suddenly made sense now. The luxury apartment, his car, the way he carried himself like a king.

My heart hammered so hard in my chest it almost hurt. What are the unbelievable odds? I had slept with Riven Black, the untouchable billionaire prince of Oceandale city.