In the midset of deadline madness, I sort of forgot something. Like a book release. HER BEST FRIEND’S LOVER was my first published romance, a friends to lovers romance that I wrote before I realized that was even a trope [okay, I didn’t even know what tropes were].
It’s now available again in ebook… I’ll get the print version up shortly.
Dale Stoner loved women, and women seemed to love him right back. He danced around the line that led to seriousness, but any time one woman got too close, he two-stepped back, quick and pretty as you please. He’s fallen in love before and he doesn’t want to go that route again. No woman was ever going to get close to him again.
The only exception is his best friend, Lauren. She’s the only one who really matters. But she’s his friend…and guys don’t sleep with their best friends, do they?
Lauren wasn’t the kind of woman to believe in love at first sight, but then she met Dale. He’s everything she shouldn’t want—a flirt, a woman chaser…and he’s also in love with somebody else.
But one hot, steamy night changes everything…
Excerpt
“You sure are pretty, Lauren,” he said, grinning up at her. “If you don’t mind my saying so.”
“Thank you,” she said politely, a smile tugging the corners of her mouth as she turned her head to look at him. “Of course, I realize your judgment is a tad bit impaired right now.”
“Tad bit, my ass,” he muttered, enjoying the sensation of the room spinning around. The only thing in focus was Lauren, with her watchful gray eyes and amused smile. Dale lowered his gaze to her mouth—that wide, lush mouth, curved up in amusement. Carefully, concentrating on each separate movement, he rose to his feet.
“Why don’t I fix you something to eat and then clean up this mess?” she asked, sidestepping neatly when he reached for her, then positioning herself at his side as he tried to steady himself.
“Not hungry,” he told her, a sweet smile on his face. He reached out, stroked his hand down the satiny skin of her cheek. “Soft,” he murmured, turning his hand around and stroking his knuckles down her jaw to her neck.
“So are we friends again?” His gaze, bleary and bloodshot, wandered over her face. “You here to make me feel all better?”
“Yes. That’s why I’m going to fix you something to eat so you don’t wake up with a hangover the size of Kansas,” she said steadily, even though her heart started tripping when his eyes started to linger, none too subtly, on her mouth.
“Don’t wanna eat,” he sulked, reaching up to touch his index finger to her bottom lip. “Not unless you’re on the menu.”
Drunk or not, he knew heat in a woman’s eyes. And what he saw flare in her gaze was a damn forest fire. He moved up, aligning his body next to hers. With a slow, wicked grin, he asked, “So whaddya say? Can I eat you?” Lowering his head, he lapped at her neck, one long slow stroke of his tongue that set his mouth ablaze, craving another taste.
“Back off, Dale,” she said, taking a quick step back.
“Hmm,” he murmured, following each retreating step. “Why don’t you kiss me and make me all better, beautiful?” he asked, knowing exactly where he wanted her to kiss.
A reluctant, amused grin tugged at her mouth but she shook her head. “Fuck off,” she ordered, dodging him yet again.
“I’d rather fuck you,” he replied, reaching out and catching hold of her hand.
“You need to eat, take some aspirin and go to bed,” she told him. “Otherwise you are going to wish you were dead in the morning. You’ll feel better about all this tomorrow.”
“Not hungry,” he repeated. “And I can feel better now, if you’ll just let me.” Curving his hand around the back of her neck, he drew her to him, leaned down and pressed his mouth to the corner of hers, nibbling. “Hmm, that’s better, baby.” Dale was pretty certain he was doing something he shouldn’t. But he was drunk enough, needy enough. Damn it, lonely enough. And here was Lauren. He thought he had lost her; sweet, gentle, logical Lauren who could put his chaotic mind to ease just by being there.
“Dale,” Lauren said, her voice shaky now, as well. “Dale, stop it.”
“Why?” he asked absently as he moved from the corner of her mouth to her stubborn chin, then down to her slender neck. Lauren fit against him perfectly, he noted. Curve to curve, she fit against his body as if she had been made specifically for him. Why in hell had he been focusing on delicate little women that he had to bend over to kiss?
“You’re lonely. I’m lonely. Maybe together, we won’t be so lonely.” A little warning light went off in some distant corner of his clouded mind, but he easily ignored it, intently feasting on the taste of soft smooth flesh.
“Didn’t we just get done discussing this, Dale?” she asked, forcing a light-hearted tone into her voice even as her knees went weak and her throat went tight.
“I dunno. Did we?” he asked, nuzzling her ear.
“Sex isn’t the answer to everything,” Lauren said, trying to step back, only to have him bring her firmly up against him once more.
“Doesn’t have to be. Just needs to be the answer for this,” he whispered, nibbling along the line of her collar bone while one hand roamed to her waist, freeing the tail of her shirt from her jeans. She tasted good. His mouth meandered back up and locked onto hers while he pressed the flat of his hand to her waist and slid it upward, bringing her body in full contact with his, locking her against him.
This. Lauren had been dreaming of just this for an eternity. And her dreams were nowhere near the reality, she decided, as he crushed his mouth to hers as though he meant to devour her whole. Lauren quivered under that clever mouth, quivered as he ran those long-fingered, callused hands over her bare back.
This is wrong, she thought, this has to stop. Right here and now. She would. End it. Right now. As she swore that, he pulled back just slightly to lower his mouth to her neck. The end result was a shudder that wracked her from head to toe and back again as he left her neck to cruise back up to her mouth.
Then her arm snaked up and curled over his shoulders. This was every dream she had ever had.