 by Samantha Whiskey.jpg)
Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 57820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 231(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 231(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Who better to do that with than my best friend, Brad Washbrook?
The only catch? I have to pretend to be his fiancé for two weeks while he attends a retreat for a prospective company partnership.
It should be easy, right?
Wrong.
Brad has always been amazing to me, but now that I’m single, I’m noticing him in entirely new ways. Like when we dance, his hands roam over me in a possessive way that makes my skin spark. And when we’re forced to share a bed, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if I spanned the distance between us and finally find out what it’s like to kiss him.
But he’s been my friend forever, and we’ve never crossed those lines before.
The longer we pretend to be engaged, the harder it is to deny the very real feelings growing between us. And after one sizzling kiss, I know I’m a goner.
He’s everything I never knew I needed, and soon I can’t tell what’s real and what’s fake, but it all feels way too good to question.
Just when I think Brad and I are on the same page, my ex shows up and threatens to ruin everything.
And if I can’t set things right, I’ll lose the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
*This is a steamy contemporary romance set in the Carolina Reapers' territory of Sweet Water*
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER 1
Luna
Me: I can’t do this.
Zoe: Yes you can. Wait. What are you doing?
I blew out a breath, my fingers shaking as I texted my best friend Zoe.
Me: I’m in Dennis’s apartment, waiting for him to come home from his trip.
Zoe: That seems like a very easy task to accomplish.
I glanced down at what I was wearing, and cringed.
Me: I’m wearing fishnets. And garters. And a bra that barely covers anything.
Zoe: Damn! Get it!!
I laughed, the action helping ease some of my nerves. Dennis and I had been dating since my freshman year in college—so just over five years. I shouldn’t be nervous at all…except, I was.
It could be the fact that Dennis constantly made me feel less than adequate in the bedroom, but I’d always chalked that up to him having more relationships in high school than I did. I mean, when we did have sex, we made it work. It wasn’t mind-blowing or anything like it was in the books I read, but it was something we did as a couple. Something that signified the intimacy in our relationship.
I just wanted it to happen more. I wanted to experiment to see if we could have that spark that was always present in my favorite romance novels. Any time I’d come to him with a scene from one of the books I was reading, he’d tell me it was a fantasy and that real life would never live up to those expectations. And, I suppose, he wasn’t wrong. I’d never had an orgasm from just his hand or his mouth, and that happened like a zillion times before chapter twelve in almost every book I read.
Plus, he was the only real boyfriend I’d ever had. Dennis was my first, and since he had more experience than me, I’d always let him take the reins.
But things had been strained between us for a while and I was looking to shake things up. I hoped he’d see me sprawled out on his couch with this outfit on and not be able to keep his hands off of me.
Me: Am I crazy?
Zoe: Are you asking me as your best friend or as your best friend who happens to be a clinical psychologist?
Me: I wouldn’t say no to Dr. Casson’s opinion on this one, but throw in a little bit of my friend too.
It was both a blessing and a curse having Zoe as a best friend—we’d known each other since high school—and while I loved her brilliant mind and the way she broke things down for her patients, I understood it was hard for her to turn off when it came to girl talk. But bless her, she always tried for me.
Zoe: You need a change.
Me: In what way?
Three little dots popped up on our text, then went away, then came back again. My heart sank. Zoe wasn’t Dennis’s biggest fan, and Brad downright hated him. Both my best friends had expressed many times that I deserved better, but they didn’t know Dennis the way I did. He could be kind, charming even. There were times he really tuned in and made me feel like we were the only two people in the world.
Or at least he had been in the beginning.
Lately he’d been short with me, constantly criticizing the amount of time I was putting into my little boutique and my dreams of starting my own clothing line. But that just meant we’d hit that age-old relationship rut, right? All we needed was something to mix it up and we’d get back to where we started.
Zoe: It means that you need your emotions and feelings to be heard. And he needs to change in order to do that.
Me: Okay, that was Dr. Casson. Now be Zoe.
Zoe: He’d be crazy not to drop to his knees and worship you the second he sets eyes on you.
I smiled brightly at my phone, a thrill rushing through me. I didn’t need him to worship me, I just wanted some emotional and physical attention. I was practically starved for it with how distant he’d been recently. And it wasn’t like I hadn’t been putting in the effort on my end—I tried to create fun dates for us, tried to create the quality time that laid all the ground work for intimate time as well. But for so long now, he’d been rushed, pushy, or too tired to give me time at all, quality or intimate.
Me: Maybe I’m trying too hard.
Zoe: Maybe you shouldn’t have to try so hard.
I swallowed a lump in my throat as I read her response. Maybe I was trying to ignite something that had fizzled out. Maybe Dennis would never see me as the sexual being I felt like. Maybe he’d never try with me. And that’s all this was about, me asking him to try. If we ended up not enjoying being a little wilder in bed, then no harm no foul, right?