Friend Zone Series Box Set

by Nicole Blanchard

  Suddenly I was very appreciative of my moment of genius. Maybe having her move in with me was the best idea I’d had in forever.

  She licked her lips and nodded. “I am. Thank you for coming with me.”

  “Should we help Lay and Ember?” The bar wasn’t that loud, but I leaned closer like I was having a hard time hearing her. It made me smile when her breath caught in her throat. I enjoyed how much I affected her way too much and wondered if her heart was racing, too.

  “What?”

  I smiled. “Should we go save Layla from her mom?”

  Charlie lifted a hand to my chest and rested it over my heart. Could she tell it was pounding, that she’d brought it back to life? Raised voices from behind me tore me away as I was about to lean down for another taste of her mouth.

  A tall good-looking man who looked like he’d been born to wear a suit smirked down at a red-faced Layla. Her mother had disappeared, but Layla didn’t look pleased with the fact. In fact, if I’d learned anything being raised with sisters, it was how to detect a full-on female rage fest.

  “Let me guess,” I said as I turned back to her. “That’s the infamous Dash?”

  Charlie sighed and one side of her mouth curled up. I couldn’t tell if she was more amused or resigned. “I should probably go save her. Ember must have distracted her mom.”

  Before she could slip out of my grasp, I snagged her elbow with my hand. “After you save Layla, do you think we can get out of here?”

  Her eyes widened slightly, then heated. She had to clear her throat twice before she could talk. “Yeah, um, just let me take care of this and then we can go.”

  With my hand on her arm, I pulled her closer. “I think we need to finish what we started yesterday.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Charlie

  It didn’t take me long to reach Layla’s side and tug her away from Dash with a murmured excuse. I don’t remember what I said or even if it made sense. All I could think about was Liam’s words and getting back to his place. I dropped Layla off with Ember and ignored both of their knowing looks as I sped back to Liam’s side. Butterflies were having a rave in my stomach.

  “Ready?” he asked as he took my hand and tugged me through the crowd.

  I couldn’t answer. I let him pull me along until we were back in his truck and heading away from the restaurant. The ride home was a blur. My hands were trapped beneath my thighs because otherwise I’d have them all over Liam’s body. Causing a crash would severely wreck my plans for the evening so I kept them to myself.

  When he slammed the truck in park with more force than necessary, I couldn’t wait anymore and unbuckled to slither across the seat to his lap.

  He hissed out a breath a second before my mouth closed over his. All I could hear was how he was applying to schools everywhere. I knew it in the back of my mind that he’d be leaving, that we both would eventually be busy, but it didn’t hit me until tonight. It made me wonder why I had fought so hard to keep from having this with him?

  After all, I should know better than anyone that life was short.

  His mouth opened under mine and any doubts I may have had washed away as he gripped my hips to keep me close. “I want you,” I said against his lips when I could catch a breath. Desperation had me pulling at the collar of his shirt. “Please.”

  “Jesus, Charlie. Let’s get inside before I take you right here.”

  Somehow we made it out of the truck and to the front door. We slammed against it as I wrapped myself around him. He cursed under his breath as my lips attacked his throat. I moaned as the flavor of him bathed my tongue. It took longer than usual for him to unlock the door because he dropped the keys twice and pushed me against the wall for a kiss that was borderline violent.

  We stumbled into the darkened house blind. It was only by pure luck we didn’t fall into a heap on the floor. His hands found my hips like they were meant to be there. They slipped around my waist and guided me back down the hall, almost like a dance. My body followed his instinctively, unquestioningly. Somehow, I knew he wouldn’t let me fall.

  “Are you sure about this?” he asked as we reached the door to his room. “You can walk away right now. Go to your room and get some sleep. You’ve had a very hard week and aren’t thinking clearly. You’ll regret this in the morning.”

  I didn’t know if he was warning me, or himself.

  It didn’t matter, because neither of us listened.

  “I can tell you one thing for sure,” he said as his lips grew even closer to mine. “The last thing I’d ever regret is being with you.”

  If I’d had any doubts, his words erased them. I wanted this, I wanted him. “I regret a lot of things, but this would never be one of them.”

  I didn’t want to be alone anymore. I didn’t want to keep pushing away the one good thing in my life when life itself was so short. My hands clung to the lapels of his shirt like he would somehow slip through my fingers. With exquisite care, he peeled my fingers away and pressed them against his chest as he led us back into the shadowed recess of his room. Beneath my hands, his heart thudded in a slow and steady rhythm. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to the triangle of skin bared by the opening of his button-up shirt.

  Liam’s hands went to grip my biceps, not to push me away or pull me closer, but as a reminder he wasn’t quite ready to let me go. Reassured, if only for now, I lifted my fingers to his buttons and slowly unsnapped them, even though I wanted to rip them open. I bit back a moan of impatience as inch by inch of his tanned throat was revealed.

  My fingers dipped beneath the folds of material and I pushed the shirt off his shoulders and down his arms until it fell at his feet. I glanced up at his face to make sure he was still okay and the heat from his gaze made my breath catch in my throat. Determined to keep going, I slid my hands from where they’d stopped at his wrists to the glint of dark blonde hair that lined his abdomen. The moment I touched him, his muscles contracted beneath my hands and he sucked in a breath.

  “Don’t stop,” Liam said through gritted teeth. “Take them off.”

  As if that was a choice.

  Instead of delving into the waistband of his pants like I knew we both wanted me to, I teased us both and slid my hands up his chest and paused at the darker skin of his nipples. My head tilted to the side, and I watched as my thumbs flicked over the sensitive flesh. I glanced up as his face darkened with a flash of need so intense, it was mirrored in my body. My thighs clenched from the emptiness of needing him, but something told me to draw the sweet ache out, make it last.

  So I took my time instead. I studied all the parts of his body I’d never given thought to exploring. The dips above his collarbones. The sensitive skin just behind his ears. I covered each discovered spot with kisses and little nips.

  He transferred his grip to my hips where his fingers bit into the material of my dress until it stretched skin-tight across my ass. He pulled up my dress until the material gathered at my waist. At the touch of his hands to the tops of my thighs, he groaned in my ear, causing me to shiver. I couldn’t seem to get enough of him.

  Momentarily distracted, I pressed my face into his throat with my eyes closed to drink in the sensation of having his hands on me. He’d leaned forward to grip just underneath my ass to lift me up. I didn’t have time to let out a surprised squeak before we were moving.

  He took two quick strides before falling back on the bed with my knees on either side of his hips. Unable to continue my leisurely exploration, my mouth found his with a desperate sound that he didn’t hesitate to swallow up. He met my tongue with a thrust of his own and then any attempts at seduction or finesse were lost as I melted against him.

  His hands clenched on my ass, causing me to grind into his erection. The old Charlie would have been embarrassed at the brazenness of my actions, but this was Liam, and I couldn’t find an ounce of shame inside me for what was happening. There was only the need to get closer, so I didn’t hesitate to spread my knee
s wider and press against him. I couldn’t seem to get close enough.

  “I can’t wait,” he said against my lips. “Take off your panties.”

  Apparently, neither could I.

  With jerky, uncoordinated movements, I climbed off him long enough to strip as he grabbed a condom. As I unbuckled his belt and unzipped his pants, Liam tore through my zipper and tugged my dress the rest of the way off and tossed it over my shoulder. My bra and his pants soon followed.

  Seconds later, the condom was on and we were reaching for each other. He practically dragged me up his body until I hovered over the hard length of him. Our lips found each other’s’ and then I lowered myself onto him with a ragged sound. His hand speared into my hair as I began to move over him.

  “I can’t,” I said, but what I meant was, I couldn’t wait, but the words wouldn’t come out quite right.

  “Then don’t,” he answered.

  It was like I couldn’t control myself, like my body was saying what I couldn’t express in words. I rode him to the brink and came in an explosion that defied logic. I’d wear the bruises from his hands at my hips for days, but reason paled in comparison to wanting Liam as he flipped me onto my back.

  I expected him to continue the frantic pace, but nothing could have surprised me more than when he began moving slowly. I tipped my hips up, trying to force him to go faster because my body craved him like nothing I’d ever imagined. My mind was fevered with need and all I could think about was coming around him again.

  “Please,” I begged.

  Ignoring me, he maneuvered one arm underneath my shoulders so we were pressed against each other from chest to hips. My legs wrapped around his waist and my eyes rolled into the back of my head as he went even deeper. His free hand clutched my thigh as he slid in, then back out with aching slowness.

  If my frenzied climb to orgasm had driven all thought from my mind, sending me into outer space, his own chase to the end brought all my thoughts to the forefront, and they all centered around him, around us.

  Nothing had ever felt as perfect as being surrounded by him. I wanted to cry at the rightness of it all, but I squeezed my eyes shut and turned into the pillow as he thrust back in, stealing my breath. I’d never known I could be so close to a person. Never known the act of making love wasn’t just a physical action.

  Whatever was between us wasn’t just chemical, it was destiny. Like I’d been searching for the piece to complete me and I’d found it in the last place I’d ever expected.

  With my best friend.

  “Open your eyes,” he said as he canted his hips and made me groan.

  I forced myself to look at him, even knowing that when I did it would obliterate me. But denying him was unthinkable. As soon as I opened my eyes, his hand was in my hair and turning my head up to receive his kiss. My arms wrapped around him, needing to have him as close as physically possible, to anchor him to me when I felt like I was going to simply fly apart.

  “Don’t leave me,” I said in a moment of uncharacteristic transparency. I was so desperate, my nails dug into his back.

  “Not goin’ anywhere,” he said as he shifted to nuzzle into my neck. “I’d never leave you.”

  Another orgasm threatened causing my breath to quicken. My nails bit a ragged path from his shoulders to the swell of his ass. Even though I was making animal sounds in the back of my throat, he refused to move, which only made me even more frantic. The slickness on his back and the bite rust colored stains on my fingers told me I’d drawn blood in my need to make him move, but he was resolute.

  I gave up trying to thrust up to him and instead attacked his mouth with renewed determination. The second our tongues touched, he gripped my hip and shifted his so he wasn’t pulling out, but pressing deeper. The sensation of being filled, surrounded, surrendered, overwhelmed me to the point of deliriousness.

  I froze underneath him, every muscle inside me going taut as the sweet-hot rush of pleasure overtook me. I’d never felt anything like it, not even close. It was more than just the body-destroying pleasure, more than the physicality of sex. It was the closeness I felt to him that came from our connection.

  I clenched around him with a soundless scream that he swallowed. Even though I bucked and rocked underneath him, he was like a mountain being battered by the ocean, and I was the waves crashing against him, reshaping myself to fit around him.

  “Open your eyes,” I heard through the roaring in my ears.

  When I did, he began to move, finally, and I couldn’t tell what was better, the way I’d clasped around his stillness or the way each thrust now kicked my orgasm off into new heights.

  When he went over, I held him close to me, taking him in as deep as I could and knowing whatever lines we’d unknowingly drawn in the sand between us had just been destroyed completely.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Liam

  Charlie was the last thing I saw before I slipped into unconsciousness and the first thing I saw when I woke up, and for the barest second I realized that I could get used to waking up to her. I could get used to having her in my bed, her arms wrapped around me and her head resting on my chest. I’d had my fair share of relationships, but no other woman in my bed had ever felt as right as Charlie.

  It should have scared the fuck out of me.

  I knew when I had time to think with my head instead of my dick that reality would come crashing down eventually. But with her in my arms, all I could think about was having her just one more time. Just one more taste of perfection.

  I shifted until she lay on her back and smiled when she made a sound of annoyance. Slowly, as if unwrapping a present, I tugged the sheet down to bare her body and marveled that I’d spent over a decade next to her without taking a bite. She shivered a little from the exposure and her pretty, dark nipples beaded up. Unable to resist, I leaned forward and took one into my mouth to tease it with my tongue. Her hips lifted and her hands slid against the sheets, but she didn’t wake.

  As I nipped and swirled, I caressed her skin with the back of my hand. Inch by inch, her body woke to my touch. When she was moaning and arching beside me, I moved down the bed to tug off her panties and spread her legs. My mouth watered at the sight of her and I ducked my head to feast.

  I started slowly, tracing her wetness with my tongue, searching out the spots that made her come alive beneath my hands. Soon, her fists were gripping my hair and moans erupted from her throat.

  “Oh, yes,” she said, but her eyes were still closed and her voice soft still with sleep. “Yes.”

  Her hips bucked against my face, and it was unabashed, unashamed. I couldn’t get enough of her response. I wanted her crazy and mindless for me. To wake to the edge of orgasm. To know her first thought was of me, that I’d be as branded on her as she was on me.

  Her grip in my hair tightened and her legs by my sides lifted and spread even more. I grabbed the backs of her knees with my hands and pressed them wide and far, pinning them so she was completely vulnerable to me. My tongue engaged in a wicked assault that brought Charlie arching up from the bed, propped up by her hands, her eyes wide and her body on the edge of release.

  I paused long enough for a quick, “Good morning,” before I was back to driving her crazy.

  “Oh, God, Liam. What are you doing?” she said between gasps for breath. “Oh, you have to stop. I can’t…”

  I gripped her hips more tightly and tilted them up to my waiting mouth. “Yes, you can.”

  As I watched her resist and then give in, I realized I wanted to do it again and we’d barely even finished. There was something beautiful about seeing her completely exposed and open to me. She’d always been able to tell me anything, but this was different. This was a side of her I never knew existed, and all I wanted to do was figure out what other parts of her I’d been missing.

  I couldn’t get enough of her taste. I wanted it to coat my tongue. I wanted to drown in her until there was nothing, no one else but her. The thought should ha
ve scared me, the intensity should have been overwhelming, but instead it was comforting. Everything inside of me was screaming to take her, to make her mine, but I wanted to give her this first. I wanted to know what she looked like when she went over the edge.

  My arms went under her legs and the insides of her calves clutched and gripped at my shoulders, trying and failing to find purchase. Just when I heard her breathing catch, I pulled back and kissed her trembling thighs until her hips bucked up to me, silently urging me to come back to her.

  I repeated the languorous teasing until her control broke. Her hands seized on the blankets, ripping them from the bed, searching for an anchor to hold on to. I moved impossibly closer until her hands found my forearms. Even if I had no sensation, I would have recognized the meeting by the deep inhale, by the way the tension melted from her body as our fingers intertwined.

  I liked that connection, the way my touch grounded her just as much as my mouth enticed her to fly. My intention was to draw it out, make it last, drive all the doubts out of her mind by pure will alone, but there was something about the taste of her on my tongue that short-circuited my brain.

  It started easy. Light teasing nips. The slow pass of my mouth and breath over her sensitive skin. Then languid licks and open-mouthed kisses. She lifted her hips up to meet me and I backed away until she groaned and pleaded. Then the process started all over again. I had myself under control until I followed the taste of her to the source and thrust my tongue inside.

  “Liam, oh my God. Omigod.” Her desperate words turned into mindlessly whispered pleas, which only served to spur me on.

  I used the grip on her hands to pull her whole body closer to me. Without even thinking, she started to lift her hips to meet the thrusts of my tongue. Her hips became unglued and ground against me. I was hard as a rock, but nothing on God’s green earth, not even my own discomfort, would have torn me away from the greedy draws of her pussy as she grew closer and closer to the edge of reason.