BoyFrenemy: Enemies to Lovers, Step-Brother Romance

by L. L. Ash

I let out a teary laugh, rubbing at my nose.

  “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t let you fight him, anyway. He’d wipe the floor with you.”

  “Oh, thanks,” he drawled, a little smile tilting his lips.

  Jamie’s thumbs wiped away the tears on my cheeks as he looked into my eyes again.

  “What makes him bad for you?”

  With a sigh, I collapsed back on the bed and he followed, curling around me, just like I loved.

  “Look at us,” I admitted. “We explode like vinegar and baking soda. We don’t mix.”

  “I don’t know. You guys seem pretty good together. There’s a level of passion there that is hard to find. The way he just stormed in here, balls to the wall, that was pretty impressive.”

  I paused and turned until we were chest to chest on the bed.

  “You’re sounding dangerously like you’re rooting for me to go after a different guy.”

  He shrugged.

  “You’re not happy with me, Ivory.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He tweaked my nose with a little smile.

  “I’ve loved this, sharing a bed and a home with you for a little while, but you’re not happy with me. I can see it in your eyes. It didn’t start that way, but...”

  “Jay, I love being here with you—”

  “I know,” he said, a soft smile blooming across his lush lips. “And God, I love this so much, I don’t want to let you go.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  His hand slipped over my cheek, fingers drawing through my hair until he had my head cupped in his hand.

  “Ivory Bell,” he whispered. “I know this is soon and everything, but I need you to know that I love you.”

  My eyes shot to his and our noses bumped.

  “You love me?” I asked, wondering where the flutters were that should be stirring up my stomach.

  He smiled, a sad, resigned smile.

  “I do. I have since Hawaii.”

  Closing my eyes, I pressed my forehead to his and felt another tear leak out of my eyes. Not for me, this time, but for him. I gave him a tear because it was suddenly very clear to me that, Hunter or not, I couldn’t let Jamie be the runner up. He deserved so much better than that.

  “Jay,” I whispered, my voice cracking with emotion.

  “I know,” he whispered back, then pressed his lips to mine.

  I kissed him back with the passion of every fond feeling I had for him. Love or not, he was such a good man. Our meeting was unconventional at best, but these days and weeks here, in his home, had been some of the easiest since leaving home for college. Jamie had made it that way.

  My lips broke away and a soft sob left my lungs. Jamie tried to pull away, but I wrapped my arms around him.

  God, why couldn’t I have him? Why couldn’t I love him the same as Hunter? Why couldn’t my heart ache and cry for him instead of the asshole douchebag who had broken my heart so many times?

  “You’re so incredible,” I whispered against his chest.

  “I know,” he said again, which helped break the intensity of the moment as we both laughed.

  “You deserve better than me,” I said finally.

  “We can agree to disagree on that point.”

  His face was softened with a half smile, but it didn’t cover up the sadness there.

  “I’ll get my shit and go,” I said, not to him particularly, but so that he heard.

  “No, you don’t have to leave. You can stay here as long as you want.”

  “That’s not fair to you, Jay—”

  “Fuck what’s fair. We’re friends, Ivory, whether you’re in my bed or in my guest room. Your heart might belong to him, but he doesn’t get to have all of you.”

  But that was where he was wrong. Hunter did have all of me.

  God, I hated it!

  All he had to do was look into my eyes, and he knew.

  “Fuck...” he breathed, shaking his head. “He’s one lucky fucker.”

  I snorted a sort of laugh, my crying making my nose run and fling snot in the process.

  My hand flew up to rub it away, and Jamie just smiled down at me while my cheeks burned red with embarrassment.

  “So? You going to go get your guy?” he asked after a beat, moving on seamlessly from his profession of love.

  “I still don’t know if I want him,” I admitted. “I kind of feel like Juliet, purposely poisoning myself in the name of love. It’s stupid.”

  “It’s romantic,” he countered.

  Well, maybe that, too.

  “You really think so?” I asked him.

  Shit, why was I even having a conversation like this with him?

  He nodded.

  “You know the kind of balls it takes for a guy to admit he’s in love?”

  “Not really,” I admitted. “Big ones?”

  “Massive,” he agreed. “At the least, he’s earned a second chance.”

  Or fifth, or twentieth. I forgot what number we were on at this point.

  “Maybe,” was all I’d give him.

  “Anyway,” Jamie said, standing up from the edge of the bed. “I believe we were just about to go grab some lunch before you met Hillary for studying.”

  Right. All that had completely blown out of my head the moment I’d laid eyes on Hunter.

  “Let me get ready and I’ll meet you down there,” I told him, and he simply leaned in, gave me a lingering kiss, then strode away with his head down and hands in his pockets.

  When he left, I let out a long breath and collapsed back on the bed.

  I was so glad I’d be seeing Hillary soon, because I needed her take-no-prisoners attitude. If anyone could snap me out of the Hunter fog, it was her.

  “I think you should give him another chance,” Hillary said, leaning across the table, excitement in her eyes. “I mean, c’mon! He admitted he loves you!”

  “Too little, too late!” I hissed, frustrated that she wasn’t being my head of reason like she usually was. “He made my life hell for years!”

  “Ignoring you, or staring at you across a room doesn’t make life hell.”

  “Bullshit. You saw it. And then at your party...”

  “Girl, stop lying to yourself. You’ve loved him for basically ever. You will absolutely hate yourself if you let something like this slip by you. You’ll marry some good guy eventually because you’ve given up the idea of falling in love with anyone else, then you’ll have two point five kids and you’ll look back and ask yourself ‘what if’. Don’t live with what ifs, Ivory Bell. You deserve better. If he can’t pull his head out of that fine ass, then you need to leave him, with no regrets.”

  Dammit.

  She was right.

  “I don’t like it, Hil.”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “You sure you’re not just saying this ’cause you’re banging his best friend?” I asked.

  She flipped her hair over her shoulder and looked nonplussed.

  “That doesn’t have everything to do with it,” she admitted, a grin splitting her pretty lips.

  “I still can’t believe you’re still seeing each other. He’s a manwhore like Hunter.”

  She shrugged.

  “Not really. I mean, everyone experiments. And Gauge hasn’t been trying to get a certain someone out of their system since freshman year.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” I demanded, but she just raised her hand and shook her head.

  “That’s for Hunter to tell you about,” Hillary said before taking a sip from her typical Starbucks frappe.

  Pulling out my phone, I did what I needed to do. I needed to talk to him, because I couldn’t for the fucking life of me understand how all of a sudden he would admit that he loved me. Seriously, it had come out of nowhere. After so many years being best friends, and then dropping me like a rotten, hot potato, I deserved some answers.

  Me: I want to meet and talk. I want answers.

  Not even a full sixty seconds later h
e answered.

  Hunter: Where?

  Me: Beach.

  Hunter: I get off at eight.

  Me: See you then.

  “That him?” Hillary asked, then slurped with that annoying sound of a mostly empty drink being sucked from a straw.

  “Yes. I’m meeting him tonight.”

  “Good. What’re you going to wear?”

  I looked down at my skinny jeans and white t-shirt.

  “No. No way. You can’t go looking like that.”

  “Hillary, he doesn’t care what I wear.”

  “Girl, you want that boy to eat you alive with his eyes.”

  I barked out a laugh.

  “I could be wearing a garbage bag and he’d eat me alive with his eyes,” I said, and that just made her grin wider.

  “Girl, you’ve got it just as bad as he does.”

  “Do not,” I lied, then stuffed a nacho chip in my mouth, knowing she saw right through me.

  - 51 -

  Ivory

  Seven Years Ago

  I didn’t know why he wouldn’t talk to me anymore, but it’d been months. Literal months without him. If there was a form of torutre that was worse than seeing your best friend but not being able to speak to them, I didn’t know what it was.

  The police cars were there for hours last night, as well as an ambulance and a couple other cars. I hoped none of them were social services. I knew that was what scared Hunter the most.

  “Hunt,” I whispered as he threw stuff into his locker.

  He didn’t answer.

  “I-I’m sorry. I saw what happened—”

  “Fuck off, Ivy,” he said in a low growl.

  “What happened to you?” I breathed, feeling tears well up in my eyes.

  “I don’t need you, that’s what happened,” he told me. “I have my own life. You should get yours.”

  Just like that, Hunter turned and walked away.

  “Ivory?”

  I turned to face my new best friend, tears dripping down my cheeks.

  “Aw girl,” Hillary said, pulling me into her skinny arms.

  We’d just turned fourteen before school started, and Hunter would be fifteen, a full sophomore while we were barely freshman.

  “He’s a jerk,” Hillary told me, anger in her eyes.

  “I just wanted to make sure he was ok,” I hiccupped. “I mean, his dad was rolled away in a police car this weekend...How could he be ok?”

  She shrugged.

  “Forget him, girl. He’s not worth your time. He’s turned into a total douchebag.”

  Yeah, she was right, but it was easier said than done.

  - 52 -

  Ivory

  Oh God, what was I doing?

  I saw him there, sitting on the beach in the early fall dusk. The ocean was glimmering like little blue and pink gems in the sunset, and my heart immediately reached for it. I loved the ocean, and since I was a kid, it pulled to me. I couldn’t count how many days and nights I’d spent on the shore, listening to the guttural rumble of waves crashing against the sand.

  Slowly, I made my way toward Hunter, watching him drag his fingers through the damp sand at his bare feet.

  It was pretty obvious he’d come here right from work, because his hair was still licked off his forehead from sweat and his cheek was smudged with grease that must have come from his stained hands.

  “Hey,” I said when I got close enough.

  Hunter turned quickly, dark sand dropping from his fingers as he stood.

  “Hey,” he said back, shoving his hands in his pockets, looking nervous as all hell.

  “So, uh, you love me?” I asked, getting it out there first thing.

  He blew out a long breath.

  “Ok, diving right into it. I can respect that,” he said, tipping his head to follow me as I sat down on the sand on the mostly deserted beach. “Yeah, I love you. Always have, probably always will.”

  Well shit.

  Some part of me thought for sure that he’d have changed his mind since I saw him last.

  Guess not.

  “Really?” I asked, not sure what else to say.

  “You keep asking, but my answer isn’t going to change,” he said, a weary smile tipping the side of his mouth.

  His fingers dragged through his dirty blond hair as he looked at me, then he turned back to the ocean.

  It was silent between us for several minutes as we both stared at the darkening water, the cool turquoise of the waves deepening to midnight blue, then eventually, black.

  “Why’d you want to meet me?” he asked finally.

  I licked my lips, not sure if I was ready to admit anything to him.

  He looked over at me, his intelligent eyes raking over every inch of me.

  “You just about killed me, you know that?” he asked. “It’s been years, Ivy. Years that I’ve been trying to get over you. And all that over a Goddamn misunderstanding? I feel like a fucking idiot.”

  “You are,” I agreed, and that just made him smile again.

  “Unless you’re here to confess your undying love, I’ve got homework to do,” he said, ignoring my quip.

  I bit down on my lip. It was now or never.

  “And what if I do love you?” I breathed.

  He froze, slowly turning to me.

  “Don’t fuck with me,” he whispered, meeting my eyes with calm intensity.

  I shrugged.

  “I don’t trust you, Hunt. I don’t trust you with my heart, or with my head. I don’t trust you to do right by me, because every time I give you a piece of me, you break me again.”

  He swallowed hard, his throat bobbing.

  “Because I’m trying to protect myself,” he admitted. “You’re right. I’m a total piece of shit...”

  “I didn’t say that,” I reprimanded, staring into his amber eyes. “You can be incredible, when you want to be.”

  He sighed, this time sounding hopeless as he rubbed at his face.

  “What can I do?” he asked me, lifting one brow in question. “What can I do to make it better?”

  That was a damn good question.

  “You can’t treat me like this anymore, Hunt,” I pleaded. “You can’t use me and drop me. Eventually I’m going to shatter.”

  He nodded.

  “You broke me, too, you know,” he admitted quietly.

  I thought back to Middle school and that conversation that had evidently been the catalyst to the end of us and felt that familiar shame flush through me.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of it. They cornered me, and Stephanie had a crush on you, and I was afraid what they would do if I told them—”

  “It doesn’t matter,” he interrupted me. “I’m not wasting any more time on that bullshit. It already took years from us, and I’m not letting it have another second.”

  I could agree with that.

  “If we do this, what happens?” I asked him.

  “Do what?” he asked. “You and me?”

  I nodded.

  “Then no more shit between us. No more assuming, no more games.”

  “Sounds easy,” I said wearily.

  He paused, then looked me right in the eye.

  “What about him?” he asked simply.

  I knew he was talking about Jamie, and there was only one answer to that.

  “I don’t love him,” I admitted. “Not like I love you.”

  A whoosh left his lungs, relief mixed with his exhale.

  “Ivy?” he asked, his voice hoarse and gravelly.

  “What Hunt?” The amber in his eyes was glowing like warm fire.

  “If you’re mine,” he whispered. “I’m never fucking giving you up again. Ever.”

  My heart fluttered in my chest. That sounded really, really freaking good to me.

  I didn’t even get to answer before his mouth was crashing into mine, hand sliding into my hair.

  My breath hitched as my hands reached for him, too.

  It was just like tha
t first time, a world-altering kiss with the sound of the ocean in the background and salt in the air. But I didn’t want to be interrupted this time.

  “Not here, Hunt...”

  He tore himself away from me, leaving only an inch between us.

  “Come home,” he practically begged. “Come home with me.”

  All I did was nod before he was standing and pulling me up with him.

  Hunter led us back toward the parking lot and I saw his motorcycle there, only a few spots over from Baby.

  Unlike that night with Jamie, I didn’t insist on driving separately. No, I slid on the back of Hunter’s bike like I was always meant to be there. He popped the helmet over my head and wrapped his leather jacket around my shoulders before kicking the bike awake with a stomp. He switched it into gear with a jerk of his foot, then we were gone.

  We were on the road quickly, the roar of the motorcycle not even penetrating my ears through the pounding of my own heart. The apartment came into view only a few minutes later, and we barely got into a parking spot when we were stumbling off the thing, bumping into each other and the poles that held up the corrugated metal roof of the shared carport.

  Hunter took my hand, stringing his fingers through mine as he pulled me after him into his apartment.

  I jogged, trying to keep up with his long-legged stride, all while yanking off the helmet with one hand, which wasn’t an easy feat.

  Hunter and I blew through the front door and he slammed it closed behind us before flinging my back into it. If I had thought that I was in for some gentle, soft moment between us, I was in for one hell of a surprise.

  Good thing I didn’t want soft and gentle.

  Our mouths collide like magnets, drawn to each other with violent force. I was panting almost immediately, my heart racing in my chest and blood pumping through my body like it was in a Goddamn race to get to my clit. Speaking of, that was throbbing like a bitch, which had me grinding my thighs together.

  Hunter noticed. Of course he did.

  With a vicious bite to my lip, he pulled away and swung me around until I was stumbling backwards down the hallway towards the bedrooms. Of course, my room was empty, so we were heading to his.

  “Ivy,” he said, panting and breathless as we burst into the master bedroom, his queen sized bed lay rustled behind us like he’d just woken up and flung the sheets aside.