BoyFrenemy: Enemies to Lovers, Step-Brother Romance

by L. L. Ash

  “What?” I demanded, not wanting this assault to stop.

  “I can’t do it again,” he admitted, looking me right in my eyes.

  Pain radiated back at me, deep and hot and burning like an endless pit.

  “Can’t do what?”

  “I can’t take you rejecting me again,” Hunter said, nibbling on his bottom lip. “I can’t. It’ll break me, Ivy.”

  I hoped that wherever we were heading, the two of us, had enough room for all the emotional baggage we were both lugging.

  “Never again,” I told him. “I’ll never leave you if you don’t make me.”

  “Never,” he echoed, then dipped his head down and gave me a long, drawn kiss that felt like it touched me right down to the soul.

  “I love you, Ivy Bell,” he breathed against my lips. “I love you so Goddamn much it hurts.”

  Fuck, it hurt to hear the longing and pain in his voice.

  “I love you more, Hunter Hayes. Now stop being a douche and get your dick inside me.”

  He let out a disbelieving huff, then grinned.

  “If you insist,” he agreed, then reached for the hem of my shirt.

  I was still wrapped in his jacket, but I let it fall from my shoulders as he slid my white tee up to my shoulders.

  It was a blur of clothes and hot kisses until we were finally naked and skin to skin.

  “Ivy,” he whispered, breath warm against the skin of my neck.

  My arms wrapped around his shoulders as he pulled me against him, legs circling his hips before we fell into the bed.

  Like the old pros we weren’t, his cock was lined up with a single grind of our hips, but it felt good. Perfect. It felt right.

  “Hunt,” I begged, my thumb dragging over his lips as he closed his eyes and gripped my hips with strong fingers.

  With a single thrust, he was seated to the hilt, groaning as his chest caved, breathless.

  Fuck… had he always felt that good?

  Yes. Yes he had.

  “I’m never letting you go,” he said after a moment, letting me get used to him before he started moving. “You’re mine, Ivy.”

  I wasn’t sure if it was the sensation of him between my hips, or the overwhelming emotional toll that had weighed on me, but tears brimmed up in my eyes.

  “I fucking love you, Ivy. Nothing else matters. I fucking love you.”

  The tears in my eyes finally fell, streaking down my cheeks and down to my ears as my fingers reached up, gripping his hair as he started moving. He dragged out of me with slow, but steady strokes before thrusting quickly back in.

  “Do you hear me?” he asked, voice nothing but gravel and smooth scotch in my ear.

  “Yes,” I finally said, hiccupping more stupid tears.

  “What did I say?” he demanded, slamming into me so hard the whole bed swayed and squeaked before hammering the wall with a thud.

  “I’m yours,” I said, loving the words on my tongue.

  “You’re mine,” he agreed. “To love, to protect, to care for, to fuck.”

  “Yes,” I breathed.

  “Say it, Ivy.”

  “I’m yours,” I gasped, “to love and protect and fuck.”

  “Damn right,” he agreed before gripping my hips and flinging his body over to my side.

  His hands kept hold of me and I rolled with him until I was straddling him, grinding my ass down into him as my weight pushed him in deeper.

  “Fuck,” he groaned, eyes going into his head at the sensation.

  The moment my hips started to gyrate and move, his fingers squeezed on my thighs, holding me tight as he let expletives flow from his lips. Dirty, fucking beautiful things that I would never repeat, between his admissions of love.

  “Waitwaitwaitwait,” he finally begged, shoving me off him and to the side just as I was about to make him come.

  He took a moment to inhale, then his eyes, golden in the dark light, met mine with intensity I’d never seen before.

  Hunter spread my legs again, crawling between them before he sprawled over me. Everything touched as he settled his head beside mine, his cock slipping back into me eagerly. His hand slid between us as his chest teased my nipples with each movement, then he was pinching and circling my clit with slow, methodical strokes that had me climbing toward my climax even faster.

  Panting, he took his sweet Goddamn time as we both hitched and gasped and moaned, but then it was there, the hot, incredible burn of an orgasm sweeping through me in beautiful waves.

  I groaned, breathless and gasping as he pressed kisses to my open, panting mouth, my eyes squeezed tight and bleeding happy tears again.

  He was next, right on my tail as his hips jerked once, twice, then finally with a few more thrusts he settled. His body was weak and his chest heaved against mine as he tried to catch his breath.

  “Never leave me again,” he pleaded, all the bravado from moments ago long gone.

  “Never,” I swore, hoping to God that I could fulfill that promise.

  Hunter moved, pulling out before he put his arms around me and gathered me close to him.

  “Mine,” he whispered into my hair, the low timbre of his voice like a soothing balm to my wracked guilt.

  He might have made mistakes, but so did I. We both had a lot of healing to do before we could truly trust each other again.

  Several long minutes passed as we cuddled, naked and sweaty and warm against each other. I thought he’d fallen asleep, but eventually Hunter moved, then dipped and placed a kiss right on the flesh above my left breast.

  “I’ll never hurt you again, Ivy,” he promised in a whisper, then settled back down beside me.

  Damn with those tears again.

  More fell down my cheeks as I considered if one kiss was enough to heal the wounds on my heart.

  Maybe not, but it was a good start.

  - 53 -

  Hunter

  She was there, in my arms.

  I was one lucky bastard.

  After everything I’d done, she’d given me another chance. Sure, she might have demolished me when I’d confessed my love for her, but you know what they say. The people who can hurt you the most are the people you love the most. I just prayed to God that she wouldn’t hurt me again.

  I’d hardly been able to sleep. Even after the fuck of a lifetime, I couldn’t settle my mind or body enough to get some shuteye. Instead, I’d stayed awake and watched her sleep.

  Ivy Bell.

  The girl of my dreams, and the girl who destroyed me in a single swing.

  The girl who took me back.

  The girl who loved me.

  Holy shit on a stick… she loved me.

  It all felt so surreal.

  Ivy Bell!

  I lay as still as I possibly could, trying not to wake her as strips of light peeked in through the slat blinds in my room. I’d never bothered with girly things like curtains or decorations, but now I kind of wish I had, so she would sleep a little longer.

  Ivy started to stir as one of those strips of sunshine hit her eyes. With a writhe, she turned into me, digging her head into my chest as I pulled her closer.

  “You smell incredible,” she mumbled into my skin, taking a long whiff of who knows what.

  “I didn’t even shower after work,” I admitted.

  I probably smelled like sweat and metal and funk.

  She hummed, her lips pressing onto my pec before she stuck out her tongue and gave me a long lick.

  Aaaaaand I was hard again.

  “If you keep doing that, we’re not making our first classes,” I told her, my voice darker and scratchier than I’d meant.

  Her eyes suddenly widened in horror.

  “Dammit! Stop distracting me with your sexy skin and your smell and your hard cock!”

  I laughed my ass off while she stumbled out of my bed and into the bathroom to get in the shower. Maybe if I was lucky, I could convince her of a quickie before we made the short drive to school.

  A gu
y could hope.

  She rode with me to school since we’d left Baby back at the beach. With a promise to bring her back after her last class, I made sure to kiss her before she ran off, fresh faced and glowing from a little bit of shower head I’d insisted on.

  Not my head. Hers.

  I’d purposely not brushed my teeth afterwards too, skipping breakfast so I could taste her on my tongue all morning. Gross, maybe, but so totally worth it.

  Gauge found me in the halls after my first two classes of the day and I fistbumped him.

  “You’re practically glowing,” he said, a shiteating grin on his idiotic face.

  “Whatever,” I said, not ready in the least to tell him about the past twelve hours.

  Hell, I didn’t even know what to think about what happened.

  “Like an expecting mom,” he added, patting my cheek.

  “Fuck off,” I said, chuckling at my friend.

  He hummed, following me to the library where we usually hung out since we had the next hour free.

  “You look happy,” he told me.

  “I am. Right now,” I admitted. “But who knows what’s going to happen in the next hour or day.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that Ivy is so fucking hot and cold, I don’t know what’s happening next.”

  “Didn’t you say you guys met last night?”

  “We did. At the beach.”

  “And obviously did the dirty,” he added, waving his hand for me to move along the topic.

  I just sighed.

  I wasn’t ready to talk about it, but dammit, Gauge always had a way of pulling shit out of me whether I wanted to say it or not.

  “She was acting like we were a couple or something this morning, but fuck it. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

  He frowned.

  “Hillary is pretty positive she got through to her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I froze, ice tingling down my spine.

  “Ah, shit,” he mumbled. “Ivy didn’t tell you?”

  “Tell me what?”

  He shrugged.

  “It’s not a big deal. Hillary and Ivy met yesterday and she convinced Ivy that she should give you a chance. That’s what Hil said, anyway.”

  So Ivy had to be convinced to be with me?

  “Fuck no,” I said, turning around and screwing off the idea of doing some homework.

  Seeing Ivy was more important.

  “Hunt!” Gauge called after me, but I ignored him while heading over to Ivy’s psychology class.

  I didn’t even give a single shit that she was in class. I would wait outside that door until she came out to demand to talk to her. I needed answers.

  I was halfway down the main hall toward her class when I saw her heading toward me. The bright streaks of pink and blue in her hair were like a billboard with flashing lights. I hurried my pace, and when she saw me, she grinned.

  “Ivy,” I said, slowing as I approached. “Gauge said you—”

  She didn’t even let me finish my sentence. Instead, Ivy got on her tiptoes and smashed her mouth against mine in the empty halls. Suddenly, I couldn’t even remember why I was mad.

  “Let’s skip,” she whispered, biting my bottom lip.

  “Ok,” I agreed without a thought.

  Ivy took my hand and pulled. I followed.

  I didn’t have issues skipping classes occasionally, especially my last one of the day which always seemed like a waste of time because they only tested out of the textbook.

  It seemed like Ivy felt the same way, because she was hurrying her ass out of the school faster than I thought her little legs could take her. I was practically jogging to keep up.

  “Where did we park?” she asked once we were outside.

  “Bike parking.” I pointed toward the row of skinny little lanes for motorcycles and mopeds.

  “I just can’t seem to get my head in the game today,” Ivy said as we continued to my bike. “I can’t stop thinking about last night.”

  That would make two of us, then.

  “Me either,” I admitted.

  Damn though, it felt really good to hear her say it.

  “Let’s go to the beach. I can get Baby, and we can have some space to talk.”

  I didn’t bother agreeing. I just got on the bike, handed over my helmet and jacket, and slipped on my sunglasses.

  The beach wasn’t so bad, but it would fill up with tourists and beachmongers soon.

  Ivy and I found an empty stretch of sand to claim, and she took my hand before she started to talk.

  “This whole thing has been super weird,” she said, which had me snorting in agreement.

  Weird didn’t even start to cover it.

  “But I felt something shift between us last night. Did you?”

  “Yeah,” I admitted. “Funny how, when you remove all the bullshit, it all comes into focus.”

  “What are you thinking?” she asked, taking my hand tentatively.

  Without hesitation, I strung my fingers through hers and held it tight, not wanting to let go.

  “I’m thinking this feels too good to be true.”

  She nodded slowly.

  “Hunt, I want you. I want you as my best friend, just like you always were. More than that, I want you there for everything. I want you there with me in the good times and the bad times. I want to be able to trust everything to you. I’m just scared that it’s too soon. I’m scared that you’ll hurt me again.”

  Looking into her cornflower blue eyes, I said with every ounce of conviction in my body, “Ivy, I will never hurt you again. I promise you that. I will destroy myself before I hurt you.”

  She swallowed hard, the carefree smile from earlier now long gone.

  “You promise?” she asked, putting up her pinky for an old school pinky promise.

  I put mine up too, and curled it around hers.

  “Cross my heart, hope to die,” I whispered.

  “Or I’ll make you into an asshole pie,” she finished with a little smile on her face, bringing back so many memories with the silly rhyme we’d made up to go along with the age-old classic.

  Her lips curled up, pretty and plump and glossy and pink. I couldn’t shove it back anymore. Leaning forward, I gave her a gentle, insistent kiss.

  “I love you,” I breathed, which made her give a wispy chuckle.

  “I’ll never get tired of hearing that,” she admitted.

  “I’ll never get tired of saying it.”

  “Again.”

  “I love you.”

  “Again!”

  “Love you!”

  “Hunt?”

  “What?”

  My lips were a hair's breadth away from hers again, my eyelids growing heavy as I stared at her mouth.

  “I love you, too.”

  Dammit. She knew my weakness.

  I leaned forward and kissed her again, my fingers brushing over her cheeks to grip her hair.

  “I’ve gotta know what this means, Ivy,” I finally admitted. “Is this a trial basis thing? Or are you mine?”

  She sobered, her smile melting away as she looked into my eyes.

  Those lips of hers were more red than pink, and a little swollen from our kisses. All I wanted was to take her face in my hands again and devour her, but my heart needed her words more.

  “Hunt,” she said finally, “I thought we figured this out yesterday.”

  “Maybe, but I’m a simple man, and I need simple words.”

  She finally smiled.

  “Fine. Let me give you the laymans terms.”

  Ivy pushed against my shoulder until my back was on the sand and she was leaning over me in the afternoon sun.

  “Hunter Hayes, I might be yours, but you are mine, too. And only on the terms that you treat me well and you never, ever let a misunderstanding come between us again. Oh, and if you call me a cunt again, I will kick you in the balls.”

  A laugh exploded from m
y chest as I looked up at her, the pink strands of hair at the top of her head brushing against my cheeks.

  “You have a fucking deal,” I agreed, dragging my hand through her hair and fisting it so I could pull her down to kiss me.

  “Parents are staring at us right now,” she whispered against my lips with a grin on her face.

  “Why?” I asked, nibbling on her lips as my other hand gripped her thigh, straddling me.

  “Because,” she breathed, her tongue flicking out against my lips to tase me. “We look like we’re fucking.”

  All it took was one grind of her hips over my crotch and I moaned into her mouth.

  Ivy giggled, all while I protested her terrible tease.

  “Then we better give them something to be pissed about,” I agreed, sinking my fingers into her hips to grind her down on me again.

  She hummed happily and sat up straight like she was riding me, throwing her head back in pleasure.

  Good God. If she didn’t get off me, I’d get us both arrested for indecent exposure.

  “Hey!” we heard somebody yell at us, and I was instantly flashing back to the night of our first kiss and that creeper who ran us off the beach.

  “Get in Baby and get back to my apartment right fucking now,” I ground out, shoving her off me so I could stand.

  Yeah, I was sporting a pretty big boner, but I didn’t give a single shit.

  Leaving Ivy lying on the sand and laughing, I dusted the sand off my ass and headed toward my bike.

  She’d follow.

  I knew she would.

  - 54 -

  Ivory

  Dear God. That man.

  I picked myself up off the sand as he stormed away and I followed. At a distance.

  Hunter could use a few minutes to cool his ass.

  Then again, did I want him to? I was considering just letting him have his way with me on the beach if it weren’t for the mysterious onlooker who’d yelled at us. He still felt every bit as good as I remembered between my thighs, and after one night with him, I needed more. I needed so much more.

  Without a second thought, I found Baby, still sitting in the lot where I’d left her the night before, and got in.

  Hunter’s apartment wasn’t very far away, being halfway between the beach and the school, so I was pulling into the guest parking area within minutes. Hunter was waiting for me by his bike, arms folded over his chest with his leather jacket thrown over one forearm. With the hair and the sunglasses and the jeans accompanied by a tight black shirt, he looked every bit the James Dean baby he’d been known to be. Hell, he was hotter than James Dean because he was my ex-best friend, and my current friend/boyfriend.