BoyFrenemy: Enemies to Lovers, Step-Brother Romance

by L. L. Ash

  Not arguing, I got up, with a helping hand from my husband, then started toward the hotel with a ‘see you at dinner’ thrown over my shoulder at our parents. I could use a nap, anyway, and lunch in the shade sounded great.

  Hunter followed close behind with our food still in his hands. It took a few minutes, but we got up to our room and I collapsed onto the bed.

  “Eat up, pretty lady,” he told me, settling my lunch in my lap.

  And oh boy did I!

  The creamy, fatty, meaty Loco Moco went down nicely, filling me up so much that I started falling asleep sitting up.

  “Lay down and take a nap,” Hunter told me, working on shucking his board shorts for some regular jeans and tee.

  Yeah, my husband was hot.

  “Join me?” I asked, settling onto my left side in hopes that I wouldn’t get heartburn after eating so much.

  Hunter didn’t even answer. He just crawled onto the bed and settled in next to me, circling me in his arms and pulling me closer until my rounded belly pressed into his flat one.

  “You glad we came?” he whispered, stroking a few strands of my newly bright pink hair out of my face. “I know you weren’t excited about coming back—”

  I smiled, looking into those fiery, amber eyes.

  “I’m glad,” I said, lifting my hand to drag across the little dimple where his lip ring used to be.

  I’d missed it when he got rid of it, but he’d taken it off for the wedding and never put it back in.

  Either way, his kisses were incredible, if not a little less metallic.

  “Lots of memories here,” he said, looking around the room.

  We’d rented out the same suite in the same hotel on the same island that we did last time on Mom and Dad’s honeymoon. Only this time, there was an empty room.

  And no, we had both absolutely refused to take the master suite.

  Hunter had gagged at the idea of it. We didn’t want to sleep on the same mattress or use the same shower our parents had—

  “You’re incredible, you know that?”

  I smiled up at him before pulling on his lip. He smiled back, then dipped his head until our lips touched in a soft kiss.

  “I know,” I said eventually, which had him chuckling.

  “You’re my forever after,” I told him back.

  His expression went all gooey, like it always did when I said that to him.

  Somehow those words ‘I love you’ had never lost their spark or potency. I still felt a fluttering in my heart when his lips formed the simple phrase.

  “I fucking love you,” he whispered, kissing me one more time, a little more passionately.

  “Love you more.”

  “Prove it,” he breathed, then snuggled down into the crook of my shoulder as he pulled me impossibly closer.

  It was my turn to laugh.

  “Fine, but I’m riding cowgirl.”

  He perked up immediately.

  “Really? You aren’t too tired?”

  “I’ll sleep when I’m dead. Besides, our sex life will be pretty non-existant when baby gets here.”

  Damn, we needed to pick a name.

  Add that to my list of a million things to do before she arrived.

  He considered it, then flopped onto his back.

  “Saddle up, cowgirl,” he said, eyes glinting in excitement.

  “That’s it? No foreplay?” I said. “Is this what we’ve really come to?”

  He laughed.

  “I’m afraid if I make you come, you’ll fall asleep on me.”

  He had a valid point.

  “Fine. I’ll ride first, but then you’re going to eat me out until I fall asleep. Deal?”

  “Hell to the fucking yes,” he said quickly, a silly grin on his face.

  “Ridiculous,” I told him, slipping off my underwear so I could mount him.

  I played hard to get, but I loved riding him almost as much as I loved him riding me. I could still devour him ten times a day, if we had enough hours to do so.

  Hunter helped me undress, drawing slow, sensual kisses down my neck, then my chest before I crawled over him.

  Yeah, I could live like that, and die like that, him buried inside me.

  But I looked forward to so much more life than that, and it was all fluttering inside my belly as I started to shimmy over his hips.

  A family.

  We were having a Goddamn family, and it was the best thing in the entire world.

  There was nothing that could make me happier.

  Well, other than that orgasm, maybe.

  END

  Need more?

  Keep reading for the first 2 chapters of my taboo, contemporary best friend’s dad romance, HIM.

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  Other Reads By L. L. Ash

  Standalone Novels

  For The Money

  Heart Ink

  HIM.

  BoyFrenemy

  Minutemen Series

  Boyfriend By The Hour

  Bullseye

  Rock God Series

  Phoenix

  Crash

  Fret

  Harrison Series

  Paradise City

  Welcome To The Jungle

  Estranged

  Devil’s Cupid

  Part I

  Part II

  Part III

  Part IV

  Part V

  Box Set Parts I-V

  Bloodlust Series

  Exposure

  Immersion

  Revelation

  Novellas and Short Stories

  Hitchhike

  The Horror Of Our Love

  About the Author

  L.L. Ash is a Washington-born writer who has traveled and lived across the western coast of the US.

  Ash has been writing fiction since she was a pre-teen, and while her writing has improved since then, her love for literature has not changed. Oftentimes you can find Ash reading an indie romance or enjoying a historical fiction. Dabbling in culinary arts and music, Ash has been an artist for decades but found her true love and passion in romances.

  Find me at...

  llashmedia.com

  Goodreads

  Facebook

  Instagram

  Amazon

  HIM

  By L. L. Ash

  Copyright © 2020 by L. L. Ash

  All rights reserved.

  Disclaimer:

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN: 9781671757202

  Prologue

  “Georgia, what am I going to do?” I sighed, pressing my head into my hands as we sat across from each other on her childhood bed.

  “Ok, so it’s not the end of the world,” she told me, patting my back with a hopeful expression.

  “You don’t get it. If I can’t find a place to stay up there, then I can’t go. And you know how much I need to go to college!”

  “I have an idea. Just give me a second,” she told me, holding up a finger as she pressed a few buttons on her phone and put it on the bed, ringing on speaker phone.

  “Sup baby girl?” a deep, gruff man’s voice came through the phone.

  “Hey Daddy. I hope you’re not too busy.”

  “Just riding ass like usual.” He chuckled, a loud metallic clink in the background booming through the speaker.

  “That’s not what bosses are supposed to say these days, Dad.” Georgia frowned into her phone. “It means something completely different now.”

  “I’m not that ancient. Now, what’s up?”

  “Well, I was just thinking. You have that big ol’ house up in Seattle and I was just thinking that maybe you had room for one more tennant.”

  Silence.

  �
�She can help me clean and everything. But her dad just lost his job and she was counting on them to help get an apartment and stuff. She’s earned scholarships for college but...”

  “She cleans up, she can stay,” her dad said with a sigh. “Hey, I gotta go though, the drywallers are f-uh messing up again.”

  “Ok, thank you daddy!”

  “Mhmm,” he hummed, the sound erupting goosebumps over my skin as the line cut out.

  “See?” Georgia turned to me with a grin. “Daddy gives me anything I want.”

  “But, I don't want to be a burden...”

  “It’s fine. You have a car and everything. No big deal. Dad won’t care.”

  For once, her having a spoiling dad actually worked in my favor. Now the hard part was convincing my parents that I should live with my friend’s dad instead of putting off college for a semester. We’d see which turned out to be the bigger problem.

  Chapter 1

  Bay

  “And if you ever feel uncomfortable, you just call and we’ll drive on up there and go get you,” Mom said in a rush as I dragged out my last suitcase.

  “I’ll be fine!” I smiled at her, trying to fight back the tears.

  It’d been a month now and Dad was still trying to find another job, and adding the stress of my moving in with a grown man who was a complete stranger to them and me, well, they were at their last emotional straw.

  “I’m going to be just fine,” I told her again, dropping the bag to give Mom another hug.

  “Ok,” she nodded, wiping up her makeup-blackened tears.

  “I’m only a few hours away, and I’ll be home soon for Thanksgiving, ok? Fall break will be awesome! And you don’t have to worry about me at all!”

  Dad came up and hugged me too, squeezing me almost to the point of pain.

  “Now, why did you have to go and grow up on us?” he asked with an emotional laugh, voice cracking under the weight of his unshed tears.

  “I’m not dying,” I groaned. “I’m just going to college! I promise to move back home and live with you until I’m forty. Deal?”

  The joke had done what I wanted, making them both laugh away their sadness.

  “Ok, sweetheart,” Dad nodded and took up my bag, bringing it the rest of the way to the car.

  “I put some money in your account,” Mom blurted. “To make sure you have plenty of gas money.”

  “Mom,” I chastened.

  She just smiled again at me and followed me to the car.

  They didn’t have money to give me, which was why I was going to Georgia’s dad’s house in the first place. Being nineteen, I really was done being a burden on them.

  “Love you,” they both told me, giving me hugs and a kiss on the cheek each before I managed to slide into the driver side of my car, getting in.

  They waved from the driveway of my childhood home and I felt a heart-wrenching sadness overtake me for just a moment as they disappeared in my rearview mirror. I would miss them. A lot.

  Heading over three streets to Georgia’s house, I parked in her driveway and got out to help her with her bags.

  “C’mon Mom! Dad will be just fine.”

  My friend didn’t sound so enthused as she talked to her mom on the other side of the door. Lifting my hand to knock, I barely rapped on the door when it swung open.

  “Your father is smothering and controlling. There’s a reason I got custody when we got divorced.”

  “He got custody because you cried in court.” Georgia frowned over her shoulder as she waved me in. “Bay is here, by the way.”

  Georgia’s mom looked at me around her with a frown on her face that was almost identical to her daughter’s.

  “I can’t believe she roped you into this, Bay!” Tiffany puckered her lips in disgust. “I count on you to be the smart one to keep her from doing stupid stuff like this!”

  Now, I knew the divorce was nasty. I knew that Georgia’s parents didn’t talk, which was why I’d never met her dad. I heard stories from the summers she spent with him on the west coast, but that was all. Not a single picture on the wall had him in it, and only a blurry snapshot or two over the years had given me a small idea of what to expect. That, and Georgia’s emphasis that he was tall.

  “We’re going to be fine,” I told Tiffany with a half smile. “We have each other, no matter what.”

  She grunted at that, not quite appeased, but not as worked up as she’d been earlier.

  “Just keep an eye on each other. And don’t hang out with his friends.”

  What kind of man was he, that his ex-wife would be worried about her daughter around his friends?

  Georgia rolled her eyes and hugged her mom.

  “Call you when we get there,” she told her. “Don’t have too much fun without me.”

  At this Tiffany laughed.

  “Nothing you wouldn’t do, honey,” she told her daughter, then walked us out, each of us with a bag or box in our arms.

  We stuffed it all in my sedan and after another round of hugs, we were on the road for the start of our college career.

  “Do you mind if we stop for coffee?” Georgia asked with a sigh, scrolling through her phone as I got onto the freeway.

  “Well, you could have asked me like, ten minutes ago!” I told her, slapping her on the arm.

  Georgia laughed at me before nodding.

  “Fine. When we stop for gas, I need a fillup too.”

  “Whatever.” I smiled at my friend.

  There was absolutely nothing that could stop me from enjoying my newfound freedom.

  “And donuts. Those too.”

  Laughing, I agreed and kept going toward the Pacific Northwest.

  “DAD!” Georgia called as she began to get her bags out of the trunk.

  Me? I just started yanking and pulling until I had one out and was able to drag it out of the backseat and toward the cute little blue bungalow that her dad lived in. That I would live in.

  “Here, let me get that,” I heard suddenly, the bag being lifted with ease out of my grasp with large, tanned hands.

  My eyes dragged up worn and stained jeans, up a grey t-shirt and ending at the face of someone who was definitely not old enough to be Georgia’s dad.

  “Daddy!” Georgia called again and this beast of a man called back with a dismissive run of ‘yeah’s’ accompanied by a big smile.

  Oh my God… This is Blake?

  “You’re just down the hall and to the left, that-a way.” Blake pointed toward the door and motioned to his right.

  “T-thanks.” I choked as he gave a half nod, dark hair falling over his face in a boyish sort of way, brushing against thick eyebrows above deep blue eyes.

  Georgia’s eyes.

  “Sure,” he grunted out, then went around me to my friend.

  “Where’s my big strong Daddy?” She teased her dad with a grin, waving at the bag half out of the car already.

  “Hey baby girl,” he said, slipping his arms around her waist and hefting her up over his shoulder like she was five years old.

  “Put me down!” she yelped between laughs, slapping his broad shoulders.

  He chuckled, this deep, gritty sound that hit me like punches to the gut.

  Wow.

  “When did you become so lazy?” Blake sighed at Georgia, popping the bag out of the back like it was nothing. Then three more bags lined up on the driveway before he hefted up a box. My box.

  “In. Left. Right.” Blake nodded with his chin toward the door that I was effectively blocking.

  “Oh right. Shoot. Sorry,” I said, dragging up my bag with three thumps up the steps into the house.

  It was immaculate inside. Not what I was expecting at all, especially after what Tiffany had said.

  I followed his instructions and found myself in a bare room, nothing there but a bed, a side table, and a dresser. It was absolutely perfect.

  “You give her the guest room?” Georgia asked as she pointed her dad toward me.

  “Ye
ah, that’s mine,” I told him, holding out my arms for the box.

  “I don’t care whose it is, just tell me where to put it,” he said with a half smile that I was starting to think was his go-to.

  “That’s mine. Just on the floor is fine,” I told him and he did just that.

  Crouching, he gently put the box down with a little grunt before taking off back out the door.

  “So? What do you think?” Georgia asked and I almost let the words I was thinking burst out of my lips.

  Beautiful. Hot. Yes please.

  “Do you like your room?” she specified.

  “Oh! Yeah! It’s great. I love that we’re going to be housemates!” I gushed, hoping she wouldn’t notice how weird I was acting.

  No chance. She was way too perceptive and we’d been friends way too long.

  “You ok?” she asked, brows crinkling with worry.

  “I’m fine,” I forced a softer smile onto my face. “I’m just excited and I...I can’t believe I’m here.”

  She snorted and nodded.

  “Oh, believe me. I didn’t think I’d be living with my dad when I went to college. At least he’s not your dad.”

  God help me. It’s a damn good thing he’s not my dad, because that would be weird with how hot I was getting over him.

  “Right!” I laughed as Blake came up with two more suitcases.

  “Pink yours, baby?” he asked Georgia.

  “You know it!” She nodded at her dad and took the bag from him into her room across from mine.

  “So this is yours?” he asked me next, motioning to the old, threadbare blue bag that had been my grandmother’s before I had stolen it from my mom to use for the trip. “Ok, where do you—”

  The bag picked that exact moment to not just break, but absolutely explode all over the room.

  “Fuck,” I heard Blake grunt, staring at the beaten up leather handle still in his hand as the bag laid splayed open over the floor.