by Lara Norman
Lara Norman
Davis
First published by LPN Publishing 2019
Copyright © 2019 by Lara Norman
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
First edition
ISBN: B07PZ4MBBN
This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy
Find out more at reedsy.com
This one is for my mom. Thank you for giving me a love of reading
that turned into a love of writing.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by Lara Norman
Chapter 1
The first week of school had been rough, but easier than Luna expected. Her classes were full of rambunctious but respectful students and the other teachers were incredibly helpful in getting her situated in her new position. The hours were long, but rewarding. When Friday came around, Luna realized she was emotionally exhausted. Davis had arranged to take her to dinner, so she drove home and contemplated what to wear. She owned one little black dress that served as the perfect outfit when he took her somewhere pricey. All it needed was some costume jewelry to dress it up, so that she felt appropriate even existing in his life.
The incoming text caught her off-guard; he was early. She hurried to step into her shoes and snatched her clutch off the hall table before rushing out the door.
He waited for her at the curb, a sleek black car idling behind him. His beauty never ceased to amaze her. He was a few inches taller than she, dark hair falling in his eyes, and she kissed his cheek as she drew near enough. Davis moved to open the back door for her and climbed in next to her. She glanced up at Sorensen, Davis’s personal driver, and offered him a smile.
“How are you?” he asked as he took her hand in his.
“Tired, but excited to get out and do something fun.” She gave him a gentle smile.
“My first week was boring as hell.” He tugged at his tie to loosen it.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
They weren’t going far, so they both fell silent and waited until they’d arrived and were seated to speak again.
“Why was your week boring?” Luna asked.
Davis looked up from the wine menu. “I spent my time learning the names of those supposedly under me when all they’re really there for is to babysit me. I don’t have any real responsibilities, even though I asked to run the commercial real estate division. In this town it would have been a good thing for me, but I guess they don’t trust me yet.”
His parents’ company, Healy International, was a conglomerate that owned and operated several businesses. “It’s going to take time to prove yourself.”
Davis hummed his agreement and asked what she wanted to drink before placing their order with the sommelier. Luna felt out of place as always but tried not to balk at the prices on the menu. She was ready to order when the waiter returned.
“What about your week?” Davis asked.
“My week was amazing.” Her grin was broad. “I enjoy my students so far and I can almost match all of their names to their faces.”
“And what do they think of you?” He gave her a smirk.
“They seem to like me.” She blushed. “I haven’t been hard on anybody so far, but they haven’t given me any reason for that. Hopefully, I can maintain my nice streak for a while.”
“That probably won’t last.” He studied the bottle of wine the sommelier brought to the table, taking a drink of the sample he poured and approving it. Luna accepted her own glass and took a tentative sip. It was excellent, of course.
“The other teachers have been great with me. They didn’t hesitate to answer my questions. It was easier since I’ve already been an assistant there.” Teaching made her happy, and the school she’d been hired at was a warm, friendly environment.
“Good.” Davis leaned forward in his chair and ran his finger over the back of Luna’s hand. “What are your weekend plans?”
She blew out a breath. “So far, to sleep and work on next week’s lesson plan.”
“Sounds exciting.” He raised his eyebrows at her and she laughed.
“No, I guess not.”
“We could always find something to do together.”
“Such as?”
They sat back in their seats as the waiter came with their food. Luna tried not to notice the intensity in his eyes as Davis gazed at her.
“More wine?”
She agreed and drank the second glass quickly. She’d had a long week and Davis made her nervous. She felt the familiar flush come over her body as the wine coursed through her and Davis leaned close again. Alcohol and his proximity were a dangerous combination.
“Are you doing any experiments this year?”
She blinked at his question. Was she the only one with too-warm and overly sensitive skin? “I-I think so.”
“Do you need any help with materials?”
She watched him blow on a bite of food and slip his tongue out to taste it. She swallowed. “What?”
He chuckled. “I asked if you needed classroom supplies, experiment materials, anything of that nature?”
“Oh.” She frowned. “I’ll have to let you know. For now, I don’t.”
“Okay.”
She ate, testing the temperature much as Davis did. When she picked up her glass, she hardly noticed someone had refilled it.
“Have you heard from Reagan?” he asked a few moments later.
“Oh, I did. She sent me a card to wish me a good first week. I hope to see her soon. She’s got too much on her plate this weekend.”
“Grant told me he and Alex have set a date.”
Luna’s eyebrows went up. “Great news.” She really liked Alex; she was perfect for Grant, her best girlfriend’s brother.
“April fourth.”
Eight months away. “That’s an interesting choice.”
“She’ll be on spring break and they’ll have the chance to take a few days to themselves.”
Luna nodded at his explanation. “I’m so happy for them.”
“Wonder when Hudson will get off his ass and propose to Reagan.”
Davis didn’t like Hudson and never had. Hudson had never made any secret of the fact he didn’t particularly care for Davis either. Luna knew Davis thought the way Hudson treated Reagan in the beginning of their relationship was wrong, stringing her along and changing his mind about what he wanted. Davis was less offended by the fact that Hudson had been her professor at the time than he was by the treatment he felt she’d received at Hudson’s hands.
“They’re waiting until she graduates, Davis,” Luna reminded him.
“So they say.”
“Think of all the times someone has told them he’s ruining her life and all that nonsense. That she’ll drop out and be a kept woman or some shit because he’ll interfere with her education. She wants to prove everyone wrong, especially his parents.”
“Now, one thing we can agree on is that Hudson’s parents are assholes,” Davis said wryly.
“Is it any wonder he comes off as cold? He’s had them to deal with his whole life. She makes him a better person, you know.” Hudson wasn’t close to anyone other than Reagan, at least as far as Luna could tell.
“Right, but what does he give her in return?”
“Happiness.”
He conceded the point and went back to his dinner.
Finishing off another glass of wine, Luna felt the buzz as it traveled through her body, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t driving, and she had nowhere to be tomorrow. She wanted to let loose for a change. She held her glass up and smiled at the wine guy when he came back with a second bottle. Or was it their third? Luna wasn’t sure.
“I miss this,” Davis commented as he sat back in his seat and lifted his glass.
“Miss what?” she asked. He looked so handsome in the candlelight that Luna had to look down at the tablecloth.
“Seeing you.”
Luna looked back up. “We see each other all the time.”
Davis put a hand up. “No, not since we graduated. It went from every day, or close to it, to every weekend. Sometimes less than that.”
She frowned. “We’re adults in the real world now, Davis.”
“Yeah. I guess I’m afraid I’m gonna lose you to the real world.”
“Lose me?” She touched his hand. “You’re my best friend, Davis; you’re not going to lose me.”
He shook his head, and she felt his agitation. “Just wait, some guy will sweep you off your feet and you’ll forget about me.”
Her head swam. “There’s no guy.”
Davis finished off his glass and signaled to the waiter. “For now.”
He ordered two desserts without asking Luna if she wanted any. Instead of coffee, he ordered brandy.
“Don’t you understand, Luna? For four years I’ve loved you and waited for you.”
Her heart twisted the way it always did when he confessed his feelings for her, which was often. “I know,” she whispered. “You know I love you too.”
“It’s just not enough, is it?”
She shook her head miserably. They’d had the same conversation countless times over the years. She only wanted to be his friend.
He refrained from saying anything else and she figured he had more self-control than she did. “I love you, Davis. You know that.”
He didn’t meet her gaze, and she knew she hurt him by refusing him. Her feelings were twisted up inside her by the time dessert was delivered. She took a bite of the creamy tiramisu Davis had known she would love. She had never tasted brandy until the first time Davis took her to a fancy restaurant so long ago. She’d put on her best dress and still felt out of place when he ordered food she couldn’t pronounce. He wasn’t showing off; it was simply who he was. That was the biggest gap in their relationship; they were complete opposites. Davis treated her so well that she didn’t know how to reciprocate. She gave him homemade things because that was what she knew, and he always told her how much he appreciated her efforts. But she wondered if he was simply too polite to tell her that her gifts were crap.
Luna sipped her brandy, enjoying the warmth that flowed through her veins. Their conversation had chilled her, but now she felt happy again. “I think I’m done,” she said as she drained her glass and scraped her fork across her dish.
“I’d say so. Don’t lick the plate, sweetheart.” He snickered, and she grinned at him.
“Wasn’t going to.”
He raised his hand, and the waiter appeared with the leather folder that hid the check. Davis held out his black credit card without looking at the bill. He watched Luna’s face as she watched him in return.
“You’ll come up when we get back, won’t you?” she asked with a bit of a slur.
He nodded slowly, pulling cash from his wallet and dropping it on the table for the tip. Luna tried not to count the bills, but she couldn’t help herself. She realized it was enough to cover most complete meals. The waiter returned with the card and slip to sign and Davis stood, pocketing the card and his wallet. He signed and took her hand.
Sorensen waited at the curb for them. He opened the rear door, and the two climbed in side by side. Luna leaned on Davis as the car moved, and he gripped her hand tightly in his own. When they stopped at her building, they waited for Sorensen to come around and open the door.
They entered together, still holding hands. Luna had only lived there for two months, since she’d graduated and her parents had given her the money they’d been saving to help her with the deposit. They worried about her being so far away from them, but it was in a safe neighborhood and had decent security. Davis pushed the button for the elevator and kissed the side of Luna’s head. She’d worn her red hair up in a French twist for school and had simply smoothed it out before dinner.
When they reached her floor and headed down the hall, Davis stumbled into her. Luna just laughed. It was rare that they got tipsy at dinner, but he was right about one thing; they hadn’t seen each other in some time. She wanted to enjoy his company and forget about the real world for a little bit. Despite being glad to be on her way to a career she loved and being out of college, Luna had reservations about being a so-called adult now. She missed the simplicity of dorm life and seeing Davis in class every day. She missed Reagan being there every Monday for study sessions and every Thursday for dinner.
She fumbled the key but managed to get it in the slot. “Oops.”
Davis let her precede him into the front entrance of her place. She shrugged out of the light sweater she’d worn and let it drop to the floor with her purse. She watched Davis walk past her and turn as she locked the door behind them.
“Davis.”
Just that utterance was all it took. He closed the distance between them but stopped just in front of her. “Luna,” he said in response. He caressed her name with his tongue as a lover would.
She knew he would never cross the line, so she did it for him. She tilted up enough to touch his mouth with her own, a tentative tasting of his lips. He groaned and fisted his hair, and she worried she’d overstepped or misunderstood. He was her best friend, and she didn’t want to ruin that.
Luna put the barest breath of space between them and studied his eyes. They were blue fire as they gazed back at her. “We can’t be anything more than what we are. You know that, don’t you?” When he didn’t respond, she grabbed him. “I can’t lose you, Davis.”
His arm trembled under her palm. “So we’ll be friends with benefits. No commitment.”
Luna frowned. Did she want that? She was tired of fighting her feelings for him, but she knew the two of them together would spell disaster. Could she have the best of both worlds? “Are you offering no-strings sex?”
“I . . . guess I am.”
She closed her eyes and tried to think of why it was a bad idea. Nothing came to her. She nodded, a jerky and uncoordinated movement.
Davis grabbed her face and brought his mouth to hers, plunging his tongue past her lips and exploring her. The warmth that had ridden along her veins with the brandy expanded, morphed into a heat she couldn’t withstand. She clawed at her dress, needing to feel cool air on her skin. Davis accommodated her, peeling it over her head and dropping it. She worked on his jacket and tie, stepping with him as he backed up and moved in the direction of her bedroom. Their mouths were fused together, molded to each other with years of suppressed need. Luna didn’t even realize she was standing in her bra and panties and a pair of old high heels while Davis removed his clothes and
kissed her continuously.
He only broke their kiss as he stripped off his shirt and worked his pants over his hips. Luna focused on his face as she removed her shoes and lingerie, then allowed herself to look down when he was naked. Her breath caught as she realized what they were about to do.
“Last chance for second thoughts,” Davis murmured.
Foreboding told her they would crash and burn, but she was going to hold on for tonight. While she had the chance.
“No bailing,” Luna agreed.
Chapter 2
Davis sat on the end of the bed and pulled Luna between his legs. He finally got the chance to touch her as he’d imagined for the last four years, and she surpassed anything he’d ever dreamed up. Her skin was silky; his fingertips tingled. He ran them down her arms, linked their hands together, and stared at her beauty. Her green eyes glowed in the light that came in through the open bedroom door. He’d envisioned her naked countless times, but realized now that he’d gotten it wrong. Muscles sculpted from playing soccer and legs that went for days, ribs and collarbones and angles she hated. He, however, loved the way she looked.
