Bedding The Best Friend (Bedding the Bachelors, Book 4)

by Virna DePaul

  Ryan.

  Not just for a night, but forever.

  * * *

  Annie woke from her nap about an hour later. She rolled over and saw the toy she’d used before she’d fallen asleep. The sight of it made her want to cry. She felt empty. Hollow inside. Her chest ached with the renewed knowledge that Ryan would never truly be hers.

  She tossed back the covers and padded into the bathroom, toy in hand. As she stood in front of the mirror and cleaned it, she looked at her reflection and swore she’d never pleasure herself while thinking of Ryan again. She was going to get Ryan out of her system once and for all. She was going to go out tonight and find a new man, one who would satisfy every urge in her body, or at the very least occupy her fantasies from this day forward.

  When she finished cleaning the toy, she put it back in its box, donned her robe, and picked up her phone. She called Ryan.

  “Hey,” he said in a sleepy voice.

  “Did I wake you?”

  “Just got up. Did you decide what we’re doing tonight?”

  “I decided what I’m doing tonight,” she told him. “I’m going through with my plan, Ryan.”

  There was silence on the other end of the line. She waited for what seemed like a long time for him to say something. He didn’t.

  “I know you’re not happy about the idea. I know you’re just worried about me, and I appreciate that. I’m not stupid, though. I’m going to be careful.”

  “You can be as careful as you like, Annie, but you won’t know what you’re inviting into your room—into your body—until it’s there.”

  “I have good instincts about people, Ryan. If you’re that worried, you can come with me.”

  “And do what while you’re seducing some loser on the dance floor?” he asked in a grumpy tone.

  “I’m not going to seduce a loser, Ryan. If you want to keep an eye out for me at a distance, you can. But I do not want you to interfere. I’m a grown woman. Don’t forget that.”

  He grumbled something that sounded like, “Yeah, okay.”

  Annie wanted a firmer commitment.

  “Ryan, promise me that if I’m not in clear danger, you’ll stay out of it.”

  “I said yeah,” he told her.

  “Promise,” she said.

  “Okay, Annie, I promise.” His tone was still begrudging, but she knew he wouldn’t break a promise to her.

  “I’ll be ready in an hour,” she told him.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ryan knocked on Annie’s door about an hour later. When she opened it, he looked physically sick.

  “Wow, do I look that bad?” she asked him.

  He rolled his eyes. “You look…insanely gorgeous,” he told her.

  Annie felt her heart speed up in her chest. “Really?”

  “Yeah, really,” he said, moving inside and closing the door behind him.

  “Then why do you look like you’re about to throw up?”

  “Jeez, Annie. You don’t get it, do you? My stomach is in knots thinking about you going through with this.”

  “Because you’re worried about me?”

  He frowned. Pressed his lips together. Ran his hand through his hair. He looked conflicted. Torn. Jealous?

  “Ryan?”

  His expression smoothed out. “It’s hard sometimes. Imagining you with another man. I guess I like being the most important man in your life a little too much. But if this is what you really want, Annie, I’ll support you the way a friend should.”

  She sucked in a breath and felt a tinge of hope at his words.

  “Have you ever imagined us together, Ryan? As more than friends?”

  “In the past, sure. After we had phone sex, definitely. While we’ve been here in Vegas? I’ve been able to think of little else. But what we have…It’s a good thing, Annie. I don’t want to mess it up. I can’t mess it up.”

  “And you think it would?”

  “Wouldn’t it?” he asked, his eyes searching. Intense.

  She opened her mouth. Closed it.

  He raised a hand and cupped her cheek. “Tell me the truth. Is this—your naughty list—what you really want, Annie?”

  “I want—I want—” She licked her lips. Shook her head. Too much. She wanted too much. He’d said it himself. He didn’t think they could have sex without messing things up between them. And the truth was, even though she was thrilled to hear him admit he’d thought of having sex with her, she wanted more. She wanted him to be madly and passionately in love with her. He wasn’t. End of story.

  “I want to have sex tonight, Ryan. And I don’t want to risk losing you in the process.” She forced herself to smile. “So yes, fulfilling my naughty list is what I want.”

  He rubbed his thumb against her cheek. Then dropped his hand and stepped back.

  Annie went over to the dresser to put her earrings on. She took one last look at herself in the mirror. Her black dress had a plunging neckline, and each shoulder held two thin straps that crisscrossed down her back and attached to the short skirt at the small of her back. The skirt ended just below the tops of her thighs. She wore a new pair of four-inch black heels and a solitary diamond necklace on a silver chain, which Ryan had given her last Christmas, as well as a pair of matching earrings.

  Her hair had actually cooperated tonight and lay in soft curls across her shoulders and down her back. Satisfied but still nervous, she took a deep breath and turned back around to look at Ryan. He stared at her again for a minute then shook his head as if clearing it. He clapped his hands together, the sound making her jump.

  “I’ve decided you’re right. We’re in Vegas, baby! Why should you have all the fun? Let’s go pick us up some one-night stands.” Ryan threw his arm across her shoulders and led her toward the door.

  It took everything she had to keep herself from crying.

  * * *

  Once in the elevator, Ryan asked her, “So where did you decide to go?”

  Annie shrugged. “I thought since Gilley’s is right downstairs, we’d try that one first. It’s Vegas. We have all night if that one doesn’t pan out.”

  “I’m not arguing with any plan that involves hot waitresses in leather bras and chaps.”

  That comment only served to anger Annie. If he had stayed at home, where he was supposed to be, then maybe her head would be on her plan instead of those nice, tight jeans he was wearing.

  When they got downstairs, Ryan took her hand and led her through the crowded casino toward the bar. When they got to the door, he let go of her hand and said, “Okay, I’m in brother mode now. Happy hunting.”

  The hand he’d been holding felt cold, and all Annie wanted at that moment was for him to touch her again. She started to go inside, and then she stopped.

  “I’ve got an idea,” she told him. “Why don’t you dance with me when we get in there? Dance sexy with me, flirty… I don’t really know why, but people always seem to want women who look like they’re already taken, right?”

  Ryan had a look on his face that Annie couldn’t quite decipher, but he said, “Yeah, you’re right.” Then he retook her hand and led her inside.

  She relaxed when he touched her again.

  Ryan led her out to the dance floor and slid his strong, sexy arms around her waist. Annie put her arms around his neck, and with a simple tug, he pulled her body in so that it molded against his. Annie wondered if Ryan could feel her body shaking as they began to move to the soft, slow music coming out of the jukebox. As they danced, Annie felt Ryan slide his mouth up next to her ear. He used it to move her hair, causing a shiver of desire to run down her spine. Next, she felt his hot breath and the vibrations of his sexy voice as he whispered into her ear, “I saw three guys nearly fall off their stools when we walked in.”

  Annie had to really concentrate to be able to get enough air into her lungs to be able to speak. Finally, she was able to say, “Are they hot guys?”

  She felt his body shake as he laughed softly. “Hell if I know
,” he said. “But just in case, I’m gonna put on a good show for them.” He swung her around so that her back was facing the bar and she brushed up against his chest. His fingers lightly grazed her left hip, causing her to shiver.

  She couldn’t tell if he noticed the reaction or not, but before she could even consider it, she felt his hands travel slowly around to the small of her back and then down across the curves of her ass. He squeezed gently, and her body practically convulsed against his.

  His hands moved back up to her hips, and he pulled her closer to him. His body was hard and hot against hers, his erection swelling to magnificent proportions. The rest of the world fell away.

  He moved his hands back up to her waist and rested the side of his face against hers. She closed her eyes, savoring their closeness.

  “Should I grope you, too?”

  “That’s an offer I seldom turn down,” he whispered.

  To the curious onlooker it would appear that they were whispering sexy things back and forth while they danced. To Annie, whose panties were already moist and whose insides had turned to jelly, it felt that way. Feeling emboldened, she slid her arms up along his back, massaging the hard muscles as she went, feeling him in a way she never had. Once she reached the tops of his shoulders, she slid her hands back down, all the way to the back of his tight, sexy jeans. She slipped her hands into his back pockets and then spread her thighs, cradling his erection and pressing their bodies even closer together.

  He groaned and held her tighter as they slowly swayed to the music.

  He kissed her ear. “They’re all watching and imagining it’s them holding you. They’re thinking about cupping your breasts and feeling your hard nipples against their palms. They’re imagining lifting up this tiny dress and putting their hands down your wet little panties. They’re thinking about rubbing their fingers against your swollen clit…”

  Ryan’s big hands slid up her arms and across her shoulders before moving back down her arms so he could grasp her hands. “Now they’re imagining taking you back to their room and dancing with you naked. Just like I’m imagining it.”

  Annie pulled back to stare at him just as the music stopped.

  Did he just say that he’s imagining dancing with her naked?

  She waited for him to say something else. Anything else, so she’d be brave enough to take the next step. He didn’t. Slowly, he let go of her hands and she felt any hope of being with him slipping away.

  Swallowing hard, trying to clear the baseball-sized lump from her throat, Annie finally said, “That was—I mean, it was— Thanks, Ryan.”

  “Any time,” he told her. He reached up and pushed a loose strand of hair off her face. He tucked it behind her ear, and that simple move felt to Annie like the ultimate act of seduction.

  “I guess we should split up,” she said in a shaky voice that begged for him to tell her she was wrong.

  “Yeah, I guess,” he said. It wasn’t what she’d been hoping for. “Be safe, Annie. Don’t do anything that you’re not a hundred percent sure about, okay?”

  She only nodded. She was still carrying around that lump, and it threatened to push up and destroy the frail dam holding back her tears. She watched him take a seat at the bar. Taking his lead, she did the same, seating herself at the opposite end.

  “What can I get you?” the bartender asked.

  “A cosmopolitan,” she said, glancing down toward Ryan. He already had an admirer sitting next to him. A petite blonde on his right. Ryan had spun his seat so that he was facing the mechanical bull in the center of the bar. The woman was facing Ryan and leaning in way too close.

  “Hey there.” Annie heard the male voice next to her, but she was so focused on Ryan that she didn’t process it at first. She watched as the blonde said something to Ryan, and then she slapped his thigh with her perfectly manicured hand as they laughed.

  The bartender sat her drink on the counter, and that was when she realized there was a man sitting next to her.

  Startled, she said, “Hi.”

  “Hey,” he said with a grin. “I thought that was going to be my quickest shutdown ever.”

  “What?” Annie said, genuinely confused.

  The man laughed and said, “I said hello, but you were preoccupied. I’m Clint.”

  Clint was a good-looking guy. He was lanky and tall, probably six-three or six-four, and he had dark hair and big brown eyes with long lashes. He was wearing typical cowboy garb: blue jeans and a black cowboy shirt with black boots and a black felt Stetson.

  “I’m Annie,” she said. Realizing this might be her chance at a one-night stand, she drew strength from one last glance in Ryan’s direction. The blonde was practically in his lap now, and there was a brunette on his other side. Ryan seemed to be flirting with them both. He was moving forward with his plan. She had to move forward with hers. She turned back toward Clint. “You’re wearing all black. Does that make you a bad guy?”

  His smile indicated he was genuinely amused. It softened his features and made him even better looking.

  He tipped his hat. “I can be as good or as bad as you want,” he said.

  * * *

  Ryan watched Annie talking to the cowboy. Every muscle in his body was taut, his fists clenching, his legs barely able to stay still, given the urge he felt to go to her. Now.

  No, ever since they’d danced.

  Ever since they’d walked into the damn bar.

  Hell, it had taken everything he had to leave their hotel rooms and come down here with her.

  He didn’t want her to be with another man. He wanted her all to himself. Being with her here in Vegas, whether it was eating a damn meal, acting goofy doing tourist stuff, or getting hot and heavy in a gondola, meant more to him than any time he’d ever spent with a woman. And it wasn’t just his heart involved. He physically ached with desire for her.

  Even from across the bar he could see the lacy outline of her bra beneath her dress. It tempted him. Made him want to strip her right then and there so he could see her breasts cupped by lace, and then see her with the lace stripped off her. He’d want to touch her, but he wouldn’t. He’d look at her first. Memorize every curve and hue until her image was imprinted on his brain. And only when he was shaking with need, when his mouth was dry and starving for the taste of her, would he give in.

  He felt a tug in his belly that was all her. Her body. Her scent. Her taste and look.

  He wanted it all.

  He wanted Annie.

  And he knew without a shadow of a doubt, once she was his, he’d never want to give her up. Why settle for any other woman in the world when he could have his best friend, in his life and in his bed?

  But she was across the bar. Flirting with another man. On the prowl for someone to put between her legs. Someone other than him. And what the hell was he going to do about it?

  Nothing. If she could actually pick up a man with the intention of sleeping with him, she couldn’t feel the same way he felt about her.

  With a sigh of defeat, he turned to the blonde beside him. He’d realized too late—if he’d had a chance with her to begin with—that he could commit himself to Annie for an eternity and beyond. And now he had to forget her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Clint was handsome and funny and sexy.

  Almost as handsome and funny and sexy as Ryan.

  The bartender sat a beer in front of Clint, and as he swigged that and she sipped her cosmopolitan, he swiveled his stool around so that they were both facing in the mechanical bull arena.

  He looked at her and said, “Have you ever ridden one of those?”

  Annie’s eyes widened as she watched the next rider get on the bull. The last one had been sent flying end over end after five seconds.

  “No way,” she said.

  “I used to ride the real ones for a living, before I got too old and broken down.”

  Annie laughed. “Old? You can’t be thirty yet.”

  “I just turned thirty las
t month, as a matter of fact,” he said. “In bull-rider years, that’s ancient.”

  “Really? How old were you when you started?” she asked, genuinely interested. At the very least, Clint was taking her mind off Ryan for a few seconds.

  “I was about eight when I started riding the sheep out at my uncle’s ranch—mutton busting. I did my first rodeo at ten, and that was getting a bit of a late start. I reckon I’ve had just about every bone broken in my body at one time or another in my twenty-year career. It ain’t a comfortable life for a young’un. If I was still doing it, it’d probably kill me. I was always too tall for it, too. My legs took a lot of the beatings.”

  “So how old were you when you retired?”

  “Twenty seven,” he told her with a grin. “Early retirement is sweet.”

  “Wow. So what do you do now?”

  “Sit in bars and talk to pretty girls,” he said with a laugh.

  “Nice.” He was hitting on her, but it wasn’t creepy. She liked him. She glanced over at Ryan again. This time he was looking at her. He smiled, but the smile faded when he looked at Clint.

  “It would be a lot nicer if they all looked like you, but they don’t, so I didn’t stay retired for long. Doing nothing can get old real fast. I own a cattle ranch in Montana now. My brother and I saved all the purses we won in rodeos and later on in the bull-riding circuit, and we put it all into cattle and land. I just needed a few days away, so here I am.”

  “I’ve always heard that it’s beautiful in Montana.”

  “It is. Everything is just so open. I could never live in a place like this, with all these people just stacked on top of one another. Where are you from?”

  “California,” she told him. She glanced down the bar at Ryan again.

  “Ahh, that’s too bad.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” Annie asked. She’d heard what he said. She just didn’t know what he was talking about.

  “I had high hopes for you and me getting acquainted tonight.”

  “And something changed your mind?” she asked.

  “The guy at the end of the bar. The one you keep gazing at.”

  “Oh. Ryan? He’s just my friend. I was making sure his night is going okay, that’s all.”