Part-Time Husband

by Noelle Adams

  It was as simple as that.

  It wasn’t like he was overweight or unhealthy. He rode his bike all over town, and he’d worn the same size pants since college. He just wasn’t made for punishing his body like Lucas evidently was.

  But Lucas was his friend, and Lucas genuinely liked for him to join him, so Steve agreed at least a couple of times a week.

  It was probably good for him, but he hated it.

  So he was grumbling under his breath about how every muscle in his body hurt as he and Lucas walked up the stairs and down the hall to their apartment.

  The first thing Steve heard was Michelle laughing.

  He would know her laugh anywhere.

  There was something about the tenor of it this afternoon. Something that immediately set off alarm bells in his mind.

  He saw why as he approached the front door.

  Michelle was across the hall, looking slim and pretty and irresistibly sexy in skinny jeans and a fitted top that made her breasts look fantastic. She was leaning against the doorway of The Suit’s apartment, giggling and smiling.

  The lumberjack.

  Michelle was flirting with the damned lumberjack.

  The wave of hot outrage and possessiveness that slammed into him was like nothing Steve had ever experienced.

  He wanted to stomp over there, haul her over his shoulder, and carry her back where she belonged. To him. To his bed.

  His whole body tightened with the need to claim her that way.

  “Easy, man,” Lucas murmured very softly, giving his shoulder a light nudge.

  Steve folded his fingers into fists and tried to breathe. What the hell was Michelle doing over there? That lumberjack wasn’t her type at all.

  Steve was her type.

  Steve was the only man she should be with.

  “You can’t do anything,” Lucas said in the same very low voice. “I know how you feel. Believe me. But you can’t do anything, or she’ll never forgive you.”

  He was right.

  Of course he was right.

  Steve wasn’t a caveman. He wasn’t some sort of obnoxious alpha male asshole. He didn’t treat women like possessions.

  Even when one woman in particular had always felt like his.

  So he blew out a breath, trying to dispel the tension, and he gave a brief nod.

  Evidently taking that as a sign that it was safe, Lucas gave Steve a little shove to get him going, and they walked the rest of the way down the hall.

  Michelle turned to look at them when she was aware of their presence, and Steve saw discomfort on her face briefly before she hid it with a smile. “Hey, guys. Brent, these are two of my roommates, Steve and Lucas.”

  Roommate.

  She’d just dismissed Steve as her roommate.

  He’d always be more than a roommate to her.

  He managed to shake the lumberjack’s hand without incident, and then he tried to think of something to say that would let him remain part of this conversation so he would know if he had anything to worry about.

  But Lucas nudged him toward their front door. “Nice to meet you, Brent. We’ll see you around.”

  Before Steve could object, Lucas got him inside and shut the door.

  Steve snarled.

  “Whine all you want,” Lucas said. “But I know from experience that interfering is the worst thing you can do. You can’t get in the way of her. It’s not fair to Michelle, and it will only make her resent you. It’s never going to do what you want it to do.”

  Steve slumped and let out a breath, hating Lucas for a moment, even though he knew his friend was right. “Fine.”

  He waited, and Lucas didn’t move.

  Lucas said, “No use in lingering. I’m going to stand right here in front of the door until Michelle comes back in. So you might as well give up and go take a shower to cool down.”

  Steve felt like growling. Michelle was right there in the hall. Just a few steps away.

  He could reach her in about five seconds.

  He could get her back.

  Except he couldn’t.

  “If you want her back,” Lucas added, “this isn’t the way to do it.”

  Steve just stared at the closed door over Lucas’s shoulder.

  Lucas went on, “If there’s something you need to fix to make her happy, maybe you could just fix it.”

  Steve rubbed a hand over his jaw. “I don’t know what to fix.”

  “So ask her.”

  “I did.”

  “What did she say?”

  The memory of their conversation in front of the house he’d just bought about how she wanted to break up with him was so painful that Steve could barely rehash it in his mind. But he managed to admit hoarsely, “She said... she said we don’t want the same things. She said that she didn’t feel like she could be the person she wants to be when she’s with me.”

  Lucas’s expression changed, grew a little less hard. “What did she mean by that?”

  “I don’t know. I just don’t know. She said... she wants to be with someone who can really let her be her.”

  “Fuck,” Lucas breathed.

  That just about summed it up.

  YOU CAN FIND OUT MORE about Living with Her Ex-Boyfriend here.

  About Noelle Adams

  NOELLE HANDWROTE HER first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she writes full time, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.

  She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances. For more information, please check out her website: noelle-adams.com.

  You can find a printable version of a complete book list for Noelle Adams here.