Best Friends, Secret Lovers (The Bachelor Pact Book 1)

by Jessica Lemmon

  She blinked, wanting to I Dream of Jeannie herself back into last week before her entire life turned into a friends-to-lovers romance, but her surroundings didn’t so much as wiggle.

  Which meant this was real.

  She was attracted to Flynn. For real.

  And given his physical reaction and the way he was leaning in for another taste of her lips, it seemed Flynn was just as attracted to her.

  Eleven

  A breath away from laying his lips on Sabrina’s for another taste, the knob turned back and forth on the front door like someone was attempting to barge in.

  “I know you’re in there!” came a voice from the other side.

  “Reid,” Sabrina breathed against Flynn’s lips.

  “I don’t hear anything,” he murmured, regretting giving Reid the passcode to his penthouse floor.

  She flashed him a brief smile, but he detected worry in her eyes. “I should...”

  She backed away like he’d caught fire, and damn if he didn’t feel like he had. That experimental revisit to the Valentine’s Day kiss had proved her theory 100 percent wrong.

  They were attracted to each other. Either by proximity or convenience, or Sab’s pointing out that they were single for the first time at the same time. Didn’t matter why.

  Now that he’d had a taste, he wanted more.

  “You got a girl in there or something?” Gage shouted through the door as the knob jiggled again.

  Sabrina’s wide-eyed panic would’ve been cute if Flynn wasn’t so turned on his brain was barely functioning.

  “I was out with them tonight. Apparently they didn’t like that I left them unsupervised.” Thumbing her bottom lip, he sent a final longing look at her mouth before letting her dash out of the kitchen. She checked her hair and face in the mirror in the living room and he had to smile when she wrinkled her nose, worried.

  “I look like I’ve been making out,” she whispered.

  “Hell yeah, you do.” He couldn’t hide his pride any more than she could hide those warm, rosy cheeks or the flush on her neck. “Gimme a second. I’ll kill them, we’ll hide the bodies and then we’ll return to what we were doing.”

  With a wink to Sabrina, Flynn jerked open the door and blocked the crack with his body. “What do you want?”

  Reid held up a six-pack of beer with one bottle missing as Gage held up the missing bottle. “We thought you might want company.”

  “And we want to know what happened with Sab...rin...a...” Reid’s voice trailed off as Flynn widened the gap in the doorway to reveal Sabrina standing in the center of his foyer.

  “Hey, guys!” she chirped. “I made cookies. Just like the old days!”

  Reid swore and Gage ducked his head to hide a laugh.

  “Come in. It’s just cookies.” And kissing. But they’d officially shut down that last part.

  “Hello, Sabrina,” Reid said like he was addressing his arch nemesis. “Beer?”

  “No thanks. I’m going to bed. I’m exhausted.”

  Reid grinned and Sabrina backtracked, making herself appear guiltier in the process.

  “I’m staying here. Temporarily. I’m staying in the guest room. My pipes are leaking and I don’t have clean water. Plus, I need a shower, so I’ll do that. In the guest bathroom, obviously.” An uncomfortable giggle. “Not anywhere near Flynn’s bedroom. I mean, not that it would matter.”

  Flynn shook his head and she gave him an apologetic shrug. He was going to catch hell from his best friends the second she fled the room, which she did three seconds after ensuring the oven was off.

  Once she was ensconced in her bedroom and the shower cranked on in the attached bath, Flynn grabbed one of Reid’s beers and headed for the living room.

  “Well, well...” Gage, who’d helped himself to a cookie, swaggered in with Reid on his heels. “Sabrina has leaky pipes and your suggestion was for her to move in with you?”

  “What would you have done?” Flynn asked, tipping the bottle.

  “Called a plumber?” Reid suggested before having a seat on the sofa.

  “I’m going to do that tomorrow. As well as rip her landlord a new one for neglecting her needs.”

  “Seems like you’re in charge of her needs now.” Reid’s eyebrows jumped.

  “In the meantime,” Flynn continued, ignoring Reid’s accusation, “she needed a place to stay. I’d have offered you both the same if the situation were reversed.”

  “Except you didn’t kiss us at the Market on Valentine’s Day,” Gage supplied.

  “And I wouldn’t have made you cookies.” Reid took in the canvases stacked by the window. “She appears to be staying awhile.”

  “As long as she needs.”

  Flynn didn’t owe either of them explanations. But a few in his and Sabrina’s defense filled his throat. She was also his best friend, she needed him and he wanted her here. Since those sounded like excuses, he said nothing.

  “We didn’t come over here to bust your balls about Sabrina, believe it or not,” Gage said.

  “Why are you here?” Flynn asked.

  “We have a work conundrum,” Reid answered.

  “You changed my email password to keep me away from work.” Flynn narrowed his eyelids in suspicion. “And now you want me to work?”

  Did they have any idea how epically off their timing was?

  “Right.” Reid pursed his lips for a full three seconds before admitting, “We have...an issue. A minor issue, but one that could use your...expertise.”

  They had Flynn’s attention. He tracked to the chair in the living room and sat, elbows on his knees. He leaned in with interest. “Tell me.”

  * * *

  She’d heard Reid and Gage leave sometime around 1:00 a.m. She’d fallen into bed right out of the shower, and was asleep seconds after her head hit the pillow. Which explained the crinkled hairdo she was currently trying to tame with a brush and smoothing spray in her private bathroom. Long plagued by insomnia, she’d hoped she was through that phase of her life but it’d started up again around the same time as Flynn and Veronica split.

  Which she’d thought was a coincidence until recently.

  She’d tossed and turned and watched out the window at the city lights and the insistent moon that wasn’t looking to give up its coveted spot in the sky to the sun anytime soon. Finally, she’d given up and climbed out of bed—still in her long-sleeved shirt from earlier, and panties and socks. She’d forgotten to pack pajamas, a situation she would rectify in the morning.

  Cracking her bedroom door the slightest bit, she peeked down the silent hallway in one direction and toward the staircase in the other before deciding to risk running downstairs in her underwear for the midnight snack she’d been craving since her eyes popped open.

  The moment her toes touched the wood floors of the hallway, the door at the end swung aside and Flynn ambled out shirtless. He was rubbing his eyes and looking as groggy and sleep-deprived as she felt, but by her estimation he looked much better in that state.

  Her eyes feasted on the strong column of his neck, the wide set of his chest and trim stomach tapering to a pair of distracting Vs delineating either side of his hips. His boxer briefs were black, snugly fitting thick thighs that led down to sturdy male bare feet. By the time her inventory was complete, he noticed her standing there and paused about a yard away.

  “I couldn’t sleep,” she said.

  He scanned her body much in the way she’d done his, pausing at her panties—utilitarian, but he didn’t seem to have the slightest aversion to her red cotton bikini briefs.

  “I had to sleep in the shirt I wore,” she blurted out. “I forgot my pajamas. I’ll pick up some tomorrow.”

  As she bumbled out those three clumsy sentences, he advanced, backing her to the threshold of her guest bedroom. He touched her arm, a
soothing stroke while he watched her. “You can borrow one of my T-shirts.”

  Her throat made a clicking sound as she swallowed past a very dry tongue.

  He stole a glance at her mouth before backing away and scrubbing his face with one palm instead of ravishing her where she stood.

  Shame.

  When he opened his mouth the words “Ice cream?” fell out, sending her brain for a loop.

  “Um...”

  “Ice cream or I kiss you again. Those are your options.”

  A nervous laugh tittered out. “Do you...have tea?”

  He flashed a devilish smile that made her knees go gooey. “I have tea.”

  He strode down the stairs and she watched him, trying to decide if it was okay to follow him in only her underwear while she enjoyed the way he looked from behind.

  In the end, she opted not to overthink it. The idea of slipping into a pair of skinny jeans when she was this comfortable was as abhorrent as the idea of putting on a bra. They were adults and Flynn was far from a stranger. So, they’d kissed. So what? That didn’t mean he was going to shove her gruffly against a wall and feast on her neck and her nipples, while his hand moved insistently between her legs...

  “Mercy,” she muttered, her hand over her throat as she came to a halt in the middle of the staircase.

  “I know. The wide slats throw you off at first,” he called from his position behind the counter, reading her reaction incorrectly.

  Her hand tightened on the railing as she completed her descent but not because she was afraid of falling. Flynn was a distracting sight, shirtless in his kitchen. She couldn’t see his boxers behind the counter, so for all her imagination knew he could be completely nude. And didn’t that introduce a fine visual? Especially after she’d felt the evidence of his arousal against her this evening.

  They went about dishing out ice cream and preparing tea in a silent dance, both either too weary or too wary to speak. Once she had filled her cup with hot water and he’d topped his scoops off with chocolate chips, peanut butter and sliced almonds, they went to the living room, where they both angled for the same cushion on the sofa.

  “Sorry.” She felt weirdly shy—something she’d never been around him.

  “Ladies first. You’re the guest.” He pulled a blanket from the trunk that served as a coffee table. “In case you’re cold,” he explained. “But if you’re not, don’t cover up on my account.”

  She playfully rolled her eyes, but there was a nip in the air of his cavernous apartment. She pulled the blanket over her lap as she sat and folded her legs beneath her.

  Cupping her mug in both hands, she inhaled the spicy cinnamon scent of the tea and hummed happily. Regardless of the kiss or them being nearly naked and in close proximity to each other, she was happy here with him. Flynn had a way of making her life brighter and her day better. It was good to have him back in any capacity.

  “Gage and Reid came to debrief me,” he said.

  “They’re not allowed to do that! I told them any emergencies were to go to the management team or me.”

  “They wouldn’t take issues to the management team instead of me if their lives depended on it. You know that.”

  “I know. But I wanted you to have a real break. What’s it been, a week?”

  “You deserve a real break, too, Sab.” His lingering gaze did a better job of warming her than the blanket. “Bethany in accounting is leaving for Washington Business Loans.”

  “No!” She liked Bethany. “Why?”

  “Reid said her fiancé works there and Bethany would like to work with him. Reid and Gage suggested offering her a pay raise and an extra week’s vacation not to leave, but they wanted to clear it with me first.”

  “Oh. I guess that’s reasonable. But then why did they come over and ask in person?”

  “My guess? They wanted to have beers and dig up dirt on you and me.”

  The phrase “you and me” made them sound like a them. An idea as foreign as everything else that’d happened this week.

  “I didn’t help,” she admitted. “I was obviously nervous. I talked too much. Ran away too quickly.”

  Flynn palmed her knee and the heat of his touch infused her very being. “It’s not your fault, Sab. I told them about the kiss last week. They suspected more than that had happened after you dashed off to the shower. Don’t worry, I told them nothing.”

  “Well. I guess it’s silly to pretend we’re doing something wrong.” That sentence was one she’d been testing out in her head and now that she’d said it out loud, it was sort of silly.

  “If anything, what we’re doing feels scarily right.” He ate a spoonful of ice cream. “I’m not sure what that means, but I’m sure we should stop overanalyzing it.”

  “Have you been analyzing it?”

  “No. But you have. I can see it in your eyes. I’ll bet there’s a completed pros/cons list in that brain of yours.”

  “Not true!”

  He cocked his head patiently. And dammit if he wasn’t right.

  “Fine. But I call it a plus/minus list, just so you know.”

  “What’s in my plus column?” He asked that like he couldn’t think of a single reason why he’d be a plus.

  “You’re my best friend,” she answered rather than recite his yummy physical attributes. “Ironically, that’s item number one in your minus column, too.”

  Twelve

  Okay, yes. He would hand it to Sabrina that this situation was a little...odd. Not their usual mode of operation and possibly a bad idea for the reason she’d placed at the top of both lists: they were best friends.

  But there was something to say for the impulsiveness of the Valentine’s Day kiss on the pier. And there was even more to say about the kiss in his kitchen that was as premeditated as they came.

  “You’re worrying about...this ruining our friendship?”

  A strangled sound left her throat like she couldn’t believe he’d asked that question. “Aren’t you?”

  “I’m not worried about anything. I was told to take a hiatus for the specific reason of not worrying about anything. Isn’t that right?”

  Her posture relaxed some, her legs moving slightly under the blanket. Her bare legs. Her long, smooth, bare legs.

  He wanted to touch her, and not in a soothing way. Not in a consoling way.

  He wanted to touch her in a sexual, turn-her-on, see-what-sounds-she-makes-when-she’s-coming way. If she decided she’d have him, he’d take her upstairs before she could say the words plus or minus.

  “What do you suggest we do, Flynn? Sit here and make out?”

  “That’s a good start.”

  Her delicate throat moved when she swallowed, her eyes flaring with desire.

  Yeah, she wanted him, too. It was time she stopped denying it. He set his ice cream bowl aside and carefully took her hot tea from her hands.

  “I wasn’t done with that.”

  “You’re done with that.”

  When he reached for the blanket, her hand stopped him. They were frozen in that stance, his hand on her blanket-covered thigh, her hand on his hand and their eyes locked in a battle that wasn’t going to end with them going to separate bedrooms if he had anything to say about it.

  “Do you want this?” He watched her weigh the options, jerking her gaze away from his and opening her mouth ineffectually before closing it again. “It’s a simple question, Sabrina. Do you want this?”

  “Yes—”

  He didn’t let her finish that sentence—finishing it for her by sealing his lips on hers in a deep, driving kiss as he tore the blanket from her lap. She caught his face with her palms, but leaned into him, opening her soft mouth and giving him a taste of what he hadn’t gotten enough of earlier this evening.

  He ran his hand over her knee to her outer thigh and th
en to her panties. They weren’t the thong he’d expected, but he couldn’t care less. She wasn’t going to be wearing them long.

  After gliding her fingertips over his jaw and his neck, she rerouted and grazed the light patch of chest hair over one nipple. He groaned into her mouth. She responded with a kittenish mewl before digging her blunt fingernails into his rib cage in an effort to draw him closer.

  It was the encouragement he needed.

  Shifting his weight so he wasn’t crushing her, he flattened a palm on her back and pulled her to him. She came willingly, both hands on his abs as he switched their positions and reclined on his back.

  With her on top, he held her thick hair away from her face and continued kissing her, the position reminding him of the erotic dream he’d had not so long ago. The strands of her hair tickled his cheeks and her breath came in fast little pants when he gave her a chance to catch it.

  It felt good to feel good. It had been a long time for him. And according to her, a really long time since Sabrina had felt this good. He couldn’t think of a single reason not to make love to her right here on this couch.

  He wanted to bury the past year in the soft lemon scent of her skin and give in to the attraction that had rattled them both for the last week-plus. Maybe longer, if he was honest.

  She sat up abruptly like she might shove him away, but instead she crisscrossed her arms, grabbed the hem of her shirt and whipped it over her head. Flynn had thought her legs were amazing. Sabrina’s legs had nothing on her breasts. Her small shoulders lifted and he zeroed in on her nipples—dark peach and too tempting to resist. He stole a quick glance at her and grinned, and when she grinned back it was as good as permission.

  Propped on his elbows, he wrapped one hand around her rib cage and took one beautiful breast deep into his mouth. He let go, teasing and tickling her nipple with his tongue. Her cute kittenish mewls from earlier were long gone. He was rewarded with the sultry moans of a woman at the pinnacle of pleasure. He couldn’t allow her to reach the pinnacle yet. There was more to do.