Plus One

by Brighton Walsh

  Plus One

  By Brighton Walsh

  Olivia hates the singles scene, so when her best guy friend, Ian, offers to be her plus one to a series of weddings she has to attend, she agrees. Although she doesn’t want to complicate their lifelong friendship, she can’t pass up the chance to have a steady date without the dating drama. What she doesn’t expect is to now find Ian so incredibly sexy.

  When Ian sees his old friend Olivia dolled up for wedding #1, the boyhood crush he once nurtured transforms into smoldering attraction. It doesn’t take long for their no-strings arrangement to turn physical. But as Olivia’s desire to stay “just friends” becomes clear, Ian’s feelings are deepening. In the time they have together, how will Ian convince Olivia that one plus one can make for a lifelong pair?

  22,000 words

  Dear Reader,

  The month of May always brings, for me, the promise of new beginnings. I realize that it’s actually nearly the end of spring, but for some reason, I love the idea of May and that it means summer is coming and the fun is really about to begin!

  This month, very fitting for my excitement about new beginnings, we have three debut authors with stories releasing. Brighton Walsh joins Carina Press with her charming contemporary romance Plus One, where lifelong friends find deep-seated feelings growing into something more than friendship. Meanwhile, debut author Shawna Reppert has crafted a unique and captivating fantasy romance world in her male/male romance The Stolen Luck. Joining these two authors with a debut is S.G. Wong with the first Lola Starke novel, Die on Your Feet. Not only is this an unusual mix of mystery, paranormal and noir, but this book also has a striking cover that captured my imagination from the first look.

  Although not a debut author, Tamara Morgan joins Carina Press with the first in a new contemporary romance series. In The Rebound Girl, an outgoing plastic surgeon gets more than she bargained for when she offers to be the rebound girl for a sexy kindergarten teacher getting over his recent breakup.

  Along with new beginnings also come bittersweet goodbyes, and this month we wrap up Jax Garren’s fantastic science-fiction trilogy Tales of the Underlight. This series has kept us all on the edges of our seats with both the sexual tension between Hauk and Jolie and the fight to take out the Order of Ananke. Don’t miss the final installment, How Beauty Loved the Beast. Also wrapping up a trilogy this month, though on the opposite end of the romance spectrum, is contemporary romance author Kate Davies, offering the final installment of her high-school reunion trilogy, Girls Most Likely to…, with Life of the Party.

  As well, we have exciting offerings from a variety of veteran Carina Press authors this month. Jeffe Kennedy’s Ruby takes us to a contemporary world of BDSM and a sexy Cajun chef during the sensuality of New Orleans’s Mardis Gras. And last month saw the release of Volume 1 of our Love Letters anthologies. This month, discover four hot stories with a military twist in Love Letters Volume 2: Duty to Please.

  Sandy James, Shawna Thomas, Cathy Pegau and Stacy Gail all return to previously established worlds in their respective books. In Sandy James’s The Brazen Amazon, the Air Amazon is sent to protect computer wizard Zach from a rogue goddess who wants to use him to destroy the world. Journey of Dominion, book two of The Triune Stones series from Shawna Thomas, continues the story of Sara, trained from birth for one purpose: to reunite three ancient stones to restore balance to the lands.

  Female/female romance Deep Deception by Cathy Pegau follows the harrowing story of a beautiful agent and the woman she has no choice but to trust…until the secrets they’re each keeping threaten to get them both killed. And the plan for a demonic apocalypse is at last uncovered by a maimed member of the Nephilim and a scarred young woman who’s been to hell and back in Stacy Gail’s Wounded Angel, book three of The Earth Angels.

  Last but certainly not least, Dee J. Adams brings us the next installment in her high-octane Adrenaline Highs series with romantic suspense Living Dangerously. If you’re new to Dee’s books, you can easily start here, or go back to the beginning with Dangerous Race.

  This month, start a new series, revisit a favorite world or discover a new-to-you author with our May releases. And don’t forget to check out our catalog for backlist from these and other authors in all your preferred genres.

  We love to hear from readers, and you can email us your thoughts, comments and questions to generalinquiries@carinapress.com. You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.

  Happy reading!

  ~Angela James

  Executive Editor, Carina Press

  www.carinapress.com

  www.twitter.com/carinapress

  www.facebook.com/carinapress

  Dedication

  To my husband, my forever plus one and the

  best real life hero a girl could ask for.

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to Jeanette Grey for believing in me and in Plus One, and for pushing me when I needed to be pushed. And for reminding me that my motto has always been Go Big Or Go Home.

  Thanks to Kat Watson for polishing and tweaking and generally being awesome during the beginning stages of this book. And I’m sorry about all those sentences starting with conjunctions. (But not really.)

  Thanks to Caren, Nikki and Gin for giving me invaluable feedback and support during the writing process.

  Thanks to Angela James for the call that left me blubbering like an idiot and will forever rank as one of my favorite moments. Thanks to Carina for having faith in my story and making my dream of becoming a published author a reality.

  Thanks to my editors, Elizabeth Bass and Denise Nielsen, for asking the tough questions, giving helpful feedback and suggestions, and making sure this was the best book it could possibly be.

  And, finally, thanks to my husband, who put up with 2 a.m. frantic scribbling when I just had to write a piece of dialogue down, for answering questions like “Would a guy really do this…?” and for being unwaveringly supportive in encouraging me to follow my dream.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  “So, interesting fact,” the guy sitting across from her said. His confident tone suggested he really did think it was interesting. “Cat urine is one of the most difficult things to get out of carpet.”

  Olivia Winters just stared at him, no longer surprised by what came out of the mouths of the men she dated. After a solid eighteen months of nothing but shitty and shittier dates, she was done.

  Done.

  She didn’t need this. She wasn’t a leper, for God’s sake. She was cute and fun. She owned her own bakery—her own successful bakery, thank you very much. She had a great sense of humor, if she did say so herself, and gave one mean blow job—or so she’d been told.

  So then why did her luck with men suck so horrendously?

  With her blank stare still focused on Geoffrey Scott, Bad-Date-Number-Too-Many-to-Count, who was still blabbering on about the different products one could use to get rid of cat pee, she decided this was it. The very last date she’d subject herself to. She had better things to occupy her Friday and Saturday nights—namely, spending some quality time with her muc
h-loved vibrator. Unlike some of her former lovers, at least it had never left her high and not-so-dry.

  She stared into the eyes of the guy she’d hoped would be her reprieve from the shittiness, and she let out a relieved breath when her cell phone rang from inside her purse, right on time. Thank God she had some people in her life she could count on.

  Turning a mock look of regret at her date, she said, “I’m so sorry, but I need to get this. My best friend had surgery yesterday and she lives alone. I told her to call if she had any problems.”

  “Of course.”

  “Emma?” she asked into the phone, not bothering to check caller ID.

  “Is he awful?” The deep timbre of the voice on the other line startled Olivia momentarily. That definitely wasn’t the voice of Emma, friend and bad date rescuer. With her thoughts scattered from surprise, it took her longer than usual to recognize who the owner was, but once she did, she took a deep breath, remembering her part in this farce.

  She put on her most concerned face. “Oh, no, are you all right?” she asked into the phone, pausing for dramatic effect and making her eyes go wide. “Yes, of course, I’ll be right there!” She turned a well-rehearsed mask of contrition on Geoffrey and held the phone away from her mouth. “I’m sorry, Geoffrey, but I have to leave. It’s been...well, it’s been something.”

  Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed her purse and hightailed it out of the restaurant and straight to her car, the deep chuckle rumbling in her ear as she went. A chuckle that belonged to her best friend’s brother, Ian Donnelly—who, thanks to his rescue from her abysmal date, was currently her favorite person in the entire world.

  “Oh, yeah, yuk it up,” she said once she was safely in her car. “He was talking about cat pee, Ian! At dinner!”

  That just caused him to laugh harder, the sound a welcome comfort in an otherwise god-awful night. She switched him over to her Bluetooth and headed out of the parking lot, anxious to get as far away from this nightmare of a date as possible.

  “I don’t know why you do this to yourself, Livvy.”

  Even the use of his childhood nickname for her couldn’t calm her down. “Why? Why?” she asked, her voice rising an octave. “Maybe because I’ve been asked to be the bridesmaid in no less than four weddings in the next six months, not to mention the five save-the-date cards I’ve gotten in the mail.” She blew out an irritated breath. “That’s at least nine events it would be nice to have a date to. But you know what? I’m done. No more, Ian! Men are all lousy asshats who don’t know good conversation from their own sweaty ball sacs.”

  He sputtered a choked laugh, and let out a defensive, “Hey!”

  “Well, it’s the truth.”

  As she navigated the streets to her condo, she mentally catalogued some of the more interesting tidbits from the plethora of bad dates she’d subjected herself to over the past eighteen months.

  There was Ernie, a plumber who’d completely lived up to the stereotype, his ass-crack hanging out of his pants whenever he’d bent over even the slightest bit. He’d taken her to a neighborhood pizza place—which, hey, whatever, she wasn’t high-maintenance and loved good pizza as much as the next girl—but then he’d proceeded to talk about some of the things he’d unclogged from toilets...while their pizza had been sitting in front of them.

  Then there was Charles, the high-powered CEO who had looked great on paper, but who had turned out to be a chauvinist jackass who’d done nothing but belittle her and her “silly business” all through their date. Then he’d had the nerve to be shocked when she’d turned him down for a second date, telling her—and with a straight face, no less—that she should be so lucky to land someone like him.

  Uh-huh, sure.

  And then there was her personal favorite, Cliff—thirty-five, unemployed and still living at home in his mother’s basement. He’d shown up on her doorstep with a bag of McDonald’s and three pornos, which he’d thought they could watch together—you know, to get in the mood for the rest of the night.

  Yeah.

  So, forgive her for giving up on those lovely specimens.

  “Come on, Liv,” Ian’s voice urged gently in her ear. “We’re not all that bad.”

  She scoffed and rolled her eyes, though she knew he couldn’t see. “Well, no, you’re not that bad, but the rest of your penis-toting brothers are.”

  He chuckled, the sound finally tugging a smile from her, and she was reminded how much she missed him. Now that he lived two hours away, she didn’t get to see him as often as she used to when he’d been living right here in Minneapolis. She, Ian and Emma had all been practically joined at the hip right up until he’d graduated from college and accepted a great job offer in Rochester. Even with seven years to get used to it, their separation was still hard to deal with sometimes.

  Since he’d moved, they’d always managed to get together at least every few months, but she realized it had been almost a year since they’d last seen each other. While they had texts and phone calls, it just wasn’t the same. As much as she wanted to see him, life happened. If it wasn’t her bakery or his job, it was family or vacations or something else that caused them to miss paths. Now, though, as she listened to his carefree laughter, she missed him more than ever.

  Not wanting to focus on that, she changed the subject. “What’s your good-for-nothing sister doing tonight that she had to pawn this call off on you?”

  “Uh...” His hesitance was palpable over the phone. She could almost see him shuffling his feet uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked around the room.

  “Ahhh,” Olivia said, understanding. She tried to contain her jealousy as she mumbled, “Figures.” The polar opposite of Olivia, Emma never had a problem meeting great guys, and she’d certainly never been plagued with a date from hell. Lucky bitch.

  “You make it seem like getting a call from me is awful. I’m not that bad, am I?”

  “You know you’re not. Quit fishing for compliments.”

  The smile in his voice carried through the phone. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

  She wished he lived close enough that she could drive over to his house, raid his freezer for some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and veg out on the couch watching reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with him. He’d drool over Sarah Michelle Gellar, she’d give an exaggerated moan anytime David Boreanaz came on screen, and it’d be just like college all over again.

  She sighed as she pulled into her parking spot, then grabbed her purse before switching him back to her phone. The garage was brightly lit as she headed toward the elevator. “Okay, Knight in Shining Armor, I’m home now. Thanks for the rescue.”

  “Hey, Livvy,” he said quickly, catching her before she hung up.

  “Yeah?”

  “I, um, I could help you, you know.”

  Olivia’s eyebrows drew together. “Help me with what?”

  “All the weddings,” he answered. “I could be your plus one.”

  Chapter Two

  Well, she certainly hadn’t expected that. For a moment, Olivia could only stand in the elevator, mouth agape, while she processed what Ian had just offered. He definitely wouldn’t be a bad guy to be on the arm of at all these weddings. At six foot three, he exuded a certain innate manliness, but even with all that height, he still had this gentleness about him that could only come from being raised around women. The youngest—and only boy—of four kids, he grew up to be sensitive and understanding. Not to mention the fact that it wasn’t exactly a chore to look at him, with his tousled blond hair and clear green eyes. No, he wasn’t her normal type—which was to say he wasn’t tall, dark, broody and a complete asshole—but she could definitely see his appeal.

  The dinging of the elevator snapped her out of her shocked reverie, and she forced her legs to take her down the hall to her condo. She realized she had yet to say anything to his suggestion, and she blew out a breath. “So, you’d, what, drive up here every time I had a wedding?”<
br />
  His voice was casual, and she could almost hear his shrug through the phone. “Sure. It’s not like you live in Texas. It’s less than two hours.” When she didn’t say anything, he cleared his throat and continued, “Plus, Mom’s been bugging me to come home more often. This would kill two birds with one stone.”

  “I don’t know, Ian,” she said, unlocking her door and kicking off her shoes. It was one thing to expect something like this from a steady boyfriend, but from someone who had no stake in her? Who wouldn’t even require sexual favors as payback? Well, that was just a little too much to ask. “You do realize that I’m talking about a minimum of nine weekends over the next six months, right?”

  “Yes, I do believe you mentioned that somewhere between cat urine and sweaty ball sacs.”

  The laugh burst from her mouth, catching her by surprise. He’d always been good at that—making her forget her troubles and pulling a smile from her. Still giggling, she said, “What I meant, smart-ass, was that it’s a big commitment to say you’ll go to all of them. What about Molly? Won’t she get pissed that you’re spending all your weekends up here?”

  “Her name was Missy, and I would imagine not, since we’re not dating anymore.”

  Her third shock of the night. “You’re not?”

  “Nope.” His tone told her he didn’t want to discuss it any further. So, like the wonderful friend she was, she pressed.

  “Emma never told me you guys broke up.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t tell Emma everything that happens in my love life.”

  Olivia snorted in disbelief. “She thinks you do.”

  He sighed. “You know exactly how she gets, Liv, so I’m sure you know why I keep some stuff to myself.”

  Emma had always been a protective older sister, starting in high school and carrying on into their adult years. With their two older sisters being not only twins, but eight years older than Emma, it made the two younger siblings quite close. Olivia knew Emma had always felt like she needed to shield Ian from everything, girls included. In all the time they’d been friends, Olivia had never seen Emma even tolerate, let alone like, any of the girls Ian had dated. She could understand his reluctance to be open with her about that part of his life.