Forever Friend Zoned

by C. Morgan

  I started to move. I couldn’t hold back. My body was demanding I fuck her. My hips jerked, pounding against her. I moved a little faster, testing her willingness and taking every cry of pleasure as permission to go faster and harder. I reached for a handful of her hair and gently tugged, forcing her to arch her back. It changed the angle of penetration. Her pussy clamped down on my dick as I rode her.

  “So good,” I groaned. “Holy shit, you are so fucking good.”

  “It’s so big,” she said. “I like it. I like this. Harder!”

  It was nearly my undoing. Having a woman like her beg me to fuck her was the ultimate fantasy. “Squeeze me. Squeeze my dick with your pussy.”

  Her little pussy muscles spasmed around me, milking me as she moaned. “Yes, yes, yes.”

  I stepped closer to her, my thighs brushing against the back of her legs as I tried to get deeper. I wanted more. I wanted her total surrender to me and what we had. I wanted her to feel branded by me.

  “Jeff, I’m going to come again,” she cried. She sounded distraught, like she wasn’t sure what was happening. Her head moved back and forth as her hands clawed at the blankets. I could feel the tension inside her winding tighter. The involuntary spasms gripped my dick so hard it felt like little hands massaging me.

  I pounded harder, driving into her over and over until I couldn’t stop myself from giving into the release. I shouted, cursing nonsense as my body took its pleasure from hers. When I was able to breathe again, I slowly pulled out and moved to lie on the bed. I pulled her with me, holding her in my arms as we came back down to earth together.

  Chapter 34

  Alora

  “Holy shit,” I breathed. I stared up at his ceiling. I was very familiar with the ceiling. I had stared at it many times during and after a round with him, but it looked different now. I didn’t know what it was, but it felt different.

  He felt different. I felt different being with him. Once I got started on Fran, I realized I did think of Jeff as mine. I had become wildly possessive and couldn’t stand the thought of anyone else touching what belonged to me. I became this crazy woman protecting her man.

  “That was pretty damn incredible,” he said.

  “Which part?”

  “All of it. You are a woman I would never want to mess with.”

  “I probably shouldn’t have threatened her.”

  “What’s she going to do? She knows she was in the wrong.”

  “Damn straight she was. What she did was not cool. She did it on purpose. I hope you know she never would have actually wanted to be with you. She wanted to fuck you a few times and that’s it. Women like her are predators constantly on the lookout for their next victim.”

  “I know,” he said. “You have to believe me when I tell you I would never look at her the way I look at you. She does nothing for me. I see her and I see a woman that is driven and cold. She would be a shitty lay.”

  “That felt good,” I said. I was finally getting the chance to replay everything that had happened. It had been an adrenaline rush. I knew what he was talking about after the incident in the park. The adrenaline made the sex hotter.

  “The sex or ripping into Fran?”

  I laughed. “Both, but the sex was hot.”

  “You didn’t mind the doggy style?” he asked.

  I was a little embarrassed that I never let him do it before. I had some serious hang-ups after Todd. “I liked it. I really liked it.”

  “There are other ways, you know?”

  “I do. With you, I feel safe. With him, I felt like he was degrading me. It didn’t feel sexy. It felt like I was literally a dog.”

  “I won’t do it if you don’t want me to.”

  I rolled over and rested my chin on his chest. “I’m good. I liked it.”

  He grinned as he rubbed his hand up and down my back. “I know. I felt how much you liked it.”

  I wasn’t embarrassed that he felt my pleasure. “Can I take a quick shower?”

  “Only if I get to come with you.”

  The old Alora would have balked at the idea of showering with a hunk like him. The new Alora was absolutely thrilled with the idea. I got off the bed and grabbed his hand. “Let’s get cleaned up,” I said as we walked into the bathroom.

  “Or we could get really dirty.”

  He slowly turned my body around, pressing me against the slick tile. His body blocked the bulk of the shower stream but I wasn’t cold.

  His chest pressed against my back as he kissed my neck. His hand moved between my legs with two fingers slipping inside. When he slid his dick inside, I was practically begging for it. I was never going back to missionary again. I liked him behind me. I liked the close contact. I liked how good it felt inside me. There was no hesitation. No dominance. It was all about feeling good and surrendering to each other.

  Once the water ran cold, we got out of the shower. We spent too long drying each other off and ended up making love once again. We pulled the blankets over us and cuddled close. “Does this mean you believe me?” he asked.

  “I do. I think I always did.”

  “But you don’t trust me.”

  “I do. It’s just a struggle for me. It isn’t your fault. I promise I want to, and I do, but those little instances make me crazy.”

  “I promise I am going to keep trying to win your full trust. I don’t want you to ever doubt me if I ever find myself in that situation again.”

  “If that bitch puts you in that situation again, my daddy won’t be buying me a gym. He’ll be buying me a lawyer.”

  He laughed and held me close. “I like this crazy side of you.”

  “You say that now.”

  “Shh, go to sleep. You wore me out. I need a power nap.”

  It was the middle of the afternoon and I was certain there were tons of other things I was supposed to be doing, but I didn’t want to do any of them. Lying in his arms after being thoroughly loved was the only thing I cared about.

  He woke me up when it was just starting to get dark outside.

  “Oh my god, I can’t believe we slept that long,” I said as we both dressed.

  He nodded. “I don’t know about you, but I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.”

  “No, not so much. I’m starving.”

  “Let’s make dinner.”

  We worked well together in the kitchen. He turned on some music and opened a bottle of wine. I loved spending time with him doing exactly this. We got along so well. It was like I had known him forever. He was slowly becoming my best friend.

  “So, I know it’s a little late to ask, but how did the trip go?” I asked.

  He laughed, shaking his head. “I totally forgot all about it. It went very well. Very, very well.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means you are looking at the new trainer for the team.”

  My mouth dropped. “No way. The whole team?”

  He was nodding and smiling. “Yep. Most of them will come to the gym. Fran was working out some deal to make sure the gym gets a chunk of change. There might be times when I need to go to them, but I wanted to make sure I had time for my other clients. I won’t be able to carry as many, but there are a few I want to hold on to.”

  “I can’t believe you are their trainer! I’m so proud of you. You are going to get famous and leave us all behind.”

  He grabbed me around the waist and pulled me in for a kiss. “There is not a chance in hell that would happen.”

  “Are you going to travel with the team?” I asked. I was doing my best to squash down the doubt but it was still lingering.

  “I might on occasion.”

  I forced a smile. “Cool.”

  “Alora, you don’t have to worry about me. I won’t be doing anything I shouldn’t.”

  “It’s going to be hard. There are going to be women throwing themselves at you and the players. You’ll be far away and lonely.”

  “And I will wait for you,” he insisted.
“You can trust me. I swear I will never give you a reason not to.”

  “I know and I will try.”

  “Maybe you could come with me when I have to go on the road.”

  “What? Really?”

  He shrugged. “Why not? It will be us seeing the country together. I won’t be working all the time. We’ll be able to go out and check out the sights of whatever city we are in.”

  I couldn’t stop smiling. It would be like a vacation. “I like that. I really like that.”

  The doorbell rang, startling us both. “Expecting someone?” I asked him.

  “Nope. Should I have my guard dog answer the door?”

  “Very funny. If that bitch shows up at your front door, there are going to be some problems. Like why would she know where you live?”

  He threw his hands up. “I’m innocent. I swear.”

  I waved my knife at him. “You better be, mister.”

  He laughed as he walked to the door to see who it was. “ERock,” I heard him say. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m going crazy, man,” he replied.

  “Alora’s in the kitchen. Come in.”

  “Hey, Alora,” he said as he walked in. We’d had a few brief encounters over the last few weeks. Jeff wasn’t using him as a life coach anymore but the two had become very good friends.

  “What’s going on?” I asked him. “You look stressed.”

  Jeff poured him a glass of wine. “That woman is driving me crazy.”

  “By that woman, can we assume you are talking about Bunny?”

  “Yes!”

  Jeff and I both laughed. “I told you she was a firecracker,” Jeff told him.

  “But she is so much more than that. I don’t know which way is up with her. I feel like I’m chasing my tail.”

  “Why don’t you stay for dinner?” I invited. “You can tell us all about it. It will be done in about ten minutes.”

  “I don’t want to impose.”

  “You’re already here,” Jeff said. “You’ve imposed. You’re just damn lucky we already kissed and made up. I was about ready to call my life coach and beg for help.”

  “Uh oh, first lover’s quarrel?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Not quite. Jeff will tell you all about it. You guys go sit down and I’ll finish up.”

  “What did you do?” I heard ERock ask him as they walked away.

  I smiled at the comment. I liked that he automatically assumed it was Jeff. I finished dinner and set the table. I was beginning to feel like a real Suzy Homemaker lately. I loved making dinner for my man. “It’s ready.”

  ERock was grinning as he came to the table. “Hey, Tyson, you won’t beat me up if I say I don’t like your chicken, right?”

  “Very funny. Sit. Tell us what’s going on with Bunny.”

  We dished up and started to eat. I accepted the compliments on my cooking, feeling a bit like a cooking queen.

  “She told me she doesn’t want serious, which I was cool with, but now she’s mad I didn’t call her for a couple of days,” he said. “I would call her twenty times a day if she wanted me to. I just don’t know what she wants.”

  “You’ve got it bad for her,” Jeff said.

  “That’s ERock for you,” I teased. “In school, he would get totally fixated on a girl. Remember Debbie Mills?”

  ERock groaned. “That was barely a crush. She let me buy her lunch one day and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I figured out she was using me in a hurry.”

  “You always got the craziest crushes. A girl would smile at you and you would be convinced you were going to marry her. Then a week or two would pass and you would stumble right into another crush.”

  “I’ll admit I did have a lot of crushes, but my crushes don’t hold a candle to Jeff’s crush on you in junior high. That is the crush to beat all crushes.”

  I froze with the fork halfway to my mouth. “What?”

  Jeff gave ERock a look. ERock looked like he’d just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “Nothing. I meant I bet Jeff here had some serious crushes back in his day.”

  He was lying. I looked at Jeff again and replayed what ERock said. I stared at him until my eyes blurred and that was when I saw it. “Jefferson?” I whispered.

  I couldn’t believe it. It was like he transformed right before my eyes. If I squinted, I could see the shaggy hair and the acne. I remembered the fat kid who had a crush on me. I remembered him always being around. Always being there for me. He’d been my best friend for over a year.

  I saw it now. I couldn’t believe I had not seen it before. I didn’t see it because I was just as shallow as all the people I complained about. I saw Jeff, the hunky fitness trainer. I never looked past the good skin and the gorgeous body.

  But it was really him.

  Then another thought occurred. Why didn’t he tell me who he was? Was he embarrassed? A cold chill washed over me. This was revenge. I’d read the books and seen the movies. This was the fat kid getting revenge on the snob who hurt his feelings. He was using me. He was doing to do to me what I had done to Todd.

  He was getting me in good and close and then he was going to dump me.

  Chapter 35

  Jeff

  The way she was looking at me was not good. Not good at all. I sifted through my catalog of scenarios and tried to think about how this one ended. It wasn’t looking good for me. I had to say something and fast. Unfortunately, the cat grabbed my tongue and bolted out the front door. I couldn’t find the words.

  “Jefferson,” she repeated. “How did I not see it before. Jefferson Lakewood.”

  “Thanks for dinner,” ERock said and jumped out of his chair. “I just remembered I, uh, I left the stove on at my place.”

  I was going to hurt him. He dropped a bomb and now he was leaving me alone to deal with the aftermath.

  “ERock!” she said in a raised voice.

  “Sorry, thanks, it was good.”

  He’d barely touched his meal. He kept his eyes on her as if he was afraid she might attack him from behind. He was walking backward and holding his hands out like he was trying to fend off a wild animal. He ran right into an end table and knocked over a lamp. He managed to catch it a second before it hit the floor.

  “Good luck,” he said before dashing out the door.

  I turned my attention back to Alora, who was still staring at me like I had three heads. I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure which direction she was going. If she wasn’t mad, I didn’t want to make her mad by saying not to be mad.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.

  She was mad. “I didn’t try to hide it.”

  “You didn’t come out and say it either.”

  “I saw you at the gym and I tried to tell you. I really thought you would remember me.”

  “Obviously, I didn’t.”

  “No, you didn’t, and after we got to talking more, I figured it didn’t matter.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “You didn’t think it mattered we had once been close friends?”

  “We weren’t that close if you didn’t remember me,” I shot back.

  “Is this a game to you?”

  “What? No. What do you mean?”

  “I wronged you back then and this is how you are going to pay me back. How did you find out about the gym? Did you come back here just to work there?”

  “I didn’t know your family had anything to do with the gym when Fran asked me to come out and see it in person. I wasn’t going to accept the job until I saw you. I saw you, but you didn’t see me. Just like before.”

  She slowly shook her head. “That’s what this is about. I didn’t remember you. You went out of your way to become my trainer. You wanted to get close to me. For what? What was your endgame?”

  “Alora, you are reading way more into this than it is. Fran hired me after one of my clients referred me. I came to do a visit to check things out. I didn’t want to come back to Buck
eye. I had a home and I was successful. When I saw you that day in the gym, I realized I still cared about you. I know it sounds silly, but after all these years, you were still the woman I wanted. I took the job with the hopes we could strike up a friendship again. I hoped you would see me for the man I had become and be interested in me.”

  “Why did you insist on being my trainer?”

  I licked my lips. “That was your dad.”

  “My dad? What are you talking about?”

  “Fran told him I was the best. When I met him in his office, I knew exactly who he was, but he didn’t recognize me either. I don’t know if you know this, but your dad really didn’t like me back in the day. He looked at me like I was trash. He told me to stay away from you. We started to get to know each other better and I was worried you would tell your dad about me. He would figure out who I was and force you to stop seeing me.”

  She was shaking her head. “I can’t believe you think that I would let my dad dictate my life like that. I can’t believe you were lying to me this whole time.”

  “I wasn’t lying Alora. I never lied. I told you who I was several times. I waited for you to recognize me. I wanted you to recognize me. How do you think I felt knowing I meant so little to you that you didn’t remember me even when I was right in your face?”

  “I hurt you,” she said. “I hurt you and now you want to hurt me.”

  “No! Not at all! I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “ERock knew? He was in on this little game of yours?”

  “It isn’t a game. Yes, he knew. He recognized me.”

  I realized I said it in a biting tone when she flinched. “I don’t believe you didn’t do this out of spite. You wanted to make me fall for you so you could dump me. You are mad at me for telling you I didn’t want to go out with you.”

  “No. Not true. Yes, you hurt me back then, but I would never want to hurt you in return. I’m not like that. I would never do that to you. I planned to tell you so many different times but I convinced myself it didn’t matter. You know the man I am now. Who I was back in junior high is long gone. I changed. I got healthy. I grew up. Why does it matter who I was?”