More Than a Playboy (11 page)

More Than Friends

by

Monique DeVere

© Monique DeVere 2012

“
O
pen
up,
ya
louse
!”

Justin Knight’s apartment door rattled under a hammering fist.

He yanked it open to find Lily Harper—irate and slightly unsteady on her feet—in the hall outside his door. She glowered at him with the indomitable intent of an avenging angel.

Despite the menacing scowl, her emerald eyes were as stunning as he remembered, and his male hormones jerked to life. It was after ten p.m. and she reeked of booze, but the sight of her stalled his breath in his throat. He’d waited for Lily to come to him, and here she was finally—even if she had to get stinking drunk to do it.

She stuck her chin in the air so she could look him in the face. He took in her alluring features—high cheekbones, the small turned-up nose that he was always dying to kiss, her full lips naturally red and devoid of artificial colouring—
don’t think about those lips
—and the graceful arc of her neck. She slammed the hand—that wasn’t gripping bag straps—onto her hip, bringing his attention to her slender curves in the light summer dress that ended mid thigh. The floaty material was short enough to give him a tantalizing glimpse of shapely lower thigh and her amazing legs, tanned and naked all the way to her silver strappy heels. His gaze snagged at her ankles—this woman was his every secret fantasy.
 

“You—!” She pointed her forefinger inches from his nose as her narrowed green gaze cut a path down his body then back up again.

He pulled himself to his full height of six foot two. He’d never seen Lily out for blood before. She looked ready to rip him apart, and all he noticed was how every breath she took undulated her chest. It was obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra and her firm breasts gave more of a gentle bounce than a jiggle, teasing him with her disjointed movements. His hand on the door handle tightened, and he shoved the other into his jeans pocket to keep from reaching for her.

“You louse! You think you can treat women any way you like.” She pushed past him.

Yeah she was mad.

“You think you’re all that—” She gestured her arm in a wide arc in front of his face. “With your hair and... and your eyes, that you don’t have to care about anyone else’s feelings but your own. You think you’re
so
gorgeous, don’t you? Well let me tell you something, pal.” As though she was holding a gun, she
uncocked
her skinny forefinger again and pointed it into his chest. “You’re just average, and Mel can do so much better. So what do you think about that?”

Lily had lost her mind, that’s what he thought, but he was too wise to tell her so.
 

“How did you get here, Lil?” He steadied her when she swayed a little too far to her left. Since he hadn’t buzzed her in, he presumed either someone else had, or she’d entered with one of the other occupants of the Canary Wharf apartment building.

She scowled, shrugging his hand off her. “A cab brought me ’cause I wanted to give you a piece of my mind, and I’ll tell you what... when I told the driver I was coming to bop you on the nose, he got me here in double time!”

Are you sure it wasn’t because he wanted to get the crazy woman out of his cab?
“I think you better sit.”

“Yeah?” Slamming her hand back on her hip, she scowled at him. “And I think
you
better sit, ’cause I’m going to let you have it.” He didn’t doubt she was about to give him GBH of the ear hole. “I thought you were one of the good guys, Justin, but you’re a player like all the others—just like Wayne.”

The mention of her ex-lover made his hackles rise. Now was not the time to say his piece. He’d waited three months; a little while longer wouldn’t make a difference. Nevertheless, he
was
going to have his say. Preferably, before Lily left here tonight.

First, he had to sober her up.

“I
am
a good guy, Lily.” If he weren’t, he would have made his move long ago. Justin wrapped his hand around her small waist to guide her to a sofa. This time she didn’t shrug him off, and something inside him warmed. “You smell like a brewery. Let’s get you some coffee.” Her slender curves pressed against him. She was soft. Almost fragile. He glanced down to where their bodies touched at the hips. His denim leg pressing against her naked thigh thickened his blood. He tried to ignore how enticingly the light summer dress clung to her slender shape. “How much did you have to drink?”

“Enough.” She tossed her long light honey-coloured curls over her shoulder, bare but for the spaghetti straps holding her dress up.

He led her to the sofa and eased her onto the black suede cushions.

“No.” She tried to scramble off the sofa but couldn’t seem to figure out quite how to do so because she kept falling back amongst the cushions with each attempt to stand, her dress riding tantalizingly up her thighs. “I still have a few things I want to say to you. Do you know how badly you hurt my friend?” She wrestled the hem back to her knees. “She’s devastated that you broke up with her.” Behind the killing glare she gave him, was a vulnerability that tugged at his heart. “What sort of man leads a woman on and makes her think he’s about to propose, then dumps her?” She made it off the sofa and jabbed him in the chest with that pointy forefinger. “Huh?”

Mel thought he was going to propose? What gave her that idea?
He
certainly hadn’t.

Justin clasped Lily’s finger to stop her from boring a hole in his chest. “You are too intoxicated to remember this conversation, so I see no point in defending myself. Why don’t I get you some coffee, then take you home?”

Lily flopped back onto the sofa, sad and defeated as she dropped her head into her upturned palms. Her fingers sunk into her messy curls. “Why couldn’t you just be one of the good guys?”

Justin fought the urge to pull her into his arms to comfort her. He headed to the kitchen instead. Since when did ending a relationship that was totally wrong for him, make him a villain?

When he returned, Lily still had her head propped in her hands and he wondered whether she’d fallen asleep in that position. “Lil?”

Her head shot up. She gazed at him with such disappointment he felt it like a stab to the heart. Of all the women to make hate him, Lily would have been his last choice. She was his friend. At least she had been up until tonight.
  

He handed her one of the mugs of black coffee he’d carried in from the kitchen. She took it, careful not to touch him. She didn’t say ‘thanks’ either. In fact, she didn’t say a word, just continued to stare at him with disillusionment dulling her usually sparkling eyes.

She took a sip, pulled a face.

He wasn’t surprised. Lily preferred her coffee white without sugar. He’d given her black with three sugars. Justin sprawled on the sofa opposite Lily’s, stretching out his long legs in front of him.

“This coffee is disgusting.” She scowled at the brew.

“Drink up; it’ll help to sober you.”

“Who says I want to be sober?”

“I’ve waited months for this moment, Lily, and now it’s here, I want you good and clear-headed when we bash this out.”

“Bash what out?”

“This thing that’s been between us ever since we first met.”

Lily shifted her gaze over his shoulder. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That’s why I need you fully conscious.”

“I
am
fully conscious.”

“Did Mel tell you why we broke up?”

Lily glanced at him like a
bugologist
viewing a not particularly appealing insect specimen. “Don’t you mean why you
dumped
her? She said you told her you had feelings for someone else—which is just the thing a louse would say.”

“I didn’t realise you had such a low opinion of me.”

“I didn’t until tonight when Mel told me what you did.”

“Are you saying I should stay with one woman when I want another?”

“What is it with you men? The grass is always greener, isn’t it? You are exactly like Wayne. I wasn’t enough for him either; he was always on the lookout for his next woman.”

“Don’t compare me with Wayne. I always end one relationship before starting the next.”

“Maybe, but you still go around collecting hearts. Just like him!”

“Relationships end all the time, Lily. Are you going to bust every guy’s balls just because one guy cheated on you? You’re not the first person that has happened to, and you won’t be the last. I don’t cheat. I didn’t cheat on Mel. I realised I was having feelings for someone else, and I broke things off with her. I can’t choose who I fall for. Mel understands that, why can’t you?”

“Because Mel was in love with you.”

News to him. “Did she tell you that?”

“Not out right, but of course she was. Why wouldn’t she?”

“Mel doesn’t love me anymore than I love her. She liked what being with me did for her status, but she wasn’t in love with me.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“Why?”

“Because...” She dropped her gaze to stare into the coffee mug cradled between her palms.

Justin sat forward, suddenly very interested in Lily’s next words. “Because what?”

“Because you’re you.” She kept her gazed on the mug.

He wanted to see her face. “That means women automatically fall in love with me?”

“Don’t they?”

“Did you?” He placed his mug on the coffee table and knelt in front of Lily. Hooking a gentle finger under her chin, he urged her to meet his gaze. “You’re a woman, Lil, did
you
fall in love with me?”

Seconds drifted by as she simply stared at him. As her gaze danced from one of his eyes to the other, her pupils dilated, giving her emerald gaze an olive glow. “I don’t think I should have come here.”

“Why?”
 
The word came out on a husky whisper. He hardly breathed as he waited for her response.

“Because I’m a little intoxicated and you’re asking me questions I don’t want to answer.” Her breathy voice brushed across his cheek, a cool caress on his heated skin.

He pushed back the curtain of curls that hid her face from him and tucked it behind her ear. “Why don’t you want to answer?”

“I might say something I’ll regret tomorrow.”

Well, well. Things were finally getting intriguing. “Something like what?”

Her gaze dropped to his mouth then snapped wide. “Mel!” She wrenched her chin from his grasp, jumped to her feet and stepped away from him, sloshing coffee onto his black and silver Enigma rug, but he didn’t care. “Mel is the reason I’m here. You shouldn’t have dumped her.”

Disappointment curled tight around his gut. He had been positive Lily was about to say something far more interesting. Feeling like an idiot on his knees in front of her, he stood. “Would you prefer me to remain unhappy in a relationship I don’t want?”

“You were unhappy with Mel?”

“Yes.”