ROMANCE: Bear Naked Seduction (Billionaire Bear Trio Book 1) (64 page)

Chapter 6

I felt a surprising pang of jealousy when she mentioned her ex and that she'd spoken about children. I don't know why I felt jealous when I had been in a relationship as well, but it was there all the same. We agreed to meet at a bar we used to frequent, and when I arrived she was already there, dressed up for a date even though she said she was looking for friends. Her face lit up as our eyes met for the first time in years and she still had that easy way of making the rest of the world fade into nothingness. She greeted me with open arms and a soft kiss on the cheek that she let linger. Our arms slipped around each other’s bodies and it was so easy to be transported back to that one dreamy, hedonistic summer. She'd already ordered the drinks.

“I hope you still have your usual,” she said. I did.

“So here we are, after all this time,” I said, feeling a little awkward. It was one thing to speak online but quite another to be face to face with her. Now that she was sitting before me I could compare her with the image I had of her in my mind. She still had the same refined beauty but her hair was a little darker and there were a couple of lines around her eyes that didn't used to be there. Her skin was darker too, and the warm climate of South America had obviously agreed with her.

“I know... it's really good to see you again. I'm glad you came across me, I was starting to wonder if there was actually any normal people on there.”

“I'm not sure I'd classify myself as normal,” I said with a smile.

“True, true, and you still haven't told me why you didn't message me?” she said, a challenging look in her eyes.

“I just felt weird, it had been so long and I didn't know if you'd want to hear from me...”

“Of course I do!” she said, and reached over the table, placing her hand on mine. Our eyes met and I could see something familiar swimming in hers. The gesture was natural, and all the years that lay between us evaporated as swiftly as the love between Lacey and me. My hand met hers and we squeezed our palms together, mending the bridge that had been broken between us.

“So I told you about mine, now it's your turn to tell me about the story with you and your ex,” she said sliding her hand away from mine and back to resting in front of her. I leaned back in my chair and looked at her, pressing my lips together. I hated how she could get me to talk about anything even when I didn't want to, and I knew that she wouldn't relent until I had told her everything, so there was only one thing to do – I told her all about Lacey and everything that happened.

Shannon listened without judgment or interruption, and as I spoke I tried to keep my voice even but things were still raw and the wounds had yet to heal properly. I could feel my voice cracking under the weight of emotion as everything came out, all the bitterness about the betrayal I had felt when I found the e-mails to Rebecca and then the emptiness where the love had been. After I had finished I felt drained, but I was glad she was there.

“You...need another drink,” she said, and ordered two more. It would have been easy for her to ask me more questions or give me some generic advice but that wasn't Shannon's style. She acknowledged what I said but kept the conversation moving so that I didn't have to dwell on the sadness. The drinks flowed as did the laughs and it was like the two of us were back on the bench, sitting together in the sunshine, laughing as we peeled away the layers of our psyche. The dim light of the bar cast us in a romantic ambiance and the more we drank the more we slipped into that easy familiarity of two people who had shared the same bed. We sat next to each other and our legs brushed together. Neither of us attempted to move. I looked at the way her hair fell down her face, covering one eye, and she smiled imperceptibly at me. Her glass was empty so she took mine, something she always used to do, and raised it to her lips, leaving a stain of lipstick against it. It was a way for her to mark her territory, a secret signal that we used to share. It felt like I had been transported through time and was back to that youthful time again. All my jadedness and cynicism had been stripped away, and the hurt that had ensconced my heart was rendered powerless, for nothing could withstand the force of Shannon.

“You know, I really missed you,” she said in a breathy whisper, bringing her mouth to my ear, so close that I could feel her breath. I closed my eyes and felt my chest heave as I inhaled sharply. Her fingers ran down my thigh and squeezed tightly. All of a sudden I felt my pussy twitch and I wanted her more than I wanted anything. I growled and locked eyes with her, and she wanted it too, I could see everything. We were naked with each other, completely vulnerable, hurt by our exes and the only way to tend to the wounds was to by re-discovering everything we had lost.

Chapter 7

When we returned to my apartment the world was a blur of hands and lips and hair. I lost myself in her, just like I always used to do, stumbling about and crashing into things as we kissed. We laughed at the destruction we caused but I didn't care about anything other than being with her. It had been so long since my body had felt true passion that it was screaming loudly and every one of my erogenous zones was alight with a fiery burst of steaming lust.

Our lips locked and our tongues danced together as we surrendered to the whirling hurricane that enveloped us. It was so easy to be with her, so familiar and natural and I suddenly felt sad that we had missed out on so many years together.

We tore each other’s clothes away and I was surprised to see the presence of a ring in her navel and a tattoo on her hip, winding down to her thigh. I stroked it with my fingers and kissed it, breathing in her sweet feminine scent, as I grew ever closer to heaven. As I buried myself in her she told me all about her tattoo and what it meant. Her words were strained as they combined with moans. I felt her back arch, and she placed her arms over her head, as if her body was mine. I licked and sucked and got as deep inside her as I could, my hair splayed over her thighs and soon enough I rendered her speechless with the force of my passion. I felt her shudder and it was the sweetest feeling because it made me feel sexy again, and when she moaned my name my heart jumped out of my chest and I traveled up her body once more to lose myself in a long embrace.

Her hands roamed around my body, and she kept calling me sexy and it made me feel so good because I'd put on a little weight since we had last been together, but she dragged her hand teasingly down the valley in between my breasts and twisted my nipples and then she turned me around, straddling my ass as she pressed herself against me. I felt her breasts flatten against my back and her lips were against my neck, making me tingle with sweet delight. Her hands slid down my sides, tickling me, as she started to kiss my back and spine, and then shifted her body so that she could move her fingers down between my legs, feeling me writhe as she teased and toyed with me, just like she used to do, oh she was always so good at making me come. My eyes squeezed shut as I gave into the delirium and felt my whole body tense and throb for Shannon, my Shannon.

I clenched the bed sheets as I tried to brace myself for the pain and I twisted my neck so that I could see her. Her red hair fell over her face once more, but when I looked at her I saw love, and I started to think that maybe, after everything I'd been through and everything that had happened with Lacey, just maybe I deserved a second chance. And that was the last thought as the pleasure gripped my mind and I felt thunder rumble through my body.

THE END

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Best Friends with Benefits

Best Friends with Benefits

Chapter 1

Have you ever been completely in love with someone and not even realize it? That was me with Bea. Short for Beatrice. She hated her name, and felt that her parents had had it in for in since she was born. She took it out on them whenever she could.  In many ways she could be mean and nasty, especially to her mother, who otherwise was the sweetest creature, but it didn't stop me loving her any less.

The two of us were inseparable from an early age. Bea and Angelina, or Angel as people like to call me. A & B. The Angel and the devil. I had bouncy blonde hair and a milky complexion with the sweetest smile that anyone had ever seen. When I was younger, I used to get whatever I wanted and I was treated like a princess, but Bea never gave in to me when I pouted and widened my puppy-dog eyes. She was the only one to stand firm, and I guess that's why she stood out from the crowd. She was always a bit of a tomboy and it reached its nadir in our teenage years when, to the behest of pretty much everyone, she chopped off her beautiful dark hair. It was all thick and lustrous and was the envy of many a girl, including me, but it wasn't what Bea wanted so it went. Anything Bea didn't want went away. She was ruthless, chopping away anything that she didn't want in her life, whether it was her hair or people.

As soon as high school ended we left for the big city because Bea wanted to cut our home out of her life as well. It's been five years now and she hasn't been home once, not for birthdays or Christmas. The only time she was tempted was when her cat died, but when it came down to it, she couldn't. I never really understood why she was so against going home because to me it was always a safe place where I was nurtured and loved. I still went home regularly because it wasn't like it was even a massive journey, and I loved going back and catching up with my mom and dad. I even ended up going to see Bea's as well, and they were always grateful for the updates I gave them about their daughter. It was crushing to go down there though. I almost hated it because I had to see the look on their faces, the sheer anguish in their eyes, as they had to hear about their daughter by proxy. They always smiled, but behind the smiles were sad eyes, and I knew that as soon as I left they collapsed into sobs. I tried to tell Bea about it and to get her to go and spend some time with her parents but she refused. She never gave me a solid answer either. Whenever I asked she shrugged her shoulders and looked away, as though it wasn't a big deal, but it was to them. I can't imagine how soul-destroying it must have been for them to be separated from their only daughter, to have to live their lives knowing that she was out there and had exiled herself by choice. It must have been worse than if she died...and I felt bad too because I was there with Bea, living with her every day when she should have been with her parents.

The truth is I didn't even really want to leave. I know a lot of people can't wait to leave home but I loved it there. My parents were great and sure there were times when things got a bit strained but that's the same in any family and it doesn't mean that things are bad, it's just the natural way of people. You coop anyone up for too long and they're going to get on each other’s nerves. My parents always gave me everything I wanted and they set me up well for life. My mom was the best cook as well and the thing I miss most about home is her cooking. But I mean, I could have stayed there and been quite happy. It's nice to have people around that care about you, to have a bit of a safety net.

But when Bea said she was leaving I knew I had to go. We were more than friends, more than sisters, and I knew that our destinies were tied together. I couldn't imagine life without her and when she set her mind on something she could not be shaken from her focus, so although it wasn't ideal for me I found myself packing my things and trying to stop myself from crying whenever I was around my mother, because she was always one second away from collapsing in tears. I often wonder whether Bea even bothered to give her parents warning that she was moving out. It wouldn't have surprised me had she just up and left one day, and not even bothered to leave a note. She was like that, Bea, sometimes she could be so selfish and single-minded that she tore a destructive path through everything, like in senior year when casually mentioned that Mel had been cheating on Chad with his brother. Mel was furious, and Bea didn't even hate her or anything, she just did it because she said she was bored.

Sometimes I thought that was Bea's favorite word. She always said that she was bored and this led to her having a myriad of careers. She started off working as a waitress in a coffee shop but ended that when she said the manager tried to harass her, and that made me gag when I thought about anyone having to do anything with his greasy palms. Then she got involved in helping a political campaign, just working in the office. I never understood why because Bea never really talked about politics. I'm not sure what she believed in, since she never seemed that bothered by anything.

Everyone's the same, they just wear different colors. What's really changed? Really? As soon as anyone gets in office they have to undo what the previous President did and then the person who follows them undoes whatever they do. Better to just not worry about it. It's easier on the mind.

I kind of hoped that working in the environment would have a positive effect on her, but in the next campaign she got a job working for the rival. Go figure. What else did she do? Oh yeah, she worked at the cinema, which was great because she got me in to see loads of films for free, then she tried her hand in an office but that didn't even last a day. Bea wasn't good with rules. She was a free spirit in the truest sense of the word, and any authority figure is going to have their work cut out for them if they try to get her to do anything she doesn't want to do.

But Bea never had a direction in life and again it contrasted how opposite we were. I knew exactly what I want to be and I had managed to work my way up the fashion industry to where I was the assistant to the editor at a prestigious magazine. Bea wasn't impressed, and thought that I was setting feminism back fifty years by working in the fashion industry. She thought it was too narrow-minded of me to be pigeonholed in that industry, but that was just the way she was and I knew she didn't mean it personally. I think part of it was borne from the frustration that she didn't know what she wanted to do. I think she always thought that I had it easy, and that things just worked out for me.

You're the pretty one, all you have to do is flash those baby blues and people melt.

What she neglected to remember was that she was just as pretty as me, she purposefully gave herself a look that was confrontational. I guess from this picture you probably think that she's a nasty girl without any redeeming features, and you're probably wondering why I put up with her for so long, and how I could even love her. I've often noticed that love is complex and takes on many forms. There have been so many words and songs and movies written about it that I thought it was going to be difficult to sum it up, but really it's quite simple. Love doesn't have to be complex all the time. Sometimes it's a self-evident truth and that's the way it was with us. You see, for all of her faults, and like anyone she had plenty, Bea was loyal, and when she took you under her wing she would make sure that nothing ever harmed you. She protected me, and she cared for me. She was there for me when I needed her, and no matter what she did to anyone else or how she behaved I knew that she would always have my back.