Best Friends To Lovers Spicy Romance

“Have you seen Olivia?” I ask Rhodes after I finish my conversation with Lana Smith.

“Yeah, she’s on the dance floor with Sash. They’ve been into the whiskey.”

I look at the dance floor that’s three tables away from us. The 16-piece orchestra are currently playing a song I don’t know. The lyrics suggest it’s about a toxic attraction. Olivia’s hips are enjoying the hell out of the song. “How much whiskey?”

Rhodes eyes his fiancée. “Enough that I know I’m in for a good afternoon.” He chuckles as he looks back at me. “Either that or they’re both gonna pass out by three p.m.”

Olivia isn’t a big drinker. At the most, she usually only has a couple of cocktails when she drinks. If she switches to whiskey, something’s up, and it generally ends with her intoxicated. If the way she’s dancing is anything to go by, she’s close to or has reached intoxication levels.

It makes me wonder what happened in between her leaving me to make a work call and now. I got sidetracked talking with Lana who has helped shed some light on why my German deal has taken a bad turn, so I missed Olivia coming back from her call.

While I’m thinking about this, Peter Hudson moves behind Olivia and begins dancing with her. I tense at the sight, not fucking liking the way he’s bending to whisper something in Liv’s ear, or the fact his hands are on her body.

“Easy, tiger,” Rhodes says, and when I meet his gaze, I find him watching me with a knowing look.

“I don’t like that guy for her.”

“You don’t like any guy for her.”

“Not true. I liked Jensen for her.”

“You liked the fact she didn’t like him.”

“She was in love with him, Rhodes. Have you forgotten she dated him for almost a year?”

“She was nowhere near in love with him, and the fact you think she was, tells me you’re deeper in denial than I thought.”

“Jesus, Olivia thinks I’m in denial over Penny, and now you think I’m in denial over her and Jensen. What the fuck are you talking about?”

“For an intelligent guy, you’re fucking clueless when it comes to Olivia. You’re losing your shit over her dancing with another guy because you want to be the guy she dances with.”

“I can dance with Liv anytime I want.”

He shakes his head like he’s dealing with an idiot. “Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Callan. One day, you’ll wake up and she’ll be married and you’ll be left wondering why the fuck you didn’t wake up to yourself sooner.” Sasha waves at him to come and dance. With one last glance at me, he says, “I hope you pull your head out of your ass soon. You and Liv are meant to be together.”

He strides toward the girls leaving me with that bomb.

The fuck?

Liv and I are friends and that’s worth a hell of a lot more to me than a romantic relationship. I will go to the ends of the earth to protect our friendship, and while my fucking brain seems intent on imagining doing filthy things to her, there is no way I’ll risk what we have for sex.

I watch her with Peter for another moment before deciding he has to go. I don’t trust him. If given half a chance, he’ll rip Liv’s heart out and trash it, and I won’t have that.

Olivia blesses me with a smile when I reach her. It settles in my bones like all her smiles do. “Callan,” she gushes and I grin at her loose lips.

“You got into the whiskey, Ace?”

Her smile grows as she extricates herself from Peter who’s glaring at me. “I blame Sasha. All I said was that it was time we had a drink. She’s the one who insisted on lots of drinks.”

I catch her when she stumbles, pulling her into my arms. “Why do I find that hard to believe?”

She pouts. “You think I’m the bad influence?”

“I think you’re both the bad influence when you get together.”

Peter, who’s long forgotten, interrupts. “Well, I’ll just go, shall I?”

Fuck, he’s a whiny bastard.

I look at him. “Sounds like a great fucking plan.”

Olivia smacks me playfully, bringing all my attention back to her. “That was mean.”

I bend my mouth to her ear. “Yeah, and I don’t regret any of it. He’s an asshole you’re better off without.”

She presses her body hard against mine and I have to contain my groan of approval. “See, you get it. I’m better off without a guy right now. I don’t know why Sasha has so much trouble believing that.”

The very last thing I want to be thinking about is Olivia with another guy, but I’m unable to stop myself from saying, “What’s really going on there, Ace? What’s with the abstinence?”

She loops her hands around my neck as we sway to the music. “Sex is bad.”

“I beg to differ.”

She giggles. “That came out wrong. God, I’m drunk.”

She’s fucking cute when she’s like this. “Yeah, you are. What did you mean?”

She lets out a sigh. “I’m tired of bad sex. I’m just gonna stick to giving myself orgasms for a while.”

Christ.

That’s material I don’t need.

“You’ve never told me you were having bad sex. With Jensen do you mean?” Olivia has never given even a hint that she was unhappy with her sex life.

“That’s because you’re over there having the greatest sex of life. All the time. Every time. And I’m over here begging to be fucked right. I’m not sure if it’s me or them but finding a guy who knows how to give an orgasm is harder than passing the bar exam.”

Olivia rarely uses terms like “begging to be fucked right.” To say I’m into it is a massive understatement.

“It’s not you.” There’s no way it’s her. Olivia is one of the most sensual women I know. She’s in touch with all her senses and I have no doubt she’d bring them all into the bedroom in the most erotic way.

She gives me soft eyes while tightening her grip on my neck. “You say that because you have rose-colored glasses for me. You think I’m perfect at everything. It might be me.” Her brows tuck together. “Although, in fairness to me, my analysis of the situation is that the responsibility lays with all parties involved, so if the guy can’t help me out, that’s not on me.” She looks at me questioningly. “Right?”

“Fuck, you’re cute.” The words slip from my lips before I can stop them. She is, though, and I have an overwhelming urge to tell her in so many ways just how cute, and beautiful, and smart, and right she is. Somehow, I manage to keep all those thoughts to myself, but it’s the hardest thing I’ve had to do in a long time.

Olivia’s eyes grow wide and she stares at me in silence for what feels like minutes but really is only a moment. Then, she blinks like she misunderstood and carries on. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Of course, you’re right. Where’s this doubt coming from?”

“You should try having sex with a guy and see how your confidence handles it.”

“I’ll pass, so how about you fill me in on what you mean.”

She inhales a long breath before releasing it. “I only had two orgasms with Jensen and that was because I helped him out. When I tried to help him learn what I needed, he had the audacity to tell me he knew what he was doing and that if it didn’t work for me, that was my fault. With Todd, I came once and he never cared enough to notice when I didn’t. With Martin, I never orgasmed and he told me it was too much work to even try to get me there most of the time. Rationally, I know they were just lazy, because I have no trouble orgasming when I do it myself, but lots of bad sex all adds up to a girl not feeling good about herself. Well, for me anyway. Rational thoughts don’t always come into it when sex is involved.” She stops talking before adding, “I just want a man to care enough to spend time on my needs like I do for him. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have to learn together, but guys seem to get all hung up on it when I try to initiate that kind of discovery.”

Fuck. Me.

I would be all in on that kind of discovery. Hell, I’d let her be my teacher anytime she wanted.

“And here I was thinking we shared everything.” I slide a stray hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear. “I seem to recall you saying just last night that you don’t cope well when we’re not talking about everything. What gives, Ace? Why have you never told me all this?”

“You’re so sure of yourself when it comes to sex. I don’t have that confidence and I’d rather not analyze all of it with anyone.”

“We don’t have to analyze it. I can just listen while you unload. If you had told me all this before, I would have made sure you knew there are guys out there who would be happy to learn together.”

“Are there, though? Because I’ve dated a lot of guys and haven’t gotten the vibe from them that they’re that kind of man.”

Olivia has dated a lot of guys. She’s only given her heart away three times, but there’s been a lot of dates that went nowhere. I know because I’ve sat through the analysis after each of them with her. She might not have wanted me in on the sex analysis, but she’s brought ice cream to my condo a lot for the date debriefs.

“I promise you there are.”

“Well, I’m still taking a time-out. I need to lick my wounds after Jensen and gather myself before trying again. And as for sex, I’m sticking with Ricardo. He never lets me down.”

“Ricardo?”

“He’s my Spanish lover.” At my confused expression, she elaborates, “I like to fantasize about making love under the sun in Spain with a hot Spanish guy who spends hours eating me and fucking me until I beg him to stop.” She grins. “I named my vibrator Ricardo.”

I don’t think I’ll ever eat pussy again without thinking about Olivia. Or handle a vibrator without thinking about Ricardo.

One wedding in and my ruin is imminent.

>>> This is from my book Yours Actually, which is available at Amazon and free with Kindle Unlimited.

>>> Best friends to lovers romance set during wedding season... these two agree to be each other's plus one for the season 🔥

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