Friend Zone (Friend Zone Series Book 1) Read online

  I was lost in it for about two seconds, then I pushed at his shoulders to give me room to breathe—to think. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, but I couldn’t meet his eyes.

  His lips came back to my ear with that same voice that made me weak at the knees. “I think I know what you were doing.”

  “No you don’t!” He couldn’t. Oh, God, could he?

  “It’s probably the same thing I’ve been doing in the shower every day since you moved in.”

  Well, that distracted me from my own mortification. “What?” I shouldn’t want to know, but at the same time, now it was all I could think about. This was so bad, but I couldn’t seem to pull myself away.

  He brought one hand to my mouth where he thumbed my lower lip. I gave up trying to convince myself it was a bad idea and instead focused on drawing in enough air to keep from passing out. His forehead pressed against mine and he exhaled roughly at the same time I drew in a breath. It felt more intimate than any lover I’d had in my short life span, sharing breath with him.

  My own eyes shuttered closed and it amplified the sensations of having him so close to me a thousand-fold. The hand at my mouth coasted down my neck, over my collar-bone then down to my trembling hand. He took it in his and that same thumb pressed into the wildly fluttering pulse point at my wrist. Then he palmed my hand and brought it to my waist and turned me around to face the mirror above his dresser.

  His lips found my ear again and I met his gaze in the mirror with half-lidded eyes. “I think you were doing this,” he said and guided my hand down from my stomach to rest above the waistband of my scrubs.

  The drowsy-laziness of arousal snapped clear with recognition, but he wouldn’t release my hand when I began to struggle. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said shortly, cheeks burning.

  He merely smirked. “I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

  Stubble scraped along my shoulder and I melted a little. “Liam,” I warned but I wasn’t sure if it was because I wanted him to stop or because I wanted him to keep going.

  “Let me show you,” he said in that rumbly voice. I had no way to defend myself against it and it was like he knew. Maybe because he knew me better than anyone else in the world. Maybe because I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him like this. Or the Liam-inspired orgasm I’d had not even an hour before had turned my brain into mush.

  That had to be why the words “Show me what?” tumbled from my mouth instead of a refusal.

  His hand began to move over mine, this time to guide it further south…and underneath the waistband of my scrubs. “We can’t,” I said again, but if he stopped I was pretty sure it would kill me. “You have to leave.”

  “Shh. I’m busy here,” he said.

  Our hands were over the material of my panties and he was right. There was no point in talking. My throat was so dry I couldn’t form any more protestations even if I wanted to.

  He nuzzled my ear. “That’s my girl.”

  Seeing us in the mirror and feeling the slow, torturous exploration of our hands together was an assault on my senses, short-circuiting what was left of my self-control. As I gave into him, he guided my hand over my thighs in a gentle, loving caress and for once I was grateful for my scrubs and how easily accessible they were.

  With languid strokes, he directed my hand over the tops of my thighs and down between my trembling legs, but never where I wanted him to go. My head dropped back against his shoulder when the sight of us in the mirror became too much for me to handle. He used his free hand to angle my head to the side so he could kiss my neck as he continued the torture.

  “I think I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. Too long. When I saw you with that jerk and the things he was saying about you. I snapped. It wasn’t just because we’re friends. It took realizing one day some man is going to propose to you for real for me to wake the fuck up.”

  My breath caught in my throat as he nudged my hand further between my legs. If I weren’t already embarrassed by being caught, the evidence of my arousal dampening my panties would have been enough.

  It didn’t bother Liam though. As his fingers pushed between mine, he felt the proof for himself. His resulting groan sounded just like the one from my dreams and I fairly collapsed against him in response.

  “We should stop,” I croaked out even though it was the last thing I wanted.

  “No way in hell,” he growled.

  “But what about—”

  He brought my gaze back to his in the mirror. “We don’t have to make any decisions now, Charlie. The only thing that matters is that I want you and I think you want me, too. If not, tell me now and I’ll stop and I promise you I’ll do everything in my power to make sure things go back to normal.”

  I hesitated, but it was only for a second. If it were anyone else, I would have walked away and not looked back, but it was Liam and it felt righter than anything else in my life. I’ve spent almost every day feeling uncertain about something. My past, my parents, my future. But I’d never questioned Liam, who’d always been there. I didn’t know how this would change everything between us, but I trusted him. Even with my heart.

  Even if it scared the life out of me.

  “Do you want me to stop?” he asked as he brushed my hand away. He tugged the crotch of my panties to the side and then, with the gentlest touch, pressed the pads of his fingers against me and stole what remained of my resistance.

  “Don’t stop,” I whispered as I wrapped my hand around his neck and pulled his mouth to mine. “Don’t ever stop.”

  “I’ve got you,” he said and despite myself and my fears, I relaxed against him because I believed him.

  His fingers parted my folds and I sighed in pleasure. As he rubbed all the sensitive parts of me, it was almost as though he could read exactly what I wanted. Maybe he could. Maybe our years of friendship had prepared him to understand me in ways I’d never anticipated.

  “The sounds you’re making, Char. God, you’re killing me.” His lips fluttered against my ear and bucked against him in response.

  My fingers latched onto his wrist as my body worked itself to a frenzy. There’d be bruises from the grip I had on him, but I couldn’t work up the energy to care. I was so close. Already primed from the orgasm in my bed, it didn’t take much from him to bring me back to the brink again.

  “Please.” My vocabulary had been reduced to one word and I repeated it endlessly. I whispered it. Screamed it. Crooned it. No matter how I said it, he’d murmur sweet words to me in response. He was so patient it made me want to crawl out of my own skin, but he wouldn’t let me do that either. Liam merely held me against him as his fingers drove me to insanity.

  When I thought he’d never bring me over the edge, he turned my face to his and kissed me. I thought I’d need penetration, at least from his fingers, to finish the job, but no. Everything, it seemed, was different with Liam. All I needed was the sweet, seductive rhythm of his fingers and the gentle pressure of his lips.

  The orgasm rolled over me both tender and relentless in equal measure. I whimpered against his lips as it wrecked me from the inside out, leaving me somehow altered in its aftermath. He didn’t withdraw his hand at first, merely cupped the delicate flesh until the aftershocks faded.

  When the last of the tremors were gone, he turned me in his arms and tucked me under his chin as his hands stroked over my back and soothed away any doubts I may have had, at least for the moment.

  “You okay?” he whispered against my hair.

  “That was…” I couldn’t find the words because I didn’t have any. If I thought there was no going back after the kiss…there was definitely no going back now. What scared me even more than that was that I didn’t want to. “That was incredible.”

  He tipped my chin up and studied my expression. “Are you sure?”

  “A little too late to be asking that now.”

  “Come on, sweetheart. Don’t be like th
at.”

  I didn’t know when shortstack had turned into sweetheart…but I liked it more than I should. It filled my chest with a warm glow—something I’d never had with anyone else. I wasn’t sure if it was the orgasm or Liam, or maybe a combination of both, but I liked it. It may be a mistake, but I wanted more.

  “I’m fine, Liam.” I searched his gaze, but found nothing other than concern in his expression. “Are we okay?”

  The corners of his eyes crinkled and his dimple winked when he smiled. “We’re better than okay.”

  He dove down for another kiss and I promptly decided I could be a few minutes late for work. As we kissed, we stumbled backward until I was bent nearly over the dresser. The edge bit into my back, but I didn’t care. I’d had a taste and this time I wasn’t going to let anything stop me from getting another.

  My phone began to ring in the background, but I’d gotten so many hang ups and calls from random numbers I ignored it. Whoever it was could leave a message.

  “You should get that,” he said against my lips as his hand molded my breast over my scrub top.

  “Later,” I replied and fisted his shirt in my hands. “Bed.”

  He twirled me around immediately and I giggled against his lips. We tumbled onto his bed and he landed on top of me, bracing his arms on either side to catch his fall. My legs parted to make room for him and we both groaned as I pulled him closer.

  For the first time in my life, I was considering calling into work to spend the day in bed. I’d never canceled plans for a guy, not even if it was Liam, but as we began to grind together, I was seriously giving thought to changing my mind.

  It had never occurred to me before that there would be a guy who could convince me to make an exception.

  Or that that guy could be Liam.

  Our mouths collided, parted, then collided again. Lips parted, tongues tangled, and teeth clashed until I gave up worrying about work altogether.

  My phone began to ring again, but this time it brought back a shock of reality.

  We had to stop.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Charlie

  Liam paused, breathing heavily. “You’re right. I have to get to the interview and you have to work.”

  I nodded even though everything inside me was screaming to keep going. I wanted those clothes off him, wanted to know what it felt like to have his bare skin against mine. More than anything, I wanted to continue what we started, but the annoying blaring from my phone had broken the mood.

  “Let me get that,” I said, then awkwardly maneuvered to my feet.

  “Tell whoever it is to go to hell,” Liam shouted at my back as I padded to the kitchen on wobbly legs.

  Oh my God, I mouthed to myself when I was out of view. I nearly tripped twice as I made my way to the island to answer my phone.

  As I hopped on one foot, I swiped at the screen and pressed it to my ear. Whoever it was had better be on their deathbed. “Hello?”

  “Charlie, thank God. We have an emergency.”

  Liam walked out and now that I could ogle him without repercussion, my eyes feasted on the way his shirt accentuated the lean muscles of his chest. I’d been this close to having my mouth all over him. This close.

  “It better be,” I said under my breath and Liam smirked.

  “What?” Layla asked.

  I turned away from him so I wouldn’t be tempted to drag him back for another kiss. “Nothing. What’s up?”

  “My mother is forcing me to attend a mixer tomorrow night with some of her partners from the firm. I need a buffer. Can you come? I promise all the wine you can possibly drink.”

  I thought of Liam and what we’d come so close to doing…how much I wanted to do it again. “I’m not sure. Where is it?”

  She rattled off the name of an exclusive restaurant. “You have to come,” she said, sounding desperate, which was out of character for Layla, who valued control above all else. “You can’t leave me alone with Dash. His whole family is going to be there apparently and you know how he loves to torment me.”

  Dash Hampton was Layla's mortal enemy and competitor in all things from parking spaces and lab partners to grades and prestigious honor society positions. They’d been going at it, and not in a good way, ever since he beat her out as Valedictorian their senior year of high school. He and Liam had become friends since Dash liked to hang around specifically to torture Layla at every opportunity. It would nearly be worth going to the mixer just to see the two of them argue. Ember and I used to joke that whenever the two of them were in a room together, it was like getting free entertainment for the evening.

  "Why is he even going to be there?" I asked as Liam came up behind me and pressed a kiss to my neck. I nearly dropped my phone as pleasure zinged across my nerve endings. My eyes shuttered closed. He had to stop doing that or we were both going to be late.

  "That's what I said," she fairly yelled in my ear, managing to distract me from my Liam-induced stupor. I carefully edged away from him and glared, but he only smiled in return.

  "You have to come," she begged. "Otherwise I may commit murder. Save me." I wasn't sure if she realized how often our conversation turned to Dash, but I wasn't about to bring it up. There was no way she was open to a discussion about why she responded to his goading. Hearing his name was enough to make her rant.

  “One second,” I told her, then muted the call. “If you don’t have to work tomorrow with the new job, Layla’s forcing me to go to this thing for her mom’s firm.” I paused, then forced myself to continue. “Do you want to go with me?”

  Despite what had just happened between us, my heart pounded in my chest. I’d never risked so much for anyone before. If it had been any other man, I simply wouldn’t have done it. I chose my potential love interests carefully to make sure I wouldn’t get overly involved. Apparently, I couldn’t seem to follow my own rules when it came to Liam.

  He adjusted the cuffs of his shirt and glanced in the mirror above the sofa. “Depending on my shifts if I do, I’d be happy to go with you.” When he was satisfied with his appearance, he turned and prowled toward me. “You realize this sounds like a date. You asking me out, Charlie?”

  My heart was in my throat. If I had a napkin in my hands it would have been in shreds in seconds. “I know we haven’t discussed it, but we hang out all the time. It wouldn’t be weird if we went together. We don’t have to tell anyone anything. It’d just be hanging out. If you don’t want to it’s okay, I’d understand.”

  He smiled and cupped my cheek. “You’re rambling. Of course I’ll go with you. We don’t have to define anything now and we don’t have to tell anyone if you don’t want to.”

  I bit my lip. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.” He kissed my nose, then crossed the room to bend down and pick up his shoes. I guess one of the upsides about living with him now was I could ogle him at every opportunity without being weird.

  I had a feeling it was going to become a habit.

  After unmuting the call, I said to Layla, “Count Liam and I in.”

  * * *

  “You sure you don’t mind going with me?” I asked the next day. “I didn’t get to talk to you much after you got back from the interview.”

  I couldn’t read his reaction because his arm was thrown over his face. I tried not to notice that his skin was still slightly damp from his workout. The waistband of his sweats rode dangerously low on his hips, leaving my mouth bone-dry.

  To say I was frustrated was an understatement.

  That had to be why I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the golden trail of hair dusting his chest and abdomen. It was the only logical explanation for the way my fingers itched to tug down his sweats to see how far down it went. The slight bulge between his legs hadn’t escaped my notice, either, but I was trying to be good. We’d kissed twice now. He’d made me come. I wanted to do both again more than I should and I was only one flex of his abs away from begging.

  “I already told you
I’d go with you, sweetheart. Besides, we have to do something to celebrate my new job,” Liam said and I managed, barely, to tear my eyes away from the visual feast that was his body. He caught me staring and grinned. “Unless you’d rather stay home instead.”

  Heat filled my cheeks and I shifted from foot to foot. “Don’t distract me. Layla would kill me if I didn’t show up.”

  He did an ab crunch and his hand shot out to grab my wrist before I could move out of his reach. I squealed as he tugged me down to the bed. “Distract you like this, you mean?”

  I should just forget about breathing when he’s this close to me, I decided. His teeth nipped at my lips and my mind went blank. “What?”

  Liam chuckled and slapped my butt. “You might wanna go get dressed. We don’t want to be late for our first official date.”

  A date. With Liam.

  I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around it. The little voice that had kept me from getting too into any guy was drowned out by how right it felt being in his arms. Maybe this level of comfort is what I’d be waiting for this whole time. I didn’t know how things would change once summer came, but for now…for now I wanted to enjoy him.

  “What are you thinking so hard about?” Liam asked as he rubbed the furrow between my eyes.

  “Just how crazy this is.” I was afraid to even say the words. Maybe that’s what had kept me from taking risks in my previous relationships. Why I kept running. I was afraid.

  I leapt to my feet and skirted around his bed away from his reach. This could go so wrong. We could come to care for each other and then something could happen and we could break up. These are things I’d hadn’t considered until the second he said date. Somehow being around people now made everything real in a way that it hadn’t been while we were cocooned in our house.

  He got to his feet and gripped my biceps. “I’ve got you, Charlie. I’m not going anywhere.”

  The knots inside my chest loosened. “I’m being silly.”

  “You are if you don’t get your ass in gear and get dressed. I know you don’t want to be late.” Using his grip on me, he drew me closer for another kiss.