Friend Zone (Friend Zone Series Book 1) Page 9

  He had no idea I was awake, let alone what I was doing, but that didn’t make it right.

  In fact, it probably made it worse.

  Sharing his place with me was a show of trust. That he could trust me not to snoop, not to be a dirty Peeping Tom as his new roommate. I was his friend, and by taking advantage of the little sliver of invitation, I was betraying our friendship. But dammit, a nuclear bomb couldn’t have stopped me from shifting to thrust my fingers inside and imagining they were his. Oh God. I'd never be able to think of his hands without wanting them inside me again.

  This was such a bad idea, but I couldn't stop.

  The faucet turned off in the bathroom and I swore he could hear my heart beating right through the door it was so loud. I tried to swallow, but my mouth was so dry, it was impossible. Did he do something to the heat? He must have, because my clothes were sticking to my skin and I was about two seconds away from having a heat stroke. Could that happen in the middle of March?

  His footsteps drew closer to my room and I felt everything inside of me reaching a fever pitch. A knock came at the door and a desperate cry hovered on the edge of my lips. He knocked again and knowing he was there pushed me right over the edge. I turned my face to the side and allowed a soundless cry to escape into one of the pillows he'd given me that still smelled of him.

  "Charlie?"

  The crest overtook me a second time at the sound of his voice and I shuddered in silence, my thoughts fractured and conflicted. My alarm blared again, a sharp splinter of light in the fog of pleasure. I slapped a hand on it with a muffled shriek.

  "You awake in there?" Liam called as the alarm cut off.

  A shaky breath rattled free from my lips and I sat up in bed, pulling the sheets up as far as they would go. "Yeah, I'm up." I hoped my voice didn't sound as warbled and breathless as I thought.

  A thud came from the other side of the door. I pressed my back into the headboard and gulped in deep breaths.

  "You mind if I come in real quick?" he said through the door.

  Mind? I wondered desperately if he'd be able to scent my orgasm the second he opened the door. Would he see it on my face? I had to hope not.

  I frantically straightened the comforter and hoped it said restless sleeper rather than recently masturbated about its occupant. "Come in!"

  The way the room was situated, the door opened right to the dresser and I spotted Liam's reflection in the mirror above before he pushed all the way through. In it was a half-naked body. Liam's half-naked body.

  This is wrong, I told myself as the aftershocks danced along my nerve endings. So, so, so wrong.

  The reflection in the mirror turned, offering me a delectable profile view. It really wasn’t fair how good-looking he was. It was unnatural, I decided. Even so, I couldn’t tear my eyes away.

  The verdict was in. I was a terrible person. Because no one should look at a friend the way I was looking at him.

  He leaned around the open door and I forced my gaze up to his eyes. "What's up?" I asked.

  "I just wanted to let you know I got a call back for a job at a different restaurant, so I won't be back for a couple hours. If they hire me, I may start work tonight."

  My lips twisted into what I hoped resembled a smile. "That's wonderful! I'm so happy for you."

  I knew how hard he'd been looking for a job to replace his bartending gig. I felt wholly responsible for him getting fired. The past couple weeks I made it a point to help him scour the local listings and helped him beef up his resume to atone.

  "Thanks, I..."

  His eyes left mine and traveled down the length of my body encased by the comforter. "How are you not burning up? It's like a furnace in here."

  I chuckled nervously. "Oh, it's nothing. I must have gotten cold."

  Was it my imagination or were his eyes boring holes into the fabric?

  "Was there something else?" I asked. The sooner I could get him out of my room, the sooner I could take my own shower and wash this whole morning away. With his eyes on me and the memory of the orgasm still dancing along my skin it was almost too much.

  I was too close to asking him to stay.

  Too close to taking another kiss.

  Too close to wondering what it'd feel like to have his hands bring me to the edge instead of my own.

  "I'm done in the bathroom if you need to use it."

  My cheeks reddened as the image of having him in there with me surfaced. Get it under control, Charlie. "Thanks, I'll be out in a minute."

  He shifted, pausing in the doorway for another tantalizing second, then turned and left me with the image of his ass framed in a thin cotton towel seared into my brain.

  I didn't get out from under the covers until I heard his bedroom door shut behind him, then I sprang into action, grabbing whichever clothes were closest and my phone, then zipping to the bathroom. My muscles didn't relax until the bathroom door was also shut between us. I stripped down, my whole body tingled with awareness. I needed a cold shower immediately.

  My phone rang as I was stepping into the shower, but I didn't recognize the number, again, so I ignored it and forced myself under the frigid spray instead. As I soaped up, I slowly turned on the hot water until I was no longer shivering. By the time I finished washing and conditioning my hair, I could breathe normally again. After I exfoliated and shaved, my thoughts settled. When I stepped out to towel off and lotion up, I was convinced I could handle seeing Liam again and not think about the dream, my fantasy, or what he looked like in that towel.

  That is, until I got dressed and nearly bumped into him in the hallway and then backed up so quickly I collided with the wall.

  Dressed in crisp black slacks and a long sleeved button-down shirt, he was as mouth-watering as he had been in the towel. I couldn’t decide which version of him I liked better. It wasn’t fair he looked as good fully dressed as he did half-naked.

  "Jesus, Char. You okay?"

  I rubbed the back of my head. "I'm fine," I said to the notch at his throat. His heartbeat fluttered there and my first thought was that I wanted to kiss him there, right where his scent was strongest. "I'm fine."

  "You sure?"

  "Yeap." I spun around and marched to the kitchen where I pulled out the makings for cereal. "You want some?"

  He sat down at a stool by the island. "Sure. Thanks. Are you sure you're okay? You've been acting...weird this morning."

  I busied myself with the bowls. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just an early morning."

  He chuckled. "It's nearly eleven."

  My glare didn't incinerate him like I'd hoped as I handed him his cereal. "Eat your food," I ordered, then began smashing buttons on the Keurig hoping at least one thing would go right.

  "Stop, stop," Liam said, as he got to his feet and put his hand over mine on the machine. "You're going to break it like that."

  All I could do was growl.

  "Go sit down," he said with a laugh.

  I took my seat next to his and stuffed my face with cereal so I wouldn't do something stupid like ask him to kiss me again.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Liam

  For the first time in all the years that Charlie and I had been friends, things were fucking awkward and I didn’t know what to do to fix them. In any other situation, I’d know what to do to dispel the tension. If she were any other girl, I’d be able to bullshit my way out of any circumstance. But this was Charlie and none of my moves seem remotely appropriate.

  Each day since she’d moved in had been pure torture.

  Not that she wasn’t a great roommate. She was reasonably clean, quiet, and at some point, had learned to cook like she’d been doing it for years. Hell, under any other circumstances, I’d be asking her to room with me for the foreseeable future, but that wasn’t what was driving me crazy.

  It was all the things I’d never noticed before because I’d framed her as a friend and nothing more. It was all the things I’d conveniently forgotten because she was “one of th
e guys” instead of one hundred percent woman.

  But now I couldn’t escape them.

  We’re both sitting at the island pretending to eat cold cereal and looking at our phones, except I can’t focus on anything but the way her shirt is hugging her breasts and how I’m dying to know what she’s hiding underneath it. If anything. I shifted in my seat and gulped down my soggy cereal, but no amount of distasteful visualizations can undo the reality of her oh-so-delectable body sitting across from me.

  When I managed to pull my eyes away from her tits, I realized she’d been watching me, and I clear my throat. “I’m sorry, what?” I’m such a tool.

  “I said, what time is your interview?”

  How had I never noticed her lips before? They were slightly top-heavy and the most delicious shade of pink. Last night she’d made pasta for me and she’d licked away some sauce from her bottom lip. I’d nearly lost my ever-loving mind. With any other woman, I would have pushed her back against the refrigerator and taken that mouth. I would have had my hands everywhere on her body, anywhere they could reach. With any other woman, I would have slipped her little pajama shorts down over her hips and thrown one of her legs over my shoulders to feast on what I was really craving.

  It didn’t help that I was 99.9% certain I’d nearly caught her playing with herself this morning.

  In that one moment I’d nearly taken back all the promises I’d made myself about keeping my distance. I’d weathered the nights with her a few feet away in those frequent showers. It nearly killed me going for a run every time she took one, but I made it work. The mantra that we’d only need to live together for three more months is what kept me going.

  Then, I’d stepped into her room and seen her red-faced and hiding underneath the comforter. At first, I thought she hadn’t been feeling good. I’d almost offered to get her, I don’t know, some soup or some shit. Then, I realized she couldn’t meet my eyes. I’d barely been able to speak, let alone keep my dick from tenting the towel I’d stupidly worn to talk to her. I don’t even remember what I’d said, but I do remember catching the scent of her arousal. It was burned into my brain.

  Despite all the voices in my head telling me it would be a mistake, it was hard to listen to reason when my whole body was screaming yes.

  She snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Liam? Hellooo? Did you study too hard last night, or what?”

  “Yeah,” I managed to say, then dumped the rest of my breakfast. There was no way I was going to be able to focus on anything other than what was going on beneath her sexy-as-hell scrubs. Christ, she was driving me insane. Since when were scrubs sexy? “I mean, I must have.”

  I’d braced my hands on the sink as I tried to control my reaction without looking like an idiot or coming off as a jerk for staring at her body. God knows I didn’t need to be just as much of a dick as her ex. I was supposed to be the person she could trust not to be an asshole. Not the guy who took advantage of her when she was vulnerable. This was Charlie. I shouldn’t have to remind myself, but I did. I repeated her name over and over in my mind. Tried to remember all the times I considered her to be one of the guys.

  Her chair scraped against the linoleum floor and her feet padded toward me. The warmth of her hit my back, followed by a soft cloud of that fucking green apple shampoo. I was going to have to find every bottle of it and hoard them when she left.

  Then it hit me. She was leaving. It wouldn’t be now, but in a few months she’d be hundreds of miles away doing God-only-knew what and I wouldn’t get these early mornings with her.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked from behind me.

  Her voice was smoky with sleep and sexy as hell. I wanted to hear her screaming for me in that voice. Pleading in it. Then I wanted to make her breathless until she couldn’t speak at all.

  My hands fisted on the counter and I straightened without turning to run cool water from the sink and splash it on my face. “Yeah. Yeah, everything’s fine.”

  Everything was not fine. I was about ten seconds away from doing something I’d regret. Like taking her back to her bed, my bed, and giving her a round two that’d have her seeing stars.

  “You sure? You don’t sound so good. Are you getting sick? I could run you to the clinic. Of course, I’m almost an official nurse. I could probably give you an exam right now.” She wiggled her eyebrows at me. Normally I’d give as good as I got, but if I wasn’t on fire before, the thought of her stripping me down and playing doctor sure pushed me over the edge.

  I shoved away from the sink, keeping my back to her. “I’m fine, Charlotte.” My tone was too harsh to be teasing.

  “Don’t call me Charlotte just because you’re in a pissy mood,” she said to my back. I knew if I turned around I’d find her with a hand on her hip and her eyes shooting fire. It was almost worse than seeing her all soft and sleepy.

  Keep walking Walsh.

  “I’m not in a pissy mood.”

  “Could’ve fooled me! If you have a problem with me living here, just man up and say so. You don’t have to be a dick about it.”

  I sighed heavily as I enter my bedroom. "Look, I'm just in a shit mood, that's all. It has nothing to do with you."

  "Are you sure?" she asked, following behind me and plopping down on my bed, which I was determined to ignore. I'd already spent too much time imagining her there. I didn't need the reality right in my face. "Because ever since I moved in you've been acting really weird. If I did something, just tell me. This is exactly why I didn't want to move in with you in the first place."

  I could only hope I got the job and started tonight. The less time I had to spend at home with her, the better. At the very least I hoped working long hours would make me too exhausted to get horny, but who was I kidding. It didn’t take much for me to get turned on around Charlie these days. "I'm sorry. I promise you haven't done anything wrong. I like having you here. To be honest, I probably get more from it than you do. You've been a great roommate. And friend." I had to keep reminding myself of that.

  "Then what the hell is going on? You can't even look me in the eye anymore." She put an arm on my bicep and turned me to face her. Staring into her gaze "Please, Liam. Whatever it is, I can help. I don't want to make you feel like a guest in your own home, and besides, we're supposed to be able to talk to each other. So talk to me."

  But that was the problem.

  The last thing I wanted to do was talk.

  “There’s nothing to talk about. I’ve got that interview and I need to head out soon. Do you need anything before I go?”

  Her mouth twisted and she took a step closer, pressing me against my dresser so I couldn’t escape. The closer she got the less oxygen there seemed to be. My heart began to race like I’d run a couple miles.

  "You're really not going to talk to me?” She sounded hurt, which didn’t help my self-control. “Since when do we do the silent treatment?"

  I shoved out from under her touch, unable to stand the feeling of her hands on me and turned to walk away. The destination didn't matter, the only thing that did was getting away from her until I could remember all the reasons I’d been repeating to myself for the past few weeks.

  We both needed to save money by sharing the house.

  Sex would only complicate both of our lives.

  We were friends.

  Then she reached out a hand and took mine. Heat shot up from the contact and I’d never known there was a temperature hot enough to freeze, but that’s what it did. Her touch froze me down to the core, stopping me in place. No amount of reason could have spurred made me leave when her hands were on me.

  I turned, my whole body tense with indecision.

  Her brows furrowed and her hair was a wild mess around her face. She bit her lip, sucked it into her mouth.

  Fuck just friends. Then took a step toward her, come what may. We could be so much more than that.

  My hand tightened on hers, then tugged, reeling her in. She glanced down at where I held her and h
er mouth opened into a little O of surprise. I licked my own lips in anticipation. That mouth. God, I wanted that mouth.

  “Liam?” she asked, her voice quavering. “What are you doing?”

  I crowded her into the dresser where she’d had me pinned just moments before. Her expression wasn’t confused anymore. And she wasn’t nervous like she’d been the first time we’d kissed. Some part of me recognized the flare of arousal in her eyes, the same part that had made the split decision to kiss her in the first place.

  “I changed my mind.”

  She squeaked out a sound of surprise when her back came in contact with the dresser and her hands grappled for a hold, but slipped once before she could steady herself. “A-about what?”

  I bracketed arms around her and smiled a little at the way her breath caught at my closeness. I liked her nerves. I liked having her off balance. “This kiss. What if it wasn’t a one-time deal?”

  Before she could respond, I dipped my head and nuzzled into the curve of neck and shoulder. I didn’t kiss her there, not yet. The last time had been rushed. If I was going to hell for this, I was going to take my time about it.

  “But I thought you said—”

  “Forget what I said.” My lips were close enough they brushed against her skin as I spoke and she shivered.

  “But we can’t,” she said and her voice was as breathless as I felt.

  I continued my exploration until my lips met the shell of her ear. “Wanna bet?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Charlie

  I couldn’t seem to think straight.

  Just like the last time he’d been this close to me, nothing was making sense. I released the death grip I had on his dresser and brought my hands up to his chest, not only to hold him at a distance, but to keep myself upright.

  When I didn’t answer, he shifted closer. “What were you doing this morning?” he asked, his voice deep and thick with something I’d never heard directed toward me before.