Stuck With My Best Friend: A Quarantine Novella Read online

  If he was willing to have sex with me…

  Was he willing to take it a step further?

  “I don’t think you’re serious,” I said.

  Hunter disagreed. “And I don’t think you realize just how much I’d love to…give you a hand. Maybe a couple fingers. Definitely a tongue.”

  The heat rushed to my cheeks…and everywhere else. “You’ve never expressed any interest before.”

  “Never walked in on you naked before.” He winked. “Hell, we’re halfway to that uncharted island of eternal bliss your heroine talked so fondly about.”

  I’d regret asking the question. “Now that we’re halfway…what comes next?”

  “You, for starters.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Promises, promises.”

  “Don’t believe me? I’m a generous lover. Your wish is my command. More touching. Lots of kissing. And you know how good I am with my hands.”

  “Yeah, at carpentry.”

  “I can nail a girl better than a 2x4.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to get nailed,” I said. “Besides, how do I know you’d be any good?”

  A dangerous question to ask a man who was already naked and loitering in a woman’s bed.

  Hunter rose with a grunt, capturing me in his arms and whirling me under his body before I had time to grab my sheet.

  I’d never imagined this man trapping me in his embrace.

  We’d wrestled before. Tussled and horsed around. Slow danced.

  But nothing like this.

  My naked body suddenly flushed with heat, so hot I worried I’d sear away the thin sheet protecting my nudity from his massive frame.

  “If you think I’ve got a smart mouth, you should see what I can do with my quick tongue.” Hunter’s eyes danced with pure delight. “I’d tease you all night.”

  The words dried in my mouth. Probably because all the wetness flooded elsewhere.

  What were we doing?

  “What if I don’t like teasing?” I asked.

  He had an answer for everything. “Then I’d leave no spot unfulfilled.”

  I squirmed beneath him, unable to hide the twisting of my hips and my quiet gasp.

  Hunter was the most attractive man I’d ever met. Problem was, I’d never paid attention to it before.

  But it was hard to ignore a chiseled jaw, strong brow, and stoic nose when he hovered just inches from my parted lips.

  I took an unsteady breath that stuck in my throat.

  Hunter’s words rumbled through me, deep and promising. “I’d make you feel good. Better than you’ve ever felt by yourself.”

  “But then what?”

  “I’d ruin every other man for you.”

  I started to think he already had—and all he’d done was pin me beneath his conquering strength.

  “We might be completely incompatible,” I warned him. “We’ve never even kissed.”

  And that had been for a very good reason. We’d never fooled around. Hell, even New Year’s Eve parties ended with a kiss to the forehead.

  Hunter was my best friend. And we had to play by a very strict set of rules to maintain a wholesomely platonic relationship without things becoming complicated or messy. We never came close to broaching that conversation or overstepping that line.

  Until now.

  Until suddenly that little carrot of potential dangled in front of me, and I was about to charge headfirst over a cliff to chase after it.

  But would Hunter take that leap with me?

  His life was so careful, easy, and perfect. Who was I to ask him to change everything for me?

  And yet, he leaned down, his lips brushing mine with a confident, knowing familiarity. As if he’d done it so many times before.

  Comfortable.

  Gentle.

  Just how I’d always hoped that I’d be kissed by the man of my dreams.

  I just never imagined it’d be Hunter.

  A new heat swept through me. I parted my lips—too timid to flick my tongue against his. Still, I reveled in the sweet, ravenous blitz of pleasure as he held me tight against him.

  Doubt tangled with inhibition, both dizzying and amazing me with the soft nibble of his lips.

  If this was wrong…

  If this would ruin everything…

  At least I’d forever remember this moment—a perfect swell of intimacy, pleasure, and happiness.

  And it made me wonder terrible thoughts.

  And hope for crazier promises.

  I knew what I wanted in life—and it had never included a serious relationship. My dreams were pinned on something beyond the sexy stranger at the bar or a lovely white wedding in a cozy church.

  I longed for something meaningful. Lasting.

  Something Hunter could easily give me…

  If it wouldn’t ruin our friendship forever.

  The sheet shifted. I didn’t bother covering myself. Hunter already knew everything else about me. Why shouldn’t he have discovered the more modest mysteries I’d hidden from other men?

  He shifted, lowering his body just over mine. Hovering. He braced himself, both arms on either side of my shoulders. The hesitation was pure agony. I wiggled. Whimpered. Then, gathering courage fueled by desire, I opened my legs and bumbled beneath him.

  He fell between my thighs.

  And the air superheated in my lungs.

  His thick cock brushed against my bare skin, setting fire along the trail of liquid desire that dotted the head of his shaft.

  He was ready for me.

  As eager for my body as I was for his.

  And I must’ve been out of my mind.

  What was I doing considering this? Hoping for it?

  But, like a miracle, Hunter had appeared at my weakest moment—promising me every pleasure I couldn’t deliver to myself…

  And something more amazing.

  Life-changing.

  Was it an answer to my every prayer…

  Or just a trick of the devil?

  “Are you sure we should be doing this?” I whispered.

  “Very sure.” Hunter’s body tensed so taut he grunted his words in pained amazement. “I’ve wanted this for so fucking long.”

  A surprise to me, but I wasn’t about to ask any questions which might’ve changed his mind.

  Hunter reached over the side of the bed for his pants, fumbling for his wallet.

  I frowned. “Well, you don’t need to pay me for it.”

  He tore through the pockets, ripping out cash and cards. His wallet flopped open, and he flipped it upside down, giving it a good shake.

  With a heavy, irritated groan, he pitched the wallet across the room.

  “Fucking hell.” Hunter rubbed his face. “Looks like I’m bound to disappoint you for the next two weeks. Unless…”

  “…Unless?”

  “Do you think condoms are essential grocery items?”

  If only he could read my mind.

  I gently tip-toed my fingers along his tensed bicep. “Not now.”

  Hunter returned to me, his eager hands brushing over my curves.

  The charge of profanity bursting from his lips was filthier than anything we might’ve done.

  “Can’t believe I’d be so goddamned stupid,” he grunted. “Of all the fucking things to forget. I even got us a spare tube of toothpaste in case we can’t get out to the store—”

  I met his stare. “So…don’t use a condom.”

  Hunter flopped onto the bed beside me. “Oh, sure. We’ll go bareback. Make all my fucking dreams come true.”

  Just so happened to be mine as well.

  Maybe it was time to let him know the truth.

  It wasn’t worth hoping, praying, and waiting for the right moment—and man—anymore. I knew what I wanted. And he could give it to me. Now.

  He’d only need a little convincing.

  “I’m serious,” I whispered.

  His breathing shifted. “About what?”

  “If you’re going t
o take me…why use a condom?”

  Hunter’s cock jerked hard. He reached for me, seizing my lips in a soul-quaking kiss.

  “I’m sure there’s a multitude of good reasons to use a condom…” His words rasped. “But fuck if I can think of a single one right now.”

  My giggle only encouraged him. He rolled over me once more, his kissing tingling a perfect trail over my neck. A shiver exploded low in my spine, dazzling me with shocks of pure excitement. His hands roamed to my breasts, cupping the full mound with a skilled hand.

  “Do you really want me to take you bare?” he whispered.

  “More than you realize…”

  “I didn’t know you were that kinky.”

  “It’s not supposed to be kinky.”

  He ducked low, licking a path to my breasts. Cool air laced between his kisses, and I encouraged every lap with an arch of my back. He hesitated over my budded nipple, as if asking for permission. His tongue gently, inquisitively flicked.

  The sensation rocked me from head to toe. I groaned, nearly bursting out of the bed.

  Why was he teasing me like this?

  “I want something beautiful,” I said. “Flesh against flesh. Us. Together. Enjoying each other.”

  His cock hardened more, pushing against my belly. The man was more than eager. And all the flirty, deliriously dangerous promises he had whispered only served to mire me in reckless abandon. My body ached from being denied my perfect crest, and it ached with anticipation for all the pleasure I knew he’d offer in its stead.

  This would solve every problem

  It’d also create a bigger mess.

  But we’d handle that together. Once I had what I needed.

  And yet, Hunter hesitated. His hand traveled low, teasing under my navel and over my hips, not yet ready to touch the part of me which craved his attentions.

  “It’s risky,” he warned.

  “It’s not a risk.” I stared up at him, my chest puffing with anxious breath. “Whatever happens, happens.”

  He swore. “What are you trying to do, Vu? Torture me?”

  “Not at all.” I gently stroked his arms, teasing his thick biceps as he held himself over me. The man was pure muscle, absolute strength, and yet my request had nearly toppled him. “You’re here. I’m ready. We have all the time in the world. There’s no one around except us. Nothing to stop this. I want you to take me, Hunter.”

  “Say it again.”

  Didn’t he believe me?

  Maybe I needed to prove it.

  I laid back, arms over my head. My legs wrapped tighter around his waist. His gaze traveled down.

  My every secret fell open for him. Every petal. Every wetness. Every desire.

  “I want you to take me,” I said. “And I want it to be as amazing, as passionate, and as perfect as you promised.”

  “No problem there.”

  The words fluttered in my chest. “And…when you come…I want nothing separating us. I want it all.”

  And yet, the allure of such thrills only seemed to destroy him.

  His head lowered with a heavy sigh.

  “Now I know you’re fucking with me,” he said. “That’s not fair, Déjà. A cock can only get so hard.”

  “I’m not teasing you,” I said. “Let’s not think about this. Don’t worry about what happens after. All I’m asking is for tonight. For this one small favor.”

  “You want me to fuck you as a favor?” He laughed. “What? Do I get an IOU for coming inside of you?”

  “I want more than that.” I stared into his frosted blue eyes, summoning every ounce of courage I possessed. “I want you to get me pregnant.”

  And that was the moment I almost killed my best friend.

  Hunter crumpled off the bed, landing awkwardly on his left leg. He sucked in a pained breath and grabbed for his cramping calf muscle throbbing a tennis-ball sized knot. And yet, even as he massaged his leg, the pain didn’t seem to shock him as much as my request.

  He stared at me, mouth agape and filled with a deluge of profanities.

  “What in the fuck did you just say?”

  The truth.

  For the first time in my life, for the first time since I’d decided what my life had been missing, I’d admitted my deepest, darkest desire to my best friend.

  Because I knew he was the only one who could make that dream come true.

  “Hunter…I want you to give me a baby.”

  3

  Hunter

  I must’ve been dying.

  That punch to the gut hit me harder than falling thirty-five thousand feet out of an airplane, crashing face-first into a prickly cactus patch, then cratering in the dirt hard enough to leave a ten-foot pit in the shape of my dick.

  The blood had rushed from my head to my cock and back again so fucking quick it caused a tsunami in my veins and shredded my internal organs.

  The goddamned woman had killed me.

  My stomach heaved.

  My heart stopped.

  My brain fucking fried.

  Yet I still couldn’t tell if it was a bad joke or if she intended to twist my balls into a knot and use them for a punching bag.

  I tumbled from the bed, landing more awkwardly than when Déjà had tangled herself in the sheets.

  Déjà peeked over the side of the mattress with an impatient sigh. “I’ll just wait here then. Take all the time you need to think it over.”

  Think it over?

  Think what over?

  She wanted me to get her pregnant?

  Suddenly, just being naked in her presence was too damned risky. All she needed was to coo my name in that sultry way I’d always imagined, and I’d let loose a torrent of premature mistake which would splash her head to toe like front-row seats at Sea World.

  …Semen World?

  Last thing I needed was to blow my load and my chance with this woman and knock her up from six feet away.

  I fumbled for my pants, but, apparently, I’d forgotten how the fucking things worked. I found holes, zippers, buckles. None of it made sense. Two feet shoved into a single pant leg. I ripped them off, flapped the denim, and tried again. This time both feet ended up in the opposite pant leg, ripping a hole right to the crotch—where I needed the barrier the most.

  One frustrated grunt later, and I wailed the damned jeans across the room. God only knew where my boxers had ended up, but Déjà had more than enough dainty throw pillows to cover myself.

  Of course, I’d grabbed the one she’d embroidered with a winking cat perched over the scripted quote, Life Is Purrrfect!

  Great. Now I was unrepentantly erect and guilty. Not like I could corrupt the woman any more than I’d already done. She could burn the pillow after the blood clotted in my cock and killed me.

  “You okay?” Déjà asked. “Remember to breathe. Your face is turning as blue as your…”

  I shifted the pillow over my raging mistake.

  Like it did anything.

  Her demands had shocked me, sure. But the goddamned promise of such risky behavior turned my dick iron hard—like I’d pulverized a bottle of Viagra and snorted the entire stash Scarface-style.

  She’d recovered with far more grace and poise than me. The crisp sheet wrapped over her body once more, tucked along tempting curves which might’ve invited me to dive into the bed and damn the consequences.

  And here I thought my bombshell would be the confession which would leave a convenient crater for me to crawl into once the truth came out.

  I wanted to tell her that I loved her.

  She wanted to skip the first kiss, first date, first fuck, first everything. No lazy movie nights, no moving in together, no frantic planning for a whirlwind wedding.

  Apparently, her goal in life was parenthood.

  And she wanted me to give her the baby.

  “What…in the fuck…are you talking about?” I pointed an accusatory finger at her. “Jokes don’t land on a man with an erection this painful.”

 
Her curls danced as she shook her head. “I’m not joking. I want a baby.”

  I checked my watch.

  Yep. It’d been a full forty-eight hours since I’d last spoken to Déjà.

  Jesus, good thing I hadn’t left her alone for three days. The woman might’ve grabbed a turkey baster and tossed a chair through the window of the first sperm bank she could find.

  “You want to have a baby,” I repeated.

  “That’s right.”

  “But…why…how?” I ran my hands through my hair. Mistake. The pillow dropped. Déjà pretended to study a shadow on her ceiling. “You’ve never…you haven’t…you aren’t even in a relationship.”

  “Good thing too,” she said. “Or he might’ve had a problem with me asking you.”

  Now I couldn’t breathe. I sat on the edge of the bed, wishing I hadn’t spotted her reflection in her full-length mirror.

  Why was this woman so amazingly beautiful?

  “Why do you want to get pregnant now? You’re skipping a couple steps, Vu. First you meet someone. Start dating. Plan a wedding. Or, at the very least, you get drunk and fool around in the back of his car down by the pond.”

  “Just because a six pack of Natty Light and awkward groping worked for a couple girls in Butterpond doesn’t mean it’s right for me.”

  My fists clenched the bed. “But you haven’t tried. You haven’t been in a relationship with someone since what—junior year of college? When you ditched Jerk?”

  “Jeff.”

  Never liked the walking, talking ball-sack anyway. “Whatever.”

  Déjà tugged on the sheet with her toes, stretching the cotton taut. Good. It hid her curves, granting me a moment to think, breathe, and tame the painfully swollen erection between my legs.

  “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” she said.

  I doubted that or she would’ve realized how fucking insane this sounded. “That so?”

  “Especially now, with all the craziness in the world.” She shrugged. “I’ve had a lot of goals in my life. I wanted to go to college. And…I did that. And I wanted to study literature. So…I did. Then I thought it would take years to open my own little bookshop in town…but, as it turns out, when your best friend is a skilled contractor, renovations on rental spaces fly by.”

  “Telling you right now, I can’t renovate your uterus.” At least, I didn’t think that was possible. “Not sure what happens when you jam some wood, concrete, and nails up there, but it sure as shit doesn’t spit out a little reading nook like what I created for you at the shop.”