A Friends-to-Lovers Romance
Discover other titles by Karen Renee at:
www.AuthorKarenRenee.com
© 2020 Karen Renee
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover by Furious Fotog
www.authorkarenrenee.com
The best way to stay in touch is to subscribe to my newsletter. If you don’t hear from me regularly, please check your spam filter and set up your email to allow my messages through to you. This ensures you never miss a new book, a chance to win great prizes, or exclusive content.
Follow me on Amazon to be notified of new releases as they become available.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
AS EVER AND ALWAYS, to my readers! I’m humbled that you spend your valuable reading time with my words. And if you’ve left a review for any of my books, I can’t thank you enough
.
A big thank you to Dolorianne. You’re one of the most supportive people I know, and your insight about how fights among friends are worse because of how much they know about one another helped more than you’ll ever know. So thank you!
Kudos to my Beta readers, you are all the bomb!
Barbara J. Bailey, thank you for wrangling my paragraphs and polishing my words.
Thank you to Furious Fotog. I love this cover!
Thanks to my family for supporting me and my writing during these trying times.
DEDICATION
To Readers Everywhere
May this story take you to another place and time. Enjoy.
PLAYLIST
MONTAGUES AND CAPULETS by Sergei Prokofiev
BLUE RONDO ALA TURK by Dave Brubeck
RAPPER’S DELIGHT by The Sugarhill Gang
THE MESSAGE by Grandmaster Flash
BLUE MONK by Thelonious Monk
NIGHT TRAIN by The Oscar Peterson Trio
THE POWER OF ORANGE KNICKERS by Tori Amos
LOVE SONG by Sara Bareilles
LOVE IS STRONGER THAN PRIDE by Sade
SUNSET LOVER by Petit Biscuit
AT THE HOUSE, IN DA POCKET (LIVE) by The Marsalis Family
RAIN FALL DOWN by The Rolling Stones
WHISKEY (Featuring A$AP Rocky) by Maroon 5
I NEED LOVE by L.L. Cool J
THE FRIENDS SONG by Michael Franti and Spearhead
LAY ME DOWN (Featuring Rome) by Dirty Heads
WILD HORSES by The Rolling Stones
I CAN STILL FEEL YOU by Michael Franti and Spearhead
WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE by Chris Botti and Sting
1Bacon
Gabe
SUMMER 2019
Growing up, I had a guilty habit. Okay, fine. I had two guilty habits, but jacking my beanstalk was not what I was referring to, though this habit definitely added fodder for that. I loved watching Melrose Place.
The show predated me, but an aunt, or more likely a woman my dad dated on the sly, left a DVD copy of the first season behind, and when I was fourteen, I would sneak it to my room. My older brother, Brock, caught me watching once and laughed his ass off. But his seventeen-year-old ass slumped into a beanbag and finished the next two episodes with me anyway.
Yeah, Heather Locklear had it going on.
Little did I know, that show made more of an impression on me than I realized. At twenty-six, residing in a sweet apartment complex, I was living my own bad version of Melrose. Brock, now my roommate, warned me not to ‘shit where I live.’ However, I didn’t consider it shitting. I made sure every woman I took to bed knew the deal.
No strings.
No commitments.
And, most importantly, no repeats.
Besides, I hadn’t fucked every woman in the complex.
No. There was one woman I wouldn’t touch.
Couldn’t touch.
Cassandra Daughtry.
The first time I saw her, yeah, I wanted her plump pink lips pressed against mine, and other parts of me as well. But being the supreme dumbass I can be, I took a bet from my buddies, and lost. They bet I couldn’t get her into bed, but she wasn’t a quick lay. The moment I spoke to her, I knew I wanted her in my life.
Losing that bet led to a huge win since it resulted in a long-lasting, beautiful friendship.
Early dawn light peeked through the blinds of the apartment as I snuck out of a woman’s bedroom. Last night, I’d fucked Kylie three times.
My typical escape plan relied on wearing a woman out, waiting until she fell asleep, and bolting. When I quietly closed the bedroom door behind me, the sight of a beautiful round ass clad in black yoga pants, bent over the oven door, greeted me, along with the scent of bacon. She closed the door, turned around, and my stomach lurched.
Cassandra lived here.
Fuck!
I knew Cassandra lived in the same complex as me, but I had never met or laid eyes on her roommate. She always said her roommate’s name was Kaylee, but the woman I met had said her name was Kylie. I was sure, because I asked her once in the club and again in the parking lot. No way I thought she lived with one of my best friends.
It was the first time my brother was right. I had shit where I lived.
I stood midway into the living room. Cassie eyed me with disappointment and disgust.
If her ass didn’t do me in, the sight of her in a pair of sexy-as-fuck librarian glasses damn sure did. Then she had to open her luscious mouth.
“Seriously, Sullivan?” she asked. “Good to know Kaylee finally got what she wanted. Maybe I won’t have to hear any more about it, but that’s highly unlikely. Now, I’ll be treated to an endless postmortem. Probably tell me about every little thing you did in bed.”
I wanted to answer her, but my mouth was dry and it kept me silent. The first time I saw her, I thought she was hot, but I had no idea she wore contacts. Those glasses, her green eyes, and everything else that was her... My dick twitched. She wasn’t hot, she was scorching.
She mistook my silence, and shook her head.
