More Than Friends

This
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events described herein
are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, therefore
not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations,
organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

More Than Friends

COPYRIGHT
© 2012 by Monique DeVere

All
rights reserved. No part of this story may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission from the author. Except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews.

Contact Information:
[email protected]

Cover Designed by Crystal Swan

With thanks to
FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Publishing History

Published by Crystal Swan Publications

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Blurb

She just
broke the Best Friends’ Code of Honour!

What do you do when your best friend’s fella dumps her?

You get drunk, catch a cab to his place, offer to bop him
on the nose, then... sleep with him?

Lily Harper should have taken her secret attraction to
Justin Knight into consideration before rushing to his swanky apartment. Now
she’s caught in a dilemma. Lose her best friend, or the out-of-this-world sexy
guy who could be The One.

Justin fell for Lily almost from the moment he met her,
but she was with someone else and he'd  just started seeing her best friend.
Now Lily is available, and so is he, only, he isn’t having much luck making her
see that sometimes when loyalties collide, a girl has to choose love!

Excerpt

“The fact of
the matter is—” he nuzzled her ear “—I’m going to kiss you and every guy in
this place is going to go wild with envy because I’m the lucky sod who gets to
do it.”

Lily sucked
in a breath, missed a step. He was making love to her, disguised as a dance.
People were beginning to take an interest.  He’d made her a spectacle.

“Justin,
people are watching.”

“Sweetheart,
that’s nothing new, they’ve been riveted from the moment you first walked in
the room.”

“Are you
sweet talking me?”

He pulled
back, his gaze darkening.  “Only if it’s working.” While his hand caressed her
back where the dressed dipped, he stroked his other thumb against her palm.

Goose bumps
raised her flesh. Oh, it was working. That and the off-the-wall chemistry
between them. Every part of her craved his touch.

He turned
her, dipped his head, and took the kiss he’d warned her he was going to take.
It was as if everything stood still, the room, the hum of conversation, the
mellow music, Lily’s heart—everything.

Continue reading to enjoy the rest of More Than
Friends by Monique DeVere

More
Than Friends

“
O
pen
up, ya
louse
!”

Justin Knight’s
apartment door rattled under a hammering fist.

He yanked it open
to find Lily Harper—irate and slightly unsteady on her feet—in the hall outside
his door. She glowered at him with the indomitable intent of an avenging angel.

Despite the
menacing scowl, her emerald eyes were as stunning as he remembered, and his
male hormones jerked to life. It was after ten p.m. and she reeked of booze,
but the sight of her stalled his breath in his throat. He’d waited for Lily to come
to him, and here she was finally—even if she had to get stinking drunk to do
it.

She stuck her
chin in the air so she could look him in the face. He took in her alluring
features—high cheekbones, the small turned-up nose that he was always dying to
kiss, her full lips naturally red and devoid of artificial colouring—
don’t
think about those lips
—and the graceful arc of her neck. She slammed the
hand—that wasn’t gripping bag straps—onto her hip, bringing his attention to
her slender curves in the light summer dress that ended mid thigh. The floaty
material was short enough to give him a tantalizing glimpse of shapely lower
thigh and her amazing legs, tanned and naked all the way to her silver strappy
heels. His gaze snagged at her ankles—this woman was his every secret fantasy. 

“You—!” She
pointed her forefinger inches from his nose as her narrowed green gaze cut a
path down his body then back up again.

He pulled
himself to his full height of six foot two. He’d never seen Lily out for blood
before. She looked ready to rip him apart, and all he noticed was how every
breath she took undulated her chest. It was obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra and
her firm breasts gave more of a gentle bounce than a jiggle, teasing him with
her disjointed movements. His hand on the door handle tightened, and he shoved the
other into his jeans pocket to keep from reaching for her.

“You louse!
You think you can treat women any way you like.” She pushed past him.

Yeah she was mad.

“You think
you’re all that—” She gestured her arm in a wide arc in front of his face.
“With your hair and... and your eyes, that you don’t have to care about anyone
else’s feelings but your own. You think you’re
so
gorgeous, don’t you?
Well let me tell you something, pal.” As though she was holding a gun, she uncocked
her skinny forefinger again and pointed it into his chest. “You’re just
average, and Mel can do so much better. So what do you think about that?”

Lily had lost
her mind, that’s what he thought, but he was too wise to tell her so. 

“How did you
get here, Lil?” He steadied her when she swayed a little too far to her left. Since
he hadn’t buzzed her in, he presumed either someone else had, or she’d entered with
one of the other occupants of the Canary Wharf apartment building.

She scowled,
shrugging his hand off her. “A cab brought me ’cause I wanted to give you a
piece of my mind, and I’ll tell you what... when I told the driver I was coming
to bop you on the nose, he got me here in double time!”

Are you sure
it wasn’t because he wanted to get the crazy woman out of his cab?
“I think
you better sit.”

“Yeah?” Slamming
her hand back on her hip, she scowled at him. “And I think
you
better
sit, ’cause I’m going to let you have it.” He didn’t doubt she was about to
give him GBH of the ear hole. “I thought you were one of the good guys, Justin,
but you’re a player like all the others—just like Wayne.”

The mention
of her ex-lover made his hackles rise. Now was not the time to say his piece.
He’d waited three months; a little while longer wouldn’t make a difference.
Nevertheless, he
was
going to have his say. Preferably, before Lily left
here tonight.

First, he had
to sober her up.

“I
am
a good guy, Lily.” If he weren’t, he would have made his move long ago. Justin
wrapped his hand around her small waist to guide her to a sofa. This time she
didn’t shrug him off, and something inside him warmed. “You smell like a
brewery. Let’s get you some coffee.” Her slender curves pressed against him.
She was soft. Almost fragile. He glanced down to where their bodies touched at
the hips. His denim leg pressing against her naked thigh thickened his blood.
He tried to ignore how enticingly the light summer dress clung to her slender shape.
“How much did you have to drink?”

“Enough.” She
tossed her long light honey-coloured curls over her shoulder, bare but for the
spaghetti straps holding her dress up.

He led her to
the sofa and eased her onto the black suede cushions.

“No.” She
tried to scramble off the sofa but couldn’t seem to figure out quite how to do
so because she kept falling back amongst the cushions with each attempt to stand,
her dress riding tantalizingly up her thighs. “I still have a few things I want
to say to you. Do you know how badly you hurt my friend?” She wrestled the hem
back to her knees. “She’s devastated that you broke up with her.” Behind the
killing glare she gave him, was a vulnerability that tugged at his heart. “What
sort of man leads a woman on and makes her think he’s about to propose, then
dumps her?” She made it off the sofa and jabbed him in the chest with that
pointy forefinger. “Huh?”

Mel thought
he was going to propose? What gave her that idea?
He
certainly hadn’t.

Justin
clasped Lily’s finger to stop her from boring a hole in his chest. “You are too
intoxicated to remember this conversation, so I see no point in defending
myself. Why don’t I get you some coffee, then take you home?”

Lily flopped
back onto the sofa, sad and defeated as she dropped her head into her upturned
palms. Her fingers sunk into her messy curls. “Why couldn’t you just be one of
the good guys?”

Justin fought
the urge to pull her into his arms to comfort her. He headed to the kitchen
instead. Since when did ending a relationship that was totally wrong for him, make
him a villain?

When he
returned, Lily still had her head propped in her hands and he wondered whether
she’d fallen asleep in that position. “Lil?”

Her head shot
up. She gazed at him with such disappointment he felt it like a stab to the
heart. Of all the women to make hate him, Lily would have been his last choice.
She was his friend. At least she had been up until tonight.  

He handed her
one of the mugs of black coffee he’d carried in from the kitchen. She took it,
careful not to touch him. She didn’t say ‘thanks’ either. In fact, she didn’t
say a word, just continued to stare at him with disillusionment dulling her
usually sparkling eyes.

She took a
sip, pulled a face.

He wasn’t
surprised. Lily preferred her coffee white without sugar. He’d given her black
with three sugars. Justin sprawled on the sofa opposite Lily’s, stretching out
his long legs in front of him.

“This coffee
is disgusting.” She scowled at the brew.

“Drink up;
it’ll help to sober you.”

“Who says I
want to be sober?”

“I’ve waited months
for this moment, Lily, and now it’s here, I want you good and clear-headed when
we bash this out.”

“Bash what
out?”

“This thing
that’s been between us ever since we first met.”

Lily shifted
her gaze over his shoulder. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That’s why I
need you fully conscious.”

“I
am
fully conscious.”

“Did Mel tell
you why we broke up?”

Lily glanced
at him like a bugologist viewing a not particularly appealing insect specimen.
“Don’t you mean why you
dumped
her? She said you told her you had
feelings for someone else—which is just the thing a louse would say.”

“I didn’t
realise you had such a low opinion of me.”

“I didn’t
until tonight when Mel told me what you did.”

“Are you
saying I should stay with one woman when I want another?”

“What is it
with you men? The grass is always greener, isn’t it? You are exactly like
Wayne. I wasn’t enough for him either; he was always on the lookout for his
next woman.”

“Don’t compare
me with Wayne. I always end one relationship before starting the next.”

“Maybe, but
you still go around collecting hearts. Just like him!”

“Relationships
end all the time, Lily. Are you going to bust every guy’s balls just because
one guy cheated on you? You’re not the first person that has happened to, and
you won’t be the last. I don’t cheat. I didn’t cheat on Mel. I realised I was having
feelings for someone else, and I broke things off with her. I can’t choose who
I fall for. Mel understands that, why can’t you?”

“Because Mel
was in love with you.”

News to him.
“Did she tell you that?”

“Not out
right, but of course she was. Why wouldn’t she?”