First to Lie: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (Unraveled Book 1)

by Marie Johnston

  I winced at the…stunning accuracy of what being with Hailey was like. It reminded me of how little I liked Sam being screamed when I was buried in Mara.

  “I have some work to do.”

  “She’s got you, brother. Finish your work and get out here and show me that Mara Joy Budinski doesn’t have a hold on you.”

  Mara Jade Baranski, asshole.

  Flynn left and I scrubbed my face. Stared at my work. All of which would’ve been done over the weekend, when I usually dealt with club business. It taunted me after a long day in the office because I’d ignored messages over the weekend.

  Flynn was right. She was getting to me. I pushed back from my chair and went out to the dance floor.

  Mara

  I blew a bubble and snapped it, the pop echoing through Arcadia. So satisfying.

  No one was around. The sweet spot of a Wednesday afternoon, when I got very few customers until people started getting off work.

  Since there was no one to impress, I sat behind the register “borrowing” a Justice League comic. Ordinarily, I didn’t sample the merchandise but with a little over three weeks left, I was cutting loose. Soon, affording comics would go back to being a luxury.

  The door tinkled as a shockingly handsome man in a designer suit and perfectly coiffed hair strolled in. He glanced around with a bemused expression.

  I closed the comic and hopped down from my stool. “What are you looking for today?”

  I’d learned a long time ago not to ask What can I do for you today? when my clientele was predominantly male.

  He zeroed in on me like a bird of prey. His gaze swept down my purple plaid flannel shirt to my black Star Wars leggings emblazoned with C-3PO on one leg and R2-D2 on the other.

  An arrogant blond brow rose.

  So it was like that.

  “I just heard about this place. Wanted a look around before it closed.” His rich voice probably left a puddle of estrogen wherever he went.

  But what was up with the hair? I wanted to tell him that the nineties called and they wanted their frosted tips back. Said the girl with pink hair. Whatever, it worked on him.

  As he approached, he didn’t look over any of my shelves.

  I didn’t get nervous often when alone in the store, but my gut began a slow churn. What did this guy want? Was he one of those types that forced himself on a girl because normally they found him irresistible?

  Because I could resist him. No way interested. For instance, I liked black hair and sharp blue eyes. A man with an easy grin who harbored an inner fanboy. Sam. I preferred a man like Sam.

  I cleared my throat. “Are you looking for comics, graphic novels, games for any specific gaming system?”

  He stopped and frowned. “What’s the difference between a comic and a graphic novel?”

  “There are a few things. Graphic novel storylines don’t run for as many issues as comics, so they’re longer, and the story tends to be more complicated.”

  His expression read Why should I care?

  “We also have a small collection of movies. Have you seen Deadpool?”

  His unusual gray eyes brightened and he barked out a laugh. “Yeah, I have. Do you sell that here?”

  I led him to the movie rack.

  He snatched it off the shelf and read the back. I finally relaxed around him because now he was acting like a fanboy. “I’d have to buy a Blu-ray player to watch it. I haven’t bought a DVD in years.”

  It was getting more common these days.

  “You know, I saw this in my buddy’s home theater.” His vivid gaze latched onto mine. “I don’t get to hang with him much because he’s found a new girl.”

  Said in a way that sounded like my fault. “Happens.”

  He leaned in until his smooth-smelling cologne washed over me. A sly smile stretched his lips. “I could find a girl of my own.”

  “I’m sure it’s not hard for you.”

  He drew back. Was I supposed to fall all over myself?

  “Harder than you might think,” he muttered and wandered to the register. “I think I’m going to get this.”

  I rang him up and when he handed me his card, the block letters spelled out Flynn Halstengard.

  “Do you want to go get a drink sometime?”

  As charming as he was, I had no urge to meet him anywhere. “I’m sorry, I’m seeing someone.”

  He playfully pouted. “Must be a special guy.”

  “I think so.” But I was afraid to give my heart totally to him. If I could at least see where he lived and know more about him, I’d feel better.

  “Hope he’s turning them away like you are.” Flynn smiled, the poster child for a toothpaste commercial, and gave me a wink before he left.

  Well…Mr. Flynn Halstengard had certainly set an ominous tone I needed to shrug off. A stranger wasn’t going to dictate whether I trusted my new boyfriend or not.

  Chapter 11

  Wes

  On Friday, Flynn left his fifth voicemail since Monday night.

  I blew it off and glared at the strip mall out of my office tower’s window. If Sam had torn that eyesore down years ago, none of this would’ve happened. Mara would’ve been forced to set up shop somewhere else and probably wouldn’t have been able to afford any of my dad’s other properties.

  She wouldn’t have latched onto Sam, and I wouldn’t have met her. Wouldn’t have gotten to know her. Would their paths have ever crossed?

  My office door opened and Flynn barged in.

  “Ignoring me much?”

  “I don’t want to hear it.” I turned and waited for Flynn’s reproach.

  “You need to. Did you even kiss anyone at the club? Rub yourself against them? When Hailey scooted that fine ass of hers into you, you jumped like a fifty-year-old virgin at a swinger’s party.”

  Hailey’s painted-on dress and banging body should’ve been Robson catnip. She was a naturally beautiful girl and wielded her makeup wand like a warrior, turning herself into the stuff of men’s fantasies. I had always limited sex with her because she smacked of clinginess. She also gave off I’ll fuck your best friend on your desk vibes. And while Hailey and Flynn had hooked up, neither me nor my buddy worried about territory issues. No man was idiot enough to try to claim Hailey.

  With Flynn’s prodding, she’d scooted up to me as soon as I’d stepped out of my office. Probably had been hoping to bang one of us on my desk.

  But instead of double-D tits and hips that could swirl the alphabet over my dick, I saw a girl who didn’t have her shit together. Instead of blond highlights and lowlights and whatever else women did to their hair, I missed the pink.

  And Mara’s hips were perfectly capable of alphabet sex.

  “I need to see this thing through with Mara, and I need to focus.”

  “On what? Letting her fuck with you?”

  “Enough!”

  Flynn’s mouth snapped shut.

  Ah, hell. She was driving a wedge between us.

  “What if…just let me find out what was going on between her and Sam.” I sunk into the couch in my office. “I’m starting to think, I don’t know, that maybe they were just friends and it wasn’t about the money. Let me find out why he wanted to spend the time with her that he used to spend with me.”

  “I see. Coulda said so, dude.”

  I sputtered.

  Flynn shrugged it off and strolled to the pinball machine. “I get it. I know how Sam bailed on you. You’re pissed he was getting his geek on with Mara Jana Baslinski and you’re worried it wasn’t about the booty.”

  Flynn was crack on, except for her name. Mara. Jade. Baranski. Fucker.

  “Does this thing even work?” Flynn punched the buttons. Nothing happened.

  “Probably. If it’s plugged in.” I snickered and earned the finger. “I doubt you’d even need a quarter. Sam gave everything away.” Or sold it for a dollar.

  Squatting in his pressed slacks, holding his tie in like he was at the edge of a fashion show
runway, Flynn fished around for the cord until he hooked it. “Score.”

  I stood back with my arms folded. The guy was tenacious about the damn game.

  I didn’t help, but my buddy finally spied the outlet behind the pinball game. Flynn wrestled the machine away from the wall to plug it in.

  A muscle flexed in my jaw. My breath stalled. The game lit up like opening night at the Minnesota State Fair.

  Flynn released a triumphant whoop and assumed the pinball position.

  I shook my head. The words you want it? hovered on my tongue. Nah. Flynn could play it whenever he stopped in. I would give it away later.

  “Ha! Extra balls. Yasss.” Flynn had developed the wide-legged stance I had often used when I’d wasted his childhood on it. My friend punched the flippers. “So…I went to Arcadia the other day.”

  “What? Why?” My pulse kicked up. What had Flynn said? What had he done? What had they done?

  “Relax. Just checking her out. She’s cute. The pink hair, plaid shirt, and Star Wars leggings aren’t your usual type.”

  “I told you—”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He whooped and slapped the machine. “I am the pinball master.”

  I couldn’t bring myself to ask, but I didn’t need to. Flynn beat me to it.

  “She didn’t take the bait, man. Maybe I’m not rich enough, or her eyesight’s off and she thinks you’re really better looking.”

  I gave up my eagle perch over Arcadia and glared at Flynn. I sat behind my desk, but my mind was stuck on the Star Wars leggings I hadn’t seen yet and how much I legitimately looked forward to our date later that night.

  Mara

  I slid into Wes’s car. “It’s your choice on what to do tonight. I owe you for being such a good sport at Comic-Con last weekend.”

  Wes kept the car in park, a faraway glaze to his eyes. “What is there to do on a Friday night? I’m usually catching up with work.”

  “Good question. I’m usually playing my Xbox. I mean,” I gave him a sly smile, “testing new games so I can give proper sales advice. Or watching a movie.”

  “Gaming sounds fun, but I want to be active.”

  His heated stare made me want to strip down in the car.

  I grinned, a flush blooming on my cheeks. “Active is nice, but let’s try something with our clothes on for a few hours. If I need to go get changed, I will.”

  His gaze landed on my leggings, which were sprinkled with words like boom, kapow, and bang. I’d paired them with a long, fluffy white sweater. My fancy outfit.

  “No, you’re dressed perfectly for my idea.”

  When he parked outside of a huge warehouse-style building, I read the sign and couldn’t possibly connect it with a date night. Other than it might be the best date night ever.

  An indoor trampoline park.

  He killed the engine and I knew he wasn’t joking. He turned toward me, light from the parking lot glinting off his impeccable hair and shadowing his blue eyes.

  “I have a pair of sweats in my overnight bag.” He reached into the backseat to dig them out, wearing a half-smile, like his excitement was growing as much as mine.

  “I’ve always wanted to go here but I never had anyone to go with.”

  He paused briefly. “What about that good friend of yours?”

  I laughed. “Sam? He would’ve loved it, but I think by the time I met him, he wasn’t in shape anymore. From the way he talked, it would’ve been something he and his son would’ve loved back in the day. Too bad…”

  Whoa. I’d almost said too much. Sam Robson had passed, but it wasn’t my place to spread his personal business.

  My Sam was waiting for me to finish my thought. “Too bad what?”

  I opened my mouth to speak but stalled at the bleakness in his gaze. My heart sank. Sam had lost his father, too.

  “Nothing. I just wish he could’ve healed his relationship with his son. I guess he passed on the business know-how, but personally, he’d felt those bridges were burned.”

  “Why would he? What would make a father feel that?” Wes’s tone was neutral, but his brow was creased as if he couldn’t understand it. Neither could I.

  I shrugged, growing uncomfortable with the topic. “He said after the divorce that his ex sent the boy away for school. Then he was gone for college. After that, well, he had no one to hand the reins of the company to, so that’s all their relationship became.”

  His eye twitched. “I don’t think that’d stop a real dad from seeing his kid.”

  “Perhaps he didn’t think he was a real dad.” That was the closest I would come to airing my dear friend’s business. Maybe one day, when I trusted the man next to me completely, I could talk about how awful I’d felt for my friend and, at one time, his son.

  Sam shook his head, not understanding, but before he said anything, I waved it off.

  “I know, I didn’t agree with it, either, but he was from a different time, and honestly, those with money just think differently from us.”

  He opened his mouth to say something but closed it and passed me a small smile. “I heard they have an obstacle course here and I think I can totally beat you.”

  “Oh, you’re on.”

  Chapter 12

  Mara

  I woke up before my alarm. Another Saturday, another game day. We were winding down.

  Sam slumbered next to me. I studied his features, glad to see his lines of stress from the previous week gone.

  Geez, he was a gorgeous man. Strong jaw, straight nose, healthy glow that showed he wasn’t imprisoned in an office all day. My gaze drifted down to his muscular shoulders and defined chest.

  I could fall hard for him. Because of how considerate he’d been the weekend before with my mother. And how he’d good-naturedly worn a costume, then after we’d eaten out, I’d sworn he would’ve taken Mom out dancing had I said the word.

  Then last night. I hadn’t laughed that much with a guy, or gotten so sweaty with one with my clothes on.

  Swinging my legs down, I arched my back in a stretch. Oh yeah, I was going to be stiff today. Worth every protesting muscle to have that kind of fun with Sam.

  My mouth quirked. Sam. I’d lost a dear friend, only to find someone who could become very special to me with the same name. Was the big guy reaching down from above, still trying to find a way to help me out?

  The year of therapy after my college nightmare had been priceless. Otherwise, I’d have never let men like Sam Robson, Chris, and Ephraim into my life. I’d learned to balance my personal desperation with solid decision-making—after protecting myself first, of course. Maybe one day I’d deeply trust a man.

  A hand snaked out and wrapped around my waist to pull me back into bed.

  “Hey.” I laughed and cuddled into him. “I have to get to work.”

  “It’s Saturday,” he mumbled into my hair.

  “Game day in my world, and one of the last ones.”

  His grip loosened.

  Well, wasn’t my morning bittersweet. I only had a few more gaming Saturdays to enjoy, but it meant I had to leave a morning in bed with Sam.

  “Stay as long as you want, I know it’s early. I gotta shower.”

  I showered, but before I could shut the water off, the door opened.

  Turned out shower sex started the morning out right.

  I was still grinning as I opened up the store. Sam had even asked if he could stop by later.

  The day got started as normal. Joe and Ephraim for another round of Axis & Allies. Chris even jumped into the fray.

  The time went by quickly, but every time the door dinged, I looked up with a surge of hope.

  Maybe Sam had work. Or had a family. He rarely talked about his family. Just him and his mom and he made her sound like a hot mess.

  “We’ll clean up,” Ephraim called across the room, “and get out of your hair.”

  “No rush. I have no plans tonight.” Dating Sam was spoiling her. Nights with nothing going on didn’t offer the
appeal they used to.

  My door’s bell dinged and I spun with a smile to greet my next customer.

  Sam walked in, eyeing the interior of my store cautiously like he didn’t know what to expect.

  I shoved my hands into the back pockets of my favorite jeans and sauntered over to him.

  The corner of his mouth quirked and he strolled to meet me.

  He must’ve run home to change because he was wearing athletic pants and a maroon University of Chicago sweatshirt.

  “You made it.” I rose to my tiptoes to greet him with a kiss.

  He draped an arm around my shoulders and we wandered through my store. “Absolutely. I couldn’t ask you what you were doing tonight, otherwise.” A gaming system on the wall caught his attention. “Is this for real?”

  He broke away and picked up the gray PlayStation.

  “Chris got his hands on one of the first models. It doesn’t work, unfortunately, but it’s a nice decoration. And I’m sure he secretly thinks he can fix it.”

  “I remember getting one of these when they first came out. Sa— My dad and I would play all night. And since I was like, seven, it’d piss my mom off so much.”

  I chuckled and noticed Joe staring at us. Ephraim was glancing up occasionally, but his expression was more curious where Joe’s looked stunned.

  Sam had that effect on people.

  “Let me introduce you to two of my friends.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him along. “Joe, Ephraim, this is Sam. He’s a fanboy in disguise.”

  Sam smiled and reached his hand out.

  “How ya doing, Sam?” Ephraim pumped Sam’s hand and went back to picking up the tiny pieces of the game.

  “Joe,” Sam greeted.

  Joe nodded but said nothing. He turned his back on us to help Ephraim, which surprised me. Joe was a little quieter than many customers but always sociable.

  “So, Sam,” Ephraim said. “It’s too bad you won’t be able to join us for many more game days.”