Friend Zone Series Box Set

by Nicole Blanchard

  Shit.

  My breath rattled out, and I moved to extricate myself from around her. I ached like a sonofabitch, but maybe when she was awake, I could convince her to come over the next time she had a free minute. Even then, I wasn’t sure I’d ever have enough of her, but I’d take what I could get.

  Her hand clamped down on my hand that was on her chest, and I froze again. Her head angled back so that she could see me. “Wait.”

  “I thought you were asleep,” I said. “I was trying not to wake you.”

  She wriggled back against me, and I strangled a groan. “You think I could sleep with this teasing me all morning?”

  “Teasing you?”

  “It woke me up. I’ve been debating whether I should wake you up the same way or not.”

  “For the record, you can wake me up any way you like.”

  She relaxed back down on the bed and pulled me against her. I was thinking about getting my mouth on her pussy again, but instead, Ember reached between her legs and stroked my cock, coaxing it between her thighs. All the oxygen in my lungs seemed to evaporate. She was already wet for me, the skin of her inner thighs slick with her arousal.

  “Why didn’t you?” she asked.

  I couldn’t help it. Once her thighs closed over the head of my dick, I thrust my hips forward and pressed my forehead against hers. I angled up so that I was brushing against her wet folds, teasing us both. Sweat broke out all over my skin.

  “Didn’t I what?” What the hell were we talking about?

  “Why didn’t you wake me up any way you liked?”

  She tensed the muscles in her thighs, and I was this close to begging her to let me in. “It wasn’t something we’d talked about. I didn’t want to cross any boundaries you might have that I didn’t know about.”

  For a second, I thought I had pissed her off because she didn’t say anything in response. Then, she lifted her top leg and rested it over my thigh. She reached down again and angled my cock toward her opening. I sucked in a breath as she adjusted her body until I slid in with ease.

  “Next time, you can wake me up if you want,” she said. “I don’t mind.”

  I was trying to keep a clear head, but it was impossible. She was so warm and wet it was killing me. My voice was hoarse when I spoke. “I’ll try to remember that.”

  We had to be quiet, so I fucked her soft and slow, listening to the sounds of her breathing change, and adjusting the depth and speed of my thrusts. When she was moaning into the pillow she had pressed against her face, I moved my hand from her breast with reluctance to her swollen, sensitive clit. I’d spent the previous night learning everything there was to know about what got her off. I had made her come so many times she’d been begging me to stop in the end.

  Ember’s fingers clamped down on my wrist as I began to draw circles over her responsive flesh. Her hips bucked, urging me to go faster, but I wanted to take it slow and make it last. We both had a busy couple of weeks coming up, and we might not get a chance to be together for a while. I wasn’t going to rush her over the edge if I could help it.

  She began to writhe against me, trying to get herself off with my dick. I chuckled darkly and said, “Someone’s greedy this morning.”

  Practically growling, she replied, “Tripp, please fuck me.”

  Goddamn, I liked it when she was bossy.

  Turning, I adjusted her body until she was lying on her side somewhat, belly to the bed. I straddled her bottom leg and angled the top over my arm. When I drove into her, it was long and deep and slow. She stopped breathing for a second, her eyes rolling to the back of her head and all of her muscles tensing when I bottomed out inside her.

  She liked this position, I had learned. Her thighs were quivering within seconds, and sounds came out of her throat I’d never heard her make before. If it weren’t for the pillow she kept pressed against her mouth, the whole apartment complex would have heard her moaning for me. I kept my slow and steady pace and teased at her clit until she was so wet that I could feel the moisture transfer to my thighs.

  When her hips went crazy, I knew she was close. She liked to fight her orgasm, and I had to keep hold of her leg, or she would have bucked me off. In the end, I had her damn near pinned to the bed, playing furiously at her clit as she sobbed out her release into the pillow. I could wake up every morning like this, imagining new ways to make her scream.

  She lay there for a while until the aftershocks abated. When she could move, I climbed off her and threw myself onto my back. My dick was still rock-hard, but all I wanted was to make her come again, so I was thoroughly satisfied.

  I was only half aware of what she was doing as she slid down my body. Then I felt her hand wrap around my dick and stroke it. I made a strangled sound in the back of my throat.

  “Em…” I groaned when she began to lick up and down the length of me. I’d spend so much time making sure she was always thoroughly taken care of that, in the few minutes we managed to steal together now and then, I hadn’t let her reciprocate very much. If the devious look on her face was anything to go by, she was going to pay me back in full.

  Her heated breath bathed my thighs. “Don’t move,” she ordered huskily, her hand stroking again.

  I could only hold my head up long enough for the vision of her kneeling beside my legs to burn itself into my brain. Her short red hair tumbled around her shoulders. Her chest flushed pink, and her nipples were like pretty little raspberries. I wanted to paint my cum all over those tits, and the thought made me weak all over, and I dropped back against the pillows.

  Comprehension was slow, my brain muggy with sleep and the musk of sex. When I realized what she was doing, I fisted the sheets at my side. Certainly, there was no way in hell she was going to—fuck. And then her mouth slicked over the head of my cock. She crouched beside me, her thick ass swaying in the air as she bobbed over me. I reached out a hand and clamped on the flare of her hip to steady myself.

  I sputtered, not necessarily in objection, but because I didn’t want her to feel obligated to do anything she didn’t want to do. Naturally, she ignored me and merely splayed a hand over my abs and applied gentle pressure, pushing me back onto the bed as she licked the taste of her orgasm off my cock.

  Was there a more beautiful sight? I didn’t fucking think so.

  None that I could call to mind, anyway.

  While she bobbed up and down over me, I shifted enough to play with her pussy, which was still wet and so pretty pink it was irresistible. Without a second thought, I pulled her hips and helped her straddle my chest so I could get a taste of her while her mouth was wrapped around me.

  She kept herself shaved except for a thatch of hair in a neat little triangle at the top that had the same red color as her hair. I didn’t care what she looked like, but I couldn’t deny hers was the prettiest pussy I’d ever seen, simply because it was hers. She moaned around my dick as I teased her clit. She was so tender that I did little more than lap at the engorged flesh.

  To be honest, I could barely concentrate on doing much more than lick at her. She didn’t mind. She swayed her hips back and forth over me. Then she took my cock deep in her throat, and it flipped a switch inside me. I wrapped my arms around her waist and fused my mouth to her wet cunt. My tongue found her opening and speared in, causing her to choke on my cock. I probably liked that more than I should have.

  The combination of her taking me deep into her throat and the taste of her on my tongue was something that would haunt me...probably forever. She tasted so fucking good, I couldn’t get enough. When she readjusted to take the heavy globes between my legs into her hand to squeeze gently and fondle, while simultaneously taking me as deeply as she could, I pulled away, saying, “Fuck, angel, I’m gonna come.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” she said.

  I should have known she’d give as good as she got. She took me deeply again, and I barely had enough time to warn her with a tap on her ass before I was coming down the back of her thr
oat. I moaned against her pussy, inhaling her scent as the orgasm washed over my nerve endings.

  She moved to get up once I stopped, but I kept my arms wrapped around her hips and gave her a second orgasm with my mouth, thinking she was the best breakfast I’d ever had.

  When we were done, and I’d gotten a cloth to clean us both up, she curled next to my side, and I was so relaxed I drifted in and out of sleep. I liked having her next to me, soft and warm from sleep and sex.

  A guy could get used to it.

  A door slammed in the hallway, and we both jumped a little. “Guess that’s our alarm,” she said sleepily.

  “We should probably get up,” I answered, but neither of us moved.

  “In a minute.” She yawned, then stretched. “I haven’t felt this good in such a long time. I’m glad you stayed.”

  “Me, too, but I better get my ass to practice, or it’ll belong to Coach.”

  “When can I see you again?” she asked. “I have to work tomorrow, but maybe the day after? You could come after the twins fall asleep.”

  I punctuated my promise with a kiss. “Looking forward to it.”

  She went out first, herding the twins back to their room to get dressed, while I snuck out the front door to go back to my apartment.

  I was already thinking about when I’d get to see her again.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Ember

  It was April.

  If there was ever an end date for my relationship with Tripp, it was the end of the school year, when he’d go off to play professional ball, and we’d have to go back to being friends. I didn’t want to think about it, but there was no denying the date on the calendar.

  “One more month!” the twins screamed while running around in circles. “One more month!”

  I winced and stared at the coffee maker, hoping it would sputter out it’s steaming brew more quickly.

  “What’s all the yelling about?” Tripp asked, coming down the hallway in a pair of low-slung basketball shorts and a tank-top still wrinkled from where I’d thrown it on the floor the night before.

  “ONE MORE MONTH!”

  “Let me guess. One more month until they go deaf from all the screaming?” he asked as he pulled coffee cups down from the cabinet for the both of us. He was always doing thoughtful things like that. Making me a bath after a long shift at work. Doing the girl’s bedtime routine with them without them having to beg. Cooking for all of us, even after day-long practices.

  And that didn’t include everything he did for me in bed.

  I’d never in my life been with anyone so flat-out generous in all ways. He was mine for a short while longer, and I was going to keep him satisfied while I had him.

  “Until they’re done with school. They’re excited to stay with your mom during the summer while I’m at work. I heard a rumor she was getting passes to the public pool for the three of them.”

  The twins changed their shouted chorus to, “Pool! Pool! Pool!” as they laughed and screeched around the dining room table.

  It didn’t even phase Tripp, who was pouring us both a cup of coffee, adding more sugar than should be humanly possible to consume to mine and drinking his with a touch of vanilla creamer. He passed my cup to me and leaned forward to give me a kiss. I let him because the girls had long since caught us making out from time-to-time. They liked to tease us and pretend to be grossed out, but I knew they liked Tripp almost as much as I did. Probably more than they liked me, if I was being honest.

  “I’ll tell you who is really excited. My dad. He can’t stop talking my ear off about how much free time he has to do all the projects he loves now that mom isn’t occupying every spare minute with her honey-do list. I swear, if he weren’t head-over-heels for her, he’d kiss you for it.”

  I made eyes at him over the rim of my steaming coffee cup. “You’re kidding.”

  “Well, maybe about the kissing part. But he might build you a really nice spice rack or something as a thanks. I think he really loves it when the girls come over, though. They love it when he does his magic tricks for them.”

  “How did your parents make it together so long?” The concept—a happy marriage—was so foreign to me. The example I’d seen for so long told me the only happy relationship was the one in the rearview mirror. Was that why I’d clung to Chris for so long? Was I afraid of turning out like my parents, so I had stayed in an unhappy relationship? Which had ended up becoming like theirs in the end, anyway.

  We took our coffee to the living room, sitting on the new couch I’d bought from the online classifieds. It was well-worn and smelled faintly like fish sticks, but at least it wasn’t riddled with cigarette burns and stale beer stains. Tripp pulled me into his side, and I settled there, content. The girls had finally calmed down long enough to inhale a banana and a Pop-Tart each before they dashed off to pick out their clothes for school.

  “I’ve never really thought about it. They’ve always sort of been each other’s best friend, I guess. Comfortable with each other.”

  “He’s always touching her. Have you noticed that? Maybe not, because you’re used to it. Maybe he doesn’t even notice he’s doing it.” I sipped from my coffee contemplatively.

  “What do you mean?” Trip asked.

  “Hugging her or kissing her on the forehead. She also does this thing where she’ll put her feet in his lap, and he’ll automatically start rubbing them. Little habits, I guess.”

  He didn’t have to ask if my parents had ever done that. I wasn’t even sure I’d ever heard them say a kind word to each other, let alone show any sort of affection. They were the definition of a toxic, codependent relationship.

  I finished my coffee to fill the void in the conversation. Too sensitive a topic. I didn’t know why, but thinking about it made me sad. I glanced at my watch. “We’d better get a move on, or we’ll be late. Especially you.”

  Tripp wrapped a hand around my waist. “Hold on there, angel.” He tugged me back into his lap. “Is this you saying you want me to be more affectionate? Should I add that to the rules?”

  I laughed and tried to push him away. “Don’t be silly. C’mon, we’ve got to go.”

  “We’ve got enough time for this.”

  He arranged me comfortably over his legs and brought my mouth to his. My hand held his wrist as though I was afraid to have him too close. I was, I’d admit it. Thinking about the differences between our parents made my heart ache with an emotion that was a little too close to the surface. I wanted what his parents had, but I thought a part of me was afraid I’d sour it simply because of where I’d come from.

  I didn’t know how to have a happy relationship. I’d simply never seen one. All I knew was fighting and manipulation and pain. How would that ever translate to a fiftieth wedding anniversary, unless it was one steeped in unhappiness?

  Sorrow pricked inside me. That’s why this arrangement with Tripp was so perfect. It kept me safe. Protected. But more than that, it kept Tripp safe. I couldn’t break his heart if there were no feelings involved. I wouldn’t have to show him the real me, the true me, if what we had wasn’t serious. Sure, he saw my crazy, fucked-up life, but he didn’t see how twisted it made me inside.

  “Where’d you go?” he asked, pulling back a little and searching my eyes for an answer.

  “Nowhere,” I lied. “I’m right here.”

  He didn’t seem convinced, and he could probably tell I was lying. Thankfully, he didn’t push it. The alarm that signaled five minutes until the bus blared on my phone, but I let him kiss me, erasing my worries.

  My next twenty-four-hour shift was a mentally exhausting rigamarole of drama and heartbreak. A family had argued for forty-five minutes about riding in the ambulance with their pregnant relative, despite the fact that she was half-naked in the back of the truck, screaming through contractions. Finally, I had to slam the doors, nearly taking off a finger of the concerned auntie, and signal for my partner to hit the road.

  Then we’d had
back-to-back transfers and emergency calls throughout the night. I didn’t think we had more than an hour of sleep the whole night. At three in the morning, we had been called to the apartment of a family whose two-week-old baby was blue and unresponsive. We had taken them to the nearest NICU, but the baby never came back. All I could think of was the twins and how they’d been born prematurely because my mother had smoked a pack a day.

  To say I was thankful to be home and looking forward to seeing the girls was an understatement. I was tired, but I needed to see them. To play dolls and a million games of Candyland, even though it was the most boring board game ever created. They were due any minute from the bus, and no doubt they’d have stories from their latest stay with Tripp’s parents. They were like the grandparents they never had.

  A knock came at the door, and I opened it, expecting to see Timothy, the young boy who sometimes helped the girls into the apartment after they got off the school bus. Instead, my mother stood there, one hand on her hip and a cigarette clamped in her red-slicked lips. She wore a pair of jeans newer than anything I’d ever owned, and there was a new Birkin bag at her shoulder. She’d either used her five-finger discount or was deep in the throes of love with a new boyfriend who had money to burn.

  The sight of her shocked me so much that I didn’t have words. I’d fully expected never to see her again. Once one month had turned into two, then two into three, and three into four, I’d written her off. As far as I’d been concerned, she was no longer a part of my life—let alone my mother—and I couldn’t care less if I ever saw her again.

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “What are you doing here?”

  My mom tipped down her sunglasses. God only knew why she was wearing them inside. “I live here.”

  She tried to shoulder her way inside, but I wedged my foot in the bottom of the door so it wouldn’t budge. “What are you doing?” she demanded. The scent of stale cigarette smoke wafted from her stick-thin form.