by Kat Cantrell
Yes. Stuck. He’d been between a rock and a hard place for an eternity because he couldn’t stop being in love with her either.
He’d tried. He’d pretended that he wasn’t, called it friendship, pushed her away, stayed away himself, thrown his honor down between them. But none of it had worked because he’d been falling for her since the first cupcake.
Maybe it was time to try something else.
“Viv.” He stood and waited until he had her full attention. But then when she locked gazes with him, her expressive eyes held a world of possibilities. Not pain. Not destruction. None of the things that he’d tried to guard against.
That was the reason she should leave. Instead of feeling stuck, she should divorce him simply because he was a moron. The character she’d spoken of to his grandfather didn’t include being courageous. He was a coward, refusing to acknowledge that avoiding love hadn’t saved him any heartache. In fact, it had caused him a lot more than he’d credited. Had caused Viv a lot, too.
Worse, he’d avoided the wonderful parts, and ensured that he’d be lonely to boot. And what had he robbed himself of thus far? Lots of sex with his wife, a chance to have a real marriage and many, many moments where she looked at him like she was looking at him right now. As if he really was worthy of her devotion, despite his stupidity.
He’d had plenty of pain already. Avoiding the truth hadn’t stopped that. The lesson here? No more pretending.
“Tell me,” he commanded. “No more hiding how you really feel. I want to hear it from you, no holds barred.”
“Why are you doing this?” Another tear slipped down her face and she brushed it away before he could, which seemed to be a common theme. She had things inside that she didn’t trust him with and he didn’t blame her.
“Because we haven’t been honest with each other. In fact, I’d say my behavior thus far in our marriage hasn’t been anything close to honorable, and it’s time to end that. You know what? I should go first then.” He captured her hand and held it between his. “Viv. You’re my friend, my lover, my wife, my everything. When I made a vow to never fall in love, it was from a place of ignorance. Because I thought love was a bad thing. Something to be avoided. You taught me differently. And I ignored the fact that I took vows with you. Vows that totally overshadow the promise I made to Warren and Hendrix before I fully understood what I was agreeing to give up. I’m not okay with that anymore. Not okay with pretending. What I’m trying to say, and not doing a very good job at, is that I love you, too.”
Like magic, all of his fear vanished simply by virtue of saying it out loud. At last, he could breathe. The clearest sense of happiness radiated from somewhere deep inside and he truly couldn’t fathom why it had taken him so long to get to this place.
Viv eyed him suspiciously instead of falling into his waiting arms. “What?”
He laughed but it didn’t change her expression. “I love you. I wouldn’t blame you if you needed to hear it a hundred more times to believe me.”
Her lips quirked. “I was actually questioning the part where you said you weren’t doing a good job explaining. Because it seemed pretty adequate to me.”
That seemed like as good an invitation as any to sweep her into his arms. In a tangle, they fell back against the mattress, and before he could blink, she was kissing him, her mouth shaping his with demanding little pulls, as if she wanted everything inside him. He didn’t mind. It all belonged to her anyway.
Just as he finally got his hands under her dress, nearly groaning at the hot expanse of skin that he couldn’t wait to taste, she broke the kiss and rolled him under her.
That totally worked for him. But she didn’t dive back in like his body screamed for her to. Instead, she let him drown in her warm brown eyes as she smiled. “What’s going to happen when we get home and you have to explain to Warren and Hendrix that you broke your word to them?”
“Nothing. Because that’s not what I’m going to say.” He smoothed back a lock of her hair that had fallen into her face, and shifted until her body fell into the grooves of his perfectly. This position was his new favorite. “We made that pact because we didn’t want to lose each other. Our friendship isn’t threatened because I finally figured out that I’m in love with you. I’ll help them realize that.”
“Good. I don’t want to be the woman who came between you and your friends.”
“You couldn’t possibly. Because you’re the woman who is my friend. I never want that to change.”
And then there was no more talking as Viv made short work of getting them both undressed, which was only fair since she was on top. He liked Take Charge Viv almost as much as he liked In Love with Him Viv.
She was everything he never expected when he fell in love with his best friend.
Epilogue
Jonas walked into the bar where he’d asked Warren and Hendrix to meet him. He’d tried to get Viv to come with him, but she’d declined with a laugh, arguing that the last person who should be present at the discussion of how Jonas had broken the pact was the woman he’d fallen in love with.
While he agreed, he still wasn’t looking forward to it. Despite what he’d told Viv, he didn’t think Warren and Hendrix were going to take his admission lightly.
His friends were already seated in a high-backed booth, which Jonas appreciated given the private nature of what he intended to discuss. They’d already taken the liberty of ordering, and three beers sat on the table. But when he slid into the booth across from Warren, Hendrix cleared his throat.
“I’m glad you called,” Hendrix threw out before Jonas could open his mouth. “I have something really important to ask you both.”
Thrilled to have an out, Jonas folded his hands and toyed with his wedding band, which he did anytime he thought about Viv. He did it so often, the metal had worn a raw place on his finger. “I’m all ears, man.”
Warren set his phone down, but no less than five notifications blinked from the screen. “Talk fast. I have a crisis at work.”
Hendrix rolled his eyes. “You always have a crisis. It’s usually that you’re not there. Whatever it is can wait five minutes.” He let out a breath with a very un-Hendrix-like moan. “I need you guys to do me a favor and I need you to promise not to give me any grief over it.”
“That’s pretty much a guarantee that we will,” Warren advised him with cocked eyebrow. “So spill before I drag it out of you.”
“I’m getting married.”
Jonas nearly spit out the beer he’d just sipped. “To one woman?”
“Yes, to one woman.” Hendrix shot him a withering glare. “It’s not that shocking.”
“The hell you say.” Warren hit the side of his head with the flat of his palm. Twice. “I think my brain is scrambled. Because I’d swear you just said you were getting married.”
“I did, jerkoff.” Hendrix shifted his scowl to Warren. “It’s going to be very good for me.”
“Did you steal that speech from your mom?” Warren jeered, his phone completely forgotten in favor of the real-life drama happening in their booth. “Because it sounds like you’re talking about eating your veggies, not holy matrimony.”
“You didn’t give Jonas this much crap when he got married,” Hendrix reminded him as Warren grinned.
“Um, whatever.” Jonas held up a finger as he zeroed in on the small downturn of Hendrix’s mouth. “That is completely false, first of all. You have a short memory. And second, if this is like my marriage, you’re doing it for a reason, one you’re not entirely happy about. What’s this really about?”
Hendrix shrugged, wiping his expression clear. “I’m marrying Rosalind Carpenter. That should pretty much answer all of your questions.”
It so did not. Warren and Jonas stared at him, but Warren beat him to the punch. “Whoa, dude. That’s epic. Is she
as much a knockout in person as she is in all those men’s magazines?”
He got an elbow in his ribs for his trouble, but it wasn’t Warren’s fault that there were so many sexy pictures of Rosalind Carpenter to consider.
“Shut up. That’s my fiancée you’re talking about.”
Jonas pounded on the table to get their attention. “On that note...if the question is will we be in the wedding party, of course we will.” They had plenty of time to get the full story. After Jonas steered them back to the reason why he’d called them with an invitation for drinks. “Get back to us when you’ve made plans. Now chill out while we talk about my thing.”
“Which is?” Warren gave him the side-eye while checking his messages.
“I broke the pact.”
The phone slipped out of Warren’s hand and thunked against the leather seat. “You did what? With Viv?”
Jonas nodded and kept his mouth shut as his friends lambasted him with their best shots at his character, the depths of his betrayal and the shallowness of his definition of the word vow. He took it all with grace because he didn’t blame them for their anger. They just needed to experience the wonders of the right woman for themselves and then they’d get it.
When they were mostly done maligning him, Jonas put his palms flat on the table and leaned forward. “No one is more surprised by this than me. But it’s the truth. I love her and I broke the pact. But it’s not like it was with Marcus. She loves me back and we’re happy. I hope you can be happy for us, too. Because we’re going to be married and in love for a long time.”
At least that was his plan. And by some miracle, it was Viv’s, too.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this to us,” Warren shot back as if he hadn’t heard a word Jonas said. “Does keeping your word mean nothing to you?”
“Integrity is important to me,” he told them without blinking. “That’s why I’m telling you the truth. Lying about it would dishonor my relationship with Viv. And I can’t stop loving her just to stick to a pact we made. I tried and it made us both miserable.”
“Seems appropriate for a guy who turns on his buddies,” Hendrix grumbled.
“Yeah, we’ll see how you feel after you get married,” Jonas told him mildly. Hendrix would come around. They both would eventually. They’d been friends for too long to let something like a lifetime of happiness come between them, strictly over principle.
Warren griped about the pact for another solid five minutes and then blew out a breath. “I’ve said my piece and now I have to go deal with a distribution nightmare. This is not over.”
With that ominous threat, Warren shoved out of the booth and stormed from the restaurant.
Hendrix, on the other hand, just grinned. “I know you didn’t mean to break the pact. It’s cool. Things happen. Thank God that’ll never be me, but I’m happy that you’re happy.”
“Thanks, man.” They shook on it and drank to a decade of friendship.
When Jonas got home, Viv was waiting in the foyer. His favorite. He flashed her the thumbs-up so she would know everything was okay between him and his friends—which it would be once Warren calmed down—then wrapped Viv in his arms and let her warmth infuse him. “I have another favor to ask.”
“Anything.”
No hesitation. That might be his favorite quality of hers. She was all in no matter what he asked of her—because she loved him. How had he gotten so lucky? “You’re not even going to ask what it is?”
She shrugged. “If it’s anything like the last favor, which landed me the hottest husband on the planet, by the way, why would I say no? Your favors are really a huge win for me so...”
Laughing, he kissed her and that made her giggle, too. His heart was so full, he worried for a moment that it might burst. “Well, I’m not sure this qualifies as a win. I was just going to ask you to never stop loving me.”
“Oh, you’re right. I get nothing out of that,” she teased. “It’s torture. You make me happier than I would have ever dreamed. Guess I can find a way to put up with that for the rest of my life.”
“Good answer,” he murmured, and kissed his wife, his lover, his friend. His everything.
* * * * *
If you loved this story, pick up these other sexy and emotional reads from USA TODAY bestselling author Kat Cantrell!
TRIPLETS UNDER THE TREE
A PREGNANCY SCANDAL
THE PREGNANCY PROJECT
FROM ENEMIES TO EXPECTING
THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT
Available now from Harlequin Desire!
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Read on for a sneak peek of DOWN HOME COWBOY by New York Times bestselling author Maisey Yates.
When rancher and single dad Cain Donnelly moves to Copper Ridge, Oregon, to make a fresh start with his teenage daughter, the last thing he wants is to risk his heart again. So why can’t he keep his eyes—or his hands—off Alison Davis, the one woman in town guaranteed to complicate his life?
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Down Home Cowboy
by Maisey Yates
“HEY, BO,” CAIN CALLED, looking around the kitchen and living room area for his daughter, who was on the verge of being late for her second week on the job. “Are you ready to go?”
He heard footsteps hit the bottom landing, followed by a disgusted noise. “Do you have to call me that?”
“Yes,” he said, keeping his tone and expression serious. “Though I could always go back to the full name. Violet Beauregard the Walking Blueberry.” She’d thought that nod to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was great. Back when she was four and all he’d had to do was smile funny to get her to belly laugh.
“Pass.”
“I have to call you at least one horrifying nickname a week, all the better if it slips out in public.”
“Is there public in Copper Ridge? Because I’ve yet to see it.”
“Hey, you serve the public as part of your job. And, unless you’re being a bit overdramatic about how challenging your job is, I assume you see more than two people on a given day.”
“The presence of humanity does not mean the presence of cu
lture.”
“Chill out, Sylvia Plath. Your commitment to being angry at the world is getting old.” He shook his head, looking at his dark-haired, green-eyed daughter who was now edging closer to being a woman than being that round, rosy-cheeked little girl he still saw in his mind’s eye.
“Well, you don’t have to bear witness to it today. Lane is giving me a ride into town.”
Cain frowned. He still hadn’t been in to see Violet at work. In part because she clearly didn’t want him to. But, he had assumed that once she was established and feeling independent she wouldn’t mind if he took her.
Clearly, she did.
“Great,” he said, “I have more work to do around here anyway.”
“The life of a dairy farmer is never dull. Well, no, it’s always dull, it just never stops.” Violet walked over to the couch where she had deposited her purse yesterday and picked it up. “Same with baking pies, I guess.”
“I have yet to sample any of the pie you make.”
“I’ll bring some home if there’s any leftover,” she said, working hard to keep from sounding happy. At least, that’s how it seemed to him.
“Are you ready to go, Violet?” Lane came breezing into the room looking slightly disheveled, Cain’s younger brother Finn close behind her, also looking suspiciously mussed.
Absolutely no points for guessing what they had just been up to. Though he could see that Violet was oblivious. If she had guessed, she wouldn’t be able to hide her reaction. Which warmed his heart in a way. That his daughter was still pretty innocent about some things. That she was still young in some ways.
Hard to retain any sort of innocence when your mother abandoned you. And, since he knew all about parental abandonment and how much it screwed with you, he was even more angry that his daughter was going through the same thing.
Though she was actually a little more well-adjusted than he’d been.