Forever Love: A Friends to Lovers Collections

by Alyssa Rose Ivy

  I shifted so I could look at her. “Exciting night, huh?”

  “Yeah, you could say that.”

  “I’m taking you down to the beach in the middle of the night more often.”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t the exhilarating bartending lesson that got me in the mood?”

  I laughed. “Well if that’s the case, we’ll have to do the next one tonight.”

  She touched my shoulder and gave me one of her signature sexy looks again. “The problem is I want you again right now.”

  Did she know what she was asking for?

  Her hand wrapped around me. Yeah she knew.

  “As much as I want you too, we should probably talk first.”

  Her hand dropped. “What do we need to talk about?”

  “What happened. Us.”

  Her smile faded, and she turned away.

  “Hey.” I rolled her back to look at me. “You don’t regret it, do you?” Wanting me again or not, she could have regrets.

  “No. not at all.” Then a look of panic crossed her face. “Do you?”

  “No of course not… but I’m not exactly sure what happens now.”

  “Yeah… I was just thinking about that.” She played with a corner of the sheet.

  “And what was your final conclusion?”

  “That this wasn’t a normal hook-up.”

  “Have you had a lot of experience with normal hook-ups, then?” I shifted, accidently pulling the sheet off her. I remedied the situation, letting my hands brush against her in the process.

  “No, actually I don’t.” Her expression was open and honest.

  “I have some experience, for better or worse. And you’re right, this isn’t. But we both knew that going in.”

  The look of panic was still there. I needed to do something about it.

  “Can I be completely honest and open with you, Carly?”

  She nodded slightly.

  “I want this to—”

  “I understand.” Her words tumbled out.

  “You understand? What was I going to say?”

  She looked toward the wall. “That this can’t happen again.”

  For a second I thought she wanted that until I realized she thought that’s what I wanted. I laughed, and she turned back toward me with a look that said she was ready to kill me.

  “Whoa. Calm down there. That wasn’t what I was going to say. Think you’d let me finish?”

  “Yes. Say whatever you have to.”

  “Look at me.” I put a gentle hand under her chin. “What I was starting to say before I was rudely interrupted,” I paused to smile, “Was that I don’t want this to be a one-time thing. I don’t think it can be.”

  “What?”

  “Ok, this is coming out all jumbled. Give me a sec.” I’d never been so tongue tied in my life. Nothing was coming out right. “All right. Here’s the thing. I really like you. I already did before last night, but well, I did tell you there was no turning back.”

  “I like you too. You obviously know that.”

  “I’m not going to pretend that I’m offering you forever or anything weird like that, because honestly we don’t know each other that well yet, but I respect you way too much to just hook up with you randomly, and we both know this is going to happen again.” I touched the bed.

  “It is?”

  “Seriously? I pour my feelings out and you’re pretending you don’t want to have sex with me again?” I was only half serious. It wasn’t the sex I was worried about.

  “Oh. I do. But it’s not like it has to. We’re adults with the ability to make our own decisions.”

  I leaned over her. “Ok, I need an answer this second. Are you trying to get out of having an actual relationship with me, or are you just being your awkward self?”

  “The second one.”

  “Ok, good.” I lowered my lips to hers. “Then, we’re going to try this.”

  “And what’s this?”

  “Dating… although, do you think maybe we should hold off on telling Colin and Maddy until we fix things for them first?”

  “I was thinking about that too.”

  “But that doesn’t mean we’re holding off on anything else.”

  “Do we tell Brody?”

  “Yeah. Let’s be honest, I’m not going to be able to keep my hands off you.” I slipped my hands underneath the sheet, completely ready to show her just what I meant.

  “Ok, so what now?” Her eyes widened in that sexy way again.

  “We have sex again.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  I kissed her chest right between her breasts. “Yeah, we need to have sex as an actual couple, right?”

  “Are you really making up an excuse to have sex with me?”

  I grinned. “I don’t have to, do I?”

  “No…” She grabbed me again. I was so hard and ready. “And I promise you I’m not going to make one up either.”

  “In that case.” I moved my hand between her legs.

  “Are we still allowed to play games?”

  “Games? Like where we try to annoy each other?” My breathing was erratic. Her hands on me felt so good.

  “Yeah.”

  “Only if they don’t involve flirting or otherwise implying we’re interested in other people.”

  “Wow. You really are surprising me this morning, Macon.”

  “Don’t worry. The surprises aren’t going to stop here.” I planned to keep my word.

  Carly

  Six times. I’d had sex with Macon six times. I’m not exactly sure how it happened. I don’t mean the physical part, obviously I understood that much at twenty-two, but how we’d managed to do it so many times in an eight hour period. But we did. We couldn’t get enough of each other, and I hoped that wouldn’t change.

  “We should probably get up eventually.” I ran a hand down Macon’s chest. I still couldn’t stop touching him.

  “Are you sure we can’t stay here all day?” He nuzzled his chin against the top of my head.

  “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.”

  “Hungry? Who needs food when there’s sex?”

  I pushed his arm. “There’s no more sex without food.”

  “Want to go out for lunch? Maybe we can head over to Breakfast and Burgers.”

  “Sure… I guess it would be our first official date.”

  “A little backwards, but it works.” He stretched, letting the sheet fall off him. The movement gave me an eyeful.

  “If you keep looking at me that way we’re not going anywhere.”

  “Is that so?” I stood up, forcing the self-conscious feelings away as I searched for my clothes.

  His hands were around me cupping my breasts before I could grab my underwear. “Are you sure I can’t have you one more time first?”

  My stomach growled.

  “I guess I got my answer.” He kissed my neck and released me.

  I looked at my pile of wet clothes and decided I wasn’t bothering with them. “I need something to wear.”

  “On your long journey down the hall.”

  “Brody might be home. Do you really want him to see me naked?”

  “Of course not.” He pulled a t-shirt and sweats out. “Wear this.”

  I laughed. “I mention Brody and you offer me sweats? Are you really that worried?”

  “I’m the only one who gets the pleasure of seeing that body of yours now.”

  “As compared to yesterday? I could have pranced around naked then?”

  “Who’s prancing around naked?” Brody called from outside the door.

  I pulled on Macon’s t-shirt and pushed open the door. “Could you hear everything we said through the door?”

  “I heard some of it…” Brody grinned.

  “Great.” I left the door open.

  “Tell me about it. I’m going to have to start sleeping with ear plugs if you guys keep this up.” He winked at me.

  “Wait. You’re making that up. You didn
’t hear us until just now.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. Did I?”

  “Give it a rest,” Macon yelled from his room.

  “What are you two up to?”

  “Nothing you’re invited to join us in.” Macon made a quick attempt at making his bed.

  “I wasn’t asking to have a three-some, Macon. I’m not into you.”

  “I meant our lunch date.”

  “Lunch date?” Brody peeked into Macon’s room. “Aren’t you two fancy?”

  I laughed. “I’m going to take a quick shower.”

  “Wait. What?” Macon walked into the hall in just his boxers. “You were too hungry for sex yet you have the energy to shower?”

  “Not listening to this.” Brody covered his ears and walked down the hall to his room. His music started blaring a minute later.

  “You think I’m going on my first date with you this sweaty?”

  “Sweating because you’ve been in bed with me isn’t a bad thing.” He took my hand.

  “See you in ten minutes, Macon.”

  He reluctantly dropped my hand. “Are you sure I can’t join you?”

  “No. I wasn’t kidding about being hungry.”

  “If you insist.” He walked back into his room.

  I stopped by my room to grab fresh clothes before heading into the bathroom. I turned on the shower and stripped off Macon’s shirt. The hot water felt amazing. When I heard the door open I knew exactly who it would be. “Macon.”

  “Yes, babe.” He opened the glass door and stepped in completely naked, he nudged me out of the way and moved under the spray. “Were you about to say something?”

  My words were lost as I stared at him. Macon always looked good, wet or dry, but under the spray of the water he looked even hotter. He was also still completely aroused.

  “I’m going to assume you changed your mind.” He stepped out of the spray toward me.

  “Yeah… I changed it.” I picked up the soap. If he insisted on showering with me, we were both going to be clean.

  * * *

  I was famished by the time we reached the restaurant. Seven rounds with a guy like Macon can do that to a girl. We were seated at a table by the window, and I happily ordered a burger. Macon did the same.

  “I love that you eat.”

  “Uh, thanks, I think.”

  “It’s just nice not to worry about it. I seem to usually date girls who diet all the time and stuff.”

  “In other words you go for super skinny girls.” I wasn’t one of them. I wasn’t fat, but I definitely wasn’t a size two.

  “No. Just health conscious ones.”

  “You don’t think I’m health conscious?” Add that in with my lack of running, and I was the lazy bum of the group.

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Then what did you mean?” I sipped my water. My one lemon wasn’t enough so I grabbed the one hanging on Macon’s glass.

  Macon didn’t blink. It wasn’t the first time I’d done that to him. It may have been our first date, but it wasn’t our first time out to eat together. That should have made things more natural, but in a weird way it made it stranger. It’s like we’d flipped a switch that was supposed to change everything, but it hadn’t actually worked. Dating a friend came with some complications.

  “You’re beautiful.” He gazed at me intently.

  “Thanks, but that doesn’t get you out of your previous comment.”

  “You’re incredibly beautiful, and smart, and sweet, and fantastic, and amazing in bed.”

  Of course the waitress had to come over with our orders right as he said the last part.

  She cough-laughed before leaving our food.

  “Thanks.”

  “Anytime.” He reached over and grabbed a fry from my plate even though he had a whole plate himself.

  “So are we doing our next class tonight when I get off work?”

  “Sure. How about I pick you up tonight? I have a night dive, so I think we can time it up well.”

  “I probably should learn to dive eventually.”

  “Wait. You’ve never been scuba diving?” He poured some ketchup onto his burger.

  “I told you that.”

  He shook his head. “No you didn’t.”

  “I’m sure I mentioned it.”

  “Then add a scuba course to your list of activities.”

  “Isn’t a bartending class enough?”

  “Nope. You’re doing this.”

  “Do you strong arm all of your girlfriends to dive with you?”

  “I haven’t had all that many girlfriends.” He looked off.

  “How many have you had?” I wasn’t sure why I was asking. The number would have no relation to the number of girls he’d slept with.

  “If you count Lauren from 4th grade, four.”

  “Same here. Well, boyfriends.”

  “Only four?”

  “It’s the same as you.”

  “Yeah, but you haven’t hooked up with more.”

  “How do you know?”

  He took a sip of his water. “You don’t just hook up with guys.”

  “I almost did with you.”

  “But I’m not just a random guy.”

  “Why do you do it? Why do you hook up with random girls?”

  “I haven’t as often as everyone thinks.” He took a bite of his burger.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means people believe what they want to.”

  I was about to ask him to elaborate when a brunette walked over to our table.

  “Hey, Macon,” she cooed.

  My stomach clenched.

  Macon gave me an embarassed look. “Hi.”

  “I had a great time yesterday. You’re really good at what you do.”

  I was ready to punch the girl. Was Macon going to make me suffer through this?

  “Uh, thanks, but not any better than most.”

  Oh. My. God.

  “I’m here another few days. Would you want to hang out sometime?”

  She slept with him and now was asking him out?

  “I’m sorry…. I uh.” He looked right at me. “I have a girlfriend.”

  “Oh.” The girl put a hand to her chest. “I’m so sorry.”

  “That’s okay.” He gave her a look like he wanted her to leave. I gave her a look too.

  “Oh my gosh. You probably think. Wow. No. He was my dive instructor when I got my nitrox certification. I didn’t. I wouldn’t do that.”

  “Dive instructor?”

  The girl nodded. “Nice to see you again, Macon.” She slipped away.

  Macon shot me a sheepish smile.

  “You let me think you slept with that girl the same day we did.”

  “It was a little awkward. What was I supposed to do? Say, I didn’t sleep with her?”

  “Or mention the diving.” I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms.

  “This is probably going to get me in tons of trouble, but you look hot when you’re angry and jealous.”

  “I’m not jealous.”

  “You were, but let’s leave it at that and eat.”

  “You’re so good at what you do… oh my.”

  He laughed that sexy laugh of his. “Am I?” he wriggled an eyebrow.

  “I don’t know. You haven’t taken me diving yet.”

  “We’ll be rectifying that soon.”

  “Don’t remind me.”

  “Oh, I will.”

  Macon

  Getting out of bed was becoming increasingly difficult. Untangling myself from Carly took will power I didn’t always have. Even after a few weeks I couldn’t get enough. Usually when I’d spent nights with girls we’d end up on the opposite side of the bed by the morning. With Carly it was different. I always woke up with her tucked in my arms.

  “You’re going to be late.” She pushed against me lightly, before resettling herself in my arms.

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  “Which
means you could get fired.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  “Get out of bed, Macon.” Carly was so cute when she was frustrated.

  “Do you really want me to?”

  “You know the answer to that one.”

  I kissed her forehead. “We don’t spend enough time together.”

  “We’ve spent every night together this week.”

  “It’s still not enough.” I ran my fingers through her silky hair.

  “Want to do lunch today then?”

  “Sure. I’ll have time. How about one o’clock at Urban Kitchen?”

  “I’ll just come meet you at the shop. I still haven’t seen it.”

  “Sure.” I didn’t love the idea of her being around Caleb, but then again he rarely showed up anymore.

  She sat up and scowled. “Is there a reason you don’t want me coming by?”

  “Of course not.” I put a hand on her bare leg. She was trying to cover up with the sheet, but she wasn’t trying very hard.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “I don’t know. You’re really good at your job, aren’t you?”

  “What? That girl? Trust me that’s not it.”

  “Oh. So you admit there’s a reason.”

  “It’s just I don’t really want you near Caleb.”

  “Caleb? Who’s that?” Her blank stare made my heart soar.

  I kissed her, not settling for a light kiss.

  She broke the kiss and laughed. “What’s that for?”

  “For being your amazing self.” I hopped out of bed. “Would it be pushing it to ask you to join me in the shower?”

  “It would be. Besides, I’m going running so I can’t shower yet.”

  “You’re running?” I raised an eyebrow. Carly made her dislike of running known.

  “Yes, is that so hard to believe?”

  “No. But would you rather work out at a gym?”

  “If I had one to work out at.”

  “Ok, hold on.” I went over to my drawer and pulled out a guest pass to my gym. “You can use this at Oceanside Fitness. It’s the only gym out this way.”

  “Awesome. If I like it maybe I’ll get a membership.”

  “That would be nice.” A membership meant she was sticking around. I hadn’t thought much beyond the next few days—but could Carly and I really have a future? I really hoped so.