by Lyric James
Lover’s Revenge
By Lyric James
Lover’s Revenge
Throwing a summer party at the beach house she inherited from her grandmother is just what Dayna needs to take her mind off her two-timing ex. After his best friend arrives to check up on her she realizes her desire may have been focused on the wrong friend. When they share a late night walk on the beach, it’s clear he shares her lust. Now, Dayna is determined to take advantage of their mutual attraction.
What’s a little revenge sex among friends?
Lover’s Revenge
© 2012 Lyric James
Electronic Publication January 2012
Kindle Edition
[email protected]
http://www.lyricjamesbooks.net
Cover Art by Gypsy Style
Professional Editing Services by Leanne Salter Formatting Services by Ironhorse Formatting
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Table Of Contents
Lover’s Revenge
Coming Soon
About The Author
Bonus: Temptation City
Lover’s Revenge
Beach House Nights Book One
“This was a realy good idea, Dayna. Thanks for inviting us,” her friend, Harper, said before diving in the pool.
Dayna had thought so too, when she’d sent out the mass email to just about everyone she knew. She’d assumed al the people she invited to spend with her this weekend would be enough to keep her mind off the mistake.
That was what she’d begun to cal him the last few months.
He didn’t deserve to be caled by the name his parents gave him.
“I’m glad you’re having a good time,” she replied after Harper resurfaced. “I’l see you guys later.”
It was dusk, her favorite time of day, when the sun seemed half-way in and half-way out of the ocean. The May sky was a perfect blend of crimson, orange, and gold, and today’s weather had been warm and sunny. The sea-salt air was clean and fresh and made her want to sit on the beach and slide her toes through the soft, warm sand.
She left the group splashing around in the pool and wandered inside the house. Between the people outside, the group inside, and those who were down at the beach, she had about twenty guests. She might have to make another grocery run before the weekend was over. The men had taken over and cooked on the gril that evening, and she’d had plenty of food, but with everyone hanging out, she might need more beer. The scent of griled hot dogs and hamburgers stil lingered in the air.
Dayna walked outside to the front porch. Warm air bathed her as she leaned against the balcony rails. She inhaled the salty air and thought about taking a walk along the beach to let the cool ocean play over her ankles and feet. Or she could go back through the house to dive into the pool. She hated feeling this way. Even though her home was ful, something was stil missing, and she knew what it was.
When she’d inherited the house from her grandmother three years ago, every party she’d ever thrown had included the mistake. He’d been a sort of co-host, but now it was just her. She despised feeling alone in her own skin, especialy with a crowd around her.
A curl of rage slid through her veins. Even after six months, she stil wanted to slip her fingers around his neck and squeeze. No, better yet, his penis. She smirked at the thought.
She turned to look at the house she’d made a home away from home with its towering glass windows and pale blue trim. Her grandmother had won the lottery ten years ago and bought the beach house on a whim. Dayna had been surprised at the purchase.
It was hard to picture her grand in something so massive, with so many rooms, living in it al by herself. But the lady had made it her own, and Dayna absolutely loved it. Every time she came to Destin, she felt her presence and wished the woman who had been a second mother to her was there for her to talk to. Having a conversation with her had always been so much easier than one with her own mother, always so critical of her and the decisions she made. Nothing was ever good enough.
When Dayna graduated from nursing school, and even got her Master’s degree, her mother told her she should have gone to medical school to be a doctor. After she’d bought her two-story house in Talahassee, her mother complained that it would be hard for her to walk up the stairs. And even though her mother was probably right about the ex not being good enough for her, at the time it had realy hurt when her mother criticized him.
If her mother knew she’d broken up with the mistake, the words I told you so would repeatedly be drummed in her ears.
Dayna twisted around when she heard gravel crunch under the tires of an oncoming car and frowned. Everyone who’d RSVP’d arrived early this morning. Her house was the last on the street, so whoever it was had to know where they were going.
She recognized the car as it got closer and gripped the railing with both hands. The sleek, black, two-seater with dark-tinted windows, chrome wheels, and dealer license plate could belong to only one person. The mistake’s best friend, Jared Stephens.
What the hel was he doing here?
As his long length exited the car, she couldn’t help but catch her breath. God, he was gorgeous. Her ex had been fine, but Jared…there was something about him that made her think of Mathew McConaghey, David Beckham and Ryan Reynolds al wrapped up into one delectable package.
She’d never dated a white guy before, had never even thought about swinging that way, but Jared sure made her wonder what it would be like.
“Hey, Dayna,” he said with his smooth, cultured voice, a smile on his face as he approached.
Her heart raced, and she crossed her arms so he wouldn’t see her shaking hands. “Jared. It’s been a long time.” Since the night it happened, actualy. The night she’d caught her two-timing ex with another woman.
Jared was dressed for a day at the beach in a pair of white linen pants, matching shirt, and brown sandals. He came up the steps and hugged her. When he enveloped her in his arms, she caught a whiff of musk and pine and earth. Damn. He smeled good.
After he released her, she asked, “What are you doing here?”
His gaze roamed her face before he said, “I received your invitation.”
Dayna blinked. The mass email she’d sent out. She thought she’d deselected anyone who had a close connection to her ex. Her mouth opened and closed before she said, “You didn’t email me back to tel me you were coming.”
The side of his mouth tilted upward in the cutest lopsided smile. “It was a mistake, wasn’t it?”
She winced and nodded her head. “But you’re welcome to stay. You did drive al the way out here.”
Jared leaned his hip against the wooden post at the top of the steps. “To tel you the truth, I wasn’t going to come, but the meeting I had scheduled this morning was canceled. And actualy, I wanted to check up on you and see how you were doing. I…I mean, we haven’t seen each other
since it happened…since that night.”
Dayna didn’t want to relive it or see the pity in his eyes. She moved away from him and turned her back, clenching and unclenching her fists. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine,” she muttered with a little edge in her voice. The last person she wanted to discuss her humiliation with was Jared. He probably knew al along what his friend had been doing behind her back, but because of their secret man code, of course, he wouldn’t, and couldn’t, tel her.
“If my being here upsets you, I can leave,” he said quietly.
With a heavy sigh, she twisted around to face him. Her gaze roamed over the angles of his face, and she was surprised she already knew every detail. The light scar in the middle of his left eyebrow happened while hiking with his father when he was eleven.
He’d gotten his hazel eyes from his mother and the dimple in his right cheek from his father. His ful, kissable lips…every man on his dad’s side of the family had them.
Kissable lips. Why in the world had that thought crossed her mind?
He was so different from her previous boyfriend. In the beginning she’d thought the old adage, birds of a feather flocked together. Strong, independent, loyal guys who worked hard, played even harder, but were faithful and considerate to the women they were involved with. She’d begun to think she was on her way to a marriage proposal.
What a laugh.
The entire time she’d dated the mistake, she only remembered Jared in a liaison with one woman. At least, she’d met only one. She knew he dated, of course, but he never got serious with anyone. Somehow, his trysts would run their course and end.
She often wondered why that was. The ex had told her that Jared wasn’t the serious type, so that led her to believe he was a player, but she never saw it for herself. He never paraded women around, talked about them, or degraded them in any way. To her, he’d always been respectful. Every time he’d joined them at the movies or out to dinner, he’d been unobtrusive, even though he’d made their twosome a threesome.
Now there was a thought.
She might have forgiven the ex anything if she’d had a chance to experience a threesome with Jared. A wicked thought began to form in her mind. He had a lean, athletic build, and she remembered his muscular physique from the one time they’d worked out together at the gym.
“No, please stay. I don’t mind. As a matter of fact, why don’t you put your bags in the house? I was about to take a walk on the beach. You can join me, and it’l give us a chance to catch up.”
When a bright smile flashed across his face, she had to make herself not stumble back as a torrential shock of lust rioted through her system.
Dayna led him through the house to the last empty room upstairs. It was her grand’s favorite area in the house. The library.
“It’s not very big,” she told him after she stepped through the door.
With floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a stately cherry wood desk facing the massive picture window, there wasn’t a lot of room, but it had a couch that might be long enough to fit Jared’s frame. She motioned toward the sofa. “It’s actualy quite comfortable. I’ve falen asleep on it many times.”
He moved to stand behind her, and she resisted the urge to lean against him. Where were these feelings and desires coming from? In her mind, she knew the risk she took. He was the best friend, and rejection was not good for her soul right now, but standing in this room her grand loved, she had a feeling she’d been infatuated with the wrong guy. An intense desire to shut the door and seduce him sweled inside her.
“The view is spectacular,” Jared said, his voice low and mesmerizing.
She trailed her fingers over the high-backed leather chair in front of her in an effort to not to reach around and touch him. “My grandmother loved to sit here and read, or just stare out the window.”
“I don’t blame her.”
The sun had dipped, leaving only a crescent of its round shape above the midnight black surface of the water. Stars sparkled along the water like twinkling Christmas lights. Because the windows were up, she heard the waves crashing against the surf and snatches of conversation from her guests who were out by the pool carried on the wind.
Jared took her hand. “Let’s take that walk.”
Tingles of heated electric activity surged up her arm. Had he ever touched her before? If he had, she would have definitely remembered this shocking feeling, the need to slide her body against his and have her wicked way with him. Dayna looked down. “I want to change first. Do you mind?”
His gaze slid from her sandaled feet up to her face, and she resisted the urge to squirm, wondering what he saw when he looked at her. Did he desire her as she was beginning to want him? He was her ex’s best friend, but she had a feeling something besides her e-mail invitation made him come here, and she had to find out what it was.
“No. I don’t mind at al.”
She motioned behind her. “I’m right across the hal.” In her bedroom, she reached inside her drawer for a pair of purple shorts and a white tank top. There was nothing wrong with what she had on, but the plan simmering in the back of her mind required a wardrobe change.
Knowing Jared was on the other side of the door as she took off the shirt and capris she wore only intensified the craving twisting between her legs. Looking in the mirror she smiled. The shorts were skin tight and barely covered her ass. The tank top had spaghetti straps that left little to the imagination as her breasts puffed out over the top. She stopped to look at herself in the ful length glass and wondered what he would see when she opened the door.
Oh wel.
When she did, Jared’s eyes widened, and his Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat.
“Ready to go?” she asked.
He moved to the side when she crossed the threshold and nodded his head. “Yeah. Sure.”
Hmmm, she thought. He wasn’t immune to her alure.
Dayna took the back stairs that led into the kitchen, hoping they wouldn’t run in to anyone. She grabbed a blanket from the laundry room, and once they got outside and walked down the steps, she slipped out of her flip-flops. She loved the feel of the sand against the bottom of her feat. He did the same and also roled his pant legs up.
Once they started to walk, she asked, “What has the great and powerful Jared Stephens been up to lately?” He laughed. The sound was like a seductive melody over her skin. Why had she never thought of him like this before? He should have been the one, not the other guy.
“I don’t know about al that great and powerful stuff, but business is going wel.”
Jared’s father owned a dozen or more car dealerships al across Florida. Whenever she turned on the television, she saw a commercial with either Jared, his brother, and/or his father on the screen. They sold every brand of car imaginable, and they had a knack for making entertaining and funny commercials.
“That’s good. Is your dad ready to give over control of the business to you yet?”
“It’s leaning that way. Maybe in a couple of years. It’s not that he doesn’t trust me. I think he’s afraid that if he stops working, he’l die or something. You know how he is. He likes to keep busy.”
Once they were far enough from her house and away from other people, she spread the blanket and sat down at the shoreline, leaving only enough room for their feet to get wet, but not the blanket or their clothes. “Your dad is a character. That’s for sure.” Closer to the water, the cool breeze caused her hair to tangle in the wind and stick to her neck. The salty air cleared her senses, and she heard seaguls cry and flap in the distance. He sat next to her, his arms on his knees with his shoes dangling in his hands.
“Do you remember that time when we al went sking and he just had to attempt the death slope?” he asked.
His family owned a cabin in Colorado and invited al of their friends and their son’s friends to join them last year. She smiled and grinned at him. “Oh my goodness. Why didn’t your dad understand that it was caled the dead slope for
a reason? He almost gave your mom a heart attack.”
Jared set his shoes between his legs and leaned back on one elbow, his body tilted toward her. “Later that night my mom told me she’d threatened him with divorce if he ever did something like that again.”
“Oh please. Your mother would never divorce your dad. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an older couple more in love. Do you know that I saw them kissing and snuggling by the fireplace later that evening after everyone else had gone to sleep?” Jared reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and gently caressed her face before he dropped his hand back onto the blanket. Her breath caught in her throat as a shiver rushed down her spine.
“I swear, my brother and I fear the day when one of us wil walk into their house and catch them going at it in the middle of the kitchen. They act like a couple of twenty year olds sometimes.”
“I think it’s sweet.” She couldn’t see him clearly because the sun had completely set now, but she knew every nuance of his face and again, it surprised her. She guessed she spent just as much time with him as she’d done with the other one, and maybe that was why she was so familiar with him, so comfortable and felt so daring thinking about what she wanted to do. Or was there more to it than that?
“Your turn. Talk to me,” he said and leaned back, crossing his arms under his head. “What have you been up to?” Walowing in self-pity. No. She couldn’t say that. Gazing out at the ocean she told him, “I got a promotion.” Dayna heard the smile in his voice without looking at him.
“The nursing supervisor position? The old hag lady finaly retired, huh?”
“Yes. I was so surprised when they offered me the job.”
“I don’t know why. You deserved it. You’ve worked in the neo-natal ICU of that hospital for eight years. Every one respects you, and even the doctors listen to your advice. You were the right person for the job.”
She turned around to face him. “How do you know al that?”
“I was a sounding board too, remember, when you complained about her and the decisions she made.” He was right. Whenever she’d talked to her boyfriend about her job, he’d always brush her concerns aside and tel her not to worry about it. The only thing she had to do was work her shift and come home. If she didn’t like it, she could always change departments. But whenever she voiced her concerns when Jared was around, he always took the time to listen and give her advice.