They're Strictly Friends (Tough Love Spinoff Book 1)

by Chloe Liese

  “Sweet Christ, woman, what were you doing before I woke up?” His hand drifted down my front and felt how wet and tender I was.

  “Watching you,” I gasped as he stroked me with his calloused fingers, the perfect abrasion against my aching body.

  He groaned as he threw back the sheets, shocking me with cold air that rushed over my skin. When Lucas stood and I got to see all of him in the dazzling morning light, I sighed. He was perfect. So bloody tall and powerfully lean. A tight arse with divots at each side of his buttocks and a taut, narrow waist. Flat, defined abdominals and long legs. Rounded shoulders that flexed as he set his hands on his hips.

  He stopped and stared at me. Then he grinned slowly. “The lady is pleased with what she sees?”

  I blushed and shrugged, the height of gallic indifference. “You’ll do.”

  “That so?” He hauled me to the edge of the bed by the hips. “I can’t believe you wouldn’t let me do this last night,” he grumbled, settling his face right between my thighs.

  “But, Lucas, I might—”

  “Rubbish. Relax.” One soft kiss to the inside of my leg, followed by a bite. “Now I’m having my breakfast, and there’ll be no interruptions, understood?”

  I was about to answer him, but Lucas’s warm mouth covered me in a deep kiss. He was commanding and ravenous as his tongue swept up my center steadily, dipping into me, then licking my clit and sucking it repeatedly.

  “Oh God.”

  “No, pet, this is all me,” he mumbled against my skin. “Now hold on tight, darling. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  His elbows pinned my thighs wide, and one hand spread me open for him. I was flying up to the precipice of orgasm so fast I felt dizzy. “I’m close—oh God. You’re really good at this, Loulou.”

  He laughed against my skin, and the vibration made me shudder. I was almost there, shaking, my thighs pressing against the weight of his elbows. If he let go, my knees would jackknife up and crush his head. Maybe that’s why he held me how he did. Clearly, he knew what he was doing.

  I felt the first wave begin, and suddenly Lucas let off.

  “No!” I gasped. My eyes were scrunched shut, and I felt around madly for his hair, then gripped it hard. “No, I was about to…ohhh…”

  Lucas kissed me in every spot except the one that was a pulsing point of light. Swirls of his tongue, deep long kisses, had me hanging on the edge of obliterating orgasm as warmth spread over my skin like sunlight. His hands whispered over my breasts, teasing my nipples gently. A new layer of arousal built and traveled in waves down my stomach.

  He kissed my skin, dragging his nose gently through my curls and breathing deep. “Fuck, you smell incredible. You taste incredible. I could live here, Elodie.”

  I moaned again. It was pathetic, but it was all I could manage.

  He read me and lowered his mouth, whispering above my throbbing clit. “Ready, sweetheart?”

  I nodded.

  One single flick of his tongue, and I screamed so loud my own ears rang. My orgasm lasted forever, tightening my belly and breasts, pulsing everywhere.

  Eventually he placed one last kiss, then crawled up my body. “You okay?”

  “You killed me,” I whispered hoarsely. “I’m dead. Death by orgasm.”

  His laugh came muffled in my hair. He kissed my wild bedhead and pulled me against his chest. “Not death, but only a pleasant sleep.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked dazedly.

  Lucas grinned. “Only the mumblings of a man with too much Shakespeare. It’s what the Friar says to Juliet when he gives her the sleeping potion: And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death, thou shalt continue two and forty hours, and then awake as from a pleasant sleep.” His finger drifted across the bones of my face—forehead, nose, cheeks, jaw. “But you’re no Juliet. No tragedy for you, my Beatrice.”

  I peered up at him. “From Much Ado?”

  He cupped my cheek and slid his thumb along my lips. “Yes. You are very much a Beatrice. A loyal, witty, hardheaded woman.”

  “Who’s her fellow? Benedick.” I laid my hand on his chest, swirling my fingers through the light smattering of blond hairs. “The confirmed bachelor.”

  His face fell.

  “And when he hears Beatrice loves him, and realizes he loves Beatrice,” I continued, “what does he say?”

  He tucked a curl behind my ear and smiled sadly. “Lots of lovely poetic things.”

  My eyelids felt heavy, and I lost the fight to keep them open.

  “Sleep, darling.” His kiss on my nose became the brush of a butterfly’s wings. I dreamed of a field of flowers, the roar of the sea. I dreamed of a new place, but one thing remained steadfast. I was safe in Lucas’s arms.

  It was too bright. I burrowed under the pillows, hiding from harsh sunlight and the birds chirping outside. A warm hand rubbed my back and smoothed the sheets.

  Lucas.

  That was someone worth waking up for. I picked up my head and squinted through a screen of curls cascading over my face.

  He sat in bed, completely naked but for those dangerously handsome tortoiseshell glasses perched on his nose. His eyes flicked left to right as he read through a thick printout propped on his knees. One hand on my back, the other reached for his coffee. He didn’t stop reading as he sipped and then set the cup back down.

  Finally, as if he sensed my observing thoughts, he peered my way. His smile as he smoothed my hair off my face warmed me to the bone.

  “Good afternoon, my darling. How’d you sleep?”

  “Afternoon?” I stretched long and squeaked. Sitting up, I stared around groggily. Like a magic trick, a thermos of coffee was set in my hands.

  “Your caffeine, madame,” he said.

  I smiled at him like an idiot. He was too perfect. He was naked, wearing the glasses I couldn’t stop thinking about, offering me a thermos of coffee. He took my silent inaction as lack of alertness, and took it upon himself to twist off the lid. As he did, his arm muscles flexed, and my body flared to life as if we hadn’t made love more times in one night than I ever had before.

  “I feel like a train ran me over,” I muttered before I took a sip.

  “That would be my cock, dearest, and you’re just going to have to get used to it, because”— tossing his papers on the floor, Lucas spoke softly against my neck and planted delicate kisses there—“I’m addicted to your body, and I’ve no plans to leave it.”

  I moaned quietly at his words but mostly at the piping hot coffee that I sipped once more. “That’s all right by me.” I turned my face and caught his lips. “So long as I get to wake up to you in only those glasses every day.”

  He paused his kiss and frowned at me. “You actually fancy these ridiculous things? They’re practically magnifying glasses.”

  I slid my finger along the edge of the tortoiseshell frames, ghosting my touch over his brow and cheekbones. “I think they’re impossibly handsome on you.”

  His eyes flickered and revealed a rare window into his vulnerability, that tiny part of his life wherein he both feared and battled what he perceived as inadequacy. I hated the nature of it, but I loved him for entrusting it to me.

  “That so?” He grinned as this time he picked up a book from his nightstand rather than the pile of work papers.

  “Quite so,” I said. When he settled in, I pecked his cheek. The air kicked on, and I felt a chill, so I pulled up the duvet and snuggled deeper into bed, resting my head on his shoulder. Why did it feel so natural after our first night that we were lounging like an old couple?

  “What are you reading, Loulou?”

  “Hm?” he asked. He was deep in the text already, eyes back to flicking left and right.

  “I asked what you’re reading.”

  “Hawking.”

  “He’s the physicist? With ALS?”

  Lucas nodded but didn’t look at me.

  “He’s lived with it much longer than anyone else thought he would, if I reme
mber correctly,” I said. “And he’s happily married. A few times, I think.”

  “Take that for what it’s worth,” Lucas muttered.

  There were parallels here I needed to be careful of, but I didn’t think it was necessarily a coincidence that Lucas was reading the seminal work of a man who’d performed stratospheres beyond what anyone expected, given his physical limitations.

  “I saw him speak once,” I said. “I was transfixed.”

  Lucas peered over at me. “That must have been incredible.”

  “He made it so accessible, you know? He did this whole presentation that just…well, it made me wish I understood space, the stars, the universe so much better.”

  “I’d have loved to see him,” Lucas said. “He’s completely above my head. But it’s glorious stuff.”

  “Oh, no doubt, he’s fascinating to read. I found I could track his math decently, but I couldn’t conceptualize the vastness of it all—how it translates into actual space.”

  Lucas laughed. “And I can’t follow the logic of the numbers, but can totally translate them to the spatial expression.”

  “How many mathematicians does it take to change a lightbulb?” I asked.

  Lucas groaned. “It’s too early.”

  “It’s never too early to tell a math joke,” I said.

  He tipped his head in thought. “I have no clue.”

  “Only one—she just gives it to a handful of physicists, thus reducing it to a problem that’s already been solved.”

  Lucas barked a laugh. “I don’t think Mr. Hawking would appreciate that kind of humor at his expense.”

  “But physics is all math!” I protested. “That joke is stunningly accurate.”

  Lucas’s eyes flicked to mine, and those glasses really were dangerous. God, he was gorgeous in them.

  “I don’t think I’ve told you enough how insane with lust your mind makes me, Elodie. I still remember trivia in Edinburgh for Zeddy’s birthday, when you solved those math problems.” He shook his head and stared up at the ceiling. “I had a stiffy under the bar table because of that.”

  A cackle left me. “You did not.”

  Hawking flew past his shoulder as he leaned over me. “Questioning my word?”

  I smiled as I sank into the pillows. “Perhaps.”

  “Oh, darling, capital offense. I must punish you gloriously for it.” He kissed me deep, threading his fingers through my hair. Tugging me toward him, Lucas groaned into my mouth as I let his tongue in. But I pulled back gently and pressed a hand against his chest.

  “Lucas, as much as I’d love to, I need a few hours before any kind of punishment, no matter how pleasurable. Give a poor woman enough time to drink her coffee and take a few anti-inflammatories?”

  Lucas pouted as he fell back, and his hard length jutted away from him. I stared at it, then back up to him. “You’re insatiable, aren’t you?”

  He laughed as he arched his back and exhaled slowly. “Well, it’s not a constitutional thing. I have a healthy libido, but this is not typical You’re the entirety of my problem.”

  I blushed and hid my face in my coffee as I took a deep drink. When I peered up at him, Lucas was watching me with that smile on his face like he couldn’t help it.

  “Last night was fantastic, wasn’t it?” I said.

  He nodded, not taking his eyes from me. “Yes, it really was.”

  Peaceful silence filled the room as Lucas watched me and his gaze grew more heated.

  “Right,” he huffed, reaching off the bed for the work papers once more and giving me a beautiful peek at his firm backside. “When you’re ready to help me with my not-so-little problem, let me know.”

  With a yank of the duvet over his very big problem indeed, Lucas threw the papers down resolutely on his lap. “Until then, stop sitting there with your gorgeous tits in my face and those dimples out in full force.” He shooed me away. “Get you gone.”

  Draining my coffee I set it on the nightstand and dove under the sheets. “I suppose I could help you out a little. I am your friend, after all, it’s the least I can do.”

  He sighed, groaning when I took him deep in my mouth. “Praise God, you are.”

  Thirteen

  Lucas

  I’d taken to reading Stephen Hawking a good bit, a fellow who spent so much of his life trapped in a defiant body that diminished his physical ability yet in no way touched his mind. If anything, it had liberated it.

  Yesterday, I’d read from A Brief History of Time to Elodie. Once we’d finally left my bed, we’d whipped up a massive lunch and eaten like starved animals. Curled up on the sofa afterward with her legs stretched across my lap, I read, “The increase of disorder or entropy is what distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time.”

  Immediately she’d scrunched her nose in thought, then smiled.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? How math can encapsulate and explain such seemingly abstract concepts. Math is just one example of how humans are capable of making meaning out of the randomness of life. There can be beauty in chaos.”

  She got it. She bloody got it. The inevitability of suffering, the fact that things were easier to break than they were to fix. And yet she held a hope, a quiet optimism I aspired to but fell short of. The words had barely left her when I’d kissed her, pressed her into the sofa, and shown her just how much I liked passing time with her in the pursuit of beautiful chaos.

  Now that we were driving to Mum and Dad’s, thoughts of Elodie naked and bent over my sofa needed to be banished, or it would be a very awkward introduction indeed.

  “Your knee is going wild, Loulou,” Elodie murmured. Gently, she pressed her hand on my leg. I glanced over at her, and it was a kick to the stomach. She was just unreasonably beautiful. Since telling her the truth two days ago, the reality of what lay ahead spent more time in the forefront of my mind. I was nearly obsessing on how gutted I was that one day I wouldn’t be able to see that beauty anymore.

  “Lucas?”

  I felt her eyes searching mine, but I kept my gaze on the road. Pressing my hand over hers, I interlaced our fingers. “Sorry, lost in my head.”

  “Anything on your mind?” she asked gently.

  “Oh, just wondering if there’s any possible way to prepare you for the baptism by fire you’re about to undergo. Mum, Dad, and Kai. Thank Christ, the rest of them won’t be there. Though I love them dearly, they’re pure mayhem.”

  Carefully, I switched lanes before I floored it, reveling in the feeling of power beneath my hands. I savored every second of driving I had left, because while Jo gave me the okay to continue, it wasn’t for long, she warned. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t cut.

  Elodie frowned. “You mean your sister, Sarah, her husband, Oliver, and their children? Noah, Amelia, and Poppy, is that right?”

  I glanced over to her. “How did you remember that? I mentioned their names once, months ago.”

  Elodie shrugged and glanced out the window. “I remember what you say, Lucas. It matters to me.”

  I smiled and gentled her cheek until she turned back toward me. She was blushing, and her dimples were as deep as they got. Memories of licking and biting those cheeks, how they hollowed out when she took my cock deep and fast, had me adjusting myself. Elodie grinned, and I knew I’d been caught.

  “Keep looking at me like that, Bertrand, and I’m not above trying to make two over-average-sized humans have sex in an Aston.”

  She laughed. “That’s not a disincentive, Lucas.”

  I brought her hand to my mouth and kissed it.

  “As you were asking—no, Sarah won’t be there. She, Ollie, and their littles live all the way down in Cornwall. You ever been?”

  Elodie shook her head.

  “Gorgeous. Beaches as far as the eye can see, constant sea breeze, sunny nearly every day. We’ll go sometime. Ollie works on an agricultural grant down there, and Sarah’s a solicitor, working in labor advocacy.”

  “T
hey sound like good people.”

  I turned the car onto Mum and Dad’s road. “They are.”

  Elodie smiled. “I’d like to meet them. And what about their children, what are they like?”

  “Magnets for mischief, incredibly adorable, with fat lisps and Cornish accents, so I can’t understand a word they’re saying, but I love them all the same.”

  Elodie laughed and the sound warmed me straight to the marrow. I nodded toward my childhood home. “There it is.”

  She leaned forward and peered curiously about. “It’s lovely, Loulou. This is Hampstead, you said?”

  “That it is.”

  “It seems quieter here than Greenwich. A little residential, non?” She looked around more, smiling. “I can picture you as a boy, with a ball in the front yard, showing off for the neighbor girls.”

  She had me pegged so accurately.

  “No comment,” I said.

  She was still laughing after I’d popped open the door, and made it to her side.

  “Lukey!” Mum hollered from the doorway.

  I waved at Mum, taking Elodie by the small of her back and leading her forward. When we’d approached the door, she handed Mum a bottle of white wine.

  “It’s lovely to meet you, Mrs. Edwards.” Elodie smiled. “Lucas told me you’re a rather particular wine drinker, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to offer you something new. Thank you for having me.”

  Mum peered at the wine and back up at Elodie, whom she eyed appreciatively. “Please, just Charli, and thank you, dearest, I’m quite intrigued. I’ve never drunk Sancerre.” Extending her arm to Elodie, she turned with her, abandoning me on the steps.

  “Well, and what am I?” I hollered as they walked down the hall and left me behind.

  Mum called over her shoulder, “You’re my Lukey, always precious to me even without preferential treatment, so quit your whinging.” When Mum leaned toward Elodie and whispered something, Elodie threw her head back in laughter as they turned into the kitchen.

  So much for being nervous about meeting the parents.