Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 73665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
It’ll be fun, they said.
Except mine was “occupied”… with three other women.
So, yeah. Worst. Night. Ever.
My car died.
My phone died.
And I ended up in a fancy hotel lounge—half-dressed, fully humiliated, and ordering a drink from the hottest bartender I’d ever seen.
Broad shoulders. Whiskey eyes.
A smile that could melt lingerie faster than you can say “bad idea.”
One drink. One spark. One night I’ll never forget.
There’s just one tiny problem.
The man who makes me want to throw caution, clothes, and common sense to the wind?
Yeah. Turns out he’s my best friend’s dad.
The one man I can never have.
The one man who is pure forbidden temptation.
My Best Friend’s Dad is a steamy, age-gap, forbidden romance packed with wicked banter, off-the-charts chemistry, and swoony heat that will leave you laughing, blushing, and begging for more.
And just when you think you know where it’s going…there’s a twist you’ll never see coming.
Team HEA, always.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter one
Bellatrix
You know that sound vehicles make right before they die? The cough, cough, splutter, clunk, bang, boom, and then the ominous silence?
My car pretty much just did the world’s most accurate impression.
The last clunk is especially ominous, so I think fast and veer off the road. I’m downtown, but it’s so late that, luckily, there are empty parking spaces lining both sides of the road. I’m able to drive right into one, thank the stars, because Oh Mylanta, I guarantee I wouldn’t have been able to execute a parallel park with old Susan malfunctioning and banging away—or okay, on a good day with a car that has a backup camera, park assist, and the function that just takes over driving for a person, period.
As soon as my front passenger tire brushes along the curb, Susan stops the loud clunking, the lights stop flashing all wonky in the interior, the wheel turns into a brick, and everything goes ominously silent. I’m barely able to get the gearshift into park, and I’m still not even fully into the parking space. I curse under my breath and try the ignition several times with no luck, just more ominous silence. I take it to mean she’s given up on running forever and for good without significant repairs.
Which I can’t afford.
Case in point, it’s how we got to this exact moment.
I was told a few months ago that my transmission was going, but who the farge can afford between four and six grand to fix that? The car isn’t even worth a thousand bucks. The very sweet old mechanic’s advice, given with a wiggle of bushy bush eyebrows, was to “drive ‘er ‘til she dies.”
Alas.
Also? Fuck.
This is the last thing I need tonight of all nights.
But what exactly does one even need after heading over to their boyfriend’s house to surprise them and finding them balls deep in not one, not two, but three women? Okay, so I get that, physically, he could only be in one, but he had his fingers in the other pies. I barely even got a good look at their faces, but I’m guessing they were older because I walked in on him calling them “Mommy” and telling them to punish him for being a bad boy.
That’s bad, but the worst part is Kevin looked right at me. They were on the couch and, umm, the coffee table and the floor, and his front door is such that it opens right into the living room. He didn’t even have the grace to look ashamed.
Maybe I should have taken the hint about our relationship reaching the final stages of officially being over. We haven’t had sex in weeks. Instead of just calling it a day, I planned a sexy surprise for him. It was very un-Bellatrix-ish. It had taken me days to talk myself into it.
“Fuck!” I lower my forehead to the steering wheel and allow the tears to come, even if I should be cursing Kevin. And his decidedly average-sized member. Not like it mattered. He was having plenty of fun in there. “Ugh!” I know my name means female warrior and all that, but at the moment, I’ve used up all my warrior nature. The tears streak down my cheeks, scalding hot, until my pale, freckled skin is pinched with salt streaks.
Thank goodness I didn’t waste years on Kevin of the Average Member. We’ve only been dating for five months. It’s not like this is the heartbreak to end all heartbreaks. It’s just…does anyone enjoy getting cheated on? Aside from being utterly humiliating, it’s just one of those trust-busting incidents that shakes one’s faith in the male population. Err, well, maybe all the population. I can’t say cheating is limited to men.
Kevin and his darned, “Let’s date, babe. It’ll be fun, babe. We’ll be great together, babe.” Does anything that starts with those words ever end well? Probably not, as per the whole internet full of “It’ll be fun, they said” memes.
Well, barnacles on a biscuit, this night isn’t the least bit amusing.
On top of my relationship being dead and over in the most obvious and salty-wounds-inspiring of ways, I now have no vehicle.
It’s pushing toward eleven on a Wednesday night, which means I have work tomorrow and no way to get there. Public transportation and getting my steps in it is, I guess, but it doesn’t fix the mess I’m in now.
I raise my head, swipe at the sticky, gooey mess on my face, and snatch my skull purse up to fumble inside for my phone. And I do mean fumble. The thing might get tons of oohs and ahhs and a whole lot of oh my god, where did you get that amazing bag? comments, but it’s hardly practical. For one, the zipper absolutely eats. As in, it freaking eats the skin of your hand every time you reach in. It’s like sticking your fingers into the jagged maw of garbage disposal death. The top flap of the cranium—is the top of the head a cranium? I need to make a mental note to look up all the head and skull anatomy later—opens up to the tiniest inside pocket, but somehow, everything still manages to get lost in there like it’s a black hole of destiny. I’ll always love this bag, and I make sure to use it plenty because my bestie, Mika, gave it to me, and she acts like it’s the best day of her life every time she sees me wearing or using something she’s gifted.