Forbidden Touch: A Best Friends To Lovers Romance - Iona Rose (free ebook reader .txt) 📗

creased into a startled look of pleasure when I rammed into her. She wrapped her legs around my waist, drawing me closer. “Yes, yes, yes…” Brooke whimpered and moments later, her pussy clenched around my cock.

“Come hard for me,” I said to her and as her body spasmed under me, I gave in to my orgasm and came inside her.

I was surprised to see tears fall from Brooke’s eyes. “What is it sweetheart?” My cock slid out of her and I fell to the side, pulling her along with me.

“I’ll never forget this vacation,” she said. “It was special.”

“We’ll have many more, right?” I asked her as a shakiness came to my limbs.

Instead of answering, Brooke tossed the covers aside and got up. “Let’s shower and have breakfast.”

The feeling of dread I’d had when I woke up returned. I followed her into the bathroom and we showered together wordlessly. The atmosphere had changed and so had Brooke’s mood.

After we showered and dressed, I left her and went to the deli across the street to get us some breakfast. I returned with coffees and a bag of bagels. I joined Brooke on the balcony and handed her a coffee and bagel.

“Thanks,” she said, sounding vulnerable and almost sad.

The bagel tasted like wood in my mouth. My hands trembled slightly as I ate. The next few minutes were going to be the most important in my life. They would chart the way for our future.

With every swallow, an empty feeling came over the pit of my stomach. Brooke’s behavior wasn’t like a woman excited for the future. I tried to rationalize her lack of enthusiasm.

Maybe she was nervous about telling everyone about us. She could also be worried a relationship between us would not work.

I on the other hand was sure we would be awesome together. We were best friends first for fuck’s sake. How many couples got to say that about their relationships?

“So,” I said when we had finished our bagels and coffee.

She angled her body to face me. “I’ve had the best time of my life and I want you to know that no matter what happens, I feel no regret over what happened between us.”

I felt disjointed. As if the surface had suddenly become uneven.

She placed her hand on my cold one and smiled. “I want our memories to stay intact. I don’t want anything to soil them.”

“I don’t understand,” I said. I understood too well what she was saying but I was clutching at straws. Desperate to hold on.

“This is it for us Blaze.” She sounded as sad as I felt.

“Is that what you really want?” I said.

She inhaled deeply and nodded. “Yes, it’s what I want.”

Pain rippled through me. I had been foolish to think I could convince her that we could be more than lovers. I should have kept in mind who I was dealing with. Brooke had an iron will when she made up her mind about something.

I remembered words she had thrown at me. Words I had not taken seriously but which I should have.

You aren’t capable of commitment.

The implication was that I used women and discarded them. Nothing could be further from the truth. The women I hooked up with wanted the same thing I did—uncomplicated sex.

I would have to get over Brooke. She believed I was the wrong man for her and I couldn’t convince her otherwise. The best I could hope for was to maintain our friendship. I couldn’t handle it if I lost her as a friend too. I plastered a smile on my face and turned to her. “Whatever you want is okay with me,” I said, injecting a happy tone.

She smiled. “Great. Thanks for a great time.”

“Thank you for coming with me. I’ll never forget this.” I reached out and cupped her cheek. “One man is going to be very lucky someday.” And I hated him.

She covered my hand with hers and we sat staring at each other for a few seconds. “We’d better get packing if we want to make that flight.”

My chest ached as I packed. My loss suddenly felt real with every piece of clothing I folded into my suitcase.

Later in the Uber on the way to the airport, I felt broody and angry. Hardly the feelings of a man who’d had a glorious vacation.

Brooke sat next to me but for all the distance that had sprouted between us, she might as well have been in Timbuktu.

Chapter Seventeen

Brooke

I stood at the living room window and watched as Blaze sprinted down the steps and headed for the waiting Uber. He opened the door and then looked up at my apartment.

My breath hitched.

Was he thinking of grabbing his suitcase and coming in? Maybe telling the Uber guy he was getting off at my address as well. I wanted it so bad. I was at my weakest point.

I’d held it together throughout the flight and on the ride home. But now, my strength was gone. I wanted Blaze and I didn’t care for the consequences. My heart squeezed painfully in my chest as he slid into the car and banged the door shut.

Tears streamed down my face as the Uber drove off, taking Blaze away from my life. I sat down heavily on the bed and buried my head in my hands. The sobs came loud and hard, ripping me apart with their intensity.

I cried like someone who had lost something special when in reality—I had been saved from heartbreak. It would be better to hurt now than later, when humiliation would be added to the heartbreak.

Okay, I told myself later, time to put on my big girl panties. Time to move on with my life, so I got up, opened my suitcase, and began to unpack. The walk-in closet which had given me so much pleasure when we were renovating the house, barely moved my feelings.

I hung the clean clothes I hadn’t worn in Hawaii and carried the dirty ones to the laundry room.