Forbidden Touch: A Best Friends To Lovers Romance by Iona Rose (best classic literature .txt) 📕

had always wanted kids and I’d thought it a terrible shame that she had married a man who didn’t want any more children.

I contemplated her words. How could she believe him when he said he would never cheat again? Once a cheater, always a cheater. Everyone knew this. Blaze wasn’t a cheater but a serial dater. Which was sort of the same thing. He couldn’t commit to one woman.

I wanted him in my bed, making sweet love to me but I needed to protect myself. What better way than to be friends with benefits.

Blaze was upset but with time, he would come around to my way of thinking. When he cooled down, he would realize I had offered him a deal every man dreamed of.

Blaze acted cool towards me in the week that followed but I was determined not to give in. We didn’t see each other in the evenings as well because we had a contractor who was doing the plumbing.

Before I knew it, Friday had rolled around and it was time for the party. After work, I hurried home to shower and spruce myself up for it. My body was on fire and I’d become determined to show Blaze what he was missing by dressing sexy.

Not too sexy, as the last thing I wanted was to draw Mason’s attention. He had cooled off a bit and other than leering at me, he hadn’t crossed any boundaries the whole week.

I chose a strapless dress and after showering and applying a little make up, I was ready. The party would start at seven and at quarter to the hour, I was in an Uber on the way.

Dressed sexy and with killer heels, I felt and oozed confidence as I strolled across the lobby of Ferne Hotel.

An attendant directed me to the ballroom where the event was held.

People were milling around, chatting, and sipping on their drinks.

“Brooke,” Carol called, beckoning me over where she stood. She was the only other female in the accounts department.

I grabbed a flute of champagne from a passing waiter before joining Carol and Thomas. “Hi,” I said breezily to her and Thomas, another colleague, trying not to search the room for the one person I wanted to see.

My gaze bounced around the rather crowded dance floor. The band played pop music and people were dancing energetically to the upbeat music. But Blaze was not among them. I finally located him standing by the bar with a couple of guys, his gaze firmly on me.

Attraction shimmied between us as the distance between us shrank and I felt as though he was standing next to me.

“I hope he’s not coming here,” Carol whispered, a tone of fright in her voice.

I turned away from Blaze in time to catch Mason headed towards us.

“See you,” Carol said. Before I could protest, she grabbed Thomas’s hand and led him to the dance floor.

I watched Mason warily as he walked towards me, his eyes roving over my body. I wasn’t frightened of him, I told myself and stood up straighter.

“You look very sexy tonight, Brooke,” he said, standing too close to me.

I resisted the urge to take a step back. I smiled as if he had given me the best compliment any man ever had. “Thank you.”

He held out his hand. “Would you like to dance?”

I drowned my champagne in one gulp while my mind was busy at work, trying to come up with an excuse to get out of dancing with him. I didn’t want Mason’s body next to mine, or his hands around me. “Sure,” I finally said when I realized a few people were watching us. I placed my hand in his and allowed him to lead me to the dance floor. I caught Blaze’s stare and I smiled at him.

He didn’t smile back.

Unfortunately, the band was playing a love song, the kind where you needed to hold someone close. As I had known he would, Mason held me too tight, crushing my body against his.

I could feel his erection pressing against my belly. Gross. His hands rested on my waist but every so often, they sneakily dropped to my hips, grazing across my ass. I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore him.

I couldn’t wait for the song to be over and when it was, I quickly pulled away. “Thanks for the dance,” I said and fled to the bar. I rested my hands on the counter and ordered a glass of chilled white wine and slid onto the bar stool.

“I didn’t like that,” Blaze whispered into my ear before sliding onto the stool next to mine.

“Hi,” I said and picked up my glass of wine.

He ordered a beer and sipped it quietly.

My body came alive as I sat next to him. Blaze oozed such masculinity; it made a woman ache for things she had no business thinking about in public.

“Does he cross boundaries?” Blaze asked, his voice hard.

I felt glad we had been surrounded by people and Blaze hadn’t seen Mason’s hands on my ass. There was no telling how he would have reacted but one thing was sure, he would not have stood by, doing nothing. That wasn’t Blaze’s style. A protector of women, whether he knew them or not.

I remembered an incident when we were younger. We had gone out clubbing with a group and a man had come on too strong to one of our friends. Blaze had come from nowhere and landed a punch into the man’s stomach. Suffice to say, he had disappeared soon after that. That was Blaze. He never wanted to see a man taking advantage of a woman.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” I said, with a confidence I did not feel.

The thing with Mason had been getting out of control and I was afraid it would end with me losing my job. Hardly the right time to lose a paycheck when Blaze and I were in the midst of a renovation. But I didn’t want to think