Just One Night by Carly Phillips (fiction book recommendations txt) 📕

“Yes, please,” she said, rising from her seat, concerned. She disconnected the call.

Why would Linc be here now? When she’d said good night at the office, he’d been drinking with and talking to Xander, filling him in about the sister they hadn’t known about. He’d already told Jordan everything about his discovery, and she understood how upsetting he’d found the news.

To show up here now wasn’t in character. He was self-contained and kept his emotions to himself, even when he was upset. But she’d never seen him quite as worked up as he’d been about his new sister, Aurora, and her past, growing up in foster homes while he and his siblings had wealth and comfort.

After folding the blanket she’d pulled over herself, she laid it onto the couch before heading to the door, reaching it just as Linc knocked.

She opened it to find him standing, one arm on the doorframe, a sexy vision with his white dress shirt unbuttoned and tie hanging loose around his neck. His silky black hair was mussed from running his fingers through the strands, and a day’s worth of scruff graced his gorgeous face.

But his eyes drew her attention most. Devastation looked back at her from his blue gaze with a darker ring around the outer edges.

“Hey,” he said, and she caught the whiff of whiskey on his breath.

“Come on in.” She stepped back and he entered, brushing past her and leaving her with a hint of his cologne in his wake.

After closing the door, she followed him into her living room. “I’d offer you a drink, but it smells like you’ve had enough.”

Without replying, he threw his body onto the couch she’d been sitting on, choosing her favorite side and he knew it.

“Talk to me,” she said, joining him on the cushion next to his and crossing her legs in front of her.

“I’m pissed at my father.” He leaned back and groaned.

“I know.” She’d spent enough time in their large house growing up.

Enough to know Kenneth Kingston hadn’t been a man to be emulated. A man of power? Yes. A kind, caring parent to the children with his wife? Not so much. But a worse husband and definitely a horrible human to the daughter he’d abandoned. Now Linc was left to pick up the pieces.

“Does your mother know about your half-sister?”

He shook his head. “And who do you think has to tell her?”

Linc was close to his mother, as were all his siblings. Despite how long she’d known Melissa Kingston, who liked to be called Melly, Jordan couldn’t read her. She’d seen Melly be stern and she’d seen her kind. She’d never treated Jordan badly and had allowed her to come to the house and do homework while her mom finished her day of work. And unlike Mr. Kingston, she never gave Linc a hard time about their friendship, for which Jordan was grateful. One thing was certain. The woman hadn’t deserved for her husband to cheat on her.

“You’ll handle it,” she said, putting a hand on Linc’s shoulder.

He pulled her closer until she leaned against him, her head in the crook of his arm. His body was warm, he smelled good, and she did her best to ignore the tingle of awareness inside her. Linc liked to hang out, to snuggle and watch a movie or just talk. Their friendship consisted of everything she’d want with someone she loved deeply except sex and the intimacy that came with it.

So as she sat with his arm around her, comforting him in silence, she ignored the scent of his cologne, masculine and sexy. She tried not to focus on the hard muscled body she leaned against, but it wasn’t easy.

She couldn’t lie and say she’d never wanted a relationship with Linc, but those days were over. When she was younger, she’d had a crush on him, but her mother had caught on quickly and warned her about their different status in life and how ultimately Jordan didn’t fit into his world.

Those words had crushed her young heart, but since her mother cleaned their home, they ultimately made sense, and Jordan had forced herself to focus on being Linc’s friend. Eventually, he’d gone to college, the cost fully covered by his family. She had student loans. She’d gotten a job in human resources for a company she’d liked while he’d attended business school.

But maybe she’d read too many romance novels, because her first year out of college, she’d met a hot guy at a bar. Collin had been attentive, taken her number, and called her the next day. They’d begun dating, and she’d quickly learned he’d come from a wealthy family who made their money in hedge funds.

The relationship turned serious fast, but she never met his family, and she’d begun to feel like he was hiding her from his parents. After all, he’d already met hers. And like with Linc, Jordan’s mother was wary thanks to Collin’s family’s wealth, but since she didn’t work for them, she hadn’t harped on the issue.

Then Jordan had missed her period and a test proved she was pregnant. And Collin Auerbach had panicked and handed her money to get rid of the problem. Much like Linc’s father had apparently done to one of his mistresses, as she now knew.

Jordan had thrown him out, ripped up the check, and the man she’d thought she’d marry got engaged to an oil heiress six months later.

As for Jordan, a month into the pregnancy, she’d experienced terrible cramps and heavy bleeding and lost the baby. The pain of remembering always hurt. And who had been there for her? Linc. He’d helped her with her grief and was there as she’d picked up the pieces of her broken heart.

After Linc had graduated business school, he began working at Kingston Enterprises, and he’d all but begged her to become his personal assistant. Something his father hadn’t been happy about because she was the help’s daughter.

This