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

A hand pushed him to the side before the owner strode in. Daphne. She halted to a sudden stop when she saw me. She turned to look at Blaze questioningly.

My heart pounded hard against my chest as a million thoughts criss crossed my mind.

He couldn’t have, could he? Nausea rose up my throat. Daphne was a slut. Everyone knew that. I thought she had just been flirting with Blaze in the office but clearly, it was more than that. She knew his home address for goodness sake!

Damn Blaze!

“I have to go,” I mumbled and grabbed my purse from the floor.

Blaze looked troubled. “Hot—Brooke, don’t go.”

“What’s she doing here? I thought you told me that you were friends,” Daphne said in a screechy voice.

There was no way I would hang around for this.

“The question is, what are you doing here?” He glared at the woman then turned to me. “Brooke please?” Blaze grabbed my hand.

I threw it off and silenced him with a glare.

Only when I entered the Uber for the ride home, did it hit me what had just transpired. Blaze had just made a fool out of me in front of Daphne. Clearly, something was going on between them. She couldn’t just come to his place without warning, unless they had an understanding.

My breath came out coarser and faster. The voice of reason in my head kicked in and tried to reason with me. Blaze would not deliberately hurt me. He loved me.

All that might be true, but clearly, something had transpired between him and Daphne. I tried to breathe through the agonizing pain in my chest as a vision of Blaze and Daphne tangled up in bed, sprung into my mind.

Mercifully, my brain went into autopilot. The Uber came to a stop in front of the townhouse. I sprinted to the house and when I was safely inside, I burst into tears. What had I gotten myself into? Being with Blaze was like being inside a yoyo. One minute we were blissfully happy and the next I was swimming in the depths of misery.

I’d never been a jealous person but being with Blaze, a side of me that I didn’t like very much was emerging. My phone vibrated, shaking my purse and I ignored it, knowing it was Blaze. I wasn’t interested in what he had to say. All I wanted was to shower and slip into bed.

My stomach rumbled with hunger but I couldn’t bear to eat anything. I just wanted to sleep and obliterate this awful day.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Blaze

I stood outside our townhouse looking at Brooke’s apartment. The bathroom lights were on and she stayed there for a long time before switching them off and moving to her bedroom. I could visualize all her movements. I hoped there were no nosy neighbors watching me… watching Brooke.

I’d tried calling her but she’d been ignoring my calls. I texted her again.

Please pick up my calls. I can explain.

Twenty minutes later, I called for an Uber and went back home. I understood why the scene with Daphne had ruffled her but I was getting tired of being judged without a hearing.

I fumed on the way home as I thought about Brooke’s reaction and previous reactions when she’d seen me with a woman. I felt frustrated and angry. I went straight to the shower, hoping the cold water would cool me down. It helped somewhat.

I made dinner and felt double misery as I ate it alone, knowing if Daphne had not come by, Brooke would have been with me. I’d laid it down for Daphne and after that, I felt sure I wasn’t going to have any more problems with her.

I wish I could say the same about Brooke. What about the next time a woman showed up at my place or behaved too familiar with me? Would our relationship be over?

We needed to have an honest talk if we were to have a chance at making us work.

I spied Brooke at work the following morning as she headed to the photocopy room. I headed towards the opposite direction to her office, completely unraveling my plans. I’d planned to speak to her at lunch time, but I couldn’t wait a moment longer.

She returned to her office five minutes later and gasped when she saw me. “You gave me a fright,” she said and shut the door.

“We need to talk,” I said.

“Wrong place, wrong time,” she said casually, except her shaky voice gave her away.

I waited for her to go around her desk and sit down. Despite my frustration, I couldn’t help but think how sexy she looked in this red dress that fit her like a second skin but in a classy way. But that was Brooke. She would look classy in a sack.

She sat down and rested her hands on her desk. “I’m listening.”

I knew behind the cavalier attitude was insecurity and I hated that she was feeling that way, but I was also fed up. I had asked myself over and over again what Brooke took me for. “I texted and called you last night.”

Her cool exterior disintegrated. “I don’t want to play games, Blaze.”

“Who is playing games?” I demanded. My heart felt like it was breaking into pieces. This wasn’t the direction I’d wanted this conversation to go. I didn’t want us to sound like my past relationships, if you’d call them that.

Relationships which, majority of the time, had involved playing with words, hurting each other and refusing to open up. I now knew I’d never truly opened myself up to another woman before Brooke. I’d never allowed myself to be vulnerable to someone else. But those days were clearly gone.

“Blaze, what the fuck did you expect me to think after she came in like that?” Brooke exploded. “That you were just friends?” she exclaimed, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

“Look, I know what it looked like. I’m just asking for one thing. That you trust me