AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why don’t you do something just for the two of you to relax and, maybe reconnect? He’s pretty bloody stressed, and you’ve been working crazy hours too. Go stay in a swanky hotel and get an in-room massage. Eat room service and drink some sparkly.”
“Yeah.” Katy nodded slowly. He could see the cogs turning in her mind. “But he loves our bed more than anything. Maybe I should do something like that here. I could cook him dinner and instead of buying him a massage, I could get someone out to teach me how to do it, then I could give him a happy ending too.” She sighed. “Not like you can learn how to massage someone in fifteen minutes though. And what am I gonna do, give him a BJ when someone’s standing there? Nah, that idea sucks.”
He shook his head, smirking at the picture she’d painted. “You could be onto something though. Adelaide, a friend of mine from uni owns a mobile adult store. She’ll come to you and you choose what you want. It’s completely private.” Connor smiled ruefully, scrubbing his hands over his hair. He didn’t know whether to be jealous or whether to encourage it. The idea that someone else would help her choose a toy for them to use killed him, even if that person was a consummate professional. “Fuck, I can’t believe I just said out loud that you should go buy some sex toys for you and your live-in boyfriend, my best mate. He’d better not take that the wrong way.”
Katy grinned. “Nah, he’d be flattered that you wanna help him get off.” The words were barely out of her mouth when she blushed and snorted out a laugh. “Oh God.”
Heat flooded him, his dick hardening in his boxers. Hoping Katy didn’t see, he leaned forward a little more, hiding the tenting that was happening down there. Covering his inner turmoil up with a grin, he tried to laugh off Katy’s embarrassment. “You want me to get in contact with her? I don’t have her number but I could IM her.”
“Yeah. That sounds good. Thanks, boo,” she said shyly, leaning into him as she did, and squeezing his hand. “Love you.”
“Love you, too,” he murmured back as she left the room. And that was his problem. He’d been in love with this woman for so long that persuading his heart to move on wasn’t easy. That was why he’d left, why he couldn’t stick around and watch his best friend love the woman he wanted with every fibre of his being. It killed him knowing he’d never be the one for her, but at the same time, she and Levi were perfect together. He couldn’t begrudge them for finding their happiness. Now he needed to find his own.
Connor laid down, still above the covers, and adjusted himself. Thinking about Levi and Katy in bed together made him hard, but adding toys conjured up wicked visions that he didn’t even want to try to banish. And what was worse—it wasn’t Adelaide who he pictured helping them choose, but him. Him with them. Loving them. Between them.Them.And once the thought entered his head, he couldn’t rid it from his mind.I’m royally screwed.
Levi
Connor had picked up his car and somehow instead of taking it for a drive up to the mountains, Katy had managed to wrangle them into shopping for half the day. As much as Levi hated to have spent the afternoon trying on suits, it was a good thing she’d insisted on it. Connor lived in jeans, so showing up to the restaurant for his first date with Miranda wearing them probably wouldn’t have cut it. Especially in the restaurant they were in. One street back from the ocean in Main Beach, it was in yuppiesville—mansions and million-dollar apartments lined the streets, Lamborghinis and Ferraris were parked alongside. Levi’s own Toyota was comically out of place.
Inside, the high-end restaurant was intimate. Candles flickered in the dim lights, the starched-white table cloths contrasting against the gleaming silver cutlery and sparkling wine goblets. It was renowned for its modern Australian-Italian cuisine, and after eating, Levi knew why. The prawn risotto and veal ravioli were mouth-watering.
Dinner should have been fun. Miranda was cute and sweet, and with Katy and her sass, they usually kept things interesting. Add in Connor and himself, and they should have been talking and laughing the whole night. That was why Katy insisted that they do the double date thing. But at best, it was strained. At worst, it was downright uncomfortable. Katy was miserable the whole night, and that put him on edge too. He didn’t like seeing her upset and it grated on him to watch the attraction sparking between Miranda and Connor. From the moment they’d locked eyes, they’d gravitated towards one another until they’d eliminated the space between them. They hadn’t taken their hands off each other since. It wasn’t like they were making out at the table, but Levi could see from a mile away where the night was headed. He knew he should be happy for Connor—Miranda was perfect for him—but was he ready for a relationship? And would Miranda be patient with him while he readjusted back to being a civilian? Got a job? He was still attending group sessions and counselling three or four times a week, and probably would do so for years. Would Miranda support him when she eventually found out that he wasn’t completely spared by the horrors he’d witnessed?
The restaurant had quietened down after a busy Saturday night, most of the guests having moved on.
“How has everything been tonight?” the waitress interrupted them.
“Great, thanks,” Katy supplied.
“Can I get you anything else? We can’t serve anything alcoholic after midnight so this will be your last chance to order drinks.”
Levi shook his head and saw everyone else at the table murmuring the same thing. Their dinner conversation may have been awkward, but he was still surprised so much time had passed since they’d arrived at the beginning of the night. He hadn’t realized their group and the four ladies apparently having a girls’ night out would close the restaurant.
Miranda toyed with her empty wine glass, something she’d been doing whenever she wasn’t all over Connor. Levi’s jaw clenched. Why did he feel the need to physically remove her hand from where it perched on Connor’s leg? Of course the tablecloth hid whatever the hell it was she was doing, and Levi was grateful for that. “Why don’t we go do something fun?” Miranda suggested. “We could go dancing or head back to my place for a movie. I’ve got a new rom-com on Blu-ray, and my flatmate bought some war movie too. Connor, you were in the army, you’d like it.”
He visibly shuddered and looked at Levi with what he could have sworn was dread in his eyes. Levi couldn’t watch a movie like that—hadn’t been able to since the day Connor enlisted. And Katy would walk out of a premiere if there was even a moment of violence in it. The vice grip Katy had on his hand told him everything he needed to know. “We might pass on the movie.”
“Yeah, I’m not really up for it either,” Connor murmured. A wave of relief washed over Levi. He was protective of his best friend—hell, he’d worried over him for years—and Miranda’s insensitivity made his hackles rise, putting him even more on edge. He’d been tiptoeing around Katy, trying to lift her mood most of the night, but it wasn’t working. And now, he’d had enough. He couldn’t watch his friend fall in lust with this girl, or see them make love-heart eyes at each other again.
“Let’s go to the beach then,” Miranda pressed. She clearly didn’t want the night to end, and who would with a man like Connor fawning over them? He wasn’t ashamed to say that he was gorgeous, especially in the dark shirt and jacket he wore. Sleek and suave, with piercing dark eyes. But the parts that really made him, well… him, were covered or tamed down. The unruly waves his spikey hair was growing into were held in place by product and the intricate tattoos adorning his right arm from shoulder to wrist, his ribs and his shoulder were hidden from view. The script on his ribs was so detailed Levi had found himself wanting to trace it, to follow the curls and blunt lines along his side. But Levi’s curiosity would remain unsated. Dudes didn’t do that to each other.
Miranda’s next comment dragged him out of his head and back into the conversation. “A walk would do us some good after this dessert.” And it probably would, but there was no way he could go with them. A fierce streak of something ran through him when Connor turned to Miranda—surely he was just feeling protective of him. The desire, almost a desperate need for Connor to also say no gripped him. All he wanted was to end the night with the three of them together at home relaxing on the couch together. It made no sense for him to be jealous, but dammit, he was. He’d only just gotten his friend back, and now that Miranda had sunk her claws in, Levi was going to lose him again. He just knew it. The knowledge sent a sharp jolt through his heart, like a knife plunging in, the loss so intense his breath caught. He watched as Connor studied Miranda. His gaze held hers as if he was looking for something, searching. He thought the pain was acute, but instead, it overwhelmed him, like the knife was being twisted violently, when he saw Connor slowly nod, a small smile playing on his lips.
“Sure.”
He was still holding Katy’s hand. The extra pressure she applied, even though it was minute and for barely a second was enough to tell him he wasn’t the only one it was killing. Or maybe it was wishful thinking on Levi’s part—he shouldn’t want his girlfriend to be jealous of her friend going on a date with his best mate, to share his confusion and the crushing blow to his heart.
“Sorry to be a downer, but I hurt my ankle this afternoon. I don’t wanna aggravate it by walking. You two enjoy yourselves.” Katy’s words were a surprise to Levi. Was he so wrapped up in himself that he hadn’t seen her limping? She hadn’t said anything to him, but had he just missed it? He turned to her, concern for her blocking out the pain in his heart. He cupped her face with his free hand, wanting, wishing he could fix everything. She leaned into his touch and kissed his palm, and that simple gesture healed him, gave him the strength to put aside the clusterfuck in his heart and protect her.
“Let’s get you home and get it strapped.”
“Yeah.” Katy squeezed his hand again. “Thank you,” she mouthed.
The drive back to their house was quiet, Katy as lost in her own world as Levi was. The light he’d stopped at turned from red to green, and he moved automatically, following roads he’d travelled down more times than he could count, taking them home without conscious thought. He pulled into the drive and paused, looking at the now empty space next to his car where Connor had been parking.
“I should sell my bike. Make room for Con in the garage. He’s worked too hard on his car to have it sitting outside overnight.” He didn’t want to, but he would. Connor deserved it, deserved to have a place of his own.
Katy jerked in her seat to face him, alarm written on her features. “No, you shouldn’t.” Katy’s vehemence surprised him. He thought she’d appreciate getting rid of crates of unassembled bike parts and the frame which took up half the space in the garage. “That Harley is your baby. You can’t get rid of it.”
