Fake Married to My Best Friend’s Daddy by Sofia T Summers
Prologue: Adrian
Looking out over the city, the world looked mesmerizing from up above, even in the cold nipping air of the March evening. I admired the golden lights of the sprawling city and the riverfront below. In another life, I might have lived in a place like this. I would’ve been young, single, and eager to take on the world, yet my life didn’t work out that way.
“As happy as I am to help you,” I admitted. “What we’re doing…, well, it can’t get out.”
I couldn’t think of the word I was supposed to use. Several glasses of red wine and one beautiful face were muddling all my good sense.
Jessica smiled. “I know, Adrian. I feel the same way. Nobody needs to know what we’re doing.”
“For the sake of everyone else…,” I sighed.
“It’s safer this way,” she finished for me.
As the frozen wind bullied its way onto the warm balcony, a cluster of little white flakes began to fall against my turtleneck sweater. The weatherman had predicted some light snow, but he said nothing about goose feathers. Downy and large, the snow floated down in feather-like clumps. It was slow and then all at once.
None of it seemed real. Golden streetlights illuminated the nearby bridges. The city of Norfolk felt oddly quiet and peaceful. I could hear the soft sounds of piano and a saxophone playing some languid melody along with the voice of a Spanish singer. With the last of the season’s snow, it felt all like some glorious dream, but I’d never been one for vivid dreams. My mind couldn’t create such flowing dark hair or warm brown eyes. As Jessica’s smile shined brighter than the city around her, her olive-toned hands reached out into the air.
“I caught one!” She laughed, watching the fluffy feather of ice melt in her palm. “Let me catch another.”
While I leaned against the metal railing, she repeated the process a few times. I wasn’t the only one who had been drinking, but the wine didn’t make laughter bubble out of me. It didn’t bring wonder to my eyes or a wide Cheshire-cat grin to my lips.
There was so much about Jessica Cartier that seemed too warm and lovely to exist in such a cold reality. My whole body felt flushed with a growing heat, and I couldn’t blame it all on the wine. Some deep part of it came from the young woman beside me.
I knew I shouldn’t have been thinking about her in that way. Vibrant and effervescent, she deserved more than I could ever offer her, but it didn’t stop my dreaming or my admiration. My hands still ached to reach out and discover the curves of her feminine figure.
Giving up on her ambition to capture the snow, Jessica sighed, “Isn’t it beautiful, Adrian?”
“Yes,” I answered, my words spilling out before I could think them through. “You are beautiful, Jessica.”
She laughed at the remark, nudging my arm with her elbow. The sound was much like the wine we’d shared: rich, a little sweet, and making me feel desperate for more.
“Don’t start giving me a big head,” she joked. “It’s large enough as it is.”
“Alright,” I laughed along.
With a content exhale, Jessica’s eyes wandered out onto the snow starting to fall with more fervor. She tugged at the ballooning sleeves of her scarlet belted dress, tucking her palms into the fabric.
“I’ve been living on my own for years now,” she remarked. “I wonder what it’s going to be like sharing a space with another person.”
“You’ll have the upstairs to yourself,” I promised her. “I doubt we'll have too much to worry about.”
“I don’t know,” she teased. “Will it be safe for me to come downstairs in my pajamas? Should I get a big fluffy robe to cover myself? I don’t want to make you flustered, Adrian.”
“You don’t need sleepwear to do that,” I let slip once more.
My words were running away with themselves, and I couldn’t stop them. All my good sense was long gone. It had been washed away in the wine and the magic of the late-winter storm. Nothing was holding me back. Somewhere inside the condo, Jessica’s Latin Jazz record faded to its end, but I couldn’t tell. The melodies continued as I remained a captive of Jessica’s dark-eyed gaze.
“Maybe I should be the one to worry,” she murmured back. “I don’t know many girls that could resist a blue-eyed boy.”
“I'm not a boy,” I pointed out.
“No… no, you’re not.”
Her eyes were all I could see. I couldn’t feel the cold winter night or hear the few cars passing below. Every aspect of Jessica overwhelmed all my senses. Tipsy from the wine, I became entirely drunk on the smell of her perfume that left the scent of citrus and night-blooming flowers on her neck. It lured me closer until we were just inches apart.
“Nobody has to know,” I murmured, echoing the words Jessica used earlier.
“No,” she agreed. “They won’t.”
As she spoke, her lips were so close that they brushed against the corner of my mouth. Another heatwave washed over me, and I gave up. I stopped the feelings I’d been denying all evening long. I allowed my hands to trace the length of her arms before resting around her neck. Her mouth tasted of the wine that had both our heads spinning, and her pouting lips molded against mine. Jessica’s palms pressed against my chest, and they felt cool even through the fabric of my black sweater.
“You’re getting cold,” I remarked.
Slowly and deeply, I savored the taste of Jessica’s kiss one more time before she replied.
“Maybe we should go inside then,” she suggested.
My feet followed hers just as if we were dancing to the music that had stopped playing. It wasn’t far to reach the long tufted teal couch. Swept away in the feel of her body against mine, my body fell against hers, and Jessica’s cascade of dark hair spread across the assortment of colorful pillows.
She was better than any vision I could’ve ever conceived. It had been so long since I’d touched a woman like this, and months of latent desire were all pouring out. My mind was swirling with a thousand different feelings, and they all centered around her.
“Tell me to stop,” I urged Jessica, my lips trailing back behind her ear.
“I can’t,” she answered breathlessly. “I don’t want to.”
Pulling the sash around her waist was too easy. Jessica’s dress fell open, offering me the skin I’d been dying to kiss. I didn’t even take the time to appreciate the sheer black lace covering her full breasts. My teeth brushed along the delicate fabric as I sought to experience more of Jessica. I could hardly hear the sound of her soft gasps over my own pounding heart.
There was so much I craved. My finger gripped the curve of her hips, digging into the softness of her skin. My lips ventured across each breast and around her stomach, yet it wasn’t enough. I didn’t have the strength to stop myself from traveling down between her devastating legs. As Jessica ran her hands through my hair, my need only got worse.
“Do you want this, Jessica?” I asked in a darkened tone.
“Yes,” she pleaded without hesitation. “Please, Adrian.”
It was nothing for me to cast aside the flimsy bit of lace she wore as underwear. It just took two fingers and Jessica’s assistance, pulling up her legs before widening them again. The place I found felt like a haven from the winter storm growing outside.
I got lost in her taste and the heat of her skin. Teasing her with my tongue, Jessica writhed, but my grasp fastened her in place. She wouldn’t be getting away from me now. I just couldn’t let her.
“Yes,” she whimpered again, her legs spreading wider in eagerness.
This beautiful firebrand was molten hot and melting against my touch. Nothing about it felt possible, yet I couldn’t pull away. I refused to let go until Jessica burned up in her own euphoria, knowing that I was the man who provided her such satisfying pleasure.
Caught up in the fantasy, I became that person for one fleeting moment until a rush of pleasure washed over Jessica. Her spine arched. Her breath caught, and the newfound satisfaction cooled her fire to smoldering embers just as red as the rumpled dress beneath her.
I savored every bit of her that I could, kissing the softness of her inner thigh as Jessica caught her breath beneath me. I didn’t want to come up for air. I had no interest in leaving this room or her body, but my racing heart began to worry.
How was I ever going to survive with the radiant Jessica Cartier living under my roof?
