Trapped with My Best Friend’s Dad by Flora Ferrari

Chapter Fifteen

Rayla

I sit in the living room, staring down at my feet, as guilt barrels through me. Twisting up my insides, crushing through everything I am, through everything I thought I was.

A loyal friend, a good person.

But it happened again. My desire for Roman exploded and suddenly it was like I wasn’t even in control, with the need pounding through me, deafening me to everything else. When he pushed his hand against my sex, my resolve melted and my core grew sopping wet, and then as he rubbed, I knew I was going to cream soon for him.

But then the alarm blared. Somebody was in the house.

“Of course it wasn’t Millie,” I murmur, shaking my head.

One of the doors blew open in the storm, setting off the alarm. Roman has fixed it and adjusted the alarm’s settings now.

“She would’ve used her key.” Roman laughs gruffly from the other side of the room. “I guess we’ve got guilty consciences, don’t we?”

I look up, my gaze roaming over him. He sits in the armchair, leaning back, his strong jaw tense and his iron hair messy from where he keeps rubbing his fingers through it. He holds Tanker in his lap, absentmindedly stroking him. When our eyes meet, he turns to the window, to the lake, as though he can’t stand to look at me.

Shivers course me because I know why he can’t look at me. He gets too excited, the same way the excitement blares up inside of me when I look at him.

“Yes, I’d say so.” I sigh. “It’s so wrong, isn’t it, Roman?”

“But it feels so damn right. That’s the most twisted part.”

“Maybe she’d be okay.”

He looks at me coldly. “Do you really believe that?”

“I don’t know,” I say, anxiety making my tone shiver. “Millie is the most accepting person I’ve ever met. She’s kind and loving and caring and—”

“And even if all of that’s true – and it is, I know it is – she’s got every right to hate us both. Forever. You know that. We’re the two closest people in her life and if we’re together. It’s going to be a big change for her.”

“So then why do you keep…”

I leap up and wave my arms, as too much emotion rushes through me, making it difficult to speak.

“Keep what?” he growls.

“Keep tempting me,” I cry, letting out a shaking sigh. “If you know this can’t work, why do we keep doing this? We should just forget. Just ignore each other for the rest of the trip and then make sure we never see each other again.”

“Yeah. That’s what we should do, for Millie’s sake.”

I fold my arms. “Fine, then we’ve got a plan.”

He rises slowly, giving Tanker time to hop onto the arm of the chair. His body is heaving as he walks over to me.

Stopping just short, he stares. “I said we should do that, not that it’s what I want to do. Not that I think we can do it. I don’t know if I can resist you. I… I need you, Rayla. But maybe…”

“What?” she murmurs.

“It’s so difficult being around you because I’m an animal. I can’t stop thinking about how sexy you are. But maybe we should say – no more sex stuff, not until after we’ve decided what to do with Millie.”

I can see how difficult it is for him to say that, his mouth a firm line, his features twisted. He glares at me as though he’s going to go back on the agreement before it’s even started.

“Could you do that?” I whisper.

He smirks. “Don’t ask me questions like that, angel. I don’t fucking know. But I can try.”

“I guess it would limit it, huh?”

He nods. He doesn’t need to ask what it is. He knows I’m talking about our shared guilt.

“I can’t imagine us not spending time together while we’re stuck here.” He shrugs his massive shoulders. “So the only other option is for me to try and be a good boy… but that means you have to be a good girl too. No tempting me with that fine body of yours.”

Giggling, I shake my head. “I wouldn’t know how to tempt you if I tried.”

“Then you’re even sexier. You do it without trying.”

“I thought we said—”

“You’re right,” he growls. “I said no sex talk. Maybe you’d like to come and help me with something else instead then.”

“What?”

He gestures at Tanker, who stands just off to the side, head cocked and eyes moving between us as though he’s trying to understand. “I got him a new toy I haven’t tried yet. Should we give it a go?”

I can read his body, the way he throbs and pulses as though he’s gathering all his primal energy and getting ready to unleash it in one massive storm, even larger and more turbulent than the one crashing and destroying outside.

The bigger storm is in him, in me, in us, waiting to consume us.

But we have to play this game, pretend that we don’t want each other.

No more sex stuff. Dirty talk. Intimate stuff.

I try to tame the neediness writhing through me each moment, tempting me to leap at him, to wrap my legs around his waist in the confidence that he’d catch me when no other man would.

“Sure,” I say, nodding. “That sounds nice. What is it?”

Roman smirks, that special way his lips have of dancing like he knows the punchline to a joke and I can’t even guess at the setup. It’s the smirk that tells me he’s going to be an amazing father…

But he already is an amazing father. To Millie.

I know he’ll be the same to our children too.

Stop it, stop these thoughts, I scream silently, powerlessly.

“That would ruin the surprise.” He offers me his hand. “Let’s go.”

I should bat his hand away, push him to the side and tell him I’d never go anywhere with him. He’s Millie’s dad and that’s too big, too important, too full of potential destruction to let this go any further.

But instead, I hold tightly onto him, praying he’ll never let go, as he leads me from the room.