A Tempting Friendship (Clover Park #10) Read online

  A Tempting Friendship

  The Clover Park Series, Book 10

  © 2016 Kylie Gilmore

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  Even Angels have their limits…

  Widow Julia Turner is finally ready to date again after five years of mourning her husband. She confides to her longtime friend Angel Marino that she’s signed up for an online dating site and is shocked when it’s Angel that shows up at her door on the night of her first date. And the look in his eye is anything but friendly.

  Angel has secretly been in love with Julia since college, and after fulfilling his promise to his deceased best friend to watch over her these past years, he can’t stand idly by and watch her date another man. It’s time to unleash the sexy for a seduction that’s been a long time coming.

  Author’s Note

  Welcome to Clover Park where everyone gets lucky! To find out more about Ryan, Trav, Shane, Rico, Gabe and other Clover Park hotties, check out the rest of the books in the Clover Park series:

  Get the entire Clover Park series

  The Opposite of Wild (Book 1)

  Daisy Does It All (Book 2)

  Bad Taste in Men (Book 3)

  Kissing Santa (Book 4)

  Restless Harmony (Book 5)

  Not My Romeo (Book 6)

  Rev Me Up (Book 7)

  An Ambitious Engagement (Book 8)

  Clutch Player (Book 9)

  A Tempting Friendship (Book 10)

  And don’t miss my spinoff Clover Park STUDS series:

  Almost in Love (Book 1)

  Almost Married (Book 2)

  Almost Over It (Book 3)

  Almost Romance (Book 4)

  Click to see all of Kylie’s books on Amazon

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  Visit http://www.kyliegilmore.com for more fun stuff.

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  Chapter One

  “Welcome, ladies, to the very first Singles Book Club! I’m your hostess, Hailey Adams, also known as Clover Park’s one and only wedding planner! I hope to plan a wedding for each and every one of you! Now you might have noticed…”

  What in the world am I doing here? Julia Turner fidgeted in her seat and glanced around the circle of six women (and zero men) gathered at Something’s Brewing Café. All of them hanging on Hailey’s every word. Julia had only called Hailey out of sheer desperation. She couldn’t find a way forward with her best friend Angel Marino, not with their screwed-up history. Besides, Angel needed his freedom. He’d been looking after her ever since Brad died. Like she was his duty. She’d met him when she was only eighteen. Some part of him would always see her as that young girl. The only solution was for her to meet someone new, which would free Angel to find someone that truly deserved him.

  Five years she’d been a widow. Five years Angel had been a devoted friend. Five years he’d been everything she wanted and everything she couldn’t have—forbidden.

  Hailey flicked her strawberry blond hair, her pale blue eyes bright. “Since it’s just us ladies, I thought we’d open ourselves up to love with our first selection…” She paused and the women leaned in. “The Fierce trilogy!”

  “Ooh!” the women chorused. Except for Julia, who was fighting a full-on body blush. When she’d met Hailey at cooking class earlier this month, Hailey seemed to intuitively understand Julia’s predicament and handed her a business card, promising to help. The card read Hailey Adams, Love Junkie. Perhaps that should’ve been a red flag. The fact that Hailey was Clover Park’s wedding planner and notorious matchmaker should’ve been a red flashing light of danger. But now she was stuck. Hailey was giving her the extra-special treatment because she was a widow, going out of her way to make sure she was comfortable. The woman had given her a big hug and the sympathy eyes when she’d first arrived and saved her a seat right next to her. There was really no polite way to leave.

  “I heard the Fierce trilogy is so good!” Ally Bloom, a fellow teacher and friend, exclaimed from Julia’s other side. Ally was blond, young, excitable—the near opposite of Julia’s brunette, older than her twenty-eight years, weary self. Her friend was twenty-three and already open to new relationships after a recent breakup with her college boyfriend of four years. At that age, Julia had become a widow. Brad died a hero for his country during his last year of required army service. She’d married him at nineteen.

  When Julia had mentioned the book club to Ally, her friend immediately decided they both had to go.

  “Fierce Longing, Fierce Craving, and Fierce Loving,” Ally announced the titles of the trilogy, her voice rising with each book. “It sounds so passionate!”

  Hailey piped up. “Now it is erotic romance, but there’s no BDSM, so I hope that’s okay with you ladies.” She pointed at each of them, her perfectly manicured pink fingernail daring them to speak up or forever hold their peace.

  Ally whispered something to the woman next to her, Lauren, who whispered back, and then they both nodded enthusiastically. In fact, every single one of the twentysomething women looking for love enthusiastically agreed. Except Mad, short for Madison, a woman with short fire-engine-red dyed hair and a black T-shirt that proclaimed Crazy Bitch. Mad jerked her chin and said, “Whatever. I’m only here because I lost a bet.” This, of course, they all knew because she’d announced when she arrived that her older brother had “suckered her into it,” but she felt the need to remind them that she really didn’t want to be here.

  Mad’s older brother, Josh, the charming bartender from Garner’s Sports Bar & Grill, was supposed to be the token male at the book club and, as Hailey had informed them earlier, he’d failed to come through in her request to send any single male friends their way. It seemed that his usual interest in entertaining the ladies didn’t extend to reading a book of Hailey’s choosing.

  The pink fingernail of doom hovered in Julia’s direction, spiking her body temperature. She quickly busied herself looking for a ponytail holder in her purse. If she had her hair up, surely she’d cool off, this telltale blush would die down, and she could formulate a convincing response.

  The circle of women—Ally, Lauren, Mad, Carrie, Charlotte, and Hailey—fell silent.

  “Julia,” Hailey prompted.

  She jerked her head up, took in all the questioning faces, and felt a bead of sweat running down her spine. She yanked her hair into a high ponytail and pulled her sweater away from her overheated body. “What?”

  Hailey gave her a small, patient smile. “Will my choice of book be okay with you? We’ll be alternating fiction and nonfiction, so it won’t always be smutty, sinful—” she paused to fan herself “—juicy stuff. This is just to make us more open to meeting someone. Getting us in the mo-o-od for love.” She lifted a finger and addressed the room. “I will find some men for book club.” She turned to Julia. “You are here because you’re ready to meet someone, correct?”

  Julia swallowed hard, opened her mouth and closed it again. Incorrect. She really wasn’t ready to meet anyone, but she had to do something to fix the mess she’d made between her and Angel. Their screwed-up history was all on her. She’d crossed the line; she had to fix it.

  Sex ruined everything.

  Sleeping with Angel the night of Brad’s funeral had been the worst mistake of her life. Even worse than the first time she’d slept with Angel. The guilt and shame over that, both times, had been overwhelming, but what nearly killed her was Angel bailing on her. Both times. Everyone important in her life bailed on her—her bir
th mom, Brad, and, worst of all, Angel.

  The last time they’d screwed had nearly destroyed their friendship. Nearly destroyed her. Angel stopped visiting, only called, and when they talked, he was distant. She didn’t see him for an excruciating month. Between the loss of Brad and the loss of Angel, she thought she would die. When Angel finally did stop by, he was so closed off, barely looking at her, no trace of the old teasing Angel around.

  He hadn’t touched her since, not even in a friendly gesture. Five long years. She knew he must’ve regretted it as much as she did.

  They could never cross that line again. Forbidden.

  She blinked as Hailey squatted in front of her in a pink cashmere sweater and pink pants, looking directly into Julia’s eyes. Hailey spoke in a careful, measured tone like Julia might freak out at any minute. “How about we just read the first chapter of the first book, Fierce Longing, out loud to see if it works for you. Would that be okay?”

  Julia’s palms were sweating. She never liked to be the center of attention. She focused on Hailey’s pink shoulder, unable to sustain the direct eye contact. She was no prude. She just wasn’t quite prepared for…this.

  “Come on, Julia,” Ally called. “Don’t be such a good girl.”

  Julia was not a good girl. It was a shameful, painful fact that she had to live with.

  “No shaming, ladies,” Hailey announced, rising to her feet and taking them all in. “We all have personal circumstances that may be, uh, personal.”

  “Can we just get on with this?” Mad asked, slouching further in her chair and crossing her black work boots over each other. “I’m so bored I could spit.”

  “There’s no call for that,” Hailey said primly. She took her seat and pursed her pink lips. “We would’ve liked to see your brother here today.”

  Mad rolled her eyes. “Everyone wants to see my brother.” She looked around the café. “Any chance I can get a cup of joe?”

  “Please do,” Hailey said. “Anyone else want a drink while I chat with Julia?”

  Julia stiffened. She did not want to have a probing heart-to-heart with Miss Perky. “I’m sure whatever book you picked will be just fine.”

  “Yay!” Ally did a little clap of glee.

  Ten minutes later, everyone settled with their drinks. Hailey stood, holding an e-reader, behind Julia’s chair. “Ready for Fierce Longing? If you all like it, we can get the other two books too.”

  “Hold up,” Charlotte, a personal trainer wearing a long black tunic and black yoga pants, said. “Is this a cliffhanger?”

  “I think so,” Hailey said. “It’s the same couple in all three.”

  “Now we have to read all three,” Charlotte moaned.

  The other ladies grumbled about not having the whole story up front. Julia shifted in her seat. Were they really going to spend three weeks of book club getting turned on…together? When she’d signed up for a singles book club, she hadn’t imagined getting turned on in front of a bunch of women. She’d pictured polite conversation with single men, helped along by Hailey’s cheerful prompts. This was going to be so embarrassing. But then Hailey began to read in her clear, crisp tones, and she made the story come to life.

  Damon Ryder was an ordinary man with extraordinary powers of persuasion. He brokered deals that could not be brokered, negotiated the nonnegotiable, and brought his talents equally to whatever woman he wanted. And, this time, he wanted librarian Mia Lilly. He didn’t care that she was his best friend’s little sister, a dewy innocent twenty-two to his thirty, unused to the rougher passions. He’d wanted her before she left for college, and now that she’d returned home, he’d have her. Damon Ryder took what he wanted.

  Julia crossed her legs tightly and avoided eye contact with the other women.

  Hailey went on in a hushed voice. He waited in the shadows outside of the library for Mia. She strode at a brisk pace down the sidewalk, her purse held tightly in one hand as she made her way to her car. Damon grabbed her from behind and pulled her into the shadows, quickly muffling her scream with his hand. Hailey lowered her voice to a husky tone that approximated a man startlingly well. “Mia, you know me. Come with me.” He did not ask, he demanded, expecting full compliance.

  The throbbing between Julia’s legs intensified. It had been five years since she’d been with a man.

  Hailey went on. He turned her to face him. Mia’s hand flew to her throat, but he could see the hidden banks of desire in her wide brown eyes. He knew what she longed for, what she craved.

  “Damon, you scared me.” Hailey’s voice played a breathy feminine tone. The woman should’ve been an actress. Damon wrapped her long, dark brown hair around his fist. “That was not my intent.” He didn’t miss the flush to her cheeks, nor her rapid breathing. He tilted her head, using his grip on her hair to expose her pale throat. Her scent, roses and intoxicating Mia, filled him with lust. He placed his lips on the rapidly beating pulse of her neck, and she let out a tiny gasp. He lifted his head, still holding her in a tight grip. “Get in the car, Mia. It’s time.”

  “T-time for what?”

  “Time to satisfy this fierce longing,” Damon growled.

  “Oh,” she said on a shaky breath. She licked her lips, the movement drawing his attention, quickening his pulse.

  “Do you deny me?” Damon demanded.

  “No.”

  He guided her to the car, settling her in with great care, and took off. The Ferrari, like the man, roared with barely leashed power. “Do you remember your safe word?”

  “Where are we going?” Mia squeaked.

  “We’re going to my estate, where you will learn the depth of your passion and I will slake mine. We can only do this if I know you remember the word you chose upon your return to Longwood. Say it and everything stops.”

  Hailey paused.

  “Keep going!” the women chorused. Except Julia, who was soaked with desire and a fierce longing just like the book’s title. Having Hailey behind her made it surprisingly easy to get into the story. The voices felt so real, the tension, the attraction. She kept her gaze fixed on a small dark knot in the wood of the floor, not wanting the other women to notice how flushed she felt.

  Hailey placed a hand on Julia’s shoulder, making her jump. “Are you okay so far, Julia? I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.”

  Julia shook her head, her cheeks burning. “I’m fine!” she squeaked. “Don’t worry about me. This is fine. Great. No problem at all.”

  “Sure?” Hailey asked.

  “Just get on with it!” Mad barked.

  Hailey continued with the darkly erotic scene that took place on Damon’s luxury dining room table, followed by a shared bath to soothe Mia before the ultimate seduction in his bedroom, where he’d never allowed another woman before. Mia didn’t use her safe word even once. Julia wouldn’t have either. Not with a man like Damon. She pushed a sweaty tendril of hair off her forehead just as Hailey announced, “And that’s chapter one, ladies. Read on your own and we’ll chat about it at our next meeting in two weeks.”

  There was no way in hell Julia was going to “chat” about something that got her off like this book did. If she’d been alone, she very well might’ve—

  “Or we could go right to the nonfiction choice,” Hailey said in a tone that said the boring choice. She took her seat again next to Julia. “It’s called Rejuvenate Your Life Through Decluttering. It might be good before the New Year.” New Year’s Day was only two days away.

  “Boo,” the women chorused.

  “I’d like that one, please,” Julia said, earning a groan from her fellow single women looking for love.

  Hailey held up a hand. “I want everyone to feel comfortable. We’ll do the nonfiction choice next time as Julia requested. Please read Fierce Longing on your own, if you like.” She flashed a quick grin. “I sure will.”

  The women gathered their purses and coats. Ally gave Julia a small smile. “I’ll let you know how Fierce Longing is. Maybe you’l
l change your mind.”

  “No, that’s okay,” Julia said, avoiding eye contact as her cheeks and neck burned. “You just enjoy it on your own. I’m going to grab that other book. See ya.” She hurried through the archway that led to the attached bookstore.

  “Happy New Year!” Ally called.

  “You too!” she returned with a quick glance over her shoulder. Ally waved jauntily with a big smile and headed out the door with the other women. Julia tried to think cooling thoughts as she went to the nonfiction section.

  Hailey appeared at her side. “I hope I haven’t offended you.”

  Far from it. “Not at all,” Julia replied sincerely. “I’m just much more interested in nonfiction.” Not really. She grabbed the book that was face-out, Rejuvenate Your Life Through Decluttering, and under that title was a bold promise in big letters, “Add joy to your life!” Julia stared at it for a moment, hoping it was true. She could really use some joy in her life. A part of her died with her husband, Brad. Even his name, Turner, stuck with her, a constant reminder. Even though it would be easier to go back to her maiden name, MacKendrick, some part of her couldn’t sully his memory by slashing away his name. She wouldn’t be the person she was today without him. His extroverted, energetic personality had brought her out of her shell, introducing her to a party lifestyle, a social life she’d never had before. She’d spent most of high school at home reading; sometimes she read side-by-side with her equally introverted best friend. She rarely went out, never had a boyfriend. In college, with Brad at her side, she’d connected with people for the first time. Her throat got tight. Dammit. She definitely needed rejuvenation.

  She glanced at Hailey, who smiled. The woman reminded Julia of a beautiful princess from a fairy tale. The kind that would sing to the forest animals. “I’ll go pay for this.”

  She took the book to the register, and Hailey followed. It seemed Hailey wasn’t done with her yet.

  “Find everything you need today?” the woman behind the register asked. She had dark brown hair in a braid and black-rimmed glasses. She looked a little like Julia imagined the bookish Mia, minus the glasses.