Page 227 of The Friend Situation

“Now you’re just being a facetious asshole,” I throw back at him, laughing but also knowing this conversation is over.

After a few more drinks, I kick his ass at pool, and then we decide to call it a night.

“If you need anything, you can always call me,” Asher says as I climb into my car.

“Only if it has nothing to do with my sister, right?” I throw back at him.

“Correct.” He crosses his arms over his chest and smirks.

My driver takes me the short distance home while my thoughts swirl like the bourbon I drank.

When I walk into the penthouse, Carlee is lying on the couch, wearing nothing but a T-shirt and panties. As soon as she sees me, her face lights up. I sit beside her, and she climbs onto my lap, straddling me.

“I missed you,” she says as she tastes my lips. “Bourbon.”

I lean in, kissing her again more eagerly, growing hard underneath her. “I missed you so damn much.”

“What’s wrong?” she asks, leaning back to get a better look at me. “Don’t say nothing. I can tell.”

“Billie’s company is in bigger trouble than I thought,” I explain. The weight of it is heavy on my shoulders. “Asher will ruin her since she’s too stubborn to ask him for help.”

Carlee laughs against my lips. “You’re such a good big brother. But I think I know how we can fix this.”

“How?” I ask, hoping she has the answer.

“Let’s hook them up. We’re awesome matchmakers. Harper could help us,” she suggests, her eyes sparkling as she bites her lip.

I tilt my head. Skepticism paints across my face. “I don’t think you understand, babe. They want to gouge each other’s eyes out. If Asher was lying in the middle of the road, waving for help, my sister would take him like a speed bump, going thirty miles per hour. It’s not the cutesyoh, they like each otherkind of hate. She fucking despises him. And it’s mutual. They can’t even be in the same room together.”

“That just means the sex would be scorching hot,” she says, rolling her hips.

My girl is becoming a love optimist. A few months ago, she was the biggest pessimist I knew.

“I’ve heard hate sex issogood.”

My thumbs dig into her hips, and I groan as she continues rocking against me.

“We have an incredible track record.” The way she says it, with that mischievous look in her eye, makes me wonder if she might actually be onto something.

“He did make a joke about helping her if she’d fake date him,” I reply, caught between how ridiculous the idea is and the possibility of it working. “They’d destroy one another.”

“Maybe it wasn’t a joke, and there’s some truth to it?” she urges. “Most people don’t just say things to say them. Could be what he really wants.”

“Fuck,” I hiss out, needing her like I need air. “You might be right.”

Carlee leans in, and her warm breath sends a shiver down my spine.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Her voice is a sultry whisper.

“The only thing on my mind right now is the thought of beingburied deep inside my wife,” I mutter in her ear, my fingers gently massaging her scalp.

“You must be a mind reader,” she says, wiggling out of her panties.

When she climbs on top of me, and I slide deep inside her, everything fades away. And it’s just us, desperate and breathless.

37

CARLEE

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