Love, Lex

  “No.” I didn’t know him well enough. Heck I didn’t know him at all. But I did just give him my Lady V. It might be nice to go on a real date and get to know him better.

  “You’ll sleep in bed with me, bathe with me, and spend every minute of the day with me.”

  “Maybe,” I said, feeling my lips curve into a smile. I liked the sound of that. I kept thinking back to what he’d said moments ago about his love for curvy girls. How could I pass this up? “Where?”

  “Paris. We leave tonight on the last flight out.” Ford eyed me warmly. He knew I my plans were cancelled. He must’ve. It was on the news that my friends and I had plans to leave the country.

  How would it look if I went to Paris, tonight?

  I didn’t care. Mom was in rehab. Dad would be gone a few days getting her situated. Vive still needed time to cool off. And I needed Ford. I wanted to wake up in his arms, and learn more about him. “Deal!”

  I got my l’amour with Officer Ford Alessandro-Vollero-Gotti. We rented a room overlooking the Champs-Élysées. We ate chocolate cake for breakfast every morning and I said goodbye to Lady V over and over again.

  Taddy landed the magazine gig. Vive, Blake, and I were joining her in the Caribbean. Let’s face it, Taddy Brill and modeling didn’t exactly gel together. She was gorgeous but none of us wanted to pose for some silly photo shoot. Regardless, Taddy needs the money for her college tuition, and she wasn’t taking any handouts. We’d all tried to give her money, and she refused. I admired that about her.

  Before heading to the airport, I wrote Birdie a letter on pretty stationary from the Sherry Netherland. It read:

  Mom,

  Dad says your therapy is working and that you’re doing great. Yay! Before returning to Tokyo, we spent a few days together. He met Ford, the guy that I went to France with and am now officially dating. Dad liked him and invited us to Japan for Christmas.

  College starts soon. Can you believe it? I’m nervous. I’m excited. I’m off to the Caribbean. Thank you for getting Taddy the modeling contract.

  You and I have a long road ahead in mending our mother-daughter relationship. Dad shared with me that your substance abuse was more than pot and booze, but pills and other things. My heart hurts for you. Please for Daddy, me, and yourself, get better. I’ll be waiting for you Mommy when you get out.

  Love, Lex

  PS, Yesterday, Ford and I took my new motorbike that Daddy bought me for a ride. You’ll never guess who we passed, peddling his BMX bike on Madison Avenue. Kelle! Seems his DUI conviction cost him his Ferrari. Hahaha.

  Join the buddy read on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1701357-love-lex-discussion-group-buddy-read and get the dialogue going by asking the following questions:

  How would you have handled Kelle Sterling Dolley if you were in Lex’s situation?

  Would you ever tell a lie to keep your friends out of jail?

  What’s your fantasy? Is riding a motorcycle? Or would you like to go to Paris?

  Be sure to leave your review at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20567976-love-lex

  Get Undressed!

  Aren’t you dying to know who Lex Easton got her happily ever after with ten years later? Gurl, I thought so. I’ll give you three clues. He’s hung like an Evian water bottle, one of the richest men in the Mediterranean, and a real life, royal prince. Find out how Lex met her fiancé in my erotic romance novel Undressed (The Manhattanites #1): http://averyaster.com/undressed

  New York Times bestselling author Avery Aster writes the naughty romantic soap opera series of full-length, stand-alone novels, The Manhattanites and its juicy prequel companion The Undergrad Years. Talk Supe Book Reviews says that Avery’s narrative voice is a throwback to Judith Krantz, weaving dazzling tales of love, glitz, and drama while Ever After Romance reports Avery’s characters are like Sex and the City on steroids but younger and sexier. Avery graduated from New York University and lives on the Upper East Side.

  Connect with Avery

  Newsletter http://eepurl.com/CQ665

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  Website: http://www.AveryAster.com

  You must read the next installment in The Undergrad Years featuring Taddy Brill in Yours Truly, Taddy or I’ll never speak to you again, (wink). Here’s a sneak peak:

  The year is 2002 and eighteen-year-old Manhattanite Taddy Brill is taking names and kicking ass when her estranged father fails to pay for her Ivy League education. If Taddy doesn't come up with the money before school starts, her clique will enroll without her. Luckily, Taddy's modeling agent books her on a photo shoot for a famous fashion magazine in the Caribbean. She packs her bags and grabs her besties, Lex Easton, Blake Morgan, and Vive Farnworth, and they jet off to paradise for lights, cameras, and…candy?

  Oozing in European testosterone, Parisian photographer Gustave Le Cartier thinks that Taddy Brill is striking, but he cannot figure out why she struggles to exude her sensuality on film. Her defenses are up, and she’s rather…bitchy. Once Taddy confesses her fantasy of playing Princess Lolly in a grown-up version of Candy Land, Gustave’s photo assistants, Fabian Henri and Leon Lartigue, design a Licorice Castle, hoping she’ll get in touch with her own beauty. As they set foot in the Lollipop Woods and Gustave asks her to pose nude will Taddy play along?

  Add Yours Truly, Taddy the next installment in The Undergrad Years, to your Goodreads TBR shelf http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20567969-yours-truly-taddy and join Taddy Brill on her New Adult adventure.

  This novel goes to Lauren Hawkeye—a dear friend, mentor, and a constant inspiration. I adore you to Reese’s Pieces. Thank you for bringing The Undergrad Years to fruition. XOXO, Avery

  Special Acknowledgments

  Huge hugs to my family George, Pauline, and Adam for loving me. Thank you to my friends; Shane, Julie, Sara, Kelly, Shari, Edward, Manuel, Brenda, Holly, Michele, John, Nicole, Nackie, Bailee, Hector, and Lynn for not taking it personally when I’m locked up in my cave writing.

  Author-sub-love to Mistress Mel from S&M’s Book Obsessions for cheering me along, and Mistress Eagle, for reading an advanced copy. I’d be lost without my beta-readers Nicole and Miss Diamond, I love you. Much praise to Alex who edited this novel, you are the best in the industry, and I worship the ground you walk on. Cookie praise to Lee at Ironhorse for formatting this book, you’ve got the patience of a saint. Lastly, to Arijana at Cover It! Designs, you’re soon becoming an icon in the publishing industry, and I’m blessed to have you in my corner.

  Undressed (The Manhattanites #1)

  Unscrupulous (The Manhattanites #2)

  Add Avery’s Upcoming Releases to Your Goodreads TBR List

  http://www.goodreads.com/AveryAster

  in The Undergrad Years series

  Yours Truly, Taddy #2 April 14, 2014

  XO, Blake #3 July 14, 2014

  Always & Forever, Vive #4 September 15, 2014

  in The Manhattanites series

  Unsaid #3 Summer 2014

  Unique #4 Winter 2014

  Uncensored #5 Spring 2015

  Friend-Zoned

  by Belle Aurora

  Nik

  Tina is looking up into my eyes. She asks, “What color are your eyes?”

  Uh oh, she’s making goo-goo eyes at me. Crap, cut her loose and let her be on her way.

  ***

  Tina

  Nik shifts in his chair almost nervously as he replies, “Uh, I don’t really know. Like a gold-ish brown or somethin’.”

  I push the eye color thing. I tell him, “I’ve never seen eyes that color. It’s like warm honey.”

  He looks away and swallows hard before he says, “Uh, yeah, I guess.”

  Oh my, he is nervous.

  As he l
ooks toward the bookcase in the corner and I spy ink travelling up the back of his neck past the back of his ear. It’s black, thick, and looks tribal.

  Yummy.

  He won’t look me in the eye now and I wonder what I said to get a reaction like the one he’s giving me.

  I’m confused.

  Frowning, I take a look around his office while I try to figure him out. It’s nice. The walls are a pale sandy color. His desk is wooden and looks heavy. This desk was not bought at Ikea. This was the type of desk you bought at an antique store and had re-finished. It’s clearly mahogany (La dee dah!). And I notice the whole room is neat; not a stray paper in sight. I can’t even see my desk in Safira’s store room! It’s covered in papers, stock, and trash.

  Mental note; find your desk.

  There are two framed photos on the mahogany bookshelf in the corner of the office.

  One is of a little girl who is so beautiful, my heart aches. Her smile is pure sunshine and she is missing one of her front teeth. She has Nik’s eyes. The frame is bright pink with purple glittery butterflies around it.

  Aww, cute.

  The other frame is exquisite. It is thick silver with pieces of beige mother of pearl swirling through it. The photo is an old one, a family portrait it looks like. A tall, dark haired, middle aged man stands with his arms around a short but beautiful dark haired, dark eyed woman. The woman is very much pregnant. The man looks like Nik but he is pale skinned where Nik is much darker. Most importantly are the man’s eyes. They are Nik’s eyes. I’m going to take a stab and say these are Nik’s parents.

  Two small girls flank the couple, hugging them both around the legs. Hugging the two girls are two young men. Looking closer at this picture I can see Max’s cheeky dimpled smile and it confirms my earlier suspicions that Nik and Max are brothers. Both girls have their mother’s eyes; both boys have their father’s eyes. All the children got their mother’s beautiful skin tone. They are all laughing and smiling.

  Wow, I love this photo.

  Everyone in this picture is so happy. Like, blissfully happy. I think back to Nik and wonder what happened to his happiness.

  I take another look around but there is nothing else to note except a filing cabinet in the opposite corner of the room close to the door.

  No more photos, nothing at all personal, nothing to suggest he has a girlfriend or wife.

  Then it clicks.

  His reaction to my stupid questions. And I almost burst out laughing but manage to stop it and make a choked sound instead.

  He thinks I’m coming onto him!

  I mean, I can’t blame him for thinking that because he is beauty defined. And now that I’ve spent some time with him I realize I had nothing to be nervous about. He seems like a nice, well-mannered guy but still a little too broody for my liking.

  An idea enters my brain and before I can think about it and verbal diarrhea spews forth.

  ***

  Nik

  Tina spends a good few minutes looking around my office. Her eyes land on the family portrait which was taken a few months before Dad died.

  I realize she’s looking for photos of a wife or girlfriend.

  Here we go. She’s gonna make her move. I should’ve left the damn note thing alone.

  Tina makes a choked noise and I look up to find her trying to hold back a smile.

  Cut her loose and no one gets hurt. She’s too cute.

  She is too cute. Too cute to fuck and leave, she ain’t that type. I can tell. I spend a lot of time with girls like that and they normally have the same interests as me.

  Sex without strings.

  My body tenses.

  How do I turn her down without sounding like an asshole?

  Girls like Tina hurt easy. That’s why I don’t deal with girls like this.

  She’s smiling a small smile and waiting for me to say something. I don’t know what to say to her, she’s nervous as it is and doesn’t need me going all asshole on her.

  I start tapping my pen on the desk. I’m thinking so hard I’m sure she can see my brain moving around through my skull!

  I haven’t noticed she started to speak.

  “So we can be friends, right?”

  Wait, what?

  I stare at her, a frown forming at my mouth.

  Did I..? Did I just get Friend-zoned?

  I look over again to see Tina nodding vigorously and smiling brightly.

  Wow, this has never happened to me before. Girls usually come to the club knowing I got money; they ask me out or ask me to their place for a “drink”, which one hundred percent of the time ends up meaning sex.

  Tina takes my silence as her cue to speak again. “I mean we work right across the street from each other. We can do lunch sometimes and, Ooh,” she widens her eyes almost comically, “we can get together for coffee at Winnie’s!”

  She looks so excited at the prospect of us being friends, she’s practically bouncing up and down in her seat.

  You don’t need another friend. Definitely not a friend that’s a girl; too complicated. Cut her loose, man. You don’t need this shit.

  “Uh...”

  Just do it! Cut her loose. This is a mistake.

  I look into her sweet face and the words are out of my mouth before I realize.

  “Yeah, sure. We can be friends”

  What. The. Fuck?

  Where the hell did that come from?

  Before I can think about what just happened, Tina looks at me and smiles big. Her lips are a pale pink, not lipstick or gloss, but naturally. Her teeth are white and perfect. I tell myself to stop staring at her damn lips. So I focus on her eyes. Her eyes are slightly crinkled at the corners. Goddamn, even her eyes are smiling.

  Great. Just great, you moron.

  Tina stands abruptly, pushing the chair out so hard it almost flies backwards onto the floor. She snatches up one of my business cards out of the holder on the desk, smiles brightly at me and says, “Great! So I guess I’ll be seeing you around, friend!” enthusiastically waving my business card back and forth in the air like it’s a Polaroid picture. She finishes with, “I’ll be in touch.”

  And then she’s out the door. I sit back in my chair and my brow furrows once more as I scratch my chin.

  Seriously. What the fuck just happened?

  ~End of Excerpt~

  FRIEND-ZONED can be found online at your favorite bookseller

  Find Belle Aurora online here:

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  One Hot Fall Term

  by Sharon Page

  Mia

  Sitting tall, I ride Ryan, rocking my hips, milking him with my hands resting on his rock-hard abdomen. At first, taking him inside stuns me. He’s so big, his cock so thick and hard, I feel him everywhere. My breath is long gone. My heart is pounding at bursting speed. My eyes shut as I sink down on him—down, down, until his cock is all the way inside me. I can’t move. I swear it feels like his erection is in so deep and so high it’s touching my heart.

  His lashes fall over his eyes, his face contorts as my hips come down, swallowing up his huge, beautiful shaft. When I reach the very bottom, and my ass touches his thighs, we both stay there motionless. Our eyes meet.

  There’s moment when the world stops. When I don’t move. Where I’m not working to drive him to ecstasy or working at making this good. It’s a moment where we just…

  Connect.

  It’s…

  Amazing. But I don’t want him to see too deeply into me. I lift on him, drawing up on his cock until the head is just inside me, then I sink down again. But that doesn’t distract Ryan. His blue-eyed gaze burns me, it’s so hot.

  I close my eyes. Wanting this to be wild for him, I fuck him hard. The dock boards creak beneath us; water slaps against wood. I lift and pump down. Each st
roke tugs my pussy lips, the tension teases my clit, I’m moaning with the pleasure, but it’s not enough. I love Ryan, and this is special and beautiful, but I’m not going to…get there.

  Unless I play with myself, I never do.

  I want him to remember this, no matter what happens. I want him to lie in bed at his college dorm and fantasize about this night while he plays with his amazing cock. So I go crazy on him. My moans grow deeper, louder. I thrust harder, building this for him.

  We’re on the dock—anyone could walk out of the cabin, come down here, and see us. The risk is thrilling. The crazed urgency of this is hot.

  The thing is: he thinks this is my first time. Yet I don’t know if it is Ryan’s first sexual experience. I suspect it is. He’s never pushed for more than kissing. We dated for three months before he put his hand on my breast, and I had to grope his butt first before he tried it.

  He fumbled at bit with the condom, though he did it okay.

  What if I am his first? I feel a jolt of agony deep in my pussy at the thought. But the pressure to be spectacular is intense. I fight constantly to forget my first time. For Ryan, I want his first to be treasured.

  I grasp his hands and pull them over his head, so I have him pinned, and I pump on him, grind on him, do everything I can to fuck his brains out.

  His hips jerk up, thrusting his cock deep into me, lifting me up in the air. His strength is awesome. It’s time for me to come all over him. To draw on the best of my acting talents,

  I wish this time it could be real. But it won’t be, and he’s breathing hard, and I want him to come. I sense he’s not going to let go of his orgasm until he has satisfied me. My moans become desperate cries of agony, as if I’m climaxing and it’s tearing me apart. But my cries stay carefully quiet —so no one in the cabin hears me. If anyone comes down, Ryan would stop, I fear.