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The Jerk
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
Asking for a Friend A Promise
LAYTON“Drop me?” His eyes widened, even as he shook his head from side to side. “They won’t drop me. I’ve always done great work for them. They love me.”Yeah, I was sure they did. But disagreements happened. It happened that sometimes your ‘great work’ still wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t here to give him career advice, though.I shrugged and changed the subject instead. “How are your folks?”“I don’t know,” he said lightly. “It’s not like I have time to catch up with them all the time.”Boy, he really was a douche. “You haven’t managed to carve out time to speak to them in so long you don’t even know how they are?”“You know how it goes,” he shot me a ‘you understand’ smirk. “Life gets busy. You lose touch with people. But hey, I heard about your dad passing away. I’m sorry.”“Thanks.”Brice’s gaze shifted from mine to out the window behind me. “He came to look for me once, you know.”“He did?” Yet another nugget of information that would have been handy to have known. My dad really
Asking for a Friend Cause a Scene
MARISSAAt the end of day two at the office with no sign of Layton, I was starting to wonder if he’d taken a permanent leave of absence simply for the purpose of avoiding me. There were many things I could say about him, but I never thought he was a coward. Well, not seriously. I was starting to wonder, though.I had no idea how much money he inherited from his dad or how much of his own he had, but it stood to reason that he had more than enough to never have to work again. It was within the realm of possibility that he caught a first class flight to a tropical island and was sipping cocktails on the beach with a busty local on each arm, laughing about the naive woman he’d left behind.Okay, so maybe the last bit was a little too much. He wouldn’t be laughing about me. He probably never even thought about me. Especially if he really did have scantily clad island girls on his arms.Just the thought of his touching someone else made my heart sink and ache, but I pushed it away. Whateve
Asking for a Friend Protecting Her
MARISSAPressing my lips together, I dropped my chin to my chest and took a deep breath. “Well, actually. Um, about that.”“You’ve spoken to him?” Lines formed on her forehead as her eyes shot wide open. “Why didn’t you tell me?”Shifting on my feet, I kicked out my heels and stared deeply into my wineglass. “I didn’t speak to him, exactly. I just heard what he had to say.”Denise buried her head in her hands, groaning. “Uh-oh, that’s a ’guilty Marissa’ face if I ever saw one. What did you do?”“I didn’t do—” seeing the way she was reacting, I knew she already knew I’d done something. Might as well tell her. “I listened to a message he left for me.”“Oh,” she visibly relaxed, lifting her head and taking her glass back into her hand. “That’s not bad. Why did you look so guilty for listening to one of your own messages?”“It wasn’t actually mine, well it really was, but—it was on the machine in his office,” I admitted, taking a big gulp of wine. It was crisp and cold, exactly what I nee
Asking for a Friend No Excuses
LAYTONDelayed flights were the bane of my existence. Especially when they’re delayed indefinitely, which was what happened with my flight from New York back to Boston. There was a storm somewhere and we had to wait for it to pass before our metal tube could take to the skies.I was more than anxious to get home, but no amount of pacing, knee bouncing or glaring at the sky got me there faster. And trust me, I gave all those things a very fair shot to work.As it was, I was now five days late for my date with Annie and Marissa. All the flights back to Boston were full on Monday after my talk with Brice. I got a flight on Tuesday morning, but then the storm rolled in and eventually, I only got in on Wednesday night.Making things right with Marissa was going to be a nightmare. She still hadn’t returned any of my calls, she didn’t read my messages and I had no way of knowing whether she’d listened to any of the voice messages I left.My intention for going to New York was good, but my ex
Asking for a Friend Telling Her the Truth
LAYTONHearing that I’d received another video made Marissa frown, but she was still not looking at me. “I wasn’t even going to watch it at first, but then I saw I had a few minutes to spare and popped it in to get the gist of it. Just so it didn’t bother me all day and distract me from you guys.”Her frown deepened. I could see the retort forming on her lips, but I jumped back in before she could say anything. “If the video were about business or me or my dad, I would have stuck to the plan. But it wasn’t about us. It was about you.”Confusion replaced some of the anger in her eyes, but she still refused to look directly at me. I saw the muscles in her legs unlock, though. I didn’t think she was poised to run anymore. She was actually listening. “You and I never talked about Annie’s father and that was okay. As it turns out, my dad knew who he was and sent me on a mission to talk to him.”“Talk to him?” Her eyes became the size of saucers. “Please tell me you didn’t.”“I can’t do tha
Asking for a Friend Making Up
MARISSALayton loved me? What?The shock of the moment was cut short when his lips came crashing down onto mine. My own lips parted without conscious command, like they were welcoming home their best friend and long lost lover all at once.His arms circled my waist, holding me tightly to him as he devoured me. I could feel the emotion he was pouring into the kiss, including the longing and the silent plea for me not to leave.My mind and my heart were at war, the one shrieking that we had to get out of here while the other was quietly convincing me to stay. Before I even knew what I was doing, my hands were in his hair and I was obeying the quiet command.What he did when he went to see Brice was the most thoughtful thing anyone had ever done for me. I didn’t care that he did it because his father told him to, he was still the one who had confronted my worst nightmare, and lived to tell the tale.I was still stunned to learn Brice and Layton had been friends, but I couldn’t bring myse
Asking for a Friend Changing the Routine
LAYTONOn that Thursday morning, I was at Marissa’s door an hour before she was due to arrive at work. There was no way I wanted to miss her, it would ruin my whole plan.After we made up the night before, I went home determined to come up with a plan to start making it up to her and Annie. I thought I had the beginning of one, but it all depended on how strict Marissa was about school attendance.I knew I shouldn’t encourage Annie to skip, or ask Marissa to let her, but I didn’t want to wait before I started making it up to them. I wanted to start immediately, but it just so happened to be Thursday.Still, I was serious about making it up to Marissa and Annie and I couldn’t think of a better way of driving that point home than to start as early as I could with the amends. Literally early, since it was only just past six in the morning now.I knocked on the door, my breath misting as I waited for them to answer. It was freezing out at this hour and the sun was barely rising, but hopef
Asking for a Friend Giving Him a Shot
LAYTON“We’re going to walk the Freedom Trail.” I told her, glancing at Marissa when we stopped at a red light. “I figured if we were pulling her out of school for the day, we’d better do something where she would still learn.”“We’re learning?” Annie groaned. “That’s not fun.”“It will be,” I assured her. “The Freedom Trail is like learning history in action. It passes by sixteen locations that are all significant to the history of the United States.”Annie wriggled her nose. “I don’t like history.”“I promise you will today, honey.” Marissa said, turning in her seat to face her daughter. “The guides dress up in historical clothes and you get to see so many things you’ll hear about in school. Think about how exciting that will be when you start learning about all the places we’re going to go to today.”She considered it and finally agreed, albeit reluctantly. “Yeah, I guess that will be cool.”Once we got to the start of our tour and Annie met our guide, dressed in a soft pink billow
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Asking for a Friend Epilogue Part 2
LAYTONIt was still early, the sun wasn’t even fully risen yet. Annie and I had both snuck out of bed early this morning to make this breakfast. Marissa was fast asleep, lying on her side on the bed.Annie set down the tray and the glass and shook Marissa’s shoulders. “Mommy! Wake up Mommy! We have a surprise for you.”Marissa’s eyes blinked open slowly, confusion clouding them until she rubbed it away as she sat up and took in the scene in front of her. “What’s all this?”“We’re celebrating,” I told her. “I spoke to Craig earlier. They’re on their way to the site for the final clean up. The building’s finally done.”Her lips curled into a sleepy smile. “I can’t believe that it’s over. It’s really all done?”“It’s really all done,” I confirmed, picking up the tray and placing her plate on it on her lap. “Eat up, we’ve got a lot of celebrating ahead of us today.”“Shouldn’t I be the one feeding you breakfast in bed for this?” She asked, frowning slightly. Lifting up the duvet, she patt
Asking for a Friend Epilogue Part 1
LAYTONIn the past two months since Annie’s first ballet recital, there had been three more. Which were four more recitals than I ever thought I would attend. Or actually enjoy.But I did enjoy them. I enjoyed them so much I was even starting to consider myself something of an expert in ballet. I knew was arabesque meant, what pas de deux was, and that attitude referred to a position in classical ballet, and not a little girl shaking her finger in your face.I watched Annie practicing every night, since I had now officially moved in with them. So officially that there was a tenant renting my place and everything. Marissa didn’t know it yet, but I had been looking at houses for us online for the last couple of weeks.Most of my furniture was now in storage since our house wasn’t big enough for all my furniture and all of Marissa’s. I didn’t love the thought of my stuff gathering dust in a storage unit and I wanted us to have a place that was truly ours, not mine or hers.I had to wait
Asking for a Friend Tiny Dancer
MARISSALayton also threw himself deeper into his commitment to our family. He started driving Annie to school sometimes or offering to pick her up. He took her fishing a few more times and taught her how to play catch.Our lives together was everything I was ever too afraid to hope for. Watching him watch her recital now, tears burned the backs of my eyes.His eyes still hadn’t left the stage for so much as second and I could see the pride he was feeling, I felt it too. He was so much better of a father to Annie than Brice ever could have been. And he stepped into that role gracefully and seriously.I wondered if he would bolt when he eventually realized she was starting to look at him as her dad, but he’d done the complete opposite. On the contrary, he freaking loved being her ‘dad.’The final notes of the recital ended, the girls all dipping into low bows as the hall exploded in applause. Parents leaped to their feet and Layton and I joined them.“She was fantastic,” he yelled into
Asking for a Friend Sixth Months of Heaven
MARISSALayton’s eyes were glued to Annie on stage. Watching him now, it was hard to remember a time when I doubted his love or his commitment to her. Or to me, for that matter.The past six months had been perfect. A fairy tale I never believed was in the cards for me. But somewhere, somehow, someone sent Layton to me and let me keep him.After I finally told him I loved him, there was no turning back. And neither of us wanted to. We came clean to Annie about our relationship that same week and she was thrilled.She hugged both of us and refused to let us go. That next week Layton stayed over for the first time that Annie knew of. She was so excited when she saw him arriving with an overnight bag that she zoomed and bounced around all night before finally crashing hard. When she fell asleep, it was on the couch between us.Layton had insisted on being the one to carry her to her bedroom and when he came back to the living room, he had this expression of absolute serenity on his face.
Asking for a Friend Living the Dream
LAYTON“I was just thinking about something that happened with Annie a few weeks ago,” I told him, shaking the memories out of my head. As the site came back into focus, I noticed how much progress there had been in the week since I was last here. “It’s looking good, Craig. You guys are really outdoing yourself on this one.”“We’re doing our best,” he said, shrugging. “I encouraged you to do this by yourself without that other asshole involved. Least I can do is to have your back now that you’re actually doing it.”“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.” I still couldn’t believe some days that this building really was all mine. I tried not to think about it too much, since there was still a lot that could go wrong. I didn’t want to tempt fate by thinking about how well it was going. “Has the flooring been delivered yet?”“Right on time,” Craig said. “They delivered on Friday morning as promised.”I breathed out a sigh of relief. The people who manufactured the flooring called two weeks ago to
Asking for a Friend We're a Family
LAYTONSix months after Marissa first told me she loved me, I walked onto the construction site where the museum was just about done. The scaffolding was coming off today and the team was moving inside. We had two months left to go, tops.The past six months had been the best months of my life. By a long shot. The museum was progressing without any major hold-ups, which was more of a relief than I cared to admit out loud.Marissa, Annie and I were doing better than ever. In the last few weeks, we’d started talking about moving in together, and I was sure it was going to happen soon.I knew it was going to be an adjustment to live together, especially for Annie and me, but it was what I wanted more than anything. I wanted to wake up next to Marissa every morning, to have breakfast with her and Annie before we headed to work.I wanted to be there to tuck Annie in at night and to spend lazy weekends with them. Only a year ago, if anyone had told me I would ever want that kind of life, I
Asking for a Friend Tasting Him
MARISSAStars exploded behind my eyelids. The intensity of the orgasm building inside me was astonishing. My body was going to be blown to dust when it hit, but I couldn’t freaking wait for that glorious release. I gripped the sheets harder, trying to anchor myself against the powerful sensations ripping through me.My hands flew to his hair next, tugging it as I held him to me. Knowing my body better than I did, he knew exactly what I needed. Bringing his lips to my clit, he sucked the little bud in between them and flicked it with his mouth.That perfect pressure sent my body skyrocketing. I stifled a cry, relieved somewhere in the back of my mind I had the pillow handy and crushed it over my face. Sensation crashed into me as I came, overwhelming me with a pleasure I would never get used to.Floating in a bubble of ecstatic bliss, my body went limp. When I opened my eyes, Layton was there wearing a satisfied smile.But it was too tight, too strained. His muscles were tense and his
Asking for a Friend Raw
MARISSALayton’s lips on mine were the best thing that I’d ever felt and I never wanted him to stop. I writhed against him, feeling him hard as steel against my center as he continued to kiss the crap out of me. He dipped his head lower and licked a path to my breasts, his hands on the hem of my shirt.There was something we had to do, somewhere we had to go. But I’d lost track of my train of thought. Warm hands came up to cup my breasts over my pajama top, his thumbs dragging over my puckered nipples. A shiver ran through me. I was so damn wet. I wanted him so bad.“Cold?” Layton asked huskily.I shook my head, closing my eyes for a second as I tried to find words. And figure out that gnawing feeling that we had to move. “No, just—”Layton gave me a sexy, knowing smile. “Me too. Let’s take this to your bedroom, shall we? We definitely shouldn’t let Annie find us like this.”Fuck.Annie.Of course, that was why we had to move. I nodded at Layton. “Let’s go.”His hands dropped to cup
Asking for a Friend Prove It To Her
LAYTONHolding the NDA out to her, she took it and her eyes dropped immediately to the signature line. Which was blank. “I didn’t sign it. I told him to tell Banks where he could shove his insane requests.”Marissa blinked, a huge smile spreading on her face. “Annie’s sleeping, but would you like to come inside?”I nodded, pulling her into my arms as the door closed behind me. Marissa lifted herself up on her toes and kissed me, her fingers winding into the hair around the nape of my neck. When we broke apart, she kept her hands where they were and spoke with her lips inches away from mine. “I love you, Layton. I love you so much.”My heart hammered louder and harder than it ever had before. It was trying to beat its way out of my chest to climb into hers. That was what it felt like, anyway. It already belonged to her, it might as well have done it.I blinked at her, taken aback by hearing the words I wasn’t sure I would ever hear from her. “Could you repeat that?”She smiled. “As man
