Friends Wanting Benefits
A Friends With Benefits Prequel Series (Book 1)
LUKE YOUNG
Copyright © Luke Young, 2014
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Copyright 2014 by Luke Young. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, downloaded, transmitted, reverse engineered, decompiled or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Luke Young.
Cover Art by No Sweat Graphics
V2.1
ALSO
BY LUKE YOUNG
CHOCOLATE COVERED BILLIONAIRE NAVY SEAL
The
Friends With Benefits Series:
FRIENDS WITH PARTIAL BENEFITS
(Excerpt Included)
FRIENDS WITH WAY TOO MANY BENEFITS
The Friends With Benefits Prequel Series:
Also Available:
FRIENDS WITH EXPLICIT BENEFITS BOXED SET
(Books 1-4 with select expanded Ian Dalton Scenes)
To contact Luke or to be placed on a mailing list to receive updates about new releases, send an email to
[email protected]
To find out more about the author and his work, see
http://www.lukeyoungbooks.com/
Table of Contents
Friends With Partial Benefits Excerpt
In the large professionally decorated bedroom of a Miami stucco mansion, Jillian and George Grayson lay sound asleep next to each other in their king-sized bed. The clock showed 4:58 a.m. As good as the room looked, the odor of garlic and rotten eggs filled it, and it wasn't pleasant. Not surprisingly, the smell wasn't coming from the adorable and dainty thirty-seven year old sleeping beauty—it was spilling out of her slightly out-of-shape and motivationally challenged husband of nineteen years.
Suddenly a loud, extended burst of flatulence echoed through the room. Hugging her pillow, Jillian stirred and swung her hand blindly at the source in the nearly pitch-black room. "You're doing it again."
"Huh?" He groaned groggily.
She turned onto her back and wrinkled her nose. "Oh, it's horrible."
"What?"
"You are… uhhh…" She slipped out of bed and headed toward the bathroom. "I told you not to get anything spicy."
"Yeah…" He took a deep breath and rolled onto his back. "Sorry."
After flipping the light on in the bathroom, she sat on the toilet and peed with her eyes closed and her head slumping over. "What time is it?"
"Huh? I don't…"
She half-heartedly washed her hands then returned to the bedroom just as George let go of another bomb. "You better get that out of your system before you get on the plane."
He grumbled something incoherently as she leaned down to look at the clock while holding her nose. "Shit!"
"Wha…"
"It's five."
"Yeah?"
Rushing to the front of the room, she flipped on the overhead light. "You said you set the alarm."
"I thought I did." He shielded his eyes from the light and ran his tongue around his mouth grimacing. "I have a bad taste in my mouth."
"There's a shock." She stood over him glaring. "Get up. We're late."
"What time does the plane leave?"
"7:10,” she called back as she headed into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
"We're not that late," he replied as he slowly made it to his feet.
"Yeah we are. We're supposed to be in the car right now. It's an international flight."
He waved his hand at her. "They exaggerate how early you need to get there."
"Uh-huh." She rolled her eyes at him as she stepped into the shower.
"So, I won't take a shower." He staggered into the bathroom.
"No, you're taking a shower. A good one!"
"All right."
"I'll be out in one minute." Looking out the glass door, she spotted him sitting on the toilet and cringed. "Hey, if you're going to do that, please go in the other…" she stopped mid-sentence when she saw his face contort and heard the unmistakable sounds. She shook her head and turned away mumbling, "perfect."
While there are some bizarre things you get semi-comfortable with after nineteen years of marriage, this definitely wasn't one of them. Thank God, she could count on one hand the number of times she'd shared this particular event with him, but she really didn't need it, not today.
"Sorry." He flipped the switch to turn on the exhaust fan wearing a smile born of blissful relief.
Victoria Wilde sat in her car less than two miles away, outside a large home in an upscale Miami suburb, staring at her cell phone with her thoughts swirling. Should she drive away, go alone and just call him to say she made a mistake? Was this really the right move for her after everything that happened? The moment she saw Ethan step out the front door to the brightly lit portico, her doubts disappeared. It wasn't just his striking good looks, or his steely blue eyes, or his trim muscular physique. It was the confidence with which the young man carried himself. Yeah, it was that, along with the unbelievable night the two had spent together in that hotel room just a few days earlier. She shook her head and sighed. If he hadn't showed up that day in Tampa and rescued her, she didn't want to think about what might have been. Yes, this was the best thing to happen to her in over a year. And no, she wasn't going to over analyze it—she was just going to do.
He wore a huge smile as he headed to the car carrying a small suitcase. Slipping into the passenger seat, he closed the door then gave her a deep kiss.
She pulled away first, grinning. "You're full of energy this morning."
"Well, I missed you."
"I missed you too." She gave him a skeptical look. "Your parents really don't have a problem with you going with an old… I mean… Older woman?"
"No," he replied softly.
"Wait…" She scoffed. "You didn't tell them did you?"
"Well, um, no. I said I was going on a cruise with this girl I was dating from school—that it was a last minute thing."
"Uh-huh."
"We did actually meet at school, so that's mostly the truth."
"Okay…"
"I also said it was this girl's graduation present. I think they felt a little guilty since their gift was sorta lame in comparison."
"What'd they give you?"
"A wallet."
"A wallet?"
"Yeah, but it had five hundred in cash…" he frowned, "…plus they just paid for my one hundred twenty thousand dollar college education."
"College is that much now?" Victoria scoffed. "I think you should be happy with the wallet."
"Yeah, probably."
"You don't think they'd approve of me?"
"Maybe. I don't know." Looking her over, he flashed her a grin. "My dad certainly would."
"Maybe I should've met them or—"
"I'm twenty-one for God's sake. I can make my own decisions."
"Okay." She nodded. "I'm just glad you could go. I really need to get away from here for a while."
"I can't think of a place I wouldn't go with you." They shared a smile until he gave her a hesitant look. "So you didn't finish telling me about Rebecca. Is she still… breathing?"
She put on a deadly serious tone and said, "If shallow breaths count then yes, when I left her she was still breathing."
"Seriously?"
"I'm joking." She held back a laugh. "If I learned one thing from watching all those
Dateline Mysteries,
it's that you don't kill when you have a motive."
He nodded in agreement. "I'm so sorry that I had to be the one to tell you she was sleeping with your husband."
"Look, it was a long time ago, and he's not here for me to yell at or... I don't know." She exhaled deeply. "Let's not talk about all that. I just want to have fun for a change. I've been depressed for longer than… it's been over a year since…" She shook her head. "Let's just change the subject."
"Okay."
They shared a tender smile before she asked, "Hey, have you ever been SCUBA diving?"
"A couple times."
"That's what I wanted to hear.” She shot him a sexy grin as she put the car in drive.
An hour into the flight both couples were safely in their seats on the plane bound for San Juan, Puerto Rico. Jillian and George were enjoying cocktails in first class while Victoria and Ethan were cramped in their tiny seats back in coach on the flight scheduled to land just before ten for their Caribbean cruise ship departing later that day.
Victoria sat by the window with Ethan in the middle seat. Next to him a heavy set man occupied the third seat, both blocking them in and spilling over the armrest onto Ethan as well as into the aisle.
"Do you have enough room," she whispered in his ear.
"I'm okay." He shrugged.
"You want to switch?"
He leaned to her and said softly, "No, I couldn't do that to you."
"I tried to get us in first class, but it was sold out."
"It's a short flight, but maybe we could put up your arm rest."
"Sure." After lifting the rest, she gave him a sorrowful look. "Is that better?"
He shifted in his seat a little closer to her and said unconvincingly, "Yeah."
She flashed him a smile. "I'll make it up to you later."
"I was hoping you would."
About thirty feet away in the comfortable part of the plane, Jillian returned to her seat carrying a neck pillow. She rolled her eyes and said, "I forgot I bought this for you last week."