Baby For Daddy's Best Friend

My father's best friend is everything I’m not supposed to want.
But now he is going to be my baby's daddy…

Ash is a walking red flag:
Domineering and always in a bad mood.
Tragically widowed, yet still in love with his long dead wife.
A single dad to three mini versions of himself,
and much too old for me.

But I’ve wanted him since I was sixteen.
Seeing him again more than a decade later all those old feelings just rush back in.
Every time when I look up into his deep green eyes,
dark scruffy beard and kissable dimples,
all I want is to fall into his arms and never leave.

Too much wine and one bed-rocking night later everything changed.

When my dad discovers I’m knocked up by his best friend,
I may lose the two most important people in my life…

I’ve been in the front hall of Clay’s house more times than I can count over the years. The greeting is always the same, jovial and friendly. We’re close enough that I usually just show myself in, go plop down on one of the leather easy chairs in the den or grab a beer from the kitchen.

But today, I’m stuck in place because there’s a new face in the front hall. Someone I don’t recognize.

And she’s… stunning. With miles of dark chocolate hair flowing down her shoulders and eyes as blue as the ocean, this woman looks like an oasis. The curves of her body look plush, from her lips to her waist to her thighs. I could devour her.

What the fuck is happening? I haven’t had such an immediate attraction to someone in years. It’s a feeling deep in my gut. Inevitable. Primal. I want her so bad; I almost think I can smell her.

“You remember Rye, don’t you?” Clay pipes up.

Rye??? That’s not Rye. Rye is still a little girl. Isn’t she? There’s no way that the shy and aloof girl that hung around in the kitchen doorway to say a polite hello is this beautiful woman standing in the front hall. This must be a joke.

“Good to see you again, Mr. Hawthorn,” the woman says, cocking her head to the side and smiling in such a way that I think I could faint.

It is her. Shit. I’ve just sexualized my best friend’s daughter to absolute filth. I guess to be fair to myself, I didn’t recognize her, but I probably should have recognized her. Dear god, I am having heart palpitations.

I try to smile, lips twitching, blinking too much.

“Wow, it’s been… you’ve really grown up.”

“Don’t remind me,” Clay groans and wraps his arm around Rye’s shoulder. “She’s still my little girl.”

I think I need to go throw up. Purge this feeling as soon as possible.

“Dad, please don’t do this,” Rye says with a sheepish smile.

“Thank you so much for helping Rye out with the planning, Ash,” Giselle says with a hand on my bicep. “It’s good to have an outside eye, I think.”

Maybe I can back out. Get through today and then, surprise! My company is suffering and I need to put all my attention into that. Or whoops! Totally forgot that I have to shine my shoes! Yeah, there’s no good reason for me to back out of this, especially when Clay is my best friend in the whole world. “Don’t mention it,” I say, slipping my hands into the pockets of my light wool coat. “You said venues today.”

“Yep! Rye already did all the leg work and she has a list right here. You can drive her.”

“Giselle… ” Rye says warily. “I don’t want to make him chauffeur me.”

“Nonsense,” I say eagerly. That’ll give me a good distraction. Have to keep my eyes on the road. Not on the beautiful woman who turns out to be my best friend’s adult daughter who I want to ravage completely and utterly and cannot and will not ever do that. “I’m happy to drive.”

If I were my usual self, I might make a witty joke, offer a little flirtation or something. But I’ve got to keep a cold front.