Memories of the day, of Nico’s vicious stare, his silent promises, the evidence sitting on my phone that I’ve been doing things I shouldn’t with a student all float around my head, refusing to release me from their clutches.
I drag on a pair of sweats and an oversized hoodie, twist my hair up into my heatless curler and make my way out to the kitchen with the intention of finding some carbs to lose myself in before I open my laptop and get to work, banishing all thoughts of Nico and his hot, arrogant arse from my head as if he doesn’t exist.
With my phone on aeroplane mode, my laptop on one knee and a bowl of noodles on the other, and one of my favourite playlists filling my flat, it doesn’t take long to fully immerse myself in my final uni assignment. That is, until my buzzer rings out through the flat.
“Fuck,” I bark when my still-half-full bowl wobbles off my knee, spilling noodles over my cream sofa.
I do the best I can to pick it up as my buzzer continues to ring.
“All-fucking-right,” I shout, assuming it’s just Jodie and that she’s freaking out because she can’t get through on my phone.
It’s better to assume it’s her than the other option.
“Yeah,” I say frustratedly when I finally make it over to the pad on the wall and jam my finger against the button.
“Hey, baby,” a deep, familiar voice purrs down the line. “Miss me?”
Tipping my head back, I close my eyes and curse this fucking day. Why is it not over yet and still throwing shit my way?
“Hey, Brad,” I say through gritted teeth.
Brad isn’t a bad person. Actually, he’s a pretty fucking decent one. One that I shouldn’t have caved to when he wanted a repeat of the first night we hooked up. But he made it so easy. He isn’t like the other fuck boys. Something that should have set alarm bells off when he found me online after our first night. But he was nice, treated me well, made me come hard. He’s just… well, boring. He doesn’t set my world alight. Not in the way that—
Nope. Do not go there, Brianna.
His cock is fucking magical though so… yeah. I’ve not put all that much effort into getting rid of him because he does come with some serious stress-relieving benefits.
“Are you going to let me in, baby? I’ve missed you.”
“I’m not really dressed for guests,” I confess. “I’m studying.”
“You know I don’t care about that. I can help,” he offers like the nice guy that he is.
Leaning forward, I rest my forehead against the wall and reluctantly press the button that will allow him entry to the building.
“Good girl,” he says softly, but unlike when those two words came from someone else’s lips, my body doesn’t react in the slightest.
Pulling up my big girl knickers, I unlock my front door and crack it open so he can let himself in before I head back to the sofa in an attempt to clean up the mess I made properly.
I hear him before I see him. The door closes and his footsteps make their way across the flat to where I’m washing up.
“Noodles for dinner, really, Brianna?” he chastises when he spots the packet on the counter.
He steps up behind me, his hands on my hips, and his lips land on my neck, sending a shiver right through me, but it’s not the kind of shiver he thinks it is.
“You need to look after yourself, baby. You deserve better than a fifty-pence packet of noodles.”
“Eighty-pence,” I correct. “I’ve got a lot of work to do and I didn’t have time to—”
“It’s a good job I’m back then, isn’t it?”
He twists me around so I have no choice but to face him.
He really is incredibly handsome. Especially when he’s dressed in his sharp suit like he is right now. But still, those flutters and that ‘I must have you now’ reaction I’m so addicted to just aren’t there.
He really is just a friend with benefits. Even the term ‘lover’ seems a little far-fetched.
Unfortunately, though, I fear that he’s got images in his head of me in a white dress, a house with a picket fence and little Brads running around.