Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55765 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
When Kayla asks me to come for a getaway at her dad’s place outside the city, I figure, why not? We’re supposed to have the place to ourselves.
Then I see him, Lukas. All of him! Clearly, he doesn’t know we’re here. Did he see me? I don’t know. I’d die of embarrassment if he did.
He keeps dropping hints that he knows I saw him swimming naked, seeming to enjoy it. I soon wonder if he has the hots for me, which would be bad. Forget the fact that I’m a virgin with zero experience. It would break Kayla’s heart.
After the trip, we try to pretend nothing happened. But I can’t forget him, and he can’t stay away. When drama in his company unexpectedly brings us together, fighting these feelings becomes so much harder.
With everything on the line, we should focus on the task at hand. Yet when Lukas offers to take me swimming, I can’t resist.
*My Best Friend’s CEO Dad is an insta-everything, OTT, standalone romance with a HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
MACI
Kayla wasn’t lying. This place is paradise. I stand at the floor-to-ceiling window of the modern kitchen. She called this her dad’s little spot away from the city, but it’s more like a mansion. Everything is sleek and modern, letting me forget about Mom and her new boyfriend and all that crap. Even the coffee tastes better out here. Kayla’s in a nearby town, grabbing some snacks. She didn’t want to wake me, her text said.
It’s just us. We’re going to forget our problems, watch some movies, play some board games, and generally have a good—
I almost drop my coffee when I spot him rising from the other side of the pool. He must’ve been under the surface, holding his breath, sending his thick, muscled body through the water. The water glistens off his body as he hauls himself up, and water sparkles down his naked body.
His back is broad and muscled, his ass tight, his legs firm. His shoulders catch the sunlight, emphasizing his strength. He pauses, the light glistening in his salt-and-pepper hair. I find myself moving to the edge of the window. I’m not hiding, exactly, but I don’t want him to think I was sneakily watching him. He must not realize we’re here. We got in late last night.
Just as I reach my “not hiding” spot, he turns, showing me the rest of him. His body is so big, covered in muscles, his chest rising and falling calmly. He looks beyond the house, most likely at the forest that grows all around us, separating us from the rest of the world. His thing is huge, even soft. I shouldn’t be looking.
He dives back into the pool, moving far more gracefully than a man his size should be able to. This time, he stays on top of the surface, moving fluidly, as my mind burns with what I just saw. All of him. Every naked inch of my best friend’s dad.
Lukas is the CEO of a large tech company. They dabble in everything: social media, gaming, movies. So it makes sense that with his workload and responsibilities, he’d be as free as possible when he came here. Considering the PR nightmare his company’s currently going through, he probably relishes this break from the madness.
If he knew I’d seen him, he’d freak. I’ve got to act normal. I’ve got to pretend I don’t want him. Pretend my body isn’t aching and pulsing with deep need. The sort of need I’ve never felt before.
I almost run into my bedroom and slip my hand down my body, remembering Lukas’ nakedness and something else, too—the look in his eyes. Maybe I’m tricking myself. Perhaps I was too far away to judge his looks, but somehow, I saw something in his eyes. Hunger. Longing. For a few silly seconds, I let myself believe he was longing for me.
Finishing my coffee, I go into the living room, grab my laptop, try to work, and fail. All I can think about is my best friend’s dad.
CHAPTER 1
LUKAS
Fifteen Hours Earlier
“So what do you advise?” Sebastian says as he glares at me across the desk, the sun teasing my top-floor office with orange light. “Should we let the other big boys eat our lunch, Luke? Maybe we should rock up to their offices and hand them our quarterlies, too.”
“If goddamn deviants are using our VR headsets to create messed-up games,” I growl, slamming my hand on the desk, “then yes.”
Sebastian leans back, sighing. The crazed rush to build an empire has taken its toll on both of us. We started our company during the social media boom, first buying stakes in some smaller, failed operations and then diversifying into online journalism, media of all kinds, video production, and, more recently, AI and virtual reality. It’s like we’ve both had to pay a price. Sebastian deals with it better mentally but not physically.
He’s always been tall and lean, but he seems sunken these days, his hair thinning, his eyes wide and wired from lack of sleep. “It’s just a couple of rogue freaks,” Sebastian says. “We can’t sabotage our entire company.”
“The damage is already done. We’re shutting down all VR services until we can make sure, ten thousand percent, this will never happen again.”
“But—”
I stand up, glaring down at my old friend. “Seb, do you remember our old apartment? That one-room shithole? Do you remember taking turns sleeping on the floor because we couldn’t even afford a couch? Do you?”
I’m shaking, disgusted down to my core.
“You don’t need to ask me that,” he mutters.
“Apparently, I do.”
He folds his arms, sighing. “I remember.”
“I’d rather go back to that than let this go on. There’s a reason we never went public. We have total control. We’re shutting down the VR. That’s it. That’s the end of it. I don’t care if it tanks the company. We gave our users the ability to create their own games but not these types of games.”