Extract: Four Temptations 1: The Tipping Point (Tempted by my husband's best friend) - erotic romance by PJ Adams

It never should have happened with Simon.

Despite his looks, Rebecca had never seen him as a what if...? kind of guy. He was close to the family, someone you could always turn to for a favor, someone you could trust with a secret.

He was her husband's best friend.

But when Rebecca's husband walks out and she turns to Simon for support she finds herself at one of those tipping points that could change everything: should she, shouldn't she? And now that the seed of possibility has been sown, can she even resist?

The first of four inter-locking tales of passion, risk and love: three women... one pivotal night... four temptations... Explicit erotic romance from the bestselling author of The Object of His Desire and The Wings of Desire. 


Extract:

I never really saw Simon Darby in that way. I know others did – he was certainly never short of female company. Tall with floppy, strawberry blond hair, piercingly pale blue eyes and a slim, well-built body; the kind of physique good clothes just hang off as if they were made for him to wear. Charming, warm, funny, intelligent; yes, he was all of these. 
But for me Simon had never been a man to dream about, far less fall for.

I had never paid attention to his easy good looks, or to the way he moved; I had never idly wondered about what he might be like beneath those perfect designer clothes, had never wondered how those pale blue eyes might open wide at the peak of intimacy and passion.

No, he was never a what if...? kind of a guy, for me.

He was just Simon. Friend of the family, someone you could always turn to for a favor. Someone you could trust with a secret, someone you could sound out for confidential advice.

He was Simon Darby.

An old acquaintance, a part of the backdrop to my life.

He was my husband’s best friend.
§That was all he could ever be, of course. I knew that, even when things started to shift, even when I started to view him with fresh eyes.
Anything more than that would be messy, horribly complicated.

So when did things change? What was the tipping point, when the line had been crossed and this thing became harder to resist than to pursue?
§It started with a lie.
“Of course he’s not having an affair!”

We were sharing a sofa in a dark corner of a Costa in the city, the kind of deep leather seat you sink into and wonder how you’ll ever escape. Simon had espresso doppio; I had latte in a tall, clear cup. It was mid-morning and the place was just starting to fill up.

“Either you’re a really good liar, or he’s keeping it even from you,” I said.

Simon and my husband, Porter, had always been close. They’d known each other since university; they’d shared apartments and gone on holidays together, they’d even set up the ad and promotions agency that had become Soft Target Communications. Partners in life and business; if anyone was Porter Swaine’s soul mate,
Simon Darby probably had a better claim than me.

“Or I’m telling you the truth,” said Simon. “Porter’s a busy man. He has to travel a lot. He gets preoccupied with work. That’s all it is. You know how he can be.”

“You’re his business partner, but you don’t do all that.”

“That’s how we are. He’s the face of the company, I’m–”

“–the conceptualist.”

We laughed. It was an old joke, about the over-pretentious wording of his business card. Or, as he insisted, the just pretentious enoughwording of his business card.

I sipped at my latte, then wiped away a milky mustache with my little finger. “He’s been so distant lately.” Lately. I’d lost track of when we’d started to drift, when we’d stopped being us and started to become ever more independent of each other. But recently... well, recently the shift had been quite noticeable.

“So he’s really in Paris with a client today?” I asked.

Simon shrugged. “I don’t keep tabs on his diary, Rebecca. If that’s where he says he is, then...”

“I just have to believe him. I get it.” And for a moment I felt horribly guilty for doubting Porter. What was our relationship if there was no trust? “And has she gone with him, or is she meeting him there?”

Simon opened his mouth, then stopped and gave a short laugh. “You’re trying to trap me,” he said. “But that’s like asking a man if he’s stopped beating his wife. Yes or no... there’s no right answer.”

“Other than ‘Don’t be stupid, woman’.”

“Well don’t,” he said, and laughed again.

Was that the moment? When he tipped his head back to laugh? His hair caught the light, and there was something so easy and natural about the way he moved and the way his eyes never left mine.

I looked away, suddenly flustered and not understanding why. I sipped at my latte, but it had gone cold. I never was a one for letting drinks cool: tea and coffee had to be scaldingly hot for me.

He was still watching me, as if he’d sensed something.

He put a hand out, and suddenly it was enclosing mine on the table top. His touch was gentle, and surprisingly cool. “It’s okay to worry,” he said. “It shows you care, doesn’t it?”

“I guess...” I shifted in my seat. How was it that a tension had suddenly come between us?

He released my hand and sat back, still smiling. “Maybe you need to start an affair with him,” he said. “Put the spark back, remind yourself of why you were with him in the first place. Flirt with him. Seduce him.”

I raised one eyebrow. “That’s the best you can do?” I asked.

“Good food and a blow job,” he said. “Works every time.”

(continues...)

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