My Boss' Best Friend Read online

  Table of Contents

  My Boss' Best Friend

  About the Book

  My Boss' Best Friend

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Author's Note

  Unwillingly Yours

  Prince of Darkness | Part One

  27-year-old Jane Cooper is a plain Jane who can't say no to dares...

  Jane has always known what she is and isn't: presentable but no beauty queen, smart but not a genius, reliable but never a go-getter. Everyone thinks they know what to expect from her...except they don’t.

  For one thing, Jane can’t say no to dares.

  Which is why when her friends dare Jane to make out with a stranger—-

  She does it...and one thing leads to another until she somehow ends up engaged to a smoking-hot British billionaire, who turns out to be the best friend of her boss, who also happens to be another billionaire...who wants her, too?

  Note: This book was previously published as The Marriage Dare. This is a steamy, insta-love, semi-angsty romance with a happy ever after.

  About the Book

  One eyebrow lifted as Jane reached for her watch and began pressing some buttons. When she looked back at him, she asked breathlessly, “How much can you do in ten minutes?”

  He didn’t answer, only taking her mouth again, and this time his kiss was so deep and hard that when he raised his head, she had to gasp for breath.

  “Fingers,” he said hoarsely against her lips, “or dick?”

  “H-huh?”

  He bit her lip, gritting out, “Choose, pet.”

  Oh. Her cheeks burned, but even so she managed to say, “Fingers.”

  She had barely finished speaking when she felt his hand moving under the skirt of her dress.

  His mouth trailed back up, and she swallowed back a moan when his tongue traced the line of her ear, just before asking, “Will I get you in trouble if I tear your panties?”

  She shook her head—-

  Riiiiiiip.

  “Oh my God.”

  He chuckled. “No, pet.” His fingers found her core. “It’s just me.” And then he started to stroke her.

  Jane’s legs started to tremble.

  One finger slowly slid inside of her, and as it started a thrusting rhythm, pushing in and out of her, it was like having her soul dance with the devil—-

  And oh God, she didn’t want it to end.

  Her hands blindly found his shoulders, Jane fearing that her knees would give out any moment—-

  His finger started going a little deeper, a little faster and harder—-

  She began to pant.

  And then there was no more gentle pushing, his finger now fucking her with the most exquisite force—-

  Her lips parted. “Baby.”

  “Yes,” Jane’s British stranger growled, and his mouth captured hers anew just as he shoved his finger into her, rapidly—-

  Oh God.

  If she had to imagine how the most wonderful vibrator would feel like—-

  This would be it.

  “Oh God.”

  Her body was tightening, and even though she had never experienced anything like it before, Jane knew what it was.

  And oh God, she couldn’t wait.

  He sucked hard on her tongue, and it was just the push she needed, Jane crying out against his mouth as she came.

  Oh, how she came-—

  Her eyes rolling back, her body stiffening like it had been electrocuted.

  A moment later, the alarm she had set on her watch went off.

  Jane’s eyes flew open, and she wrenched her mouth away from the stranger. “M-my——”

  “Ssh.” He brushed his lips against hers. “Just a few moments more won’t hurt.” His finger was still inside of her, and he withdrew it almost all the way out before pushing it back in, causing Jane to gasp.

  “Savor it, pet.” The words made up the most seductive command, its power cemented with the touch of his mouth against the side of her neck.

  He started to suck, and Jane was lost.

  After, the stranger silently helped Jane smooth the skirt of her dress down, even tucking loose strands behind her ears.

  Stepping back, she suddenly found herself thinking—-

  I can’t believe I did that.

  And Jane could no longer meet the stranger’s gaze as she mumbled, “Thank you...sir...baby.”

  Her face went up in flames.

  She was making such a cake of herself!

  “Happy to help, pet.”

  My Boss' Best Friend

  By Marian Tee

  Note: This book was previously published as The Marriage Dare.

  Copyright 2020 by Streak Digital Publishing

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  One month ago

  Derek and Jaike Christopoulos' house, Jaike's baby shower

  "I see someone is about to escape," a distinctly male voice drawled behind 27-year-old Jane Cooper just as she was about to step into the elevator. She recognized the voice, of course, and knowing who it was, she could only turn around and face the music, saying with a sheepish smile, "You caught me."

  "Indeed." Derek Christopoulos smirked at his wife's friend. "You know I can't let you leave, right?"

  "There's just too many people inside," Jane grumbled.

  "It wouldn't be a party if it weren't," the Greek billionaire reasoned.

  "I can always visit next time—-"

  Green eyes bored through her.

  Jane stopped speaking. Right. Derek Christopoulos might have once been a notorious playboy in his university days, being the ringleader of the BBFs, but he had completely reformed ever since getting to know (and eventually marrying) Jaike. What his beloved wife wanted, his beloved wife would always get, and both of them knew Jaike wouldn't be happy at all if she ever learned her husband had let her friend slip and miss her baby shower.

  "I can always make a run for it," Jane muttered.

  "You can," Derek agreed, "but security has already been informed not to let you leave."

  Jane let out a gasp. "That's playing dirty!"

  But this only had Derek raising a brow at her. What Jaike wanted, Jaike would always get.

  Jane threw her hands up in surrender. "Okay, fine, I'm going in."

  Derek's lips curved in an approving smile. "I knew you wouldn't let my wife down."

  "You wouldn't let me," Jane pointed out, but this time the billionaire simply acted like he had heard nothing.

  Heads immediately swung in their direction the moment Derek let her in and insisted on walking her to wherever it was Jaike was likely to be waiting for her. Most of the guests were looking at her like they couldn't understand how she had been invited to the baby shower of a billionaire's wife, and Jane honestly couldn't blame them.

  Even after all this time, she herself still had a hard time believing she was friends with Jaike. The two of them had met months ago at the press launch of Books & Babies Foundation, a non-profit that Jaike herself had founded and whose name was the other woman's way of leveraging her husband's popularity
for a good cause.

  BBF, after all, also stood for boys with billion-dollar trust funds, a collective term that the media had coined in reference to Derek and his group of billionaire friends when they had still been studying in Christopoulos University. Years had passed since then, and although everyone in BBF was now happily married, the paparazzi still followed them around.

  It was why the press launch for Books & Babies Foundation had been particularly vicious, with reporters, bloggers, and social media influencers sniping at each other while they waited for the chance to throw questions at Jaike.

  And throughout it, Jane had simply kept to herself in one corner, and it was while she was minding her own business that one of the organizers had approached her, saying that her presence was requested at Room A.

  A as in what, Jane had wondered nervously as she followed the staff member. Was she being arrested? Apprehended? Oh God, what if she was about to be annihilated—-

  But as it turned out, A hadn’t meant anything special. It had simply meant the first room at the second-floor hall, and inside it had been Jaike Christopoulos herself, with the other woman having singled Jane out for an exclusive.

  You're the only one out there who didn't look like a shark to me, Jaike had told her cheerfully, to which Jane had blurted out, So does that make me a goldfish?

  She hadn't been trying to funny at all at that time. It had simply been Jane's nerves talking, but it had made Jaike hoot with laughter, and fast forward to the present...

  Jaike visibly brightened when she saw who it was entering the antechamber of the bedroom she shared with her husband. "You made it!"

  "But not without costs," Derek couldn't resist commenting. "If you saw the looks on people's faces at seeing me escort your friend to our bedroom..."

  "You guys just don't understand," Jane protested as she took a seat next to Jaike. “If people at my workplace find out I’m friends with you, they’ll hate me.”

  “You’re just paranoid,” Jaike told her.

  "Neither is it a crime to stand out," the billionaire added.

  Jaike and Jane exchanged looks, and after a moment both of them burst into laughter. Of course Derek would say something like that. The billionaire had always been blessed with the kind of charm that drew people to him like moths to fire, and he did so without even trying the slightest bit.

  "You just won't understand," Jane said finally. "Let's just say that if the world was a romance novel, I'm the kind of character who can only exist in the side and never be the heroine of my own story." Even her name was a dead giveaway. It wasn’t anything cool like Jaike, and she couldn't even have an exotic sounding surname like Christopoulos.

  She was just...Jane, like plain Jane, and even her own backstory - or lack of - reflected this.

  "Do you know," she shared absently, "I even complained to my parents once, about how boring I am, and how boring my life is. I even asked them if it was possible I was adopted or even an illegitimate child. I was that desperate to make at least one part of me interesting.”

  Jaike was wide-eyed. “And then what happened?”

  “Mom gave me five dollars and told me to go out and find someone I could pay to listen to me.”

  Jaike burst into laughter while Derek coughed to cover his.

  "You're being too hard on yourself," Jaike managed to say when she finally got a hold of herself again.

  "I'm just being honest." Jane reached out to pat Jaike's round tummy, saying, "Little one, listen to me closely. Never ever be like your Godmother Jane—-"

  Jaike swatted her friend's hand away. "Stop that."

  "If you want my unsolicited opinion—-" Derek pretended not to notice his wife's friend vehemently shaking her head. "I think the lack of, err, excitement in your life is due to the fact that you're not putting yourself out there enough."

  "You know I did," Jane protested. During last year’s Christmas party at her workplace, a colleague had asked Jane what she thought about the showdown that had taken place in the company’s chat room. The online mudslinging had been about gender equality, with Merry, one of the company’s up-and-coming news anchors, saying certain rules in the industry were still sexist, while Hannah, an outgoing executive, had said those rules existed for a reason.

  “I think Merry had come up with rather salient points, but I also thought she had been unnecessarily rude,” Jane had answered honestly, recalling the way the beautiful TV personality had used ‘fucking’ like a prefix for Hannah’s name.

  As soon as she had spoken, a voice from behind had answered coolly, “Don’t you think you’re the rude one? Shouldn’t you say things like that to my face rather than backstabbing me?”

  It had been Merry of course, and the other woman had walked past her with a contemptuous toss of her head in the middle of Jane’s stammering apology.

  The story about it had spread like wildfire in the company, and although Merry’s subsequent suspension had many of her colleagues telling Jane that she had been vindicated, it hadn’t made Jane feel any better.

  Instead, the incident had given her a phobia about speaking up, and the trauma had been so that Jane had been forced to secretly submit to several counseling sessions to get over it.

  Seeing the frowning, unhappy look on her friend’s face, Jaike's own face softened. “You’re talking about the Not Merry episode, aren’t you?”

  “What else?” Jane answered gloomily.

  “That was an isolated incident,” her friend said gently. “You must know that by now, right?”

  Jane shrugged, which the couple knew was Jane's way of being silently stubborn.

  "You are too stiff, that's all," Derek said finally.

  "I think so, too," Jaike said with a nod. "Just at least try loosening up a bit more. If you just tried, you’ll realize how much you’re missing out on your life. You’ll meet new friends. New guys—-”

  “I work in P.R.,” Jane interrupted dryly. “I meet new guys all the time.”

  “Yes, but they can’t fall in love with you if you don’t let them see the real you. I swear, if guys knew just how funny you are—-”

  Jane made a face. “How many times do we have to go through this? Guys don’t dig clowns. Okay?”

  “See?” Jaike flashed a triumphant grin. “That's funny, isn't it?" She turned to her husband, and the billionaire said obediently, "It is."

  Jane rolled her eyes. Of course Jaike's husband would agree. Derek was shamelessly indulgent wherever his wife was concerned, and if Jaike told him she wanted the sun, Jane was pretty sure the billionaire would find a way to give it to her.

  "Let's just agree to disagree," Jane told the two. "I'm a lost case—-"

  "You're not," Jaike insisted with a shake of her head. "And I know exactly how to prove it."

  Jane started feeling suspicious.

  “I’m going to dare you—-”

  Jane groaned. "That's cheating!" Jaike knew how much she hated not taking on a dare. It was, like, her one and only Achilles’ heel, which she just couldn’t get rid of.

  But Jaike already had her phone out, and she let out a little whoop afterwards before showing Derek and Jane what she found on the Internet.

  Top Dares for Bridal Showers

  Jane frowned. “But this isn’t a bridal shower.”

  “Stop nitpicking,” Jaike censured.

  “I can’t help it. I’m paid to nitpick—-”

  “Well, don’t do it now. We’re not at work, are we?” Jaike pointed to #1 on the list. "See that?"

  Make out with a beautiful stranger.

  “Are you crazy?” Jane burst out. “That entire sentence should be flagged. Stranger. Beautiful. Make out.”

  Derek's eyes gleamed. "Jane Cooper, dared to make out with a beautiful stranger?"

  "It's insane," Jane groaned.

  "Don't worry, Jane, I'll be generous with the terms. You don't have to do it right away," Jaike told her consolingly. "I'm about to give birth next month, so...make sure to have it
done before my little one comes out?"

  Chapter Two

  Alpha Media Corporation’s Pre-Labor Day Party

  A hotel ballroom in downtown Miami

  The clock was ticking.

  Jane glared at her watch. This was all Jaike's fault. That girl knew exactly how to mess with her head, knew that Jane wouldn’t be able to bear not taking her up on their dare.

  And she only had a few hours left, Jane couldn’t help thinking, before she was officially declared a loser.

  Even as her teeth gnashed, Jane couldn’t help scanning the ballroom—-

  But of course all the faces she could see were familiar, since the party was organized by and for AMC’s staff. Jane’s company loved to throw parties for just about any reason, and tonight was the last corporate hurrah for the summer before everyone went away for the three-day Labor weekend.

  She checked her watch. I still have time.

  Jane marched determinedly towards the doors, unaware that the unusually militant expression on her normally smiling face was attracting several looks from the opposite sex.

  Maybe God was in a good mood, Jane thought as she pushed the doors open, and she might just find—-

  Jane’s thoughts came to a standstill, and she, too, froze in her tracks as soon as she stepped into the empty cocktail area outside the ballroom.

  Also coming out from the other ballroom was the exact type of man she was looking for.

  He was tall and muscular, his shoulders so remarkably broad they looked more suitable for army greens than the expensive tux he was wearing. But what really caught Jane’s attention was how enthralling he looked.

  His looks were the kind that went beyond beautiful, Jane thought absently, and for one moment the logophile in her itched to write about his looks.

  That hair—-

  Bleached blond would be the crass and most tasteless way to put it. Jane’s lip curled unconsciously, and she was so repulsed at the thought that she failed to notice how the focus of her attention was also staring at her.

  And those eyes—-

  If someone said they were baby blue, she might be held liable for murder. The best was to quote Karen Carpenter, Jane thought, golden starlight, blue eyes, and all that.