Lovers's Enemy_An Older Man Younger Woman Romance Read online

  LOVERS’S ENEMY

  AN OLDER MAN YOUNGER WOMAN ROMANCE

  _______________________

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS, 67

  FLORA FERRARI

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  A Man Who Knows What He Wants Series

  Lovers’s Enemy

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  Extended Epilogue

  Series

  Newsletter

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright © 2018 by Flora Ferrari.

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The following story contains mature themes, strong language and sexual situations. It is intended for mature readers.

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS

  Book 1: Baby Lust

  Book 2: Veteran

  Book 3: Built

  Book 4: Bambino

  Book 5: Rescued

  Book 6: Leader

  Book 7: Professor

  Book 8: Burned

  Book 9: Worldly

  Book 10: Pistol

  Book 11: Policed

  Book 12: Driven

  Book 13: Lucky 13

  Book 14: Lumberjacked

  Book 15: Protector

  Book 16: Carpenter

  Book 17: Italian Stallion

  Book 18: Gardener

  Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin

  Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 21: Cocky CFO

  Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th

  Book 23: Mechanic

  Book 24: SEAL’s Secret

  Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch

  Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina

  Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy

  Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol

  Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess

  Book 32: Statham

  Book 33: Bodyguard

  Book 34: Greek God

  Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad’s Babysitter

  Book 36: Mountain Man

  Book 37: SEAL’s Justice

  Book 38: Royal Romance

  Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery

  Book 40: Crocodile Dan D

  Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby

  Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby

  Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter

  Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door

  Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace

  Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny

  Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter

  Book 49: Steamy

  Book 50: Brother’s Best Friend

  Book 51: Possessive Professor

  Book 52: Firefighter’s Babysitter

  Book 53: Soldier’s Secret Baby

  Book 54: Ward’s Independence Day

  Book 55: Doctor Next Door

  Book 56: Possessive Policeman

  Book 57: Coached by the MMA Fighter

  Book 58: Boss’s Babysitter

  Book 59: Virgin in New York

  Book 60: Rock Star’s Baby

  Book 61: Possessive Protector

  Book 62: Possessive Australian

  Book 63: Best Friend’s Brother

  Book 64: Possessive Cowboy

  Book 65: Summer Romanced

  Book 66: Possessive Prince

  Book 67: Lovers’s Enemy

  LOVERS’S ENEMY

  Enemies

  His last name is Lovers, but there’s no love lost between my brother’s best friend and I.

  But when my brother’s best friend, the one who’s been teasing me for years, loses his paralegal and needs a replacement pronto they both look at me.

  Friends

  So he wants to play nice now, huh? He’s trying to be all friendly.

  Well I may be a younger woman, but I’m not falling for any older man tricks, especially not from my brother’s best friend and my mortal enemy.

  Lovers

  As Lovers Legal, his law office, heats up things get even hotter between us too. When my brother hears that we’ve settled our enemy status in and out of the courtroom and we’re set to become lovers for life, will he try and convince me this is a case of a naive younger woman falling for an older man only for him to have her dismissed?

  *Lovers’s Enemy is an insta-everything standalone instalove romance with an HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.

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  CHAPTER 1

  Paisley

  “That’s almost double what I was paying my last paralegal!” Lucas, my brother’s best friend, says to me as he practically spits out his Starbucks.

  “This is West Hollywood, Lucas. It costs a lot to live here.”

  “You’re twenty-two years old and barely out of college.”

  “I’m a four-year college graduate and I just completed the Paralegal Studies program at Georgetown, the only degree of its kind to be approved by the American Bar Association in our country’s capital, and I did it in ten weeks during their intensive summer program.”

  “Let me translate that for you,” he begins looking at me with those baby blue eyes of his that have been my downfall for years. Even when he teased me as a kid I rarely had a comeback because I’d just get so caught up in his looks, and I was more caught up in my studies than interested in getting into a teasing competition with him. Not to mention he’s always been darn near perfect, and there’s nothing much, if at all, to tease him about.

  But now the power’s in my hand and I’m going to make him pay for all those years of torment. And the torment to come. Because as much as I know it’s going to be a challenge working with him at the fast paced family law firm he runs, I know the bigger challenge is going to be keeping it a secret that I fell for him long ago.

  “You have a mountain of debt, no experience, and aren’t properly qualified in the state of California. You think anyone here cares that you graduated from the number one ranked paralegal program in the country when we have both number two, that being UCLA, and number four, which is University of San Diego, practically off the exact same freeway?”

  “Well then why don’t you hire someone from UCLA or University of San Diego then? It sounds like you’ve got it all figured out,” I say as I tip back the last of my iced vanilla bean coconut milk latte and pop in the last bite of my reduced-fat cinnamon swirl coffee cake. And my mom complained that picking out baby names was tough. The Starbucks marketing team seems to have all the words in the entire English and Italian languages to choose from. Jeez Louise.

  I stand up and push my chair in. If there’s one thing I kno
w about Lucas is that his ego is a big as the Pacific Ocean, and he’ll do anything to keep it from getting bruised…especially by a girl.

  “Okay. Fine. But only because you’re Paul’s sister.”

  “You mean only because I’m qualified and you’re desperate.”

  “I’m not desperate,” he says downing his black coffee and standing himself. “And I need you to start a.s.a.p.”

  “I’ll be in tomorrow first thing.”

  “Can you come by this afternoon?”

  “Not desperate, huh?”

  He shoots me a look that says he’s too cool to answer.

  “Fine. I’ll be there at three.”

  He stands and holds the front door open for me. As I slide underneath his outstretched arm I smell his scent. I haven’t smelled it in four long years and oh do I miss it. It’s a fresh, summery scent, but masculine at the same time. I’ve smelled it on him under all circumstances…after sports, in the evening, first thing in the morning and I’ve come to the realization that it’s just his own pheromones at play. The guy is so sexy he ought to have his own cologne. I giggle a bit imagining some machine hooked up to him twenty-four seven while he ran on a treadmill and the machine just pulling the sweat right off of him. It’s gross and funny at the same time.

  “Whoa,” I hear a voice say and I turn to see two girls in line turn and sniff the air. Apparently I’m not the only one who noticed, and I notice them as actresses from some movie I saw on Netflix last week. There are so many of those Barbie doll actress types in Southern California and it makes the competition for guys stiff.

  I shoot them a dirty look and they quickly return the favor, or should I say lack thereof.

  Before I’ve even turned around I see Lucas is quickly on his way to his shiny gunmetal gray Porsche.

  “Aren’t you gonna say thanks?” I ask.

  “I was about to ask you the same thing,” he says looking back over his shoulder at me. “See you at three,” he says as he jumps in the driver’s seat and exits the parking lot at an angle, as Porsche drivers must do in order not to bottom out.

  And right now the only thing that’s bottomed out is my chances of actually having something with him. Something more than being the butt of his childish jokes and insults. But those days are long gone. These days I can dish it out as well as I can take it. You don’t spend four years out east without sharpening your wit and crafting some pretty killer comebacks.

  But as usual I’ve got no comeback for Lucas Lovers.

  Yeah, what a last name, huh?

  But he’s made it very apparent there’s still no love lost between us.

  CHAPTER 2

  Lucas

  “Whew!” I yell out my window after I’m two stoplights down on Sunset Boulevard.

  Some guy in the car next to me gives me an awkward eye, but I don’t care.

  Today is a huge win and I’ve got to keep the momentum rolling now through three o’clock when Paisley comes into the office to begin.

  It cost a pretty penny to lock her down as my new paralegal, but little does she know I would have paid a whole lot more.

  And no I’m not desperate, but damn if I’m not hungry as hell and filled with desire.

  For her.

  No way I’m going to let some other firm hire her…especially not after I saw that graduation picture of her last week. She looks waaay different than when she graduated high school four years ago.

  Those days are long gone. She’s still got her blonde hair, but gone is the shapeless body, the braces, and from the way she handled herself just now the clumsiness is gone too.

  The way she marched right in the front door of that Starbucks turning heads from left to right, front back and center.

  I tried to play it cool in my Cartier sunglasses, but damn was my heart beating right out of my chest. Watching her lips move as she calmly negotiated what’s likely the biggest paralegal package in the entire state, all the while doing it in-between bites of that pastry she ordered. It’s like the whole thing was child’s play to her…but she’s not a little girl anymore. That low cut perfectly bleached white top revealed more than enough cleavage to let me know that right away.

  And as much as that cleavage can be a huge asset when it comes to legal proceedings, the first thing I’m going to do is give her a bonus to buy some new clothes. No way in hell is she going to walk around looking so damn hot in the office like that.

  First of all I’m not going to be able to get anything done as it is.

  And second of all, and more importantly, there’s no way I’m letting clients see her like that.

  She’s mine now, and not just when it comes to business.

  Once she signs that paperwork this afternoon I’ll have her under contract from nine to five five days a week, but what I’m really after is her name signed on the dotted line on another kind of contract. The one they issue down at city hall.

  A marriage certificate. Yeah, I may have been immature back then teasing my best friend’s little sister, but at least I’ve finally come to my senses.

  And now I’m going to come inside her so deep and so often that we’re going to have our own little kids running around every room of our house.

  She’s mine now whether she knows it or not.

  And she’s gonna know it sooner rather than later. You can count on it.

  CHAPTER 3

  Paisley

  I see my brother Paul’s name on my cell phone screen and hit the answer button as I fumble for the wireless headset I got off eBay for six dollars last week.

  “Can you hear me, Paisley? Are you there?”

  “Paul. Hey, I’m here. Sorry I was just plugging in my earphones.”

  “Sounds like you were in Iraq. Everything okay over there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What’s that sound? Are you driving?”

  “Yeah, I’m on my way to…take care of some stuff.”

  “Still moving in?”

  “Yeah, it’s a process. A process of Ikea taking all my money that is.”

  “I know the feeling, but don’t worry you’ll find a job soon. You’re only twenty-two so Ikea furniture and ramen noodles it’s a normal part of life.”

  “Because I’m twenty-two? Last I remember your place is still entirely outfitted by Ikea. It’s like they sponsor your bachelor pad while Top Ramen has the rights to your kitchen cupboard.”

  “You mean Nissin.”

  “Huh?”

  “Nissin. They’re the manufacturer of Top Ramen. They own the trademark, copyright and global licensing rights.”

  “Spoken like a true intellectual property lawyer,” I say.

  “Speaking of law how’s the job search coming along?”

  “Good,” I say leaving it at that and hoping he won’t ask a follow up question.

  “Good how? Like good you’ve got some leads? Good you’ve got some interviews? Or good you’ve got a job?”

  Well he didn’t ask a follow up question. He asked four of them.

  “Good I’ve got a job.”

  “Congrats! We should grab a drink. When were you planning on telling me by the way?”

  “I just got it and I figured you’d find out soon enough.”

  “Why, once you tell mom you know it’s going to spread through the family like wildfire?”

  I let out an audible laugh. “Yeah, that’s for sure.”

  “So she doesn’t know yet?”

  “No, nobody does,” I say. “You’re breaking up,” I say preparing to end the call before giving away too much information.

  “Really? You’re coming in loud and clear on my end.”

  Shoot.

  “So who locked down your services?”

  Of all the ways he could have asked me he worded it like that.

  “I agreed to terms with Lovers Legal.”

  “Very funny. Who did you really sign with…and did they give you a bonus? Drinks on you if so.”

  I try to play it off and fi
ght the urge to exhale hard or change my tone of voice giving away any clues.

  “No, really. I signed with Lucas’ firm. He made me the best offer by a mile.”

  “What? But you just got back in town. How many interviews did you go on?”

  “Paul! You’re the one who told me to meet with him.”

  “Yeah, I was just trying to help him out. You know his paralegal quit and I thought it would be good interview practice for you. You know since you knew him it would be an easy first interview before you moved up to the bigger firms.”

  “Well, it was an easy interview…in that we agreed over coffee.”

  “Over coffee? You two had coffee. How come I wasn’t invited?”

  “Well, back in the day it would have been nice to have you there, but these days I can handle him myself,” I say knowing that I’m lying my butt off. At least I couldn’t handle driving around town in wet panties, which is one of the reasons I needed time to go home and change before going over to his office.

  “Yeah, I keep forgetting. You’re all grown up.”

  If only Lucas could notice that too.

  “Well, keep your eyes open,” Paul says. “Firms try and poach paralegals all the time. Maybe somebody will make you a better offer and you can consider a different firm.”