My Best Friend's Navy SEAL Dad: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Read online

  CONTENTS

  My Best Friend’s Navy SEAL Dad

  NEWSLETTER

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Epilogue

  Extended Epilogue

  NEWSLETTER

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS

  BRATVA BEAR SHIFTERS

  LAIRDS & LADIES

  RUSSIAN UNDERWORLD

  IRISH WOLF SHIFTERS

  Collaborations

  About the Author

  MY BEST FRIEND’S NAVY SEAL DAD

  AN OLDER MAN YOUNGER WOMAN ROMANCE

  _______________________

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS, 239

  FLORA FERRARI

  Copyright © 2021 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 and 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.

  MY BEST FRIEND’S NAVY SEAL DAD

  I’ve had a crush on Trent Tanner for as long as I can remember. He’s a tall handsome Navy SEAL who rarely cracks a smile and wouldn’t look at me in a million years.

  Or so I think.

  But when he returns to our small town to retire from the military, he looks at me in a captivating, intoxicating way. At first, I think he’s playing a cruel joke on me.

  There’s no way he’d be interested in a dorky twenty-one year old wannabe photographer, with a curvy body and who’s a virgin to boot.

  But then he kisses me, hard, telling me I belong to him. He tells me no other man can ever touch me or even look at me.

  “You’re mine, Tessa,” he snarls. “And you always will be.”

  I should be happy. All my crazy girlhood crush dreams are coming true.

  And maybe I would be if I wasn’t best friends with his daughter, Angie. We’ve been inseparable since first grade and I’d never do anything to hurt her.

  I’m caught between my desire for Trent and my loyalty to Angie.

  All I can do is hope and pray it doesn’t all blow up in my face.

  *My Best Friend's Navy SEAL Dad is an insta-everything standalone instalove romance with a HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.

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  CHAPTER ONE

  Tessa

  “You could help, you know,” Angie says, wiping down the table and smiling over at me.

  I grin. “I know I could. But maybe I just like seeing you suffer.”

  She flips me the bird with the hand that’s not clutching a rag. I laugh and glance down at my notepad, at the heading titled Photography Ideas.

  I’ve recently saved for a new camera – well, a secondhand camera – and I’m eager to give it a shot.

  “Wait a sec.” I hop down from the stool and walk around the counter, grabbing my bag from underneath.

  “What are you doing?” Angie asks. “I don’t like when you get that tone, Tess. It makes me nervous.”

  “What tone?”

  “That up-to-something tone.”

  Angie wanders over to the counter.

  “No, keep going,” I say. “I want to get some shots of you.”

  She puts her hands on her hips, shaking her head at me. Even though we’re both twenty-one, when she does this she looks so much older, like the big sister I never had.

  She’s got a short bob of black hair and her work clothes fit her snugly, highlighting her athletic build. She has an expressive actor’s face, with her features always ready to shift depending on her mood.

  “No way,” she says. “You know how much I hate that.”

  “How are you going to be an Oscar winning actor if you don’t even like having your photo taken, huh?”

  “Right now, I’m not an actor.” She laughs. “I’m one half of a waiting staff but I seem to be doing all the freaking work.”

  I give her my best puppy dog eyes. The early-summer sunlight is filtering in perfectly through the tall windows of the diner, making everything sparkle. The place is empty, since this is an out-of-town diner, made for truckers and travelers, and right now we’ve got neither.

  “Nah uh, that’s not gonna work,” Angie says.

  “Please—”

  “Help me clean this place up,” she says. “And then I’ll think about it.”

  I look at the sparkling tables and the shimmering counter, at the spotless floor and the gleaming windows.

  “Angie, I think it might be clean already.”

  “I don’t want Dad to think I’m some slacker. Come on.”

  I just roll my eyes, smiling, but I can’t stop the chord of nervousness from rioting through me when she mentions her father. I’ve been so consumed with thinking about my new camera, I didn’t even remember.

  “Your dad is picking us up today.”

  She tilts her head at me. “Duh. I’ve only mentioned it like a hundred times.”

  “It completely slipped my mind.”

  “That’s because you’re floating away into photography land. Come on. I want this place to sparkle.”

  “It is sparkling…”

  “Tessa, please?”

  Now she’s giving me puppy dog eyes. Plus she used my full first name, with the a and everything. She must be serious.

  “And then you’ll let me get some photos?”

  “Yeah, but I can’t promise I’ll be the best subject.”

  I lay my bag down and pick up a cleaning cloth, moving around the diner with her and rubbing everything down until it somehow sparkles even more.

  As we work, my heart hammers in my chest, my throat threatening to close as a thousand unfair sensations move through me.

  Trent Tanner has been a Navy SEAL for as long as I can remember, for as long as Angela and I have been friends… which is forever. We met in kindergarten and we’ve been inseparable ever since.

  When I was a girl and Trent used to return from service, I’d stare at him like he wasn’t even real.

  Girlish longing would flood into me as I gazed at his tall, muscular body, at his jet-black – and then steel-gray – hair, at his tucked-in shirt showing me the outline of his abs.

  Before I knew it was wrong, before I knew I’d be betraying my best friend if I ever acted on these desires, I’d fill notebooks with our names, enclosed in giant red hearts. I’d dream about the life we’d live when I was old enough for him to notice me.

  But then I grew older and I realized that it would be terrible if my crazy fantasies ever became reality.

  Angela would hate me. />
  She’s been through enough, with her parents separating when she was a kid and her Mom dying a few years ago, just a couple of weeks after her eighteenth birthday. The last thing she needs is me ogling her father.

  “Are you excited about seeing him?” I ask. “How long’s it been?”

  “Half a year,” Angela says, furiously scrubbing a spoon that was sparkling clean two minutes ago. “He’s been training SEALs to go overseas. You know, getting them ready, using his combat experience. He’s been doing that for years and now he’s retiring, and he’s going to be here, with me, in Youngstone.”

  I giggle. “I know, Angie.”

  “I know you know.” She smiles. “But I have to keep saying it or it doesn’t feel real. Dad is going to be here, really be here, long-term. I never thought he’d retire from the SEALs. I thought he was in it for life.”

  “Why did he retire?” I ask. “You haven’t mentioned that.”

  “I think he’s going to start a business. But I don’t even know. We don’t talk much.”

  “That’s not fair,” I say, feeling like I have to come to Trent’s defense for some bizarre reason.

  Because you want him, a voice sings inside of me. Because you need him. Because you can’t live without him.

  “He calls you as often as he can. He writes and emails you and sends you photographs.”

  She tilts her head at me, narrowing her eyes, and for a crazy second, I think she’s seeing right into my brain and reading my girlish crush. I turn away, a blush infusing my cheeks, not wanting to give anything away.

  It doesn’t matter, anyway.

  Trent would never want me. He’s tall, handsome, and experienced.

  I’m a twenty-one year old wannabe photographer, a waitress, and I’m not exactly the prettiest girl around. Angela is fit and actor-like from her gym obsession. I’m curvy and easily ignored if high school and the years afterward are any indication.

  “I know,” Angie says after a pause. “But this is different. I’ll be seeing him every day. What the heck are we going to talk about?”

  “Angie, I’ve seen you two together. You never have trouble finding conversation.”

  “But that’s for a few days here and there.” She sighs, finally setting her gleaming spoon down. “What’s it going to be like when we’ve run out of things to say?”

  I reach over and place my hands on her shoulders, staring firmly at her. “Stop worrying so much. Everything’s going to be fine. I promise. Now, this place is freaking spotless. And you promised.”

  She nods. “Okay. I guess it’ll take my mind off things.”

  I hope it does the same for me, but I won’t tell Angie that.

  It’s been three years since I last saw Trent Tanner.

  Every time Angie has met with him, it’s been out of town, a father-daughter thing. The last time he saw me, I wasn’t even out of my braces yet. I wasn’t even eighteen yet.

  I quiet the voice inside that whispers this is it, my chance to act on all the pent-up desire inside of me.

  I focus on Angie instead, standing in the sunlit diner, posing for my photographs with a self-deprecating smile on her face.

  Thank God Trent will never want me.

  I don’t know if I’d be able to resist if he felt the same.

  And that would break Angie’s heart.

  The day wears on.

  We only have a few customers – I’m pretty sure this place is going out of business – but after everyone is gone, Angie runs over to the tables and scrubs them like she’s angry with them for being so messy.

  The sun has started to set when she pauses in the middle of the diner, letting her well-used cleaning cloth drop to the floor.

  She stares through the windows at a jet-black SUV, a giant statement of a car, looking far too fancy and shiny to be in our dusty parking lot.

  Youngstone, Maine, is not exactly a glamorous place.

  “It’s him,” Angie says. “Oh, God. I need the bathroom. Tell him I’ll be out in a second, okay?”

  I want to scream no, but she’s already gone, striding toward the bathroom at the other end of the diner.

  I’m left standing there alone, suddenly aware of how tight my waitress’s uniform is, the skirt cutting into my hips, the T-shirt squeezing too firmly onto my breasts.

  The last thing I wanted to do was gross Trent out.

  I push that instinct down.

  Grossing him out would be a good thing. It meant he would never look at me in that way, which is what I wanted… right?

  My breath catches when he climbs from the car, standing up straight and reaching down to tuck his shirt in. I stare at the outline of his abs through the shirt, at his arms bulging against the fabric. His steel-colored hair gleaming in the sunlight.

  He walks toward the diner, briskly, efficiently, a man who never hesitates and knows exactly what he wants out of life.

  He has to duck under the diner door. He’s so tall. He must be six and a half feet, at least.

  He looks around and then stops when he sees me, his jaw going tight, his emerald eyes glinting like he’s angry with me about something. I can’t think about what it could possibly be.

  For a crazy second, I wonder if he somehow saw my love-filled notebooks before I threw them in the trash, terrified that Angie would find them and hate me for them.

  “Hello,” he says. “I’m looking for my daughter. Angie.”

  A blush spreads over my chest, up to my neck, infusing my cheeks as we gaze across at each other.

  There’s so much shimmering rage in his expression like he hates me. Like he wishes I wasn’t here to intrude on this private family moment.

  “She’s in the bathroom. She’ll be out in a minute. Would you like some coffee, Mr. Tanner?”

  “You know my name,” he comments, striding over to me, bringing his musky scent with him.

  “Of course I know your name.”

  He pauses just shy of me, so close I could reach out and place my hand against that rock hard, muscular, massive chest if I wanted to. The urge pumps hotly through me, the same way it did when I was a teenager, my fantasies filled with how solid and warm his chest would feel.

  “Have we met?” he asks a growl in his voice, with more anger rioting through him.

  I laugh. Here’s proof he’d never want me. He doesn’t even recognize me.

  “Mr. Tanner, it’s me, it’s Tess,” I say. “I’ve had my braces out. And it’s been a while. Three years.”

  Crap, I sound like a dorky overeager kid. At least I didn’t give him the exact day count since our last meeting.

  “Wait, Angie’s friend, Tess?”

  “Yeah.”

  He bites down, his jaw pulsing, and then he turns quickly away as if looking at me is causing too much fury for him to control.

  I stare at the broadness of his back, at the muscles pressing through his shirt.

  What the heck have I done wrong?

  CHAPTER TWO

  Trent

  I stand with my back to her, my heartbeat thundering like it’s going to blast out of my chest, like a bomb, like a fucking bomb and it’s counting down.

  Just when I thought I had everything figured out – retirement, start a management business, spend more time with my daughter – out of nowhere this desire slams into me.

  When I walked in here, feelings flooded into me. They were the sort I never imagined a man like me could feel. Over the years, as women have thrown themselves at me, I knew I’d never feel what seems to come so easily to everyone else.

  I’ve never felt this primal attraction, this impossible-to-ignore need.

  But here it is, and it’s pulsing inside of me.

  How the fuck is she Angie’s friend Tessa?

  I remember Tessa.

  She was a shy girl with braces, hiding her face behind cheap disposable cameras. She was invisible to me. I haven’t even seen her in three years. Work has kept me busy, and when I get a chance to spend some time with
Angie, I want to treat her to some father-daughter quality time.

  Now she’s…

  Fuck, I don’t even know what she is.

  She’s a mirage, an oasis.

  She’s mine.

  The conviction rises inside of me with a certainty I’ve only ever felt in combat when a man has to trust his instincts or it can lead to his death.

  I feel that unwavering confidence now.

  Tessa belongs to me.

  I’ll destroy any man who tries to claim her.

  She’s curvy in all the right places, perfect for me to grab and hammer until she’s overflowing with my seed. She’s got chestnut-brown hair, wavy down to her shoulders, and a cute-as-fuck button nose, and a nervous smile.

  She’s mine, mine, mine.

  I have to fight this urge.

  She’s Angela’s best friend. She’s my daughter’s best friend.

  Fuck.

  I didn’t expect returning to Youngstone would be so complicated.

  I look toward the bathroom, waiting for Angie to emerge and make this less complicated. But I’ve got no such luck.

  I can’t stop myself from turning back to that woman, my woman.

  “She shouldn’t be much longer,” she murmurs, her cheeks turning an enticing shade of red, the sort of red that makes me want to grab her and shove her onto one of these tables.

  Fuck, I’d slide my hands up those legs and between those thick, beautiful thighs, and then I’d rub at her shy young pussy, grind the heel of my palm against her until she’s shivering and gasping against me. Once her panties were soaked through, I’d tear them off and plunge deep inside of her without any more messing around.

  I’d take her like there’s a war going on outside and I have to make her pregnant before I join the battle.

  I’d take her like my life depended on it.

  I need to put a baby in her fertile womb.

  “Sure,” I say, sounding like a jackass.

  I don’t know what to say.

  Her perfume is overwhelming, washing over me, driving me closer and closer to madness. My cock is stiff and I’m glad I’m wearing black trousers. I hope she can’t see.

  I need to get myself under control before my daughter returns.