Picture Perfect Love: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Read online

  Contents

  Picture Perfect Love

  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

  Chapter 21

  Epilogue

  Extended 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

  Picture Perfect Love

  AN OLDER MAN YOUNGER WOMAN ROMANCE

  _______________________

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS, 249

  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.

  Picture Perfect Love

  I’m crushing hard on my best friend’s dad.

  Kaleb Keller is a six foot tall ex-MMA fighter, forty-two years old with a head full of steel hair and blue fire in his eyes.

  Natalie is my oldest friend. She’d kill me if she knew how hard I was crushing on her rugged millionaire celebrity dad.

  But she’s the one who brings us together.

  She buys me a ticket to a blind date photoshoot, a little gimmicky thing I agree to because I don’t want to seem rude.

  Kaleb shows up, but he’s been away for two years. He doesn’t recognize me as a curvy twenty year old virgin instead of a shy dorky teenager.

  He comes on hot and heavy straight away. I’m shocked, intoxicated by his heat, by him.

  He claims me like the dominant alpha he is. He tells me I belong to him. He tells me he’s going to take my virginity and we’re going to have a family together.

  I want it so badly. But what if Natalie finds out the truth?

  And what happens when the past catches up to the present, and Kaleb realizes I come with baggage, a whole lot more than the fact I’m his daughter’s best friend?

  Can our romance survive?

  Or are we destined to be happy only in photographs?

  *Picture Perfect Love is an insta-everything standalone instalove romance with a HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.

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  Chapter One

  Kelly

  “Are you excited about your father returning?” Mom asks, aiming her question over the kitchen partition at my best – let’s face it, only – friend Natalie.

  Natalie and I sit side by side at the kitchen bar.

  She rests her elbows against it, leaning down to take a sip from her soda. She’s tall, with dainty features and long flowing black hair down to her waist, hippie-style, and about a dozen bracelets tinkle on her wrists every time she moves.

  I would never have the courage to wear all those bracelets, mostly because I wouldn’t want the noise of them to draw attention to myself. If there’s anything I really dislike, it’s making people notice me.

  I don’t think it comes from not wanting to be seen, exactly.

  It’s more like I’m scared of what will happen when I’m seen. If I could find somebody who liked what they saw, I might not mind so much.

  I push the thoughts away, annoyed at them for arising as they always do, at seemingly random intervals, firing into me like little bullets of self-consciousness.

  “I’ve seen him a few times.” Natalie sits up. “I visited him in Thailand.”

  Mom nods. She’s wearing one of her billowing summer dresses, seeming to take possession of her natural curviness as she chops onions. She’s built similar to me, but she has a way of holding herself that isn’t awkward, shy, always on-edge about what others are going to think.

  I envy it, watching her with love blooming in my chest.

  Mom has always been a great role model.

  I’m probably just a bad student.

  “I know,” Mom says. “But visiting him for a few days, and having him return to the States are two very different things.”

  Natalie shrugs. “True. He had important stuff to do over there though.”

  “The charity?” I murmur, trying not to let my voice waver when I think about Kaleb Keller.

  When I was a girl, I used to sink into childish fantasies of me and Kaleb, imagining I’d grow up and he’d make me his one day. He was a mixed martial arts fighter in his youth – fighting shirtless in a cage – and shamefully I used to watch every single one of his fights online, salivating over his hulking body and his steel-blue eyes.

  Now his jet-black hair has turned silver and his eyes are even more feral, glinting with the gaze of an experienced predator.

  “He built those gyms from the ground up,” Natalie says with a note of pride in her voice. “We discussed it before he went, and he asked me. He said he’d stay stateside if I wanted him to. But why? I’m busy with college, with life. I don’t need my dad hanging around all the time.”

  “Still,” Mom says, chopping the onions efficiently.

  Each clap-clap-clap of the knife is causing unfair and unwanted emotion to thud into my chest, as though the knife strikes are fueling my heartbeat, as I think about Kaleb’s bulging chest muscles and the way sweat would slide down between his rock hard abs in his cage fights.

  I thought I was over my childhood crush when he left the States – when Natalie was eighteen and I was a few months shy of my birthday, still in braces – but the thought of him returning has set my body ablaze.

  My only hope is I don’t make a fool of myself if I ever run into him, which isn’t likely since I hardly said two words to him growing up. I’m Natalie’s friend. Kaleb was always busy with his fighting career and then growing his real estate business and his martial arts charities.

  “It’s exciting,” Mom goes on. “You’ll be able to see more of him now.”

  I almost scream at Mom to shut up, even if that would be the most unfair thing I could do. She has no idea how badly the desire for my best friend’s dad burns inside of me, scorching through me, setting me alight in ways I should know better than to indulge.

  If Natalie could reach inside my mind and pluck at these thoughts, she’d leap from the stool and scowl at me. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she’d scream. “This is my dad, the only family I have, and you’re fantasizing over him?”

  And she’d be right. I wouldn’t have any defense. I shouldn’t let myself think like this about him.
>
  But I can’t seem to stop.

  Even last night, I found myself on the website for his martial arts charities in Thailand, studying a photo of him standing in front of a new gym. He was wearing a tank top with his muscular arms showing, tanned with his biceps bulging, his silver hair glinting in the sun.

  I felt like I was possessed as I slid my hands between my legs and started to rub myself, hotly, hungrily, as though nothing could stop me.

  “I guess so,” Natalie says. “To be honest, I’m so busy with school I’m not sure how much time we’re going to spend together. But it will be good to be able to see each other. Dad is… I don’t know.”

  “What?” I urge, trying to make my voice as casual as I can, even if my desire to know more about Kaleb Keller is like an unstoppable force moving through me.

  I want to know everything there is to know about him, to pick him apart piece by piece until I’m more familiar with him than myself.

  Maybe then I could convince him to want me…

  No, no, no.

  I can’t let myself disappear down these impossible rabbit holes in my mind, devolving into the absolute impossibility of my thoughts.

  It’s a childhood crush, nothing more.

  “You know.” Natalie shrugs. “He’s always been a little distant. Don’t get me wrong. He’s an amazing father. He’s always supported me. But I think when Mom ran out on us, something sort of closed off in him if that makes sense?”

  Another wave of guilt crashes into me, making me want to throw my arms around Natalie and scream I’m sorry into her ear. But of course, if I did that she’d ask me why I was sorry, and I’d have to explain about all the sizzling fantasies I’ve had about her father.

  “I understand,” Mom says. “When Gregory died, it left a hole inside of me. It took a long time – a lot of healing – until I was able to move on.”

  My thoughts cloud even further at the mention of my dad, who died of lung cancer when I was just seven years old.

  If Dad was still alive and I knew Natalie was pining after him, how would I feel?

  The selfish part of me wants to say I’d be able to forgive her. I wouldn’t hold it against her.

  But I know that’s just my wishful thinking, my mind doing flips to convince me of what I wish was true instead of facing how things actually are.

  “Yeah.”

  Natalie glances out of the window for a moment. Our apartment sits at the top of the building, an open-plan loft with big tall windows that let in swathes of sunlight, with exposed rafters and a real artsy feel to it… which is fitting, since Mom is a writer and I’m an illustrator or a wannabe illustrator at the very least.

  “I guess that’s true about Dad. There’s a hole inside of him. But I don’t think it was left by Mom. I think it’s always been there. It could have something to do with what happened when he was a kid.”

  My chest tightens for a moment, emotion seizing me.

  I’ve read the newspaper articles about how Kaleb’s parents were killed in a home invasion when he was only nine years old, how it led him to his desire to train in martial arts so he could defend himself… starting him on a road that would eventually lead him to become the heavyweight champion of the world.

  “Look at us.” Mom laughs, dropping the knife and wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. “Turned this lovely evening into a rather depressing affair, haven’t I? Natalie, show Kelly what you’ve gotten her. That’ll cheer things up.”

  “What?” I glance at my friend. “What’s she talking about, Nat?”

  Natalie grins. “You don’t have to sound so worried. It’s a good thing.”

  “Okay…”

  “Remember how down in the dumps you were the other night?” Mom says.

  Of course, I remember.

  The three of us were in the car on the way home from a movie – while I’ve never been close to Kaleb, Natalie and Mom have always been friends – when we passed a certain billboard and I let out a sigh.

  I tried to hold in my self-loathing thoughts, but I couldn’t, and before I knew it I’d gone on a massive rant about how I’d never feel as beautiful as those women on the billboard.

  “Yes.” I nod. “How could I forget? I completely freaking embarrassed myself.”

  “No, you didn’t.” Natalie reaches over and gives my hand a squeeze. “But I was in the city the day after and I passed this kiosk. They were selling photoshoots packages, all professional, all aboveboard, and classy. I remember how you said you wanted some nice photographs for your illustrator’s website, for the profile… so I signed you up.”

  I gasp. “What? No way. I can’t do that. I’d melt in embarrassment.”

  Natalie frowns for a moment, genuine concern glinting into her eyes. She’s always telling me she wishes I could be more confident. She’s always telling me I’m far prettier than I ever give myself credit for… which hardly makes any sense when I’ve never been looked twice at by anyone.

  Not that I want to be looked at by anyone except for her dad.

  God, this is a mess.

  “It’s all booked now,” Natalie says, replacing her frown with a playful smile as she leans forward. “You wouldn’t want me to waste my money, would you?”

  I mock glare at her, even as laughter tries to bubble up inside of me.

  She’s using my own logic against me.

  Natalie works part-time as a waitress as she studies to become a nurse, refusing to let her father support her even if he easily could, and has offered to many times.

  She’s very stubborn and independent in that way.

  The other day, when she tried to pay for our meal, I told her she couldn’t because she needed every last cent for college.

  She’s not like me, forgoing college to try and grind out a living in the world of freelance work.

  “Get a refund,” I murmur.

  “Nah uh. That’s not how it works. So either you go or I’ve wasted one hundred perfectly good dollars.”

  “Nat. That’s too much.”

  “So what’s it to be?”

  “I think it will be a great experience,” Mom says. “When you see yourself professionally photographed, you’ll realize how beautiful you really are, Kelly.”

  I sigh, glancing at Mom and then Kelly, in their supportive expressions.

  I feel like I don’t have a choice.

  And maybe – just maybe – they’re right.

  “Okay. I’ll go. But only because I love you two so freaking much.”

  “Yay.” Kelly throws her arms around me. “I know you won’t regret it.”

  I laugh drily. “What do you mean? I regret it already.”

  But I’m only kidding.

  Truthfully, part of me is excited… the part, that is, that’s buried beneath a mass of swirling nerves.

  Chapter Two

  Kaleb

  I stand on the balcony of my penthouse apartment, looking over the city and taking in a long breath.

  It’s been two years since I took in the scope of the city like this.

  Before I moved to Thailand for my charity work, I would often stand here after a hard workout session and force myself to appreciate the fact that I’m up here, the whole city before me, instead of in an orphanage wondering if I’d ever amount to anything.

  I’ve just returned from Natalie’s apartment, dropping her off after our reunion dinner.

  I love how easy our relationship is. She always knows I’m going to be there for her, the way I was countless times when she was growing up, but she also accepts there’s some wildness in me, some darkness, and I can’t always fulfill the role of two parents, as well as I’d like.

  But shit, look at her.

  She’s acing her studies. She’s determined to support herself even if she knows I’d happily do it for her.

  I must’ve done something right.

  My gaze flits to the horizon, to the setting sun and the way the ocean twinkles.

  It calls to me, the water, w
illing me to leave the city again and find another project.

  The gyms in Thailand are all up and running, self-sufficient, and my real estate business – which was funded by my MMA winnings – pretty much runs itself with the right people in place.

  I need a new project, something to aim at. For a second, I think about a family, the woman of my dreams I gave up searching for a long time ago…

  But it’s impossible. She doesn’t exist. I’ve always felt sure I’d know her when I saw her, and I never found her.

  My thoughts are jolted when the buzzer cuts through the penthouse. I turn and pull open the glass doors, striding down the hallway, over the plush rugs to the intercom.

  “Hello?”

  “It’s me,” Russ says.

  I smirk. “Alright, I’ll buzz you up. I’ll be on the balcony.”

  “Alright.”

  I’m looking forward to seeing Russ, my oldest friend from my early fighting days. We met when we both started wrestling in high school, and then we joined the same MMA gym together back when MMA gyms were just starting to become a thing. Before that, mixed martial artists trained all the separate skills at various gyms.

  And we still do that, to specialize, but it was good to have a place to gather all the different skills.

  Russ has a key, so I return to the balcony and take a couple of beers from the fridge, designed so it looks as though it’s opening from inside the brickwork on the wall.