My Ex's Dad: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance Read online

  My Ex’s Dad

  AN OLDER MAN YOUNGER WOMAN ROMANCE

  _______________________

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS, 276

  FLORA FERRARI

  Copyright © 2022 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.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Extended 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

  My Ex’s Dad

  I’m surprised Lukas Landon would even look at me. At forty-three years old, he’s so tall, handsome, and muscular, that thoughts of him drive me crazy at night.

  As an ex-boxer who runs a business empire, he could have any woman he wants.

  I'm a twenty-year-old college student, wannabe writer, and curvy virgin who doesn’t register on most people’s radars.

  To make matters even more complicated, I used to be in a relationship with his son, Jamie. Well, sort of. He was and is my best friend.

  We were never actually together, but since we were so close in high school everyone thought we were. As far as Lukas knows, I’m his son’s ex-girlfriend.

  That’s why I’m so surprised when this rugged alpha starts making moves on me.

  To help my family, I take a job at a laundromat he owns. It’s here, in the middle of the night, with no one else around, that Lukas shows me just how badly he wants me.

  “I know this is wrong. I know you were with my son. But I can’t resist you anymore. I’m claiming you, Lori. Now and forever. You belong to me.”

  I don’t know what to say. He has no idea how inexperienced I am. He has no idea how easily I could disappoint him.

  Further muddling matters is Jamie. He’s acting so suspiciously lately, sneaking around and hardly communicating with me or his dad.

  Does he know something’s going on? Or is there another explanation for his behavior?

  I try to resist Lukas, but our lust is primal and urgent, and soon we’re talking about a future together…

  A future that’s going to be impossible if Jamie ever finds out.

  * My Ex’ Dad is an insta-everything standalone instalove romance with a HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.

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  Chapter One

  Lorena

  I stand outside the train station with a weight in my chest, clamping down as my gaze moves over the city.

  It never used to be this way. When I came back from college, it was always with a smile on my face, a spring in my step, ready to rush home and be with my mom and dad.

  But that was before dad got sick and I transferred colleges to be closer to him.

  “Hey, Lori,” Jaime calls as he strides over.

  Jaime was my closest friend growing up, and we still talk regularly on the phone even now that I’m at college and he’s still on the East Coast. He’s tall and slender, with sharp features matched with a soft smile. We were so close when we were kids, best friends, that people said we must’ve been boyfriend and girlfriend, but that isn’t true. We were ever only friends.

  He runs a hand through his mop of dark hair, grinning as he nods down at my bags. “Think you brought enough?”

  Despite the darkness trying to take hold of me, I manage a smile. But then it falters when the reason for my three overstuffed bags crashes into me.

  “Sorry.” Jaime sighs. “That was a pretty stupid thing to say.”

  “No, it’s fine.” I lean down to pick up the heaviest bag. “Thanks for giving me a ride home.”

  Jaime quickly leans down, snatching up two of the bags and rising to his full height. He’s not as tall as his father, but he’s still over six feet tall, with a boyish look about him.

  Sometimes I can’t believe people would think Jaime and I were a couple. We’ve known each other since we were little kids, and it’s only ever been platonic.

  We carry the bags over to his car. It’s the same one he’s had since high school, black with the paint chipping, looking like it’s ready to keel over and die at any second. As we place the bags in the trunk, I laugh softly.

  “I can’t believe you won’t just let your dad buy you a new one.”

  “Hey, I’ve got my pride, I’ll have you know,” he says chuckling softly. “I didn’t save all through high school for nothing.”

  I remember how he refused to let his wealthy father buy him a car, insisting on working a part-time job until he’d saved enough to be able to afford a down payment on this hunk of junk.

  He strokes his hand along the car’s roof as he walks toward the driver’s seat. “And she is a beauty.”

  “A beauty that looks just about ready to kick the can.”

  He grins. “Hey, don’t say that about my darling.”

  I climb into the passenger seat and he drops into the driver’s, starting the engine and leaving the train station parking lot. As we drive through the city, the buildings get taller and more imposing around us. I can’t help but feel a pang of longing for the old-fashioned look of my college in Maine. It always made me feel as though I’d time traveled back to a different era.

  “How’s your dad?” I ask, cautioning myself not to be weird.

  My voice falters toward the end, on the word dad.

  Jaime’s dad is Lukas Landon, an ex-boxer who towers over everyone at six and a half feet tall, with rippling muscles and silver hair that is almost the same shade as his pale blue eyes. All through high school, whenever I would visit Jaime at his place, I would secretly watch Lukas any chance I got. Imagining one day he’d notice me and make me his.

  Of course, it never happened. It couldn’t happen.

  I was just a dork with my head buried in a book. He was cordial to me, the way parents are to their kids’ friends, but that’s it.

  I haven’t seen him since I left for college two years ago. Jaime has his own place now, and that was the only time I ever saw him when visiting my friend.

  But thoughts of
Lukas followed me across the country, teasing me in my dreams, as I compared the college boys around me to the manliness of Lukas Landon.

  He's never going to notice me. Nothing’s changed, except I’m not a teenager anymore. I turned twenty last month. Which would make Lukas… forty-three.

  But the age gap means nothing to me.

  In fact, I love his silver hair and the experience in those haunting eyes of his. But that doesn’t mean he feels the same. In his eyes – if he ever bothered looking – he’d probably still see me as a kid.

  I silently curse myself when I realize Jaime has been talking all the while I’ve been too busy fantasizing about his dad.

  What would Jaime think if he knew the path my thoughts were on?

  “Sorry. What did you say?”

  Jaime chuckles. “Thinking of your next book idea?”

  “Don’t even mention books or ideas. It’s hard enough coming to grips with the classics, let alone trying to write my own one.”

  “You’ll get there, Lori. I know you will. And dad is… well, he’s dad. He works a lot, making sure all his businesses and properties are running smoothly. I tell him he should delegate more, but he can’t stand the idea of some manager coming in and taking advantage of his residents or his employees. How about yours?”

  I lay my forehead against the window, watching the city drift by. “He sounded optimistic on the phone. It’s like he doesn’t believe the doctors when they say it’s serious. He actually laughed when I told him lung cancer is no laughing matter… but then the laugh turned into a cough, Jaime, this horrible cough. It sounded like an engine that was about to die.”

  Pushing away a sob, I take a bolstering breath. I need to be strong for my dad now. That’s the whole reason I transferred back to the East Coast, so I could help mom when his condition started to worsen. Mom works full-time at a veterinary clinic, and I know how much she loves her work. With me here to lend a hand, she won’t have to cut her hours as much.

  “I’m sorry, Lori,” Jaime mutters.

  “What about you?” I say. “Any new girlfriends?”

  He shakes his head with a smile. Jaime seems to have a new girlfriend every couple of months now that he’s got his own place, but he’s always cagey about letting me meet them. He says he wants to find a serious partner before he bothers introducing them to his friends and family.

  “No, you’ll be surprised to hear.” He grins. “What about you? Any boyfriends?”

  He doesn’t ask me if I have any new boyfriends, because I’ve never had a relationship. Jaime has always said any man would be lucky to have me… but never in a way that would imply he wants to be that man. It’s so nice to be able to be friends with a boy without constantly wondering if he’s harboring some secret crush. I know that Jaime never has.

  “No,” I say. “I’m just focusing on my studies.”

  I don’t tell him about the dreams that visit me several times a week. When I wrap the blankets around myself and imagine they’re Lukas’s arms instead, where he lays his powerful body against mine and whispers in my ear that he wants me, only me.

  “That makes sense. But you could go on a few dates here and there if you wanted.”

  “I know,” I mutter.

  It’s true. Even if I’m not the most athletic or glamorous woman in the universe, there were a couple of boys in college that were interested in me.

  But what’s the point. They’re boys.

  Part of me wishes I could stop thinking about silver-haired Lukas, with his powerful hands, his strong jawline, and that intense way he has of looking at people. And yet another part of me can’t imagine a world where I let go of my childhood crush, even if I should’ve outgrown it a long time ago.

  Jaime pulls to a stop outside my childhood home, a three bedroom bungalow on the outskirts of the city, and helps me with my bags.

  “You can come inside, if you want,” I say softly.

  He looks closely at me, head slightly tilted. “Thanks, but I think you’ll want to reconnect with your dad first, right? I can always swing by tomorrow.”

  “Thanks for being so understanding.”

  “Hey, that’s what friends are for.”

  He wanders back to his car and I push my key into the lock. The second I open the door, Chirpy sprints over, the little Chihuahua brimming with energy, his little tail flicking from side to side as though attached to a motor.

  I scoop him up, cradling him to my chest.

  Dad walks into the hallway slowly. His eyes are sunken and he’s lost weight from his latest bout of chemotherapy. His bald head is difficult to accept when he had a ponytail for most of my childhood.

  “Oh, dad,” I whisper, falling into his embrace.

  He wraps his arms around me and Chirpy, and we stay like that for a long time just holding each other.

  Chapter Two

  Lukas

  I work the punching bag, the music blasting in my ears as I jab it over and over. Only thirty seconds left until my set is done.

  My muscles are burning, my forearms tight, sweat coating my body. It’s the final exercise of the session and the floor around me is puddled with sweat, my T-shirt sticking to my skin.

  Finally, the set ends, and I hit the bag one final time, causing it to rock and whine on its hinges.

  I always prefer working out here, the first gym I opened after I ended my pro boxing career and started my business – gyms, restaurants, stores, and even a few laundromats.

  Combining all my businesses, I bring in a healthy income, enough that I’d be able to start a whole new life if I wanted to.

  But that would mean finding a woman… a woman who could ignite a fire inside of me, who could make me care as nobody ever has.

  Maybe it’s the fact that Jaime has left home and I still feel like I have so much left to give, so much energy, but I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

  I’ve built a business empire, using the money earned in my boxing career. I’ve got enough money in the bank that I could retire right now if I wanted to… not that I would. I love working, staying active, and being involved in the day-to-day operation of my businesses.

  But it’s like there’s something missing, or someone missing.

  I never talk about this with anyone, not my boxing buddies or Jaime. No one would say I’m an overly sentimental man, but that’s how I’ve been feeling.

  It’s all this energy inside of me, trying to break free, as though willing me to find a woman and make her mine, start a new life, a new family…

  I chuckle grimly as I grab a towel and mop away the sweat. Usually, my thoughts are able to calm down after a workout, but this morning that’s clearly not the case.

  After a quick shower and a change of clothes, I’m walking across the parking lot when my phone rings from my pocket. I take it out, spotting Jaime’s name.

  I answer quickly. I see my son quite often, though I understand he needs space, which is one of the reasons I was so proud of him when he said he wanted to move into his own apartment at nineteen. I help him as much as he’ll let me, but he’s a proud kid and likes to do things by himself. I admire the hell out of that.

  But I’m glad he feels like he can reach out to me when he really needs it. It’s a good balance.

  “Hey, dad,” he says when I answer. “You know how I’m a pull-myself-up-by-the-bootstraps type of guy, right?”

  I chuckle.

  “What? What’s funny?” he says.

  I climb into my car. “Oh, nothing. Except that every time you want to ask me for something, you start by telling me what an independent man you are.”

  He laughs at the light banter. “Okay, fair enough. You’ve cracked the code. My car broke down.”

  “You mean that rusty piece of junk that should’ve been written off years ago? What a surprise.”

  I can hear a smile in his voice when he responds. “Yep, that’s the one. I’m just around the corner from Lori’s place. The roadside recovery said the
y could be up to three hours. I was wondering if you were in the neighborhood? Maybe we could grab an early lunch while we wait? There’s a diner nearby.”

  “You said you’re near Lorena’s house? Why don’t you wait with her?”

  He sighs. “I could. They’d let me in. But I don’t want to impose. Lori hasn’t been home in a few months and her dad is sick. Remember.”

  “That’s right. Lung cancer. Poor guy.”

  “I don’t really want to interrupt their reunion…”

  “Where’s her house again?” I ask. “It’s out near the docks, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s it. You only dropped me there about a million times.”

  I smirk. “Yeah, and that was about a million years ago.”

  Jaime and his childhood girlfriend had been inseparable for years. Jaime was always cagey when it came to talking about anything personal, but I could tell how happy they made each other.

  He always had a big smile on his face whenever he returned from her house. As far as I know, they decided to put their relationship on hold when she left for college.

  Perhaps, now that she’s home, he’s going to try and start things afresh.

  “Sure, I’ll come and get you. I can push a few things to the afternoon.”

  “Thanks, dad.”

  “Of course. See you soon.”