“You are so hot, Audrey, so hot,” he whispered against her lips.

“Oh God,” she gasped as his fingers moved in just the right way to make her squirm. His lips advanced along her jaw line, the coarse hair from his chin tickling her skin as he licked the length of her neck causing her to moan appreciatively.

“Come for me, baby, come,” he demanded against her neck, “I want you to come.”

She did, long and hard, coming completely undone underneath his talented hand. Breathing hard, she moved her hands into his blonde hair, bringing their mouths together as she-

Wait? Blonde Hair?

Audrey sat up quickly, holding the blanket against her chest as sweat dripped down her back. Looking around the dark room, Audrey realized that she was alone, and that she was dreaming. Of sex with Tate!

Her ‘had to be’ friend.

Shit.

Picking her phone off the bed stand and seeing that it was only 2 a.m., she fell back onto the bed with a groan. Man, that was a hot, sexy, yummy dream and she wasn’t the least bit surprised that she was dreaming of Tate. After spending the whole night with him, then thinking about him non-stop before going to sleep, and still feeling him kissing her, it was bound to happen. The only thing she wished was that it wasn’t just a dream. She was wishing it was true.

Audrey just didn’t know what she was going to do. She had guys want her before. She knew how to handle them. But it was different when it came to Tate. When he said he wouldn’t quit, Audrey had seen in his eyes that he wasn’t lying, or playing a game. He was for real, and part of her was scared shitless. She didn’t know how else to explain that she wasn’t the girl for him than basically telling him about her condition. But how could she? She hadn’t told anyone, ever. So how could she to keep him away?

Did she want to keep him away?

She cared for Tate, a lot. She enjoyed his company: their joking banter. Lord knew she loved looking at him. She had never gotten along so great with a guy before. Even with Levi, she had never felt so comfortable. The whole time she was with Tate, she didn’t think of anything else but him. It was weird. Even when they talked about Levi, she brushed the subject off and brought up another. She just enjoyed Tate. Was that wrong? How could it be so easy for them?

It still blew Audrey’s mind that Tate had a thing for older women. Was that what this was? Was he just chasing the next older female? Little did he know this old one was defective and he should probably just move on. Audrey’s heart started to hurt at the thought of him doing that. Finding a beautiful young…or maybe another older girl and loving her, the way Audrey wanted to be loved. Jealousy ate away at Audrey’s heart as she sat in her bed stewing about the beautiful woman Tate would marry and have babies with. She had no reason to be jealous but she was. She hated that she wasn’t brave enough to share her condition with him. To give him the option of choosing if he would want to be with her or not, she was being a coward and it was nothing new.

She wouldn’t be brave about this, her job, or giving up Levi. She would always do this to herself, and she was bound to grow old, lonely and in a job she hated. For once she wished she had the balls to do what would make her happy. She was so scared of rejection. When Levi rejected her love the morning before, it broke her, or at least she thought it did. She hadn’t thought about it at all. She was too busy with Tate.

What did that mean? Was she using Tate as a distraction? Was that all this was? But it couldn’t be. She genuinely liked Tate, so what was this?

Was it real?

Audrey laid her head against her knees, and sat for a moment, trying to decide what the hell was going on. She slowly ran her fingers along her lips, remembering the feel of his plump juicy ones on them. When she heard the faint sound of a piano, she almost fell on her face trying to get out of the bed. Running across the hall in only a tank and panties, she stumbled into her closet. Sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, the vibrations from the piano next door tickled her back. Leaning her head against the wall, she wondered why Tate was up so late. He had practice early in the morning. Shouldn’t he be asleep?

Her worry about his sleep patterns quickly died when she recognized the song he was playing. It was another personal favorite and she was starting to think that they had the same taste in music. Hugging her legs tightly, she sang along to the beautiful melody of Stranger by Secondhand Serenade.

“I'm broke and abandoned, you are an angel, making all my dreams come true tonight,” Audrey sang, tears springing to her eyes. She was the worst singer imaginable but it was such a beautiful song, she couldn’t help but sing along. She found a part of her, probably the selfish part, hoped he was playing it for her. When he played the best part of the song, the tears fell, rolling down her cheeks as she sang along, “Take a look at me so you can see how beautiful you are.”

Audrey had no clue what she was going to do, but she needed to do something. After only a few times with Tate, she was starting to feel something for him. How was that right? She was supposed to be in love with Levi! How was she having even an inkling of feeling for Tate? It was wrong…but she couldn’t help it. She knew that being around Tate, getting to know him better was going to do nothing but make her fall harder. She needed to stop hanging out with him. That was the only way to fix everything. As much as she wanted a Happily Ever After with Tate, she knew she couldn’t be selfish. She couldn’t take away his dreams of having a family someday by wanting him to be with her.