My Best Friend's Brother: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance Read online

  My Best Friend’s Brother

  Enemies To Lovers Romance

  Lauren Wood

  Copyright © 2020 by Lauren Wood

  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.

  Contents

  1. Izzy

  2. Jack

  3. Izzy

  4. Jack

  5. Izzy

  6. Jack

  7. Izzy

  8. Jack

  9. Izzy

  10. Jack

  11. Izzy

  12. Jack

  13. Izzy

  14. Jack

  15. Izzy

  16. Jack

  17. Izzy

  18. Jack

  19. Izzy

  Epilogue

  The Billionaire’s Fake Bride

  Chapter 1

  Also by Lauren Wood

  About the Author

  Epilogue

  1

  Izzy

  Glancing in the bathroom mirror, I had to wonder where my life had taken its downward spiral. When I quit my job at the town’s municipal building because my manager wouldn’t quit hitting on me? When human resources refused to believe me and sided with him, then threatened to fire me?

  “This hick town is not exactly a big city,” I muttered sourly. “Too many people know too damn much.”

  Turning away from the mirror, I ran my hands down my pale blue blouse and darker blue skirt, wondering just how in the hell I was supposed to work for my best friend’s brother. Heading for the bedroom, I sat on the edge of the bed and bent to pull on my black pumps. A quick glance at the clock showed me I had plenty of time to arrive for my first day on the job at Jack Stanton’s real estate office.

  My cell buzzed on the dresser, startling me. At eight o’clock in the morning, and I didn’t have to be to work until nine, I suspected who was calling before I stood up to answer it. Sure enough, Nellie’s name popped up on the cell’s screen.

  “Are you calling to wish me good luck?” I asked by way of a greeting.

  “You know I am, sweetie.” Nellie’s cheerful voice crossed the invisible airwaves. “Jack told me last night he’s happy to give you a job.”

  “Even though I don’t have any real estate experience?”

  “As his business is a start-up, he can’t afford to hire experts,” Nellie replied. “Besides, he’d rather give people a chance to grow with the company.”

  “How generous.”

  Nellie had to have heard the sour note in my tone. “Hey, look,” she said. “Give it a try. Okay? You need the work, Jack needs the employees. I know you didn’t like him when we were kids, but he is my brother.”

  “Where has he been these last few years? I heard something about Europe through the village grapevine.”

  “Yeah, I thought I had told you that.” Nellie laughed. “But maybe I didn’t, since he’s the last thing you ever wanted to talk about.”

  I rubbed my forehead as I nervously paced my small bedroom. “No, I never did. I also never expected him to come back here.”

  “Well, he went to London on some internship, then spent some time in France and Italy. He learned the real estate ropes in New York for about a year, and now he’s come back.”

  Keeping half an eye on the clock, my nerves stretched as taut as piano wire. “If I didn’t need this job so desperately, Nell, I wouldn’t have taken it. You know Jack and I never got along.”

  “Izzy, I think you might be surprised.”

  “How so?”

  “Jack grew up.”

  I feigned shock. “Say it isn’t so.”

  She laughed. “He’s matured. At least I think he has. His time overseas seems to have done something for him.”

  “Like what? Taught him women are not objects?”

  “Izzy.” Nellie’s voice sounded, while not exactly condemning, it was close. “Come on. Was he that bad?”

  “Nell, you know as well as I do, he was in and out of someone’s bed every night. I’m quite surprised his dick hasn’t rotted off from some STD.”

  Half fearing I made her mad over that, since after all it was her own brother we spoke about, I opened my mouth to apologize. “Nell, that wasn’t –”

  But her good natured laugh cut me off. “Hey, I’m surprised, too. Ole Jacky boy thought he was some hot stud, didn’t he?”

  I laughed. “Well, he was. He’s the original tall, dark, and handsome with the brooding personality to go with it.”

  “And you were the only one who didn’t fall victim to his charms.”

  I said nothing, for that was not exactly true. I uneasily remembered the terrible crush I had on my best friend’s brother in school. In some bizarre twist of fate, I disliked him, yet felt drawn to him both. He danced through my erotic fantasies as I wondered what he looked like naked, how he might be in bed. I wanted him in my bed, making love to me, kissing me, possessing my body.

  All I said was, “Right.”

  “Izzy?” Nellie’s voice sounded concerned. “Are you okay with this? I know you’re financially strapped, but I really do think this job will be good for you.”

  I drew a deep breath, making sure it didn’t reach across the miles and into her ear. “It will be. I’m just nervous, that’s all.”

  “I can dig that, babe,” she replied. “Just give it a chance. If it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t. No biggie.”

  “I know. There just aren’t that many jobs around here. Hattiesburg, Indiana is not exactly New York or Chicago.”

  “I’m glad it isn’t. Look, I know you have to get on your way, and not be late, I just wanted to offer you a quick encouragement.”

  “You’re sweet. How about I call you tonight and let you know how it went?”

  “You’d better. Love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  I clicked the phone off and stared into space. This is so crazy. Why would Jack offer me a job when I have zero experience, and he never liked me any more than I liked him?

  Without any answers, I left my tiny apartment, got into my tiny Ford Mustang, and drove to tiny downtown Hattiesburg. This small country town in southern Indiana never seemed to have much going for it. Why Jack had come here, of all places, to start a real estate company was beyond my comprehension.

  I parked in the lot of the office building, one of three in Hattiesburg, and got out of the Mustang. The light spring breeze wafted across my face, scenting of the newly turned earth in the farmers’ fields and freshly bloomed lilac. After locking my car, I walked across the asphalt, my nervousness increasing.

  What if he dislikes me on sight? What if I keep the job, but he makes my life miserable? I’d certainly had enough of the sexual harassment and the blind eye people turned to it. Opening the door, I walked across the lobby, my pumps clicking on the polished tile. I would be early for my first day and hoped Jack would look favorably on that.

  Half afraid I was too early, I hesitated at Jack’s office door, fearing he hadn’t arrive yet and it was locked. I read the plaque on the door – Southern Indiana Realty. The knob turned easily under my hand. The hinges creaked as I opened it, and no doubt any occupant would know someone had just entered.

  No sneaking, Izzy.

  The office turned out to be bigger than I had thought from the outside. More like a suite, it had a big front office with a reception desk, and a short hallway beyond where at least five smaller rooms appeared to branch off of
it. I heard the squeak of a chair from the largest office at the dead end of the hallway and braced myself. A shadow played across the wall as someone stood up.

  Cool your jets, Izzy. This is just a job, not a date. You’re not gonna have sex with the guy, you’re gonna play it professional. So what if you never liked Jack, you never liked the manager who kept trying to jump your bones, either.

  “Hello?” called a voice from the rear of the suite.

  Oh, my God, he sounded exactly the same. Deep throated, dead sexy with a slight twang, and I listened as it echoed in my head. The voice I heard in my dreams, the ultra erotic bedroom voice from my fantasies. I swallowed the dryness in my mouth, both petrified and fascinated as the shadow loomed in the doorway.

  Jack stopped, his dark eyes on me, looking at me, through me. He definitely had changed, and he had only gotten better looking, sexier, and drop dead gorgeous. Lo and behold, he still had the scar from the rock I chucked at him when I was ten and he twelve.

  I sure taught him a lesson in calling me Dizzy Izzy.

  His lips curved upward in a smile, and he stuck his hands in his trouser pockets. He wore a tie, but it was loose, and his gray silk shirt clung to every contoured muscle of his shoulders, chest, and six-pack abs.

  “Izzy.”

  I found a smile somewhere. “Hi, Jack.”

  2

  Jack

  Unbelievably, she was there, in the flesh. She was real. And more beautiful than I remembered. With super model good looks, Izzy could have been a model had she decided to go in that direction with her life. Her blonde hair that cascaded almost to her waist fell in soft curls around her shoulders and breasts.

  Eyes as blue as the Indiana sky needed little makeup to enhance their natural color, and I noticed she had put on only a little mascara and blush that accented her high cheekbones. Izzy’s long legs hadn’t changed a bit either, and I had always been a legs man.

  Tempted to step closer and give her a hug, the wariness in her eyes and the tension in her posture warned me that such gestures would be unwelcome. The words I’ve missed you rose to my mouth, but I didn’t say them.

  “It’s good to see you again,” I said instead.

  “Yeah,” Izzy replied slowly, as though not truly believing it, “you, too.”

  Okay, so if she wants to play the stranger game, then I guess I will, too. For now. “Um, I’m glad you came early,” I told her, gesturing back toward my office. “I’d like to go over a few things with you.”

  “You’re the boss.”

  Izzy didn’t let herself get too close to me, and I really couldn’t blame her. When we were kids, we fought and hated one another, and I’ll never forget the rock she threw at me. The cut was deep enough to warrant stitches, but I never got any. The rock had bruised my cheek bone and hurt for weeks.

  But I gained a healthy respect for Izzy that day. I don’t think I ever called her Dizzy Izzy again.

  “Have a seat,” I said as I walked around my desk and sat again in my big leather chair. “As my personal assistant –”

  “Wait, what?”

  Izzy gazed at me in shock and no little alarm, her eyes wide. “Your personal assistant?”

  I recognized the concern behind her reaction. When she last saw me, I was something of a playboy. Okay, so that’s not exactly the right word, I guess. Back then, I nailed anything with a vagina. Even in Europe, I screwed up and down the Thames, and spent more time in other beds than I did my own. I had a rep, and I guess I still owned it.

  “Yeah,” I replied, smiling to ease her mind. Hopefully. “I need someone to arrange appointments, answer my calls, keep my schedule, keep track of the listings on the computer, as well as assorted other duties along those lines.”

  Izzy relaxed. “That doesn’t sound hard.”

  “It won’t be at first,” I told her.

  I leaned back in my chair and steepled my fingers, watching her and trying to read her body language. “As I am just starting out, you will have time to learn the computer programs, the MLS, and I will probably be sending you out to take photos of the properties.”

  “And you expect to get busier later on?” she asked.

  “I’m planning on it.”

  “May I ask you a question, Jack?”

  “Of course. I encourage that.”

  “Why did you come back here?”

  Don’t you know? Maybe you don’t at that. I shrugged. “Why shouldn’t I come home, Izzy? I have family here, this is where I grew up.”

  A small smile twitched on her lips. “That’s not exactly what I meant. Why here? Why Hattiesburg where few residents leave and even fewer come in? If you’re interested in real estate, why not New York or Los Angeles?”

  I started to grin as she spoke. “You know of the IBM plant going in just up the interstate in Portsfield?”

  Izzy nodded. “I tried to get a job there.”

  “IBM isn’t the only big company going in within an hour’s drive of Hattiesburg. I’m hearing talk of Amazon building a distribution center near there, as well as Google expanding one of its centers into Louisville, Kentucky.”

  “Which is less than an hour’s drive from here as well,” Izzy commented. “And as one of the only realtors in Hattiesburg, you’re anticipating it becoming a bedroom community for these growing hotspots in the area.”

  I grinned. “Our town sits smack upon I-64. People who will flock for the job possibilities will need homes, properties. I’m getting my oar in the water before anyone else.”

  Izzy folded her arms over her bosom, but it was not a defensive move. “Other realtors will also flock in.”

  “True. But if I already have the staff in place, I can deal with the competition. But getting a jump in first will help enormously.”

  “So that is why you’re not demanding I have experience?”

  “That, plus Nell told me how badly you needed a job.”

  Her smile vanished, and her face stiffened. “I’m not looking for charity, Jack.”

  “Nor am I offering it,” I replied easily. “If I train you while work is slow, then I am hoping you, and the other employees I hire, will retain enough loyalty to stay on board when other realtors sniff around and hope to steal my very competent staff.”

  Izzy watched me carefully. “That makes sense, I suppose.”

  Tapping my temple, I grinned. “Just a little foresight going on.”

  “Who else have you hired?”

  I glanced at my watch. “Debbie Watson has already started as my receptionist, she’ll be here at any minute. Only Roger Andrews has a realtor license, and he’s been working for me for two weeks now. I plan to hire three more realtors and claim a huge share of the properties I know will start coming on the market.”

  “Is this what you were learning while you were overseas?” she asked, her tone curious and no longer suspicious.

  “No,” I replied. “I interned for government and diplomatic positions but decided that shit wasn’t for me. When I saw in New York the possibilities of real estate, I knew I found my calling. Especially after hearing what was in the works near here.”

  “Did you like being in Europe?” she asked.

  The question surprised me. “Sure. The people are great, once you get past the language barriers. England wasn’t so bad, except for some of those accents. Cockney is like another language of its own.”

  Izzy laughed. “What are the French like?”

  “Welcoming for the most part, standoffish the rest of the time. The Italians were the friendliest, I think.”

  “I’ve always wanted to visit Europe,” she said, her tone wistful. “See old castles, places I learned about in history classes.”

  Was Izzy into history? I couldn’t remember. All I could recall was football and sleeping with girls all through high school. Yet, through all those years as Izzy blossomed in so many interesting ways, she was never far from my thoughts. Before I turned fifteen, she was my sister’s best friend and a thorn in my foot.<
br />
  When she hit puberty and developed curves, boobs, and her peaches and cream complexion, I recognized her for what she truly was – someone I wanted to be with. I had a terrible crush on her, yet she never even looked at me. Too many years of me picking on her and Nellie, bullying the both of them, teasing her endlessly. It all created a wall between us.

  A wall that was still firmly and implacably in place.

  “You’d love it, then,” I went on, absently wondering what might have been had I not bullied her when we were young. Might we have had a trusting relationship, maybe been married by now? “Europe is so old compared to America.”

  “Perhaps that’s the attraction.”

  “For a history buff, sure. You really liked history? I never knew that.”

  “There’s a lot you never knew about me, Jack. Or bothered to know.”

  I nodded slowly, my eyes on hers. “That’s true enough. Nell tells me you don’t have anyone in your life. I’m surprised.”

  “Why?”

  The question was clearly a challenge. “Because among all of us at school, you were the one I expected to settle down right away with a hubby and kids,” I answered slowly. “You are, shall we say, too good to be spending your life single.”

  Izzy lifted her chin. “Is that a compliment?”

  “Does that bother you?”

  “From you, I’m not so sure a compliment is really what it’s supposed to be.”

  Okay, that was deep. Time for a topic change. “Weren’t you involved with that guy? Whatzizname?”

  “What whatzizname? You might remember, I didn’t go out much. I hardly ever dated.”

  I snapped my fingers, the name flooding my memory. “Darren Miller. I thought you were involved with him, maybe planned to marry.”