Friends and Lovers Trilogy 02 - Charmed by Beth Ciotta

Author:Beth Ciotta [Ciotta, Beth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
Published: 2004-12-01T08:00:00+00:00

“Wake up and smell the espresso, Rudy. You’re in love.”

Rudy didn’t shift. He didn’t wince or frown or laugh. He just stared at Sofie as the bomb she’d hurled lobbed him in the chest. His breath seized as he waited for the explosion. Afia had made the same observation months ago, after he’d first acknowledged an attraction to Jean-Pierre. He hadn’t argued. It was definitely that giddy, walking-on-air feeling that most people attribute to being “in love.” But this was different. This was deeper, darker, and frightening in its intensity.

Sofie’s bomb scared the hell out of him.

He wouldn’t have confided in her but Afia was off-limits just now, and his houseguest had walked in while he’d been trying to numb his heightened emotions with a bottle of Merlot and an ear blistering session with ABBA’s greatest hits. He’d been obsessing on this afternoon’s bizarre blow out. The way he’d felt when Lulu had railed into Jean-Pierre. He’d wanted to get in her face and to hurt her as deeply as she’d hurt his lover. He’d never yelled at a woman. Not once. Not for any reason. Knowing that she was upset was the only thing that had enabled him to keep his anger in check.

Other feelings were an entirely different matter. He’d experienced a sharp pain in his chest, so severe, that for a split second he’d imagined he was having a coronary. It was the first time he’d seen Jean-Pierre genuinely upset, and he’d felt sick. All he wanted to do was make it right. His physical reaction to his partner’s emotional pain was so over-the-top it had thrown him for a cataclysmic loop.

He’d been relieved when Jean-Pierre had received a phone call from Ruby Slippers regarding a distraught queen and an emergency wardrobe crisis. He’d thanked his lucky stars when Sofie had been called in to cover a shift at the Carnevale, allowing him total privacy to spaz out.

But then she’d returned home an hour early, catching him two-thirds of the way through the bottle and mid-chorus on “Take A Chance On Me.” She’d badgered him until he’d spilled his guts. Now life as he knew it was about to be blown to smithereens. Just as soon as he acknowledged that bomb.

“Denying the truth won’t change it,” Sofie said, as if reading his mind. “You might as well suck it up, admit it, and get on with life. A life with a sexy, talented partner with a heart of gold, I might add. A devoted partner who’s willing to work himself into the ground to make your dream come true. Do you know how lucky you are?”

The question of the week. “Yeah, I know how lucky I am.” That was the problem. Jean-Pierre, their relationship, was too good to be true. After years of playing the field, he’d poured his energy into turning his life around. Six months and a stack of self-help books later and—Ta-dah!—there was Jean-Pierre. It was too flipping simple. It couldn’t be this easy. And now he’d complicated matters by falling in love with the man.

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