Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

Friends With Benefits

I enjoy friends to lovers stories because I married one of my best friends. My husband and I were good friends for years before we fell in love, so I can totally relate to that scary of feeling of taking things to a different level. In Friends With Benefits, though, I twisted things up a bit. Kerri wants to get married, but after she and Mitch sleep together, she’s not sure where things are going so she suggests they can still be friends – they’ll just be friends with benefits. And she’ll keep looking for a husband. Another twist is when Mitch, the guy, is the one who ends up feeling used and guilty. I wrote part of this book while driving across the prairies and at that time I didn’t think what I’d written was that great, but when I read it later I saw the chemistry between Kerri and Mitch that somehow I had created!
So here’s a short excerpt from Friends With Benefits, now available in PRINT from Samhain!

Blurb:
Yoga is Kerri Harris’s life, but that doesn’t mean she’s a New Age flake. She’s a successful businesswoman, and it’s about time everyone took her as seriously as her mother-of-two, “real-career” sister. That means adding a new item to her spreadsheet—marriage plan. There’s only one person she trusts to help her check off this task: her best friend Mitch.
Divorce attorney Mitch MacAuley gets the cold shivers at the mere mention of matrimony. After the disasters he’s witnessed from childhood, marriage equals miserable. The last thing he wants is to help Kerri down that road, but he’s never been able to say no to her. He expects to feel pity for her as she goes on one disastrous date after another. The complete surprise? Thinking about Kerri with those other guys makes him crazy.
Her frustration collides with his confusion, leading to a big fight, a hot kiss and a scorching sexual tension that hits them both broadside. Prompting Kerri to propose a new plan…to add the bedroom to their list of BFF benefits.
They quickly find out there’s nothing casual about the heat they generate. In fact, the burn could ruin a perfectly beautiful friendship.
Warning: This story contains a late-night booty call, hot hotel sex and naked yoga!

This scene is at a cocktail party to celebrate the grand opening of White Lotus Spa and Yoga, a week after “the kiss”:

“Jack, do you know Kerri? She’s the owner of the yoga part of White Lotus. Kerri, this is Jack Farnham, one of my clients.”
Kerri reached out and shook his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”
Jack smiled at her admiringly. “Recently divorced,” he said. “Nice to meet you too.”
Shit. Mitch scowled. Kerri did not want to get messed up with this guy and all the baggage he carried around, not to mention a vicious, greedy ex-wife and three children whose custody had been a major battle. But Kerri was smiling at the guy.
“You don’t look like the typical spa customer,” she said, fluttering her long eyelashes at him.
He grinned. “I actually come every week for a manicure and a massage. Amanda is the best massage therapist I’ve ever had.”
Mitch’s frown deepened. Kerri nodded. “Yes, she’s great. Has she tried her new massage oil on you?”
“No…I don’t think so.”
Kerri nodded thoughtfully. “Probably too feminine a fragrance for you. You’ll have to check with her about some of the other oils she has.”
Mitch wrinkled his forehead. What the hell was she talking about? Oils?
“So,” Jack said, turning to Mitch. “I hear you’re trying some different things in your divorce work.”
“Like what?” Kerri asked, brows raised, looking from Jack to Mitch.
Mitch sighed. “I’ve been doing more and more dispute resolution work for couples that are divorcing.”
“Oh. But do they still get divorced?”
He laughed. “Well, yeah. I’m not a marriage counselor. I was getting frustrated at all the animosity and ugliness so I started trying to use some conflict resolution stuff to help them work things out. Not resolve their marital issues, although I have to say it has happened a couple of times. Mostly I just try to help work out how to divide assets, custody, stuff like that.”
“Oh. That’s what you were talking to my dad about last weekend.” He nodded. “I know you were getting a reputation as someone who could work any kind of deal out, no matter how bitter the couple was. So you’re actually doing more of that.”
He nodded again, her words warming him, and she met his eyes.
“Wow,” she said. “That’s really different for you. I thought all lawyers wanted to drag things out as long as possible so they could make as much money as they could.”
He let his breath out in a deflated whoosh. “You have such a high opinion of me.”
“So, what would be your advice to couples?” Jack asked. “Litigation? Mediation?”
“My advice would be to not get married,” Mitch said dryly, and everybody laughed. “Seriously. If they could only hear the horror stories of the hatred and destruction divorcing couples inflict on each other, they might think twice about getting married. They think they love each other and they don’t believe that in a few years, they’ll be emotionally and physically beating each other up, spending thousands of dollars fighting over a five-hundred-dollar painting or a dog, or accusing the other of child molestation or being a drunken slut.”
He felt Kerri’s eyes on him and glanced at her. She’d heard this stuff before, no surprise to her. But her eyes flashed and the corners of her mouth tipped down.
“You’re so cynical,” she said, everyone standing there listening. “You shouldn’t be talking like that in front of Hailey and Miguel. They’re getting married in two weeks. We should all be happy for them. So listen. Why does California have the most lawyers in the country while New Jersey has the most toxic waste sites?” She waited a beat.
No, Kerri, not now. He sighed inwardly.
“New Jersey got first choice.”
Everyone laughed.
“What’s the difference between lawyers and accountants?”
The others all grinned. “At least accountants know they’re boring.” They laughed again, except Mitch, who grimaced. She looked at him, shaking her head, a little smile playing on her pretty mouth. She continued, “What’s wrong with lawyer jokes?” She paused. “Lawyers don’t think they’re funny and no one else thinks they’re jokes.”
More laughter followed, and now Mitch shook his head, trying to be a good sport, but damn, these lawyer jokes were getting to him. It was fine when he knew she was just teasing him, but lately she’d been so cool to him it was tough to take it in a light-hearted vein. Sparks shot between them as they exchanged a glare.
“Would you two just stop it!” Hailey burst out. The group grew quiet. Kerri and Mitch both looked at her, startled.
“Uh…stop what?” Kerri asked, glancing at Mitch.
“What is with you two?” Hailey looked from one to the other. “Last night you two just kept at each other, pushing each other’s buttons, and tonight it’s even worse.”
“That’s how we talk to each other,” Kerri said in a small voice. “We like to tease each other.”
“There’s teasing and then there’s tormenting. I don’t get it. What’s going on?”
They were both silent, again glancing at each other.
“Nothing,” Mitch said finally. “Kerri, I think Sela and your parents are trying to get your attention.”
She looked across the room where they beckoned her over. “Excuse me.” She flashed an apologetic smile at Jack then separated from the group and went over to talk to their parents.
Hailey and Miguel also excused themselves.
“Wow,” Jack said under his breath as he and Mitch both watched Kerri walk away, the straps criss-crossing her smooth bare back, hips swaying under the filmy black skirt. “She’s hot. She single?”
She’d kill him, but… “She is, but she’s kind of flaky,” he told Jack. “Not your type at all.”