Life of Bliss: Love Life, #2

By Erin McLellan

Nobody plans to accidentally marry their frenemy-with-benefits.

Todd McGower and Victor Consuelos do not like each other. They can't have a conversation without insults flying, and Victor seems to get off on pushing Todd's buttons. The fact that their antagonism always leads to explosive sex . . . well, that's their little secret. 

Victor has a secret of his own. His full-blown crush on Todd is ruining his sex life. He hasn't looked at anyone else in months, and he's too hung up on Todd to find a date to his cousin's wedding. 

In a moment of weakness after a heart-stopping night together, Todd agrees to be Victor's fake boyfriend for the wedding. Victor will have his plus-one—which will get his family off his back—and Todd will get a free mini-vacation. It's a win-win.

But pretending to be fake boyfriends leads to real intimacy, which leads to too much wine, and suddenly, Todd and Victor wake up with wedding bands and a marriage license between them. That was not their plan, but a summer of wedded bliss might just change their minds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erin McLellan
• Release date: Apr 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781732173415

Book preview

Chapter One

As the plane landed, Todd gripped the arms of his seat and tried not to breathe in the Axe body spray of the teenager leaning over him to see out the window. He’d made it through another school year and felt he deserved an Axe-free summer.

The plane bumped down the runway, and the teenager finally moved back into his own space.

Todd gulped in a breath of recycled airplane air. In, out. Slow breaths. It’s almost over.

Rusty, his ex-boyfriend and current best friend, leaned toward Todd from his seat across the aisle. You okay, man? I know you get claustrophobic on planes.

Todd faked a smile. I’m fine now.

He tapped his fingers against the armrests, playing out the melody of a Patty Griffin song he couldn’t get out of his head, until the plane slowed and the swoopy sensation in his stomach calmed.

A flight attendant announced that the local time in Oklahoma City was six thirty in the evening and passengers could now use their cellular devices. Todd didn’t power on his phone. This vacation to Cancún had been wonderful and full of the people he loved the most, whereas the real world wasn’t full of anything but loneliness.

Once the plane came to a stop, Rusty’s boyfriend, Niles, who was in the window seat beside Rusty, stood up and stretched, hunching over so he wouldn’t hit his head on the overhead bin. "I do not want to go to work tomorrow. You teacher types have it sweet with those summers off."

Yeah, except the whole lack-of-a-good-salary thing, Todd joked back, and Niles stuck out his tongue.

Rusty was the choir director for Bison Hills high school and middle school choirs, and Todd was his accompanist. It wasn’t always easy working with his ex, but Todd managed. Hell, they’d just been on a vacation together.

Sometimes, though, it hurt. It hurt to see how happy Rusty was with Niles, to see everything he’d lost by being a fucking idiot. When he’d broken up with Rusty, he’d simultaneously lost Rusty and Rusty’s sister and niece—his whole support system. Todd had managed to patch up the holes in his relationships with Rusty, Jackie, and Margo, and they’d all pieced together something that resembled a family again. But it wasn’t the same. Todd was the fifth wheel now. The guy they took pity on.

Blah.

He could hardly stand himself when he got all up in his own feelings. He needed to go back to the real world, so he reluctantly switched his phone back on. It lit up with messages.

Several were from his mom, which he ignored. He also had a handful of depressing news alerts that he swiped away.

Hey guys, want to get dinner with Victor? Niles asked, and Todd glanced up to see Niles reading the texts on his phone too. He wants to take us to this place that only serves grilled cheese sandwiches.

Todd’s heartbeat took off like a shot. Victor was Niles’s best friend from college, but he lived in Oklahoma City while Niles, Rusty, and Todd all lived hours away in Bison Hills.

Todd and Victor had a thorny relationship. Victor was horribly gorgeous, sarcastic, and infuriating . . . And Todd loved hate-fucking him.

Sure, he said before he could talk himself out of it. Victor was a handful, but maybe after days of bearing witness to Rusty and Niles’s sweetness, Victor’s antagonism was exactly what he needed.

Niles grinned. Awesome. I’ll let him know we’re game.

A few seconds later, Todd’s phone vibrated in his hand, and he had to lock down a smile when he saw it was a text from Victor.

Victor: Did you get any of that good vacation dick? Or were you saving yourself for me?

What are you grinning about? Rusty asked.

Nothing, Todd lied smoothly. He didn’t want Rusty and Niles to catch on. As far as Todd knew, neither of them was aware that he and Victor fucked on the semi-regular. That was half the fun.

Who’s texting you? Rusty asked, like a nosy neighbor. People at the front of the plane were finally shuffling off, but economy class was still packed in like a group of sweating, restless sardines.

My mom.

Rusty cringed. He knew all about Todd’s complicated relationship with his parents. Thankfully, the aisle cleared in front of them before Rusty could continue his inquisition.

The teenager scooted out of his seat, taking the stench of Axe with him. Rusty and Niles climbed out next, and Niles retrieved their carry-on from the overhead bin, stumbling through the process, sweetly awkward and uncoordinated as always. Todd followed, trying not to bang his knees or elbows on anything. The smaller the spaces on airplanes got, the more deplaning felt like an obstacle course.

Jackie and Margo, Rusty’s sister and niece who had been seated closer to the front, were waiting for them inside the terminal doors.

Uncle Todd, did you see? We were in the clouds! Margo squealed when she saw him.

He picked her up, his heart clenching, like always, when she called him uncle. Did you have fun on the plane?

She laughed. Mommy let me watch her iPad!

iPad to the rescue, he whispered to Jackie when he put Margo down.

He couldn’t believe Margo wasn’t exhausted. She’d run them all ragged on the beach for the last several days. Jackie pulled him into a swift hug, and he was suddenly at risk of being choked up. He loved them both so much.

To be honest, losing Rusty’s sister and niece from his life after he’d broken up with Rusty had been worse than losing Rusty, which in hindsight, said a lot about their failed relationship. Though that knowledge hadn’t kept Todd from trying to get Rusty back when he and Niles had temporarily broken up last year, which had been a horrible idea. Like all of his other relationship decisions, ever. Luckily, Niles and Rusty seemed as content as him to pretend that his momentary lapse of judgment had never happened.

As they made their way to the baggage claim, Niles tried to convince Jackie to go to dinner with them.

Fancy grilled cheese, Jackie, he was saying. How can you turn that down?

She pinched his side. Easy. I’m a single parent who has to be up early for work and still has a two-hour drive ahead of me. We’re gonna get fast food and then split.

Jackie and Margo had moved away from Bison Hills late last year, so she was heading in a slightly different direction than them. Todd, Niles, and Rusty’s drive was three hours, but they didn’t have a little girl to get to bed.

Todd had driven separately from Niles and Rusty so that he could visit his grandparents, who lived in Oklahoma City, the day before the flight to Cancún. He was in for a late night of lonely driving after dinner.

Unless . . . He checked his text messages again. Victor hadn’t sent another text, but that didn’t stop Todd from imagining Victor’s mocking voice in his ear, the heady press of their bodies together. Heat crept up his neck, and his pulse sped like a Pavlovian response. His mouth was practically watering with the need to antagonize Victor back.

Dinner was going to be interesting.

Thirty minutes later, after a round of goodbyes with Jackie and Margo, Todd parallel parked his car on a busy street in Oklahoma City’s Plaza District. He spotted Rusty’s car directly in front of the restaurant, so they’d probably beaten him inside.

He scanned the dark, trendy restaurant until his eyes landed on the hottest man in Oklahoma: Victor Consuelos. Just being in the same room with him made Todd’s blood blaze with lust and frustration and anger.

Rusty, Niles, and Victor were seated on tall barstools at a pub table with Victor facing away from the entrance. Todd took a long moment to study Victor’s back, which was perfectly straight, his posture impeccable. His tank top showed off his shoulders and the seductive curve of his long neck. And he was wearing an infuriatingly sexy smirk too, which he turned on Todd as soon as Niles spotted him and waved.

They’d left the seat next to Victor empty for him.

Great.

Todd settled into his seat and picked up the menu, which, as advertised, was mostly limited to fancy grilled cheese sandwiches. Niles and Rusty were discussing which sandwiches to get to split between them, and a thread of discomfort snuck down Todd’s spine. He and Rusty used to do that. Order different meals and sample from both.

A pointy elbow poked him in the side, and he jumped.

Want to share with me, cupcake? Victor asked, batting his stupidly long eyelashes.

No.

A slow, sharp smile worked its way across Victor’s handsome face, and Todd’s blood sang.

He’d seen that smile of Victor’s so many times before, and it always meant the same thing.

Game on.

This was what Todd needed. What he wanted.

To spar with words and wit and snark.

Rusty and Niles ordered a pear-and-Brie sandwich and one with goat cheese and eggs, respectively. Victor selected a sandwich made on jalapeño corn bread.

All those offerings sounded great, but nothing beat a classic grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup, so that was what Todd ordered.

Really? Victor said when the waitress had left. Out of everything on the menu, you choose the one item that could easily be made at home?

Todd opened his mouth to respond, but Rusty jumped in. "Trust me. Todd would not be able to make that at home. He’s horrible in the kitchen."

Victor laughed at that, probably delighted that someone besides him had teased Todd. Todd wanted to lash out, to cut Victor down a teeny-tiny notch, just enough to put them back on the level. But then Victor turned away and asked Niles about their vacation, seemingly so enthralled that it was like Todd wasn’t there at all.

Todd’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he took it out, then glanced at it under the table.

Victor: You make up for it in the bedroom.

The edges of Victor’s lips tipped up after Todd read his message, but he didn’t turn his gaze away from Niles and Rusty, who were giving a rundown of the fish they’d seen while snorkeling.

Todd: Don’t be sweet to me yet. The foreplay just started.

Victor glanced down at his phone in his lap, then disguised his laugh with a cough.

They were pros at texting like this now. Secretly, so neither Rusty nor Niles would catch on. Todd set his phone so it wouldn’t vibrate or make any noise with incoming messages.

Victor nodded toward Todd. So did this one go snorkeling with you, or was he too nervous to wash the hair spray out of his hair?

Bright, soothing anger rushed through Todd, and Victor shot him a sweet smile. He was going to make Victor pay for that.

Of course he went snorkeling, Niles said. Todd could always count on Niles to try to come to his rescue. But he spent a lot of time with Margo and Jackie, so he didn’t go on this excursion thingy with us. Niles swiveled toward Todd. Do you use hair spray? Is that what makes your hair so—he waved his hand around—lustrous?

Todd laughed. No. This is genetics and a good haircut.

Victor snorted and said, Bullshit, under his breath, but loudly enough for everyone in the entire restaurant to hear.

Their waitress returned with their food, and during that bustle, he got another text from Victor.

Victor: You didn’t answer my question earlier.

Ah, yes. The vacation dick question.

Todd: I had a sadly dry vacay. You offering?

Victor: Depends. You gotta go to the club with me first.

Todd’s stomach jumped. Victor was a dance instructor in Oklahoma City. Going to a dance club with him would be insanely intimidating.

Still, he’d been restless lately. Restless, like someone was pulling a string connected to his gut, and it was starting to hurt each time he ignored it. He had chalked it up to end-of-school-year doldrums—he’d been dying for summer vacation—but now it was June and he’d had weeks and a trip to Cancún to get over his blues.

Maybe a night with Victor would calm that stuttering in his stomach like he’d swallowed a handful of moths.

Or maybe it’d make him feel worse. It was a toss-up.

There wasn’t a good time to text Victor back through the rest of the meal. The conversation veered from their vacation to Victor’s cousin’s wedding, which was in a couple of days in Arkansas, to sci-fi television shows. The love between Niles and Victor was palpable, and it always tugged at Todd’s heart a little. They were like platonic soul mates, perfect complements of each other. He’d never had a friend like that, besides Rusty, and that friendship was irrevocably colored by their years of coupledom.

After they all paid their tabs, Todd excused himself to use the restroom. He caught Victor’s eyes as he stood up from the table. Two minutes later, Victor met him in the hallway at the back of the restaurant that led to the bathrooms.

It’s a single, Todd said, with a gesture toward the bathroom door. And someone’s in there.

Victor crowded him into the wall, his gaze trailing over Todd’s face and down to his lips. Come dancing with me tonight. And then I want you to deep-dick me into oblivion.

Oh, he was dangerous.

Todd touched the sharp jut of his shoulder, and Victor swayed toward him.

I’d have to stay the night. I can’t go out with you and then drive back to Bison Hills.

That seemed to snap Victor out of it a little because he took a step back. Todd had never been to Victor’s apartment, and they’d certainly never spent the night together. That didn’t fall within the boundaries of their frenemies-with-benefits relationship.

Victor chewed on his top lip for a second, then nodded. I’ll allow it.

Todd rolled his eyes, trying, unsuccessfully, to not find him hilarious. Okay, I’ll follow you to your apartment after this. I’ll tell Niles and Rusty that I’m going to stay at my grandparents’.

Ah, see, Victor said, his voice full of delicious snark. That’s why you’re a fun fuck. Your ingenuity.

I’m going back to the table.

Do you not need to use the bathroom?

Nope. I just wanted to lure you back here with me. And now you get to stand here for several minutes, alone, so we don’t come back together and raise the suspicions of our oblivious friends.

Todd thumbed Victor’s chin with a grin and then left.

Victor ushered Todd into his apartment and immediately turned on some music, hoping to silence the unease pounding in his veins.

He needed about two hours of yoga to calm down and relieve his stress, but who had time for that? Instead he’d opted for the next best thing—a booty call.

Todd took in the apartment slowly, like he was memorizing it, and Victor almost changed his plans. He should never have invited Todd over. He felt more vulnerable showing Todd his home than he would his body.

After months of fooling around in secret every time Victor visited Niles in Bison Hills, he’d learned Todd’s favorite moves. Todd wasn’t a half-dressed, crazy-fast, out-of-control fucker. He liked to take his time and strip Victor completely—of his clothes, his inhibitions, his snark. They normally managed to sneak away to Todd’s two-bedroom house for a few hours at least once a visit, and Victor anticipated those stolen moments as if they were the only breaths of fresh air he’d be allowed.

His crush on Todd was incredibly inconvenient. For one, they hated each other.

Except they totally

Reviews for Life of Bliss

[anniene · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this sexy romp a LOT.
I thought the sex scenes were delicious and well written.

It seemed like a goofy premise, but it played out really well. I liked both characters and was rooting for both of them to find their way, to grow into the intimacy that a real relationship takes.