Love to Hate: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance (Only Him Series Book 3) Read online

  My moment of madness when I allowed myself to get swept up in the image of a heartbroken Tony was killing me now. How the hell was I supposed to get through this whole traumatic weekend with someone I didn't know? I should've trusted my instincts and brought her with me instead. At least I knew for a fact that I would've had fun with Hayley; she would've made the nightmare seem a lot more fun...

  "Oh hi," my face actually broke out into a big smile as I saw the man from the pictures come to life in front of me. I'd been attracted to him before, but now in the flesh, I realized that he was even better looking than I'd first realized.

  He was absolutely gorgeous. He actually had butterflies flapping in my stomach.

  "Max, is it?"

  "Erm, yeah. It's good to meet you."

  It was hard to read his expression, if anything he looked totally bewildered by the whole situation, but as he extended his hand to shake mine, my confidence levels grew. At least he seemed alright with this nightmare. Okay, so Hayley hadn't told him it was a plan to get back at my ex at my command (I really didn't want to seem like the saddo who couldn't get over my past... even if that was how things were) so he wasn't fully aware of what was going on, but he seemed okay with it all regardless.

  "So..." there was a little bit of an awkward silence hanging in the air, but we managed to dispel it by chuckling like idiots.

  "You up for this? I have to warn you, though, that my sister is a bit of a bridezilla."

  "Oh God, really? Okay, well that should make for some interesting fun. At least there's a free bar... there is a free bar, right?"

  "Oh of course. I wouldn't put you through this torture without booze, would I?"

  As he grinned at me, my heart fluttered a little with excitement. This was actually the sort of man that I usually liked, one with a cute face, nice hair, and a fun, loving personality. If things were different, then maybe...

  No, God, I couldn't start thinking along those lines. I didn't want to start making it more complicated by adding anything else into the mix. This was mental enough.

  "Anyway, shall we get going?" he grabbed his bag and locked his door behind him. "A wedding with a bunch of strangers... it should be fun!"

  At that moment, I felt a little bad. If I thought this was bad for me, I hadn't even considered what it'd be like for Max. He wasn't going to know anyone at the wedding.

  "I'll be by your side, don't worry. It won't take long for you to know me."

  As Max sat in the passenger's seat of the car, and I slid into the driver's chair, I felt an intense heat emanating from him. It was almost as if there was a chemistry sizzling between us, one that I couldn't yet explain. Sure, Max was hot, but I never usually fell for someone without knowing him well. Tony and I were friends for nearly two years before we got together. Maybe that was why it was so damn hard to recover.

  "So, can I ask you a few questions on the drive up?" Max asked me curiously. "Is that cool? I don't usually do this sort of thing, so I don't know what's normal."

  God, he was so normal for someone so hot. Just because Hayley liked him, didn't mean he was going to be cool. I was well aware that he could've been a total ass, but it seemed like I was in luck.

  "No, me neither. Let's just muddle through this nightmare together. Ask away, I'll ask you some stuff too."

  Actually, that could be better. The more that me and Max knew about one another, the more convincing we'd be as a couple. Now that I was on board with this crazy plan, I wanted Tony to think that I really had moved on.

  "Okay, so you work with Hayley, right? At the printing press. Is that what you want to do?"

  I didn't like to admit that I didn't really have any career ambitions, and that I was quite happy about the job I already had. I was one of those people that worked to live, not lived to work. I was happy with the way I was, but sometimes I felt like it made me sound a little... lame. "Actually I'm a wonderful singer," I joked. "I'm just waiting for someone to notice."

  I sent Max a wink so he knew I was teasing, and he joined right in with my game. "Oh yeah? Please give me a song. Maybe I know some people."

  I burst out into a very tuneless rendition of a very popular pop song, losing all my inhibitions along the way. I felt free enough to act a fool around Max. He just had that calming presence that made everything seem alright. He even started to join in by the time I reached the chorus.

  "Oh yeah," he eventually burst into peels of laughter. "I can really see it. You're the next big thing, for sure!"

  "Thank you, I'm glad it's clear to you too. Honestly, I was starting to think that no one would ever spot my awesomeness."

  It was fun joking around, but I wanted to know more about Max too.

  "So, what is it that you do?" I asked.

  "Well my day job is one that I hate. I work in an office that sells toner. It's very boring, but what I really want to do is write. I've actually written quite a few books. It's just a case of getting them published."

  Damn that was interesting! Now I wished that I really did have a talent for singing, compared to Max I felt really boring. "What do you write?"

  "Fiction, in the thriller genre mostly. I like writing crime novels that keep the reader guessing until the very end. I don't know how good I am, but I love it all the same."

  "I would love to read some of it! I read a lot so that would be awesome. If you don't mind?"

  "Yeah, it would be cool to know what you think. The only person who has read them so far has been my mom, and she has to tell me that I'm amazing."

  He nodded, agreeing with me, before launching into the details of the plot of the favorite book he'd written, and while he talked I realized how much his passion shined in his eyes. He was gorgeous normally, but as he discussed his work he went off the charts. His whole body seemed to shine with the thrill of it all.

  This was actually the first person that I'd felt attracted to since Tony, and that felt good. In my heartbreak, I'd forgotten how good it felt to be in that first flush of attraction. It had adrenaline coursing through my veins, and excitement buzzing in my stomach.

  This was going to be a very interesting weekend....

  Thanks for reading! Look for The Wedding Date out now on Amazon. Be sure to follow Nicole Casey on Amazon and sign up for the newsletter to be notified when future books are available.

  Read an Excerpt from Lost Love

  Gio lost everything when his first love ran away to join the army; he hasn’t been the same since.

  He’s tried to move on, but it’s difficult when no one even compares.

  But now he’s back…

  Derek wants to find the one, but he can’t when his brain is still stuck in the past, thinking about the one who got away. He had to leave. His parents forced it on him when they wouldn’t accept his sexuality, and because of that this is the first time he’s been back in his home town. If he didn’t need this closure he never would’ve returned.

  But what he wasn’t expecting to find a deep connection still there, a deep steamy pull within him that’s challenging to resist. What is he supposed to do when his lost love just will not let him go?

  Gio

  “So, Bryant is taking me away for a weekend in Paris,” my best friend for as long as I could remember, Max, enthused. “I can’t help but think that he might finally be about to propose.”

  “That’s excellent news,” I replied through gritted teeth.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t want the best for Max. If anyone deserved true happiness, it was him. I just needed a bit of it for myself, and that was all. It had been forever since I’d found someone to be excited about.

  Actually, if I really thought about it, there had only ever been one person that I truly adored, but I tried not to think about him too much these days because it hurt my heart to do so. Still, even after years of being apart, I kept meaning to move on, but it wasn’t quite as simple as that.

  “Oh I’m so happy!” Max bounced up and down on my couch like an excitable bu
nny rabbit. “I’ve wanted this for as long as I can remember.”

  “I know.” I nodded slowly as I sipped my coffee. I tried my best to keep my moroseness from my tone. It wasn’t Max’s fault that I felt sad. I didn’t want to put a dampener on his joy, but I wasn’t sure how successfully I managed that. Max didn’t look totally convinced at any rate. “You’re really lucky.”

  I glanced my eyes around my apartment, drinking in all the luxuries I’d afforded myself through my awesome career as a marketing executive. I loved my job, and it felt great to have made such a success of my life. In that way, I was lucky, but the thing I was missing was always prodding me in the side, reminding me that it wasn’t all good.

  I had everything I wanted, but no one to love, no one to share it with.

  “Oh don’t worry, mate.” Max patted my shoulder in what I’m sure he thought was a comforting gesture. He would’ve never wanted to come across as patronizing as he did. “The one for you will come along.”

  The one for me had already come along. I’d already been offered that kind of once-in-a-lifetime true love, but it didn’t last. If I couldn’t keep hold of Derek Tricks with all the feelings we had for one another, then I didn’t stand a chance at ever keeping anyone. Maybe that was why I didn’t bother trying.

  Ah Derek, with his beautiful olive skin, his warm hazel eyes, his beautiful deep black curls… he was an utter vision of gorgeousness. Sometimes I wondered why it took me so long to pay attention to him.

  We were in school together our entire childhood, but we didn’t run in the same circles. He hung out with the jocks, and I was more one of the… academic types, with Max. The nerds, as Derek always called us, but in a sweet, teasing way. We didn’t even speak much, until we reached the final year of high school when hormones and charged emotions began to control us. That was when I started to recognize that what I felt for Derek wasn’t admiration, and he began to really see me too. I was nothing compared to him; awkward, pasty, red-haired and geeky… but somehow Derek managed to fall for me anyway.

  We fell easily into one another’s arms, and quickly shared our first kiss. There was no need for us to be scared about the world knowing about our love, because it was so real, so fierce that we could’ve weathered anything. In the end, the kids in our school respected us too much to bother with teasing. It was so easy for us to just be. It was the happiest time of my whole damn life.

  Maybe that should’ve been my first clue that I wasn’t going to get the happy ever after I desired. Maybe it was all too simple, and I shouldn’t have been so naïve.

  Eventually school ended, and I assumed that with all our newfound freedom that our love would blossom and grow. I thought we’d find a college that suited us both, or maybe a new city in which to build some awesome careers, and that the world would become our oyster.

  How wrong I was. While I was happily planning and dreaming about a future with Derek in it, he was making his escape. He just upped and vanished, joined the army apparently, without even saying goodbye. He didn’t even bother to tell me that it was over, he just disappeared in the dead of night, leaving my heart shattered into a million pieces.

  The whole thing must’ve meant a whole lot more to me than it did him.

  “What happened to that bloke you were dating, Tommy, was it?” Max continued, completely oblivious to my inner flashback into the most heartbreaking moment of my entire life.

  Losing Derek crushed me. I wept for weeks, and I never wanted to experience that again. I couldn’t even go to college, or move somewhere else. I simply remained where I was and tried to create a life for myself in another way entirely. “He was cute, right?”

  “Boring,” I lied, while pointedly focusing my gaze on my fingernails. “I just didn’t have anything in common with him.”

  Max gave me a look, one that could see deep into the parts of me that I never wanted to expose to the rest of the world. I could lie to him all I wanted, but he knew the issue. Tommy was gone because he wasn’t Derek.

  No one ever would be.

  “Course.” He decided to roll with it, rather than dig me out. My feelings weren’t worth analyzing because there was nothing that could be done about it. “Well, your dream man is just around the corner, I’m sure of it.”

  I smiled thinly, but I couldn’t vocalize an agreement with him because I didn’t believe it myself. I worked seventy hours a week, I worked out during all the free time I wasn’t sleeping, and I pushed myself in every way possible just to ensure that I didn’t have to worry too much about the lack of love. I didn’t usually think about it but at moments like this when it felt like I was being left behind, it was challenging to think about anything else.

  Now Max was going to get married, I was sure he was right about the proposal because he and Bryant were the most incredible couple ever. It was the next logical step for them both, and I would surely be dragged into the wedding planning. Love was going to thrust violently into my face for the foreseeable future. It would be difficult to think about anything else.

  “Anyway, I have to go and pack. I’ll see you when I get back, alright?” Max cocked his head, giving me a very concerned look. “You will be okay, won’t you?”

  “Oh you know me, I’ll be fine.” I waved my hand in a dismissive gesture, but of course my best friend knew me too well. He pulled me in for a much-needed bear hug, which comforted me, if only for a moment. “You have a lovely weekend and I will see you when you get back.”

  “I’ll have my phone with me, so you can call me whenever you want.”

  “Don’t you worry about me.” I squeezed my friend’s hand, guilt washing over me. I didn’t want to ruin his big moment because I was a pathetic fool. He didn’t deserve this from me. “You promise me you’ll enjoy yourself.”

  I had to move on. I needed to find a way to put the past behind me to move on or my future would always be this. I didn’t want to be stuck in limbo forever. It sucked. I was hurting myself more and more every single day.

  One thing was for sure, I needed to forget all about Derek Tricks now. I vowed to myself that I would never think about him again.

  Derek

  This is weird… it’s so, so weird.

  As my feet clomped along the roads that used to be so familiar to me, all I could feel was that odd sense that I really didn’t belong here anymore. It was almost as if I was living inside a dream, like my toes weren’t quite reaching the ground, like I could wake up at any moment and find myself back at the army base, with everything being exactly the way it had been for the last few years.

  If it hadn’t been for the fact that I’d carefully planned this trip, that I’d booked the tickets weeks back, that I’d been planning what I was going to say over and over again, having invisible conversations inside my mind, I might just be able to convince myself that it really was all just a construct of my crazy brain.

  But nope, it was real. I was home again and willing to face my biggest fear.

  When I left here at a meager eighteen years of age with absolutely no life experience and no idea what the big wide world was going to be like, I thought that I was doing the right thing. Sure I snuck off in the middle of the night without telling anyone, but I assumed it was the only choice I had. After the bitter rejection I received from my family solely because the person I chose to be in love with was male, I was too shortsighted to see any other out.

  “You are disgusting, a disgrace to the family name.”

  “It’s just a phase, we need to get you out of it.”

  “I can’t stand for this, what will our friends think?”

  Their words still stung, even today, even after all the years that had passed. What made it worse was that they hadn’t spoken to me even when I left. They didn’t care what had happened to me at all. I sent them the odd postcard when I first decided on the only career path I could see before me, just so they wouldn’t worry, but I needn’t have bothered.

  They still didn’t care, not even these year
s later.

  After I’d been gone for a year, when I still hadn’t heard anything, I made the vow to myself then. I would never ever come back home. Sure, I was sacrificing a lot of things, including the guy I was head over heels in love with, but I was in such a dark place I assumed that I was doing everyone a favor.

  I thought the lovely Gio Albertini would find someone better, and he’d eventually forget I even existed.

  With that thought in mind, I threw myself into my new life. I thought that by tossing myself into the deep end and forcing myself to enjoy it, I eventually would. There was no looking back anyway, so it made a lot of sense. I worked hard, got fit, forced myself through the training and eventually found myself in combat. Yes, the battlefield was a scary place and my life was often on the line, but the adrenaline was incredible, and so was the high from knowing that we’d done a good job. I had some amazing friends in my team; we were the sort of people who would give our lives for one another.

  The sad thing was, that had been the case on more than one occasion… not that I ever thought about that. I switched my emotions off as much as I could. We all did. It was the only way to stay alive.

  Over time I’d worked my way up through the ranks, and now I didn’t have to put myself in the firing line quite so often, which gave me more time for myself. When survival wasn’t the only thing I had to worry about, I could start to look at my life as a whole, and it was obvious that there was one massive thing missing — Love. I still missed Gio, but since I’d blown things with him I needed to find someone new, which was how Benji crashed into my life.

  Benji Jones had liked me from afar for ages. He was a little younger than me, but incredibly sweet and a whole lot of fun. I’d kept him at a distance, but realized it was finally time to let him in. We ended up having a very nice relationship, but that was the main problem. It was just nice, there was no fire, no spark, and he didn’t stir me in the same way that Gio did. He was lovely, but we couldn’t last. I broke his heart, and I hated myself for that but I figured it was best to let him down early before he got even more invested.