Reunion With The Billionaire Best Friend (BBW Contemporary Romance) by Ava May Page B

pretended she didn't hear the question, but couldn't ignore Lisa's prodding finger.
    “No, I told you. We were just friends. Is it that hard to understand?”
    “I guess I just don't see how you could have been so close for so long and nothing happened. Why did you never become something more than friends?”
    “I don't know. I guess it just didn't happen like that. We both knew what we had was working and it would have been stupid to do anything to ruin it. It was just… it was nice to have someone to trust and confide in.”
    “So you're seriously telling me that the two of you never once shared a kiss or ended up spending the night together? That in all the time you spent together there was never any hint of romance?”
    “That's what I'm telling you, yes,” Amelia said, lying to her friend. Lisa finally dropped it, but Amelia's mind was swirling with echoes from the past. While her relationship with Jack went deeper than friendship it was also more complicated. There had been many times when they had snuggled up to each other while watching a movie, and there was a comfort between them that hadn't been present with anyone else she'd ever known, and an electricity that had been difficult to understand.
    Since they grew up together they knew each other better than they knew themselves, and when it had been time to try new things they were often found experimenting together. They had both learned to ride their bikes together along the empty streets of the lazy suburbs in which they grew up, and they'd been each others' first prepubescent kiss, a chaste affair that happened behind the door of Amelia's dining room one afternoon. Then, later on, when the hormones started to rage around their teenage bodies, they were each others' proper first kisses as well. It had all been done under the pretense that they should practice so that when they eventually got boyfriends and girlfriends they knew what they were doing.
    They had leaned into each other, gazing into each others' eyes. Amelia remembered that Jack had been so nervous he'd been trembling, and she'd only closed her eyes at the last minute because that's what she'd seen people do on television. There was a moment just before their lips had met that they paused slightly. Their sweet breath mingled, and a smile played upon each others' lips just as they took that final step. Nervously, their lips had pressed against each other, but they soon grew into it and their hands wrapped around each others' bodies, doing what came naturally. But after it was over, they broke away, embarrassed, and a barrier was put up between them.
    After this, high school grew busier and they drifted apart a little bit, although they still remained firm friends. Both of them dated other people and yet there was always something that remained between them. At the time, Amelia didn't know what to make of it. But now that she was older, she realized that there was something a lot like love there. Indeed, upon graduating they had ran to each other at the end of the night. Both of them had intended to lose their virginity with their partners, but when it came down to it, they knew that there was only person they wanted to share that experience with, so after prom they found each other in the pouring rain, went back to Jack's place, and explored the pleasures of the flesh. Even now, Amelia flushed as she remembered how excited and passionate it had been. But it had been more than that… it had been natural and comfortable. She'd heard a lot of her friends say that the first time was always awkward, but not with Jack. With Jack it had felt right somehow, like in his arms was exactly where she was meant to be.
    But after that, things had gotten more awkward again. The magic of the night hadn't lasted to the next day. They were both going off to college in different states and the reality of life hit them hard. During the summer things were awkward. In some ways, they were like a couple but they had