Good time boyfriend, p.1
Good Time Boyfriend, page 1
Good Time Boyfriend
The First Time Series
Carrie Ann Ryan
Contents
Good Time Boyfriend
GOOD TIME BOYFRIEND
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
A Note from Carrie Ann Ryan
Also from Carrie Ann Ryan
About the Author
Good Time Boyfriend
A FIRST TIME SERIES NOVEL
By
Carrie Ann Ryan
GOOD TIME BOYFRIEND
A First Time Novel
By: Carrie Ann Ryan
© 2023 Carrie Ann Ryan
Cover Art by Sweet N Spicy Designs
Photo by Wander Aguiar Photography
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
Praise for Carrie Ann Ryan
“Count on Carrie Ann Ryan for emotional, sexy, character driven stories that capture your heart!” – Carly Phillips, NY Times bestselling author
“Carrie Ann Ryan’s romances are my newest addiction! The emotion in her books captures me from the very beginning. The hope and healing hold me close until the end. These love stories will simply sweep you away.” ~ NYT Bestselling Author Deveny Perry
"Carrie Ann Ryan writes the perfect balance of sweet and heat ensuring every story feeds the soul." - Audrey Carlan, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
“Carrie Ann Ryan never fails to draw readers in with passion, raw sensuality, and characters that pop off the page. Any book by Carrie Ann is an absolute treat.” – New York Times Bestselling Author J. Kenner
“Carrie Ann Ryan knows how to pull your heartstrings and make your pulse pound! Her wonderful Redwood Pack series will draw you in and keep you reading long into the night. I can’t wait to see what comes next with the new generation, the Talons. Keep them coming, Carrie Ann!” –Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author of CRAVE THE NIGHT
"With snarky humor, sizzling love scenes, and brilliant, imaginative worldbuilding, The Dante's Circle series reads as if Carrie Ann Ryan peeked at my personal wish list!" – NYT Bestselling Author, Larissa Ione
"Carrie Ann Ryan writes sexy shifters in a world full of passionate happily-ever-afters." – New York Times Bestselling Author Vivian Arend
“Carrie Ann’s books are sexy with characters you can’t help but love from page one. They are heat and heart blended to perfection.” New York Times Bestselling Author Jayne Rylon
Carrie Ann Ryan's books are wickedly funny and deliciously hot, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing. They'll keep you up all night!” USA Today Bestselling Author Cari Quinn
"Once again, Carrie Ann Ryan knocks the Dante's Circle series out of the park. The queen of hot, sexy, enthralling paranormal romance, Carrie Ann is an author not to miss!" New York Times bestselling Author Marie Harte
GOOD TIME BOYFRIEND
A new town. A new bar. A new life.
At least, that’s what I’m hoping for.
I moved to Denver to try to piece my family back together, but I have no idea how to do that.
Then the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen walks into my bar, and I think things are looking up.
She needs a fake boyfriend for the night and I’m all too eager to play along.
But when the sun rises, reality settles in and I know I want more. Only I don’t think she’s ready for what I have to give.
I want to be more than a good time, but I know what I’m good for. I need control. And she’s far too innocent.
Only when something happens that changes the rules, we’ll have to make a choice quickly, or we could lose everything before it even starts.
To Brandi,
I promise to rest and play. This story showed me how.
Chapter One
Heath
There was nothing like the view of the Rockies in Denver, Colorado. Okay, there was nothing like the view of the Rockies anywhere. I used to live in Portland, Oregon, so I knew trees and mountains and stunning. However, seeing the mountains and trees in Portland without a cloudy or rainy sky didn’t happen often. Oregon was beautiful, but Colorado? It called to me. Maybe it was just the novelty of it, since I had only lived here a year, but I didn’t think so.
This was home now, despite everything that happened when I had first moved here.
I hadn’t moved here for the mountains. Hadn’t moved here for the sunny days, high altitude, dry heat, or blizzards. I’d moved here for family. A family that I was determined to bring together in a way we hadn’t ever been before.
Of course, that meant I needed a damn job.
“Are you done drooling over the mountains yet? We need to get inside and open up.”
“I just can’t believe they’re real. They don’t fucking look real.”
Ace sighed at my side, but stuffed his hands in his pockets, and looked out at the majestic beauty of the Rockies with me.
I hadn’t realized I would love Denver like this. That it would call to me. And it really did look like someone had painted those peaks and valleys in front of me.
“I still think they look better right after a storm. When the clouds begin to part and they look almost purple.”
I turned to Ace and grinned. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ve been here a year now and I’ve seen every season.”
Ace rolled his eyes before he reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “It’s Denver. You’ve only seen six of the twenty thousand seasons we have. And sometimes six in one day.”
I snorted, but I agreed with him. You could wake up with snow in the morning and end up wearing a tank top by the evening. I was getting used to it—at least I thought so.
“Come on, let’s go open the bar.”
I smiled as I turned towards the building behind us. We were right on the outskirts of downtown Denver. Still in the hustle and bustle and close enough for foot traffic, but also near enough to the train station that there was room to breathe, and you could see the mountains from all sides. I loved knowing where west was, because that was the direction of downtown’s skyline.
“You ready for today? We have a long one.”
I nodded as we stepped into Lost and Found. Before I even decided to move here, Ace had asked if I wanted to join him in a new endeavor. I had owned a bar in Portland, one that had been doing really damn well. I had been the sole owner of the place, and finding and managing staff that could actually keep up had taken a toll.
When Ace asked if I had wanted a change, I leaped on the opportunity. Not just because it was Ace, a man I had known for years, but because Greer was here.
Lost and Found had been Ace’s idea, and I had bought in.
We had lost something growing up, and we needed to find it. That wasn’t like me. I wasn’t sentimental. I was the guy who got shit done because I knew my parents weren’t going to do it. I had done my best to keep my brothers safe. Both Luca and August had gone through hell, and I hadn’t been able to keep the worst from them, and our parents hadn’t even tried.
We hadn’t even been allowed to get to know our baby sister because of our parents.
But that’s what happens when your parents got married and divorced multiple times. Their first divorce was when I was a child, not even ten years old, my siblings were even younger. Of course, August was my twin, but I was the eldest, and I took that role seriously. Luca had been an infant, a baby just learning to walk. Greer was a couple years younger than August and me.
After that divorce, our dad took the boys, and our mom took Greer. Because apparently they had seen both versions of The Parent Trap and thought that was a wonderful fucking idea.
That made me roll my eyes to this day but, unlike the movie, there was no happy ever after. Even though our parents got back together, and we had a few years with our sister, trying to get to know her again, I never got to know her as well as I wanted. I was never there to protect her when things got bad, and when our parents got divorced again, they split us up again, like our opinions didn’t matter. We had gone to different schools, and while I had my brothers and they had me, Greer had no one.
When our parents got together for the third time, we had all given up. We were adults, and they couldn’t split us up if they divorced again. Except we had split ourselves up. Greer moved out here to be with her best friend who was originally from the Denver area. They opened a shop of their own, a little coffee and bakery place near a tattoo shop, that kicked ass.
It was time to be with my little sister. Only, it wasn’t going as well as I’d hop
“You’re all in your head. Are you okay?”
I turned to Ace and nodded. “I’m fine. Sorry. Let me go start setting up.”
“You do that. Grace’s working in the office today, doing paperwork so I don’t have to. I’m so glad I’m marrying an accountant.”
I smiled, shaking my head. “I don’t know what we would do without her. Yeah, we would probably figure it out, but Grace actually knowing what she’s doing without having to ask a thousand questions? Yes, you’re marrying the right woman.”
“Did I just hear that you’re marrying me for my math skills?” Grace asked as she came in.
While Ace was well above six foot, big and bearded and full of tattoos, Grace was a tiny slip of a woman. She had bright red hair, luscious curves, and could probably fit in my pocket. She also had the biggest laugh and smile, and her face lit up every time she saw Ace. But the best part? My growly and grumpy friend lit up right back.
“I think he is also marrying you for your spreadsheets.”
She grinned at me and then went to her tippy toes to kiss the bottom of Ace’s beard. He leaned down for her, and they kissed a bit more. I cleared my throat after a moment.
“I would ask if you’d like a room, but we share that office. I don’t want to know what goes on when the door is closed.”
Grace blushed, but Ace grinned. “Then we won’t tell you.”
I groaned. “Really? At least bleach it afterwards.”
“And on that note, I’m going to go work on those spreadsheets. Alone. Because I don’t trust you.” She waved her finger at him.
Ace rolled his eyes. “Fine. I see how it is.”
“You better.” She waved us off. I laughed before going back to setting up.
We were open from three until one. I wouldn’t be closing, our team would. Usually Ace and I didn’t open together, but on days when Grace was here doing the accounting, we both wanted to be here in case there were any questions. And, frankly, even though I was still in my twenties, I liked being home to sleep in my own bed before midnight.
I set to work on the kegs and ensuring that all the glassware and prep were ready from the night before. I had oranges and lemons and limes to cut, more cherries to procure, and countless other things. Keeping the cherries in stock when everyone kept stealing them was a hazard of the business and meant that I had to hide them from my own staff. It was that way when I was a server and busboy when I was sixteen, and the problem had only gotten worse as time moved on.
The door opened before we were open for business and I looked up to see Greer walk in, making me smile.
My sister looked like us. Brown hair with subtle highlights from the sun, bright light eyes, but in a petite frame.
While Luca was slightly smaller than August and me, he was still bigger than Greer by far. And Luca was bulking up from his day job, lifting huge sixty-to-eighty-pound dogs onto a vet table.
“Hey there, little sister. I didn’t know you were coming in today.” I moved around the bar so I could come up to her, arms outstretched. She smiled at me before wrapping her arms around my waist, hugging me tightly.
We stood there for a moment, taking it in, the situation still new enough that I wasn’t quite sure when the novelty of it would wear off. We had been apart for so many years, and I hadn’t known when she was sick or feeling grumpy or what her favorite book was. I hadn’t known anything until we were old enough to be able to contact each other outside of our parents. They hadn’t liked us calling the other house, connecting with the parent who hadn’t chosen us.
I was getting to know this Greer, but I sure as hell missed the young Greer I never got to know.
We split apart, and she grinned at me. “I was in the area and figured I’d say hi.”
“You work like twenty minutes west of here, and I thought you were closing today.”
She nodded but held out her phone. “I had to meet with our backer, and since her shop is only a few blocks from here, I figured I’d walk to you to say hi before I caught the light rail back.”
“Do you want my car? You’re welcome to drive it back.”
She waved me off. I knew I sounded a bit eager. I just wanted to protect her, to help her. The fact that Greer was now engaged to not one, but two men meant that I didn’t need to protect her. She had the two loves of her life for that. Hell, she could protect herself. The fact that Greer’s men also happened to run a security business? Well, that meant I felt a little out of sorts. A little unneeded. But that was on me. Never on her.
“My car is at my place. But with traffic because of an accident on 25, I decided to take public transportation. It’s really okay. I have a pass and everything.”
“And I realize it’s better for the environment, but I just like to give you things.”
“I know. And I’m grateful. And I did bring something for you.” She handed over the paper bag and I could smell the deliciousness before I even opened it.
Plump pastries, bagels, and other goodies—at least a dozen.
My mouth watered, and she smiled at me. “I know you have drinks here, but I figured pastries from not only our shop, but Haley’s too would be welcome.”
“Did I hear the word pastry?” Ace asked, practically pushing me out of the way. “There’s my Greer.” Ace hugged her tightly as Greer laughed, and Grace came running in, throwing her arms around both of them.
It was so easy for them, becoming family without overthinking it. It felt like I was trying to do so much for her, and failing, because she didn’t need me. But I was still so damn glad I moved here. I would be missing this. I would be missing the chance to be the overprotective asshole brother.
I just needed to figure out what else I needed to be.
“Anyway, I have to head back. Enjoy the pastries. I’ll see you guys for dinner this weekend?” she asked, and both Ace and Grace nodded.
“Yeah, if not before.”
“I love the fact that you live close enough to me that you can come into the coffee shop every morning if you want. I would say it’s like old times, but we both know it’s not.” She rolled her eyes and I felt the kick to the gut, even though she didn’t. She had found her steadiness, her foundation. And while I knew she still carried the same pain that we all did, she was moving forward. I thought my brothers were doing the same. I was the one who needed to get in line.
“Then we just have to make up for it,” I said quickly, and she nodded. We hugged and she headed out. Ace went back to setting up, Grace back to the office, and I swallowed hard and did what I did best—I worked.
The early shift was nice, because you got tourists and some regulars, and nobody was loud and obnoxious yet. That always made me happy.
By the time seven o’clock rolled around however, the din started to grow, the noise unending. I didn’t mind it though, I wouldn’t have opened a bar if I hated it. I liked getting to know people, to hear their problems and act as if I knew what I was doing.
I didn’t always, but I could pretend.
“Hey, whatever happened with that woman?” Ace asked as I worked on a martini, straight-up, extra cold, with a twist.
I frowned before I remembered, I knew exactly what he was talking about. “I don’t even know her name. She was just here on our opening night, and she was gorgeous. Not quite sure why you brought her up?”
“Because you have talked to at least twenty gorgeous women tonight, all of them hitting on you, and you haven’t done a thing about it.”
“You know I don’t hit back. This is a job. Not a stomping ground.”
