The Kiss : Friends to Lovers Romance (Playboy Pact) Read online

  THE KISS

  PLAYBOY PACT BOOK 1

  WALL STREET JOURNAL & USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  M. ROBINSON

  COPYRIGHT© 2021 The Kiss by M. Robinson

  All rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locations are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All characters are a figment of the author’s imagination, and all incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s mind's eye and are not to be interpreted as real. Though several people, places, and events portrayed in this book are correct, the story is fiction that the author has made up for entertainment purposes only.

  LYRICS TO THE SONGS USED HAVE BEEN CHANGED FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS.

  AUTHOR NOTE

  Hey guys! I’m so excited and terrified that The Kiss have officially landed on kindles! I’ve had a few readers ask what makes this release different, or these books, and I have an answer for that. But first... brb gonna go throw up.

  Ok good now!

  This is my first jump into Rom Com, while I’m so so blessed to have so many readers who love my angst ridden books, I wanted to try something new and different, and scary. I know with author’s names and brands come certain expectations which is frankly terrifying, so I thought it would be helpful to explain that these books are meant to be funny, light, exciting reads that leave you laughing out loud one minute and fanning yourself the next. The angst I’m known for still exists in these books but it took more of a co-pilot role while the comedy and sexy times took the wheel! I hope you take a chance on these books and take another chance on me! This is a friends to lovers rom com with some drama!! Enjoy the tears of laughter which I have still received from a few readers.

  And remember we all need a bit of light these days!

  Thank you and I hope you love Leo and Mila!

  Love you all, M!

  DEDICATION

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Epilogue

  MEET M. ROBINSON

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  DEDICATION

  Bossman.

  Thank you for being my inspiration in all my hero’s. You are the reason I write smartass males.

  Prologue

  —Leo—

  There I was…

  Sitting on her fucking swing in the middle of the night, freezing my balls off. It was October, and it was already cold in Tennessee. There I sat for the last hour, waiting.

  For her.

  We’d spent half our lives on this very swing set, me pushing her, talking about nothing… and everything.

  That was our friendship.

  Our dynamic.

  Our relationship.

  We were friends—best friends.

  It was easy.

  Simple.

  Comfortable.

  Like Donna and David, Cory and Topanga, Monica and Chandler—I don’t know why I was comparing our friendship to a bunch of 90’s chick flick shows but here we were. She made me watch them all on Hulu.

  Fuck my life.

  She was my neighbor for as long as I could remember. The person I counted on to be there for me, aside from my other three best friends who were more like family too. The difference between her and them…

  She had tits.

  An ass.

  A pussy I wanted to have sit on my face.

  I know, I know, so very vulgar. But hey, that was me. I was a guy, a dude, I scratched my balls and belched on command. I was a man who said and did what he wanted. No questions asked.

  I didn’t do long term.

  I didn’t commit.

  I didn’t fall in love.

  I hooked up.

  I messed around.

  I plowed my hose into any garden that needed a good weeding.

  To put it in laymen’s terms, I fucked.

  A lot.

  I enjoyed hooking up. I was damn good at it, and my reputation preceded me. In fact, my big dick was the talk of the town. Big dick Leo, it was what everyone knew me as. Not really, but a guy could dream. Don’t shit on my parade, okay? This was my story and in my story my cock was king.

  Mila saw who I was, how I was. It was never a problem or an issue, more of an eye roll, and a shake of her head.

  She accepted me.

  Hell, she even helped me score chicks and seal the deal sometimes. She was the best wing woman, better than my boys. Shit, our setup went hand-in-hand. I helped her score dick, get laid, go on dates.

  We had a system.

  An understanding.

  An unspoken arrangement.

  We were there for each other, through thick and thin. Nothing could break our tight ass bond.

  At least I thought so.

  Everything was fine.

  Perfect.

  No drama.

  No bullshit.

  Just Leo and Mila.

  Mila and Leo.

  Until she started dating one of my boys. Yes, one of the three best friends I just spoke about. He asked me for permission, but it didn’t matter. She wasn’t mine. I didn’t claim her.

  We were just best friends. However, a guy and a girl couldn’t just be close without emotions getting involved, right?

  Jealousy.

  Possessiveness.

  Mine.

  Yeah, I felt all of that. For the first time in my life, Mila wasn’t merely a girl I trusted and hung out with on a regular basis.

  She had become…

  The woman I was in love with.

  I was ready to break the almighty Playboy Pact.

  The one I created, stood by, and lived since I was sixteen years old. For the last six years of my life, it was my code.

  My allegiance.

  It represented loyalty to my other three best friends to stay single and never fall in love.

  It was my idea.

  Brilliant fucking idea that was!

  To form unity.

  A bond that could never be broken. A connection so strong that no girl could ever come in between us.

  God, I sound like a fucking pussy.

  In order to explain, I was going to have to go back to the beginning. The very beginning that fateful night all those years ago, the night that would change the course of our lives and have me sitting on a swing set in the middle of the night, my balls now completely numb from sitting on this cold ass swing.

  Waiting…

  For her.

  Chapter 1

  —Mila—

  Six years ago

  “How’s he doing?” I asked my best friend Leo, sitting next to him on the couch, wh
ich looked more like a bed, in his cabin while he played Halo on Xbox.

  Him and his father spent months building this cabin on their land. They owned twenty acres filled with beautiful trees and greenery. Their home was massive, a full staff was needed just to keep up with the landscaping. Leo’s dad was the best general contractor in our small town of Monteagle, Tennessee. Everyone knew who Mountainside Building belonged to. He had more work than he knew what to do with, and jobs were piling up on a daily basis.

  This was why he was hardly ever around, and I was pretty sure this was why he appeased Leo and built this cabin for him to have a place we could all hang out. We were on the other end of his parent’s land. We could literally do anything and they’d never know. Leo was an only child and he was spoiled because of it.

  We called it a treehouse, given it was surrounded by tons of trees. It was bigger than a treehouse but still kind of built like one. It was about six hundred and fifty square feet. When you walked in, you felt the vintage vibes Leo wanted. He had an appreciation for the retro era. The cabin was a big open room and the kitchen was to the left from the front door. Vintage turquoise metal cabinets and an island shaped like an aircraft wing that Leo pulled inspiration from a 1950’s plane was what caught your attention first. There was a full-sized stove and oven, mid-sized refrigerator, and microwave. The kitchen was fully stocked with everything we’d ever need, from pots and pans to dishes and silverware.

  The living room was in the middle of the open space and it was just as colorful as the kitchen with wood walls, colorful decorations, and accents. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree in the Hawkins genes, Leo had an eye for building like his father, grandfather, and great grandfather before him. He came from a long line of carpenters. A flat-screen TV was above the gas fireplace and the couch was a day bed that converted into a queen-sized mattress with a coffee table in between the couch and television.

  To the right of the front door, there was a bathroom and a bedroom next to it that had its own flat screen TV and queen-sized bed which would be the hook-up room I was sure. This place would definitely be a party pad.

  One of my favorite spots in the treehouse was the ladder that was to the right of the television. There was a small nook area above with a bed and window that overlooked the forest that engulfed the cabin. The glass doors that led to the porch, hot tub, and lower deck was another one of my favorite places. It was smack dab in between the bedroom and living room, you could once again see the woods that were just as scenic as the treehouse itself.

  Leo built a firepit with five green lounge chairs to host bonfires and make s’mores. It felt like you were camping when you went outside. Beside it was a swing he said was for me. I had a jungle gym we grew up playing on, built off my back porch, and Leo spent hours pushing me on those swings.

  It was our thing.

  “His parents are getting a divorce, Lala. That’s like a swift kick in the balls.”

  He’d been calling me Lala since we were in diapers together. He couldn’t pronounce Mila when we were babies and Lala stuck.

  “Yeah…” I sighed. “I feel bad for him.”

  “We’ll get him laid tonight, it’ll help smooth it over.” He jolted to the left, hitting the button on his controller for more ammunition to blow on the television screen.

  I shook my head. “So, sex solves everything?”

  “For a minute it does.”

  “A minute? That’s all you can hold out, Leo?” I shook my head again, smiling wide. I could see him looking at me through the corner of his eyes with amusement in his gaze.

  This was how we were with each other. No one at our school understood our friendship. Everyone thought we were hooking up behind closed doors, but it wasn’t like that for us. We were neighbors and grew up together. Our moms were pregnant at the same time and bonded over that fact. Since then, we’d spent most of our time together. I didn’t know a life without Leo in it.

  We were best friends.

  “A minute is about the average time it takes for a male to think of something sexual, so yeah. That sounds about right.” He grinned at me and I rolled my eyes.

  “I honestly don’t know who’s worse out of the four of you.”

  “Well…” he hesitated, concentrating on his task at hand. Shooting three opponents in the face before he continued on, “It depends on who you ask. If you ask any female in this region of Tennessee? It’s definitely me.” He paused again, muttering under his breath, “Cocksucking bitches,” referring to his game. “Now if you ask guys from our opposing high school, then it’s Cain, because everyone knows he fucks anything that walks.”

  “Bro,” Cain interrupted, walking into the cabin with Ashton and Sawyer right behind him. “I resent that. I don’t fuck freshman girls. They get too clingy for my liking.” He grabbed a soda from the fridge.

  While Sawyer called him out, “What about that freshman Laura you screwed last month?”

  Cain looked up at the ceiling, narrowing his eyes like he was thinking about something. “Laura… hmmm… Laura…” he accentuated, shaking his head. “Nope. Name doesn’t ring a bell. I don’t know a Laura.”

  “And you just proved my point,” Leo chimed in, making me chuckle.

  “Oh! Do me next, Mr. Know It All,” Ashton insisted, grabbing the other controller off the coffee table and hitting the button to request in the game.

  Leo approved his request, adding, “A guy who’s still trying to find his dick.”

  I choked on my drink.

  “Mila.” Ashton glanced over at me. “Why don’t we go into the other room and you can tell Leo how easy it was to find my cock because it’s so fucking huge.”

  “Uhhh…” I mocked. “I can think of a hundred other things I’d rather do than see your dick.”

  “A hundred? Damn,” Ashton scoffed out. “My dick is offended. It might be hiding now.”

  I laughed, I couldn’t help it. These guys were hilarious with their constant smartass banter. This was how they’d always treated me, like one of the guys. However, Ashton, Sawyer, and Cain weren’t my best friends, they were Leo’s, and they constantly questioned our friendship as well.

  “Now I feel left out,” Sawyer stated, pulling himself up onto the kitchen island to sit down. “What am I?”

  Leo killed two more enemies and smiled. “Yours is pretty obvious, dumb shit.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean, jackass?”

  “It means, anywhere we go, everyone knows you. Life of the party, Sawyer. Usually drunk, fucking shit up, and messing around with more than one girl in a night.”

  Sawyer shrugged. “I can’t help I gravitate towards the center of attention. It’s natural for me. Plus, girls throw themselves at me. What the fuck am I supposed to do, say no? I’m not a pussy like you.”

  “Sawyer!” Leo exclaimed. “I can’t even cross county lines toward Tullahoma to go hiking without worrying about my tires getting slashed because you thought it was a good idea to fuck around with twin sisters.”

  “Hey! You said go for it!”

  “Only if you were ready to deal with the consequences. Shit!” Leo threw his controller on the coffee table. “You assholes just made me lose.”

  “You lost because I started playing and kicked your ass,” Ashton countered, leaning to the left, trying to take out his next opponent.

  “The fact that you guys play video games like we’re still in middle school should be the bigger issue here.” I took another sip of my sweet tea.

  “Playing a video game?” Cain questioned, side-eyeing me. “We’re saving the world one game at a time.”

  “What?” I challenged. “That doesn’t even make sense.”

  Ashton bumped my leg with his knee. “Makes perfect sense, Mila. We’re preparing for the zombie invasion.”

  “Oh my God,” I murmured. I was over hearing about the zombie invasion. “Zombies are not invading. You know what?” I held my hand out in front of me. “The only one of you hoe bags
I can stand is Sawyer.”

  “I don’t know why,” Leo said. “Last year he slept with the only female friend you have or had…”

  Cain defended Sawyer, “She was hot. Plus Mila, that was kinda your fault, we told you it was a bad idea to have a girlfriend. You started bringing her around and it was only a matter of time before one of us nailed her.”

  “More like railed her,” Ashton added.

  “I hate all of you,” I jokingly remarked. “I have no girlfriends because of your reputations. They don’t trust me.”

  “Sorry not sorry,” Cain somewhat apologized.

  I took a deep breath, changing the subject. “At least you look like you’re handling the split okay, Cain. I’m sorry about your parents.”

  His demeanor immediately changed, and I regretted bringing it up.

  Ashton nodded at me. “Way to kill the mood, Mila.”

  “I’m sorry, Cain. I didn’t mean to—”

  “I have a great idea,” Leo stated out of nowhere, bringing all our eyes over to him.

  It was one of those moments where you knew something was about to go down. I just never imagined the next words out of his mouth would have such an impact on all of us.

  Especially me.

  —Leo—

  I hated seeing my friend in pain. It was obvious he was hurting and trying to play it off like he wasn’t. I wanted to be there for him, be a good friend. Cain was more like my brother.

  They all were.

  “Why do I feel like whatever you’re about to say is going to be life-changing?” Mila recognized.

  I glanced at her. “Because, my lovely Lala, you know I’m wise beyond my years.”

  “You still think James Bond is a real person.”

  “He’s not ready to talk about Sean Connery, Mila. None of us are,” Sawyer explained.

  “It’s too soon,” Ashton added.

  “Oh my God. I’m surrounded by idiots. How many times do I have to tell you Sean Connery is an actor? He’s not James Bond.”