99 Times for Alpha’s Bestie novel Chapter 181

The shower roared to life. This can’t be happening right now! He rejected me just as we were about to- because he suddenly remembered his personal hygiene?

Was there not a better time for this? Like, oh, I don’t know- after s*x!

It felt like a late-night movie cutting to black right when things got interesting, or the Super Bowl cutting to commercials during the game-winning Hail Mary pass.

No.

The frustration boiling in my gut made those scenarios feel like mild inconveniences.

My mind became a warzone of panicked questions. Was I coming on too strong, like some ravenous animal? Had my shameless hunger and my practiced responses scared off this supposedly experienced man? Were my kisses too clumsy? Had my exploration felt awkward enough to kill the mood?

Maybe I should have played hard to get like some Victorian maiden instead? This technically counted as our first real attempt at sharing a bed. And he told me to stop?

Did I repulse him?

My stomach dropped.

I had been exhausted earlier, so drained, and I was craving nothing but my warm and cozy bed. How in the world had things derailed so spectacularly, to the point where Lucien and I were tumbling onto my bed in a heated makeout session, nearly crossing the point of no return? And now Lucien was so incredibly repulsed that he had to shower my scent and touch off his skin.

I dug my fingers into my throbbing temples, desperately trying to piece together the chaotic fragments of memory.

Lucien was in my home, waiting for me. He was fresh from the shower, his robe hanging open to reveal those sculpted pectorals. He had asked me something, and I had mumbled some half assed reply. He had looked pissed.

Then I had passed out cold, one hundred percent undeniably crashed like a deadweight. So Lucien must have carried me back to my bedroom after that. But how the hell did he know the passcode for my unit? The more I thought, the more tangled the threads in my mind became.

Suddenly, I remembered that dream about the shirtless god with eight-pack abs. That must have been when it started. I thought it was a dream, but it was Lucien that I was ravaging like a starved beast. That was when Lucien and I had really gotten handsy with each other, and we had nearly gone all the way. I was soaked, I could feel the slick of my juices. I knew Lucien was aroused; his member was like a heat-seeking missile despite the confinement of his boxer briefs. And then- it all went sideways.

What kind of messed-up rom-com was this?

What was I supposed to do now? How were we supposed to deal with this messy, complicated situation. between us? Lucien literally rejected me before running off to shower.

He rejected me.

My brain short-circuited with a deafening buzz, collapsing into a hopelessly knotted ball of confusion.

The sharp sound of the door unlocking snapped me back to reality.

He was coming out.

In full panic mode, I activated my emergency protocol, otherwise known as the speedy sheep counting sleep hack.

‘One sheep, two sheep, three sheep,’ my mental chant fired off like bullets from a machine gun.

LUCIEN POV

By the time I emerged back into the bedroom, my body still dripping with icy cold shower water and a towel hanging precariously low on my hips as I stalked toward the bed, Claire’s breath was even.

Her slightly parted lips still glistened from our heated kisses, and her hair fanned out like dark silk across the pillows. Her lashes fluttered low, clearly having drifted back to sleep once more.

I gazed down at her, my dark eyes simmering with restrained desire beneath our calm surface.

“Lucien?” Lewis’s voice rasped with sleep and bewilderment. “You said your buddy had some urgent medical problem? Where is he?” Shutting the door behind him, he muffled the outside world’s clamour.

My grip tightened around my glass before I set it down on the marble table with deliberate slowness. Without even glancing up, I answered in a carefully neutral tone.

“He left abruptly, too embarrassed to face you. He has asked me to consult on his behalf.”

My cousin’s gaze swept over my stern face with a flicker of suspicion he could not quite mask.

Settling stiffly on the single seater sofa beside me, he leaned forward slightly and forced an uneasy grin.

“Lucien, what kind of urgent medical issue could be so critical that it cannot wait until morning or go to the hospital? The last time you summoned me like this was half a year ago.”

After an agonizing pause, I wordlessly fished my phone from my inner suit pocket, swiped twice, and thrust it forward. “He worried I would explain poorly. He wrote it down. Read it.”

After scanning the text, Lewis’s fingers moved automatically across the screen as his expression morphed from puzzlement to dawning comprehension.

Clearing his throat, he adopted his most clinical tone. “Right. I got it. Medically speaking, your friend’s

condition is what we call premature ejaculation, or in layman’s terms, being a quick draw.”

A nervous pause followed. His eyes darted to my increasingly rigid jawline before he plowed on. “And this performance dysfunction of his is, frankly, more severe than your average case.”

Even as he spoke, the air around us thickene. My face had darkened to stormcloud levels when I finally

ground out through clenched teeth, “That sounds serious. Can it be fixed? Will he ever be able to pleasure his girlfriend with this issue?”