Never Just Friends: Closed-Door Edition

By Kara Lynne

Emma Carson has spent four years knowing Tanner Reeves better than anyone. She knows how he takes his coffee, how he talks her through bad days, and exactly how dangerous his smile can be when it's aimed at her.

She also knows what it feels like when your best friend breaks your heart.

Six months after one forbidden, scorching kiss destroyed everything between them, Tanner is back with a confession: his relationship is over, he's wanted Emma for far longer than he ever admitted, and this time he wants all of her.

Too bad Emma is still furious.

Then work sends them away together for five days of team-building challenges, ropes courses, zip lines, shared meals, and entirely too much forced proximity. Emma intends to make Tanner regret every miserable month he spent pretending she meant nothing to him.

Tanner intends to take whatever she dishes out.

Because underneath Emma's anger is four years of friendship, buried longing, and enough sexual tension to set their retreat on fire. Every argument brings them closer. Every accidental touch lasts too long. And the more Tanner refuses to walk away, the harder it becomes for Emma to remember why she's supposed to resist him.

She wants him to suffer.

Unfortunately, she also wants him.

Badly.

Never Just Friends is a fast, funny, best-friends-to-lovers romance filled with forced proximity, groveling, angry flirting, second chances, and years of pent-up desire finally catching fire.

Content warnings: fade-to-black intimacy, infidelity-adjacent kissing, jealousy, possessive ex, emotional hurt, strong language.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HMP8LN5Z
• ISBN13: 9798161639726
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"