Chapter 8 #2
I huffed out a laugh. “That’s not what I meant. You don’t relax in bed before you go to sleep?”
He pinned me with a weird look. “No.”
Of course not. He was always too restless for that sort of thing. “Let me bring you home.”
“No.”
“You can’t stay here. I’m leaving for the night.”
Avery’s face pinched together in a painfully sorrowful look. “Oh...”
Even without him meaning to, he guilted me into wanting to take care of him.
What did it say about me and that deeply unfilled void that craved being needed?
Outside of anyone else, I would’ve called it a day and told them to get out or else they’d find my wrench being thrown at them.
But not with Avery.
Never with Avery.
He was always a damn exception.
“Kind of sounds like you’re avoiding going home,” I said.
He nodded quickly.
Bingo.
Not a surprise, either. Being surrounded by the memories of your past and the things that could no longer be were probably both haunting and disconcerting. Even with as great of a relationship that I’d had with my mother, I couldn’t wait to leave the nest.
Avery had no such luxury. He’d been forced to go back to that house and be confronted by everything he left behind.
I wondered how much of it changed?
Stayed the same?
How much did he recognize that brought those same agonizing memories back, and how much was new and startling to come to realize that life moves on with or without you?
As sad as it was to leave my mother’s home, I at least would never feel suffocated there.
“You can sober up at my place, how’s that sound?” Offering him another hand that was quickly taken, I heaved him up out of his chair and steadied him while he swayed into me.
He was quite a bit taller than me which was much more obvious being this up close to him. He smelled nice, outside of the soft fragrance of alcohol coloring his breath.
Before I could move away from him, his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me into his chest. He tightened his hold on me, not letting me escape or wiggle free as he lowered his face and buried it against my hair.
Oh. My. God.
My entire body was on fire.
It’s just a hug. Relax. He’s drunk. He won’t even remember this in the morning.
But I would.
This was going to be imprinted into my damn DNA as soon as he pulled away from me.
We’d never had a touchy-feely kind of relationship outside of the subtle brushes of our hands when passing things back and forth, or Avery’s shoulder resting against mine as we sat on the bus together heading off on a field trip.
I’d soaked all of those moments up, knowing that what little crumbs I’d been fed would have to last me until the next time Avery’s guard was down and he let me in again.
God he smelled good.
“Bran...” he mumbled. “You like your boyfriend?”
Boyfriend?
“I don’t have one.”
“That guy... earlier. Was makin’ goo-goo eyes at you.”
He readjusted his hold on me, tucking me flush against his body so that I felt every inch of him.
My nose was nuzzled up against his shoulder, taking in that intoxicating scent of his in waves that were starting to make me dizzy.
One of his hands came up to rest against the back of my head, cradling me gently.
My tongue was too tied to respond, my brain too fuzzy to even try to form words at what he was saying.
“I don’ like ‘im...” he mumbled into my hair again. “That guy.”
“Why?” was all I could manage to say.
“You were mine first.”
I slammed my eyes shut.
The ‘he’s drunk’ mantra was only taking me down so far from this absolute high I was getting. Hearing him say things like this, the words that I’d fucking fantasized about for longer than I ever cared to admit to anyone, let alone myself, felt like a fever dream.
What the fuck was I supposed to say to that?
How could I?
Swallowing with my dry throat, I said, “You don’t mean that.”
“Do too,” he argued.
“You’re drunk, Avery.”
“So?” The annoyance in his tone was obvious.
I moved my hand around him to find the center of his back, where I then patted him a few times. “Okay.”
Maybe complying would get him to let go of me and give me some room to breathe. I was already getting hard against his leg, my cock painfully crushed between him and the other side of my jeans.
If he didn’t feel any of that, it would be a damn miracle.
The urge to rut against his leg, grab him by the back of the neck and haul him into a sloppy kiss, was overwhelming. To the point where I was actually considering it like a fucking lunatic.
See, this was the problem with being so close to Avery like this. He allowed me to throw all reason out the window and act impulsive.
How the hell I managed to never do anything stupid when we were kids and ruin our entire friendship was a goddamn miracle.
“Ugh,” he muttered. “You always do that.”
“Sorry.” Even though I had no idea what I was apologizing for.
“Take me home.”
A shiver rolled down my spine. “Gotta let go of me first.”
He grunted again but finally, slowly, let up on his hold over me.
I wiggled free, taking several steps back while quickly turning away from him on the off-chance that the tent at the front of my pants was fucking obvious, even to a drunk man.
I brought my hands up to scrub at my face, carding my fingers through my hair as I let out a long, slow breath. “Let me grab my keys and we can go.”
Not waiting for him to answer me, I quickly scooted around the counter to the back of the shop to flip all the lights off and grab my stuff from the office. Avery was waiting patiently by the door, his gaze glued to me the second I came down the hallway.
He swayed slightly but wasn’t in danger of falling over from the looks of it. Leading him out by his arm, I gripped tightly around his biceps. I locked up behind us and carefully ushered him over to my truck.
“You able to make it up there?” My question for more of a half joke, half concern.
To my surprise, Avery was nimble enough to throw himself onto the bench on the passenger’s side and haul himself up. The sight had me shaking my head and shutting the door behind him.
This was going to be a long ass ride home.