Chapter 30 #2
His eyes widened. His Adam’s apple bobbed with a hard swallow. “Why? You don’t want me to?”
Yes, of course I do. “That’s not the point.”
He seemed hurt by my words for some reason, attention flickering away. “All right.”
I tightened my hand around his shirt, not letting him move when he began to pull away. This was a serious conversation. I was going to drill it into his head not to let someone like Ana Liapovich convince him he needed to be trapped here on the front line in order to protect his family’s assets.
“Avery, listen to me. You don’t need to stay here. That’s letting them win. You’re so much stronger than that.”
His brows pulled together. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“The court case? Or whatever’s going on with Ana and Alexander Steele. Don’t let them get into your head about having to stay here. If anything, I can stop by the estate and check on it every day before and after work to make sure no moving trucks have somehow snuck in.”
For some reason, he stared at me for an unforgivably long pause. The weird tension was causing my stomach to clench hard enough that I was beginning to feel nauseous. I hoped he wasn’t taking this as me pushing him away.
Hell, I wanted him to stay and would give anything to keep him here. But unfortunately that wasn’t the reality of this situation. Unfortunately, I was going to have to be a damn grown up and get over myself.
Could we do long distance?
Suddenly, he burst out laughing. “Brandon, sometimes I wonder about you.”
Before I could retort, he sealed my mouth into a kiss.
I curled my toes when his tongue rolled along the seam of my lips, egging me on into parting them for him.
He tasted like his favorite coffee—a dark roast with a little bit of cream and sugar to offset the rich flavor.
It was my favorite thing to wake up to every morning, aside from being wrapped up in his arms.
He ground his hips into mine, drawing a soft moan out of me.
We probably had time for a quickie before the guys got back. Unless we were able to sneak off to my office before we got too far into it. There, I could give Avery’s cock the proper attention it deserved. Namely in the form of me dropping to my knees for him.
To my dismay, he soon parted from me. “I didn’t quit because of the court case.”
My lashes fluttered open. “So, why...”
Avery shook his head at me. “I quit because of you.”
“What?” I mumbled.
“Brandon. I quit because I wanted to stay here. With you.”
I could only stare in response.
My brain was short-circuiting with the newfound information. All cylinders were rapid firing with no information crossing the threshold of my brain to properly help me formulate a sentence. There was no way he was serious about that. Quitting his seven figure job just to play house with me.
He couldn’t.
He wouldn’t?
But he did.
“Are you upset?” he asked.
Belatedly, I realized my eyes were beginning to water. “No.”
“Bran...”
It hurt to swallow, mainly from how choked up I was getting. “Are you serious? You want to stay here with me?”
His expression softened. “Of course I am. I can’t leave you again.”
Oh, fuck.
Now my eyes were really beginning to sting.
“You don’t have to. Stay, I mean. I’ll be okay.” Even to my own ears, I knew how lousy that sounded. How barely put together I was.
Of course Avery could see right through me. Just like he always had. “I want to. Every time I thought about going to the city, I dreaded it. The thought of having to be away from you again was killing me. So, I quit my job. What was holding me there, anyway?”
“Your friends?”
“They’ll move here.”
I swallowed back more tears. “Carrie?”
“I called her earlier. She said she was really happy for me and wished us well.”
A single tear slipped past my waterline. “Weren’t you living in a really nice penthouse or something?”
“My mansion’s way nicer.” He glided his thumb under my eye, collecting the drop there. “Speaking of which, you should move in.”
My knees nearly buckled. This conversation felt like a fever dream.
Was I even alive?
Maybe I died in my sleep last night and this was my little slice of heaven—getting Avery to stay and for us to live out our happy, merry lives together.
It certainly sounded like something I’d manifest in the afterlife.
“What are we?” I croaked.
“Whatever you want us to be,” came his soft reply.
“I...” I wanted everything. I wanted more than he could probably ever possibly give me. I wanted it all. I wanted... “I want you.”
He smiled. “Then you shall have me. Forever. Or until you get sick of me.”
Yeah, that was so not happening. Not in this lifetime, at least.
There wasn’t a day in my life that ever went by where I thought to myself how ecstatic I’d felt with Avery out of my life. Quite the opposite, in fact. So, it was safe to say that he’d never be leaving.
My stomach tightened at the thought, a pleasant warmth sinking deep down into my bones.
“Come to my sister’s wedding with me?” I pressed the question to his lips, reveling in the smile that upticked against mine.
“I’d be honored.”