Chapter Six
Avery tried not to watch the couple dry humping against the door down the hall. The last thing he needed was a hard-on when Legs answered the door, but damn, they weren’t going to make it inside.
The girl fumbled with her lover’s zipper while he fumbled with the key. Their tongues tangled. Hips clashed in rolling undulations. Moans wove through the air like lusty fingers, stroking Avery’s dick to life.
Movement at the top of the landing, a voyeur lurking in the shadows, dragged his gaze from the couple just as their door gave way and the one in front of him swung open.
His head snapped forward as Legs glided toward him.
Her palms landed on his chest and slid around his neck, leaving trails of fire in their wake.
His hands instinctively found purchase at her waist and dragged her closer even as Sigma voices cautioned to proceed with care.
Voices that said her actions suggested a casual intimacy they hadn’t yet achieved.
Voices that warned she might have fallen for him and his credit card.
He’d seen the transaction finally come through.
“Well, hello there,” he said, urging her inside and kicking the door shut with one foot. Something had shifted, and he didn’t give a fuck why or how late they arrived at the gala or if they arrived at all.
Curling her fingers around his lapel, she rose onto tiptoes. Her warm breath feathered lightly against his chin, and her perfume wrapped him in a soft fruity cloud.
“Hi, babe,” her raspy voice slid into his balls just before her lips, soft and sweet, touched his.
Avery moaned as the semi he’d been fighting while watching the couple sprang fully erect and flexed against the sharp teeth of his zipper. He angled his head to deepen the kiss, but she was already slipping away.
She peered up at him, her face pinched, her blue eyes round with a mixture of embarrassment, fear, and… Was that longing? “We have company.”
Company? He glanced over her shoulder to take in the man watching them. The voices in his head grew louder. What the fuck was she playing at?
“Now, now, don’t sulk.” She leaned close again, her gaze imploring as she whispered, “Please play along,” then her features relaxed, and in a louder, more seductive purr, she said, “I’ll make it up to you later.”
Avery still wasn’t sure what she was doing, but the fact she’d already broken every rule she laid down just yesterday made him curious. “I’ll hold you to that promise…later.”
He spun her around, tucked an arm around her waist, and walked her forward, his gaze locked with the man waiting for them. Reaching around her, he extended a hand. “Avery Preston.”
The guy pushed off the counter and shook his hand. “Chase Murdoch.”
Avery bent to kiss the side of her neck. “Why don’t you go grab your coat. We’ll entertain ourselves.”
She seemed reluctant to leave them alone. He was tempted to send her on her way with a slap to her ass, but that might have been pushing his luck. Besides, he didn’t want to antagonize the guy since he really didn’t know who he was to her. He could be her brother or a friend. Or a boyfriend.
Nah, a boyfriend wouldn’t let his girl go out with another guy. Unless he was expecting part of the payout. But that wasn’t the vibe Avery was getting from either of them. Murdick had ex written all over him.
Fuck it.
He slapped her ass, garnering a small, “oh,” from her before she hurried down the hall rubbing the offended cheek.
His lips curled upward as he watched said ass sway with each step, but his smile faded as he turned back to Murdick, who was also staring at her ass. Definitely not a brother.
Avery took a step forward. “My apologies for interrupting your visit. I’m sure you’ll understand if we can’t linger.”
“That’s okay.” Murdick slowly turned back to Avery, a sly grin splitting his face. “I got what I came for.”
The fuck? Was he insinuating they’d had sex before he arrived? He shook his head mentally. Legs didn’t look like a woman who’d been fucked into oblivion. Actually, she looked like a woman who hadn’t been satisfied in a long, long time. She looked pissed.
It’s none of your business, anyway.
Still, he had a strong urge to knock that smirk off the fucker’s face. It wasn’t like he was jealous. He just didn’t like the predatory gleam in Murdick’s eyes, like a bobcat ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey.
She returned wearing— What the fuck was that? He squinted to make sure he was seeing it right because the tiny black jacket encased her arms but barely covered her tits.
“I’m ready,” she said, her smile brilliant in the dim light of the apartment as she slipped her hand in his.
“Guess, that’s my cue.” Murdick grabbed his coat. “Anything you want me to tell your dad?”
“Tell Walt…” Her gaze darted to Avery and back to Murdick. “Tell him I’m fine, and that I’ll call him when I know what my plans are.”
As soon as the door closed, she let go of his hand and visibly wilted, eyes closed, shoulders sagging.
Which made Avery seriously reconsider fucking the guy up or taking her into his arms. She wouldn’t like that, though, and he sure didn’t need her reading more into it than there was.
Instead, he curled his fists at his sides. “Are you okay?”
Back stiffening, she opened her eyes and pinned him with a frigid stare. “Let’s just go.”
He started to suggest a heavier coat, but Legs was out the door in a heartbeat, impatiently waiting to lock up.
As they exited the building, bright lights from the monster truck he’d seen in the parking lot earlier blinded them.
“Asshole,” she muttered as she hunched into the cold.
Avery tucked her against his side. “Asshole’s still watching.”
When she didn’t balk, he kissed the top of her head, then hustled her toward his car. He’d forgone his get-around-town truck for the sleek black Aston Martin Vanquish Coupe he’d splurged on last spring.
“Watch your head,” he said as she folded into the passenger seat.
As soon as he was behind the wheel, he turned on the heated seats. She stared out the window.
“Next time, I’ll get a rideshare to meet you. You can’t leave this”—she twirled her finger at the dash of his newest toy—“parked in my neighborhood. It’ll be stolen or stripped and left on blocks by the time you get back. At the very least, they’ll slash your tires.”
“Duly noted.” At the parking lot exit, he caught Murdick’s headlights in his rearview. “Ex-boyfriend?”
“Yeah.”
Avery turned onto the street and watched the truck head off in the opposite direction. “You want to talk about it?”
Okay, that’s a first. Since when do I want to listen to a girl’s problems?
He didn’t. Not really. But they were about to head into the shark tank, and he couldn’t have her bleeding emotion all over the place.
“No,” she snapped. “It’s just all the fucking baggage that comes with exes and family. Nothing that concerns you.”
Guess she told me.
But he was good with that. Boundaries were firmly resurrected, and he could slam the door on those annoying voices—audio produced by Sigma Brothers, Inc.—warning him she’d fall for him before this night was over.
“Okay.” He slowed for the stoplight ahead. “But can you pack it away before we get there? My family’s gonna think I did something to piss you off.”
“You mean pretend to be happy? Sure, I’ve been doing that since I was fifteen.”
Nope, we won’t be unpacking all that.
She swung to face him. “Do you piss off all your dates?”
“You haven’t been listening. I told you I don’t date.” Several times. “But they’ll think I regret asking you out, that I only did it to appease them—that part is true—and that I’m trying to get out of it.”
“Won’t they think the same thing when you’re screwing some girl in the janitor’s closet?”
Ouch.
But touché.
But now that Legs was back with her razor-sharp barbs, which he was beginning to enjoy, he could slip back into the comfort of his own skin where he lived for pleasure. He waggled his brows even though she couldn’t see him. “Not if I don’t get caught.”
Obviously, she didn’t appreciate his attempt at levity because she had nothing to say to that. Deciding to let her work through whatever was on her mind, he lost himself in the performance of the car, and the road beneath him.
When he took the exit heading into downtown, her voice came out of the blue, soft and rasping. “I’m sorry.” She cleared her throat and swiveled to face him. “I’m sorry about all that. I shouldn’t have made you a part of it.”
“Why did you?”
“I don’t know.” She turned back to the window. “He just pissed me off. Thinking he could just show up, like I don’t have a life or I’m some booty call. He accused me of screwing you, so I thought, ‘Why not make him think it was true?’ ”
“So you two didn’t do the nasty before I got there?”
“What?” She swung back around. “Did he insinuate that we had?”
Avery shrugged. “I think he did it to piss me off.”
“That lying—argh.”
“Want me to take care of him? ’Cause he needs to keep his hands out of my cookie jar.”
Uh, what the fuck, dude? Her cookie jar is not your cookie jar. Her cookie jar is off limits.
Her mouth was still hanging open when Avery finished arguing with himself, and he was sure that when she recovered from her shock, she’d tell him to fuck off and take her home.
Instead, she laughed and shook her head. “Not that you have any right to regulate traffic to my cookie jar; he hasn’t been anywhere near it in a long time.”
Avery chuckled but he was relieved to know his instincts were right. She deserved better than an asshole like Murdick. “Well, feel free to use me any time you have a point to prove. Especially if it means I get to cop a feel.”
She shook her head, but her smile widened. “Not a chance, fuckboy. We’re starting over, so the rules are back in place.”