7. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Avery
Nothing could have prepared me for the intensity of Spencer's touch. I've kissed boys before, even let one touch me some in high school. Staring at the ceiling in the office, trying to catch my breath, I'm achingly aware that those dalliances were nothing more than clumsy fumbling. A man who knows how to bring a woman pleasure before taking his own is an entirely different experience.
Spencer wipes his hands with a tissue and tucks his cock away.
He leans over me and cups my cheek, stroking his thumb across my skin. “Beautiful,” he whispers, and presses a kiss to my forehead.
I feel beautiful. I feel like I could fly.
He tugs my bra straps up, the hands me my panties. “Let me get something to clean you up.” He unlocks the door and pokes his head out, then slips into the bathroom.
I take the time to adjust my bra and pull my dress back on.
He returns with a damp washcloth, and I'm touched by his thoughtfulness. Only, there's something in his eyes. The warmth from a moment ago is gone, replaced with... almost a hollowness. My chest freezes. Does he regret this? Before I'm even off his desk?
My hands shake as I rush to clean up and slide my panties back on.
“Here,” he says, holding his hand out for the washcloth.
I hand it to him, suddenly so afraid of what comes next. Anson said a man likes a direct question. Do I have the courage to ask? I must. I have to know. “Spencer, wait.” He stops in the doorway, gripping the washcloth until his knuckles turn white. Is he as uncertain as I am? The possibility buoys my resolve. “Tell me you don't regret what happened just now.”
“I don't. Not for a moment.”
The knot that formed in my chest slowly unfurls. “Then why? I mean, I feel you pulling away. Did I do something wrong?”
“Jesus, no.” He drops the washcloth and strides back to me, cupping my face in both his large hands. “Not you, Avery.” His eyes slide closed for a second, then he presses his forehead to mine.
Our breaths mingle. I can feel my heartbeat fluttering in my ears like a trapped butterfly.
“You make me feel things... I swore I'd never let someone get this close again. I built the thickest walls I could to assure it. Then you came with your sunshine and your muffins and blue hair. Your daily fuck-me fantasy clothes that drive me insane with need.”
A laugh escapes my lips. I've never heard my wardrobe described like that.
He smacks my ass. “I'm being serious.”
But there's a teasing light in his eyes that I've never seen before. Suddenly, my throat feels thick and it's hard to swallow.
“You detonated those walls without even trying and laid my heart bare, ugly wounds and all.”
I want to swear I'll never hurt him. How can I say that if I don't know who made those wounds? “Tell me?”
He scrubs a hand over his jaw, then nods. “Sit with me?”
“I—yes.”
Spencer scoops me into his arms, rounds his desk and sits in the chair, settling me on his knee. I wrap my arms around his neck and get comfortable. This is nice.
The smallest smile touches his lips.
My chest squeezes tight. If he smiles at me even once, I might fall in love with this man.
“I was engaged seven years ago, when I live in Philadelphia. Bianca was smart, beautiful, and driven. A vixen in bed. Everything I thought I wanted. She was an attorney with her sights set on becoming a partner in her firm.” He rubs a hand up and down my back. “I knew she loved money. Making it, spending it. Especially mine. I had a similar business to this, doing well with some big contracts. It wasn't until our wedding expenses hit one hundred thousand, most of which came from my accounts, that I started to see her more clearly. Bianca was always pushing me to get a higher paying job, despite the fact that I love the work I do. The money was never enough. She loved fucking me, but she wasn't happy with where I lived. She had her eye on some big ass house that cost millions.” He shakes his head. “Even then, I wasn't ready to give up on the commitment I'd made to her. She didn't have such qualms. A week before the wedding, she landed that partnership and broke off our engagement. She'd be fucking her way up the ladder at work until she found the right man to manipulate. She didn't need me anymore.”
His muscles are rock solid beneath my hands, tension in every line of his body. A hundred responses cross my mind, like: what a bitch. How could she cheat on him when he was giving her everything she wanted? Thank God she broke it off. I hope she chokes on that D . Karma is a bitch with a long memory.
Words somehow don't seem enough. Cupping his face, I meet his gaze, then place a soft kiss on his lips.
He sucks in a sharp breath.
“Avery.”
The tremor in his voice slays me. “She didn't know what she had.”
He yanks me closer and buries his nose in the crook of my neck. “I do,” he whispers, lips skimming my skin.
“Is that when you came to Hope Peak?”
“I got as much money back as I could from the wedding, sold my business, and looked for a place that I could call home. A small town like Hope Peak, with the mountains and fresh air, was what I needed. I rebuilt nearly everything I'd lost and told myself it was enough.” He threads a hand through my hair, rubbing the strands between his fingers. “It was until I met you.”
I want to believe that. But... “You don't know that much about me.”
“I know you're a vampire who shouldn't leave the office while the sun is out. What else is there?”
A laugh bubbles out of me. Spencer Sullivan cracking a vampire joke? He really has come unhinged. I like it. “I live in my grandmother's house with her cat while she ditches me for a world cruise.”
He snorts, and as I watch transfixed, a slow smile spreads across his lips.
My heart cracks the last little bit, opening fully to the love I'd already begun to let in. “Good thing I like cats. And grandmothers.”
“I swear she had an ulterior motive for hiring me, but at the time, I didn't care. I needed a place to live and a job while I figured things out.”
He tilts his head. “Why? What brought you to Hope Peak, Avery? What brought you to me ?”