Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHARLIE
Once I shut off the camera, I lay back on the mattress, next to Athie, and stared up at the ceiling, breathing heavily. All sorts of gooey feelings that I hadn’t felt for anyone before seemed to gush through my chest, and I just wanted to tell her that I loved her.
Not as a friend, like I usually did.
But that I truly fucking loved her. That I really wanted to get her pregnant and that it wasn’t some fantasy to breed my best friend and that I really had thought about having a family with her one day.
Suddenly, a sob echoed through the room. I snapped my gaze over to Athena, who was curled up into a ball all the way at the edge of the bed, with her hand over her mouth and tears streaming down her cheeks.
Immediately, I sat up and moved next to her, taking her into my arms.
“Did I do something?” I asked, her face in my hands and my eyes searching her trembling ones.
I furrowed my brows, confused because, a second ago, she had been into everything that I was saying.
Maybe I’d pushed her too far. “Did I say something? What’s wrong, Athena?
Talk to me, please. Why are you crying?”
What was going on? I’d thought that was how she wanted me to treat her in the bedroom. I thought that she wanted me to be a little rough, claim her mouth and pussy. Her body seemed to want it. At least, that was how she had made it seem …
Instead of answering me, Athena cried harder, her shoulders bucking forward.
Maybe it was the way that I had eaten her out. Had she not liked it?
God, why am I so bad at it?
“Did I hurt you?” I whispered, searching her body for any marks that I might’ve left. I jumped out of bed and headed for the door. “I’m going to get you some water, start the kettle for some tea. I …”
I stared at her for a couple of seconds, then hurried out into the hall to get her some water because I had no idea what was going on. Nothing like this had ever happened before to me during or after sex. And to see those tears fall from her eyes … possibly because of me …
Fuck, what have I done?
After starting the kettle on the stovetop, I filled a glass of water and hurried back to the bedroom, my heart racing. Athena had sat up, her legs hanging off the side of her bed, the blankets wrapped around her shoulders, hunched over.
I should’ve taken more time with her before flipping on my phone and starting that stream. Maybe she felt like I’d pressured her into doing it. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to be on camera. I could’ve ruined her law career before she even started it.
Once I reached her, I held out the water for her, but she didn’t take it. So, I set it on the nightstand and crouched in front of her. Wet tear trails decorated her face, but no more tears were leaving her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered.
She stared at me and shook her head, as if to tell me she didn’t want to talk.
But I wasn’t having it.
“Did Derek say something to you?” I asked, trying to stay calm, but Athena had been acting weird ever since she had gotten home, and I smelled his cologne all over her. He had to have something to do with this.
She shook her head again, but the tears began once more.
Athena pulled the blankets up to her chin and stared at me through watery eyes, not saying a word. I waited and waited and waited, so she knew I wasn’t going anywhere until I knew she was okay.
“Don’t you have to work?” she whispered.
“No.”
“Yes, you do.”
I set my hands on her knees and shook my head. “No, I’m not leaving you.”
“But—”
“Tell me what he said.”
“He didn’t say anything. This … this isn’t about him.”
After blowing out a low and controlled breath—because she was lying to me again—I sat beside her on the bed and cupped her chin in my hands, desperate for her to tell me what was going on. “Talk to me, Athie. What’s wrong?”
She opened and closed her mouth, lips quivering. “Do you think I walk weirdly?”
“No,” I said, furrowing my brows. “What would you walk weird from?”
“My accident.”
“Your accident?” I repeated.
Sure, sometimes, she didn’t walk straight, and she had a bad habit of walking into me while we walked down the road, not balancing correctly when she stood for a long time, but I had never once thought it was weird.
And I would never mention it to anyone anyway. Why was she bringing this up?
“Why would you think that?” I asked.
She looked away and shrugged. “I don’t know. I just look weird.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I’m so clumsy,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t know who will respect a lawyer who limps around everywhere and—”
“Stop it, Athena,” I said. The words came out more sternly than I’d expected, but I was sick of her putting herself down.
When we had first become friends, that was all she did. And she had worked hard to feel confident in herself. And now, for some reason, she was like this again, and I wasn’t having it.
Athena stared up at me, her eyes widening even more. “But—”
“That experience might’ve shaped your life, but you’re more than that,” I said, wondering why the hell this was coming up now. “Why do you care about what anyone thinks of you anyway?”
She looked down at her lap, voice dropping. “Because …”
I waited for her to continue, but she didn’t after a few moments.
“Because?”
“I don’t care about what just anyone thinks of me,” she said.
But she obviously did care. At least, she cared about what I thought if she was asking me this. But never in my life had I ever intentionally done anything to make her think otherwise. I loved her for who she was, not what she looked like or how she walked.
“You don’t understand,” she whispered, tugging the blankets around her body. “I l—” Before she could finish her sentence, she smacked her lips closed and looked down at her knees, bouncing them up and down, her cheeks reddening by the moment. “Never mind.”
“What is it?” I asked, lowering my voice and grabbing her hands. “You can talk to me.”
“Not about this,” she whispered, glancing over to my computer. “I … I can’t.”
“If you can’t talk to me, then at least tell me why you think this all of a sudden. Was it your little run-in with Derek? Did he say something to you about me? Is that why you don’t want to tell me about it?”
“No!” she exclaimed, but she couldn’t look me in the eyes. “I was just thinking about it …”
I balled my hands into fists, ready to kick his ass for good this time because Athena was lying to me. I could hear it in her voice, could see it in her expression that she tried to hide from me. Derek had said something to her, and I planned on teaching him a lesson.
Nobody messed around with my girl.