Chapter 10
As I stared, she raised a brow. “Are you going to invite me in or are we doing this out here?”
“Mrs. Lipnicki across the street would probably call the cops. She’s retired and very suspicious of us hooligans.” I waved at the twitching curtain on the single-story bungalow opposite our big house.
Avery laughed, and I moved aside to let her in. “At least one person in this town shows the proper amount of wariness. Stranger danger and all that.”
I shut the door and leaned back against the wood, shoving my hands in the pockets of my sweats. “Yes, I definitely feel safer with her watching my every move.”
“How do you know her name?”
Warmth climbed up my cheeks at being caught out. “I mow her grass in the summer and shovel her driveway when it snows hard.”
Avery’s lips pressed together, holding in a smile. “Definitely hooligan behavior. I’d keep a close eye on you too… especially in the summer. It gets hot here, right? You probably don’t even wear a shirt when you mow. Scandalous.”
The tension abated at the easy banter we’d had from the beginning. “That’s me, always causing trouble. Should we set up here or in my bedroom?”
I didn’t miss the flare of heat in her eyes, but she covered it by studying the large main room. Our house was open concept, so the couch provided the separation between the living room and the kitchen. Gavin had shoved a small table in the sort of dining space in the corner, but only Mase really used it.
Avery’s gaze landed on the massive entertainment center against the wall, and she whistled. “You guys went all out.”
She dropped her messenger bag on the couch and crouched to look at the games stacked under the TV, mostly sports, but we’d branched out into a couple of fighters and Eva had picked up some adventure thing last week. I followed her, and Henry crept around the couch toward us. She shuffled up next to me, peering suspiciously at Avery from behind my leg.
“Most of those are Mase’s games, though I can kick some ass at the latest NHL.”
She turned to glance up at me and came face to face with our house duck. “I assume this is Henry?”
“Yeah. She technically belongs to Eva, Gavin’s girlfriend, but we all adopted her. I’m taking care of her while Eva and Gavin are away for a cheer thing.”
“How many of you live here?”
“Right now? Five. Gavin, Eva, Reece, and I are upstairs. Mase lurks in the basement.”
Henry took a tentative step forward with a tilted head, and I amended my answer. “Sorry, baby girl. Six.”
Avery smiled at the diaper covered in a hockey puck print. “Creative. Where do you get the diapers?”
I tried not to move so I didn’t spook either of the ladies. “No idea. Eva handles her wardrobe. I think Henry has more outfits than I do. There’s a stockpile in her room.”
As if she knew we were talking about her, Henry straightened her neck and preened, making a clicking noise. Avery crooned at her, and Henry abandoned me to nudge Avery’s hand hanging loose between her knees.
“She likes you,” I said quietly.
“How do you know?”
“The last time Reece had a sleepover, Henry chased the poor girl across the living room, flapping her wings and screeching.”
“Poor Henry, having to defend her harem from invaders.” She addressed the duck, and Henry sent me a look that clearly said see, she gets it.
With a gentle pat on Henry’s head, Avery stood and brushed her hands together. “How many of your roommates are home?”
“Right now? Just Mase. He won’t bother coming up from the basement.”
“The living room it is then. We’ll save the bedroom shenanigans for another night.” She winked at me, and I ordered my dick to stand down.
Avery was teasing. She was always teasing. I had every intention of following through on my end of the deal, but I wondered if she’d back out when the time came. Her brash attitude made me think she wasn’t nearly as confident as she wanted people to believe.
“Give me two minutes to grab my laptop and the book. Be right back.” I sprinted up the stairs as Avery complained to Henry about the unfairness of athletes.
When I hit the living room again, Henry waited by the back door and Avery had made herself comfortable on the couch. I stopped to let my girl out and set an alarm for ten minutes to make her come back in. She couldn’t get past the covered patio, but she liked to stand at the edge and talk to her friends in the little pond behind our backyard.
Avery watched me over the back of the couch. “Is she okay out there by herself?”
I slid the door most of the way closed, leaving her with enough space to come in on her own if she wanted. “Yeah, she’s not interested in the great outdoors too much, but she likes to flaunt her house duck status at the other wildlife beyond the fence.”
She nodded, a speculative look in her eyes, and patted the cushion next to her. “Let’s get this going.”
The hardest part about circling the couch and joining her was choosing the right distance. I could sit on the other end, putting a full person of space between us, or I could sit next to her. Good manners dictated I pick the farther choice, but fuck good manners. Avery was here to help me with this book, I might as well set it up so we could both see the words.
I sank down in the middle of the couch, close enough for us to work together but not in her lap, and set my computer on the coffee table. Avery craned her neck to look at the title of the book under my arm.
“Arabian Nights? What class am I helping you with?”
“World literature. It’s a requirement of my major for some idiotic reason.”
Her mouth tightened at my hasty words, but she gently pulled the book away from me. “I’m familiar with this one, so it shouldn’t be too hard to walk you through it. I didn’t take any lit classes here, but I assume they’re the same as the ones I took at my previous school.”
“Read the book, take a test, write an essay,” I said.
“Yep, the same.” She didn’t open it, simply turned it over in her hands like she had the day in the library. “How far have you gotten?”
I shifted closer to take the book back, checking the spot I’d marked with a random receipt. “Looks like page ninety-three. Scheherazade just went into her third story, but I couldn’t tell you what the first two were. Something about a genie and a singing tree. Honestly, there was a lot more sex than I was expecting in something this old.”
When I looked up from the text, Avery wasn’t staring at the book like I’d thought. She was staring at my mouth. Heat swept through me, and I let the pages close.
“Avery?”
Her gaze jerked up, and she quickly wiped away the dazed look in her eyes. “Sorry. Before we start, why don’t you tell me about why you need me for this?”
Talk about a cock block. As much as I knew she was only trying to help, I’d have rather discussed the hint of pink creeping across her cheeks or the way her fingers drummed against her leg. Hell, I’d have rather told her about the time I caught my sister skinny dipping with Leroy Chowder in the pond behind the barn. Anything other than the way I failed at a basic ability any five-year-old could master.
“Cole?” Avery laid a hand on my thigh and leaned into my sightline.
I blinked at her and forced myself to answer her question. “I can focus for one line, maybe two, but then the words get jumbled in my mind and I have to stop. If there’s something—or someone—distracting me, I can’t even get through the first line.”
Her fingers started to retract, but I covered her hand with mine. “I can read and understand the words on their own, but put them together in any kind of length and my brain checks out.”
She nodded. “Have you tried audiobooks?”
“Yeah, the narrators read too slow, and I don’t like sitting for long periods of time doing nothing.”
Avery laughed under her breath. “You’re doing it wrong.”
I tilted my head, desperately curious about the deepening blush. “Do you listen to audiobooks?”
“Yes.” She didn’t give me any clarifications, and I’d learned she used the tactic to discourage people from digging deeper.
“How often?”
“All the time.”
A slow smile crept across my face. “What kind of audiobooks, Avery?”
“It’s not important.”
I squeezed her hand. “I disagree. We’re friends, and friends care about each other’s interests.”
“I don’t like to talk about what I listen to. People tend to get judgy.”
“Trust me, city girl.”
She tossed her hair behind her shoulder and raised one imperious brow. “Romance.”
I kind of hadn’t expected her to answer, but I was suddenly interested in another person’s reading habits for the first time in my life. “And how am I doing it wrong?”
My voice dropped without me meaning to, and her hand tightened on my leg. “You need to increase the reading speed and do something to keep your hands busy while you listen.”
“What do you do with your hands while you’re listening to your audiobooks?”
Avery knew exactly what I was asking, and she didn’t shy away from the answer. She met my gaze and held up my lit novel. “You can find out if we get through this assignment.”
As a motivational technique, her promise was surprisingly effective, but I wasn’t quite done with the softer, needier version of Avery. I’d bet no one else knew about her audiobooks or her serial killer obsession. No one else got to see her like this, with her shield lowered and heat in her eyes. Coach hadn’t been wrong about her being prickly. She used her intelligence and her attitude to push people away, but not me.
I held her gaze and lifted her hand, placing a soft kiss on her palm. “Will you share your audiobook with me?”
Her lips parted on a silent breath, and I brushed over her skin a second time. The world around us slowed to a crawl as indecision clouded her face. I hadn’t asked her to cross any boundaries—friends listened to audiobooks together all the time… I assumed. Even if she didn’t share the sex scenes, I was curious about what kind of stories she read—what drove her to hold those books close and protect her love of them.
But I wanted the heat. I wanted to have this piece of her she didn’t share with anyone else.
Avery studied her hand clasped in mine, and maybe foolishly, I pushed one more time. In a slow, languid movement, I stroked my tongue between her fingers. She sucked in a gasp, almost too low for me to hear it, but I saw the movement of her chest, the way her eyes sharpened, the tiny clench in her hand.
For one moment, she wasn’t my coach’s daughter, she wasn’t my tutor, she wasn’t a friend. Her vivid green gaze lifted to mine, and the tension between us pulled taut. Avery’s thumb traced across my lower lip, igniting a bolt of heat that traveled straight to my cock.
The only thing keeping me from crossing the short distance was the uncertainty shadowing her eyes. I couldn’t kiss her and keep her trust—I needed her to make the next move.
She tipped closer, and a sudden, loud quack from the floor by my feet made us both jump. Henry stared up at us and wiggled her little tail, happy she’d gotten our attention. With a sigh, I squeezed Avery’s hand and let it go.
She sat back, letting out a whoosh of air. “Yeah, Cole, you can listen to my audiobooks with me. Hopefully, we can figure out your sweet spot and help you find a way to consume books without torturing yourself.”
The moment was broken, possibly for the best. If Avery had kissed me, I doubt we would have stopped simply because we weren’t supposed to be getting naked together on a random Monday. She’d have enjoyed herself—we both would—but I didn’t want her to chalk the experience up to a fluke.
Avery wanted to keep me neatly tucked away in the friends-with-very-defined-benefits box. I wanted complicated. Every second I spent with this girl only made me want a thousand more. The problem was I couldn’t keep my hands off her.
She grabbed the book from where she’d let it fall on the couch and opened it to the first of Sheherazade’s stories. From the outside, she looked the same as she had when she’d arrived. The tongue thing might have been a mistake, but I didn’t think so. She’d responded. Despite her insistence she wasn’t interested in a relationship, she’d leaned in, at least until Henry had interrupted us.
The guys may have decided I was the golden boy of the group, but I wasn’t a saint. If she was going to tease me at every turn then pull back, I was going to return the favor. Until she gave in and admitted she wanted more than a series of orgasms.