Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 82034 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82034 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Always have for as long as I can remember.
Andrew’s gaze lifts back up to meet mine. His voice is flat. “She’s completely in love with that place. Went on about how liberating it was, and she found a new power or something like that. But I think she’s just wanting to even the score with Jamie.”
“She’s not like that,” I assert.
Andrew sighs. “Yeah… I know. It’s just easier to believe that rather than accept that she’s turned into a sex kitten or something overnight.”
And I see it.
Clear as day on his face.
The door has been cracked open, and Andrew is now looking at Avril in a completely different light. He wants her.
“Did you know that you and Avril both came at the same time Friday night?” I ask, and it gets the intended reaction I was driving for. His body jolts as his eyes narrow and his teeth grind together.
“Goddamn it, Dane,” Andrew growls. “You watched the entire thing? I thought you just meant you’d seen us walking through the club or something.”
I lean forward and tell my best friend the truth so he quits hiding from it and can deal with it. “I watched the two of you fuck other people while staring across that room at each other, and I did it while some chick was sucking my cock. I fucking blew my load right along with you two.”
And shit… just saying those words causes my dick to start to swell, because it was one of the hottest things I’d ever seen in my life.
“You were turned on by what you were watching,” I tell him softly but assuredly.
He stares back at me unblinkingly, but his jawline is tight with tension.
“I was turned on, too. You’d have to be dead not to be aroused by it.”
Through clenched teeth, Andrew says, “I never wanted to think of her that way.”
I lean forward on the table, clasping my hands to give him a pointed look. “Buddy… it was never my intention either. It’s why I was against the idea to begin with. But that ship has sailed.”
“So what?” Andrew says aggressively as he also leans forward, pressing his palms into the table. “I just put it out of my mind? Pretend it didn’t happen?”
“If that’s what you need to do,” I tell him with a nod. “Or… you accept it and move on.”
“Move on?”
I don’t answer right away so I can collect my thoughts. I have the power to settle Andrew down, or I have the power to make him consider something different. I choose to go different because I know Andrew. It will kill him to pretend because he’s the one with the biggest conscience of the three of us. He has to confront his guilt and realize there is nothing wrong with what he and Avril did that night.
I know I sure as fuck don’t feel guilty about it, although I am a little relieved that Avril seems to be taken with the club.
“Andrew… the three of us have the strongest base of a friendship that anyone could imagine,” I point out. “We’re business partners. We admire and respect one another. We support each other. While I really didn’t want Avril in that environment, mainly because she was fresh off a breakup, it’s done and I’m frankly a little glad. I’m glad you’ve both seen a part of my world that you knew about, but never really understood. But since Avril is going back, and inviting you, I think she understands it quite clearly. There is no wrong within that club. And I think she proved to you that she can leave that behind and step back into our normal routine outside of that place.”
With a huge sigh, Andrew scrubs his hands over his face. His gaze comes back to mine, and I can still see the warring within. “I hear you, and I’ll think on it. But thanks for talking to me about it. Knowing you’re not all that weirded out is a little stabilizing.”
This relieves me… the fact his stance is opening. I think he’s in for a world of hurt if he denies to himself that he wants Avril. He may not act on it, and probably won’t, but he can’t pretend it’s not there. That would not be good for anyone.
I give Andrew a confident smile so he won’t ever guess I have my own turmoil. While I’m not weirded out and don’t feel an ounce of guilt, I am most definitely feeling something. Thank fuck Andrew doesn’t ask me my exact feelings because I wouldn’t be able to lie to him.
God fucking help me… I want Avril, too.
While I know Andrew is probably going to go home by himself tonight, because he just doesn’t have it within him at this point to accept his feelings, there is no way in hell I’ll be able to stay away from The Wicked Horse knowing Avril’s going back.