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)
His voice was raspy but clear. “Avril… get rid of him and tell him not to come back.”
Now why Dane couldn’t just say that to the man who was claiming to be his father, I have no clue, but I also never questioned his request. I positioned myself fully in the door again, giving my back to Dane and becoming his protector for the first time.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I said, “You need to leave. You’re not welcome here, so don’t come back.”
“But if I could just—”
I leaned to the side and grabbed the baseball bat by the door. It belonged to Andrew, and I wielded it in front of me. “I will bash you over the head if you don’t leave.”
The man’s mouth drew downward into a saddened frown, and he tried to look past me inside the apartment. I raised the bat, and he took a few steps back.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he held his hands up for a moment before reaching back for his wallet. “I know this is hard on him. I just wanted to reconnect.”
I remained silent with a glare firmly in place as he pulled something from his wallet. He reached out and handed it to me, but I refused to take it. So instead, he bent over and put in on the concrete by my feet. “That’s my business card. I live just a little north of San Diego. I do home inspections and got my life back under control. Been clean for several years. I just wanted to reach out. I think about him all—”
I never heard another word because I’d backed up and shut the door in his face.
When I turned back to Dane, he looked up at me and simply said, “Thank you.”
I just nodded as I put the bat back in its place. I sat on the couch and continued studying, even though my heart was pounding so hard. I couldn’t imagine what Dane was feeling, but I knew it had to be something close to debilitating because he would have never in a million years asked me to protect him. The fact that he did tells me it was a pain he simply couldn’t confront.
I remember the next day, when I stepped outside the apartment, the card that his father left was gone. I had no clue if it blew away or if Dane picked it up, but he and I never spoke of his father again.
Not until just now while my body is still tingling from the orgasm he gave me. And when Dane says, “Then you know,” what he really is doing is reiterating the boundaries of what we have together.
Dane isn’t capable of love or attachment. He doesn’t trust easily, and as much as he trusts me as his best friend, he’d never trust me with his heart. He’s a solitary man who has made it through the first thirty-nine years of his life on his own, and he intends to do that for the next thirty-nine and beyond.
He’s making sure I really understand he has nothing to give me but what’s between his legs.
Leaning forward, I press my lips against his for a soft, reassuring kiss. When I pull back, I look him right in the eye and tell him what he needs to hear. “Yes, I know.”
CHAPTER 13
Dane
The limo pulls up to the front of Andrew’s condo. We’d just flown in from San Francisco on the early flight, and he’s still looking green around the gills. While Avril and I were burning excess alcohol off in her room, Andrew apparently hit the mini bar to keep his drunk going.
Andrew groans as he pushes forward in the seat opposite me. Avril’s sitting beside him with a smirk on her face. It’s completely fascinating to me how easily Avril and I can turn off the sexual attraction when we are around others. Well, “turn off” might not be the right words. Maybe “mute” would be more accurate, but still… when we all met down in the lobby this morning for the car service to take us to the airport, it was business as usual between the three of us. She and I kept up a running chatter while Andrew listened in with half an ear and winced periodically from his hangover headache.
“Drink lots of water and take some aspirin,” Avril says as she pats him on the shoulder before he slides along the seat to exit.
He turns back to her and rolls his eyes. “I’m just a little hungover. I’m going to be working today.”
“Just from the comfort of your bed wearing your jammies, right?” I can’t help but tease.
“Fuck off,” he mutters and slides out the open door being held by the driver. After he steps out onto the sidewalk, the driver goes to the trunk to pull out his carry-on and Andrew ducks back down to look into the car at us with a somber expression. “Next time all three of us go back to Berkley together, we are never—and I repeat never—going out drinking like that.”