by Susan Ward
Chapter Thirty-Two
“Ethan”
My gaze drifts to Avery’s legs slowly bouncing on the bed as her fingers fly across the keys of my laptop. I should never have given that to her. I know better. No girl should ever be allowed devices when she’s with a guy, especially not in his bedroom.
I take a moment to admire how she looks busy at work. No doubt about it, I could look at her forever. This particular view is great. Butt toward me. Body naked. Auburn curls, fuzzy and unbrushed, streaming down her slender back.
Has it been an hour yet?
Fuck it, don’t care if it hasn’t.
Sorry, Avery, if you wanted me to let you work, you should have put on panties.
I grab her leg, halting it in midair, then run the back of my fingertips upward from calf to thigh. She shakes it once and flips on a hip to stop me before I get there.
Her brows lift. “Ethan, you promised. One hour in the morning to work. One hour in the afternoon. Some of us gotta work to eat.”
Eat—I can tell my eyes are gleaming like a fiend because her cheeks flush. I run my tongue along her ankle, and she groans then laughs as she tries to shake free her leg again.
“What do you think you’re doing, mister?”
“Being supportive of my woman while she works.”
“Is that what you call it?”
“If you wanted me not to want to play then you should have put on clothes before you started blogging.”
The color darkens on her face. “I didn’t expect you to sit there and do nothing but stare at Ginger. Don’t think I don’t know what you’ve been doing back there.”
I surround her with my arms and pin her beneath me with my body. “You know Ginger drives me crazy.”
She rolls her eyes, avoiding my kiss. “Go away. Not forever. Just twenty minutes.”
I slowly shake my head. “Can’t do it.”
She laughs. “Won’t do it, you mean. Why are guys so annoying?”
I nuzzle beneath her ear. “Why are you so tempting?”
“I’m not.” She wiggles free from beneath me. “You’re just bored and have nothing better to do.”
I cover my heart with a hand like that wounds, then recline on my side facing her. “You’re what I’m doing and, trust me, I’m not bored.”
For some reason, her expression tightens and she drops her eyes in the way she does when she’s troubled by something. For a moment, she traces the pattern on the comforter, then lifts her sultry brown eyes to me. “We’ve been here two weeks, Ethan. What are we doing?”
“I think it’s called being in love. Not sure. It’s new to me. But I think that’s what it is.”
Her head makes an almost unperceivable shake. “What are we?”
Yep, I wasn’t wrong, Avery’s turning something in her head again. Why do girls need to analyze everything? Why can’t they just enjoy when things are good? “I sort of thought I’m your guy now.”
“Oh. And what am I to you?”
I kiss her shoulder. “That’s easy. You’re my woman.” I purposely say it with a caveman growl so she’d laugh. The husky waves of her humor rush over me until she’s still and staring at me again, her sexy brown eyes saucer big.
Fine, she wants serious.
“Everything is going to be fine, Avery. I’m never going to hurt you again. I’ve told you that. I promised I wouldn’t and I meant it, because I sure as hell don’t want to ruin things with you again. Other than that, we can be anything you want us to be.”
Her pouty lips pucker inward. “Whatever I want, huh?”
The breathy tone of her voice makes my cock twitch. “I should also add whenever you want.”
Her gaze melts and that’s it, I’m lost in her. I pull her under me and get to work showing her how much mine she is.
Afterward, she lies with her head on my shoulder.
“I love you, Avery.”
Her eyes dart to my face. “I love you, too, E.”
“Then why do you keep worrying over junk? Something is bothering you. I know it is. I can see it in your eyes. What I don’t know is why you won’t tell me what it is that’s got you worried.”
She tucks her face into my chest so I can’t see it. “What’s not to be worried about? This is uncharted territory for me. I’ve not been this serious about anyone before.”
I bury my lips in her hair. “Me either. But that shouldn’t scare or worry you. It’s a good thing. In fact, we’re incredible together.”
She swipes her curls from her face and her gaze floats around my bedroom. “It would be a better thing if it included my clothes and something to eat. Can I text Khloe to bring my things?”
“Hell no. You do that, and Ethan and Avery time is fini. No way my family is staying away if we make contact with any of them.” I check the clock on the bedside table. “I ordered our breakfast an hour ago. It should be delivered soon.”
“It seems kind of a waste to have that beautiful kitchen and having nothing in it but coffee and booze.” She crinkles her nose. “Why don’t we order groceries so there’s something here when we’re hungry? I can’t eat restaurant delivery three times a day. You live like you’re on tour even when you’re home. It makes me feel like you’re only killing time with me and you can’t wait to get back on the road again.”
That kinda hurts because I thought what we were doing was romantic. Staying in bed. Talking. Making love. Getting tangled up in each other deeper without the real world pushing in, like cooking food and our families and everything.
I grab my phone and start clicking through apps. Yep, there is one. Haven’t used it in a while, but my account’s still there. I hand her my cell. “I haven’t been home since we hit LA—remember?—or I’d have a full fridge. Here. You place the order. I don’t know what you’d like to have in the kitchen. But you’re right. It’s time to get some food here.”
When I lean over to kiss her she’s frowning. “I didn’t mean to piss you off,” she states quietly.
Her comment surprises me and I’m wondering what’s up with that. I’ve never known Avery to be so cautious and tentative, and I don’t like that it seems like she’s still feeling me out for some reason, unsure about something, even after fourteen days alone with me.
“You didn’t piss me off, Avery.” The doorbell rings and I reach for my sweatpants. “Get back to work. I’ll bring you your breakfast in here.”
My mouth claims hers in a deep kiss, and when I pull back she’s smiling. “Breakfast sounds great,” she says enthusiastically. “Where’d you get it from?”
“Only four choices in the area on restaurant-to-home. I picked pancakes and iHop today.”
She nods, looking pleased, then turns back to the screen, focuses, and starts working again.
I go to the front door, pay the delivery girl, then make a stop in the kitchen for plates and a tray. Scooping out the contents of our meal containers so it doesn’t look like restaurant food—lame, Ethan, because she knows it is—shaking my head, I brew two fast mugs of coffee and add them to the tray.
Carrying the tray into the room, I find her waiting sexy and mussed, wearing one of my t-shirts and a pair of boxers, laptop gone, blankets smoothed, and the blinds pulled back on the windows to let in the view. Her smile shoots straight to my heart.
“Look at you, mister. Real plates and silverware. All fancy schmancy this morning.”
I set the tray down close to her, then settle on the bed. “Wow. If you think this is fancy, I need to step up my game.”
She shakes her head. “Never. I’m some-pancakes-at-iHop kind of girl, and the way to my heart these days is food. Right now, I feel like I could eat both yours and mine. You better dig in or I’m not leaving you any.”
“I consider myself warned. Though if you wanted them I’d give them to you. I’m a sucker for a girl with red hair. And I’m definitely a sucker for you.”
She shoves a loaded fork into her mouth and watches as I pour blueberry syrup on my
big stack. “Are you going to eat your bacon?”
I laugh. “Yes. Keep your mitts off my breakfast.”
“I thought I could have it if I wanted it. How quickly a guy forgets what he says.”
I frown, shaking my head. “You don’t really want it, do you?”
She nods as she chomps happily.
“You’re joking, right?”
She shakes her head, taking another gigantic mouthful.
“Did you place an order for web-grocer?”
She nods, and, groaning, I pick up my plate and offer it to her.
She gives me that big, wide pleased smile. “Eat your breakfast. I don’t want it. Just testing that line you gave me about how everything else can be my way.”
I arch a brow while I cut up my food. “Wasn’t a line. I meant it. If you want my pancakes, you can have them.”
She crinkles her nose. “No, don’t like blueberry syrup. You’re safe.”
I roll my eyes and start to eat.
There’s a ding, and Avery drops her fork on her empty plate and crawls across the bed to our cells lying side by side on the bedside table.
“Mine or yours?” I ask before taking a bite of my hash browns.
“Mine.”
She sits on her knees, her fingers moving like lightning and her eyes moving with her hands. Whatever she’s reading has stolen her attention completely away from me. I groan, wondering if my family has finally popped up and decided to ruin this for us.
“What’s going on?”
Her nose crinkles. “Hugh. They really want me back working for them. Which is surprising. I never thought Hugh liked me that much. But he’s offered me more money to stay on.” Her face lifts and her eyes lock on mine. “Do you think he’s doing that because he thinks I can get you to agree to come back? Definitely the type of slimeball thing he’d do.”
“No way. He wants you back because you’re great.” I follow that up by leaning across the tray to plant a kiss on her nose. “If you want to stay on with the guys, it’s cool with me. Don’t make decisions based on what I do. If I leave the band it’s about what I want. Whether you stay should be only about what you want.”
My insides get blasted by ice when her face clouds over. Fuck, I was trying to be supportive. How’d that blow up in my face? Why’d she react that way?
“Ready to get of rid me?”
Fuck. “No. That’s whacked. Don’t say it again. Your work is important to you. You’re important to me. Nothing more to it.”
Annoyed, I start collecting our dirty dishes.
“But we haven’t talked about me going back on the road and how that fits with us. We haven’t really discussed anything about us.”
Talk. Fuck, I hate that word. “What’s there to talk about?”
Her eyes go wide and she’s butt-hurt over something. “Well, everything. What you want. What I want. Where we go from here. And how it would work.”
I climb from the bed and lift the tray. “What I want is to get these dishes out of here and go back to bed with you.”
Her eyes flash. “Is that all this is to you?”
She flies off the bed and stomps around the room, angry.
“Whoa. Settle down. Don’t know how I pissed you off. Wasn’t my intention, Avery. Credit me with trying to be a supportive partner here.”
She whirls at me, her mouth in a little O. “My partner. Is that what you think we are? No discussion. We’re a couple now?”
My face suffers a mild flush because maybe I’ve jumped ahead of things, but, fuck, when something’s good it’s hard not to think of as permanent. In fact, the thought of this not continuing with Avery makes me queasy. I never thought I’d find this kind of happiness with anyone. And fine, fuck me a second time, because it sounded like that was what she was looking for me to say.
I set down the tray and go to her. “We’re partners, Avery. A couple. Whatever you want to call it. At least that’s what I think we are. I can’t picture me without you. Not anymore.”
She drops down on the edge of the bed, peeking up at me through those long lashes. “Then why didn’t you say that?”
A frustrated laugh pushes out of me. “I’m saying it now.” I drop down on my knees in the space between her legs and gently rub her thighs. Gosh, she’s the least emotional woman I know and she’s been like a minefield today. “I don’t always express what I feel, Avery. You know that. I’m trying real hard to be clearer about things. I’m a work in progress, remember?”
She drops her forehead to mine, her large eyes blocking out the world, and her fingers tighten around my shoulders. “Don’t think. Just tell me what we are to you.”
I don’t have to think. “You’re my everything, Avery. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I told you that—well, sort of—once before. You’re the kind of girl guys don’t want to spend only a night with but the rest of their life. The guy I was talking about was me. I thought you knew that’s how I feel.”
She nuzzles her cheek against me. “I can’t know what you don’t tell me.”
“And I can’t know what you don’t tell me.” My palms close on her face, holding her directly in front of my eyes. “Is moving in here with me something that would work for you?”
She slides off the bed until we’re both sitting on the ground, her legs over my thighs and her arms around me. “Thought you’d never ask, mister. I sort of thought that was the direction we were heading.”
This time my laughter comes full force. “How come you’re allowed to be vague and I have to be crystal clear?”
She shrugs. “Because I always know exactly what I’m doing.”
My eyes widen. “You think I don’t? Game on.” I pick her up and spread her on the bed, covering her with my body and rolling my cock against her. “Tell me I don’t know what I’m doing now.” I trace the outline of her nipple through her shirt. “Or now.” I take her mouth in a deep, full-tongue kiss. “Or now.”
Passion washes across her face as I lift on my arms. “No. When it comes to sex, no doubt about it, you very much know what you’re doing.”
Point not made—she thinks I don’t in my life. My mood goes flat and I roll off her, grabbing the tray again.
Watching me, she frowns and pouts. “That’s not fair to stop it now.”
“Don’t want you to think all I want is sex.”
I’m halfway to the bedroom door.
“Who says that’s not all I want?” she says with a feisty lift of her chin.
I toss her an annoyed glance. “No getting me now even if you beg me.”
Which is a lie. I just don’t want the plates rattling around while I fuck her. My footsteps have more spring as I head to the kitchen, and the smile I held back with her takes full control of my face.
Avery’s moving in. Not everything I want, but a pretty fucking fine step in the right direction this morning.
When I get back to the bedroom, she’s on her phone again. “Crap, who is it this time?”
“Emmy. Checking up on me.”
I lie on my back, staring at the ceiling. “Tell her I say hi.”
She continues to rapidly type.
I frown. “It’s funny none of my family have bugged me. Yours texts every day. Mine is like on radio silence or something. Don’t you find that odd?”
“Don’t know your family well enough to know what’s odd.”
“Yeah, but given how we’ve been living bunker-style because my dad’s worried about Eric shit raining down on us, don’t you think someone might have called or texted? Wouldn’t Dillon be parked at the end of the driveway, or some such shit? I’ve gotta confess, Avery. Nothing my dad’s told me since Eric left has made sense.”
Her brows move upward, eyes locked on the screen. “Well, if you don’t get it, I won’t ever.”
I turn on my hip facing her. “And what was up with Eric having my car when he picked you up at Emmy’s? Didn’t you think that was odd?”
She sighs heavily. “E
verything about your brother that night was odd. Trust me, I had bigger things turning in my head.”
I study her for a moment. “Why didn’t you tell me it was Graham Carson at the pickup spot for Eric?”
“I’m certain I did. Didn’t I?” Her brows pucker, she shakes her head, then goes back to her chat with Emmy.
“No, you said men. My dad was the one that told me it was the bodyguards that got Eric out of the country. Your dad Sky works for Carson. You must have known it was him. Why not tell me that?”
Her eyes shoot to mine, then quickly drop back toward her cell phone. “What does it matter? I’ve got more important things to ask. Is it all right to tell Emmy we’re living together? She’s got a big mouth. Her next stop will be telling my dads. Are we officially official? Can I tell her?”
As much as that’s music to my ears, why does it feel like she’s changing the subject? “Yeah. Tell her anything you want. We’re officially official. One unemployed musician and one kick-ass blogger. You’re living with me. That oughtta go over great with your dads.”
She giggles and drops a fast kiss on my lips. “My dads love you and so do I.”
I pull her into my arms, lying back on the bed with her on top of me. “Do you love me enough to put down that damn phone and let me have my fantasy of you this morning?”
The phone’s tossed across the bed.
I slip on a rubber, lift her up and set her straddled across my erection.
I poke in under the baggy boxer legs, pushing with the head of my cock against her soft folds. “Yep, they’re wide enough. Don’t need to undress you. I slip right in.”
I thrust deep into her and she groans, arching her neck. I prompt with my hands for her hips to take over, and exactly as I imagined, my redhead is moaning, open mouthed, her gorgeous breasts bouncing inside my shirt, and she’s riding me hard.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Ethan”
One week later…
Avery sits on the table, her feet planted on a chair, huddled over her laptop as I make us dinner. I hear her hit a key hard, and I glance over my shoulder. She’s hit refresh again. She’s been wired since she uploaded and released her book last night.
