I sat up with the flair of a pre-teen drama queen and stink-eyed my best friend. “What kind of friend are you, waking me out of my slumber? After all I’ve done for you, too,” I mumbled.
Delaney laughed, and I begrudgingly smiled. Delaney Martin was my best friend, and she was the only person in my life who accepted me with all my flaws. Sometimes I felt guilty for not telling her all my secrets, but I loved how she didn’t know why I was the way I was but loved me, anyway. “Are you hungry? There’s some leftover breakfast.”
“Where’s your man?” Deke and Delaney have only been dating a few months, but the guy was nuts about her. If we were all somewhere together, and she wasn’t by his side, his eyes were always tracking her. Delaney had fallen for him hard and she moved in with him almost immediately. They adored one another, and I was truly happy for her.
“He took off to Ramsey and Emerson’s when he realized we were going to need some private girl time,” Delaney said smiling. “So, spill because you know he can’t stay away long.”
I felt a pang in my chest at her words. I was happy for Delaney, I really was. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was her. She was a good person, inside and out. The unfortunate part about her finding the love of her life was that I was around her new friends more than I preferred.
It wasn’t that they treated me badly, but when you’ve never been loved before, being around relationships that defined the very existence of soulmates, well…it hurt to watch sometimes.
Deke, Ramsey, and Liam have been best friends forever, and once Deke fell for Delaney, she automatically became a part of their little group. Deke loved Delaney to distraction, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. Liam loved Roselyn like she was an extension of him, and he was always with her. As for Ramsey, Ramsey and Emerson had a love story for the ages. Ramsey would rip his still-beating heart out of his chest for Emerson if that’s what she asked. So, yeah, watching that kind of devotion in action sometimes brought on unpleasant feelings. Not to mention, I’ve slept with Ramsey and Liam before, and while Emerson and Roselyn assured me that they weren’t hung up on the past, I knew they only tolerated me for Delaney’s sake. It didn’t matter that I slept with them back in middle school and can barely remember the incidents with all the guys that have come and gone since then; I slept with the men they loved. There’s no way I’d ever really be a part of their crowd.
Ever.
And I got it. I really did.
I was a slut; a proud one, at that. I couldn’t say I’d feel comfortable with the man I loved hanging around a girl who he’s fucked before and was a whore. But as long as they didn’t take Delaney away from me completely, I’d be okay.
“Fine, but let me get to that left over breakfast before I spill,” I grumbled. “I’m going to need sustenance.”
We made our way to the kitchen and Delaney gave me enough time to drop my ass on the chair before she demanded I spill again. So, I told her everything. I told her how I had originally thought Ace was my mother latest dick. I told her about my mom and Greg dropping the bomb on me. I even told her about rubbing my tits all over Ace. The only thing I had left out was the argument in my bedroom. I hoped one day I’d be able to tell Delaney my horrible secret, but I knew today wasn’t that day.
“Holy shit, Ava,” she breathed out. “Holy shit.”
I stabbed the waffles with my fork. “Tell me about it,” I mumbled.
“So, you ran here last night because…” she prompted.
“I couldn’t be in that house with them, Delaney,” I confessed. “I hate when Elise is in town and she tries to act like my mother.” Delaney nodded silently because she understood. She was another victim of shitty parents. We all were. “Two weeks is two weeks too long.”
She looked at me from across the table and asked, “Do you want to stay here until they leave?”
My heart lurched and, once again, I was grateful for Delaney. She knew I was a whore who slept with whoever. She knew I drank like a fish and snorted coke like a rock star. She knew I was bad news, but she still trusted me to stay with her in the same house as her hot-as-fuck boyfriend. “No,” I whispered. “I don’t want to intrude, Delaney.”
Her face softened. “Ava, Deke won’t care if-”
“Of course, he won’t care if it’s something you want, Delaney,” I interrupted. “But I would feel uncomfortable.” She knew how I felt guilty for Ramsey and Liam, no matter what pass the girls gave me.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Well, I’m going to go home as soon as your man gets back, take a nap, then shower and get ready for Christof’s party tonight,” I replied. “Are you guys going?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “We might, but honestly, I’m not sure. Ever since Ramsey and Emerson got married, things have…changed.”
I furrowed my brows. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, Ava,” she said, gnawing at her lower lip. “I know technically we’re all adults, but it feels as if Ramsey marrying Emerson has thrust us all into real, actual adulthood, you know?” She leaned closer. “Like…they’re actually married, Ava. They’re a married couple.”
“And?” I asked. “How does that affect you?”
“I think by the time summer’s over, Liam and Roselyn will be married next,” she blurted out. “I think Liam might not even wait until summer is over. He gets…weird every time Emerson’s rings catch his attention.”
My eyes rounded. “Do you think…holy shit, Delaney. Do you think Deke’s going to propose?”
She shook her head. “I honestly don’t know, Ava.”
“What would you say if he did?” Holy crap. It never occurred to me that Deke would propose to Delaney so soon, or even Liam proposing to Roselyn. Ramsey and Emerson were different. But, even knowing this, I never guessed they might be contagious too.
“We’ve only been together a few months,” she replied.
I lifted a brow. “That’s not what I asked, Delaney.”
She gave me a soft smile. “You know me. I like swimming with the sharks.”
I laughed. “Only if your leg is bleeding.”
The rest of the day was spent invading Deke’s entertainment room where we kicked the shit out of some zombies. It wasn’t until Deke finally made it home that I took my ass back home. Oh, Deke had invited me to stay, but I had meant what I said. Being around them made me uncomfortable. Even if it was in my own head, it didn’t matter. I still felt the ache of envy.
Ignoring everything and everyone in the house, I headed straight for my bedroom, so I could shower and get ready for the party. It hadn’t bothered me that Delaney might not go. She was never a partier. The first party I ever guilted her into going with me had been the night she had gotten caught in Deke’s crosshairs. She had gone to one other party, where I had been so worried about her, I had called Deke to come get her. After that, if she attended a party, she was basically limited to sitting on Deke’s lap.
So, I was used to going to parties by myself and I liked it like that. It meant I didn’t have to be responsible for anyone else. I could arrive, scope out the scene, and decided how I wanted the night to play out. As reckless as I behaved, I was always in control.
I chose how much to drink. I chose if I was going to do any drugs. I chose who I was going to sleep with, if anyone. I chose what I was wearing, who I spoke to, how I’d get there and get home, etc. I chose everything.
I made all the decisions in my life after Peter. And where most victims became promiscuous in some vain attempt to make the dirty memories go away, I embraced them. I became promiscuous to regain control over my mind, body, and emotions. Since I had been too young to seek counseling myself, I had to suffer with finding a way to cope alone. But once I got older, the method I chose worked for me. I knew all the hoopla behind the theories that my sense of control was false, and I was really just masking my pain behind drugs, sex, and alcohol. I knew a therapist would say I blamed myself, but I didn’t. I didn’t blame myself.
I never did. Not completely. I knew what he did was wrong. I knew my mom betrayed me by not reporting him, and therein, lies the problem. Had I not been so aware, I might have been able to convince myself to get help. But because I was very aware of what happened to me, and of my mother’s betrayal, all that did was convince me that I couldn’t depend on anyone but myself.
Chapter 6
Ace~
I’d spent all morning unpacking and trying to make my room mine, but it had been no use. This was not my house and no matter how casual my shit looked thrown around the room, I still didn’t want to be here.
At all.
Not to mention I knew Ava had snuck out of the house last night and I hadn’t seen hide or hair of the girl all day. It wasn’t until I heard the garage door open earlier that I knew she was home. Elise and Dad had been home all day, so that garage door could only mean Ava was home.
I had done my best to avoid Elise and Dad, but with absolutely nothing to distract me, I had been given the tour of the house, the grounds, the servants’ quarters, etc. They had even sat me down and handed me all my new bank account information, plus three new credit cards they thought I should have, in case of an emergency.
It had blown my mind how casual they had been about the money. When I had logged into my account, my mouth had literally dropped at how many commas had appeared. Then rage quickly took over when I thought of all those times I overheard my mother and father arguing over child support. Greg McIntire was a right bit greedy bastard.
Not caring where Elise and my dad were now, I bounced up the stairs towards the tower that housed my hellcat. I walked into her room, just as sweet as you please, and started nosing through her room when I heard the water running from the adjacent bathroom. Ava was showering, and I realized I’d better find a distraction before I joined her.
I was beyond pretending that I didn’t want to fuck the hot, curvy blonde. I stroked my dick to the image of her painted lips last night, and again this morning when I woke up with a hard-on from hell. I had imagined the base of my cock smeared in red and blowing my stacks all over those big tits of hers.
I heard the water shut off, and I really went creeper status on her. I crawled onto her bed, but before I positioned myself leaning back against her headboard with my arms folded behind me, I smelled her pillow and I moaned like a pervert.
Before I could think any more on my rapidly growing obsession with her, the door to the bathroom swung open and out walked a very clean and very wet hellcat. She had a towel wrapped around her head in the way that girls do, and a towel wrapped around that lush body of hers.
Ava was two steps in the room when she noticed me on her bed. “What the fuck?” she yelped.
I didn’t hide the way my eyes raked up and down her body as I asked, “So, where were you all night and day, Kit?”
She arched a brow. “None of your fucking business,” she retorted. “Now get the hell out of my room.”
I gave one small shake of my head. “Don’t think so. I’m liking the view from here.”
“Get out of my room, Ace,” she hissed. “I have shit to do, none of which is to deal with your crap.”
“And what shit is it you have to do?” I asked, curious.
“I have a party to get ready for,” she answered, and it surprised me that she did. I was certain she’d go with the ‘none of your business’ answer again.
“What kind of party?”
Ava walked over to her closet and started rifling through her clothes. Her voice was condescending and haughty as she said, “The kind were people drink, socialize, get high and fool around.”
I barely met this girl yesterday, but I could feel the kick to my gut at her words. “And are you planning on doing all those things?”
I watched as she pulled out scraps of material that didn’t resemble clothes, at all. “As a matter of fact, I do,” she sing-songed. “I plan on drinking, snorting some drugs, but also making sure I’m still sober enough to enjoy a good fuck. Rumor is one of my regulars will be at the party, and he’s one of my regulars for a reason.”
I was off the bed and standing next to her before she could even turn around to inspect the outfit she had pulled out of the closet. I could tell I startled her, but her poker face fell right back in place. “And what is it exactly that you consider a good fuck, Ava?” I whispered in her face.
“If I have to explain it to you, then I can only feel sorry for you,” she remarked snidely. “Ah, the difference between men and boys.” The towel on her head shook loose, falling to the floor, as Ava dropped the hanging outfit she had in her hands. I had her up against the wall with her hands holding the towel on her body to keep it from falling too. “What the fuck, Ace?”
“I thought I told you last night that you need to be careful who you talk to like that, Kit,” I spewed, grinding the enamel clean off my teeth. It was one thing to give her room after being blindsided by her mother, but Ava was out of her mind if she thought I was going to spend the next three months bleeding out from her well-aimed barbs. “And, baby, you’re seriously confused if you’re mistaking me for a boy.”
Her blue eyes were like live fire. This girl was a fighter, and I honestly didn’t think she cared who she was fighting, and that made her reckless. “I’m not scared of you, Ace,” she snarled. “I’ve gone up against bigger and badder, so take your pathetic attempts at intimidation and go eat a dick.”
Now, I’m going to take this moment in time to point out one of the biggest mistakes made by men everywhere around the world. Women often accused us of not listening, and that wasn’t true.
We listened.
We listened, but our mistake was that that’s all we did. We listened to the words that came out of a female’s mouth and assumed they were saying what they meant and were meaning what they said. Our mistake was that we didn’t pay attention to anything other than the words being spoken, and that’s how we got in trouble.
Like right now? Right now, Ava was telling me she wasn’t scared or intimidated by my closeness; and maybe she wasn’t. But what she wasn’t, was unaffected, and you know how I knew that? Because I wasn’t making that universal mistake. Oh, I was listening to the hate she was spewing, alright. But I was also paying attention to the rest of her.
I noticed the way her eyes were bright. I noticed how her breathing has picked up. I noticed how her knuckles were white around the grip of her towel. I noticed how her eyes kept flickering down towards my lips. I noticed how she kept scissoring her thighs. And I definitely noticed the new scent in the air. Ava was complete naked underneath that green towel of hers, and so, there was nothing to mask the scent of her arousal.
So, she might be telling me I’m not man enough for her, but her body was begging to find out. “You think I’m trying to intimidate you?” I asked. “Maybe I’m just trying to fuck you, Ava. I mean, after all, I did hear you tell your mother how much you like a good, hard dicking down.”
The second I mentioned her mother, I knew I had lost her. Ava shoved at my chest, and I let the force push me back. I watched as all arousal vanished, and pure unadulterated hate seeped out of every pore in her body. “Oh, make no mistake, Ace,” she said scathingly. “There’s nothing I love more than a good, dirty, violent fuck. But I don’t need you for that. I have guys on speed dial for that shit. So, if you need to get laid, try Elise or a girl in town, but stay the fuck away from me.”
I threw my head back and laughed. Ava was out of her mind if she thought someone else would do. Ava’s fire was calling to unchartered urges I never knew I had. The fuck I would stay away from her. “That’s not going to happen,” I announced. “As a matter of fact, I’m going to that party with you.” If she was getting fucked tonight, it was going to be by me. What she didn’t realize was that I didn’t like not being in control, and the more uncontrollable she behaved, the stronger the urge to contain her burned in my blood. When I found out I was moving to Sands Cove and I’d be sharing the house with Ava, I had ass
umed the house would be big enough that we’d be able to stay out of each other’s way. But that had all come to a screeching halt when she stormed up to me by the pool and started acting like an entitled bitch. I had wanted to shut that pretty mouth up with my dick and make her come to heel. And the mouthier she was, the more the need grew.
“The fuck you are!” she yelled.
I smirked at her. “You want me to stay away from you,” I reminded her. “How else am I supposed to get some pussy if I don’t go out and make new friends?” It was fascinating watching those blue eyes of hers go from turned on, then pissed off, to calculating.
Ava Hill was not a stupid girl.
She shrugged a naked shoulder. “Fine,” she relented. “Come along. I’m sure I can introduce you to a lot of girls who are more your…pace.”
I smiled, but little did Ava know, she was going to be the one who I’d be balls deep in by the end of the night. I wasn’t going to this party to find a random piece of ass. I was going to this party to make sure I was the guy Ava came home with.
If I had to endure three months of One-Percent bullshit, the very least I should get out of it was some world class ass. And I couldn’t imagine anyone in this town topping Ava Hill. With her face and body, I couldn’t imagine anyone else comparing.
Even if she was a slut.
Because I was fairly certain Ava Hill was a good one.
Chapter 7
Ava~
Delaney had text me telling me that they weren’t going to be in attendance tonight, and I gave a silent sigh of relief. I hadn’t wanted her to see me in action tonight. Ace had awoken a horrible need to prove I was in control after he made me feel out of control with the intimidation act in my bedroom earlier.
I had been surprised to see him in my bedroom, but I had felt positively violent when he had me up against the wall, wearing only a towel, and my body reacted to his aggressive ways. I felt betrayed by my own body, and I hated that.
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