Cheater (Curious Liaisons #1)(56)

“You heard the lady.” I chuckled and handed him the menus.

“Would you like something to drink, sir?” he asked.

“No, I’m good.” For some reason, I wanted a clear head, and after that kiss, I was already half-drunk on Avery’s mouth, the same mouth she was still stuffing bread into.

I raised my eyebrows.

“I’m a nervous eater,” she said defensively. “Thanks for coming by and making Kayla believe it’s real, but you can run along and hang out with Chelsea, who I’m sure is pissed.”

And as I often did around Avery, I felt like an ass. “Actually, she thought it was going to be a group orgy. I let her down slowly though, told her you weren’t into anything sexual and still wore a training bra.”

“How sweet of you.” Avery kicked my foot under the table.

I winced. “That was uncalled for.”

“You insulted my boobs—I’ll have you know they’re very sensitive.”

I bit out a curse and reached for my water. She was young, inexperienced, and probably didn’t intend for her words to affect me, and yet I was nursing fast-moving arousal under the table.

“That came out wrong.” Her cheeks blushed bright pink.

“Funny, I’d say it came out just right.” I leaned in. “Let’s discuss this further.”

“Aw, sorry, can’t. I’m not your normal Wednesday, so no matter how this night ends, whether I’m at my place or yours—my private parts are on lockdown.”

“You really need to stop drawing my attention to your breasts. Might give me the wrong idea.”

She gulped, her eyes locking on my mouth. “Yeah, well, when I’m stressed I blurt out things that make no sense. You’re free to ignore me the rest of the night. Say, where are we with that whole leaving and forgetting about this idea?”

“Staying.” I wrapped my arm around her. “Right here.”

She slumped forward. “But . . .”

“That didn’t seem to go well.” I changed the subject and reached for the last piece of bread.

She shrugged. “It sucked actually. At least I didn’t have to defend your lifestyle and why you were sitting with another girl.” She scowled as a blush heated her cheeks. “I didn’t want her to look at you that way, I just . . . I mean, I hate you—you get that, right?”

“Do you?” My heart thudded slowly in my chest, waiting for her answer. “Do you really hate me so much?”

She blinked and looked down at her hands. “I want to.”

“You want to hate me, but you don’t.”

She nodded.

“So that must mean you kind of like me?”

“What is this, middle school?”

“I wouldn’t know, that was a long time ago for me, but for you—hey, wasn’t that like five years—”

She smacked me in the chest. I grabbed her hand and held her sizzling fingertips against my neck until they began slowly inching up to cup my cheek. “Tell me one thing, and I want the truth, Thorn.”

I sighed, body buzzing with awareness. “Okay.”

She licked her pink lips, and her hand continued to move back and forth against my jaw, driving me insane with the need to kiss her. “Why did you guys stop having sex?”

My head told me to lie.

My heart told me that was all I’d been doing for the past four years.

“Because I kissed you, and I knew in that moment that if I could kiss a seventeen-year-old girl—if I looked forward to stupid things like picking you up at work or you coming to me when your boyfriend dumped you—then I was already screwed. In my mind, I was cheating. I was a cheater then, Avery. I’m a cheater now. At least now I admit it. When I was with Kayla . . . all I wanted. Was. You.”

Avery kissed me.

I swallowed her moan as I tangled my hands in her hair and gripped her head, deepening the kiss by sucking on her tongue while she tried to crawl into my lap.

“We’ll”—I broke off the kiss, then went in for another—“get it to go?”

She nodded and kissed me again, and when Avery pulled back, her green eyes sparkled. I knew in that moment, the connection had never just been a crush.

I hadn’t kissed her four years ago because it was wrong and felt good.

Or forbidden.

Illegal.

Or even stupid.

It’s because what we had between us was real. The most real thing I’d ever experienced with anyone.

Only now?

I had nothing holding me back, except for the guilty feeling in the back of my head that told me—even if she gave me her heart, I’d never be able to give her mine. Not when so many other women currently had a piece of it.





Chapter Twenty-Six


AVERY

I used to make fun of this kind of girl.

The one who threw caution to the wind and made a poor life choice and then cried into a box of Lucky Charms when the guy ended up being a total *.

And even though I knew the ending long before it happened, I couldn’t help but make the same stupid choice.

Kiss him again.

And again.

And again.

Until my lips were swollen from the friction of his, until my greedy hands were burned by the scruff on his cheeks.