Cheater (Curious Liaisons, #1)(49)

“Avery?” Dustin asked. “Is everything okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah, let’s just get this over with, okay?”

The doctor grinned, then eyed his clipboard. “Fantastic. Now, it says here that you’re currently sexually active.”

“The hell she is!” I yelled.

Both turned to me.

“Oh.” I decided to backpedal before I made more of an ass out of myself. “Sorry—I mean, yes, with me, her fiancé.”

“Do you mind?” Dustin barked out.

I held my hands up.

“Are you currently on any sort of birth control?”

Avery shook her head and whispered a no.

“Do you want to be?”

Wasn’t that kind of personal?

“Yes,” she answered thoughtfully. “I think it’s time.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Was I sweating? “Avery Bug, maybe you’re, I mean, we’re rushing into this . . .”

“Safe sex?” The doctor gave me a confused look. “She’s rushing into safe sex with her fiancé?”

I was shaking with the urge to strangle him. “No, you’re right, ignore me.”

Avery rolled her eyes at me while he checked something off his list.

There were about a million questions he went on to ask her, and I had to sit and listen to her answer every single one.





Chapter Twenty-Two


AVERY

One of the most common questions when you’re in a new group of people or introducing yourself at school—heck, it’s the favorite question that gets asked at parties—is, “What’s your most embarrassing moment?”

People confide in one another, laugh, create an emotional bond over their sad, unfortunate situations, and move on.

Before today, I would have said my most embarrassing moment was when I accidentally flashed the entire senior class at high school graduation because I’d tucked my miniskirt into my thong. Luckily, there was a nice wind that day, which clued me in when I was halfway up the stairs, ready to receive my diploma, that I had a cheek exposed.

It could have been worse.

That moment made a killing my freshman year at college. People laughed, guys hit on me and asked if I still had the skirt—so really it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Until today, I’d never truly understood the word “embarrassment,” its definition, its meaning, and everything else attached to it.

Until Lucas Thorn.

Until his mother.

Until now.

“If you would just relax and lean back, this will be over with before you know it!” Dr. Dupper patted my leg with his latex glove. He then pulled a curtain around the examination table so that I was partially blocked from Lucas’s view, for which I was grateful.

Shaking, I tried to go to my happy place, but I was miserable. Lucas had said the three words I’d dreamed of him saying to me when I still wasn’t over my crush in high school—and he’d looked like he meant them.

I’d rather be rejected than given a taste of what it would feel like to be loved by him, only to realize two seconds later that it wasn’t real.

I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the inevitable, but Lucas peeked from around the curtain and whispered in my ear, “This will be funny tomorrow, I promise.”

I opened one eye. “You aren’t the one with your legs spread.”

He looked down at my legs and smirked. He couldn’t see anything, but it was still horrifying for me.

“I can at least appreciate the flexibility.” He winked.

I smiled. “Really? That’s what you’re going to say?”

“Beautiful,” Dr. Dupper commented.

I frowned and propped myself up on my elbows. “Excuse me?”

He peered up at us in confusion. “Oh, I just appreciate it when a woman takes care of her health.” He winked.

Lucas cursed on the other side of the curtain. “More doing, less talking, Doc.”

The doctor snapped back at him, “Please don’t tell me how to do my job.”

“Lucas . . .” I shook my head slowly even though he couldn’t see me. “Just leave it.”

“He called your parts ‘beautiful’!” Lucas hissed as if he was actually angry that a doctor was doing his job.

I burst out laughing. “So?”

“So!” He swore violently and then gripped the edge of the curtain like he was getting ready to tear it down. “Just, that’s not . . . professional.”

“Okay, big guy.” I patted the part of his arm that was visible and then let out a little whimper.

“What?” He poked his face around the curtain, his eyes locking on mine. “What’s wrong? What did the bastard do?”

“You know I can hear both of you, right?” Dr. Dupper asked in a detached voice. “And, Avery, I need you to stop clenching or it’s going to hurt a lot worse.”

“THEN STOP DOING IT!” Lucas yelled.

The doctor ignored him and shoved the metal thingy further in. I clutched the paper sheet and started to sweat.

By this point the curtain was long gone and Lucas was at my side, gripping my hand like I was getting ready to pop out a kid.

“What do I do?” Lucas looked like he was ready to pass out.