A Dom Is Forever (8 page)

The plan. He’d had a plan before he’d lost his damn mind. She’d insulted him. She’d tried to put walls up. He’d blown past them, but sometimes to get through a wall it was best to go under it instead of drilling straight through. He wanted Avery’s walls to crumble so badly she couldn’t put them back up again. “Are you sorry for falling or for calling me a whore?”

She gasped, the sound very nearly sending him into apology mode, but this was the plan and he was going to stick to it. He didn’t apologize.

“Is there a problem here, Avery?”

Fucking Adam. He stood by the door to the building, a grocery bag in his hand. He looked on with concern on his face.

Avery pushed away, sniffling a little as she did. A sheen of tears pooled in her blue eyes and that lower lip trembled slightly. Fuck, how had he ever thought she was plain? She was stinking gorgeous, and it hit him straight in the gut to watch her cry. “No. Not at all. I’m fine. I was just saying good-bye to my…friend…
uhm
, to this guy I met.”

But for a moment today, it had felt like they were friends. Just for a couple of minutes, he’d stopped being an agent and felt like the Liam he’d been before he’d lost Rory.

But he was an asshole agent, and he needed her to get close to a man who might or might not be a terrorist. No matter what happened, he couldn’t forget that. She was a job and nothing more. He’d put out his hook and baited it with sex, but a little guilt couldn’t hurt.

“Think about that when you go to sleep tonight, sweetheart,” he growled her way. “I wanted you. Not money. You, and you treated me like crap. Sweet dreams.”

He turned and forced himself to walk away. The next time he saw her, he would have the high moral ground, and he would use it to his advantage.

He got on the Tube, hoping and praying the next battle wasn’t far away.

“Do you want to talk?” Adam asked as he swiped the key card to the door. “What just happened?”

What had happened? Avery wasn’t exactly sure except that she’d totally screwed up, and she’d do just about anything to apologize to the poor man. He’d been perfectly lovely, and she’d been horrible and suspicious. “I think I just accused that man of being a prostitute.”

That man. She was trying to distance herself. His name was Lee.

Adam nearly dropped the bag he was carrying. “Are you serious?”

Avery nodded.

“Holy shit balls. Why didn’t I get here sooner? All I saw was the two of you going at it in the middle of the street. Had you like settled on a price or something? Come on. Let’s get inside and go up to my place. You look like you can use a drink.”

She could use more than one. She turned to see if she could find Lee in the crowd, but he’d disappeared down the escalator into the cavernous Liverpool station. He wouldn’t have been held back by her bad leg this time. She’d been very impressed with how patient he’d been. London was a fast city. Unlike the States, almost no one viewed an escalator as something to ride. It was a tool to get a person to their destination that much more quickly. She’d nearly been trampled on escalators many times before since she couldn’t move fast.

Lee had simply moved her to the right and stood behind her, an arm around her waist to balance her against the rushing commuters. “Always stand on the right,” he’d whispered to her.

And she’d brutally insulted the man.

“He’s gone, Avery. Come up with me,” Adam offered. “You can tell me all about it while I cook some dinner.”

Or she could go and hide in her room and eat a nasty microwave dinner. No. If she’d proven anything to herself today, it was that she needed to be more sociable. Maybe then she would learn when it was proper and right to accuse someone of trying to seduce her for cash.

She followed Adam inside. The concierge looked up from his desk. The building was a mix of residences and condos purchased by large corporations for employees to stay in. The concierge was used to an ex-pat community.

“Nice day at the museum, Miss Charles?” He was dressed in a perfectly pressed suit.

She nodded. “Yes, thank you, though I fear it’s time for me to move on. Perhaps you can suggest some more excursions for me tomorrow?”

He nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll keep you right entertained, miss. Mr. Kelly, welcome back. Hope the market was good.”

“Absolutely,” Adam replied as he pushed the button to the elevator. He escorted her inside and soon they were on the seventh floor and he was opening the door to his and his partner’s flat.

Avery had only known Jake and Adam for a brief period of time, but she already felt completely comfortable with Adam. He had a way of putting a woman at ease. She didn’t have to worry about why he was interested in her, or if he was interested in her, because he flatly wasn’t. He was into his boyfriend, though they weren’t the most demonstrative couple. In fact, last night as she’d sat on their terrace, she could have sworn she’d glimpsed them punching each other, but it seemed friendly. Maybe guys were just guys whether they were gay or straight.

Jake was talking on the phone as she entered, his voice hushed. He was a
hottie
, too. Jacob was all beefy American male while Adam fit in with the well-dressed and mannered Europeans, though there was no doubting the man worked out.

Neither of them was quite as beautiful as Lee. Had she made a mistake? Should she have gone after him?

She’d never been kissed like that. Not in her entire life. It was like the whole world had melted away and nothing mattered or was even real except for him. She’d clung to him, wrapping herself around him, trusting him to hold her up. She’d made a baby with her husband, but nothing had prepared her for Lee’s kiss.

She was still shaking just thinking about it.

“Hey, babe,” Adam said, dropping the bag on the counter. “Guess what? Our little neighbor found a boyfriend and then accused him of whoredom, but not before she sampled the goods.”

Jake’s jaw dropped a little. “Are you serious? How did he handle that?”

A long look passed between them. Adam seemed to be holding in a smile. He started pulling out a bottle of wine. “Not well from the looks of it. He seemed a little out of control if you ask me.”

“Nice,” Jake shot back. He had his hand over his phone. “So you need to talk to Avery here and make sure she’s okay, right?”

Avery shook her head. “I’m fine.”

“She’s on the verge of tears,” Jake said, staring at her. “Oh, verge broken. Honey, you’re crying. You need a glass of wine and a shoulder to cry on. Why don’t you tell Adam what happened? He’s good at fixing bad situations. He gets himself into them so often.”

She didn’t miss the quiet finger Adam shot his partner’s way, but he was all smiles when he turned to her. “I can help.”

“So it’s settled,” Jake said. “You take care of Avery and I’ll take care of that other little project we have going on.”

Adam went red. “You son of a…yes, dear. I suppose you should handle that now. I need to get dinner on. Yours might be poisoned.”

But Jake was talking into his phone again, utterly ignoring Adam. “Yeah. I understand, boss. No problem. I can be there in twenty. No, he’s got some work to do. He won’t be coming with me. He won’t be coming at all.”

Adam closed his eyes briefly, but when he opened them, he smiled her way. “Come on, sweetheart. We can soldier on without Jake. Have a glass of wine. I’ve been assured this Chianti is perfect. Sit at the bar and keep me company while I cook.”

Jake was out the door with a little wave.

The truth was Jake made her a little nervous. But still, she had the feeling something had just happened between the two men, and she hoped she wasn’t the cause. “I can go back to my place.”

Adam was back to his perfectly polite self. “Not at all. The little task Jake is taking care of only really needs one of us. I would rather hear about what happened to you today.”

She took a sip of the wine. It was rich on her tongue. Her tongue. She’d felt out of control when his tongue had slid against hers. “I met this man today.”

Adam took a drink before he pulled out his cutting board and set himself to slicing veggies. “I could tell. What’s his name and why did you decide he was a member of the world’s oldest profession?”

“His name is Lee Donnelly, and he seemed to like me,” she tried to explain.

“And that makes him a hustler?”

“Guys don’t like me.” She was blushing again. “I haven’t had a date in ten years.”

“You’re kidding.” He stopped in mid-chop. “Why?”

She shrugged. “No one asked me.”

There was more to it, but she didn’t want Adam’s pity. Well, she didn’t want sympathy past the whole “she couldn’t get a date to save her life” thing. That was pathetic enough.

“I don’t understand that, Avery.” Adam went back to the celery. “What’s wrong with the men in New York?”

“I think they like prettier girls.” And girls who hadn’t spent most of their adult lives in hospitals. And girls who hadn’t been in deep mourning for years.

“We need to work on your self-esteem, sweetheart.” Adam looked at her thoughtfully. “You’re pretty. You just don’t know it. And you don’t dress for your body type.”

She glanced down at her somewhat shapeless sweater and jeans. “It’s comfortable.”

“Yeah, well, comfort doesn’t always equal sex appeal. And a V-neck sweater would be just as comfortable, but it wouldn’t cut your torso off the way that crew neck does. You’re a
C
-cup, right?”

He seemed to know a lot about boobs for a gay guy. She was a thirty-six
C
. “Yes. Why?”

“Because your boobs are too big for a crew neck or for those turtlenecks you wear. You need some skin to balance them out. And your skin, by the way, is quite lovely. You should show more of it. And I would buy some jeans with a little bling on the backside. You have a nice butt.”

“I do?” She hadn’t really taken much stock of her butt except for the fact that she’d been forced to sit on it for years. “I thought it was a little big.”

When he grinned like that, she almost wondered if there wasn’t some bisexual in there. It seemed an insult to women everywhere that he slept with men. “Not at all. Men like a little junk in the trunk, if you know what I mean. Well, straight guys do. I think it’s fair to say that your hustler was into you for something other than cash. Did he get you to pay for lunch?”

“No.” Lee had been very insistent on taking care of the bill. She’d reached for it, and he’d stared her down until she’d passed it to him and then he’d jovially taken care of it. “And he paid for coffee later, too.”

Adam looked thoughtful as he selected another tomato to dice. “Okay. So most hustlers want the female to pay for everything. They don’t tend to treat their customers. Their customers treat them. And besides, one would think that a hustler would be better dressed.”

“He was dressed just fine.” He’d looked very nice. Super nice. Hot. God, she’d pushed that guy away. What was wrong with her?

Adam snorted lightly and shook his head. “There was a stain on his jeans. I doubt he noticed. A hustler would have noticed. It looked like paint or something. He should have been wearing slacks. Slacks are slicker.”

“He said he worked in construction.” His hands had been callused and rough like he worked with them all the time. Like he did exactly what he said he did.

“Ah, then he probably knows and doesn’t care. He probably got it while he was working, and like lots of straight guys, doesn’t give a crap because they still fit. Again, a hustler would have been dressed to kill. He was like dressed to maim maybe. Actually, he’s not really all that hot. Are you sure you like him? He seems a little like a douchebag to me. You know the kind who goes around kissing women who don’t belong to him. Do you want me to punch him the next time we see him?”

“He’s not a douchebag.” Now that she was out of the situation, she could look at things a little more clearly. He’d been nice all afternoon. He’d been a wonderful companion and he’d taken care of her, and she’d repaid him by insulting him horribly. “He’s a nice man. I just don’t understand what he sees in me.”

Adam put down his knife and sighed. “I don’t think dinner is in the cards tonight. I think you need to start looking at yourself in a different way or you’re going to push away every guy who tries to make a pass at you.” He stopped. “You want some guy out there to make a pass at you, right? I’m being so very in the box right now. Do you like girls, sweetheart? Because it didn’t look like it when you had your tongue down his throat.”

“Okay,
ewww
.” She had to laugh. It had not been halfway down his throat. It had been just the right amount of distance inside his mouth so their tongues could rub against each other in a way that had very nearly made her melt. “I like guys. I just don’t know that I’m ready. I was married.”

“I thought you hadn’t dated in years. How old were you?”

“Barely eighteen.” She’d been so young and so very, very stupid, but her short marriage to Brandon was a bittersweet memory, a pure time in her life when she’d been loved and taken care of and the whole world seemed like it might go right for once.

Adam whistled. “That’s young. How long have you been divorced?”

“I didn’t get divorced.” She hated this conversation. Maybe this was precisely why she’d been fine with avoiding friendships. They were costly and uncertain, and she wasn’t sure she was truly brave enough to reach out and open herself up. And she wouldn’t know until she tried. She couldn’t blunder through life hurting people the way she had today. If she did that then she should have just stayed in that car and died with Brandon and her precious baby. She owed them more than the life she’d been living. “Brandon died.”

She couldn’t bring herself to mention Madison. He didn’t need to know about Madison.

“Sweetheart, I am so sorry to hear that.” Adam’s hand covered her own, a warm reminder that he was there. It held her in the present when her thoughts would normally drift to the past.

That was what a friend could offer, she finally realized. That was what Lee had maybe been offering. Perhaps not long term, but not a lot in her life had lasted for more than a little while.