Because Forever (The Avenue Book 2)

by B. Cranford

  “You’re still really bad at that.”

  “The game? I just won,” she retorted.

  “The sound effect. You shouldn’t quit your day job.” He finally started the engine, and pulled out. “We’re going to be late.”

  “I don’t think you can be late for reservations at your own place, but okay.” She smiled. “How was work today?”

  “Lunch rush was good. Payroll is done. Inventory ordered. The place practically runs itself, I am amazing.”

  “At everything except the question game.” She sighed. “Bad luck, baby. You can’t win them all.”

  Stopped at a red light, he reached over and pinched her side, earning a glare and a slap at his hand, but it was worth it, he thought.

  Anything that got his hands on her—no matter how brief or small the touch might be—was worth a stinging pop on the hand.

  “Hey, I got a new client today.” Her happiness was evident in her voice, so Austin merely hummed to encourage her to say more. Which she did. “She’s only nineteen but was in a car accident last year. She’s getting back into training and she’s so sweet.”

  The rush of relief he felt that the client was a woman was intense and also, pointless.

  He needed to rein in the jealous asshole who seemed to take over his personality when it came to Odie.

  He nodded and murmured along as she told him more about her new client, his mind on the ways that being with Odie had changed him—even though it had only been a handful of days—and before he knew it, they’d arrived The Avenue.

  And he’d missed half the conversation.

  Shit.

  Odie had realized quickly that Austin wasn’t listening to her. Sometimes, he went off into his own mind—something he’d been doing for years and something she recognized easily enough.

  But that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to tease him about it a little. When she was sure she had his full attention back, she smoothly added a few suspect details into her story. “And so, I told her that it was fine to need a sex surrogate. I didn’t know anyone myself, but I mean, how hard could it be?” She cleared her throat, watching as his eyes widened a little. “She’s a lesbian, too.”

  “She’s a, err, les—is this your new client?”

  She swung her arm out to backhand his biceps. “Weren’t you listening? No, this was a girl from New York. Called me fresh outta the blue and asked for my help. She remembered that I was doing training and whatnot these days, so . . .” She trailed off, giving Austin a moment to fill in the blanks. “Anyway, I thought it would be interesting, you know? To watch a sex therapy session in person. That’s really not an opportunity most people get, but she said that if I found her someone, I could watch.” She smiled at him, making sure all her teeth were showing, enjoying the way his eyes widened, his eyebrows raised, his mouth dropped.

  He was confused and completely unsure about how to respond.

  And then, it dawned on him. “Shit, sorry, Garfield.”

  “Where’d you go?”

  “No idea.” He looked over at her only briefly, his eyes skirting away. “I didn’t mean to zone out, though.”

  “I think you know,” she replied, wanting him to be honest. She smiled, to let him know it was okay—she wasn’t upset.

  “Odie . . .” he trailed off, clearly not sure if he wanted to admit his failings. “It’s nothing.”

  “It’s not nothing, Aus. Come on, you always tell me everything. Don’t let that be different now.”

  He sighed, and she gave him an encouraging smile. She wanted nothing about their relationship to change—except maybe for the good things to keep coming—which meant it was important to her that he tell her what was on his mind. “Aussie?”

  “Something about you makes me”—he ran a hand down his face, looking for all the world like he was bracing for impact—“possessive. Jealous. And I fucking hate it, because I don’t want to be that guy.”

  “Which guy?” she asked, genuinely trying to understand. A little jolt of something shot through her at the idea that she made him possessive, though. Probably not something she should ever admit should she find herself at a meeting of Feminists Anonymous or whatever, but hey—the man was hot-as-hell and hot for her. Only an idiot wouldn’t be a little bit pleased at invoking such a reaction in him.

  “The caveman guy. The don’t talk to any other men guy.” His eyes rolled back in his head and when they came back to meet her gaze, the intensity shocked her. “I don’t want you to though. Talk to Meatball or any of those other fuckers that see you in your tiny shorts and your sports bras and drool over you pounding the punching bag like it owes you money. I get hard just thinking about it, so I know those assholes do too.”

  She started to smile, until his mumbled next words turned the smile into an out-and-out laugh. “Meatball McGee probably comes in his shorts at just the sight of you. He looks like a premature ejaculator.”

  Her hand slapped over her mouth, her eyes beginning to water with laughter because, yeah, she could totally see Meatball being the type to come early—without consideration for his partner.

  Not that it would have stopped her from giving him another chance—well, a date, in any case—if Austin hadn’t stepped up.

  She really had been on the lookout for something, someone special. Although, admittedly, she didn’t really think that Meatball could have been the guy, but that had more to do with the fact she was sure that Austin was than anything else.

  “You do know that it doesn’t matter how they react to me, right?” she asked after giving herself a moment to calm down. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to look at Meatball without the words “premature ejaculator” coloring her thoughts. “I don’t get wet when I see them.”

  “But you do when you see me, right?”

  “Obviously.” She leaned in close and lowered her voice, “Especially when you go all caveman on me.”

  He cleared his throat and she couldn’t resist a wicked kind of smile. “Really?”

  Instead of answering, she bit down on her lip and waited a beat until his eyes dropped, heating when he took in the way her teeth nibbled gently. It was a knowing move—as in, she knew it would make him react—and she was right.

  He groaned.

  She released her lip.

  They kissed. Their mouths met in a dance that was practiced but still new. The sensation of his lips on hers something she wanted to always feel this crazed about. Because that’s how being with him made her feel.

  Crazed. Out of control. Needy.

  And, yeah, wet. She hadn’t been lying when she’d told him that he had that effect on her.

  He drew back, his breath coming fast. “We should go in.”

  “We should stay out here and fool around in the car,” she countered, earning her another groan and a quick kiss.

  “I wish, but I promised Ash I’d be here tonight just in case.”

  “Okay, fine, but we are revisiting this later.” She turned away as quickly as possible, not trusting herself to get out of the car without first fisting his shirt and dragging him in for a little more kissing and a little less minding the bar.

  “Damn right we are.”

  Austin watched Odie as she joked with the staff behind the bar, laughing and smiling and just generally making it impossible to look away from her. They’d eaten and, as usual, things went smoothly—even though some of the topics of conversation were a little . . . uncomfortable for Odie.

  “Come on, you have to tell me now.” Austin smiled at her across the table, a nearly scraped-clean plate between them. The dessert they’d shared had been chocolatey goodness and Odie barely suppressed a groan at the way her stomach protested the indulgence.

  She shook her head. “No, I really don’t.”

  He nodded, playing along. “Yes, you really do.”

  “Why though, why is it important?” She bit her lip, trying to think of a way to change the subject, but coming up blank. She wasn’t that worried abo
ut telling Austin who her first was, but still, it was odd to have this conversation with him.

  His shoulders lifted in a shrug that looked more nonchalant than the moment felt, so she asked him, “What about you? Who was your first, since you’re so eager to know mine?”

  “Oh, that’s easy. Natalie French.” He smirked at her, and she rolled her eyes.

  “Naked Natalie let you French kiss her, huh?” She laughed at the stupid—and actually kind of cruel, now she thought about it—nickname that Natalie French had been given in high school.

  “Sure she did. She liked it, too.” He leaned in, and added, “I did, too.”

  “I bet you did. Horny sixteen-year-old Austin Andrews, getting it on with the prettiest girl in school.” She let out a short, uncomfortable laugh, remembering how all the boys wanted a turn with Naked Natalie, especially after she’d run from the girls’ locker room in her underwear when a huge spider fell in her hair. Odie had felt horrible for her at the time—worse after she earned the naked-moniker—but she couldn’t muster the sympathy anymore.

  Maybe because she was jealous.

  I’m not jealous, I’m not. It was, like, fifteen years ago.

  “Are you jealous, Garfield? About Nat?” Aussie’s hand caught hers across the table and squeezed. Something about the contact made Odie’s heart settle, but somehow still race. “You know I dated her for a few weeks. Are you really surprised?”

  Surprised? No.

  “Not surprised, just . . . I guess I should have known.”

  “Now you do, and now it’s your turn. Spill.”

  “You’re going to laugh.”

  “Am not.”

  “It was in New York,” she offered first, giving him an idea of how much longer she had waited than he had. “Second year. A guy I met at the gym.”

  His eyes widened, his voice dropping low so she had to concentrate to hear it over the din of The Avenue at the end of the dinner rush. “New York? I–really?”

  She nodded, telling him about the man who’d treated her well enough—a handful of dates, decent foreplay and a first time that hurt but not nearly as much as she’d expected. “It was okay. Tom, that was his name, was gentle and we dated off and on for a bit.”

  “I didn’t know. Did I know?” He scrunched his forehead, like the act of trying to remember required real physical effort. Which, she supposed, it could for Aussie.

  He was notorious for forgetting things.

  But he hadn’t forgotten this. “You didn’t know. I didn’t tell you, because”—she shrugged—“I don’t really know why. But that’s why he and I broke up, in the end.”

  Austin’s forehead smoothed out as he pointed a finger at his own chest. “Because of me?”

  “No, because I didn’t tell you about us. He knew there was nothing between us—”

  Austin interrupted with a muttered, “There shoulda been.”

  “—but he was annoyed that I didn’t introduce you to him when you came to visit.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  Odie shifted in her seat, feeling restless and not really understanding why. She hadn’t been much invested in her relationship with Tom, though she’d liked him well enough. Enough to date for a few months on a casual basis. Certainly enough to give him her virginity. “I didn’t realize he and I were an introducing-to-close-friends-and-family kind of couple. I was excited for your visit, and wanted to hang out with you. He was working.” She shrugged again. “It wasn’t a big deal. Or, I guess, it wasn’t a big deal to me.”

  “And then what happened?”

  “We got into an argument the night after you went home. He asked why I didn’t bring you into his work to meet him, I told him you didn’t even know I was seeing anyone, he got pissy and I told him to fuck off. And that was that.”

  “Jesus, Odie.”

  “What? I was busy with school and working part-time and taking the occasional amateur fight. The last thing I needed was male tears over something so stupid.”

  Austin broke into laughter so loud that people at the surrounding tables turned to stare. Odie smiled at them and pulled on his hand. “Quit it, will you?”

  “Oh, Garfield, you had no idea, did you?” He shook his head and wiped his eyes with his free hand. “The dude had it bad for you and you couldn’t have cared less. Male tears.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about the fact that you, my gorgeous, tough, completely and utterly oblivious girl, broke that poor bastard’s heart because he was jealous and wanted to be important to you—and you had no idea.”

  “No.” She thought back to the final argument she’d had with Tom, the way his face had gotten redder and ruddier as the fight continued. Him asking her why she didn’t want to tell anyone about them. Her arguing that there was nothing to tell.

  But that doesn’t mean I broke his heart, does it?

  “No,” she repeated. “You weren’t there. You’ve no idea.”

  He released her hand and slid from his side of the table so he could take the seat directly beside her. “I wasn’t, but Odie, I’ve been half-or-completely in love with you for most of my life. If you’d have done that to me, I’d have been crying all the male tears over you. So I know.”

  “Huh?”

  “I know how he feels. I know what it’s like to look at you and want you. To need you. Like we just talked about in the car before—to want to claim you and fucking own you, as ridiculous as it sounds. If you wanted to act like this”—he gestured between them—“wasn’t anything, I know I’d cry over it. Because you’re you, Odie. And I don’t think you realize how incredible you are.”

  She shook her head at the dramatic way he spoke, writing it off as just Austin being Austin. But something inside her felt shimmery. Warm.

  Kind of fuzzy and wanted.

  In fact, if she had to put a name on it, she’d say those words made her feel . . .

  Wooed.

  “So, wait, lemme get this right. You’re not staying over?” She turned around suddenly, the keys to her apartment gripped in her hand.

  “No.”

  “And you’re not coming inside?”

  Austin groaned at the way the Odie said coming, wishing for all the world that the answer was a resounding yes. He was coming inside—not inside her apartment.

  Inside her.

  But no. He couldn’t. “I have to get over to Aaron’s office tomorrow morning and grab something for the baby shower thing this weekend.” And if I have to spend another night holding you and not fucking you, I might lose my mind. “And you said you have that new client at, what, six?”

  “So?” She pouted. An honest-to-God pout that made him want to bite down on her bottom lip. “You’re afraid of waking up early? Weakling.”

  He laughed at the tease, knowing that waking up early with her wouldn’t be a problem. What might be a problem, though, was his memory. “I know it sounds like a convenient excuse, but I promised A I’d grab his gift for Ash if he wasn’t going to be home in time. My keys are there. And you know me—outta sight, outta mind.”

  “That’s the God’s honest truth,” she retorted, the expression on her face one of loving exasperation. So, he had a bad habit of forgetting things—times to meet, things to bring, people’s names—it wasn’t that big of a deal.

  Plus, she’d had twenty-five years to get used to it.

  “I have a huge note scrawled on my calendar and three post-it notes on my bedside table.” He laughed, slightly chagrined that he needed so much reinforcement but this was important to Aaron—and was a gift for Ashton.

  He’d humble himself for his brother and sister.

  Of course, he’d also remind them ad nauseam once he pulled through, so it all balanced out in the end.

  “I’d laugh but no, that’s probably smart.”

  “You could come to my place,” he offered, knowing that she would decline.

  Hopefully reluctantly.

  “I cou
ld.”

  He started to reach for her hand, ready to drag her to his own place, settle her in his bed and give the whole cuddling thing another chance. And then, she yawned.

  She was tired—he knew she’d had a busy few days, an early morning and another in the cards the following day. Selfishly, he wanted to drive her the twenty minutes to his place and then keep her up half the night exploring more of first base and part of second, but . . . “You need to get to bed.”

  She nodded slowly. “Admit it before I go to bed, alone.”

  “Admit what? There’s nothing to admit. I’m hiding nothing, not a thing.” He was rambling, much like his sister was known for, but he couldn’t help it. He was a little ashamed of his ulterior motive for not staying.

  “You’re going home because you can’t resist me.” She stepped in so close there was no space between them. “You think that I’m going to try to seduce you and you won’t be able to turn me down. Right?”

  He nodded then shook his head. “Yes. But no. I’m worried I’ll see you in those shorts you sleep in and I won’t be able to remember why we’re waiting.” He paused a moment, giving that a chance to set in before he added, as bluntly as he could because he had a point to make. “Then, I’ll drag them down your legs and tongue-fuck you until you come—twice. And after that, I’ll throw you down and show you what you’ve been missing for the last ten years.”

  Her eyes fluttered closed, her head tilted back, exposing her neck to his hungry gaze. He wanted to run his tongue up it while he was buried balls-deep in her, pumping his hips and taking them both to the peak before sending her off the edge into climax.

  Of course, he’d still before the main event so that, once she’d come down from her first orgasm, he could give her at least one more.

  Unable to resist just a little taste, he lowered his head to that slender, sexy column of skin, breathing deeply of her scent, leaving wet kisses in his wake as he moved his mouth up her neck over her chin and up to her lips, before taking her in a longing kiss that made everything fuzzy.