Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 10

Avery's POVFor a few seconds I just stood there in the doorway.My brain kept trying to make it make sense, like if I stared long enough the picture would rearrange itself into something I could live with. But there was no rearranging this. There was Colton, scrambling to pull the sheets up, and there was Brianna, not even bothering to."Avery." Colton's voice was shaking. "Just wait. Please. Let me explain.""Explain what?" My voice came out quieter than I expected. "I have eyes, Colton.""It's not — this isn't something that's been going on for long, it just —""How long?"He went quiet."How long?" I asked again."Two months," Brianna said.I looked at her. She was sitting up against his headboard with the sheet barely covering her, and she looked completely relaxed. Like she was watching something mildly interesting on TV."Two months," I repeated."Give or take." She tilted her head. "Though honestly it started before that. We were talking for a while first.""Brianna." Colton l

Avery's POVThe kiss started soft.Then his hand slid into my hair and pulled me closer, and it stopped being soft entirely.I pressed into him and he pulled me in tighter and the music from the ceiling speaker faded out completely because all I could hear was my own heartbeat hammering in my ears. When we finally pulled apart, both of us were breathing differently.He looked at me. His eyes dropped to my mouth, then came back up.I leaned in again and he met me halfway, this time hungrier, his hands sliding down my waist and pulling me full against him until there was no space left between us. I felt the low sound he made more than I heard it, and it went straight through me.When I finally pulled back, my lips were feeling swollen and my heart was going absolutely insane."Come with me," he said. His voice had dropped to something rough and low.It was not a question. Not quite.Then I reached for my bag.We got in his car and managed to keep our hands to ourselves until we got to o

Avery's POV My mum thought I was waitressing at a bar somewhere downtown. It was a perfect alibi for my late nights and the decent tips I brought home on work nights. There was absolutely nothing to worry about. I had kept that story clean for months and I had no plans to change it."Busy night," I said, sitting down across from her. "I made good tips though." I reached into my bag and pulled out the envelope. Thise were tips from the floor during my sets plus the private room. I put it on the table in front of her.Her eyes went wide. "Avery—""Take it. It's for the house."She reached for it with both hands and I watched her start to uncrumple some of the bills and the exhaustion in her face slowly gave way to something like relief and my chest did that tight thing it always did."This is so much, sweetheart. This will cover the—""Well, well."The voice came from the hallway and both of us froze.Dean leaned in the kitchen doorway with a terribly worn shirt on and his hair going e

Avery's POV"I was wondering when you were going to pick up," Colton said.His voice was calm, without any ounce of guilt present there. He didn't even sound particularly apologetic. Just smooth and measured and rehearsed, the voice of someone who had spent the last several hours deciding exactly how he wanted to open this conversation and had landed on calm as his best option."What do you want, Colton?" I said."I want to talk. Last night turned into something it did not have to be and I think we both deserve a proper conversation instead of just silence."Jade was watching me from her chair with both eyebrows raised so high they had nearly disappeared. I held up one finger and she pressed her lips together and sat back."A proper conversation," I said."Yes. You didn't come to dinner, Avery. Do you know how long the waiting list is at Rossini's on a Friday night? I have been on it for three weeks. Three weeks of planning that birthday dinner and you just vanished without a call or

Avery's POVHis hand was still in the air when I reached into my jacket pocket and reached for my pepper spray.I had carried a pepper spray since I got into college and some random dude stalked me in my first year. It came more in handy since I started working at the club and coming home either really late or in the early hours of the morning. It had lived in my jacket pocket ever since, and I even carry a backup in my purse.I pulled it out and sprayed him directly in the face before his raised hand came anywhere near me.The sound Dean made was not a word. It was something much more animal than a word, high and sharp and followed immediately by both his hands flying up to cover his face as he staggered backward into the kitchen doorway and then down onto one knee on the hallway floor."My eyes," he was saying. "You stupid bitch! My eyes, what did you do, what did you—"I reached into my bag and pulled out my taser.It made a sound like a sharp crack when I pressed the button. I wal