Catching Avery Read online

  She looked over at Isabella. “No, Iz. I was getting along perfectly fine before he came along and cock blocked me.” Looking back at me, she continued, “What gives you the right?”

  “Are you not hearing me?” I took a step forward, leaning as far down as I could to get right in her face. “It’s fucking dangerous and while I may only be your boss, that still puts you and Quinn under our protection, whether you like it or not!”

  “You are such a jackass. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I want dangerous?”

  That brought me up short.

  “Holy Hell,” Chase managed, before Quinn shh’d him.

  “That’s the problem with you men.” Avery made a point to look over at both Julian and Chase to make sure they got the message that she was lumping them in with the ‘men’ she was referring to. “Unless a woman is occupying a street corner, you guys automatically assume we want missionary with the lights off. God forbid we actually watch porn and want to get fucked. Nooooooooooooooo, a good girl is limited to romantic candles and clean sheets.” Avery shook her head at Quinn. “Peanut butterless, Quinn. This fool,” she swung her arm in my direction, just in case anyone was confused about who the fool was that she was referring to, “has got me peanut butterless!”

  Julian raised his hand to halt the madness. “Okay, I have to ask. What the hell are you talking about? What is peanut butterless?” Isabella shook her head as if she was already predicting that this was going to end badly.

  “Yeah,’’ Chase joined in. “What the hell do you mean by peanut butterless?”

  “It’s a metaphor,” Isabella explained.

  Chase leaned up to look over at her. “For fucking what?”

  Quinn rolled her eyes and plucked Chase’s drink out of his hand and took a swallow. “For our sexual fantasies, you moron.”

  I ran my hands through my hair and down my face. I need to either stop drinking or drink more to follow their lunacy. “Your sexual fantasies involve peanut butter?”

  “No. Were you not paying attention to what Izzy just said?” Avery sounded as frustrated as I felt. What in the hell was she doing to me?

  Isabella cleared her throat a little. “Uh, we sort of made a pact before we came out tonight that we were going to, uh, pick up a random stranger and have him fulfill one or more sexual fantasy we had.”

  You could have heard a pin drop. I didn’t know about Julian or Chase, but I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest. I normally didn’t have issues when it came to women, but right now in this moment, I was at a loss. I didn’t know if I wanted her to confess her fantasy, especially in front of Chase and Julian, or keep it to herself. The anxiousness came in wondering how far out of the realm were her desires. Once she voiced her wants, this could only go one of two ways; either I was going to bring her fantasy to life, or I was going to cower and admit I wasn’t the man for the job.

  The alcohol in her system didn’t give me a choice. “Yeah, so while you’re over here talking about how dangerous taking a stranger home is…and by the way, I wouldn’t take him to my house, we’d go to a hotel room…that is my fantasy.”

  “What?” I managed to choke out.

  She folded her arms across her chest and put all her weight on her right leg, tilting her stance a little. “All day long I am surrounded by these new age males who get manicures, pedicures, pluck their eyebrows, man-scape their business and discuss crap they saw on The View. The View. So, basically, I’m surrounded by women all day.” She looked over at Quinn. “Right, Q?”

  “True story,” came from the vicinity of the couch.

  “I have walked into the break room and witness men talking about great new moisturizers while a woman was refilling the water dispenser with a new jug!” she went on. “Forget about women’s equal rights, it’s just common courtesy to ask someone if they would like some help!” She paused long enough to take another drink of her beer, because clearly her honesty needed to be alcohol fueled. “You guys are all melding together to the point where I don’t know who’s straight and who’s gay anymore.”

  She came back to stand in front of me, narrowing her eyes so that I would get the point that she was serious. “I like men, Boss. Real men, not ones I think could, might, maybe be men. So, yeah, while my fantasy may be a little reckless, I want someone who is going to make sure there is no confusion about who the man is in the bedroom. I want him to be bigger, stronger, harder, meaner and more forceful than I am.” She took a step closer just to torment me. “I want him to take from me. I want to know I am at his mercy. I want to wake up with his bruises and bite marks all over my goddamn body. I want the perfect mixture of being afraid of him, but having complete trust in him to not cross the line beyond my fantasy. I want to be owned. And I want it with someone who is a complete stranger, so that whatever judgments he may end up having leave with him in the morning and I never have to see him again.”

  “Holy Mary, Mother of God,” Chase breathed out.

  Quinn gave him a sidelong glance. “You really are a tool. Every woman wants that, you clueless, clueless man.”

  Julian reached up with the arm he had around Isabella and grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back until she was forced to have to look up at him. “Is that one of your fantasies? You want someone to caveman you?”

  “Maybe,” came her quiet, low response, and I’m pretty sure I heard Julian growl.

  I didn’t blame Chase and Julian one bit, though. The picture Avery painted would have had any man worth his salt hard as fuck. While she was thinking that this was her own personal sexual fantasy, this fantasy in fact belonged to a lot of the male population. Dominance over a woman was basic animal instinct, old as time itself. I wasn’t a complete sexist pig. I believed women had every right to chase their dreams and do more than live in the shadows of men. However, while women could do almost anything a man could, they shouldn’t have to. I grew up believing that men were created to conquer and women were created to submit. But Avery had a point, if a man was too busy with his manicure and pedicure appointments to go out and conquer, then he wasn’t deserving of any woman submitting to him.

  I gave Isabella and Quinn a quick glance before I gave Avery back my full attention. “And you think a complete stranger is going to pay enough attention or care enough about you to make an effort to stay within the boundaries of your violent sexual fantasy?”

  Avery blanched a bit. “Wanting a man to be the aggressor in the bedroom does not equate violence,” she countered.

  I looked over at the guys. “A little help here, assholes?”

  Julian cleared his throat. This entire conversation was odd and uncomfortable. One of our employees was standing here buzzed to inhibition telling us her sexual fantasy and her cohorts were buzzed enough to let her. Nothing about this was a good idea. “Avery,” Julian gave me a quick glance,” I think what Nick is trying to impress upon you is that there’s a certain level of recklessness involved with giving a man, who is not your husband or boyfriend, that kind of authority over your body. That’s a hell of a lot of power to give a man. It’s dangerous, especially with a stranger.”

  I let out a Julian worthy sigh, “Exactly.”

  She put her hands back on her hips and pinned Julian with one of the menacing stares she’s been reserving for me all night. “Thanks for the concern, Dad, but I think I’ll risk it.”

  She pointed her finger back and forth between Quinn and Isabella. “You guys can stay here with your new found friends and trade knitting secrets, if you want, but I’m going back down stairs, grabbing whichever man looks like he can get the job done and going through with our pact.”

  She plopped the bottle of beer she was holding on the table and headed towards the door to make good on her ridiculous plan. Little did she know, there was no way in hell, I was going to let that happen. Never mind that her plan was dangerous and reckless, I had already made the decision early on that I wanted her and if she was going to wake up in the morning with anyone’s bruises and bite marks on her body, they were going to be mine.

  I came up behind her and wrapped my right arm around her waist and dragged her back against my body before she could reach the door handle. I leaned down and brushed my lips against the shell of her ear. “Not so fast, baby.” She immediately tried to pry my arm from her body. I tightened my arm around her and brought my other arm around to pin her arms to her body. “Tsk, tsk, tsk…you want to make your fantasy a reality right here in front of everybody?”

  She stilled in my arms. “What’s it going to be, Imp? Because you’re out of your goddamn mind if you think you’re leaving here with anyone but me.”

  Avery~

  My buzz was dying a rather rapid death.

  This night was turning out to be a disaster of epic proportions. I let my boss get under my drunken skin to the point where I blurted out my most sacred sexual fantasy to everyone in the room.

  I wasn’t overly concerned with Q and Iz, because let’s face it, I would have told them all about it eventually anyway. But, no, I spilled my guts to not one of my bosses, but all three.

  Monday was going to suck donkey balls.

  “Let me go.” I started twisting and turning to loosen Nicholas’ hold on me, but damn, was he strong. And because he was no much taller than I was, I didn’t have the leverage to swing my leg back and kick him in his manhood.

  “Not happening, unless you give up this insane little plan of yours.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to count to ten, but I only got as far as five. “If you do not let go of me right now, I will unleash a female hell upon you, the likes of which no man has ever seen and lived to tell about it.”

  He loosened his hold on me, but only enough to be able to turn me around in his arms. I couldn’t help but notice that behind him everyone was still enraptured by our little drama. I attempted to give him my best threatening glare, but Christ on a cracker, this man was beautiful. “Let go of me.”

  He had the audacity to smirk at me again. “Not happening until you abandon your idiotic plan.”

  “I will cut you,” I jutted my chin out towards our audience, “and my girls will have your boys’ throats slit before they can get up quick enough to save you.” Normally I wasn’t a fan of violence, but this man was ruining everything that had started out great about this night.

  “First of all, my boys can take your girls,” Nicholas snipped. “Secondly, the only cuts that you’ll be putting on my body will be the slash marks on my back from your nails.” He leaned in closer, so that only I could hear him. “Say yes, Avery. Let me be the one to make your dirty dream a reality. I promise, baby, I will leave your body so broken, you won’t be able to leave my bed in the morning.”

  I think I stopped breathing.

  But the rest of my body was alive and tempted by his words.

  Just looking into his beautiful brown eyes had the ability to steal my breath, but looking into them while he made promises to own my body had me nearly expiring on the spot. I wanted nothing more than to say yes and let him drag me wherever he needed to in order to make this happen, but he was my boss. My boss’ boss’ boss. I had already crossed so many inappropriate lines that I wasn’t even sure I’d have a job on Monday. And while he may have leaped head first over the lines of impropriety first, he was the boss. He wasn’t going to lose his job over this.

  I looked around him to get an idea of which way the girls wanted this to swing. If I said yes, there was no doubt in my mind that Isabella would go home with Julian and Quinn would work her magic on Chase. Of course, other than Julian supporting Nicholas and Chase in their pursuing of two of their employees, there was nothing wrong with him and Isabella making a night of it. But Iz wouldn’t go solo like that. She was a true Musketeer. “Iz, Q?”

  Isabella shook her head. “This doesn’t impact me the way it does you two. It’s your call.”

  Julian leaned back to get a better facing view of Iz. “What do you mean it’s their call? Are you telling me you don’t care about the outcome either way?” I could tell Julian was getting uneasy about possibly losing out on Iz. But hell, look at her….what man wouldn’t?

  “You’re not my boss, Julian. There are no ramifications for me no matter which way this night ends. Whether I go home with you tonight or not, my life will still continue on like normal tomorrow.” She took a drink of her beer, before adding, “You’ve helped build a multi-billion dollar company, surely you’re not too stupid to have assessed this.”

  And then he said something that surprised the shit out of me and I’m sure gave Iz second thoughts. “And surely you’re not stupid enough to believe that if you went home with me tonight, your life would continue on like normal tomorrow, Isabella.” He grabbed her chin and held her face between his fingers. “Because you’re not an employee, there is nothing that would stop me from keeping you once I had you. So you better give this a little more consideration than you had originally planned.” He let go of her face and took his shot.

  Damn that was hot.

  I turned my head from Julian and Iz to look back at Nicholas, and by the look on his face; I could tell he knew what I was thinking. Julian’s little power play fell in line with my fantasy. But before either of us could say anything, Quinn made the decision for all of us.

  “Alright, enough is enough.” She stood up, bent over a little to grab Isabella’s hand and hoisted her up from the comfort that was Julian’s body and dragged Iz behind her towards me. “Hands off the drunk girl, Mr. Savage.” She stuck her arm in between our bodies and wiggled her way in, separating us finally. Julian and Chase had made their way over so that they were now standing slightly behind Nicholas. Quinn had their full attention. “While being married to you three has been entertaining as hell, it’s time to file the paperwork for the annulments.” She ran her finger back and forth, pointing to all three of them. “Now that you guys have killed my buzz and I am able to actually think clearly, I am calling quits to this insanity. You guys are our bosses and no matter how much we might not want that to be the case, drunk and horny as we all are, it is. Avery and I cannot afford to lose our jobs and you guys don’t need the drama when you can clearly pick up any piece of ass in this place. And since there’s no such thing as love at first sight, you boys can’t play that card. So go pick up some ass that’s more suitable to your lifestyles and we’ll do the same”

  This is why Quinn was my hero. This girl was not scared of anything. Go Quinn!

  She turned her back on the men and placed her hands on our backs to usher us out the door. “Let’s go girls. We can play fantasy roulette again next weekend.”

  “Wait,” this from Chase. “Do you really think this is the end of this?” He slid past Nicholas-who had an unreadable expression on his face-to stand directly in front of Q. “Do you honestly believe that knowing what we know, we’re just going to let you girls do this without us?”

  “I fail to see how you can stop us, Mr. Alexander,” Quinn responded, reminding him of his role in our lives.

  Admittedly I didn’t know these men very well, but up until now, Chase came across as the easiest going of the three. That didn’t seem the case anymore. “Is that a challenge?”

  “No.” Quinn didn’t back down. She never backed down. “That’s a mere statement of fact, Mr. Alexander. Avery, Izzy and I can walk out of this club right now and go find someone else to fuck and there’s no way you could stop us.”

  We were so busy going to battle with each other, none of us noticed Becky coming up the stairway until she was opening the door into the room. “Oh, are you guys going downstairs to dance, or are you guys getting ready to leave?”

  “We’re leaving.” Nicholas answered for all of us. “What’s the damage, Becky?”

  “Oh, well, if you just give me a second, I’ll go back down to the bar and get your total.”

  “Did you guys have a tab running?” Nicholas asked us.

  Isabella answered him, “No. We paid as we drank.”

  He pulled out his wallet and pulled out four one hundred dollar bills and started to hand them to Becky. She started protesting vehemently, “No, no, no….your bill isn’t anywhere near this amount. I don’t even think it’s over two hundred.”

  Nicholas placed the bills on her cocktail tray. “Then keep the change for Rhonda and yourself. You ladies were excellent servers tonight.”

  Becky looked like she was going to cry. What one person considers a little thing can often be someone else’s big thing. “Thank you so much! Really, this is….thank you guys.” She turned her head around and she was walking out the door. “Be careful getting home.” And with that she left us.

  “Now back to what we were discussing before Becky arrived,” Chase started.

  “There’s nothing to continue discussing, we’re leaving.” Quinn once again placed her hands on our backs to usher us out of the room.

  My only warning was a ‘fuck that bullshit’ before I felt someone grab my arm and yank me around. I managed to get a quick glance of Nicholas before he lifted me over his right should and wrapped his arms around my legs to anchor me there.

  “Are you mad?! Put me down, you lunatic!” My buzz may have been wearing off, but I consumed so much alcohol tonight that hanging me upside down was not in the best interest of Nicholas’ clothes.

  “Plan B it is.” I couldn’t lift my body high enough to see, but by the sounds of Izzy’s shrieks, I’d say she was mostly cradled in Julian’s arms in some way, shape or form.

  Still hanging over Nicholas’ shoulders, I heard Quinn very sharply and very sternly say, “Don’t even think about it, Chase Alexander. I will fuck you up-” and just like that, we had another man down. Or I should say woman, as this was the case.

  “Let’s go.” Nicholas ordered as he began my kidnapping. “Hopefully, the music is loud enough and people are drunk enough that they won’t pay attention to these three shrieking like she-devils.”

  She-devils?

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