I smile at him shyly and pinch the ring between my thumb and index finger. I hold it up to the sunlight and watch the stone turn bright red. “I was going to ask you to share my life.” I take a deep breath and look over at him. Sean’s eyes are on the ring, sparkling in the sunlight. His jaw is locked tight, like I said something horrible. I brush his arm with mine and smile at him. “It’s fine. I’m not going to ask you.”
“You’re not?” His eyes flick back to mine.
“No.”
“Then, why’d you show me and tell me all that?”
“So you’d know what you are missing.”
“Avery,” he says, reaching for me. But I step away.
Pocketing the ring, I glance up at him with a soft smile on my face, feeling less fragile than a moment ago. “It’s fine. Buy me when you come to town, or do what you did last night, but you have to realize that I’m going to have other clients eventually. Marty can’t buy me every weekend.”
As soon as Marty’s name comes out of my mouth, Sean looks livid. “Marty?”
“Yeah, Marty. I was with him the night before last.”
Sean’s entire body tenses. He tries so hard to hide it, but he can’t. Out of all people to be threatened by—Marty? Seriously? Sean’s fingers stretch and bend, as he cracks them one by one. “Anyone else we know?”
Is he jealous? Oh my God, he’s sexy when he’s like this. I realize that I’m lighting a firecracker with a blowtorch, but I do it anyway. “Henry Thomas. He seems to have an issue with you. Gabe beat the shit out of him when he took it out on me.”
That does it. Sean snaps. He steps towards me and pulls me into his arms, crushing me to his chest. It wasn’t the reaction I was going for, but I don’t protest. His hands grip the back of my head fiercely and when he pulls away he looks a little scary. Okay, very scary. His head twitches ever so slightly as all the muscles in his neck strain so tight that they’re ready to pop. “Thomas hurt you?” The words come out one by one. I feel the muscles in his arms flex and relax over and over again, like he’s trying to calm himself down but can’t.
“A little. It scared me more than hurt me. Why does he hate you?”
Sean presses his eyes closed and pinches the bridge of his nose. “He had something that I wanted a few years back. I took it. He hates me and the feeling is mutual. The only reason I sold him that patent was because of you. I wanted to make you happy, but seeing you with him killed me.” Sean looks down at me with a hurricane of emotions in his eyes. “Fuck, and you were with Marty, too? I’m not going to be able to let that guy walk around with his nuts intact, you know that, right?”
“Amber is trying to get me to do a threesome…” I look up into his eyes with my face totally blank. I don’t know why I said it—to get a reaction I guess, but Sean just laughs and turns his back on me.
He starts to walk back toward the house. I follow after and fall into step beside him. “Are you?”
“Am I, what?”
“Are you going to do it?” He shakes his head. “Forget it. Don’t tell me. You’ve probably done worse than that for Black, by now.” He looks over at me with question in his eyes, like he wants to know, but doesn’t.
“I was going to ask you to marry me even though you have some serious issues with sex and call girls. Are you really going to condemn me for being one of those call girls?”
Sean grins at me and shakes his head. “You fucked me in more ways than you will ever know.”
“Oh, I think I do.”
“No, you seriously don’t. I haven’t…” his voice drops and he stops. Sean leans in close and rests his hand on my arm. “There’s been no one. I can’t even tell you how badly I need to feel what that kind of sex makes me feel, but Avery—I can’t. You freakin’ broke me. I sent a hooker home last night.”
“Last night? Wait, what? You were with a hooker last night?”
He nods and looks over at me, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. “Yeah, well, not for long. I didn’t realize it until she got there, but I didn’t want her. I wanted you.” I blink at him over and over again. He sees the look on my face. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Everything. The things he’s said that don’t make sense start to snap into place. I’m almost too afraid to ask, but I do it anyway. “Uh, Sean. What’s your cell number?”
He looks over at me. “Why?”
“Just tell me.” He does. The number doesn’t match the one in my phone from last night. “Is that your only phone?”