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“Can I borrow your pen?” Ava asks, slipping her hand inside my tux jacket and taking it.
“Hey—” I grasp her wrist lightly before she continues. “—what happened? What did she say to you?”
“Doesn’t matter.” The reply is at odds with the tone and the tears glistening in her eyes.
The fuck it doesn’t. Cupping her jaw, I press a featherlight kiss to her forehead. “You’re where you belong, Ava.” Those gorgeous baby blues I’m in love with meet my gaze. “With me.”
“I love you,” she whispers back, the words causing my heart to trip over itself.
Touching my forehead to hers, I nudge the tip of her nose with mine in an Eskimo kiss. “I expect to hear that on repeat when I’m balls deep in your cunt later.”
A deep flush floods her cheeks with a light giggle that sets my world straight as I watch her pull the tip of my pen off with her lips. I’m not sure whether she’s deliberately teasing me, or whether she’s avoiding releasing my hand when she scribbles a bold FUCK YOU on the linen napkin stained with her red lipstick just as CPM is announced as the winner.
“What are you waiting for?” she asks me, tugging my hand up as she stands. “Go get your award, Mr. Coldwell.”
There’s a lot going on around me. Grayson and Dex are hollering at each other while the rest of our table toasts. But there’s only one thing I need to toast at this moment. Only one person I want to savor it with. My first landmark award for CPM. The first nod to all the changes I’ve made to the company that says I made the right decisions.
“Will you come with me?” I ask her.
“Anywhere you take me.”
Grasping her hand in mine, I twine our fingers together, holding on tight as we maneuver around our table shaking hands and congratulating the team that’s here with us. When we’re going past the Monroe table, Ava tugs me to a stop as she pauses by her parents and Marshall.
Dropping the napkin in her hand in front of him, she tells him, “You can steal my company from under me, but I will take it back.”
“Shameful,” her mom spits down at her lap.
Ava looks up at me with a smile, squeezing my hand before she tells her, “It was Daddy that made the wrong choice, he should’ve picked me. I would’ve done this for Monroe. I would’ve done anything…”
Dex’s voice as he takes the mic and the award, pulls Ava’s attention away from her parents. A pissed-off scowl draws at her brows as she tells me, “Don’t let him take your glory.”
I’ve created a monster. The thought runs through my head with a chuckle I can’t hold back. “When you’re done, beautiful.”
With a look over at her parents, Ava brings herself flush to my side. “I’m done. So done.”
“Let’s go get our glory, then.”
* * *
Ava’s quiet on the drive home. With her head nestled on my shoulder, she holds my hand snug between both of hers while the city runs past us outside the car windows.
“Long night,” I say, breaking the silence.
“Mm-hmm…”
“It’s not done yet, little mouse.” Edging our tangled hands onto her lap, I nudge them between her thighs. “I got my glory, now I want your pleasure.”
Ava twists into me with a heavy sigh. “Damon…”
“Doesn’t matter if you’re tired, I’ll do all the work, baby.”
“I’m not tired, I’m bleeding.”
“Doesn’t matter. I don’t care,” I’m too quick to respond, noticing the disappointment on her face too late as the realization of what she said dawns on me.
The way her eyes soften with a watery flutter of her lashes has my chest twisting viciously. If she’s got her period, she’s not pregnant. The disappointment on her face cuts through me suddenly.
“I’m sorry.” The words tumble from my lips with a guttural pang of sadness I’ve never felt before. Like hope being ripped out from the marrow of my bones. As much as the news disappoints me, I swallow down my feelings and focus on her. “You said you weren’t ready.”
