“Oh, I’m gonna cockblock. He’s my fucking man!”
Aw, she makes me feel special.
Shelli comes out of nowhere and steps between Posey and me. “What in the world is your problem? Take your drunk ass to bed.”
“Who’s drunk?”
We all look back to where Shea Adler is glaring down at us. “No one, Daddy. I’ve got this,” Shelli answers quickly.
He looks at Posey. “What’s wrong with you?”
“I’m drunk, Daddy!” she yells, throwing up her hands, almost falling into the ocean. “You sent him away. You decided he wasn’t good enough for the Assassins.” She jerks her head back and cries out loudly. She loses her balance, though, and falls into the water. Shelli sighs dramatically but doesn’t move to rescue her.
I point to her. “You gonna help her up?”
“Nope,” she says simply. “Maybe the water will cool her off. She’s been on a whole other level since she found out our billet boy was sent to Nebraska.”
Shelli looks over at Aviva, and I watch as she sizes her up. With a very fake smile, Shelli says, “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Shelli Adler.”
I wrap my arm around Aviva, pulling her in close. Shelli’s eyes move between us as I say, “This is my girlfriend, Aviva Pearce.”
She slowly nods, and I feel Aviva tense in my arms. “How wonderful. It’s nice to meet you. I don’t know where my fiancé Aiden ran off to. He plays with my brothers like he is still a teenager—” Her words fall off when Posey sputters water.
We all look down at her, and I say, “I don’t think Amelia would be happy if she drowned.”
Shelli sighs dramatically. “Let me get her inside before Amelia freaks out.”
She gathers her sister, and I glance over to Aviva with an amused look on my face. “That was something.”
She doesn’t look the least bit happy, and that’s just wonderful. “Yup.”
“You okay?”
“Fine.”
“Don’t sound like it.”
Aviva looks up at me. “That was pathetic.”
I nod. “Yeah, but not the first time.” By the way her face changes from pissed to even more pissed, I realize I should have left that part out.
“Does it happen often?”
“I mean, I’m a good-looking dude.”
“Nico!”
“What? I don’t give in. I’m with you.”
She exhales harshly, crossing her arms. “And that’s Shelli Adler? Jesus, her pictures online don’t even come close to the reality of her. Did you see her rack?”
She shakes her head, and I scrunch up my face. “Are you serious right now?”
“Just let it go.”
“No, you brought it up.”
She goes to walk away, but I grab her by the wrist. “Whoa, killer, slow down. Talk to me.”
“No,” she says, pulling her wrist out of my hand. “I look like shit, and even the drunk girl was gorgeous. And then you tell me women do that to you all the time? How do you think that makes me feel?”
I wish Carter could talk. Surely he’d be on my side. “It should make you feel like a fucking goddess because I only want you.” She won’t look at me. “No one even comes close to you, Aviva. No one.”
“Shelli’s breasts are stunning, and to know you’ve had them in your mouth, hands, and then I have nothing there, it fucks with me.”
This chick is insane. I grab her by her wrist and start for my house. I walk over to Amelia first, handing off her baby.
“You leaving?” she asks, and I nod.
“Yup. Gotta go talk sense into this woman of mine.”
Before she or even Aviva can say anything to stop me, I’m already pulling Aviva down the beach. She tries to ask me what we’re doing, but I don’t have time for that. When I say something, she will listen and she will understand. We don’t have to go far before we’re at my house.
We enter through the back door, and as soon as we step inside, she asks, “What are we doing? It was rude to leave like that.”
“I don’t give a shit. They’re happy I stayed as long as I did,” I say, still pulling her through my house. I take her into my bathroom and turn her to the mirror. She looks back at me, confused, but I don’t care. “You see this face,” I say, pointing at her. “It’s the first thing I think of when I wake up. To me, you’re the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen.” Slowly, her scrunched-up face loosens as I grab ahold of her ass. “This ass. Baby, for real, I dream of this ass. It’s probably the best ass I’ve ever seen. Then this back? It gives me all these funny fantasies of subs because I know you don’t go to the gym, so it has to be from slinging subs.”
She sputters with laughter, and I untie the back of her dress. It’s another halter top that I know she is comfortable in, but I wish she’d wear a tube top or even a low-cut something. I don’t care. I want her to feel sexy. I pull down her dress, revealing her bare chest with two large scars. I move behind her and place my hands on her chest. “This body keeps me in knots, and to me, you look ten times hotter than Shelli does, even with her tits hanging out. I’d rather see this, the marks of your courageous fight, than anything Shelli—or any woman, for that matter—can offer me. I don’t want it. I don’t want them.”