Beautifully Decadent (Beautifully Damaged Book 3) (16 page)

“Avery’s more outgoing.”

“It’s more than that and I know you’re smart enough to know that.”

“I’ll give you that, but I’m not looking to put a ring on Melody’s finger.”

“I get that, but even if all you ever want is someone on your arm and in your bed, when you really like the person you’re dating, it makes it all the more sweet.”

I knew she was right, suspected she was referring to Avery being that someone else every bit as much as me. “I appreciate your concern and because I do, I’m going to share something with you.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve already been thinking about all of that.”

“Really?”

“Yes, but I need to talk with Melody. Do you get what I’m saying?”

“Oh, I get it.” And then she reached for my hand. “You deserve more.”

Women seriously needed to come with an instruction manual and a bottle of whiskey. Thank God Lucien walked down the bar, stopping in front of his wife. Without missing a beat, he wrapped his hand around her neck and pulled her to him. Looking down at my beer, I grinned. Sorry son of a bitch was completely besotted with his wife. Not that I could blame him. Darcy was great. And for whatever reason, she loved Lucien to distraction.

“Wife.”

“Husband.”

Sensing Lucien’s attention, I shifted mine to him. “What brings you here?”

“Do you have a minute to talk?”

“Yeah.” Turning back to Darcy, his voice changed, turned softer. Yep, totally whipped. “Wait for me. I won’t be long.”

The smile Darcy offered in reply even I felt the effect.

Lucien moved to the end of the bar, I stood to follow him, but said to Darcy, “You and Ember should visit Avery again. Outside of her sister, she doesn’t get visitors.”

“Taking an interest in your tenant?”

“Maybe.”

The look I got in response was priceless. Her chin practically touched the bar top. If she only knew how much of an interest I had in my tenant, she’d be plotting.

Following Lucien to his office, I settled in the chair across from him.

“You want to know what Josh learned.” He wasn’t asking.

“Yeah.”

“Lucas Steele, the mastermind behind the robbery, was no choir boy. He’d worked countless robberies in the area, usually selecting a person down on their luck to work with him, this person often was the one arrested.”

“So it’s likely had Dad not turned himself in, Lucas would have fingered him.”

“Probably.”

“What happened to Lucas and Jackson?”

“Don’t know. They never caught the killer. It’s a cold case, so there’s not much effort being made until new evidence comes to light. What Josh did learn, while retracing Lucas’s last steps, according to the testimony of the bank manager, Lucas demanded access to the vault. However, he didn’t go for the money he went to the security boxes. Even stranger he only wanted access to one of those boxes.”

“Dad mentioned the other day that he’d heard some rumblings that there may be people interested in talking to him about the job.”

“That’s interesting. Makes you wonder what was in the box.”

“So whose box did Lucas want access to?”

“Jeremy Paddington.”

“Who the fuck is Jeremy Paddington?”

“No clue. Josh is still working on it. Is your dad concerned?”

“No, but two people died, I don’t think he should dismiss the rumors completely.”

“True. How’s he doing, your dad?”

“Happy to be out. I took him to lunch, something we take for granted, but to him it was like tasting food for the first time. Anyway, Josh learns anything more, let me know.”

“You’ll be the first.”

Rising, I headed for the door. “How’s Avery feeling? She was definitely impaired at Allegro.”

“Little worse for the wear, but she’s good.”

“I like her.”

“Yeah, so does Darcy. I get the feeling you’re trying to tell me something too.”

“Only that sometimes we can’t see what’s staring us right in the face. Just making sure you’re looking. When I hear from Josh, I’ll call.”

I was looking; I was most definitely looking.

Returning from my chat with Lucien, I pulled into the drive and was greeted to the sight of Avery and Loki playing fetch. Well, it wasn’t really fetch since Loki didn’t bring the stick back to Avery. I saw the stockpile he horded near a tree. Turning over Darcy and Lucien’s sage advice, I tried to figure Avery out. She was sweet, kind, could bake desserts that made a man want to weep and she was a looker, so where were the men? Outside of her sister, no one had visited her. I understood wanting to keep your circle of friends small, but the men should be pounding down her door. The thought that she had a man had my hands fisting. Where the hell was he? Why hadn’t he helped her settle in? Why hadn’t he visited? Or branded her as his so everyone around knew it? I was inclined to think she didn’t have a man, but she had that god-awful car and someone didn’t keep a piece of shit like that unless it held meaning. Suddenly, I really wanted to know more about my tenant—personal things that I had no business asking and yet I planned to ask all the same. Climbing from my truck, I heard her instruction to Loki.

“You’re supposed to bring it back to me so I can throw it again.” Loki’s head tilted, studying her, but he still didn’t bring the stick back. I headed over to them.

“I see Loki is as cooperative with you when it comes to fetch as he is with me.”

“Yeah, he’s being very difficult.”

She sounded really put out, deceiving since she was barely able to contain the grin.

She searched around for more sticks and when I realized my gaze was fixed on her ass, I shifted it but not before my dick stirred. “How did you get into baking?”

Her head snapped up at that, surprised by the question and, if I wasn’t reading her wrong, touched that I asked. “I’ve always loved baking. I baked my first batch of cookies at six. The need to create, you must understand that, the feeling of visualizing something and creating it with your own hands. I just happen to also like eating what I make since I adore sweets.”

“From what I’ve tasted, I don’t blame you for wanting to eat what you bake.”

Pink tinged her cheeks, her hand unconsciously going to the rogue lock of hair that had slipped from the knot she had her hair twisted up in, tucking it behind her ear. She was lovely: sweet, refreshing with a vein of innocence that was very appealing, so where the hell was her man?

I was about to demand an answer to that when she asked, “What about you? How did you get into woodworking?”

It was a reasonable question, even logical given my question to her and yet those words from this woman profoundly impacted me. Sometimes the greatest life lessons came in the most unusual ways. And I was having one now, standing in my yard, watching as Avery played catch with my uncooperative dog. She showed more thirst for life watching my dog horde his sticks, than I showed for the most meaningful moments in mine. Melody was the perfect example, my own girlfriend had never once asked me about my work and more fucked up, I had no interest in sharing that part of my life with her. I had been going through the motions of living, but I hadn’t actually been living. And I think if I were being honest, I’d been in that mode since I was a kid.

She studied me expectantly. I answered her honestly. “Wood shop class. Loved the smell of the wood when cut, the feel of the wood after a sanding. My first piece was a set of bookends, simple design that I stained a dark oak. I’ve had the bug ever since.”

“Your work is exquisite.”

Hearing that from her had my chest feeling a bit tight and coming as a one-two punch with my earlier observation, knocked me off-balance so I retreated. “I’ve got work.”

And yet I didn’t get anything done because my thoughts were still outside with Avery. I needed to stop dragging my feet and take a play from Avery’s book and the first step in doing that was to break it off with Melody.

Arriving at Melody’s condo, I stood at the call box; tension tightened my muscles and had the start of a headache threatening. I’d no idea how she was going to take me breaking it off with her, and by that how crazy she was going to get, but it was time.

She didn’t know I was coming otherwise she’d have worked up excuses and arguments, which would turn what was bound to be unpleasant, nasty. Ringing her apartment, I knew she was home; she was usually home. She didn’t work; her telling everyone she was interviewing was bullshit. She hadn’t been on an interview yet. I hadn’t called her on it, didn’t want her to lose face, but it was just another symptom of the problem.

It took surprisingly long for her to answer; she was probably still sleeping. “Hello?”

“It’s Rafe. Can I come up?”

“Rafe.” She had a tone, knew she intended to make me pay for the other night before she let it go. Too bad for her I didn’t give a shit if she did or didn’t. “Hold on.”

The door buzzed open.

When I reached her apartment, she stood in the threshold dressed in only a sexy little lace number. “Come in.”

Her ass swayed, the silk clinging in a very nice way as she moved deeper into her apartment. And yes I looked because I wasn’t dead.

She turned when she reached the kitchen, her hips cocking, a smile touching her lips. “What are you doing here? After the other night, I’m not sure I should have let you up.”

“What was that shit at Allegro?”

“Excuse me?”

“You never come out with my friends and when you do, you get drunk the first hour and demand we leave.”

Looking and really seeing her, I saw the feigned innocence and it grated that I hadn’t seen it before. “The drinks went to my head.”

“Bullshit.”

She switched tactics. “Okay, honesty. I don’t like that you have that woman living right outside your back door.”

Hearing her call Avery
that woman
stirred my temper. “Are you serious?”

“Yes, I’m serious. You have a beautiful, young woman living on your property within walking distance of your bedroom. Any woman dating you would be pissed about that.”

“If I’m with someone, I don’t fuck around. If you knew me, you’d know that. We’ve been together long enough, Melody, you should fucking know me.”

“Don’t give me that. How would you feel if I had a hot man living with me?”

“She’s not living with me, she’s renting my carriage house.”

“Same difference.”

“No, it’s not the same.”

“I don’t like it, Rafe.”

“Why? You think the temptation is too great and I’m just some rutting dog?”

“Too great?”

Figured, she was accusing me of being a cheater, but she narrowed in on the fact that I called the temptation that Avery posed as great.

“You and I were fine until she showed up.”

That wasn’t true, but I hadn’t had the motivation to end things until Avery. “This isn’t about Avery.”

“I think it is.”

“It’s about your games, your lies and how I’m done.”

“What games?”

“Like the one you’re playing right now. You know damn well what I’m talking about. Your lies about interviewing, that shit with Avery, the constant dodging of my friends…do I need to go on?”

Her fingers turned white with how hard she held the edge of the counter. “Are you breaking up with me?”

“Yeah, I am.”

Again the tactic change, words weren’t working so she tried something else. She walked around the counter to stand just in front of me. Her fingers moved to my chest, a light stroke as she looked up at me through her lashes, “Let’s not let this little lacy number go unused, let me remind you of how good we are in the bedroom.”

She wasn’t wrong; the sex had been great. Like I’d said, killer blowjobs. Never knew a woman to like sucking dick like Melody. She got off on it, had on many occasions come from nothing more than having my cock in her mouth. But not even the sex was tempting enough to make me stay.

“It’s over, Melody. Take care of yourself.”

I had momentarily stunned her, since she made not one move to stop me when I walked to the door. She found her voice though, as the door was closing, by the string of curses she hurled at me.