“Fuck,” I groaned.
Burned like holy fucking hell, but it was worth it. Washing it down with my beer, I stepped out of the kitchen just in time to see Ollie heading toward the front door. With Raphael.
“Oh, come the hell on.” I put my beer down.
“Be free, little green buddy,” he coaxed, kissing Raphael’s shell. “Be free.”
“Bring Raphael back!” I yelled, laughing as Ollie drunk-karate-kicked the front door the rest of the way open. “You fucktard!”
Ollie put Raphael down and gently nudged his shell. “Free.”
Grabbing his arm, I spun him around and pushed him back into the apartment. Laughing, Ollie grabbed Steph’s friend and lifted her over his shoulder. A riot of squeals broke out.
I scooped up the tortoise. “Sorry, Raphael. My friends are complete, fucking . . .” A strange tingle broke out across my neck. I looked to my left and then my right, seeing Avery standing in a doorway, her brown eyes wide. “Assholes. What the . . . ?”
I hadn’t drunk nearly enough to be hallucinating, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Shortcake was standing in my apartment building. The apartment had been empty whenever I’d been around over the summer, but someone, obviously, could’ve moved in.
And based on the way she was dressed, someone she was very familiar with. The cotton shorts were short, ending at the thigh, and my gaze got hung up on her legs. They were long, not too skinny and perfectly shaped. Who would’ve thought Shortcake would be rocking a pair of legs like that? Blood shot straight to my groin. The long-sleeve shirt she wore covered everything, but it was thin.
Hell yeah, it was thin.
Her breasts were soft swells under the shirt, fuller than they had felt pressed against my chest earlier, and those tips . . .
Her cheeks flushed several shades of pink. “Hey . . .”
I blinked and when she didn’t disappear and neither did my sudden, raging hard-on, I assumed she was real. “Avery Morgansten? This is becoming a habit.”
“Yeah,” she said. “It is.”
“Do you live here or are you visiting . . . ?” Raphael started squirming.
She cleared her throat, watching the tortoise. “I . . . I live here.”
“No shit?” Holy crap. I made my way around the railing to the stairwell and toward her door. I didn’t miss how her eyes went to my abs. I liked. So did my cock. “You really live here?”
“Yes. I really live here.”
“This is . . . I don’t even know.” I laughed, somewhat dumbstruck. “Really crazy.”
“Why?” Confusion marked her pretty face, crinkling the skin between the delicate brows.
“I live here.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You’re joking, right?”
“No. I’ve been living here for a while—like a couple of years with my roommate. You know, the fucktard who put poor Raphael outside.”
“Hey!” Ollie yelled. “I have a name. It’s Señor Fucktard!”
I laughed. “Anyway, did you move in over the weekend?”
She nodded.
“Makes sense. I was back home, visiting the fam.” I cradled Raphael against my chest before he wiggled his way to a broken shell. “Well, hell . . .”
Avery tipped her head back to meet my gaze. For a moment, she held mine with her own soulful gaze, before turning her attention to Raphael. Her eyes . . . they reminded me of something. “That’s . . . um, your tortoise?”
“Yeah.” I lifted him up. “Raphael, meet Avery.”
She bit down on her lip and gave Raphael a wave, and a grin split my lips. Shortcake got pointers for that. “That’s a very interesting pet.”
“And those are very interesting shorts. What are they?” I took another long look at those legs. I couldn’t help myself. “Pizza slices?”
“They’re ice cream cones.”
“Huh. I like them.” I lifted my gaze, taking my time. “A lot.”
She finally let go of her death grip on the door and crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes narrowed when I grinned. “Thanks. That means a lot to me.”
“It should. They have my seal of approval.” I watched the flush continue to stain her cheeks. “I need to get Raphael back in his little habitat before he pees on my hand, which he’s bound to do, and that sucks.”
Her lips twitched into a small grin. “I can imagine.”
Did Shortcake just grin? It had to be a first. I wondered what she looked like when she actually smiled. “So, you should come over. The guys are about to leave, but I’m sure they’ll be around for a little longer. You can meet them.” I leaned in, lowering my voice. “They’re no way as interesting as I am, but they’re not bad.”
Avery’s gaze flickered over my shoulder. Indecision crawled over her face. Come on, Shortcake, come out and play. She shook her head. “Thanks, but I was heading to bed.”
Disappointment pricked at my skin. “This early?”
“It has to be after midnight.”
I grinned. “That’s still early.”
“Maybe to you.”
“Are you sure?” I was about to pull out the big guns. “I have cookies.”
“Cookies?” Two brows rose.
“Yeah, and I made them. I’m quite the baker.”
“You baked cookies?”
The way she asked that was like I’d just admitted to baking a homemade bomb in my kitchen. “I bake a lot of things, and I’m sure you’re dying to know all about those things. But tonight, it was chocolate-and-walnut cookies. They are the shit if I do say so myself.”
Her lips twitched again. “As great as that sounds, I’m going to have to pass.”
“Maybe later then?”
“Maybe.” She stepped back, reaching for the door. “Well, it’s good seeing you again, Cameron.”
“Cam,” I corrected. “And hey, we didn’t almost run each other over. Look at us, changing up the pattern.”
“That’s a good thing.” She took a deep breath. “You should get back before Raphael pees on your hand.”
“Would be worth it.”
Confusion marked her features. “Why?”
I sure as hell wasn’t going to explain it. “If you change your mind, I’ll be up for a while.”