“Unless there’s anything to discuss, let’s get out of here,” I say as I look around the conference room. It’s nearing eight PM, and I just finished up our quarterly meeting for Caterva’s technology advisory board.
While my idea to change the face of blood analysis was pioneering, it was also an uphill battle. I didn’t seek further education after getting my B.S. in chemical engineering, but I knew if I was going to push the idea forward, I’d need to stack my advisors heavily around me. The technology board is replete with pharmaceutical executives, diagnostics experts, and university professors. Andrew co-chairs the board with my former Berkley professor, who is the senior faculty scientist at the school’s national laboratory.
It takes another half an hour for everyone to give farewells and handshakes until we meet again. Most are flying out this evening, which is par for the course. We’re not social friends, and they all have other careers they attend to when not acting as my advisors.
When the last board member leaves, my gaze turns to Andrew, who is stuffing the meeting materials into his backpack. The chief scientist for a major biotech firm and he still walks around with a ratty NorthFace backpack. While I’m in an expensive tailored suit, he’s happy in jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt, and some Vans, but I don’t give a fuck what he wears or how he transports documents. I only care that he’s in this company with Avril and me.
“Want to grab some dinner tonight?” I ask, and his head pops up. “I bet Avril is still here working. Let’s go grab some sushi.”
“Avril’s gone,” Andrew says and looks back down to the table to grab a small binder that he slips in his backpack. After he zips it up, he looks back to me and shocks me down to my bones. “She’s going back to The Wicked Horse tonight.”
“What?” My voice comes out slightly high-pitched from surprise at that statement.
Slinging his backpack over his shoulder and then shoving that hand into a jean pocket, he gives me a look that’s almost accusing. “You apparently created a monster.”
“I created a monster?”
“Well, the club created a monster,” Andrew mutters. “She went Friday, loved it so much that she went back Saturday. And she shot me a text a little bit ago to tell me she was going again tonight.”
“What the fuck?” I murmur as my gaze drifts off to the Vegas skyline lit up with a million sparkles.
“She invited me to go,” Andrew says, and my head snaps back to him.
“As in to be… with her at the club?” I ask for clarification. While I personally know that both Avril and Andrew had a good time Friday night, I never would have taken either one as repeat visitors. And while I know the way they stared at each other while they were fucking forged some type of new bond, I didn’t think it would extend any further.
Andrew shakes his head. “No, not like that. Just as friends, and to do our own thing.”
“Jesus,” I say in disbelief as I sink down into the closest chair to me. I stare blankly across the table.
“I’m worried about her,” Andrew says, and he appears in my line of sight by taking the chair opposite me.
“Why?” I ask hesitantly.
I figure that’s what they were talking about yesterday morning in his office because there was a seriously heavy vibe in the air when I opened the door. I knew that shared experience would have changed something, and I’ve been worried about it. I’ve also been replaying in my mind how fucking sexy it was watching them that night, and I know something’s changed within me, too.
I just don’t know what exactly.
“Is that club dangerous?” Andrew asks, refusing to answer my question.
I shake my head. “Not at all. Completely safe. Good security. There’s never been a problem to my knowledge.”
“I don’t like it,” Andrew says softly.
“Don’t like what?” I push at him. “The club itself or the fact you and Avril shared something intimate and it’s messing with your mind?”
His eyes narrow on me, as there’s enough confidence in my statement that I know what I’m talking about. “How do you know what we shared was intimate?”
“I was there… in a smaller private club. I saw you two on a video feed.”
“Fuck,” Andrew mutters as his gaze drops from mine. His embarrassment couldn’t be any clearer. “This is so fucking complicated.”
“How is Avril?” I ask. I can see Andrew’s bothered, but I want to know about Avril, since she’s the one I’ve always stepped up to the plate to protect as a woman. I don’t see her as lesser or weaker, but I do have an inherent need to make sure she’s looked after.
Always have for as long as I can remember.
Andrew’s gaze lifts back up to meet mine. His voice is flat. “She’s completely in love with that place. Went on about how liberating it was, and she found a new power or something like that. But I think she’s just wanting to even the score with Jamie.”
“She’s not like that,” I assert.
Andrew sighs. “Yeah… I know. It’s just easier to believe that rather than accept that she’s turned into a sex kitten or something overnight.”
And I see it.
Clear as day on his face.
The door has been cracked open, and Andrew is now looking at Avril in a completely different light. He wants her.
“Did you know that you and Avril both came at the same time Friday night?” I ask, and it gets the intended reaction I was driving for. His body jolts as his eyes narrow and his teeth grind together.
“Goddamn it, Dane,” Andrew growls. “You watched the entire thing? I thought you just meant you’d seen us walking through the club or something.”
I lean forward and tell my best friend the truth so he quits hiding from it and can deal with it. “I watched the two of you fuck other people while staring across that room at each other, and I did it while some chick was sucking my cock. I fucking blew my load right along with you two.”
And shit… just saying those words causes my dick to start to swell, because it was one of the hottest things I’d ever seen in my life.
“You were turned on by what you were watching,” I tell him softly but assuredly.
He stares back at me unblinkingly, but his jawline is tight with tension.
“I was turned on, too. You’d have to be dead not to be aroused by it.”
Through clenched teeth, Andrew says, “I never wanted to think of her that way.”
I lean forward on the table, clasping my hands to give him a pointed look. “Buddy… it was never my intention either. It’s why I was against the idea to begin with. But that ship has sailed.”
“So what?” Andrew says aggressively as he also leans forward, pressing his palms into the table. “I just put it out of my mind? Pretend it didn’t happen?”
“If that’s what you need to do,” I tell him with a nod. “Or… you accept it and move on.”
“Move on?”
I don’t answer right away so I can collect my thoughts. I have the power to settle Andrew down, or I have the power to make him consider something different. I choose to go different because I know Andrew. It will kill him to pretend because he’s the one with the biggest conscience of the three of us. He has to confront his guilt and realize there is nothing wrong with what he and Avril did that night.