CHAPTER EIGHT

DOMINIC

My feet stay planted on the sidelines for most of the game after our client leaves early because of his sick granddaughter. I could leave, too, but I'm waiting for the game to end to find Avery. She"s remained behind her worktable ever since she stomped off—making it impossible to talk without an audience surrounding us.

Once the final out is called, I pay no mind to the winning team"s celebration. My attention is solely on watching Avery and her helper pack up. They refold messy shirts and hoodies before tossing them into plastic bins, then tear down the table, collapsing the metal legs in on themselves.

Spying my opening, I walk over. "Do you guys need help carrying anything?"

Just as Avery refuses, her assistant agrees with a grateful smile, so I heft a bin into my arms and wait for directions.

"You can take it over to the gray pick up," Avery mutters. "That"s Julie"s. She"ll bring everything back to the store tomorrow."

Nodding, I follow orders until everything is packed away in the truck bed.

"I"m going to meet up with some friends, Ave. I"ll see you on Monday!"

Julie runs off, leaving Avery and I alone in the gravel parking lot. There's a line of cars waiting to exit onto the street, though groups of people still linger around the field. Rocks crunch beneath our feet as we start walking.

"Thanks for the help. You can go now." Avery keeps looking straight ahead as if denying my presence beside her will make me disappear.

"Not so fast. We need to talk." I grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a storage shed at the edge of the parking lot. It's high handed and guaranteed to piss her off, but we're not leaving until this is settled.

Caging Avery against the wall, I held both of her wrists in my hands at her sides.

Her curvy body bucks against me. "Let me go! What do you think you"re doing?"

"I"m having a conversation with you."

She scoffs, and I lean more of my weight on hers, so we're chest to chest. If there'd been a note of fear in her gaze or tone, I would've backed off, but the only emotion flying across Avery's face is indignant fury.

"Stop being pissed at me. It was a fucking concessions line. You"re really this mad because I cut? I tried making amends, but you gave that away!"

When that woman accepted the coffee from Avery, my emotions had torn in different directions. Amusement because damn, this girl's a spitfire. And frustration because damn, I can't seem to do anything right in front of her.

An incredulous spark lights up her eyes. "The thing about making amends is that it has to be about the other person. Not you deciding what's best because it's what you'd want. But that"s your whole schtick, isn"t it? You're all about doing what you want, when you want, and expect everyone else to fall in line." An adorable growl rumbles from her throat, and I studiously stuff down the smile that itches to appear.

She's pissed.

I'm pissed.

She's not going to change that by being way too fucking cute for her own good.

"I"m sorry my apology didn"t suit you," I concede. "But I"m not going to apologize for who I am. What you view as faults, I see as strengths. No one ever makes progress by sitting around and waiting for it to come to them. I don't waste time fucking around with niceties when I can make a decision and get things done."

"I made a mistake. We can't work together." The words are a punch in the gut.

"You trying to quit on me, firebrand?" More of my weight rests on hers until our faces are inches apart.

Although we're both tense with adrenaline and anger, all I crave is to harness that energy. To claim her against this shed. Because her softness is a damn distraction.

Avery opens her mouth to voice another rejection—reject me—when my mouth moves of its own accord to stop her, my tongue slipping between her parted lips, desperate to taste her. Even for a second.

And, for once, she doesn"t fight me.

Miracle of miracles.

I angle my head to the side, and Avery moans, stroking my tongue with hers, rising on her tiptoes to increase the pressure of the kiss. Making it harder. More desperate.

Easing away, I study her cloudy eyes—full of confusion and lust—so I take my chance and go back for more. Nipping at her bottom lip. Inhaling each hot breath she releases. Drowning in the sweet heat that is Avery.

Until she snatches her head away. "Stop. We can"t do this."

I follow her jawline with my mouth, fixated on the delicate curve. "Why not?"

Freeing her captured wrists from my relaxed grip, she rushes out, "Because I don"t even like you." Then all I see is her swinging ponytail as she runs away from me towards her car.

Avery might believe that she doesn't have feelings for me, but her body tells a different story. Our kiss wasn't a one-sided affair. She gave as good as she got for that one blissful moment.

A dam inside me has broken.

A flood of need released from its concrete boundaries.

I won"t be able to stand Avery not being mine for much longer, and I"m starting to think this spark between us won"t be fizzling out anytime soon either.