Page 49 of Without Judgment

CHAPTER TWENTY

Avery

The light shining through my bedroom window woke me. But since I felt like a freight train had hit me, I groaned, turned over, and put a pillow over my pounding head. The next time I woke, I promptly decided nope. Not adulting today. Not facing Mason. And certainly not facing the fact that I’d puked in the kitchen last night while giving a blow job. Forget humiliating and go straight for mortifying. To the degree of utter paralysis.

I wanted to forget all about him. But I couldn’t. What the hell had I been thinking? Deep throating and testing my gag reflex was a good idea after a night of drinking? Stupid. Stupid.

“Hey sleepyhead, how you feeling?”

I burrowed deeper under the covers, refusing to acknowledge Mason’s presence or his nice tone. Is this what having someone puke while giving you a blow job did to the recipient? Made him nice? Made him feel sorry for me?

Kill me now.

“You can’t hide forever. Come on. Let’s talk.”

“No. Go away.” The last thing I wished to do was talk about last night. Ever.

“You’re in luck in that I have business today, which means Ricardo will be here. I’ll be away.”

I moved the pillow to squint up at his beautiful face, ignoring the fact I probably looked like hell. “What business?”

“None of yours. I put a bottle of water on your nightstand along with two Advil. I’ll be back this evening and then we’ll talk.”

Not happening. Because I never wanted to talk about it. Ever. I waited until he shut the door before I finally relaxed.

***

I was hiding. True, I’d felt like crap most of the day, and my stomach wasn’t ready for vertical until the early evening, but that was only a convenient excuse to avoid Mason once he knocked on my door at five to inform me he was back.

Finally, I wasn’t able to stand my stomach growling any longer and heard Mason’s bedroom door shut around nine that night. I tiptoed down the stairs to the kitchen. Tonight called for carb loading and leftover French toast casserole.

Mason’s voice scared the shit out of me. “Finally came out of hiding?”

I turned around, hand to my chest and about to deny it, but why bother? “Hunger will do that to a girl.”

He glanced at the plate I’d taken down to dish up my food and then back at me. “You feeling okay?”

“Much better. And, uh, thanks for the Advil this morning not to mention cleaning up the mess and getting me to bed last night.” I opened the refrigerator, dished up some of the casserole, and put it in the microwave.

“You made it easy by puking in the sink.”

He put his hands in his pockets and appeared as awkward as I felt. Especially standing here in the kitchen. Great, I’d never look at it the same.

“I owe you an apology.”

My eyes widened. “For what?”

“You were drunk last night. I should’ve stopped you.”

Although it would’ve been easy to latch onto that excuse, it was a lie. “I knew what I was doing, Mason, alcohol or not.”

He shook his head. “No, you didn’t.”

“Then why do I want to do it again?”

He hissed out a curse, his face taking on a pained expression. “We can’t.”

I found a bit of courage in the fact he’d admitted to being attracted to me last night. And he hadn’t exactly swatted me away once I’d sunk to my knees and put my lips on him.

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