Page 1 of More Than Anything

When JasonDavidson opened the door, he was surprised to find AveryHolcomb still on the sofa, rubbing one off. “What the hell are you doing? Have you been sitting here watching porn all day?”

“Shut the fuck up, Davidson. You have a girlfriend. I don’t. Remember?” Avery shoved his suddenly-limp appendage back into his fly and zipped it shut. “Ruin a perfectly good hard-on, why don’t you?”

“Get your ass off the sofa, why don’t you?” Jason snapped back. “And for god’s sake, clean up after yourself.” Jason picked up several dirty plates and a couple of glasses and put them into the sink.

“Yes. You’re superior to me in every way. Why don’t you just come out and say it?” Avery growled, making his way toward the kitchen. “For your information, I had every intention of cleaning up after myself. I was just going to do it ten minutes after you walked through the door.” As he fiddle-fucked around at the sink, rinsing and shoving everything into the dishwasher, he could feel Jason’s eyes on him. “What?”

Jason just shook his head. “Man, are you ever going to get your shit together?”

“If you’ll recall, I had my shit together. And somebody snatched it away from me.” With that, Avery slammed the dishwasher door closed. “If you need me for anything, I’ll be in my room?dead.”

Jason shook his head again. “Yeah. Might as well be. You don’t have a life anymore anyway.”

That’s sure as hell true, Avery thought to himself as he stalked off down the hallway to his lair.

* * *

He’d been sitting thereat the bar for at least an hour, and drowning his sorrows wasn’t exactly what he would’ve called it?more like gargling with them and then spitting them everywhere. Four beers in an hour. That was a pretty good average. Not much of a buzz, but just enough that he was feeling a little better. Of course, better was a subjective thing, and his better was someone else’s not-so-great, but he’d take what he could get.

And speaking of taking what he could get, three women had already hit on him. He would’ve taken any of the three, but he was waiting for that one, the one that made him tingle when she walked into the room, made his cock stand up and take notice, made his balls bang together. Fortunately, it only took one more beer.

Sure enough, she came strolling in, a tall, leggy blond with big green eyes and a full left arm sleeve, brightly colored too.Some kind of dragon,he thought, and he wanted to see the rest of it, hoping maybe it wrapped around her torso and made itself known in all other kinds of ways. When she sat down two seats away from him, he glanced over at her to find her cutting her eyes toward him.

Bingo.

Avery plopped a fifty down on the bar top, and the bartender headed straight to him, bypassing the blond as she sat there. “Yeah, another one?”

“Sure. And give the lady whatever she wants,” he told the bartender loudly enough for the woman to hear him. She spun on her barstool and flashed him a beautiful, white smile. “’Zat okay with you?” he asked in her direction.

“That’s more than okay with me. Mind if I join you?” she asked, her southern drawl making his muscles flex.

“Come right on down here. I’ve been saving this seat for you all evening. Name’s Avery,” he said, holding out a hand.

She took it and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Shayla. And this seat’s for me?” she asked, batting her eyelashes.

“Obviously. I’ve let a few other girls try it out, but you’re the one who looks right sitting on it,” Avery told her, laying it on thick.

“Oh, yeah? I bet you say that to every girl who walks by,” she said with a wink.

He shrugged. “I’ve let quite a few walk by tonight. You’re the first one I’ve let sit there for more than a few seconds.” That wasn’t exactly true; two of them had sat down and talked to him, only to have another guy walk up and whisk them away. That’s what they did?sidle up to a guy sitting by himself and get him to buy her a drink to save their boyfriend’s money. He saw it all the time. “By the way, which one of these guys is your boyfriend?” Avery asked. It was getting late and he was tired of messing around. Best to just cut to the chase or he’d be going home alone.

She glanced around the room quickly, then stared straight at him. “I’d say he’s right here beside me. At least for now. It’s a temporary position. You applying?”

“I might be,” Avery was ready to take up the game. “What does it entail?”

“You’d have to find someone to bring with you. Someone big and hard who can stay up all night,” she said with a wink and glanced down at the front of his jeans.

“Not a challenge. I know just the guy,” Avery told her matter-of-factly. That really made her smile. “Just say the word and he’ll rise to the occasion.”

He watched as she squirmed on her barstool like it was on fire. God, he hoped Jason was out when he took her home with him. Or maybe they’d go to her place. He’d like that better because he could get up and leave whenever he wanted. There had been plenty of times when he had trouble getting a woman out of his bed, and he hated that. As though she were reading his thoughts, she said, “My roommate’s out of town for the weekend. Want to come to my place and entertain each other?”

“Let me finish this beer. My friend likes being fully hydrated before he runs a marathon,” Avery told her, taking another sip. “So what do you do, Shayla?”

“You remembered my name!” she chirped. And she seemed astonished that he would.

“Of course! And my name is…”

“Avery!” He nodded and smiled. “Well, I work at the army base. I’m in acquisitions.”

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