Page 28 of More Than Anything

“Yeah, but you could’ve just left it in the back seat of your car and come out here to fuck me. But you didn’t. You made sure you fed me before you fucked me,” Avery said, trying to find some shred of dignity to hand back to Danette, some way to make her feel like a good person.

“I was just trying to keep your strength up,” she said, eyes downcast, and then she chuckled.

Avery chuckled too. “Well, apparently it worked!” Her eyes popped up to catch his face, and he started to laugh.

That got Danette laughing, and she just kept it up when she said, “It appeared to! I’m back, aren’t I?”

“That you are!” Avery was still laughing when he said, “So I’ll tell ya, if you want to go upstairs, we can. But you can’t come back until you can come over here and tell me about a date you’ve had. Don’t care with whom. Doesn’t matter. But it’s got to be a real date, and you have to tell whoever it is that you won’t sleep with them unless they take you on a date because you deserve that. Deal?”

Danette sobered again and the smile she gave Avery was sad and forced. “Deal. Because I deserve that.”

“Exactly. Come on. Up the stairs with you. And I’m going to teach you something.” He opened the door and held it for her.

The minute she walked in, the five guys in the kitchen turned and stared, and then Joey called out, “Hey, Danette!”

“Hi, Joey. Hi, guys. It’s too noisy down here. Avery’s taking me upstairs to teach me something,” she explained, and Avery wanted to die.

“Oh, yeah?” Byron called out with a smirk. “And what’s that?”

“How to help a man pick out a tie and shirt to go with his slacks.” It was all Avery could come up with on the fly.

“Going somewhere?” Robbie asked Danette, his voice snotty and prying.

Avery glanced at Danette and watched her square her shoulders. “Yeah. On a date.”

“A date!” Byron hooted. “Since when do you date?”

To Avery’s delight, he watched Danette puff out her chest and grab herself an attitude. “Since right now. I’m looking to go out on a date, and Avery here’s gonna help me.”

“Oh, is that right?” Joey asked. “Well, will wonders never cease!”

“You boys need to get busy. Mike’s not paying you to monitor the social life of the women in town,” Avery spat out.

“That’s right,” Mike said, glancing up at Avery and grinning. “I’m not. Get back to work.”

Avery pointed to the stairs and Danette bounded up. When they reached the top, she turned to him. “Did I do good?”

“You did awesome. I’m proud of you.”

Danette gave him a sweet, happy little smile. “That felt good.”

“Good. Let’s go.” He threw the bedroom door open and they stepped into the room. The balcony doors were open and the warm, flat Texas breeze was streaming into the room, the curtains flapping and ceiling fan churning. Danette was already unbuttoning and unzipping, but Avery barked out, “No! Don’t do that.”

“Whaaa?” She spun to stare at him.

Avery closed the door, then the balcony door. “It’ll take a few minutes, but the air conditioning will catch up and the room will get cool. Now, I’m going to do this the way a real gentleman would. And I don’t want you to settle for anything less, you hear me? Be a lady, Danette. You want respect, that’s what it’s going to take.” He stepped up to her and put a hand on each of her cheeks, then leaned down into her and kissed her. His decision had been made; he was going to make love to DanetteMoyers, and he didn’t know how she’d respond.

But he was unprepared when she sagged against him and almost fell. Avery grabbed her before she could and didn’t break the kiss, but that only lasted a few seconds before he felt her start to shake. Confused, he pressed her back and looked down into her face.

Huge tears rolled down Danette’s face and she began to sob. Avery had never kissed a woman and made her cry. He wasn’t sure what was going on, and he was pretty damn uncomfortable with it. “Danette, honey, what’s wrong?”

She dropped her eyes, refusing to look at him. “Oh, Avery! I’ve made such a mess of my life! Nobody takes me seriously. The women at the church all think I’m some little fading flower, and the men all think I’m the town whore. I’ll have to move away. No man’s ever going to want me. I kept thinking if I fucked them good enough, they’d want me. I mean, I’m not pretty or anything, but?—”

“Danette.” Avery just stopped and waited until she looked up at him. “Danette, you’re cute as can be. You just don’t go to any trouble to fix yourself up because you figured if all they’re looking at are your tits and your pussy, they don’t care what your face looks like. Know what that says to them?”

“No,” she said, sniffling.

“It says you don’t care about yourself. It says you don’t think you’re worth fixing your hair or putting on a little makeup, or buying a dress that looks like the ones the other women wear?well, at least the younger ones, the ones your age. That’s what it says about you, that you don’t have any value in yourself. But you have a college degree, and you own a company.”

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