Always Loving You

Dominic sank back into his chair, releasing a breath. “Nothing has happened between us. She doesn’t even know. I mean, we live in the same apartment building, so I see her around a lot.”

“So you lusted after Gwen or whatever you want to call it the whole time I was dating her?”

Dominic looked pained as he admitted, “Well, yeah, that’s about right.”

Mac shook his head in disgust. “Shit, Dom, why didn’t you say something? I’d never have asked her out the first time if I’d known.”

Dominic looked away before saying quietly, “You needed her more. Ava has kept you tied in knots for years. I figured if there was someone to get you away from all that, then what I wanted didn’t really matter.”

“Dom, brother,” Mac began, feeling at a loss for words.

“Does anyone else feel like we’re having our own Oprah Winfrey Show? Just sayin’ . . . ,” Gage said with what was almost a straight face. Luckily, his comment had effectively broken the tension that had been building in the room, and Mac was grateful.

“Um . . . yeah, let’s get back on track,” Mac replied. “First, though, Dom, if you like Gwen, then you have my blessing. She’s a very nice woman, and you had better treat her as such. I’m just gonna assume that this sudden BFF thing that you were doing with Ava had something to do with that.” Holding up his hand when Dominic would have answered, he added, “Let’s just leave it at that. I may have to kill Gage if he makes another comment, and we need to finish this meeting and get back to work.”

“I never get any appreciation around here,” Gage grumbled as they started going through the assignments for the day.

Mac smothered a grin, thinking how odd it was that all three of them seemed to have some type of woman problems. If misery loved company, then he finally had someone around to share it with. Thing was, though, his misery seemed to be ending while theirs was just beginning. He’d try not to enjoy it too much, since his brothers had been there for him through years of bad moods and moping around. But, damn, he wanted to relish it . . . just a little.

*   *   *

Ava and Emma had been working steadily all morning on a presentation that Ava planned to make to a potential new customer the next day. When they stopped to have a much-needed break and a cup of coffee, Ava attempted to sound casual and said, “So, I stayed the night with Mac last night and I accidentally attacked him this morning.”

Emma cursed as she took a big gulp of her hot coffee. “Ugh! Why did you do that to me? Couldn’t you have given me some warning before blurting out something like that?” Wiggling her tongue around as if trying to cool it off, she set her cup down and glared at Ava. “Okay, let’s try that again.”

Ava couldn’t control the grin that covered her face at Emma’s disgruntled but still overly curious expression. “I stayed the night with Mac, but then had a nightmare this morning and . . . scratched him all up.” Shaking her head, she added, “He looked terrible.”

Emma’s eyes were wide as she said, “Wow! Wait a minute. Am I the first person you’ve told about this? I’m still pissed that you told Suzy about the first time with Mac. I would have totally dumped your brother for lunch that day had you given me any indication that you had some big news to share. Speaking of . . . was it big—news?”

“Oh my God,” Ava groaned, “I can’t believe you asked that too! What is it with the women here and their fixation on men’s penis sizes?”

“Ah, come on. Half the men here walk around so damn cocky, ha-ha, pun intended, that you want to know if there’s something to back that swagger up. Suzy, Claire, Beth, and Ella all swear that their men are packing some serious digits, and it’s for damn sure that your brother is . . .”

“Gross! Must all our conversations include something about sex or Brant’s body parts? He might be your fiancé and apparently you two go at it like damn horny rabbits, but he is my brother! I really don’t need to know if he’s big, small, or makes your eyes roll back in your head within thirty seconds—just yuck!”

Almost as if Ava hadn’t just finished a rant, Emma said, “So you’re saying he’s big, right?”

Ava picked a folder up from her desk and smacked it against her own forehead several times before dropping it. In a resigned voice she said, “Yes, damn you, he is.”

“I knew it! Honey, those cargo pants don’t hide anything. Same goes for Dominic and Gage. They might as well be holding up a sign next to their crotch that says XL,” Emma joked.

Ava stared at her future sister-in-law and thought, yet again, that her brother had his work cut out for him. Of course, considering that he had always been a complete stuffed shirt, Emma was the best thing to have ever happened to him. “Does Brant know that you stare at the front of every man’s pants in this building? Probably in Myrtle Beach as well? I mean, how do you do that without them noticing?”

“I could teach you,” Emma offered.

Surprised, Ava asked, “Really? Like how . . . No! I don’t want to know. Please, let’s just change the subject.”

Grinning at her slip, Emma said, “Okay, but if you change your mind . . . So, anyway, what happened with the whole bad dream thing this morning? I mean, do you remember what you were dreaming about when you went postal?”

Ava sat back in her chair, flipping a paper clip between her fingers. “Yeah, it was . . . about the guy who raped me. It wasn’t like the first time I’ve dreamed about it, but this was different, more like it was happening now, and I was defending myself. It was still him, though. I was so determined that he wouldn’t win this time. I was fighting him with everything I had. Mac finally woke me up by yelling at me to stop and had to keep me from ripping him apart. He . . . he had blood dripping down his face, Em. I let him keep things light afterward, but I seriously wanted to have a huge crying fit knowing that I’d done that to him. I just don’t understand why it happened.”

All seriousness now, Emma moved to the edge of her seat, her eyes full of support and sympathy. “It might have scared you, and it most assuredly scared Mac, but I don’t think it’s that strange, considering what happened to you—”

“I get that,” Ava interrupted, “but before when I dreamed about . . . him, it was just flashbacks, bits and pieces of what happened. Never once have I dreamed of fighting back. Of being pissed at what was happening to me. I was always helpless in the other dreams, but this one, I never felt that way. I felt like I could save myself . . . you know, if I just fought hard enough.”