Page 87 of Theirs to Desire (Club M: Boxed Set)

MADDOX

A ll week, I’ve been trying to decide if I’m going to attend Damon Ettenberg’s show. Friday afternoon, at a late lunch with Kai and Avery, I finally make up my mind.

“What are the two of you doing tonight?” I ask them. “Do you want to go to an art gallery?”

Kai raises an eyebrow. He knows about the glass show; I’d filled him in during the weekend. “Really?” he asks, not bothering to hide the note of surprise in his voice. “Sure, count me in.”

Avery looks at the two of us. “You sound stressed. What am I missing?”

If this week has taught me anything, it’s that I don’t want our relationship to be only about sex. I want far more from Avery than ten hours once a week. I’m greedy. I want all of her.

She’s a part of my life. I can try to pretend otherwise, but I’d only be lying to myself.

“Damon Ettenberg, the glass sculptor, is my biological father, and he’s displaying his work tonight at a gallery in Georgetown. My mother’s never told him about me. I’m not planning on making a scene, but I am curious.”

Her eyes go wide. “You want me to come with you?”

She doesn’t know how good she is for me. How much she steadies me. She doesn’t know that she’s the most important person in my life. “If you don’t have other plans.” I take a deep breath. “I’d really like you there.”

There’s a sheen of tears in her eyes that she blinks away. “Well, I did have a rather exciting evening planned,” she says teasingly. “There was laundry, there was Netflix, and if I got really crazy, I was going to paint my toenails.”

I can picture her in her t-shirt, the one that comes to mid-thigh, sitting on her couch, her legs tucked under her, her hair falling in front of her face…

That image is so attractive that I wish I’d never suggested the damn gallery.

I’ve gone thirty-four years without meeting my biological father. What’s a few more, really?

“But,” she says, her lips curling into a heart-stoppingly beautiful smile, “I can always do that another night.” She puts her hand on my arm, her expression soft. “Thank you for asking me to come with you, Maddox. I’d love to.”