[B.S. #1] Tied Up in Knotts (6 page)

James whistled a happy tune as he walked down the sidewalk back to the office. If he wasn’t mistaken, Avery was very aware of him. That was a good start.

Chapter Six

Waking up the next morning, James sat up in bed and cursed. He was reacting like a teenage kid with his first girl. Waking up with wet sheets from a dream that seemed to be so real. He dreamed he was balls deep inside of Avery. The feelings he got were like no other. Nothing matched the feel of her tight sheath holding him. James swung his legs off the bed, reaching for tissues he now kept close by. This wasn’t the first time they had been needed since he had met her. Cleaning himself up in disgust, his other hand wearily wiped through his sleep-mussed hair. He had to do something about this. He was hard again just thinking of her. He had to stop dreaming and take action and soon. Getting up, James walked to the bathroom and stepped into the shower. Turning the water as cold as he could stand, James took himself in hand. He had to take the edge off, before he met Avery.

Avery, on the other side of town, hopped from her bed feeling excited and full of energy for the day. Looking into the mirror she grinned at herself and crossed her fingers. Maybe this was the first step to…

Well she didn’t know how to complete her thought, but anything was better than the boring routine that had become her life. Walking into the bathroom, she stepped into her shower and groaned as the hot water, finally hot, reached her aching muscles.

She had worked late into the evening, packing up her belongings. She didn’t think she had a lot. But when gathering them together, she found that she had amassed more than she thought. A couple of plants, more used books, and some thrift store clothes.

Avery had worked to pack everything, so when James got here he would only have to help her move. Scrubbing herself, Avery couldn’t stop herself from imagining James in the shower with her. Every brush of the loofah across her skin felt like his hands. A moan was barely held in when she rubbed the loofah over her breasts, they were so sensitive. God just thinking about James had her core dripping, getting her ready for him. The real thing could only be better than her thoughts.

She had started dreaming of him the first time she had spotted him in the diner. He was not the usual client the diner catered to. He stood hands above the other guys in the diner, with his black hair and startling blue eyes. Having a body that would have any red-blooded woman licking her lips also helped. Avery had nightly dreams of him sweeping her up and carrying her away from all this. Crazy, but in her dreams, he was the knight in shining armor that every little girl dreamed about. She knew she was being childish, but with reality beating on her door every day just to survive, Avery allowed herself the dream. If she didn’t have dreams and hopes, she probably would have gone crazy those first few months that she was on her own.

Avery had not been raised to be self-sufficient. The first months had been a hard and fast growing-up experience, but one childish dream couldn’t hurt, Avery kept telling herself.

Avery stood so long thinking in the shower that the water was now cold. Shivering, she hurriedly stepped out and dried herself.

Coffee, then James? Wow, the day was already great and she smiled as she slid on jeans and a T-shirt. Looking at herself in the mirror, Avery took the T-shirt back off. She needed a bra to keep her nipples covered. They seemed to have developed a daily uprising every time she spotted James. A girl had to have some secrets after all. She didn’t want to scare him off at first glance, not that he looked like he could be scared off easily.

Avery brushed her long blonde hair and stopped fantasizing. She had to get her head in the game. Today was moving day, not make out day, walking over to the coffee pot, her one costly indulgence, she had to have good coffee to get her going every morning. Just as she turned on the coffee maker, there was a rap at the door.

Looking at the clock, Avery realized she had been in the shower longer than she had thought, and it was almost ten o’clock. It was probably her knight at the door. Giggling to herself at her fanciful thoughts, Avery opened the door without looking through the peephole to see who was on the other side.

Lounging on the other side wasn’t James, it was her next door neighbor. “Well, well, home at this time of day? I guess it’s just my luck.” Looking around the small apartment, he added, “Doesn’t look like you are doing anything. I have lots of ideas how we can amuse ourselves.”

Danny had been bothering her since she had moved in. She usually saw him before he saw her so she could escape into her apartment before he could reach her. Would she never learn that some guys couldn’t take no for an answer? Avery tried to close the door as soon as she realized who was on the other side, but Danny put his foot out and stopped it half way.

“Now Avery, you don’t want it to look like you’re unfriendly?” He smirked back at his pals behind him. Pals that Avery had failed to notice at first glance out the door.

“What do you want Danny? I’m in a hurry this morning. I don’t have time for this.” Avery put everything into trying to sound gruff and unfriendly, but her voice came out as a squeak. She wasn’t a brave person and she was afraid of Danny and his group. They seemed to run the neighborhood and people, while she couldn’t say they respected them, they always gave his gang a lot of space.

Danny stood up from his slouched position beside the door and pushed it completely open, waving to his friends at the same time.” I smell coffee. Isn’t it nice that she made some for us? Always knew you were the friendly type.” Pushing Avery to the side with his hand, Danny and his group walked into Avery’s small apartment. As the last one cleared the door, Avery made a move to escape, but the guy grabbed the back of her t-shirt and pulled her back inside and slammed the door.

Avery looked at Danny and his pals. They all looked like they needed a bath and the smell of marijuana was heavy in the air around them. They had probably just smoked a joint the smell was so strong. Avery looked at them, leery as Danny grabbed the coffee pot and poured some coffee into the cup she had left beside the pot. Waving the coffee cup around, he told his friend to make themselves comfortable. Pointing at Avery, Danny waved her over to him.

“Aren’t you going to pour some coffee for the rest of my friends? We’ve had a long night and sure could use some.” With that he winked at his friend and laughed at a joke only he knew. Two of his friends had flopped down on the couch and were proceeding to unpack the box on the coffee table in front of them filled with her merger CD collection. As they pulled her CDs out, they made a pile between them, throwing any CDs they didn’t like on the floor. One of his others friends started to open the boxes around her bed. Dirty clothes that she had packed up last night were being pulled and thrown on the floor, even her underwear was out for everyone to see. Avery didn’t know if she was mad or embarrassed.

Walking into the kitchen area, Avery poured out more cups of coffee for Danny’s so-called friends. “I think you might want to cut your visit short. I’m expecting someone shortly to move me. I don’t think he will appreciate you drinking his coffee.”

Danny laughed at her and grabbed a kitchen chair and sat down. “Big words, but I watch you and you don’t know anyone. You don’t have any friends around here. So tell me another one.” Danny turned toward his pals and kicked a box at his feet. “We have plenty of time, doll. Let us drink our coffee, and we will get to the good stuff shortly.”

James was just about to knock on Avery’s door when he heard the discussion on the other side of the door.

The door had not completely latched when the last guy had slammed it, letting James get a glimpse of the group inside Avery’s apartment. He couldn’t see her, but these individuals didn’t seem to be the type that Avery would hang out with. Four large unkempt men were in her apartment going through her packed boxes. James stepped back from the door and quickly made his was back down to the second floor. He wanted to rush right in and save Avery from having to deal with the vermin, but knew in this neighborhood that they were probably armed and also dangerous. Pulling out his cell, James called Clay back at the office and gave him the scoop.

Clay picked up on the serious situation right away. “We’ll be right there. Angel just arrived and the others are in the kitchen. ETA five minutes.”

The call was abruptly dropped. James knew Clay was probably gathering the others and making their way to Avery’s apartment.

Clay, Angel, and the others quietly climbed to the third floor where they found James in front of Avery’s apartment door.

“Anything new?” Clay asked James under his breath when he reached him.

“No. They are just razzing her and drinking coffee.”

“Ready?” James knocked on the door.

“Avery, are you there? It’s James and the others from Taylor Investments. You ready to go?”

Avery signed a deep breath of relief. Danny looked at her. “Are these your friends you were talking about? Well, let them in. We don’t want to seem unfriendly, now do we?” Danny put his hand under his hooded jacket to his belt and waved at Avery to open the door. He wasn’t expecting much. Investment brokers usually were pencil pushers and not much of a threat to Danny and his gang by his way of thinking.

Avery opened the door as wide as it would go, in the hall stood James at six feet, Clay at six three and Angel that had to be six five. The other two were large shadows behind them. Avery could just barely make them out over the large muscular frames of the three already filling the open door.

Danny stood up swiftly, his chair falling to the floor behind him. The others seemed to come to a halt at the same time. All reached under their hoodies that they wore.

James stepped fully into the apartment and looked over the group with his steely blue eyes. Clay’s gray ones were a stormy slate and Angel’s were black as they took in the group of men that had invaded Avery’s apartment. James’s group wanted their menacing stance to tell the punks that maybe they should rethink what investment brokers looked like. They looked like avenging warriors, their smiles telling the punks that they had a winner-take-all attitude.

“If you’re smart, you will take your hand away from whatever weapon you are hiding and get out of here as fast as you can.” James’s voice sounded brittle as if he didn’t have any patience with Danny’s group.

Danny took his hand from under his hoodie.

“Well, you must be the brains behind this gang.” James kept his eyes on Danny as he spoke to the group with steel in his voice.

One of the guys who had stopped in the midst of throwing Avery’s clothes around tried to make himself look taller and yelled, “What are you going to do? Yous don’t look that scary to me.”

In the blink of an eye, Angel threw his knife from behind Clay and James. The knife was accurate. It hit the guy in his left shoulder and knocked him to the bed behind him. Grabbing his shoulder he cried out.

Danny seemed to shrink when he took in his friend withering in pain on Avery’s bed.

Holding his hands palm up toward them, Danny turned and went to his friend to help him up off the bed.

“We know the lady. She asks us in for coffee. No need to get so jumpy. We weren’t doing anything,” Danny told them with a friendly smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

James looked over at Avery. “I thought you had better friends than this? Did you invite them in for coffee?”

Clay and Angel didn’t take their eyes off the men now gathering in the middle of the room.

Avery gasped at James. How could the man be so stupid? With her feet planted firmly on the kitchen floor, Avery put her hand on her hips and glared at James. “No, I did not invite them in for coffee. What do you think I am, stupid?” Avery was going to go on, but James raised his hand, stopping her.

Looking back to the others in the room, he addressed Danny. “I guess you got the invite wrong? This lady is moving and any coffee she made was for us. I’m very pissed that you drank it all. If you don’t want to see us mad, you’ll leave right now and apologize to the lady.”

Danny looked over all the large men standing at the door. He was holding up his buddy, but also thinking over their odds. He knew it was a lose-lose situation. With one guy down they could never take them.

Stepping forward, balancing his friend up, Danny turned to Avery and leered at her. “Sorry, I guess I mistook your invite.”

At the door, he waited for James, Clay, and Angel to move. On the other side in the hallway, he could see two other large men. They both had guns hidden under their crossed arms with the barrels pointed in his direction. Danny’s eyes darted to James.

“You don’t play fair.”

James and the others stepped to the side and allowed Danny’s gang to pass. When Danny passed him, Angel put a hand out to stop him, gripping the knife still embedded in his friend’s shoulder, he pulled it out by its handle.

“Hey, that hurt,” the guy yelled at Angel.

Angel just stepped back and wiped the blood off the knife on the guy’s hoodie. Snapping it closed, he put it back in his pant pocket. “Next time you’ll remember to see if you’re welcome or not before entering a lady’s apartment.”

“You and your gang don’t play fair,” James mocked back at him. “You don’t like to play when the odds are not in your favor. Next time, pick on someone your same size and gender, so we know that you don’t make a habit of only going after defenseless women. You could ruin your reputation that way.”

Danny looked back. James could tell by his purple face that he wouldn’t take the insults. He was already scheming and would be back at another time. Pushing his friends ahead of him, they left by the stairs.

James bit off anything else he was going to say when he noticed that Avery stood in her kitchen, her head hanging down. He couldn’t see her face, her long blonde hair covered most of it, but he could hear her sobs.

With two giant strides, James enfolded her in his arms, pushing her hair away from her face. Feeling her this close for the first time was like heaven. James felt her soft curves melt into his harder body. She smelled like lemons and something that was uniquely Avery.