Page 257 of Double Daddies
Mack snorted. “Dude, I sent the invite to your PAandemailed a copy directly to you.”
Well, that answered several questions. “Yvette or Yasmin?”
“Brigitte.”
Tristan winced. The one time he’d fucked his PA had come back to bite him on the ass, apparently. “Yeah, Brigitte didn’t really have her head in the personal assistant game.” But ithad been in his lap, several times. “We didn’t part on amicable terms.”
“You missed our wedding because you banged your PA,” Mack translated accurately. “When are you going to learn that keeping your dick in your pants at key moments will save you an inordinate amount of trouble down the line?”
“My dick objects to extended periods of captivity.”
Beers expertly hooked in one hand, Liam walked to the end of the bar and came through the hatch. “Mack missed you. We were looking forward to meeting you after hearing so much about you and your antics.”
Antics? For god’s sake, what had his best friend been saying about him? “Nothing good, I hope. All the good bits are boring.”
“Apparently if being a player was a sport, you’d be the GOAT.”
Strange how he could feel pride at his personal accomplishments in the field of fucking around at a professional level, yet be wounded by his friend’s summation. The truth hurt, he supposed, particularly when his career as a manwhore wasn’t satisfying him anymore, on several levels. “I’ll add it to my resume.”
They took a table in the middle of the room, presumably so Liam could keep an eye on the bar and their wife would be able to see them if she emerged from the back room. As they sat, Mack studied him suspiciously. “Something’s different about you, Tris. It feels like something’s shifted.”
Testing the waters, Tristan shrugged. “I met a woman.”
“You meet a lot of women, it’s nothing new.”
“She’s different.”
“Different enough you know her name?” Mack joked, then his humorous expression faded when he read Tristan’s face. Leaning forward, he touched the back of his hand to Tristan’s forehead. “You don’t have a fever. Are you feeling okay?”
Liam narrowed his eyes. “Have you got a thing for Avery?”
“Avery?OurAvery?” Mack gave Tristan a smack on the forehead with his palm before settling back in his chair. “No, Tris. Absolutely not.” He turned his dark eyes on his husband. “Wait, how do you know he’s interested in her?”
The intuitive blond simply watched Tristan like a bug. “I saw your face when she came in earlier to deliver the cookies. You weren’t looking at her like she was a potential quick fuck. In your eyes, she was the holy grail.” He laughed, shaking his head before popping the top off a beer and handing it over. “Here, drink this. Must be a scary experience for a player to stumble across a woman who has the power to bring an end to it all.”
Tristan accepted the beer, a derisive snort in his throat. He was tempted to deny it, to blow off Liam’s observations, but there was a pair of dark, secretive eyes trapped in his mind’s eye daring him to ruin things before he got a chance to start them. “Doesn’t matter anyway. She was cuddled up on some guy’s hip last time I saw her, being carted off upstairs.”
“Some guy?”
“Six-two, dark hair, blue eyes. I figured he was her Dom; she’d been crying, and he was incredibly focused on her.”
Mack and Liam exchanged glances.
“Avery doesn’t have a Dom, Tris. She’s only been here a couple weeks and she mainly keeps to herself in the kitchen.”
“Clay’s had his eye on her from the day she came to interview,” Liam pointed out. “Even Evander noticed his interest. He matches that description—did he look like he wouldn’t seem out of place with a cowboy hat and horse?”
Well, shit. That summed him up down to a tee. “Yeah.”
“Huh. Our little baker has two suitors, Mack.”
“Clay will eat Tristan alive,” Mack predicted somberly. “Sorry, Tris, but it’s true. If it comes down to a fight, your biggest weapons are a manicure and six hours a week at the gym. Clay’sall fucking muscle and he’s not a gym bunny. He spent years as a cowboy, doing ranch shit, until he got totaled by a cow. If you want a shot at Avery—and I’m not saying you should take one unless you’re damn sure she’s not just a fleeting obsession—you have two options.”
Fleeting obsession? The truth kept coming, didn’t it? Mack was his best friend for a reason—he knew how Tristan’s brain worked, his likes and dislikes, what collared his interest in a woman. “Might as well give it to me straight, Mack. You’re not pulling punches today.”
“Avery’s becoming a firm favorite among the Masters, not just because she’s an exemplary baker. She’s kind, sweet, shy. The kind of sub we protect at all costs. I love you like a brother, but if you fuck around and break her heart…”
“It’ll cost you,” Liam told him gravely.
