He'd told me that I hadn't done anything inappropriate, and when he'd first woken up in bed with me, he hadn't seemed too worried about the fact that we were both less than dressed, but something between him waking up and now had turned him into someone I didn't recognize. Someone who pulled out of our hugs instead of leaning into them. Someone who was always running off to do God only knew what when I tried to sit by him on the couch.
It was by no means something I wanted to discuss, especially if it meant learning something about myself I wouldn't be proud of, but the idea that I could possibly hurt my friend and he was being too nice to tell me about it, was killing me.
Plopping down next to him on the couch, I turned opening my mouth to speak, but not entirely sure what to say. What to ask.
He was so handsome. Something I noticed the very first time I'd seen him and had noticed every single moment I spent with him since. His hair was dark, like most of the people in his family, and his eyes were too. His features were masculine, but somehow still… pretty. I wasn't sure that I'd ever call him pretty to his face. I'd never known him to care about those things, so wasn't entirely sure that it would be something he appreciated, but he definitely was.
His eyes rolled in my direction as his head stayed facing straight ahead, and he raised an eyebrow at me. "Avery? Why you staring at me like that?"
"What did I do to make you uncomfortable?" I asked point blank, reaching up to run my fingers through my hair and pulling slightly. "I know I did something. No matter what's going on, you can't seem to get away from me fast enough, and you weren't like this before the other night, so I know I did something. Was I sleepwalking again?"
He groaned, dropping his head back on his shoulders. "Sleepwalking." He huffed out a small laugh, shaking his head. "I completely forgot that you used to do that." Sighing, he reached out and grabbed my forearm, squeezing it slightly, meeting my eyes and leaning in close. "You didn't do anything wrong, Avery. Nothing at all."
He looked genuine, but I knew what I was feeling. Something was bothering him, and it had to do with me. "Then what's going on with you… and me? You think I don't notice how you've been trying to get away from me all the time?"
Damn! This was exactly what I was trying to avoid. I sounded like a boyfriend... A boyfriend who was about to get broken up with.
"It wasn't you, okay? Yes, you were definitely sleepwalking, probably because of the cold medicine, but you didn't do anything inappropriate." He said, covering his face with his hands. "It was me. I did something inappropriate, not realizing, and I feel horrible because now I know you were completely out of it."
"Oh," I said blinking. Oh. "Okay, well, that's really no big deal. Don't stress about it."
But I just might stress about it. Would it be crossing some kind of line to ask him what it was he'd done? To be completely honest, I was pretty pissed that I'd missed it.
He raised an eyebrow, frowning at me in a way that spoke of disapproval. "What do you mean, don't stress about it? It's okay for you to stress about something you might've done that was inappropriate, when you were way too out of it to possibly know what you were doing, but I'm not supposed to stress out about something that I know I did that was inappropriate?"
I could practically see yellow flashing lights over his head. Somehow, I knew I was treading on dangerous territory here, but I wasn't entirely sure why. "Yes?"
"And why exactly is it okay for me to do inappropriate things, but not you?"
I froze, not really sure what to say that wasn't going to get me in more trouble with him. On the one hand, I didn't want him to feel bad about something he might've done by accident while lying in bed next to me––though I was incredibly curious, and was probably going to have more dreams tonight, covering all the possibilities. On the other hand, I was pretty sure if I said the wrong thing at this moment, this whole conversation was gonna blow up in my face.
"It's just that… I feel like…" He raised his eyebrows, making it clear he was waiting for me to get my thoughts in order.
Clearing my throat, I licked my lips. "Whatever it was that you did, you've suffered enough for it. You obviously feel bad, and you truly didn't realize that I wasn't in my right mind." I paused, blushing hard before mumbling through clenched teeth as I tried to look anywhere but at him. "Plus, I'm pretty sure whatever it was… I didn't mind it."
His lips twitched, telling me he was trying not to laugh, which had kind of been the goal all along.
"How do you know you wouldn't have minded?"
"Because I'm an alpha?" I shrugged, telling the truth. "Alpha's rarely mind when gorgeous omegas do inappropriate things to them. You know, unless they have an omega already."
He blinked, his eyebrows raising. "Gorgeous?"
I smiled softly, putting my arm over his shoulder and pulling him close. "Archer, you are one of the most gorgeous men I've ever met in my life. How do you not know that?"
He blushed, eyes owlish as he looked over my face, gauging how genuine I was. I didn't know what he saw, but I was definitely genuine.
"Now, stop moping around and avoiding me," I said, wishing I could pull him into my lap, like I'd done several times in the past. Unfortunately, I didn't think he was quite ready to get back there yet. "You're my best friend in the whole world." I smirked over his head. "And if you ever feel the need to do inappropriate things to me when I'm sleepwalking, please, feel free."
He laughed, smacking my side, but our first hug in two days felt like heaven, and as emotion rose in my throat, I knew I'd never be able to live without this man.
Chapter Three
Thankfully, things between Avery and I had gone back to normal, and though I knew I needed to tell him what had actually happened, since I was sure he thought it was something like brushing up against his dick while he was sleeping, or copping a feel of his ass, I did feel better that he at least knew I'ds done something I shouldn't have, but, since I was a giant child who was horrible at communication, I'd let the last three days slip by without telling him anything.
I wasn't sure what to think about that whole feel free to do inappropriate things to me thing, but it had sure put a lot of ideas in my mind that I didn't think was healthy for either one of us. I knew it was a terrible idea, but I'd gone to sleep every single night with three fingers in my ass and a hand around my dick, just thinking about his words.
I knew it wasn't real. He'd been trying to make a joke to make me feel better, but he'd really opened a can of worms with that one, and my sexual frustration was getting out of control.
It was the weekend of my family's reunion. It was one of the weekends of my family's multiple reunions throughout the year. That's right, we didn't just have one family reunion annually, or even every few years like normal families. My big-ass, incredibly invasive, insane family liked to get together at least four times a year. And I didn't mean just immediate family. I meant my cousins' cousins came. It was a cluster… and a blast.