Page 14 of Pressure Point

“I have five brothers. I don’t know anything about girl stuff like clothes and makeup and all that.”

“But you have a penis. One I assume works, so you can tell me if something is hot or not, right? Like, if it stands up, then I'll know I'm on to something!”

“Seriously?”

“Well, it does work, right? Because if not, I am technically a doctor. I could help!”

“It works fine,” he muttered, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Nothing about this conversation should be turning him on, but just Avery mentioning his dick made it come to life and his mind start to wander to all kinds of ways he could show her just how well it worked. He had no worries about it coming to life in her presence. The bigger concern was making sure it—and he—behaved in a way that didn’t ruin their friendship. Although maybe I shouldn’t turn down your help…

“See, then it shouldn’t be an issue!”

He rolled his eyes, careful not to let her see. He really needed to steer this conversation away from dick. Hell, away from him in general.

“Can’t you just ask Felicity or Talia?”

That was it, Felicity and Talia. One of them would have the answer.

“No! I only met Felicity Sutherland for the first time ever last night as she was educating me on womansplaining. Not to mention she’s the owner of the team! I can’t go to her and be like, ‘Hi, could you teach me how to seduce one of your players?’ And Talia…” she trailed off.

“Talia…” he prompted.

“She’s the competition.”

“Competition? Competition for what?”

“Dash. He’s all kinds of interested in her.” Her eyes fell to where her hands were resting in her lap, her thumb scratching at the chipped polish on her nails. Liam watched as she shrunk into herself, and once again, he had to fight the urge to hold her. Even if he thought her crush on Dash was dumb, he hated to see her hurting like this. He wanted to take all that hurt away and replace it with something, anything, that would make that smile of hers reappear.

“She’s not interested back,” he offered, hoping that his insider information might help cheer her up.

“Whether she is or not, she’s still what he wants. She’s…she’s pretty.” Her voice was resigned, her eyes still focused on her hands. She swallowed hard and then looked up at him. Her eyes were glassy, like her emotions were starting to take over. “And that’s all I want. To be able to find that in me. I want to be pretty.”

“You are.”

“No, I mean like pretty. Really pretty. That’s not me. I mean, I guess I’m not totally hideous. But some girls you simply look at and go ‘they’re pretty.’ And now I’ve said pretty, like, seven hundred times. I'm not that. I’m not someone you see and immediately think about how good I look. All I want is for someone to look at me across the room and think that I’m beautiful.”

Her words were like a sucker punch to the gut. He hated that she felt like that. And hated even more that he couldn’t tell her exactly what he was thinking.

I look at you like that, Avery…

* * *

For most of her life, Avery had known there was a disconnect between her brain and her mouth. While both of them functioned just fine on their own, the two never seemed to work in tandem. Especially when she needed them to the most.

Like right now.

A flush of embarrassment crawled up her cheeks almost immediately after she’d said it out loud. The one thing she’d never admitted to anyone. She knew it was such a cliché thing to want, not to mention superficial. But she couldn’t help it. As much as she portrayed that she was comfortable with who she was, down deep inside she was just like every other girl out there.

“You deserve that,” Liam said, finally breaking the silence that had taken over. “And more. You deserve someone who is going to like you for you. Awkward and all.”

For a moment, it looked like he was going to say something else, but then he stopped, letting the silence surround them again. He pressed his lips together, as if that was somehow going to keep his mouth in check. It seemed to be working though, so Avery made a mental note that maybe that’s what she needed to do the next time she got the urge to word vomit.

“Now you sound like my dad,” she quipped. Liam winced, and she instantly regretted saying it. “I don’t mean that as a bad thing. I like that you think that way. You’re a good friend, Liam.”

Closing his eyes, he let out a sigh and sat back on the couch. “What happens if…”

“If it doesn’t work?” she finished for him. He nodded, opening his eyes and looking over at her. “At least then I took the chance. And I’ll have found my sexy.”

She hadn’t really known exactly what she’d meant when she’d said that moments ago, but the more she said it, the more it resonated with her. Taking chances wasn’t something she’d ever been good at. Unless she’d already calculated the probable outcomes and the potential ROI of a situation, she wouldn’t even consider it. There was so much that could go wrong with her taking this risk, but there was also so much that could go right. Why couldn’t she be the ugly duckling that got the hottie at the end of the movie? It happened, right?