Avery's Game Of Revenge
Chapter 114: On His Face And Hands.

Chapter 114: On His Face And Hands.

Avery raised the black, embroidered handkerchief he gave her.

"This," she replied. Pulling her trousers up, she pointed at the jewelry glittering around her ankle and said, "This too. You don’t have to give me things she used to own or things you would have given her if she was well... alive, sorry about that. I’ve taken enough from her. Her room, her clothes, her things, her name...I even soiled the last one," she inhaled sharply, "I shouldn’t take anything else from her without having a way to return the favor."

As she concluded her outburst, Avery half expected him to laugh at her. To tell her she wasn’t in any place to choose; to implore her to just take what he was offering and settle into her position as his wife. To continue living life as a replacement.

But even if she was bound to be a replacement, Avery thought, why not be a total replacement in all aspects of his life? Why did she have to feel guilty for taking all and never giving any?

But Archie didn’t react in any of the ways she expected. In fact, he maintained the frown on his face that he’d worn for the past few minutes now, with the only difference being that seriousness had now replaced displeasure in his eyes.

He understood her. She knew it.

"What was the deal between us again?" he asked. "I know you said it now. Just repeat it."

Avery replied, "The deal? It’s that you will protect me and assist with whatever I might need to get my plan to be successful while I adopt the identity as Ava Donovan to be mine." Her eyes shrouded in confusion when he shrugged.

"That’s it. What you said just now could be translated as you, being my wife, with a new name, new identity and everything else. And in return, I perform my duties as a husband—protection, provision, support, companionship— to you. Isn’t that right?"

Avery blinked, confused for a moment. She could see in his eyes that he wanted her to take her time before replying. And that, she did, only to end up in the same conclusion that had sparked this whole discussion.

"That’s the point," she whispered, "I am supposed to be a perfect wife to you, and in return, you act as the perfect husband to me. But I’ve been doing nothing of the sort while you have been doing everything you can. If anything, I have only been taking and taking from you—"

"I think you’re getting it all wrong," Archie interrupted. He stepped forward, closing the distance between them while making sure he maintained eye contact with her. "Your being here is doing your duty as wife. Living with me. Replying when I talk to you. Taking these..." he lowered his eyes to the kerchief, then to the anklet. "...from me, is doing your duty. Hell, using the name Ava Donovan, introducing yourself with that name, having people call you that, is your duty. And you have been doing all of those perfectly well. What else? I think the problem here is that you see this as a job...a chore."

Avery remained quiet, the slight guilt in her heart not in any way appeased with what he said. Wasn’t this a job? Taking someone else’s place as a replacement, where she knew she had to do everything perfectly well, wasn’t that a job?

"It might be a deal, Ava," Archie continued, rousing her from her thoughts, "But it’s not a job."

"It’s a job. I am a replacement, and I have to be an absolutely perfect one or I would feel guilty," Avery disagreed. She regretted the words as soon as they dropped from her mouth, seeing how his eyes darkened instantly.

This wasn’t from desire; she could see it. It was a mixture of genuine wrath and disappointment at what she just said. But wasn’t it correct?

"Who said that’s the case?" he asked through gritted teeth, his icy tone casting a chill all over her. "You are Ava Donovan! Not a replacement or anything along the line of that. I told you when I saved you, didn’t I? I am only supporting this revenge because that’s the only way to let your life as Avery McCAllum go. To wipe those memories and resentments from your heart and mind, ingraining it in your brain, your heart, your system, your body and every fucking part of you that you are Ava Donovan, and can be nothing else apart from that. So take your time. I am a very patient man and I’ll wait. Wrap up everything that’s pulling your heart back to Avery McCallum, and settle into life as Ava Donovan. At the same time, keep in mind that you are now Ava! You are not a replacement! What’s the essence of calling yourself a replacement when you are a permanent, unchanging one? You are Ava, and Ava is you. No matter what."

Avery flinched at that, but she didn’t back away. It was what he’d said at the beginning of all this, after all. But...

"If I am to really forget that I am a replacement," she began, "If I am to accept that I have permanently taken the place of Ava Donovan... doesn’t it mean I have permanently taken this position as your wife from today on?"

"Not today. You have taken the position from the first day you approached me in that garage."

Avery nodded, lowering her gaze slightly from his face to his chin. "Then why..." she whispered, "Why didn’t you go all the way last night?"

"What?" Archie echoed.

"You said just now that I’ve taken the place of your wife right from the moment I approached you to marry me. You also didn’t argue when I said you were attracted to me earlier today. Then why did you stop halfway...last night?" she asked. Even though her eyes were still fixed on his chin in an attempt to avoid his own eyes, she knew when her words began affecting him.

The feel of his eyes on her grew hot all of a sudden, boring into her hair and forcing her to look up at him. But she restrained herself, her hands tightening around the black kerchief in her hand.

Several seconds passed by with no reply, response, or whatever from Archie, so she decided to continue, "Except my theory earlier today was wrong and you aren’t in any way attracted—"

"I spent the night in the shower," he interrupted her, forcing her to drag her widened eyes up to meet his fiery ones.

"What...did you say?"

"You want to know what I spent hours doing in there?" he asked, adjusting his glasses slightly as he took another step forward. "I thought I would be free when I took off my glasses so I wouldn’t see your face when you came on my face and hands. I thought not remembering how you looked like succumbing to pleasure would at least keep me away from the shower for hours. But guess what?"

"Uh..."

He continued, his voice lowering into a grave whisper, "My mind replayed your moans, your cries, Ava. Your gasps, the way you called my name at the time...They were all replayed countless times and that was more than enough. More than enough to help me jack off with the shower running over me while you were probably asleep and in dream world, completely free. Guess what’s funny?"

Again, Avery could only let out a monosyllabic answer.

"Ehm..." she swallowed, shaking her head slightly in an attempt to expel the newly conjured images of Archie from her head. There was one of him in the bathroom, under the shower, the water pouring straight onto his head while he—

"It didn’t get better. Just worse, even after trying to get myself off multiple times. You don’t know how tempted I was to wake you up and make you help me..."

Avery swallowed again, summoning up courage as she held his eyes, "If that’s the case, then I’ll ask again. Why did you stop?"

She felt the clatter of something drop onto the table and raised her head to see it was his phone.

He’d dropped it so his hands could be free. The hands he now gripped her shoulders with right now, pulling her straight into his arms.

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