Make Me Burn

by Marie Harte

  “Look, man. I liked all of them, but they didn’t fit you like Avery does. We can all see it. The question is, can you?” Reggie sighed. “And that’s my lecture for today. Before you tell me to shut up and get out, I’m leaving.” He paused. “And for the record, don’t be flattered if some smartass poses a Roadblock action figure with a Ken doll next week. You’re not my type.”

  Brad flushed. “Ken’s not a doll.”

  “Whatever. Just remember, Avery’s not a doll either. You can’t throw her away like the others, Brad. She’s special.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Fuck off.” Reggie paused at the door. “See you tomorrow.”

  “Later.”

  Brad stared at the door and wondered about what Reggie had said. Did he really break up with women for no good reason? At the time, he’d felt stifled by them, not ready to commit. Not wanting to commit.

  Scared to commit.

  He paused, thinking about Avery. Thinking about Dana.

  Tired of hearing himself think, he grabbed his phone and his wallet and keys and headed to Avery’s, wanting to see the woman growing ever closer to his heart.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Avery answered the door on the first knock. With Gerty out with Oscar at his mother’s house—meeting the parents!—Avery had the apartment to herself for once.

  Talk about a heck of a day. A raise, a new—though intimidating—job, fun with Brad and his friends, and now free time. The only thing making her day complete would be an orgasm, but she hadn’t wanted to overstay her welcome at Brad’s.

  A knock came at the door. She answered, hoping but not expecting Brad, and stared at her own Super Hunk FD. He walked toward her, so she backed up.

  Once inside, he shut and locked the door behind him. “Can I come in?”

  “Duh.” She looked around her. “Already in.”

  He laughed. “I am, aren’t I?” He studied her, looking her up and down. “Oscar’s introducing Gerty to my mom and Rochelle.”

  “Yeah. Can you believe she’s already meeting the parents?”

  He nodded. “Oscar’s pretty into her. He didn’t take his ex to meet my mom until they’d been going out a few months.”

  “Gerty’s got game.”

  “She must.” He stepped closer. “But as much game as you?”

  “I, uh, no. I’m the master.” She flexed, her arm pitiful next to his.

  He didn’t smile.

  “Brad?”

  Instead, he swung her into his arms and marched down the hallway. He paused by Gerty’s room, but before she could tell him hers was the next one, he was already moving. “Yeah, this is more you.”

  The plain room had an unmade bed, clothes on the floor she’d meant to put away yesterday, and her neatly stacked library books because one did not have disorderly reading content.

  He set her on her feet, shut the door, then came back and removed her glasses. “Sorry, these have to go. I was ordered to give the barbarian sorceress a lot of sex.”

  “Well, that was an order.” She nodded and opened her arms. “And you must obey. I beat your ass at Scrabble.”

  He nodded, solemn. “You also crushed and demoralized my friends.”

  She paused. “Demoralized?”

  “Just Mack, who cares about winning word games. The rest of us were crushed.”

  He slid his pants down and pulled off his shirt, leaving him in nothing but tight boxer briefs doing nothing to mask his arousal. “But me, I was turned on. Still am.”

  She let him remove her clothes, slowly, his hands brushing her belly, her breasts, lingering over her hard nipples. Then they were sliding between her legs, her thighs, and back up and inside her. His finger caught in her damp heat.

  “And maybe demoralizing everyone aroused you too,” he said with a smirk. “You’re such an ugly winner. I’m enchanted.”

  She couldn’t help laughing, though he didn’t remove his finger. “I’m both turned on and amused. Can we have sex first, then laugh about it?”

  “Sure.” He lowered himself to the floor, kneeling, and kissed her clit, but he didn’t linger. “It’s been days, Avery. I’m not gonna last the first time.”

  She sighed, brushing his hair back as she stared down at him. “I won’t either.”

  “Did you miss me?”

  Should she admit it?

  Wasn’t it obvious?

  “I, ah…”

  “I asked if you missed me.” He drew her down to kneel in front of him, now both of them nearly at eye level. “The truth.”

  “Maybe.” She smiled. “I—”

  “Not good enough.” He turned her around and pushed her to her hands and knees. Then he shoved her knees wider. She heard a packet rip and after a second felt him angle into her, sitting at the entrance to her sex.

  Wet and wanting, she inched back, taking the tip of him inside her.

  “I know we’re being safe, but I want to get to the point where we don’t use a condom,” he said, his voice gruff.

  “Me too.” She had missed him, too much for such a new relationship. “Maybe after—”

  He shoved hard and fast, filling her so tight. She gasped and groaned as he rode her, his taking thorough and rough.

  His hand fisted in her hair, the small bite of pain making her body quicken. Her breasts swayed as he thrust, and she moaned his name.

  “Say it. Tell me you missed me.”

  “I missed you,” she said when he slammed particularly hard.

  She clamped down on him, wanting to keep him there.

  He inched back and thrust again. “Say it.”

  “I missed you.”

  “Again.”

  He rode her like a damn horse, and all she could say was “I missed you” as she came hard around him, dragging him with her into an explosive climax that left her shaking.

  Brad was moving in and out of her with a slow thoroughness. “Fuck, you feel so good.” He reached around her to cup her breast. “I can’t get enough of you, Avery.”

  “God, I missed you,” she said on a breath, squeezing him with her inner walls.

  “Yeah, that’s it.” He ground up deeper into her. “You make me lose it. I can barely think when I’m inside you.”

  “I know.” She paused, having thought about it a while. “I’m safe. On birth control, and I’m disease free. I just had a physical a few weeks ago and haven’t been with anyone since. Well, besides you.” I want you in me, skin to skin.

  “Good.” He sighed. “I’m clean too. Maybe we can do this again without the condom.” Before she could respond, he added, “But if you need my last physical or something more before you trust me, I’m down. Or if you just want to use condoms, fine. Whatever you need.” He shifted inside her. “I just want more of whatever this is between us.”

  “Yeah.” She felt his hands on her shoulders as he withdrew so slowly, only to return with a cool washcloth between her legs.

  “No, don’t move.” He cleaned her, then pulled her gently to her feet. “In the bed. Now.”

  She raised a brow, liking this aggressive side to her lover.

  My lover. My boyfriend. Oh wow, I like him way too much for him to be a mere boyfriend.

  Alarmed yet also sated from being taken so thoroughly, she lay down on the bed on her side, facing him. He drew her close for a kiss. Then another. “Reggie told me I should give us a chance.”

  “What?”

  “Do you like peas?”

  She had no idea where the conversation had gone, but he kissed her again, distracting her. “N-no.”

  “Does the salt have to sit next to the pepper?”

  His hand found her breast and massaged.

  “It should.” She sighed. “But doesn’t have to.” She rubbed his chest, taken with this strength.
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  “Did you like being with the guys today?”

  “I liked being with you.” She kissed him this time. “And I’m sorry, but I love your friends.”

  He stared into her eyes, looking for what, she didn’t know.

  “But my favorite part of today?”

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s not the raise, the chocolates, or whipping you losers at Scrabble.”

  His lips quirked.

  “It’s this. With you.” She kissed him, tenderly, showing him how she felt because she couldn’t fathom the truth to say it. She stroked his lips, petted his shoulders, his neck, his hair. The strands so soft and silky, like straw turned into molten gold. Oh my god, I’m thinking poetic thoughts. I’m in so much trouble…

  He kissed her back, patient, loving. And when he pulled her closer, so that she felt all the hard contours of his body, she sighed into his mouth, lost in pleasure.

  The kissing seemed to go on forever, Brad a part of her, giving and taking. She didn’t mind him rolling them over so that he lay over her. He propped himself on his elbows, keeping his weight from crushing her. But his cock continued to brush against her front, over her mound and lower belly.

  “You’re so soft.” He palmed her breast, slid his hand to her stomach, stroked her belly with care. “So fucking beautiful.”

  “Brad.” She kissed him, the slow burn of desire building once more as he dragged his growing erection over her stomach, sucked her tongue, and kissed his way down her cheek to her neck, then to her breasts.

  “I love tasting you here.” He sucked one nipple into a tight peak and startled a pleasured cry from her when he nipped the bud with his teeth. Then he turned to her other side and did the same, causing her to writhe, needy and surprised at the depth of her desire.

  “And here,” he murmured as he played with her nipple. “And here.” He kissed his way down her belly and settled between her legs. He parted her folds, staring at her, then licked her clit. “I came in you, so hard. And I’m ready to do it all over again.”

  “Yes. In me this time, no condom.”

  “You had me at yes.” He moved up her body, kissing her inch by inch, and settled at her mouth as he slid inside her, pausing at the entrance to her sex. “Jesus. You feel so good.” He closed his eyes for a second. “You make me lose control. I don’t like that.”

  She arched up as he speared her with one big push. “You d-don’t?”

  “I like being in control.” He held himself over her, their bodies joined. “Usually. But with you, everything goes away but this. Us.” He watched her as he made love to her, the connection so intimate she felt more than vulnerable and closed her eyes.

  “No, watch me.”

  She opened her eyes, staring into his. The connection between them snapped back into place.

  He moved faster.

  She lifted her legs to wrap her ankles behind his back.

  “Yeah, that’s it. Let me take you. Harder.” He slowed his thrusts, making each one deeper. “Watch us.” She looked down, seeing him leave only the tip of himself inside her, then shoving back in, until his body stopped and hers began. “I love this.” He continued to move, his strokes growing choppy, rushed.

  And then he brushed against her clit one more time and she came.

  “I love—” His breath caught as he groaned and spilled inside her. So tense she feared he might break, he caged her beneath him as he spent, the jolts of pleasure so damn beautiful.

  When he again opened his eyes, he stared down at her, making no move to leave. Instead he held himself on his elbows and swirled his hips.

  “Oh.” She sighed. “You feel so good.” She ran her hands over his thick shoulders. “You’re so big.”

  His intensity faded, and he smiled. “Why, thank you.”

  “I mean, all of you. Not just your…”

  “Dick? Cock? Penis? Snake? Hose?” He grinned at her blush. “I could have won at Scrabble today. You’re not the only one with a knack for words.”

  “Yeah? Well, you forgot tallywacker.”

  He frowned. “That’s not real.”

  “I read historical romances. It is.”

  He laughed and started to slide out of her. “Oh. I think I should move.”

  “I guess.” She groaned when he left her. But this time she made haste for the bathroom and returned to find him lying in her bed, still naked. Still drop-dead gorgeous.

  And hers?

  “In what universe does this happen?” She motioned between them and joined him in bed, squealing when he dragged her over him in a burst of speed.

  “There. I needed a blanket.”

  “Funny.”

  “What’s wrong with ‘this’?”

  “Nothing. But it’s like I’m the smart girl in bed with the quarterback.”

  “I wrestled. Sorry.”

  “You know what I mean.” She tugged at the light spatter of chest hair, pleased when he winced. “Well?”

  “How the hell should I know? I’m a sucker for a sexy woman.”

  “We went from mortal enemies to boyfriend-girlfriend. How does that happen?”

  “Magic? You are a sorceress, right?” He raised a brow.

  She had to laugh. “You’re not just all brawn, are you?” She remembered some of their conversation earlier. “What was the bit about me liking peas?”

  He flushed. “Forget I said that. So, ah, something I want to know.”

  “Yes?”

  “Are you okay with me going to dinner with your parents?”

  “Sunday night, by the way. Mom texted me earlier. And yes. That’s if you are.”

  “I’m fine with it.” He looked at her hair spilling over his chest between them. “I’d like you to meet Rochelle, actually. She’s pretty cool.”

  “Oh.” Now I’m meeting the parents! “That would be nice.” She smiled at him.

  He smiled back.

  God, I think I might love you.

  She stiffened.

  “What’s wrong?”

  No, not love. Just like. It’s too soon. He’s too soon. And too much. Too handsome, too hunky, too amazing. And I’m…

  “Avery, baby, you okay?”

  She forced herself to relax. She’d been overwhelmed by all the terrific sex. That had to be it. “No. I’m a klutz and a spaz. And I magicked you away from your friends.”

  “How’s that?”

  “I horned in on your downtime with your buddies.” The more she thought about it, the more she wondered at her own audacity.

  “And?”

  “And then I unmanned them by beating them all—you all—at a board game.”

  Brad chuckled. “We like board games. I love Scrabble, and it was my turn to pick. And yeah, you’re magical. So you seduced me into playing. I seduced you right back. We’re even.”

  She studied his smile, his patient eyes. “Even.”

  He nodded. “Although I did make you come twice. And you only beat me once.”

  “Actually, I beat you dorks three times. So sad.”

  “So, what you’re saying is I owe you another orgasm.”

  “What? No.” She didn’t know if her body could take it.

  “Sure I do. You’re a chick. You can go for days doing it.”

  “Oh, that’s not sexist at all.”

  He chuckled. “It’s true, right?”

  “I mean, sometimes. If I’m in the mood.”

  Which she shouldn’t have been now. Not after realizing she had real feelings for the super hunk, and that she’d gotten in deep without trying.

  “And that’s my cue. Challenge accepted.”

  Oh yeah. She was in way over her head…

  * * *

  Sunday night at dinner, Brad sat in an impressive home in Ballard with the D
earborns. June and Len were as nice as they’d been when he’d met them a week ago. June, an artist, had a creative, upbeat mind. He could see a lot of her in Avery, the uplifting attitude, the wide smile. But Len lived on in his daughter, even if neither father nor daughter could see it.

  He witnessed the stiffness when she’d greeted her father, and even now, as he stood next to her while Len grabbed him a drink and the uber professional Erik took his measure, Avery continued to glance from Erik and her mother to her dad, who did his best to ignore her.

  What a crappy dynamic.

  “So, Brad, you’re a firefighter.” Erik, tall, slender, with dark hair and dark eyes, wore glasses that made him appear intelligent. Brad disliked him on sight. The guy acted polite, smiled, and hadn’t stepped a foot wrong.

  He also looked perfect next to Avery, the Woodward to her Bernstein. The jelly to her peanut butter. The… God, I’m lame. Reggie would be laughing his ass off if he could hear Brad’s thoughts.

  “Yeah, I’m with the new Station 44 here in Seattle.” Brad thanked Len for the drink, a disgusting Scotch that seemed more sophisticated than the beer he really wanted.

  Avery eyed his drink with a question, but he only smiled before doing his best to listen to Erik blather on about something work-related. As if Brad never talked about anything but fires and emergency calls when he had time off.

  Reggie, that bastard, would have loved to know how much he’d gotten in Brad’s loop. Ever since his comment about Brad not committing to women for superficial reasons, Brad couldn’t stop thinking about it.

  He had a real hard-on for Avery. The good kind. And it wasn’t all sexual. He thought about her when he wasn’t with her. He didn’t care if she moved the salt or liked peas. Nothing mattered but seeing her smile or watching her eyes light up when she found something interesting. He’d been learning her tells, and he knew she fidgeted with her glasses and nibbled her thumbnail when nervous. That when aroused, a subtle blush lingered on her cheeks and she had a habit of looking at his chest. Not his face or his crotch but his pecs.

  She also loved his body. Couldn’t get enough of it in bed and loved when he took charge sexually.

  He inwardly sighed, nodded at Erik’s banal remarks about needing more paramedics in town, and wondered why memories of Dana tended to crop up when he thought too hard about Avery.