by J. J. Sorel
“I’m playing with you, Ava.”
“Oh… you’ve remembered my name,” I said, sounding more ridiculous by the minute.
His playful grin faded. “I remember everything about you.”
As he stepped closer, Bronson ran his tongue over his full lips.
I parted my mouth and lowered my eyes.
When a voice from behind said, “There you are,” I jumped.
I turned, and Justin stood before me. Bronson looked away. The tension between them was as palpable as always.
My heart still raced, though. My body wanted that kiss badly, despite my head telling me I’d dodged a bullet.
“Why are you talking to him?” Justin asked.
“I can talk to whoever I like,” I answered.
“He’s no good,” he whispered.
I looked over his shoulder and noticed Bronson step behind him.
“You heard her. Ava’s a grown-up. Now fuck off,” said Bronson.
Justin sniggered at him and then looked at me. “Can I have a quiet word?”
I shook my head. “No, Justin, you can’t.”
Boy, did I want to do a retake of what might have happened before we were rudely interrupted. One little taste of those full, sexy lips would have sufficed—dangerous or not.
CHAPTER TWELVE
BRONSON
My mom mentioned that it was off between them, which is why I’d decided to pounce. And we’d come so close. The seduction wasn’t going to be as easy as I would have liked, which shouldn’t have surprised me. Ava was a classy girl. An intelligent, sensitive woman who, I was certain, didn’t fuck around.
I liked that about her. I liked a lot, probably too many things about her.
But I needed to stick to my plan. That asshole brother, who had an ego the size of Niagara Falls had to suffer. Not that taking Ava from him could ever compare to being locked up for one year, even if my body disagreed because the pleasure of spending a whole night caressing Ava’s curves while being deep inside her would come pretty fucking close.
I watched Ava sway off, her gown swishing side to side. While drawing back her lingering scent, I cursed Justin for interrupting us.
“Bronson.”
I turned and saw my uncle. “Hey, James.”
“How’s the designing going?”
“Yeah. Good. I’ve been up pretty late getting some sketches down. I showed Harry. He likes them, but he’s up to his neck in an apartment contract, which is where I’m working at the moment.”
“You’re a hard worker, Bronson. I like that about you. You always were. And talented.”
I smiled tightly. I’d never been good at receiving compliments, despite loving them. But they were so rare that I never knew how to respond.
“Why don’t we get together for dinner soon. You can show me what you’ve got. I’m itching for a project,” he said.
“I’d like that.” I studied him for a moment. “I would have thought you’d have plenty to do. This is a big property.”
“All I do is write endless checks for Candy and her daily shopping sprees. Her shoes take up an entire room.” He shook his head.
That image of Candy and Justin looking lovey-dovey pricked my conscience. I knew I had to tell him somehow. But I didn’t wish to cause a stir at his son’s engagement party. My uncle had always been respectful and supportive. After I’d been released from prison, both he and my mother had supported me emotionally, which meant the world to me.
I looked at James for a moment. “You know I’m innocent. I’ve never been into coke. I’m certain Justin put that coke in my backpack.”
He took a while to respond. “Your mother mentioned that to me. It puts us in a precarious position. Everyone’s aware of Justin’s habit, but Bronson, without proof...” He opened out his hands.
“I know that. I just want you to know that I’m no drug addict or dealer or anything like that. I might have had one fight too many, and I don’t smile that often, but I’m not some waste-of-space drug addict.”
He touched my arm. “We never believed you were, Bronson.”
The grip in my muscles unwound. “That means everything.”
An off-center smile settled on his face. He touched my arm. “Next week, then. We’ll set up a meeting and get this project happening.”
I nodded. “My sketches should be ready by then.”
As I followed James back into the party, I went to look for Ava. Taking a deep breath, I psyched myself into asking her out on a date.
Standing in the corner while chatting with Marcus’s fiancée, Ava looked up, and her eyes settled on my face. At first, there was that uncertain expression that involved her eyebrows indenting slightly and the biting of her bottom lip— her usual response to my attention. Normally, I would have looked away to give her some space, but this time I held on and was rewarded with a sweet smile.
Ava’s friend turned to see who’d taken her attention.
Although it wasn’t my style to break in on anybody’s conversation, I needed this to happen, then and there, because despite having only arrived a short while earlier, I didn’t want to hang around for much longer, or else my knuckles would end up sinking into Justin’s smug face. After all, I had only really come to the party to see Ava and to congratulate Marcus.
On my approach, Ava stopped giggling and stared wide-eyed at me, as if I were a ghost. Despite that discouraging reception, I continued anyway.
I preferred outside alone under the moonlight, and definitely not at a party filled with people who stopped talking every time I entered the room. Frozen in silence, the guests seemed to watch my every move as if I were some common criminal.
Ava touched Cassie’s arm, who, much to my relief, walked away.
“I need to ask you something,” I said, looking around me.
Justin had just entered the room, and although I enjoyed watching him suffer as I twisted a knife into his jealous gut, the last thing I wanted was a shouting match.
“Not here, though. Do you mind if we step outside for a moment?”
I felt her tension while she held my stare. “I’ll meet you there in a minute.”
It shouldn’t have been that difficult. I’d never found it hard to attract a girl before. Normally I let them pounce on me. But this was different.
Ava was different.
Staring up at the starlit sky, I sensed Ava’s presence and turned.
“Hey.” She stood before me.
I fell into those big blue eyes and lost myself again. Ava was so deep, I could imagine drowning in her. A voice from within told me to stop this game. After all, I could get at Justin in other ways. But as I soaked in her beauty, I remained rooted on the spot.
Her rosy-cheeked face seemed to glow under the moonlight.
“You look very beautiful,” I said.
“Is that why you wanted to see me, to tell me that?”
I nodded. “Yeah… pretty much. And to also ask…” I combed back my hair. “Um… would you… I mean, be interested in…” My stammering did me no favors. I sounded like a fool.
“Interested in what?” She tilted her head.
“Going out to dinner with me.”
Her mouth had just opened to answer when my fucking brother came stumbling out.
“Here comes fucking trouble again,” I uttered under my breath.
With a cigar in his mouth, Justin blew the smoke in our direction.
Waving it away, Ava said, “Justin, can you smoke that somewhere else?”
I decided to kick the boot in further by taking Ava’s hand and staring into her eyes.
“She’s too good for you,” Justin snapped.
I turned to face him. “She’s too good for you. You’re nothing but a drug addict.”
He came and stood close, pointing at me. “And you’re nothing but a dirty criminal.” He looked at Ava. “You know he’s a drug dealer, don’t you?”
Ava’s face crumpled in dismay. “I can’t do this.”
I grabbed Justin by the neck. “Listen, you fucking prick, you know those drugs weren’t mine, because they were yours.” I pointed my finger inches from his face. “I’ll get you.”
I kicked him in the shin, leaving him to cry out in pain.
Smoothing down my jacket, I brushed back my hair and went back inside.
Ava was nowhere to be seen.
Assuming she’d gone to the powder room, I headed in that direction and found her leaning against a wall.
Enough was enough. No more pussyfooting around.
Sensing my presence, she turned, and I spotted tears in her eyes. I brushed her cheek, and a deep need to hold her swept through me. I took her into my arms, and Ava melted into my body.
The fit was perfect, as if she was meant to be there.
Her body’s warmth fused with mine while I took a deep whiff of her fresh, fragrant hair. I kissed her cheek and then my lips landed on hers. They trembled at first as I caressed them with mine, slowly and tenderly, savoring every little moment, because that was the sweetest tasting kiss I’d ever experienced.
As I drifted off into a sensual world of voluptuous softness, something darker and needier took over. I pressed against her curvy body, while my hands landed on her tiny waist and drew her in so close, I could feel her heart beating.
Impatient and hungry, my tongue entered deeply, possessing her silky tongue in a delicious tangle.
While still locked in her arms, I managed to open a door and, not caring whose bedroom it was, waltzed Ava into the darkened space.
We fell onto the bed, and before I knew what was happening, my hands were sliding up her smooth thighs.
Frightened it would end any minute, I was driven by a force so intense and desperate that I knew I had to taste her. To smell her.
Blood raged to my groin at the thought of entering her. My cock pushed against my pants. There was nowhere to hide. I was so turned on that I could no longer think about anything else.
We remained in a crush as my mouth devoured her swollen, moist lips. I cupped her head in my hand, tipping it back so that my tongue could plunge in deep.
A loud breath deflated my chest as I felt the fullness of her breasts.
Traveling up her thigh, my hand landed on her silky panties. They were drenched, which sent my pulsating cock into a frenzy.
Salivating at the thought of tasting her, I had to control the urge to rip her panties off and to tear every shred of fabric from her so that I could savor every inch of her flesh. But the fear of being discovered excited me, making me desperate to at least take away something of hers.
Unlike my normal approach to sex, which was to fuck hard and fast, I wanted to take her slowly.
Ava whimpered as my fingers landed on the flooding heat of her pussy. As I entered between her folds, my finger needed to know what it would feel like to be inside her. My chest collapsed with impatience as the tightly muscled walls crushed my finger. She was so small and tight. My cock ached.
I sucked on my drenched finger and buried my head between her legs.
She opened wide.
Ava wanted this.
Good.
Because I was famished. Famished for her sensual beauty, a sort I’d never experienced before.
All that mattered suddenly was being inside of her.
When my tongue settled on her clit, she winced.
Ava tried to move away, but I clasped onto her curvy firm butt and kept her still.
“I haven’t…” She murmured.
“You’re like a flower,” I whispered, and she instantly relaxed.
I placed my tongue on her inflamed and sticky bud. Ava’s gentle moan inspired me to continue. I was determined to have her trembling in my hands before long.
I licked from back to front slowly, rotating my tongue around her clit, fluttering and sucking her erect, responsive bud gently. Determined to make her come, I ate away at her as if she was a delicious piece of candy. Her addictive flavor was like none I’d ever tasted.
I entered her deeply with my tongue and released a flood from her. Ava cried out as she shuddered through a long release. She ejaculated musky cream onto my tongue and I sucked it back like one thirsting after days in a desert.
“I need to be inside of you,” I said.
Panting, Ava fell into my arms.
My lips crushed her mouth.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
AVA
His moist lips tasted of me. Instead of feeling repulsion, I burned with a need so deep, especially with that hard cock pushing against my thigh, that if he didn’t enter me, I would scream.
I wanted every bit of him. Badly.
Danger or not. Criminal or not. I didn’t care.
I just wanted him to take me. Do something to me that was wrong, but yet profoundly fulfilling.
Having never had a tongue on my clit before, I’d recoiled at the thought of it, even after Cassie had spoken glowingly about it. But as soon as his tongue started stroking my bud, I couldn’t have opened wide enough. I even recalled gripping his head as I exploded through an orgasm. That was how it felt, so much more intense than I could have ever imagined.
His earthy scent, a blend of maleness and bath soap, did things to me that no drug or drink could ever achieve. I thought I would lose my mind as I drew from his neck a brew of virility that only added to the burn going on in my core.
The room was dark. Driven by lust, I surrendered into his strong arms.
He undid his zipper and lowered his pants. A huge bulge pushed impatiently against his briefs.
My hands traveled under his shirt and indulged in the hard ripple of stomach muscles. I traced the curves up to his equally firm pectorals that had a smattering of hair between the rigid, smooth mounds of muscle.
He lowered his briefs, and my breath hitched. Justin was tiny in comparison. I opened my legs wide as Bronson held his cock, the thickness of which resembled my wrist. It was so long I had no idea how it would fit, but my mouth watered at the thought of it anyhow.
Unable to stay out of each other’s arms for long, we held each other again, his mouth on mine.
Bronson whispered, “I haven’t got a condom.”
Sharing his frustration, I said, “I’m on the pill.”
“You would trust me?” he asked.
His surprised tone reminded me how irresponsible I was about to be. But rationality no longer mattered. Driven by that pulsating burn between my legs, I allowed lust to take possession of me.
Our arms unlocked, and he looked at me with a serious flicker in his eyes. “I haven’t been with a woman for a long time, and my last blood test was clean. But you don’t know that.”
As he stood up, the lights came on.
It was an image that would remain etched in my memory forever.
Bronson’s hair was messy in the sexiest way possible. His shirt was half undone, and that large erect cock rested in his hand.
Justin’s eyes went from me to Bronson, and when they landed on his cock, they widened in shock. He went pale.
Knowing how men were about their penises, I didn’t doubt that envy would eat away at Justin, given his insecurity when it came to his meager member. The bewilderment on Justin’s face almost made me laugh. I didn’t, because I quickly scrambled to cover my thighs and cross my arms, unable to recall how Bronson had managed to undress me.
“What the fuck?” yelled Justin.
Bronson was the coolest of all three of us. A smirk filled his beautiful face, suggesting that he actually enjoyed infuriating Justin. He faced his brother, not even attempting to cover himself up as if to say, “Now who’s the real man here?”
My jaw opened to speak, but I couldn’t because I was still dazed and flushed from a cocktail of hormones after an orgasm to beat all orgasms.
“Get out, Justin,” I said.
He headed for the door and, just before exiting, blurted, “
This isn’t the last of it.”
Bronson regarded me with a shrug. “Did you ever see that scene in The Holy Grail? Where that torso of a sliced-up knight bounced up and down on the ground screaming at his attacker to come back and fight?”
The cheeky smirk on Bronson’s face made me giggle. “Yes. I have.” I put on a silly English accent. “I’m not dead yet.”
“That’s the one.”
“And your point?” I asked.
“Justin’s a sucker for punishment, that’s all. He’s sunk. Or at least, I hope he is.” He tilted his head.
“We’re no longer together if that’s what you’re asking.” I rose. “I wouldn’t have let you touch me otherwise.” Lifting the zipper to my dress, I smoothed my mane, which was a tangled mess.
Bronson did up his trousers and tucked his shirt in. He combed down his hair with his hands.
He stood before me. His gaze burned into me again.
Taking me into his arms, Bronson kissed me deeply and tenderly. I melted again. He robbed me of my senses as his hand snuck up to my butt and squeezed it.
After we separated, Bronson smoothed out my dress.
We walked to the door. As he reached for the doorknob, Bronson stopped. “Will you go out with me? Dinner or a movie, or both?”
He looked like a boy almost. A different Bronson. Not as intense, but sweet and hesitant.
My senses had finally returned, reminding me that Bronson was a criminal. I chewed into a nail.
His brow creased. “Look, Ava. I’m not sure what you think of me. But one thing’s for certain, I’m not into drugs. Justin planted those drugs on me. If you won’t go out with me, then let me at least prove I’m innocent.”
“I didn’t say that… I wouldn’t…” I stammered. “It’s just that this tense relationship you have with Justin stresses me out.”
Bronson stared at me for what seemed a lifetime. He exhaled a deep breath. “I only came here tonight to see you.”
“But you’re family. Marcus is your cousin,” I said, challenging that unexpected confession.
He continued to gaze deeply into my eyes as if trying to read every thought my busy brain produced.