by Piper Lawson
The background noise of Mia’s voice, punctuated by the occasional laughter of the crowd, faded away as the doors closed after us. The room was silent except for the hum of the irrigation system. It was also dark except for the little fairy lights nestled in the trees and plants.
“I shouldn’t have gone to New York today,” he confessed, his low voice echoing in the stillness. “I couldn’t stand being around you. Knowing what you’d done, it fucking ate at me.”
I reached out to touch the leaf on a tree next to me, rubbing my fingers over the soft texture.
“I get it, and I’m sorry. I know you’re private and you don’t share your personal life. I would never betray that.” I lifted my gaze to his. “I’ve been thinking a lot about it this week. And I think if I overdid it with the pranks, it wasn’t to make fun of you. Maybe some messed up part of me wanted your attention.”
He stepped closer, his tux brushing the front of my dress.
My eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness, sought out the planes of his face.
“You’ve always had it.”
I should’ve gone. Should’ve turned on my Manolos and run as far as I could.
Instead, I grabbed the front of his suit and pulled myself up to meet his lips. They were firm under mine and opened in surprise.
It was meant to be a quick kiss. A reassurance that the moments of heat, attraction, openness we’d found weren’t entirely lost.
Still, I dissolved into the feel of his lips.
Avery broke the kiss first. “I’ve told myself a hundred times this is a bad idea. But maybe if we both want it…” He lifted a hand, brushed a knuckle over my cheek. “It’s not so bad.”
My fingers reached up to wrap around his wrist. He stilled, and even in the dark I could feel his stare. Feel my body tingle.
Then he dragged my mouth up to his. And everything melted away. Because Avery Banks was kissing me.
It was hard and hot and everything. Even before his hand fisted in my hair, forcing me closer. I couldn’t remember a kiss being so satisfying and so desperate at once.
Avery hitched my knee around his hip. Oh, yeah. More.
We weren’t in the office this time, and the control had snapped. He was wild. His mouth teased mine before demanding I open under him. I made him work for it, resisted the press of his tongue until I parted my lips. He groaned, his open-mouthed kiss taking me over.
I wanted all of it. Wanted his decisiveness, his arrogance, the deep-down decency he denied to the world.
We staggered back, and my body hit something hard—a tree trunk?—knocking the wind out of me. It didn’t matter. It was like we were drowning, the only source of oxygen the other. I arched under him like I wanted to fit myself to his mouth, his hands, the growing hardness I could feel through his pants. My hands found his chest, stretched up around his neck, and my stomach tightened. Lower.
His fingers threaded in my hair. When he tried to free them again, they tangled in the bound strands, and he growled as he tugged. My scalp prickled as the pins came loose, sprinkling on the ground. It wasn’t gentle, but I didn’t care.
My fingernails dug into his biceps through the jacket. A breathy noise escaped when he shifted, pulling back only long enough to change the angle and kiss me harder.
Part of me said to slow down. But we were a train, barreling toward a destination I’d pictured so many times lately that I could’ve cried from the relief of knowing that this time was real.
The bark scraped my back as Avery pressed me into the tree.
I didn’t care.
We were in a secret place where one thing mattered. There was only his groan when I tugged his shirt out of his belt, reached up under his shirt, and raked my nails down his back. The strength of his hands when he grabbed my hips and ground against me, my thin satin panties.
He growled as he ripped the panties down. Then his hand smoothed down the back of my thigh, hitched my knee around his waist.
His fingers brushed between my thighs and the world went dark. His touch electrified me, making my head fall back.
He pressed against my mouth with one hand while the fingers of his other slipped inside me. I moaned, my lips wrapping around his thumb. Fuck, he was hot. I’d known he would be.
I needed his cock. Even as he pulled his thumb from my mouth, replacing it with his mouth and hitching my knee higher as he started rubbing circles over my clit, it wasn’t enough. I managed to get his zipper undone, and when I wrapped my hand around his hot length, I wanted to cry out in triumph.
I heard the foil of a condom rip. Then his touch was gone, but only for a moment. It came back to my hip. Then he used the tree to lift me up.
I knew what was happening before it happened. Still, the feel of him pressing inside me was incredible.
Our mouths fused again like we couldn’t get enough. Like we had to kiss until we unleashed everything we’d felt for months. Years.
Avery’s low groan as he pressed inside matched mine. Holy shit, he’s in me.
My boss, the man I’d spent every second torturing, resenting.
The man I couldn’t seem to get out of my head.
He was part of me. Filling me. Stroking so deep it felt like he’d never end. My nose bumped his as I breathed. His fingers dug into my ass as he pinned me against the tree.
His forehead rested on mine. My back was sweating, sticking to the bark. None of it mattered because I was strung tight enough to snap. Shaking fingers found his neck, pulling him close to my mouth. His hands tightened on my ass, pinned me against the tree so he could speed up his strokes.
The angle changed until he was hitting me even deeper, the force of his thrusts banging me against the tree. Then he shifted. I didn’t know why until I felt his fingers rub my clit. My vision went blurry. Tears burned at the backs of my eyes, but I wanted it. Every damned second.
I gasped.
Yes.
Fucking yes.
The wave started at my core, like a high. A drug. Each muscle in my body contracted, from where he was buried so deep I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began, through my arms, my legs. My aching breasts and nipples. My clenched toes.
I fell off the edge, my body shaking.
Avery’s hot mouth dragged over my jaw to my neck. He groaned against my skin. The hottest sound I’d ever heard.
One stroke. Two.
Then he exploded inside me.
21
I’m In Charge Now
I might’ve had my share of lumberjack fantasies. However, there are a few impracticalities of forest sex in real life.
Sticks in your back.
Leaves up your ass.
Was it worth it to come back to consciousness with your head on an extremely sexy chest and the throbbing between your legs reminding you of the cock that had just rocked your world? Yeah.
“That was humiliating.” Avery’s murmur had me shifting onto my hip to peer down at him.
“Because we did it in the solarium at a hotel?”
He let out a groan. “Because I came faster than a teenage boy getting his first hand job under the bleachers.”
I chuckled, stretching. “You want a rematch?”
“Oh, I’m getting one.”
“I’ll have my people call your people.” I started to straighten, but he caught my arm. I stared down at him, his tux open, the bowtie missing. Streaks of dirt clung to the black fabric, and it was satisfying knowing I was the reason for them.
“You are my people.” The soft words coaxed a lazy smile out of me.
Avery’s phone rang and he cursed, grasping for it on the dirt floor. “Mr. Redpath. Yes, I’ve just arrived. I apologize for the delay.” Avery listened, nodding. Then clicked off.
“Time to grovel,” he said.
“You shouldn’t have to do much,” I reminded him. “I’m already under the bus on this. Don’t join me.”
He pressed a kiss to my mouth that warmed me again. “Thank you for that.” Then rose and o
ffered a hand.
“How do I look?” I asked as I stood, brushing myself off.
“Like I fucked you in a solarium.” The satisfaction in his voice was sexy all over again. “Unfortunately, that’s not going to work for us going back in there.” He glanced down at his tux.
“I have an idea,” I offered.
After I spent a few minutes feeling the ground for enough hair pins to put my hair back up in some semblance of its earlier style, we raided the coat closet. Avery switched out his jacket for another. “We’ll put it back,” I promised.
I bumped into Mallory while Avery went to redeem himself.
“Charlie? There you are. It took a while to warm them up, but I’ll admit Mia was a good idea. That finale…”
“Oh. Yeah, totally.” I nodded like I knew what she meant.
“I didn’t think you’d pull it off, but you did.” Her voice held a note of apology.
My smile was genuine. “I’m glad too.”
One of Avery’s clients recognized me and said hello. I found myself drawn into a few conversations.
After twenty minutes, I wove through the crowd, searching for Avery.
Instead I found Payton. “Hey, miss superstar.”
“Hey! You won’t believe it, but Redpath actually came up to me and said I did a good job. He wants to meet next week to talk about my future.”
“That’s great. Hey, have you seen Avery?”
“He showed up?”
“Yeah. I’m not sure where he…” I trailed off. Maybe he’d forgotten our pact in all the excitement of the gala.
Finally, I locked gazes with him. He was talking to a client, but he excused himself and strode toward us with determined strides.
“Payton,” he offered briskly when he arrived. “Nice work.”
“Thanks for being late.”
He shrugged. “Shit happens. Let’s go,” he said, turning to me.
I glanced at Payton, who tried to hide a smile. “Where are you two going?” she asked, all innocent.
“To work,” Avery bit out.
“Work,” she echoed. “It’s after ten.”
I put my hands on my hips. “We’re not in the office anymore,” I reminded him saucily. “Don’t you want to know what I want?”
Irritation flickering over his face, Avery bent toward me. It could’ve been mistaken for professional—just trying to be heard over the music—when he brushed my hair back to whisper against the shell of my ear. “Tonight, when my mouth is between your thighs, I look forward to hearing exactly what you want.”
And with that low declaration, he turned and strode toward the doors, stopping to say hello to Siskinds and a few others on the way.
It took a moment for me to notice Payton had wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
“Be careful,” she murmured, giving me a squeeze.
I turned toward her, surprised. “I’m like a Girl Scout. Always prepared.”
“I meant with your heart.”
“It’s sex, Payton.”
Her knowing look had me looking away.
I repeated it to myself as I smoothed my dress and crossed to the front of the building.
As he pulled up in front of the hotel.
As I slid inside his Jeep, my eyes meeting his.
I’d always thought it was a strangely rugged car for my boss to drive, but I couldn’t think about that now. The only thing running through my mind was:
Just. Sex.
The ride was silent and charged. When we pulled up to his place, we shifted out like we were on a mission. And maybe we were.
I followed him through the dark house, kicking off my shoes at the door while he flicked on a light on the table.
“Nice place.” I stripped the dress over my head, standing in my underwear.
“Thanks.”
He turned back, taking off his jacket for the second time tonight before stepping into me.
Something over his shoulder caught my eye and I put a hand on his chest.
“Wait. Are those your Waldo pictures?”
“No.”
“No they’re not?” I shifted onto my toes to see better.
Avery groaned. “Fucking hell, this is not happening.”
I ducked under his arm. “Wow, that one’s signed.”
He came up behind me. “Cockblocked by a cartoon. Unbelievable.”
“You still have that outfit from Halloween?” I prompted, a grin pulling at my mouth.
“If I say yes, can we fuck?” His voice was almost as hot as the way his fingers found the clasp of my bra, popping it loose with confident hands.
Then Avery’s strong arms reached around me, one sliding under my bra and the other into my panties. I melted back against him, my eyes falling shut.
Waldo was forgotten.
I was on overload trying to take in the hard lines of his body, his scent, his everything.
But before I lost myself, I grabbed his hands and turned to face him.
He groaned his agreement, dropping his mouth to mine. Lust roared through me, fueling an even greater need. “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted this,” he murmured.
When he lifted my breast in his hands, rolling his fingers over my nipples, I moaned.
His fingers slid between my legs, over my wet clit, and lower to my slit. “This, right here, is mine.”
“That’s a bold claim,” I protested.
He stared down at me, the arrogance giving way to a steady look that had my heart tripping. “Then allow me to back it up.”
In a second I was pressed against the wall and his mouth was on my skin.
My boss on his knees between my thighs was the hottest thing I’d ever seen. But it was more than that. It was the fact that I’d wanted this for so long, even though I’d fought with the idea of it.
His name was a whispered curse on my lips with each flick of his tongue. The intensity of the way he worked me stole my breath. The way he held me, one arm banding around my thigh while the other held me open for him. As if he’d imagined this a million times, like he’d practiced in his mind until he knew exactly what he wanted to do. Committed it to memory.
“Say my name again,” he grunted.
I squirmed, but he held tighter until I complied.
“That’s my girl.”
I couldn’t process those words when he lifted my leg onto his shoulder. Then the other. I grabbed his hair for balance as he lifted my hips higher, his tongue flicking harder against my skin.
Electricity sparked along my nerves, deep inside. Equal parts from the sensation and from the way Avery committed himself to every touch. Every stroke.
“Holy shit…”
I gave up fighting him and rode the feeling. He built me up, and my body squeezed him like I didn’t want to let him go. I was empty and aching.
“More.”
His fingers found me from below, pressing inside my heat. All my muscles contracted, like I could pull him deeper.
I’d had sex.
It’d never felt like this.
This madness, the storm of need brewing in my gut. The tug, like a chain that linked up from my mouth, my breasts, my stomach, between my thighs. Each lick of his tongue jerked on that chain, forced me to arch against him.
Not even with Derek, whom I’d loved in whatever way it is eighteen-year-olds love.
With Avery it wasn’t sweetness. It was raw, like crossing two live wires with the coating stripped off. His tongue was a weapon, and he was using it to make me explode.
And I did explode. All of the need, the tension, bottled up inside me until every muscle clenched at once. He felt it as I came all over his mouth, my fingers digging into his head.
He licked it all up before setting me down.
I melted to my knees. My muscles were jelly, and his arm went around me, steadying me. Our eyes level, I looked into his fierce expression until he pressed a hard kiss to my mouth.
His fingers brushed between my thighs and I j
erked from the stimulation. I reached for his forearm, intending to push it away. To tell him it was too soon.
He wouldn’t move. “I told you once I had a taste it wouldn’t be enough.” The feel of the slow circle of his thumb on my slick skin faded from intolerable to just plain overwhelming. I swallowed the whine that rose up in my throat and settled for digging my fingers into his arms. “So you’re going to take what I give you, until you come all over me again.”
“Don’t take it personally, but…I don’t think I can stand.”
He grinned, and his white teeth flashing in the dark made me smile in return. “I will absolutely take that personally. Come on.” He laced his fingers through mine, and the simple move had my heart thudding.
I followed him back to the bedroom. He didn’t hit the light. From what I could tell it was dark, with a king-sized bed dominating the space. I flopped down on the center of it. He hovered over me, hands on his hips, looking sexy as hell.
“Charlotte?” He was a dark outline in the room, a shape that was dangerous and familiar at once. “Are you taking a nap?”
“Need. Five. Minutes.”
“You’re going to fall asleep on me, aren’t you.”
“What, you want to cuddle?” I teased, breathless.
The familiar exasperation had my heart lifting as I peered up at him. “There is a long and filthy list of things I’d like to do to you. Cuddling isn’t on it.”
I shifted up onto my knees and started to strip off his clothes. The tie.
The shirt.
The belt.
The pants.
Finally, his shorts.
My breath caught.
Avery was fucking gorgeous, every part of him. Even in the darkness I could make out the planes of his body and I traced them with greedy fingers.
“You’re right,” I murmured finally. “This might take awhile.”
He let out a groan as I pressed my mouth to his chest.
Lower, to his abs. I loved the way they flexed under my lips, my tongue.
I pulled back, taking in what I really wanted. His thick cock bobbed between us. Big and hard and damn if I didn’t feel lucky to have it to myself all night.