by Donna Hill
She stood and extended her hand toward him. He took it and followed her to her bedroom.
Avery walked into her room. Her heart was beating so rapidly she could barely breathe. She heard the door shut behind them. She turned to face him. There was something dark and determined in his eyes, the set of his face. Her stomach fluttered.
Rafe’s eyes rolled over her, heating every place that they landed. Her chest heaved with every breath.
“So glad you didn’t go all cliché on me and change into something more comfortable.” He moved closer. “I want the pleasure of undressing you.”
He turned her around so that her back faced him. By degrees he unzipped her dress. As her bare skin appeared he placed hot, tiny kisses along her spine. The inside of her thighs quivered.
“Sweet,” he murmured after each kiss. The dress fell to her feet. His hands moved languidly across her shoulders and down her arms. They stroked her waist and glided across her hips. He unsnapped her bra, kissed the back of her neck and inched the straps down while he pressed against her round derriere. She gasped, but he held her tightly around the waist with his arm. With his free hand he cupped the weight of her left breast and ran his finger across the nipple until it peaked.
Avery moaned and gripped his hand, holding it firmly against her while he kneaded it. Her body melded with his as she pushed back against him.
Rafe’s hand drifted down across her belly and played with the elastic band of her panties before slipping beneath the frills. His talented fingers played with her, taunted her, became wet with her.
“Tell me what you want, darlin’,” he breathed into her ear. “Whisper it to me.”
His finger slid up inside of her. “Ahhh...you,” she managed on a strangled breath. Her neck arched.
“Are you sure?”
“Yesss,” she hissed from between her teeth. She was going to come all over him.
Two fingers now. The room spun.
Somehow Rafe was in front of her, his fingers back inside her. In and out. His lips covered hers, his tongue taunted and danced in her mouth. Faster. A bit deeper. Oh...god.
She gripped his hand. Pressed it hard against her.
“Not yet, darlin’.” He slowly removed his fingers. Avery cried out. “Shhh. Hush now.” He slipped his wet fingers between his lips. “Hmm, just the way I imagined.” Avery’s entire body trembled. He hooked his thumbs over the elastic and tugged the lace and frill over her hips and down her thighs, moving down her body until he was on his knees in front of her.
Rafe firmly cupped the globes of her behind and pulled her toward his mouth. His tongue flicked across her throbbing clitoris and nearly sent her to her knees. He hummed against her with every lick, every suckle.
Her thighs trembled, her knees weakened. She felt her orgasm begin to rise again. This time from the soles of her feet. She wouldn’t let him stop her from coming this time. She was sure she would lose her natural mind if he did.
The telltale quickening began. The teasing intensified. Avery’s moans grew. She rocked her hips against him. It wouldn’t be long now. Her head swam.
Everything stopped. Her eyes flew open. Rafe stood in front of her slowly unbuttoning his shirt. He took it off and casually walked across the room to place it on the chair by the window. Then came his belt. His pants followed, then his briefs.
When she’d imagined him wet and naked from the shower it could not compare to the real specimen in front of her. He was sculpted as if artists had spent their career in carving perfection. She didn’t believe that he could possibly understand how beautiful he was. His hard, throbbing cock was beyond magnificent, menacing and thrilling to see.
She wanted him. She wanted him inside her. Deep inside. She needed to have the experience of what perfection felt like.
Rafe smiled almost shyly as he walked toward her. A smile that made her heart ache. For in that instant was a moment of vulnerability that she hadn’t before seen in him and it made her want to fix whatever was broken, give him whatever it was that he needed.
He stepped up to her, cupped her cheeks in his hands and kissed her slow and deep. She tasted herself and him as he backed her up to her bed.
“Are you sure?” he asked again and took her hand to envelop his erection while he eased her onto the bed.
She stretched out atop the comforter and stroked him. “Very.”
His jaw clenched and he sucked in air through his teeth as he positioned himself above her. He pushed her thighs apart with his knee, kissed the inside of her thighs while he lifted her legs over the bend in his arms, brushed across her sex with his lips, suckled her one last time.
Avery cried out as her insides clenched, needing the emptiness filled. She couldn’t remember ever wanting someone so desperately that it left her unable to think of anything beyond getting satisfied.
And then she felt him. Her breath caught and held in her chest as he pressed against her wet opening. He lifted her legs higher until she was incapable of moving, totally open and ready. Still he waited.
He gave her just an inch more to open her. Her body trembled. He kissed her deeply and then he filled her in a long hard thrust.
Rafe’s ragged groan mixed with her muffled cry. Avery’s eyes flew open. He looked down at her, into her. For a moment he didn’t move. He held them suspended between exquisite bliss and release.
Avery channeled all her senses to her core and flexed her vaginal walls around his erection...once...twice.
Rafe’s response was immediate and body shattering. The thrust, hard and deep, pushed the air from her lungs.
She held him as close to her as air would allow. The rush of sensations that flew through her with every move he made was beyond anything she’d experienced before it. It was exhilarating and frightening all at once, making her want to scream, cry, to tell him to wait, to tell him to never stop. Even as he moved inside her he made love to her whole body. He kissed her and nibbled her neck, teased her earlobes, laved her tender breasts with his tongue, caressed her body with strong expert hands that held her and moved her to his will. Between his own moans of pleasure he murmured how good she felt to him, how beautiful she was, that this time was for her, and to let go and let him have her.
Rafe bent his head and pressed his mouth to her ear, slid his hands beneath her hips and held her so that she could not move, but only feel him. “Surrender to me,” he whispered deep in her ear.
The heat of his breath, the incredible way he flexed his shaft inside of her, the rush of sizzling sensations that raced through her from the bottom of her feet, pushed tears from her eyes. She was on a precipice, held there, terrified to leap and end this fantasy yet desperate to be released.
“Look at me,” he whispered. He undulated his hips and stroked her in short bursts.
Avery could barely breathe. Her heart raced out of control. Her eyes fluttered open. There was that half smile that made her crazy.
“Now,” he whispered and hit that spot inside of her that she’d only read about.
Her cry stuck in her throat as wave after wave of ecstasy rolled through her. Her body shook as if electrified while her insides sucked on him in a frenzy of release.
Rafe covered her mouth in a tender kiss as he continued to ride her through her climax, deeper and faster, his own breathing escalating.
Avery felt the change in him, the way his entire body hardened and his already thick cock stiffened even further inside her. His groan rose from deep in his belly. His fingers dug into her behind when his head reared back and release whipped through him like a Louisiana hurricane.
She held him, as the power of his coming flowed up and down his body, stole another release from her until he was spent.
Avery trembled even as she stroked his back, kissed him tenderly on his cheek, listened to his racing heart. Her
own body remained in the throes of what they’d shared. She couldn’t think or put words to how she felt, how he’d made her feel. It was surreal. She wanted to laugh and cry and sing and go into a corner and relive it all.
They lay for a while in the warmth of afterglow, locked together until the spinning ceased and their heartbeats returned to normal.
Rafe kissed her cheek. “I’m gonna get up, cher,” he said in a gravelly voice.
“Hmm,” was all she could manage when he finally lowered her legs.
Rafe gingerly eased out of her, mindful of the very full condom, and stood up.
Avery watched him through half-opened eyes. He was beyond magnificent, that’s all she had to say. She closed her eyes and turned onto her side.
* * *
Rafe stood under the beat of the shower as the room filled with steam. He always felt a sense of completeness after good sex, that empty spot in his soul momentarily filled. But this wasn’t just good sex. It was something else and for the first time in longer than he cared to remember it seemed to mean more than just “getting off.” It unnerved him.
He turned off the shower and stepped out. He took a towel, rubbed the fogged mirror and gazed at his hazy reflection. On the surface he looked exactly the same, but he wasn’t. That was a problem. He dried off and returned to Avery’s bed.
Chapter 10
Avery blinked slowly against the light that peeked through the blinds. She sighed. The nightstand clock read 7:00 a.m. She stretched. Her muscles ached deliciously. Her vagina throbbed. The night rushed back to her and she turned to find the space next to her empty, and for an instant she thought she’d only dreamed of her night with Rafe. But it wasn’t a dream. She inhaled his scent on the pillow, on her body.
She sat up, tossed the sheets aside and got out of bed. His clothes were gone. Her heart pounded. She grabbed her robe from the hook on the back of her bedroom door and walked down the short hallway to the front of the house.
All remnants from their night before were gone: the wine, the glasses, the plate of snacks. She turned the corner and there he was in her kitchen.
He closed the refrigerator door and turned to her. “Mornin’, darlin’.”
The moment of panic she felt slowly subsided. “Hi.”
“Hope you like omelets. I’m starved.”
That smile again.
“I could eat,” she said.
“Have a seat. Should be ready soon.”
She bit back a smile as she watched him move around her space as if he’d always been there, belonged there. Every now and again, while he whipped the eggs and added the fixings he would look over and wink at her and her heart would sing.
* * *
“I’m heading back today,” he said when he set her plate in front of her.
Her pulse jumped. “Of course. I’m sure you have tons of things to do.”
“Yeah.” He chewed slowly. “What are your plans for today?”
“Hmmm, not sure really. Probably get together with Kerry later.”
He nodded.
“Maybe we can all do something...the next time you come down,” she said, hedging.
“Maybe,” he replied, uncommitted. He took his plate and put it in the sink.
“Thanks for cleaning up in the living room. You didn’t have to do that. And breakfast. It was delicious.”
He didn’t respond.
Her heart started to race and she had the overwhelming feeling that she would burst out into tears any minute.
Rafe walked over to her, lifted her chin so that she was forced to look into his eyes. He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips. “I’ll call you.”
Avery swallowed over the knot in her throat. “Sure. When you have time,” she said as casually as she could manage.
His dark eyes roamed over her face for a moment and then he turned away.
She got up and followed him to the door.
“You be good now, cher. Don’t hurt anybody with all that Secret Servicing.”
She forced a smile. “I’ll try.”
He opened the door and stepped out into the warm sunshine, took the three steps to the ground, strode to his car and then he was gone.
Avery slowly closed the door behind her and the tears that she’d kept at bay rolled down her cheeks.
* * *
Rafe drove back to his Arlington home with the music blasting for the entire ride in the hope that it would drown out the noise in his head. When he finally arrived back to his retreat he stalked through the house like a man possessed. He couldn’t rein in his thoughts or get his body to slow down. He should have made love to her again, he fumed while he tore out of his clothes and changed into jeans and a T-shirt. That way he could have gotten her fully out of his system and been done with it.
A fast ride on his motorcycle was what he needed. The rush of air, the exhilaration of racing around cars and trucks on the open highway always calmed him. He put on his boots and stormed off to the garage. His Harley gleamed in the light. He snatched up his helmet and got on, bracing the heavy machine between his thighs.
* * *
The wind whipped around him as he sped and darted between cars and trucks on the open highway. The rush of adrenaline fueled him, made him a risk to anyone in his way. The distraction of Avery flew out of his head as he bore down and focused on the road. The other vehicles on the road were mere flashes in his peripheral vision. He rode for more than an hour with no specific destination in mind or maybe it was the destination of temporary oblivion. That point in time and space where there were no thoughts, no worries, no decisions to be made.
By the time he pulled into his garage his body had calmed and his thoughts marched through his head in less disarray. But that stirring in his center persisted. He needed to distance himself from DC, get back home, back to reality.
After a quick shower and another change of clothes, he gathered his sax case and small carryall, locked up and drove to the private landing strip where his Cessna awaited. He confirmed his flight plan with the control chief and as the plane rose higher and the landscape of the nation’s capital grew distant he realized that he was leaving behind more than a city.
* * *
Kerry put her tube-socked feet up on Avery’s coffee table as she usually did and flopped back against the cushions of the couch. They’d just come back from a run.
“That was supposed to be a jog,” Kerry groused. “Not a marathon.”
Avery plopped down on the love seat and tucked her legs beneath her. She looked off into the distance.
“You’re gonna tell me what happened last night. You’ve been stalling all day. Was it awful? ’Cause you sure as hell act like it. What did he do to you?”
Avery sighed heavily. “There was nothing awful about it,” she said softly.
Kerry perked up. “So...spill.”
“We... Dinner was great. We talked and laughed and talked. Went for a nightcap at The Hub. Come to find out it’s one of his favorite spots, too.”
“Get out,” Kerry said with a laugh.
“Yep.” She paused. “Anyway, we eventually came back here.”
Kerry’s eyes widened in delight. “Go on.”
Avery slowly replayed the events of the evening, up to and including Rafe’s departure.
“Girl, girl...” Kerry fanned herself. “I knew he would be something to reckon with. You can just see it in the way he walks,” she said with an underlying growl in her voice.
“You need to stop,” Avery sputtered over her laughter.
“So if he was so awesome and your vajaja is still humming his tune, why the sad face?”
Avery drew in a long breath and exhaled. “I don’t know how to explain it,” she began, trying to find the words. “Just a
feeling that I have.”
“Which is what—that he’s the best thing you’ve had since the flood—and he’s fiiine, and rich?”
Avery shook her head. “No, it’s more than that.”
Kerry leaned forward, studied the face of her friend. “What is it, A? Is there something you’re not telling me?”
Avery blinked rapidly. “I just think it was a one-night stand for him. It was the way he looked at me, the way he acted when he left.” She sniffed.
“Oh, girl, you knew that was a possibility,” she said as gently as she could. “You are two grown folks that filled a need in each other. You were attracted to him and he was attracted to you. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
Avery pushed up from her seat and began to pace. “Don’t you think I know that? I read about him—all that stuff you gave me, and I slept with him anyway.”
“Did you ask yourself why?”
Avery pursed her lips for a moment. “When...I was with him...he didn’t seem to be the way he was portrayed. He was kind and gentle, funny, sexy. He made me feel like I was the only person in the room. I thought...”
“You thought you would be different.”
Avery rolled her eyes.
“Look, I know I was the one that told you to go for it. I guess I didn’t think that you would take it for more than what it was—a night with an incredibly sexy man that you had the hots for and nothing more.” She paused. “I’m sorry, sis.”
Avery waved off the apology. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. Like you said, I’m a big girl.” She heaved a sigh. “And I definitely needed a full tune-up.” She grinned.
“Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Kerry hopped up and went to hug her friend. “I think that deserves a toast.”
They walked into the kitchen and Kerry took out two bottles of Perrier from the fridge.
“What are we toasting to?” Avery asked and sat down on the bar stool at the counter.
Kerry set two bottles on the counter, opened hers and took a long, welcome swallow. “To great sex any day out of the week.”