by Jolie Day
And she was still wearing all of her clothes.
“Not for long,” she felt Joel grunt against the sensitive skin of her neck. It was with a start that Avery realized she’d voiced that particular thought out loud. Not that she really cared much; not when she felt Joel’s deft fingers pull at the tie at the back of her neck, loosening it enough so that the soft material fell, stroking over her shoulders and catching on the swell of her breasts. A safety feature, Bethany had told her, in case the tie accidentally came loose, so she wouldn’t end up flashing anybody. It was a feature that Avery no longer found so endearing.
She wanted this dress off. She wanted to feel Joel’s bare skin against hers; wanted to feel the spattering of hair on his chest as it stroked against her breasts. She wanted to remove every last barrier between them until he was all she could feel, unencumbered by clothing.
But it was all she could do to remain upright as Joel’s mouth continued to wreak havoc on her body, his lips leaving a trail of heat and blooming pink nips and bites as he moved down her collarbone, growling low in the back of his throat as he reached the space between her breasts, nuzzling his nose against the swell. Avery moaned and pressed her chest into his mouth, begging without words.
Joel didn’t need any more encouragement as he used his teeth to tug at the tight bodice, loosening it so that the material fell away from Avery’s breasts, baring them to the intensity of his gaze. Avery’s breath was ragged as she looked down her body at Joel, watching, dry-mouthed as he licked his lips, before his gaze met hers and she could swear that his pupils dilated for a split-second before he opened his mouth around one hardened pink peak. She let out a shuddering gasp as she felt Joel suck on her nipple, her back arching to give and receive more, her hands fluttering at the back of his neck, his shoulders, over his mussed hair, as she tugged and scratched and clawed at him, biting her own lip to keep from crying out.
Joel’s mouth was unrelenting on her, his mouth like a suction, his teeth tugging gently and sending shockwaves all throughout her body. Avery’s fists clenched in his hair and she felt the vibration of his growl as her body arched closer. “Please,” she whimpered, though she knew not what she was asking for.
Joel, however, seemed to know exactly what she wanted as he released one breast and moved to the other one, laving it with the same attention as he moved his hips against hers. His uninjured arm came to bind around her waist, his large hand cupping underneath her ass as he lifted them both up. Avery’s legs automatically tightened around his waist, keeping herself from falling with her arms wrapped around his head, keeping his face firmly planted in between her breasts.
With a surprisingly familiar ease, Joel carried Avery across the apartment, pressing her against the wall between the kitchen and bedroom, his hands tugging her dress down and over her hips, working feverishly to divest her of it even as his mouth resumed its suction on her breast. Avery whimpered and moaned, letting out aggravated sighs when she couldn’t reach down to do the same with his pants. She attempted to slip her toes under the material at his back, but could get no purchase when she realized that she still had her heels on. She let out a long, guttural groan at that and felt Joel smile around her nipple. Infuriating bastard.
She growled low in her throat and felt him moan in response against her skin, before pulling away and kissing his way down her chest and stomach. Avery shuddered and pressed her hands to his broad shoulders, holding herself steady as she felt her dress finally come loose and begin to roll down her thighs. They stopped halfway when Joel focused his attention on the apex of her thighs, instead. He pressed his nose against her cloth-covered center, breathing her in through the silky material of her thong and Avery shivered, her nails digging into his shoulders. Joel glanced up to meet her eyes and grinned up at her, before returning his attention to the place between her legs, opening his mouth over her for a long moment. He allowed his hot tongue to press against her, helping to soak her already damp panties completely through, before his tongue was gone and leaving her wanting.
Joel made quick work of her dress after that, using his top half to press her body to the wall as he pushed the material off her legs until it was pooled at the ground at his feet, then reached for his own belt and zipper, pressing his lips to the curve of Avery’s neck as he pushed his pants down over his hips, leaving his briefs on. As the fabric pooled at his feet, Joel pushed away from the wall, kicking them off deftly as he carried Avery the rest of the way to her bed, while she attacked his neck and jaw, moaning breathily into his ear, whispering his name and delighting in his returning growls. Avery heard the whoosh of the curtain that separated the bed from the main room at her back as she felt the chill of wind it created. Her kisses slowed as she felt Joel place her gently down on the bed.
Her lips left him with a small sucking sound and she watched him swallow thickly as he backed away and stared at her, his eyes dark as his gaze scanned over the entirety of hers, taking in her bare, heaving chest and the reddening bites that now stood out against her pink skin and the purplish bruises on her throat where his teeth and lips had scraped and sucked. She left him breathless. And, from the looks of it, he had a similar effect on her. Avery was leaning back on her hands, her chest heaving as her eyes stayed glued on his chest, her teeth sinking into the swell of her bottom lip. Her makeup was long past smudged, her lipstick almost completely rubbed off and the eyeliner creating dark rings around her eyes. Her hair was no longer neat, but was now wild around her head, still shimmering with what looked like glitter. He grinned darkly at her, leaning in with his hands planted on either side of her waist. He caught the skin of her bottom lip with a nip of his teeth and she whimpered, reaching up to cup his jaw. Joel pulled away, still grinning, and reached down, placing his hand boldly over the crotch of her panties.
“Were these expensive?” he husked, searching her foggy eyes.
“Hmm?” Her mind was muddled, her focus solely on the fingers brushing over her heat. When the question finally registered in her brain, she shook her head. Joel nodded, immediately wrapping his fingers around the triangle over her center and tearing it away with a resounding snap. Avery gasped, her hands clenching around the sheets beneath her. “Oh god,” she breathed.
Joel chuckled. “I’ll buy you more,” he promised, licking a stripe up her neck as his fingers stroked through the wetness pooling between her thighs. “In every color.”
“What’s the point?” Avery gasped. “You’ll just rip them off again, won’t you?”
“That is the point,” he husked, before pressing his lips to hers, pushing her up the bed as he climbed up. Avery heard the distant sound of Joel’s shoes popping off of his feet as if they’d come off hundreds of feet away, rather than just at the end of her bed. She paid them little attention as Joel’s fingers continued to tease at her opening, causing her to emit tiny whimpers into his mouth as he stroked her tongue with his, mimicking the motion of his digits slowly working their way inside of her. “You’re so wet,” he hummed in appreciation.
“For you,” Avery gasped. “Only for you.”
Joel let out a low, pleased growl as he swiped his thumb over her clit, rewarding Avery for her words and causing her to arch against him, begging for more as her lips reached for his. Joel backed away, grinning wolfishly as he moved down her body, once again. This time, instead of placing sucking kisses along the way, he simply pressed his lips to her skin and allowed them to scorch a line down to where she wanted him.
Avery let out a low moan as Joel opened his mouth over her and allowed his tongue to sweep over her, finally, without the barrier of clothing. Her heels dug into the mattress as she canted her hips upwards, pressing into his mouth. Joel chuckled and raised his head away from her, slinging his uninjured arm over her hips to keep her anchored, even as he shrugged his shoulders underneath her knees, allowing her feet to press against his back.
“Wait,” Avery breathed. “My heels. They’ll hurt you.”
Joel grinne
d against the inside of her thigh, then turned to meet her eyes. “I like it,” he husked and Avery whimpered, her head falling back as she felt a familiar tightening in the pit of her stomach. “Fuck,” she breathed, pressing a hand over her face as the other returned to its rightful place in his hair, combing through the mussed locks.
Joel chuckled and returned his attention to her center, tonguing her folds and lapping at the wetness there, while Avery’s hips continued to move of their own accord. The coil in her stomach tightened with every swipe of his tongue, every scrape of his teeth over her clit, and every moan that vibrated through her body. Avery’s heels pressed into the skin of his back, causing Joel to emit growls and press his mouth more firmly to her, licking her vigorously and with more and more fervor. Avery practically cried with relief as her first orgasm finally washed over her, Joel’s name tripping from her lips like a prayer. Joel’s tongue stroked her through it, maximizing her pleasure until he felt the tell-tale tug of Avery’s hand in his hair, pulling him away.
Her legs fell open on the bed as he extracted himself from underneath them, reaching down for her feet. He extracted first one, and then the other shoe, kissing away the deep pink marks they left from the tops of her feet to just above her ankles. Then he kissed back up her body, his lips gentle this time as he inched his way towards her lips, attaching his mouth to hers with a reverence, softly stroking them as his hand buried itself in Avery’s hair. He could feel her sated smile against his lips, even as she wrapped her long, legs around his waist.
Before he knew what was happening, Joel’s back hit the mattress and he was staring up at Avery’s bright smile as she loomed above him. She was blurry and he suddenly realized that his glasses had come askew. He reached to correct them, but Avery lightly slapped his hands away and removed them, placing them on the side table as she leaned down, pressing her lips back to his. She kissed him for a long while, slowly and sensually, the length of her body resting along his, her legs parted over his hips, where her wetness soaked through the material of his briefs. They were tented now and provided a delicious friction as she ground her center against him.
Joel growled into Avery’s mouth and reached up, stilling her hips with the clench of his fingers. “Are you trying to kill me?” he demanded. Avery grinned, nuzzling her nose against his.
“Maybe,” she purred, pressing another kiss to his bottom lip. Joel growled again, turning to press Avery back into the mattress, her hair fanning around her head like an auburn halo. Before she could so much as gasp, his fingers were inside her again; two this time. Avery whimpered and wriggled, her nails digging into the base of his spine as he pumped the thick digits in and out of her. She cried out when he curled them and he hit a spot so deep inside of her that she’d had no idea it existed until then and there.
“Oh, you like that, huh?” he husked against her neck.
“Yes,” she cried out. “Yes!” She could feel that coil begin to tighten inside her again, faster this time, and she was desperate for it to break. Her nails dug deeper and Joel moaned, burying his face into her hair as his hips rocked against her, sending his fingers deeper and making her call out his name as her second climax washed over her. Avery’s body felt limp even as her thighs continued to quiver around Joel’s hand.
And then it was gone, though the heat of his body still warmed hers. She felt him lean over toward her bedside table and begin rifling through the drawers. She knew exactly what he was looking for.
“Other side,” she gasped as his hips rubbed against her. She reached out for the table on the opposite side of her bed, but fell a foot short. Joel got the message and rolled off of her, sending Avery curling in on herself at the loss of heat.
He was back soon enough and this time she could no longer feel any kind of barrier between their hips, her hands grasping at the bare skin of his ass as his hard length settled at the vee of her legs. She heard the crinkle of a wrapper and reached out, enclosing her fingers around the package in his hand.
“I’ll do it.”
Avery made quick work of the foil wrapper, ripping it open, effortlessly, and reaching down to unroll it over his hardness, stroking it with her fist a few times before positioning him at her opening. Joel waited until she met his eyes before he began to push in, holding her gaze as she enveloped him, welcoming him into her body with little resistance. It felt like coming home and Joel felt his arms quiver with the effort to hold himself up. Avery’s legs tangled with his, encouraging him with the soft rock of her hips up into his. Joel grunted and nodded his head, pressing his lips to her jaw as he began to move.
Their movements started slow, but soon picked up speed as their desperation for one another increased. The sweat of their bodies mingled as they seemed to melt into one, her breasts pressed against his chest as her arms wrapped around his shoulders, hanging on for dear life. Joel’s fingers left indentations in her hips as he held her as close as he possibly could. He whispered her name into her ear as he felt himself getting closer, husked praises into her hair and ground himself down so that he brushed against her clit with every other pump of his hips.
Avery had never experienced anything quite like this. The emotions and sensations that Joel was now bringing to the surface made her feel as if the earth had suddenly shifted on its axis. The feeling of his hips as they grinded against hers, of him, as he moved deep inside of her, made her breathless as she once again approached that peak, crying out his name as she came around him. Joel’s hips stuttered against hers as he followed, seconds after, emptying himself as he collapsed over her, his weight falling atop her like a heavy blanket. Avery curled her arms around his shoulders, pressing lazy kisses up and down his neck as their sated bodies began to cool.
It was difficult for her to breath like that, with him resting on her, but she was in no rush for him to move. No rush at all.
Chapter Fifteen
When he startled awake, it was well past midnight and there was a weight pressed against the left side of his body. Joel found himself smiling before he even looked down his body at the auburn beauty tucked under his arm. Avery’s hair covered half of her face and splayed across the pillows underneath their heads. Gently, Joel raised one hand to brush the locks away, smiling as the glitter in her hair caught the moonlight and she wrinkled her nose, adorably, in her sleep.
When Avery shifted and turned over, the heat of her body leaving him slightly chilled, Joel found himself reaching out for her, before thinking better of it. She deserved to have her rest, after all. Instead, he silently stripped the sheets from his body and slipped out of the bed, grabbing his glasses and boxers on the way.
His steps were silent as he moved through the apartment. His muscles were sore as he stretched his arms above his head and felt the twinge in his lower back—it wasn’t unpleasant, though. He smirked as he reached back to rub his shoulder and felt the shallow indentations from where Avery’s nails had scored over his flesh. They hadn’t broken the skin (not much really could), but he could bet that they’d left their mark, at least for a couple of days. He liked that. Liked being marked by somebody.
Almost as much as he liked leaving his mark on others.
Joel easily located a glass in one of the upper cupboards and filled it with water from the sink in the kitchen, sighing through his nose as he took a long sip. His throat felt as if it had been stripped raw tonight; there was a gravel in the back of it that he couldn’t quite rid himself of, no matter how many times he cleared his throat. He had assumed it had something to do with the way Avery’s name had been ripped from his vocal chords for the last several hours, but maybe it was something more.
At that thought, Joel looked down at the bandage on his arm, still wrapped tightly around his wound, despite his earlier…activities. It hadn’t bled too much, from what he could see, but there was the faintest hint of pink coming apparent on the top layer. He wouldn’t have to change them anytime soon, he knew, or ever for that matter. He healed fas
t and the mark would soon be nothing more than a memory, leaving only a few thin lines to indicate where it had been.
He had plenty of other scars just like it.
“Mom! Joel bit me again!”
“Joel Harper, what did I tell you about biting your brothers?”
“I can’t help it! I get so excited!”
“Well, it’s only fair that you get bit back, then, isn’t it?”
“Ow!”
“Not so pleasant? Well, maybe that will teach you. No biting!”
His mother’s only rule in the house; no biting. Not each other and certainly not anybody outside the house. Joel had been the only one in the family that found this difficult and his older siblings had had to keep him under constant surveillance until he learned to control himself. Perhaps distracting himself with photography had helped; he learned to channel his energy into something creative.
Still, he sometimes found himself with the undeniable urge to—
“Joel?”
At the sound of the meek voice, Joel whipped around to find Avery standing just a few feet away, wearing nothing but a sheet around her otherwise bare body. He tried to fight the hunger that rose within him, but he was certain that it was reflected in his eyes—just as much as it was reflected in her own. Still, he tamped it down as he offered her a toothy grin.
“Nice outfit,” he teased, stepping forward. Avery rolled her eyes but didn’t resist as he reached for her, tugging the sheet open to reveal her bare skin, and pulled her flush against his body. She wrapped the sheet around his shoulders as she leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to his lips.
When she pulled back, she tipped her head to the side and studied him for a long moment. “I’m sorry we never got back to the gala for dessert,” she said, her voice low and not apologetic at all, her eyes still shining with mischief.
Joel hummed, pressing his lips to her temple, his breath washing over her ear. “I’m not,” he husked, causing Avery to let out an involuntary shiver as he reached for her waist and hoisted her higher on his body. At the feeling of his hands under her thighs, she jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist, her ankles locking at the small of his back.