by Watts, Janna
He spun her around and pushed her back against the vanity table. His mouth caught hers in one fluid move and his tongue slipped between her lips. She opened and he teased her, pulling her bottom lip into his mouth. His tongue explored every contour of her and she whimpered. He tasted like peppermint Schnapps, and she wanted more. Needed it.
He dropped his mouth to the curve of her jaw and nipped his way down her neck. His hands continued to knead and tweak her breasts. Avery’s legs slid open and he chuckled again before grasping her waist tightly and turning her around to face the mirror. The rough motion fueled her further and her legs weakened as her body’s need took over.
“You’re some kind of woman, Avery.”
She opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say anything, the door opened behind her and Dan walked in. Her body froze as she saw his face in the mirror. Desire swept through her and her pussy clenched. Nick was satisfying a need, Dan was more. Way more.
Nick offered Dan a half-grin. “You want in?”
Dan shook his head and moved to the large chair in the corner of the room, never breaking eye contact with Avery.
Nick slipped his hands to Avery’s waist and turned to Dan. “You wanna watch?”
Dan stared at Avery for almost a full minute. Hunger. Desire. Want. Lust. Her body was assaulted by the look in his dark eyes. He finally broke the connection and nodded at Nick. Nick slid his fingers along the edge of her thong. Her entire body shook with need.
“Is that okay with you, darlin’?” Nick asked.
Avery couldn’t speak. She bit her lip and nodded.
In one quick move, Nick tugged the tiny scrap of silk off of her and nudged her legs apart, once again, pressing himself against her ass. His fingers moved to the outer lips of her pussy and she arched into him, her eyes trained on Dan’s.
Nick slipped a finger inside of her and she moaned. Over a week of wanting someone else’s hands on her and now they were the wrong hands.
“Damn, you’re wet. I’ve never felt anyone this wet.”
Avery stared at Dan. His hand dropped to his the buttons of his pants. He raised an eyebrow and she nodded at him. Whatever he was willing to do, she wanted to be a part of it. He unzipped and pulled himself out. His big, hard velvety cock sprang from his pants. Avery grabbed Nick’s hand and pushed him further inside. Watching Dan hold his cock made the need to feel him insider her so overpowering, she wasn’t sure if she could speak.
He laughed. “Pushy little thing, aren’t you?”
“You’re too slow. Too easy. I need more than that right now.” Her words were an urgent whisper and she saw Dan grip himself hard.
Nick’s eyes darted between the two of them. He slid another digit into her and she gasped in relief. She lifted her leg onto the vanity stool, opening herself wide for him, for Dan. Nick’s fingers probed her small patch of curls, his thumb circling and pressing against her clit. Thank God, someone finally knew what they were doing. Nick flicked his thumb against her again and she gasped. He not only knew what he was doing, but he apparently wrote the instruction manual on slow seduction.
“More. Harder,” she demanded and saw Dan’s hand tighten around the base of his cock.
Nick worked his fingers in and out of her, grazing his thumb over her bundle of nerves until she cried out in need. Dan moved his hand up and down his shaft faster. She gripped the table and stared at him. Nick’s stiff cock pressed against her ass, but still he tortured her with his fingers.
“Dammit, Nick, stop teasing,” she demanded. He inserted another finger inside her and she bucked against his hand. Dan let out a low moan as he stroked himself from root to tip.
“I’m not going to fuck you,” Nick said, his voice breaking through her whimpers.
Dan’s hand slowed.
“What?” she whispered. The heat and tension in the room was so thick, she couldn’t think straight.
“I’ll make you come, but I’m not gonna fuck you. It’s not me you want inside of you, darlin’, and that’s a hard pill to swallow, even for me.”
Avery looked down. Shame and guilt flooded over her. She dropped her leg and crossed her arms over her chest.
“I—“
Nick, leaned forward, tilted her chin up and tweaked her nose.
“Don’t worry. There are a lot of women I can call.”
Avery pulled away from him and grabbed her robe. What the hell was she doing? “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have. It was the show. I just got worked up. I’m not being fair to you.”
Nick shrugged and smiled. “Thought I could help.”
Avery looked at Dan. He’d tucked himself back into his pants, but she could still see the hardness of him pressing against the seams.
Nick dropped a kiss on her mouth and stepped away from her. He folded his jacket over his arm and walked to the door.
“Call me if you ever need a bass player.” His eyes darted between her and Dan. “Or a third.”
***
Dan shouldn’t have come back. He hoped he’d find her gone. He knew he wouldn’t. He’d walked back into the dressing room knowing full well what he was getting himself into. Now the two of them were alone with even more frustration and heat between them than he thought possible. He thought it was unbearable before. Now that he knew her sounds…had seen her body… He wanted to feel her inside. Wanted her wetness on his fingers, in his mouth…
“You better go,” she whispered.
He nodded but didn’t move.
She took a deep breath and he saw her hardened nipples press against her robe. “I need to finish this. You better go,” she said again.
Dan swallowed. He was playing with fire, but a night full of restless dreams wouldn’t be any easier. “So finish.”
Her eyes widened. “With you here?”
He nodded.
She shook her head. “To what end, Dan? We both decided this can’t go anywhere.”
He cleared his throat. “I want to see you come.”
She dropped her hands. “No. I won’t play that game with you. And I’m not going to lose you. You’re my creative partner. I’ve never felt this way with anyone I’ve worked with before. We’re not fucking it up.”
He stood up and clenched his fists in frustration. “Then why’d you let me watch?”
She crossed her arms. It was a damn good question, and one she didn’t have a good answer to. “Why’d you come back?”
“For you.”
Her eyes widened. He’d said too much. Gone too far. He needed to back track.
“I came back to see if you were okay. To make sure you got home okay.”
She opened and closed her mouth. “Sure you did.” She held her hands to her sides and did a small turn. “Well, as you can see, I’m in one piece. So you can go home now.”
He took a step toward her, but stopped himself. Isabel. This was how it started with Isabel. With him falling for her hypnotic voice, and ending up with a broken heart and a handicapped career. He wouldn’t do it again.
“You’re right. I’m going.” He walked past Avery and out the door. He stepped into the cool night air and inhaled deeply. He was a wreck over a woman he’d only just met. He needed to pull himself together and start acting like a professional before he ended up in the orchestra pit for some community theatre in South Carolina.
If only the thought of her didn’t enflame his lust and fill him with a desire for something he couldn’t have. He pounded his fist against the side of the building.
“Fuck,” he snarled and hit the building again. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.”
-6-
Avery needed to regroup in the worst kind of way. She needed to get her head straight and the best person to help her was her brother. She pulled her hair into a low ponytail, snatched her clothes on and made a beeline for the back door of Hugo’s. A cloud of smoke greeted her along with a few patrons who had stuck around after the show.
They leered at her as she hopped into a cab and directed
the driver to the strip club where Rich and Brandon worked. Sex and entertainment. She sold herself with every note she sang. She knew they wouldn’t look at her that way if she weren’t on stage making them undress her with their eyes. It was all a game. One Avery had gotten really good at. But most guys only wanted the shy girl on stage, the innocent seductress. And when it turned out she had more facets to her than just that, they bailed or treated her like a whore.
When she arrived at Scarlet’s, she bypassed a long line of desperate looking guys and went up to the bouncer at the door.
“Hey Kent.”
His face cracked open when he saw her, revealing a gold toothy grin. “Well, if isn’t my favorite songbird. I thought you had a gig tonight.”
“Yeah. I did.”
“So how did it go?”
She smiled. “Really good. I wish you guys could’ve been there.”
He nodded. “Yeah, Rich and Brandon were pretty bummed too. You gotta start singing on Sunday afternoons when the club’s closed.”
She laughed. “Not likely. Where is Rich?”
Kent pointed behind him. “He just got off his shift. He’s in the back. You can go on in.”
Avery ignored the guys grumbling in line behind her and strode past Kent with a gentle pat to his arm. She waved at the scantily clad cocktail waitress by the bar and blew a kiss to Xtina who was writhing upside down on stage with her legs hooked on the stripper pole. As a former gymnast, Xtina had a stronger core than Avery’s pilates teacher. Her skill on the pole was legendary.
Xtina grabbed one of her giant fake boobs and licked it, winking at Avery. Avery rolled her eyes and walked to the employee break room in the back. She threw the door open.
“Rich—,” she said. “Aaagh.” She slapped her hand over her eyes at the sight in front of her, Brandon hammering his huge dick into the crack of Rich’s ass.
“Avery,” Rich screamed. “What the fuck are you doing here? Get out.”
Brandon laughed.
“Oh my God,” she said, still holding her hands over her eyes. “I’m leaving. Come get me when you’re done.”
She stumbled out of the room, flailing her hands in front of her. She shuddered at the image burned into her brain. She loved watching gay sex, but her brother? Eww. It was worse than imagining her parents getting it on. Plus, from the flash that she got, Rich wasn’t lying about Brandon’s giant cock. She shuddered again.
“Doesn’t that thing impale you?” she blurted out to Rich when he and Brandon joined her a few minutes later.
Brandon laughed and kissed her on the cheek. “It’s good to see you too, Avery.”
“My poor brother,” she said. “That thing’s a weapon of mass destruction. I’m never going to be able to have Thanksgiving with you again without thinking about it.”
Brandon adjusted himself. “I prefer to call it my weapon of masturbation.”
Rich shook his head and signaled the waitress to bring them drinks. “Avery. Can we just pretend that little moment didn’t happen and you can tell us why you’re here? Didn’t the show go well?”
“It went really well. I think we’ll be able to pull of the Carmichael.”
The waitress returned with three club sodas. Avery took a sip, the cool liquid sliding down her throat and steadying her nerves.
“So?” Rich asked.
“Well, something happened afterwards,” she started.
Brandon smirked. “You mean over than you coming in on me rimming your brother?”
“Ick. And um, it was a bit more than rimming. Jesus, I’m going to need to acid bathe my eyes.”
“Christ,” Rich said. “I said let’s forget about it. Now what happened after?”
“You did the piano player, didn’t you?” Rich asked with a giant grin.
Avery looked between the two of them. “Not exactly. It was the bass player, but the piano player watched.”
Brandon barked out a laugh. Every patron in the room looked their way.
“Shh,” Avery said. “It wasn’t that big a deal.”
Brandon continued to chuckle. “Rich,” he said, turning to his boyfriend, “why did you not get this gene in your family?”
Rich swatted him. “Give me a break. Like you would ever watch some other guy fuck me.”
Brandon’s face turned possessive. “You’re damn right, I wouldn’t. But I’d let some guy watch me fuck you.”
Rich grinned. “Pass. Avery already covered that and she’s apparently scarred for life.”
Avery laughed. “Seriously. I’m going to have to start seeing my shrink again after witnessing that.”
Brandon slipped his hand over Rich’s and turned back to Avery. “So how’d you end up with the bass player?”
Avery told the two the entire sordid story. Brandon chuckled a few times, but Rich didn’t say a thing until she got to the part where Dan walked out.
“So wait, he wanted you to get yourself off in front of him?” Rich asked.
Avery nodded. “And of course, I couldn’t. By that point, the whole thing seemed like sort of a bad idea.”
Rich cleared his throat. “By that point? It took that long for it to seem like a bad idea? What the hell were you thinking Avery? I thought you liked this guy.”
Avery blinked at the harshness of his words. “I do.”
“Well, no offense, but fucking around with another guy is not exactly the best way to say you’re into someone.”
“I’m not into him. I respect him creatively. Plus, it was a really intense show,” she said and shrugged.
“Evidently. Still. It probably would have been easier if you just fucked him. Then the relationship would be over and you wouldn’t have to stew about it for the next few weeks and watch it die a slow death.”
Avery’s nostrils flared. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Rich ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “Avery, I think you’re amazing. You know it. I think whoever gets you will be the luckiest guy in the world. But just last week, you told me that your pussy was like the Vagina Dentata and you swore off men for the next year.”
“So I’m a nympho,” Avery said. She dropped her head into her hands. “I can’t even last a week.”
Rich squeezed her shoulder. “You’re not. You’re spectacular. But even you know that mixing business and sex never ends well. I know how much cabaret means to you. And this guy seems like he’s good for you. A good partner. You said he brought out the best in your show, right?”
A tear slid down Avery’s cheek. Rich brushed it away and wrapped her in a hug.
“Yes. He’s really talented him and I like him. I like him too much. I feel like I’ve found a creative life partner, you know? I mean, even when we disagree, we resolve it in such a good way. We talk about it and it’s this really healthy communication. I’ve never had that before. I just wish I could have it in my personal life too.” Avery pressed her face into Rich’s chest and released a sob. All the emotions from the night pooled out of her onto Rich’s T-shirt.
The tears finally subsided and she pulled away from Rich. “I’m sorry. I got snot on your shirt.”
Rich laughed. “Aww, honey. I hate to see you like this.”
“Maybe it could work.” Brandon had been quiet for so long, Avery almost forgot he was there.
“What?”
“Maybe it could work with the two of you,” Brandon said again. “Maybe he could be that guy in your personal life too.”
Avery shook her head. “I don’t have a very good track record for that kind of stuff.”
Brandon shrugged. “No one does really until they meet the right person. Isn’t that what we all do? We keep failing until the right one comes along?”
Avery offered a shaky smile. “Did you fail before you met Rich?”
Brandon laughed. “Fuck yeah, didn’t he tell you? For the two years before I met him, my life was a series of hook-ups with whatever nearby guy I found on Grindr. I probably would still be in that place i
f he hadn’t made a move on me his first night on the job.”
Rich raised an eyebrow. “I made a move on you? I made the first move? Really? Because if I’m not mistaken, during break you asked if I wanted to see your huge cock.”
Brandon’s smile split his face. “Yeah, that was pretty slick. But I never would have offered if you hadn’t been checking me out all night with those baby blues.”
Rich opened his mouth, but snapped it closed when Brandon looked at him pointedly. “It’s because I could see your nipple ring through your shirt. It was really distracting.”
Brandon leaned over and gave Rich a long, open-mouthed kiss. “I know,” he whispered when he pulled away.
Avery cleared her throat. “This is starting to get awkward. I’m gonna go.”
Rich turned to her. “Are you going to be all right?”
She nodded. “Of course. I have the new glass dildo at home I’ve haven’t tried yet.”
Brandon shook his head. “This collection of yours is starting to reach epic proportion.”
Avery raised a shoulder. “Yeah, I guess. But you can’t really blame me. None of my toys have ever asked ‘whose pussy is this?’”
Rich stood up and grabbed her hand. He pulled her into a tight hug. “Don’t worry about the piano player,” he whispered. “It’ll blow over. You’ll figure it out.”
She nodded, gave Brandon a kiss on the cheek and headed for the door. She hoped Rich was right. Otherwise, she’d just ruined the best working relationship she’d ever had.
-7-
The minute Avery walked into the rehearsal space on Monday, she knew it had not blown over.
“You didn’t return my calls,” Dan snapped at her before she’d even put her bag down. “I wanted to talk about the show, and you didn’t return my calls.”
Avery’s shoulders slumped. She’d messed everything up.
“I was trying not to work yesterday. I thought we could use a break.”
His eyes narrowed. “What were you doing? Or should I say who were you doing?”
She drew in a steadying breath. “That’s not your concern. We didn’t have rehearsal plans. I needed a day off.”