by Maya Rossi
“Hi.”
The sleep warm, throaty inquiry hit him somewhere below the belt. He willed down his growing hardness. Ava smiled. “You slept off.”
“You must have magic fingers,” he agreed.
Ava bit her lips, leaving his lap to sit alongside him. Brayden grimaced when she sat too close, almost on his lap. “About Hannah. I think she wanted you not the money.”
“Why would she want that? She’s better off with the money than with me. I’ll totally take the money.”
Ava was quiet for so long, Brayden thought she had dropped it. “Hey.”
“You actually believe that?” she curled her legs under her. “You know what? It’s about what she wants not what you want.”
“It’s what we deserve. Why did you come?”
Ava pulled her knees to her chest, resting her head on her knees to observe him sideways. Her lashes formed dark shadows on her creamy cheeks. Brayden swallowed thickly. “Remember when you said I didn’t fight for our friendship? I decided to fight now. I wrote the article, yes I did. I owed to the fans, and I owed it to my profession. I want it for myself. I’ve mentioned how important it is that I be in control. For that interview, I did what you wanted not what I wanted. I was protecting you and it backfired.”
“You wanted to tell the truth, I get that now.” Brayden frowned. “Hannah helped me understand.”
Ava caught his hand and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. When he caught the desperate longing in her eyes, Brayden’s heart seized. He might not have much experience, but he had caught the desire in hers many times. Eddy had made spending time with her safe because Ava wasn’t one to cheat. But knowing she returned his feelings would make the fight extra difficult.
“Brayden?”
“No,” he whispered. He leaned forward, dislodging her hold.
“You don’t know what I’m asking.”
“I do.”
“Tell me you don’t feel it and I’ll leave.”
He laughed caustically. “So If I say no, we’ll stop being friends, is that it?”
She lowered her eyes, sinking her teeth into her lower lip. “That’s what you want, friendship?”
The aching whisper of her request snagged at something he thought dead inside of him. When he replied, his words came out harsher than he intended. “You know that’s all I ever wanted!”
Ava angled her chin upward, meeting his gaze fearlessly. “And if I want more? What then?”
Her trembling lips, wet and plush did him in. Unable to help himself after fighting his feelings for so long, Brayden caught her lips in a searing kiss. She let out a gasp which he quickly swallowed, licking into her mouth, the wet skin on skin contact sending immeasurable delight through his body.
Throwing her legs over his thighs, she moved to straddle his thigh. “Brayden, please.”
He cupped her cheeks, carding his hand through her hair. “I don’t know, Ava. I don’t know.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Sir,” Jack announced, closing the office door behind him. “You’ve got a delivery.”
Brayden stared at the gift bag. It changed before his eyes and became a long cane. Brayden Marshall, you are not deserving not as long as he’s dead. You hear me?
“Sir?”
He blinked, working his jaw from side to side. God, he needed sleep. “Lock the door, I don’t want to be disturbed.”
Jack hesitated. “Should I call Ava Miller?”
Benjamin came to him every night now. It was almost like before, in his teenage years before boxing became a drug. An effective drug that put him into an exhausted, dreamless sleep at the end of every day.
“Bray?”
“Yes.”
With Jack gone, Brayden opened the bag with trembling hands. He clenched his hands into fists to still their trembling. Inside was a single rose. It was signed simply, ‘my love.’ Eyes aimed at the inscription like it was a snake poised to strike, Brayden jerked at the knot of his tie until it loosened. Next, he grabbed the ice pack in a bucket at his side and pressed it to his heated brow.
By the time Ava walked in, he was calmer. Yet, Brayden feared he would come undone at the slightest provocation. Now, he aimed what he hoped was a rakish grin at Ava. In her work attire of shirt, heels and pleated skirt, she looked ravishingly efficient.
“Flowers really? No one has ever gotten me flowers. Thank you.”
Ava wasn’t fooled. She walked over and stopped at his side. Fighting the urge to pull away when he wanted to devour her, Brayden forced a smile. “You came.”
“Rough night?”
“Not too bad,” he lied.
She scoffed, reaching a hand to trace a finger across the bags under his eyes. “You’re lying. Has it always been this bad?”
“No.” Brayden pressed the rose to his nose to avoid her gaze.
“Brayden.” Ava shook her head, blinking back tears. “I caused this, didn’t I?”
One handed, he caught Ava by the waist and drew her into his lap. With a gasp, she threw her hands around his neck. He followed the lines of her beautiful face with his eyes before landing on her dewy lips. Instinctively, his arms tightened around her.
“I can’t give you love, children or the family you desperately want, Ava,” he said in a deliberately harsh voice.
Ava paused, going pale as his words sank home.
Brayden hardened his heart against the questions in her lovely eyes. “It can only be,” he could barely force the next words out, “a fuck. Nothing else, Ava.”
Wrapping her arms around his neck, she bit hard at his lower lip. “Shut up, Brayden.”
She scrambled to her knees, and he helped her pull up her skirts to aid the process. Hands braced on either side of his head on his chair, she leaned forward and kissed him slowly. For what seemed like hours they kissed hungrily repeatedly. Turning away to catch a quick breath, they delved into the kiss until he didn’t know where she ended and he began.
“Brayden, Brayden,” she chanted against his mouth.
Using her thighs for leverage, Brayden set her on his desk. Blind with lust, he caught the top of her shirt and ripped it open. Her creamy skin contrasted against the red of her bra, cradling the flesh so lovingly it lit a fresh bout of desire along his frayed nerve endings.
With his belt hoops as a support, Ava pushed upwards. She caught his eyes and slowly reached out a finger to pull down her bra straps. Brayden was on her before her breasts were fully bared. He mouthed at the nub of her nipples through her bra, biting and licking across the flesh. Somehow they got her bra out of the way.
Grabbing both breasts greedily, he drew a nipple into his mouth, sucking with deep pulls. Ava wrapped her legs around his hips. With a hand braced behind her, she began to thrust her hips in an upward arch, seeking relief.
Brayden released a nipple with an audible pop. Dragging her to the edge of his desk, he spread her legs wider, enjoying the brush of air as her panting breaths hit his heated skin. Tilting her legs up as far as it would go, he began to thrust his aching cock against the heat of her sex.
Ava threw her head back and came with a loud moan. Dropping his head into the sweaty notch where her neck met her shoulders, Brayden came in his slacks, grimacing as hot semen trailed down his legs. When he didn’t feel like his heart was about to take flight, he drew back to study her flushed skin and dazed eyes. Only Ava would make him come like a teenager with his first crush.
“Uhmmm, hi.”
He dragged his eyes from her breasts with effort. “I need you to go on protection.”
She made a face. “I hate the way it makes me feel.”
“Please. It’s important.”
“But, condoms--”
“That too.”
She watched him for a second, her brows drawn together in a small frown. Dear God, the last thing he wanted was for her to ask why they needed so much protection. Brayden held his breath, waiting for the inevitable question.
“If that’s what you w
ant.”
Relieved, Brayden pressed a kiss to her forehead. “It’s what I want.”
∞∞∞
“Do you really want this, are you sure?”
Ava’s eyes fell closed as Brayden spread kisses across her jaw and up to her temple. He slashed his lips down her cheeks to her ear. Trembling, she let her legs fall open to accommodate his hips. When his cool lips closed around her earlobe, she moaned wildly.
Suddenly, Brayden got off her. Disoriented, Ava stared at the luxurious arched ceiling of his penthouse apartment, panting. “Why did you stop?”
He slid off the bed to get his clothes off, his predatory eyes tracing a line of fire down her body. “You didn’t answer my question,” he returned absently. “Are you sure you want this? I won’t give you the family you want or--”
“I want you to make love to me not propose,” she groused, kicking out at his rock hard thighs with her foot.
His slacks his the ground, the belt buckle making a metallic sound on contact. Ava rose to her elbows to watch when his hand curled around the waistband of his boxer short. When nothing happened for a full minute, she dragged irritated eyes to his face. His very flushed face.
“You’re shy,” Ava said with rising disbelief. “Brayden Marshall is shy?”
Sounding put out but not the least bit embarrassed, he said, “If you can get over your glee maybe you’ll find out something about me.”
Smiling hugely, Ava waved a hand at him to go ahead. “By all means.”
“Soooo, huh…”
“So shy.” Ava put on a serious face. “Just remember it’s just me, the love of your life and there’s nothing you can’t tell me oooor show me.”
Brayden shoved his boxer shorts down the rest of the way, smiling. “It’s not that.”
Ava choked. She stared at his out jutting member with wide eyes. It would hurt going in, no way could she take him easily. Jesus, how many inches was that?
His feet gave way beneath him and Brayden collapsed on the ground laughing so hard all his body vibrated with it. Smiling despite herself, Ava moved to the edge of the bed so she could look down at him. Any other person would have looked ridiculous spread out naked, hard penis waving the air like a flag, but not Brayden. She pressed her palm flat against his heaving stomach.
“How are you comfortable waving that thing around?”
As suddenly he had begun, he stopped laughing. “When you visit the men’s locker room, you’ll need soap for your eyes. You should have seen your face, hilarious.”
“A face I made sent you into apoplectic fits? You better start paying up.” Ava moved her hands up his abs, savoring the marvel of smooth silk draped over hardness.
“No, you said, ‘it will hurt going in, no way I can take him easily,’ that was funny.”
“Stop, I can’t have said that aloud.” She dropped back on the bed, groaning in embarrassment.
Brayden continued to howl with laughter. “You did, I’m not done. You said, ‘how many inches is --”
Ava scrambled off the bed and fell on him, covering his mouth with her hand. “Oh, God stop.”
When he just went on and on, Ava moved her hand down his body and wrapped her hand around his considerable girth. At her touch, he seemed to deflate. Brayden tilted his head back, baring the long line of his corded neck to her gaze. Her nipples tightened to aching nubs, deep inside her mound seemed to swell, hungry for what he alone could give her.
Feverish with long repressed need, Ava hiked up her skirts and moved to straddle him. Moaning like a hussy, she tightened her grip around him and thrust down. Before his penis would make contact where she desperately needed it, Brayden caught her hip, halting her movement.
“What now?”
“How did you do a three sixty, I thought you were worried you couldn’t take me?” Desire left his voice deeply husky and smoky.
Ava bit her lip, a little embarrassed. “I’m ready.”
His brown eyes darkened. “How wet are you?”
“Very,” she assured.
With a casual display of strength, he vaulted them off the floor and dropped her on the bed. Ava bounced a few feet away. Catching her ankles, he dragged her forward, spreading her legs to study her most private place intently.
“Oh, fuck,” she hissed.
“That’s right,” Brayden agreed. “I was about to say I’ve only been with one woman and might not last.” As shock rippled through Ava, he seemed to give that some thought and shook his head ruefully. “I won’t last so--”
“Who?”
He smoothed a callused hand across her smooth thighs, raising goosebumps in his wake. “Huh?”
“Who and when?”
“Janet, I was thirteen.”
Without warning, he pushed her thighs against her chest and ate her out. It was sloppy and messy and the most incredible head she had ever received. Giving head wasn’t something Eddy liked doing but Brayden excelled in it like he did at every other thing.
He caught her clitoris between his teeth and pushed two fingers inside her. Ava lost it, coming uncontrollably as her body disintegrated under his expert hands. While she was sobbing her appreciation, he turned her to her stomach and entered her in one smooth thrust. He went so hard and high inside her, Ava saw stars. With a loud grunt, he pulled out and pushed back in, raking his girth roughly against her contracting walls.
The feeling was indescribable. Sex without a condom was better not because it magnified the pleasure but the completeness, the knowledge she was truly his.
“Brayden. We didn’t--” She gasped, crying out when he hit the exact spot. “No protection.”
“Fuck, I can’t, I can’t.” Brayden’s cock pulsed inside her like a living thing.
“It’s all right, I went to the doctor’s remember--”
“No!” To her surprise, he found the strength to pull out. Shocked, she turned around. Panting, chest rising and falling with a power she found unbearably erotic, he let his eyes fall closed. Worried, Ava placed a hand on his heaving chest. Brayden grimaced.
Incredibly, he began to come. Through gritted teeth, he shouted her name. Ava collapsed on the bed, concentrating on getting air into her starved lungs. But when she felt the hot rush of his semen against her ass and thighs, her insides contracted involuntarily.
She turned as Brayden dropped by her side, chest heaving with the need to breathe. She ran her eyes over his face with the parted lips, down his stomach to half hard manhood. Unable to help herself, Ava wrapped her hand around it, squeezing and hefting its weight.
A drop of cum hung on the end like pearl drops, Ava leaned down to lick it off. Brayden leaned up on his elbows to watch her. Handsome features hardening with growing hunger, he reached a hand to her jaw. A muscle ticked along his cheek. “Put me in your mouth.”
Ava didn’t hesitate, not that it mattered because with a hand curled around her head, he directed her downwards. Groaning, he thrust into the warmth of her mouth hard. Choking, Ava pulled him out of her mouth.
“Sorry,” he muttered with a grimace.
She went back for more, holding his hips to let him know how much she could take. When she sucked lightly at the head, he came hard for the second time that night. Rising up to her elbows, she climbed up his body to kiss him. Giving him pleasure had ratcheted up hers.
“Brayden,” she whispered against his mouth in between kisses.
He caught her hips, raising her high to sit on his face. Shoving her skirts to her chest with an unspoken command to hold it, Brayden’s lips latched onto her mound with greedy delight. Ava cried out, riding his face shamelessly. When she came, he brought her to his chest when she would have listed forward.
They might have slept, or he might have but Ava was wide awake. Without doubt, it was the most incredible night of her life. Sex with the love of your life differed vastly from the normal. To think she almost denied herself this man to be with Eddy. Her arms tightened around him instinctively.
She wan
ted to scream her love for him to the heavens but she didn’t dare. The thing was, Brayden had always been careful to draw the line with her. They could make love but nothing would come of it. Her euphoria from the multiple orgasm disappeared.
“Babe?”
“Who and when was your first?” she asked.
“Are we really going to do this?”