by Melody Anne
Earlier I told her that she had me, and she did. I could not get her out of my head, but this was so beyond anything I was ready for.
Seeing her place drove home the fact that we were fucking worlds apart.
I could never bring her to my place now.
“Make yourself at home,” she said. “I’m just going to clean up. I didn’t have time earlier because I have a surprise for you.”
“Is it one of those lacy kinds of surprises?” I asked with a grin.
“Not telling.” She smiled over her shoulder. “I’ll be back out in a few minutes.”
“Said no girl ever,” I yelled at her down the hall.
Her laughter floated back at me. I settled on the couch and grabbed the remote. Her TV was bigger than my entire apartment. Well, not really, but it felt like it. I flipped through a few talk shows where people screamed at each other about baby daddies and shit, then turned it off.
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard those kinds of accusations. Not directed at me, but in the surrounding trailers where I grew up. There was always some kind of drama going on.
A row of pictures lined a narrow table pushed against the wall under the TV, and I walked over to check them out. Avery and the girl I remembered from O’Malley’s were in most of them. In front of a mountain holding up skis. On a beach with the bluest water I’d ever seen behind them. They both had on tiny bikinis. Each picture looked like it was taken in a different country. God, she’d been all over the fucking place.
I’d never even been out of the state.
The last picture was of Avery in a cap and gown with two adults at her side. Avery and the woman looked a lot alike.
“My parents,” Avery said from the doorway. “That was high school graduation.”
I never graduated from high school. My GED came while inside cement-block walls.
I turned away from the pictures. Avery had changed into denim cutoff shorts and a tight blue T-shirt. Her feet were bare and her hair was hanging in wet curls around her face. She looked beautiful.
And fuck if I could figure out why, but that girl wanted me.
I let my gaze run down, then back up as slowly as possible, savoring every inch of her body. By the time I met her stare, her cheeks were pink and her breath came out faster than before.
I grinned. We were alone and there was no more bullshit between us. “Dessert first?”
Her face turned even redder. “If we start with dessert, we’ll never get to dinner. Be good and come help me.”
“Baby, I’d love to help you come.” Already my dick was pressing against my jeans. Who needed food? This foreplay between us had been going on for two weeks, and I was finally ready to do something about the ache I’d been living with.
I took a step toward her, and she held out her hand, though desire filled her eyes.
“Food,” she croaked. “I want to do something nice for you first.”
I grinned. “How about I do something nice for you first? Like dessert,” I said, grabbing her hand and tugging her back down the hall. She followed with little resistance. There were two bedrooms, one to the left and one on the right.
“Which one?” I asked, my voice harsher than I intended. I couldn’t help it. Fuck, I wanted her so bad.
“Left,” she said on a breathy exhale.
I pulled her into the room and spun her around so that her back pressed against the wall. Her arms wound around my neck. I pressed into her, rocking my hips to ease some of the ache.
She smelled like flowers and exotic fruit, and I wanted to lick her everywhere to see if she tasted the same way. I ran my tongue up her neck, and she groaned and her head tipped back. I dragged my teeth across her exposed skin, then licked where I’d bitten. Avery rolled her hips, then lifted one leg to wrap around my waist.
I grabbed her other leg under the thigh and lifted, so that she was wrapped completely around me and wedged between me and the wall. Her arms tightened as she helped hold herself up.
I bounced her slowly, letting my denim-covered dick rub between her legs.
Her low moan sent sharp stabs of desire through me.
“Fuck, baby,” I whispered in her ear. “I want you so bad right now.”
“Seth,” she groaned.
I used my hips to hold her against the wall and used one hand to push her T-shirt up over her breasts.
“You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?” She wasn’t wearing a bra. Her nipples pebbled when I ran my fingers across them. I shifted her up so that I could get my lips around one of them. The other I rolled between my thumb and finger.
Soft little moans and sighs filled the room.
Every single one went straight to my dick.
I bit down and heard her cry out, then I soothed the tip with my tongue.
“Bed,” she pleaded. “Please.”
That worked for me. I had other things in mind before I sank into her. I meant it when I said I wanted dessert first, and Avery was the sweetest kind.
She held on when I turned and walked the few feet to her bed. It was almost waist high and I set her on the edge. A little set of steps sat next to the nightstand. Images of Avery bent over the mattress while I drove into her from behind filled my head. Oh, yeah. Definitely would try that too.
I unbuttoned her shorts and she lifted her hips to let me slip them off. Fuck. Me. She didn’t have on panties either.
“I take it back. You’re not trying to kill me. You already did and this is heaven.”
“Worst line ever,” she said with a throaty laugh.
I slid my hands up the insides of her thighs until my thumbs met in the middle. Holding her legs open, I ran them up the outsides of her lips. She shuddered and lifted her hips, offering herself to me.
It was an invitation I wasn’t going to ignore. “I’ve wanted to see if you taste as sweet as you look since that first night,” I said, pressing my lips to the inside of her thigh. I heard her breath hitch and tried not to groan out loud. I wanted to take my time, to savor every single moan, but I had to know with desperate urgency. “Now here you are, spread out like this just for me, I can’t wait a second longer.”
I held her open with my thumbs and leaned in closer, flicking my tongue over her clit. She jolted under me, and I dug my fingers into her thighs to keep her still.
I alternated between light little flicks and whole tongue laps, dragging it up and over while she thrashed and moaned, begging with incoherent words. Her fingers dug into my hair, pulling my head closer to her center.
I could feel her trying to move her hips, but I kept my grip tight, not letting her move. I kept up a steady rhythm, not speeding up like I knew she wanted. Every stroke of my tongue made her body tighten just a little more. Her legs trembled.
Desperate pleas fell from her lips. Her voice hitched, and she whimpered, a deep raw sound that almost undid me. I knew she was close, but I wanted her to come undone harder than she ever had before.
One, two, three more full-tongue licks and she shook so hard that I knew she was right on the edge. I let her hover there for a few seconds, then sucked her clit into my mouth and dragged my teeth over the sensitive little knot.
Her whole body stretched tight and she strained against my hold. Then a ragged scream flew past her clenched teeth as she bucked against my mouth.
I kept running my tongue over her until her body collapsed, no longer fighting against me. I kissed the inside of each thigh, then up her body until I could lie beside her. Her eyes were closed and her face was red and her chest rose and fell with fast breaths.
A slow smile curled her lips upward and she opened her eyes. They were soft and dazed, and I wanted to sink into them and never come back out.
She reached down and tugged on the button of my jeans. I took her hand and pulled it to my lips and kissed it. “Dinner first.”
Her eyebrows dipped down. “But you said dessert first.”
I pressed my lips to hers and took her mouth in a slow, deep k
iss. “Baby, I had the sweetest dessert ever. Now I want dinner.”
“Is that code for sex?” she asked, and I chuckled at the hopeful note in her voice.
“Come on, you have culinary talents to amaze me with.”
“But what about you?” She sat up and ran her fingers over the hardness in my jeans. I sucked in a breath. I felt her touch in my toes.
“Oh, don’t worry. Later, after dinner, there’s more dessert. A lot more.” I dropped a quick kiss on her lips and hopped off the bed. If I didn’t get a few feet between us, I would have my dick out and inside her in about two minutes.
Which she wouldn’t mind at all, but I wanted to make sure she knew that what was going on between us was more than just sex. Holding off while we did something normal like cook dinner just felt right.
No matter how uncomfortable my jeans currently were.
It’s not like I’ve ever been one to deny urges. Hell, before prison there wasn’t a day that I couldn’t find a willing female. I didn’t even have to think about it.
Fucking was just that. Fucking.
But with Avery, it was more than that. I couldn’t explain it. I had no idea why, but I did know that I wanted more than one night. More than a couple of nights. She made all the shit in my life fade.
I didn’t want her to feel like some kind of booty call.
If I hadn’t met her the night I got out, there’d be a good chance I’d have already been arrested again for violating the restraining order against me. When you have nothing to lose, it’s easy to fuck up again.
I had something to lose now.
And I was going to do everything in my damned control not to screw up again.
“Since you’re the one insisting we eat, you’re going to help,” Avery said.
Her face glowed and a lazy smile curled her lips up. She looked well and truly satisfied, with her hair drying in crazy waves. The caveman in me wanted to beat his chest and throw her over my shoulder to run out and show the world this girl was all mine.
I slid my arm around her and pulled her against my chest. She had on her shirt and shorts again, but I would bet my ass she still didn’t have on anything underneath. “You are the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.” I kissed her nose, then turned her around. “So what the hell are we making?” I asked as we walked into the kitchen together.
Avery moved to the refrigerator and I leaned against the island. The kitchen was open and bright, a soft yellow paint blended with the white cabinets and made the whole place feel like the outdoors.
“Eggplant parmesan.” She held up a weird purple globe.
“Is that actually edible?” I asked.
“This is an eggplant. And I’ve got bread crumbs, eggs, spices, marinara, and two kinds of cheese. Trust me, you’ll love it.”
She must have noticed the incredulous look on my face, because she chuckled.
Avery handed me a knife and the eggplant. “Cut it into about half-inch slices.”
Five minutes later, I had a pile of unevenly sliced eggplant in front of me. “Yeah, so now might be a good time to tell you I flunked out of cooking school. My knife skills weren’t quite up to par.”
Avery choked back a laugh. “I can’t imagine why. They are perfectly asymmetrical. Evenly sliced eggplant is so overrated and boring.”
“Right.” I played along. “I tried to tell my instructor I was going for a signature flair. Boldness. No one wants boring eggplant, I told him.”
“Well, I think you were on to something.” She took my pile of slices and laid them on a layer of paper towels. Then she sprinkled salt all over them and put another layer of towels on top. Then she set the cutting board on top of it all.
I watched, waiting for her to drench herself in goat’s blood and dance around in a circle.
“What the hell is that for?”
“It draws the water out so that it’s not all soggy when you bread and fry it.”
“I’m going to pretend what you just said makes perfect sense.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her closer. She looked up at me, so relaxed and happy it took my breath away. “No one has ever cooked for me before. Tell me something else. Something cookery. It’s fucking sexy as hell.”
“You are insane.” She laughed and hit my arm.
“No, really, tell me something else.” I nuzzled my mouth under her ear, on that sweet spot that made her knees weak. “Something hot.”
“Mmm, okay. Next we’re going to dredge those perfectly sliced eggplant pieces in flour, then in an eggwash, and then in bread crumbs. Then, we get the oil hot . . .”
I slid my tongue along the outside of her ear, and her whole body shuddered. “How hot, baby?”
She groaned. A low rumble that vibrated against my lips.
“Hot enough so that the eggplant cooks until it’s crispy and brown, then we put it in a baking dish and cover it with marinara and cheese. Then bake it in a three-hundred-and-fifty-degree oven for a half . . . oh, God . . . Seth, you’re driving me insane.”
She pressed back against me, her pulse racing frantically in her neck.
With one last kiss on her sweet spot, I gently set her away from me. “So let’s get on with this dredging shit.”
“You’re evil, do you know that?” Avery leaned against the island and used a pot holder to fan her face. “Of course you do. Because. You. Are. Evil.” She threw the pot holder at me and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge.
After half of it was gone, she took the jar of sauce and handed it to me. “Make use of all those manly muscles and open this.”
I flexed my biceps as I reached for it. “These muscles? Right here? You like to look at ’em, baby? Oh, yeah?” The lid popped open when I twisted it, and I gave it back to her, flexing some more in triumph.
Avery hadn’t stopped giggling.
I grinned. Shit. This was fun.
Who knew fixing dinner could be this entertaining? Or such a turn-on. We worked side by side, dredging, frying, and assembling until a delicious smell filled the kitchen. Avery had a glass of white wine and I was half through the beer she’d given me when the timer rang.
“Okay, this needs to sit for about fifteen minutes, and then it’ll be ready.”
I helped her set the table, a little bistro number next to the window. “Are these your best company dishes?” I joked. We were eating off Betty Boop plates.
“Shari has a thing for her. We saw these at a flea market and she had to have them.”
“Well, yeah. Even for a cartoon, she’s fucking hot. Admit it, you’d do her. Oh, man, there’s a visual.” I closed my eyes and moaned.
Avery laughed again.
Then her face turned pensive. “I haven’t laughed so much in . . . well, ages. Thank you.”
“For what?” My eyes were open now.
“I’m having a really good time tonight. For the first time in my life, I don’t have any pressure to be the person everyone expects me to be. I can do what I want, when I want”—she looked at me from under her eyelashes—“and with who I want. So thank you for being here and for making me laugh.”
God, she was really killing me.
Her eyes were glassy when I pulled her into my arms again. Crazy. Unrealistic. Too soon. I knew it, but it didn’t change the feelings bubbling inside me. I didn’t want to leave her side, and I looked forward to seeing her again when we were apart.
I cradled her jaw, ran my thumb over her lips, and leaned close, close enough to feel her hot breath against my lips.
“Dessert now?” she asked breathlessly.
There was nothing I wanted to do more than take her back into the bedroom, but I had to come clean with her first, lay it all out on the table so she knew exactly what she was getting into. Because if she let me inside her and then ran away, I’m not sure I could take it. “First we need to talk.” Her eyes went wary, so I leaned in and kissed her softly. “If we’re going to do this right, there are a few things you need to know about me. Things I want to tell yo
u.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Avery
I followed Seth to the couch, and when he sat, I slid down next to him.
Before I could ask what we needed to talk about, he reached back and pulled his shirt over his head.
“If this is your idea of talking, I think you should know I want to talk your brains out right now.”
I stared at his shoulders, where thick black lines twined together and cascaded over onto his collarbone. Smaller lines spiraled down over his left pec, and when I traced them with my finger, I could make out an S in the middle of the design. I ran my fingertip over the letter. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy to get his own initial tattooed on his body.
It must be for a girl.
And it was right over his heart.
Shit. Is this what he needed to tell me about?
My finger stopped moving, and I swallowed the tangle of emotions making it hard to take a breath. Pain thudded dully in my chest. I didn’t have any right to be jealous, but it was there.
Seth shifted next to me and leaned back into the corner of the couch. He pulled me with him so that I lay against his chest, settled between his legs. When he brushed his fingers through my hair, I closed my eyes and relaxed into him.
“I probably should have told you before anything happened between us, but I won’t apologize for earlier.” His voice rumbled under my ear. He nudged my head until I looked up at him.
My pulse thundered in my ears. His gaze was so serious. Was this where he told me he had a girlfriend? Or that S was the love of his life? I steeled myself and whispered yes. Despite how it felt, I wanted to know.
Seth closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them again. I saw the pain immediately. It was raw and bright.
“My dad took off when I was eight. He was a drunk and, honestly, we didn’t miss him at all. He wasn’t what you’d call involved much anyway. My mom met Davis when I was ten. He seemed decent enough. Clean. Didn’t look like some scumbag off the street. Looks don’t mean a lot, though. Took about six months for her to change. She was paler. Thin. Her eyes were always either too bright or dull. I knew what drugs looked like, I just didn’t know she was getting them from Davis. That son of a bitch got her hooked, then used her to distribute and sell it. When I was thirteen, she overdosed and died.”