Flying Gold

by Vanessa North

  “What should we have for dinner?” I ask, moving to cage her against the countertop. She swallows and looks away. I stroke my fingertips down the side of her face, tilting her jaw so I can bite the tender skin where it meets her neck and ear. She shudders. I wrap my hand around her throat like a collar, and she comes undone.

  She kisses me wildly, pulling at both of our clothes. Her dress comes flying over her head, and then her hands are tugging at my fly.

  In moments, I’ve got her up on the island, spread out like a feast for my eyes, my hands, my tongue.

  I start at her feet, biting the pretty arches. I nibble my way from ankle to knee, watching her tense and relax, tense and relax.

  I spread her thighs and run my hands over them. She’s so strong, so fierce. I nip the softness of her belly, tease the brown tips of her breasts between two fingers. I watch her, and I explore her, until the tension slips away, and all that remains is her warm, pliant body. Then, I eat her for dinner.

  I blow softly on the soft folds of her pussy, watching her squirm and open to me. Her clit is a hard red bud, and when I touch it, barely petting it with a single fingertip, she sinks into my touch, letting out a low, guttural noise. Her eyes are glassy and her hips rock forward.

  “Matt.”

  God, I love the way she says my name. I reward her with a long swipe of my tongue through her heat, dipping into her entrance before teasing her clit.

  Her hands grab my hair and she pushes me closer. I groan against her and the vibration seems to make her even hungrier. I can’t tease her anymore. I’m too far gone down this path, and all I want is to make her come. I press two fingers into her, and I lick and suck at her clit. She rides my face, hands tangled in my hair, and she holds me there at her pussy.

  “Like that. Just like—oh—” She tightens up, her whole body going tense as I press down on her belly and curl my fingers against her G-spot. I push my tongue hard to the underside of her clit, and she comes.

  I lift my head to watch her, replacing my tongue with my thumb. Her eyes are scrunched shut and her mouth falls open as the whole upper half of her body lifts up off the hard surface of the counter top and shakes. When she sinks back, gasping for breath, I wrap my hand, still wet with her juices, around my cock and I jerk myself hard. She leans up on an elbow to watch me, eyes glazed with pleasure.

  My own pleasure climbs too fast, but I can’t slow down, can’t stop it. Her words from earlier ring in my ears. Push your foot to the floor and pray.

  “Ani!” I gasp, then pleasure whites out my senses. My cock seems to lunge forward in my hand as I thrust and tug ruthlessly.

  Then I feel her hands on me, and I open my eyes. She smiles as she takes my softening cock into her mouth and licks me clean. Aftershocks of pleasure hit me as she teases me with her tongue, then she lets me slide from her mouth. She stands up and wraps her arms around me, like she’s taking refuge from a storm here in my arms. Maybe she is.

  “Thank you.”

  “No, thank you.” I stroke my hand over her hair. “This was better than dinner.”

  She laughs against my chest. “What are we doing, Matt?”

  “Being friends?” I suggest, uselessly.

  “I think we’re lying to ourselves.”

  I agree, but I’m not about to tell her that. Her life is in chaos right now. If she wants to use my body to make sense of all of that, I can live with that.

  And if I fall for her a little bit more each time, I can live through the inevitable heartache of that too.

  “Let’s clean up and get something to eat, okay?”

  She nods.

  A half hour later, we’re sitting on her bed in our underwear eating pizza, because it’s the only place that will deliver that quickly on a Saturday night. We talk like we used to—about nonsense and consequence. About dreams and fear. And when she asks me to stay the night, I lie to myself a little bit more, and I stay.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Matt

  Elspeth and I are going over the footage from the day before when my phone rings on Wednesday morning. I silence it and keep watching. I stop at the part of one particular scene we need to reshoot, and I point at the desk next to Hannah.

  “Her phone. Goddamn it. How did no one see that?” Elspeth groans. “Okay. We’ll reshoot this today if we have time. We have this location through the end of the week, so we can add it to the list for Friday if we don’t. We only have a half-day scheduled.”

  “Great.” I hate busting Elspeth’s chops about this, but we can’t have continuity errors in this show. Not now that the tabloids have figured out that Cutler’s out. Everyone and their brother is talking about us and we cannot—cannot—deliver less than a perfect product.

  My phone rings again.

  “Answer it, Mattso.” Elspeth stands up and stretches. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

  I glance at the screen. Tiffani. “Hey, Ani, what’s up?”

  “Hey! I got an offer on the house!”

  “That’s fantastic—a good offer?”

  “Yeah, I think so. Misty says to wait before accepting it, though, because one of the other real estate agents might be coming through tonight with another. She said it could turn into a bidding war. Oh my god, Matt. I am so nervous.”

  A rush of affection washes over me. “Don’t be nervous. You have one definite offer, maybe another coming. That’s great news.”

  “Did I interrupt your work? I got your voicemail the first time I called. I usually get Luis when you’re working.”

  “He’s running errands, and we haven’t started shooting yet, so I haven’t forwarded my calls. Why, you miss him?” I tease.

  “Yeah, Matt. I’m secretly seeing your PA behind your back and I really call you to talk to him. No, goober. After getting your voicemail, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

  “Everything is fine, thank you for your concern.”

  “Okay. So, while I have you on the phone—what are you doing Saturday?”

  “We don’t have a race, do we?”

  “No, but the family is having dinner at Tegan’s after the car clinic. I thought maybe you’d like to join us?”

  Family dinner? “Just you and your siblings?”

  “And Duke, and probably Mac too.”

  “Mac—Al MacNamara’s kid?” Al was my mother’s divorce attorney and a goddamn hero as far as I’m concerned. I remember his son, a few years older than me, as being studious, serious, and setting off my gaydar like whoa.

  “Yeah. He’s Tanner’s best friend. His dad and my dad and Tío Javi were basically like the Three Musketeers when I was growing up. All for one and one for all, all that stuff. Well. Until Al died and Javier moved to North Carolina.”

  “He was the lawyer—the one at the bar that night. Who helped you with your ticket? He seems like a good guy.”

  “He is. So, you in?”

  I look at my calendar on my phone. We still have a month until the next race, and I’ve got a premiere in L.A. next week. This might be my best chance to spend time with her before the race.

  “Yeah. I’m looking forward to it.”

  “Great, you can bring dessert.”

  * * *

  Saturday finds me standing on Tegan’s front porch with a carton of cupcakes in hand from a store in downtown Royal. They smell amazing, and I’m starving.

  Tanner opens the door and greets me with a grin. “Hey. Oh my god, are those what I think they are?” If eyes can be ravenous, hers totally are.

  “Cupcakes from Just Desserts. For, um, dessert.”

  “You have excellent taste. Come on in.”

  Tiffani is standing over the stove, dressed in booty shorts and a crop top. My mouth goes dry. Then she looks over her shoulder and grins at me. “You can set those on the counter. Tegan and the guys are playing vi
deo games in the living room. I just need to move this to the oven, and I’ll join y’all out there.”

  I set the cupcakes on the counter and cross the room to look over her shoulder. “What is this?”

  “Braised oxtails. They cooked all day yesterday, then I stuck them in the fridge overnight. Skimmed the fat off before coming over here, and now they’ll finish in the oven with the veggies.”

  I’m impressed. On top of running a business, race tuning my car, and seeing to the emotional needs of everyone in her family, Tiffani also seems to be a bit of a badass in the kitchen.

  “I am so turned on right now,” I whisper low in her ear.

  She laughs, snapping a dishtowel at me. “Go on. I’ll be out in a minute.”

  In the living room, Duke makes room for me on the sofa, sliding over next to Tegan, who is shouting at the TV and frantically pressing buttons on her Xbox controller. I glance at the screen. Of course she’s playing a racing game. I sit down on the end and watch.

  A few minutes later, Tiffani and Tanner join us. Ani sits on the floor at my feet, and Tanner sits in Duke’s lap. A cozy scene we make.

  “I have an announcement,” Tiffani proclaims just as Tegan’s race finishes.

  They all turn toward her.

  “We got four offers on the house last week. Mac, do you want to tell the rest?”

  “It sold in a bidding war for three hundred ninety thousand. They want to close fast. Tiffani needs to be out in thirty days.”

  The Ellises all start talking at once. I can’t tell if they’re excited, happy, angry? Some combination of the above? Tiffani leans back against my legs, bracing her arms on my knees like armrests. She looks...smug. And it makes me grin.

  “Where are you going to live?” I murmur in her ear.

  She shrugs. “I’m going to stay here with Tegan probably the first week or so. Then I’ll find an apartment to rent until I decide what to do next.”

  “You could come stay with me,” I suggest.

  “Too far.”

  “Okay, that’s fair. Maybe not to live. But what about tonight?”

  She glances over her shoulder at me. “Just because?”

  I bite my lip. Surely, after the chemistry we had after the last two races, after her inviting me to family dinner, surely we’ve reached the point of lying to ourselves where we can stop lying enough to spend the night together just because.

  “Yeah, Ani. Because.”

  Her skin turns a pretty shade of pink under her freckles, and she swallows. “Okay. Because.”

  Tiffani

  His hands are shaking as he unlocks the door to his apartment, and he looks over his shoulder at me and bites his lip. “I don’t know why I’m nervous.”

  I smile and put a hand on his back. His skin is warm through the T-shirt, and I can feel his shaky breath. “Thank you for letting me stay with you tonight.”

  He pushes the door open and pulls me through it. The next thing I know, I’m pushed up against the other side of it, caged between his arms, and trapped in his intense stare.

  “Ani.” The nickname sends my eyes drifting closed. Fingertips ghost over my cheek, and I open them again to meet his hungry gaze. “This isn’t home. But this door is always open to you, okay? If it can be a place you take refuge, it’s here.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m not gonna lie, I want you down to my bones. But if you want to stay in the spare bedroom, I’ll put clean sheets on the bed in there.”

  I swallow. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the offer, but there’s no way I’m sleeping in his spare bed.

  “No.” I lean forward and take his mouth.

  Heat flares up between us as his arms come crushing around my waist, hoisting me up so I can wrap my legs around him. His tongue sweeps into my mouth, and my hands tangle in his hair, which is finally softening into curls again. I could kiss him forever.

  The thought steals my breath; I’ve thought it before.

  I push it away, reaching for the hem of his shirt. I pull it up, up, and over his head, my fingers itching to touch his glorious skin. He shivers as I scratch my nails over his chest, and his teeth close sharp in my bottom lip. A flash of pain, and then he’s tenderly kissing it better.

  My own shirt goes sailing over my head, leaving me in nothing but my skirt and boots.

  His hands trace reverently over my breasts, then his lips close over one and pleasure spikes across my senses.

  He goes to his knees, kissing his way down my belly. I expect him to lift my skirt, but he surprises me by unlacing my boots and pulling first one, then the other from my feet. He peels off my socks and sticks them in the boots for safekeeping.

  “Matt.” I pull him up. “Take me to bed.”

  In his bedroom, he unties my skirt and tosses it aside, then slides my panties down my legs. I loop my finger through his belt loop and pull him into another kiss. There’s something delicious about being naked while he’s still mostly clothed. The soft hair of his chest and the roughness of his jeans create an intense contrast in textures that sends a rush of wetness to my pussy.

  I break the kiss, my chest heaving. “Now?”

  His grin is positively wicked as he pushes me down on the bed. I stretch out and he kisses me again, then makes his way down my body.

  He leaves bite marks on my shoulders, chafes my nipples with his stubble, dives into my navel with his tongue. Then he skips down to my feet, rubbing the arches and kissing up my shins to nip at a knee.

  He spreads my shaking thighs, and kisses his way up to my hipbones. By the time he finally, finally takes a good long look at my pussy, I can feel wetness dripping from me.

  He rubs my lips, spreading that wetness around. I let my eyes drift closed, zeroing in on the slipperiness of his fingers, the texture of his thumb glancing over my clit. Every nerve in my body seems connected to the places where he’s narrowing his focus. And then his breath teases over me and I arch up, reaching for more.

  His tongue slides through my folds, and he moans as if I’m the sweetest thing he’s ever tasted. He flicks it against the underside of my clit, easing two fingers inside me, not even close to sating my hunger for him, but I ride them anyway, chasing heaven.

  He stokes my pleasure with the same confidence with which he does everything else in life. I’m drunk with sex, my limbs twitchy and heavy, my hips rocking up into his mouth, and I’m shameless as I reach for my peak.

  He pulls away, shushing against me as I protest. I watch through heavy-lidded eyes as he peels out of his tight jeans, and then he’s back, tearing a condom wrapper with his teeth.

  “Now,” I demand, pulling him down on top of me, and he nods, guiding himself straight to my hungry core.

  I push up as he presses in, and we both gasp. I draw him down for a kiss as he sinks deep into me. He gives a cautious thrust and it sends a shudder through me.

  “I’m not going to last,” I murmur against his lips, and it’s his turn to shudder.

  He drives into me, hard and fast, sending me to that place where pain and pleasure haze together. Then his hand is between our bodies, pinching my clit, and my orgasm seizes me.

  He rides me through it, his own face going hard with lust and soft with pleasure as I shake and shudder. I see the moment when he loses himself in me, when his face tightens in a grimace. I press my palm to the side of his face, and I absorb his furious thrusts with another shiver.

  He comes quietly, with a breathless gasp, and then he gathers me to his chest and rolls me with him.

  Afterward, he’s thoughtful and quiet, running his hands over my body as if to be sure I’m real, or that I’m really here with him.

  “What is it?” I ask, unaccustomed to this serious Matt.

  “I don’t want to—” He shakes his head, then sits up.

  I sit up too, facing him.
“You don’t want to what?”

  “I don’t want to burden you.” He looks away. “I don’t want to make you feel responsible for my feelings. I don’t want—”

  “Matt.” I turn his head so he’s facing me again. “Stop babbling and tell me.”

  “I love you.”

  Whoa. That’s unexpected. The words immediately send a chill down my spine, followed by a flush of heat. Part of me is terrified, but another part of me warms at the words just as it did when we were in high school.

  He swallows and looks down at his hands. “I loved you when we were teenagers, and I love you now, and I don’t think I stopped loving you. And I know it’s not the same for you.”

  “I—” I take a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “You don’t have to say anything. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize.” I put my hand over my mouth, not sure whether I’m stifling words or a sob.

  “Ani—”

  I take a deep breath. “I’m not mad at you.”

  “You’re not.”

  I shake my head. “We’ve been heading back to this from the beginning, haven’t we? Our feelings for each other were so intense. The good ones and the bad ones. And they still are. I still—” I swallow. I can’t say it back to him. “I still have strong feelings for you. And if I’m honest, there are good ones and bad ones.”

  “That’s entirely fair.” He cradles my face in his hands. “I can’t lie to you. I can’t pretend with you. And I wouldn’t want you to either.”

  “Can we take some time to figure it out?” I roll my face into his hand like a kitten. “I don’t know, like dating, but not the parts I hate.”

  He grins. “No swiping right on other girls or talking about a boring office job. But yes to making you come and calling you my girlfriend?”

  I laugh, but sober quickly. “Yeah, those terms work for me. But I’m not sure I can be a good girlfriend, Matt. I’m not the girl I used to be.”

  “You’re not the girl you used to be, but I wouldn’t want you to be.” He runs his hands up and down my arms, as if rubbing warmth into me. “Who you are now—a savvy businesswoman, a sharp-as-tacks diagnostic mechanic, a fearless driver, a badass behind the camera still...you take my breath away.”