by Lola StVil
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
It’s Casey’s turn to check we’re not being overheard. She beckons me closer, and I lean in over the table.
“Now, I’m not one to gossip,” she starts.
I bite back a laugh. Casey is the queen of gossip, only she refers to it as “exchanging secrets.”
“I heard Rex did time. Like, hard time. For murder.”
That does it. I pull back from her and throw my head back and laugh.
Casey frowns. “It’s not funny, Ava. What if he tries to kill you?”
“Have you heard yourself? As if my dad would employ an ex-con, let alone a murderous one. Honestly, honey, you need to stop listening to those bitches at school.”
“Just promise me you’ll be careful,” she says.
“All right, all right. I promise.” I laugh.
She is so naïve when it comes to gossip and so quick to pass it on. Shit like that can ruin lives, and I should really be sterner with her, but it’s not like anyone would believe my dad was dumb enough to hire a criminal. Especially not for his babies.
It’s a ridiculous notion, one I’m quite happy to dismiss. Although I can’t help but remember the piercing quality of his gaze. The spark of danger I felt coming off him.
“You didn’t answer my question, anyway,” Casey says, clearly not that worried I might be killed by a psycho mechanic. “You’re going to Belinda’s party, right? It’s going to be epic. She’s acquired a warehouse out in the middle of nowhere on the other side of Brooklyn, so this one won’t be getting shut down early like last year’s.”
Belinda throws an end-of-term party every summer. Every summer it’s talked about for weeks beforehand, everyone saying it was going to be epic. And every year it gets shut down.
“Yeah. I’ll be there,” I say.
It’s not like there’s anything better to do around here. Or maybe there is. Maybe Rex will be doing me. Because despite my promise to Casey, I have no intention of staying away from Rex Holden.
CHAPTER FOUR
REX
I hear the click-clack of her heels before I see her. I take a deep breath, willing my cock to stay down. I know it won’t work. Biology is a motherfucker. I keep my focus on the engine. If I don’t look at her, then I can’t encourage her in any way.
It doesn’t take me long to realize the clacking sound isn’t heading for the house. It’s coming straight for me. What sort of fucking torture is this?
I straighten up and turn around, setting my face into a hard, stony line. Ava is right behind me. She smiles at me as I turn around. Her smile lights her face up, making her eyes twinkle. I automatically start to return her smile then remind myself I’m meant to be putting her off me, not encouraging her. I keep my face impassive.
“Can I help you?” I ask.
She twirls a strand of her hair around her finger and runs her tongue over her lips. Fuck me; she has to stop doing that.
“Maybe,” she says.
I can feel myself hardening as I imagine something much more useful she could be doing with that errant tongue of hers. I clear my throat, resisting the urge to adjust my jeans and draw attention to my cock.
She stumbles backward a little, and I realize she’s a bit tipsy. I automatically reach out and catch her arm to stop her from falling. As I touch her, I come alive. Even just touching her arm like that turns me into one giant nerve ending. I have to have her. I have to claim her and make her mine.
I know it’s wrong and crazy, but I have to have her. I don’t know how I can stop myself, especially when she’s apparently up for it. I try to remind myself she’s barely eighteen, and she has no idea what she’s messing with coming onto me like this, but something tells me Ava Walsh is far from sweet and innocent. In fact, something tells me this little hellcat knows damn well what she’s doing.
“Oops,” she says in an exaggerated tone.
She smiles at me, her face cast down, looking up at me with those fuck-me eyes. And that’s when I know. She didn’t stumble. She faked it. So I would do exactly what I did. Well, hot damn. I drop my hand from her arm as I realize I’m still holding it. Breaking the contact at least lets me think marginally clearer.
“So? How would you like to help me, Rex?”
The way she says my name sends shivers through me, and I feel my cock twitch. It’s fully hard now, pushing against my jeans, but she keeps her eyes on my face. I almost lose my resolve. I almost grab her and throw her on the ground and fuck her raw right there in the garden.
I can’t do it. I can’t mess this up, and I think fucking the boss’s daughter would definitely count as messing things up. I force myself to push down the beast within me.
“I’m just here to do my job, Ava. I don’t know what game you’re playing, but whatever it is, I’m not interested,” I say.
A flash of anger crosses her face, but she hides it with a grin. She looks pointedly at my hard-on.
“Your cock seems to disagree,” she says.
She walks away from me without another word, leaving me standing there with my mouth hanging open. She puts on quite the show as she walks back to the house. Her hips sway madly, her butt cheeks pressing against her dress. She makes a show of running her hands over her hips, smoothing out the dress.
I physically ache as I imagine those are my hands. As I imagine what I would do to her. How I would claim her pussy, making her mine. How I would fuck her until she begged me to push her over the edge. How I would show her what that fuckable little body could really do.
She thinks she’s pretty worldly. She thinks she knows what sex is. She hasn’t got a fucking clue. She has no idea what it would be like with me, what I could make her feel. But if she keeps on pushing me this way, she’s going to find out, job or no job.
She’s going to know what it’s like to be taken: body, mind, and soul. Because when I look at Ava, I don’t see a fuck buddy. I see my fucking forever. I don’t just want to claim her for a night or a weekend. If she pushes me too far, then she’ll drive me to the point of no return. And she’ll be mine.
It’s a strange feeling, one I’ve never felt before, and it takes me a moment to recognize what Ava is really doing to me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I want to awaken her body, to stretch out her pussy, and pound her until she’s sore. But it’s more than that. The eyes. The smile. That fucking tongue.
Ava Walsh doesn’t make me want to simply fuck her. She makes me crave something I’ve never wanted before. Love.
CHAPTER FIVE
AVA
I don’t know what the fuck is happening to me as I step into the house and kick the door closed behind me. I lean back on it, taking a moment to catch my breath. Rex is something else. He managed to reject me outright and, at the same time, make me want him more.
I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want Rex. I want to feel him inside me. I want to have him work every inch of my body. Something in his eyes, his dangerous, beautiful eyes, tells me that it wouldn’t be like anything I’ve ever felt before. It would push me to places I don’t know exist. It would blow my mind. It would ruin me.
But the thought of that doesn’t scare me. It excites me. It wakes me up in ways I’ve never been awake before. It floods me with wetness and makes my clit throb. If he can do that rejecting me, then what the fuck will he be able to do to me when I have him?
Because I will have him. I know that much. He can play the not-interested card all he wants, but it’s hard to take his words seriously when his cock was pressing so tightly against his jeans that I could almost touch it from where I was standing.
If I can do that to him with just a look and a few words, then my touch would really unleash him. And once I do that, there’ll be no going back. He’ll ruin me, but in the best way. He’ll show me why I am right to be sick of boys and want a real man. He’ll pull me into a dangerous world filled with sex and orgasms and—dare I even think it?—love.
I’ve never believed in love at fi
rst sight, but now, I’m not so sure. Because Rex makes me want more. He makes me want to fight for him. I know I can go to Belinda’s party and have any of the guys there. But I don’t want any of them. I want this man; this man who is trying so hard to resist me. Is it because he feels it too? Is it because he knows if anything were to happen between us, there would be no going back?
I can feel myself getting wetter, and the throbbing in my clit is becoming uncomfortable. I push myself off the door and head straight up the stairs. I dump my purse and the bag with my new dress at my bedroom door and go to the window. I feel a pulsing run through my whole body, and my breathing speeds up as I watch Rex.
He’s bent over, tinkering in the hood of one of the cars. As I watch him, I imagine I am that engine, and his hands are working me that way. I can almost feel his fingers pushing their way inside me. I bite my lip as a low moan escapes me, and, still watching Rex, I do something I’ve never done before.
I hitch my dress up over my hips and slip my hand inside my panties. I push two fingers inside my lips and begin to massage my clit. I am so wet and slippery, and it feels kind of weird at first, but I soon find my rhythm.
I reach out with my other hand, putting it on the windowsill to steady myself as my fingers keep working. I can feel the sensation building low in my stomach. I keep my eyes fixed on Rex, imagining this is his hand. My hips start to move of their own accord, and I wonder what it will feel like to ride Rex’s huge cock. I can almost feel myself stretching to accommodate him.
I press harder on myself, and the tingling that runs through me intensifies. I watch Rex as I bring myself to a climax. Part of me is afraid he’ll turn around and see me and know what I’m doing. Part of me is willing him to turn around, to hold my gaze as I come. Because it might be my fingers that are doing the work, but this is all for him. This is what he can do to me with one touch and a few words.
I throw my head back as my orgasm hits me. It drags a strangled gasp from me as every muscle in my body clenches tightly. I feel a rush of warm juices flood over my hand as I hit my peak. I coast back down, a warm feeling in my stomach as I pant for breath.
My legs feel shaky, and regretfully, I move away from the window, backing up until my legs hit my bed. I let myself collapse onto it. If this is what the thought of Rex can do to me, then maybe I should stay away. Perhaps he will be too much for me to handle.
Or possibly he’ll be everything I’ve ever wanted. Maybe he’ll show me what sex should be like. What it feels like to be with somebody who can make you want them with every fiber of your being. Maybe he can show me that I’m right, that there is more to life than endless parties and soulless hookups. Maybe he can teach me what my body is capable of, and perhaps, more importantly, what my heart is capable of.
Because school might be out for the summer, but Rex Holden has just schooled me in orgasms. And that’s just the thought of him.
I shuffle on my bed until I’m more comfortable. I wonder what would happen if Rex were here now. Would he hold me in his arms and kiss me gently, letting me recover from the orgasm coursing through me like fire? Or would he turn me over and pound into my still tender, swollen slit?
I think it would be the latter. And I think that’s what I would want him to do. Even though the thought of it sends a painful pulse through me, yes, I know that’s what I would want. I would want him to take me, to make me beg for more. To take me to a place where I beg for mercy. And to hold the mercy just out of my reach for as long as I could stand it. Something tells me he would know where my breaking point is. He would know, and he would push me right to the edge of it, and just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to take any more, he’d show me mercy. And then I would beg for more.
I sit up, suddenly aware of footsteps downstairs. Fuck. My dad is home, and if he comes up here and sees me like this? Well, there’d be no denying that I’m in a state of complete disarray. I jump up and run to the bathroom. I run cold water on my hands and wrists, trying to slow my racing pulse.
I look in the mirror and run my wet fingers through my hair, pulling it back into some sort of order. I don’t look too bad now. A little flushed, but my dad will attribute that to the alcohol.
What’s he even doing here? He’s supposed to be in court.
When I know I can’t hide much longer, I take a deep breath and push Rex out of my mind. I don’t think he’ll stay gone for long, though. I use the bathroom, more to ease my worry that I’m soaked through than out of any real need for it, and finally, I go downstairs.
“What are you doing home, Dad?” I ask. “I wasn’t expecting you for hours.”
“Oh, there you are. I thought you were still out spending my hard-earned cash.” He laughs.
He kisses my cheek and then stands back and frowns slightly. Oh God, he knows. He knows what I was doing upstairs, and who I was thinking about.
“Are you all right, honey? You look a little flushed,” he says.
I relax again. He doesn’t know a thing. If he had any idea of what was going through my mind, he’d fire Rex in a heartbeat rather than accept his little girl is growing up.
“Oh, I’m fine,” I say, waving away his concern. “One too many mimosas with brunch.”
He shakes his head. “Ava, you’re not old enough to be having one too many anythings.”
I smile, the one where my cheeks scrunch up. The one I hate, but I know he loves. It works on him every time.
“Relax. It’s not like I’m sniffing lines of coke off a mirrored dance floor or anything. We were at the Plaza and had two mimosas. And on the plus side, I found a dress for the party, and it wasn’t all that expensive.”
He laughs and shakes his head. “You’ll be the death of me, Ava. I worry about you, you know.”
Oh, Dad, if only you knew.
“You don’t need to. I’m fine. And you didn’t answer my question. Why are you home so early?”
“We need to talk about that, actually,” he says.
He pats the seat beside him on the sofa, and I sit down, suddenly worried about what he’s going to say. His face looks serious.
“Something came up in court. I won’t bore you with the details, but the whole case hangs on it. The judge granted us a continuance so we can investigate the claims the opposition are making.”
I nod, not sure where this is going or why it concerns me.
“The thing is, Ava, to get to the bottom of this, there’s someone I need to talk to, someone who is dodging all my calls. So I’ll have to go and talk to him in person. But here’s the deal. He’s in Chicago. I know you’ve just come home, and I really want us to spend some time together, but this is important. If you’re too upset about it, I can send one of my assistants, but I really think I should handle this myself.”
It takes everything I have not to break into a grin. With my dad away, anything could happen. I force myself to look disappointed, but not so disappointed as to make him change his mind and not go.
“I mean, I’m a little bit upset,” I say. “It would have been nice to spend some quality time together, but I get it. Do what you have to do. There’s plenty of time for us to hang out when you get back.”
“Are you sure?” he asks.
I know he’s not just humoring me. If I said I wasn’t sure, he would stay.
“Yes, really. It’s fine.”
I’m not being convincing enough. He still looks undecided. I grin at him.
“If you’re losing cases, who is going to keep me looking fabulous?”
“Ava, you’d still look fabulous without the designer labels,” he says.
I laugh. “I was joking, Dad. I’m just trying to make you see I’m fine with this. I have so many friends to catch up with, and this way I can catch up with everyone without eating into our time.”
“It would only be for a week or so. Maybe ten days,” he says.
“Come on,” I say. “Let’s go get you packed.”
It’s only after my dad has gone that I st
art to feel a bit nervous. As much as I don’t want to, I keep thinking of what Casey said about Rex being a murderer. What if my dad has left me here with a dangerous criminal?
I tell myself it’s silly to think that. It’s just another nasty, elitist rumor the Upper East Siders like to spread. It’s preposterous. Still, I’m not naïve enough to believe that just because he’s smoking hot doesn’t mean he can’t be a criminal.
There’s one way to know for sure, but I’m reluctant to do it. What if I find something out that scares me?
You won’t, I tell myself. As if my dad won’t have had his PIs look into Rex before bringing him so close to his home. To me. Just do it, and then you can put all of this nonsense out of your head once and for all.
I open my laptop before I can change my mind. I type Rex Holden, Manhattan into Google. Nothing. No glaring headlines about the killer in our midst. No crime-scene photos. Not even an unpaid parking fine, and who in Manhattan doesn’t have those?
I close my laptop and curse Casey in my mind. I finally find someone worthy of my time, and she puts this ridiculous notion into my head. Maybe she’s jealous because I’m growing up and leaving her behind.
Whatever her reasoning, it doesn’t matter. I have much more important things to worry about than Casey and her rumors. Like my plan to seduce Rex while my dad is gone.
CHAPTER SIX
REX
What a fucking strange day today has been. It started out like any typical day, and then she arrived and turned it all on its head with the magic she seems to have, the ability to make me stand to attention with only a look. Even after I blew her off and she returned to the house, I could feel her watching me.
I spent at least half an hour standing over the engine, screwing and unscrewing the same part because I knew if I looked up and caught her eye, anything could happen. The thought of her in her bedroom, watching me, turned me on so much I almost creamed my boxers.