The unease in her eyes seemed to retreat, her lips a step away from a smile as she asked, “Promise?”
I nodded. “I promise. Now, get your sweet ass in the bathroom and collect your things the tornado dropped in there and I will get the clothes scattered in the room.”
“Cheeky,” she mumbled, but headed to the bathroom while I grabbed her bag and began filling it with the discarded choices from the night.
She came back with a carryon sized piece of luggage. I took it from her, along with the bigger piece of luggage and we headed for my suite with the big bed that I planned to have her naked and sprawled out on as soon as I got the door shut and locked.
Chapter Nine: Avery
Water, Steam And Conversations About Sex
I stretched my body and found I ached in all the right places. The sun peeked through the drapes as I gently lifted Jace’s arm from my waist. I crawled out from underneath it and laid his arm back down. I studied his face. He was innocent looking as his breaths came steady and deep. He looked nothing like the wickedly delicious man who had held my gaze as he thrust into me throughout the night. He was still delicious, just not wicked.
He had a shadow of dark stubble on his jaw line and chin, in the same chocolate color as the thick hair I had run my fingers through as he took my body. His chest was solid muscle and currently uncovered by the sheet. A wicked shiver ran down my spine as I recalled trailing my tongue along the deep indent that ran from his chest to his stomach.
I turned and walked into the bathroom. If I looked at him any longer I would crawl right back into bed, with a raised middle finger to the day.
I wasn’t even in the shower long enough to get my hair wet before Jace joined me.
“Why are you out of bed?” He asked as he lathered up a wash cloth and began dragging it over my heated body.
“The convention starts today. I have a reading.”
His hands stalled, the gentle caress of him soaping up my body gone. “You’re doing a reading?” He smiled down at me. “Which book?”
“You know, it’s a little strange that you read romances.”
He chuckled, and started moving the wash cloth down my stomach, which clenched in response.
“You’re changing the subject. Plus, being in my business, I know sex sells and all you authors call it romance whereas I see it for what it is.”
“And what’s that?” It came out on a breathless whisper.
His hand slipped between my thighs to cup my mound as he leaned in to whisper in my ear, “It’s hot sex and fantasies that you don’t have to feel dirty about reading or writing because you call it a romance.”
I laughed. Spoken like a man. “Call it what you want, but my novels are loaded with romance, you can’t tell me that Stone and Addy’s story isn’t a romance.”
“Sure, and they have lots of hot, dirty sex.”
He spun me, letting the water skate down my body taking the suds with it. He dropped the washcloth and opted for his hand as he continued to cup my mound. His fingers brushed feather soft over my trimmed curls.
“So which book are your reading from?” he nibbled at my ear and slid a single finger deep inside of me.
I let out a breathy moan.
“Book one.”
He groaned as he guided another finger deep inside of me. “Which scene?”
My arm reached back to hold his lips against my slick skin. “I am starting to lean towards the shower scene.”
****
Shit, shit, shit. I was freaking late.
Irritated green eyes slammed into me as soon as I reached mine and Laura’s booth.
“Seriously, Avery? Today of all days you decide that you no longer want to be the girl who is always ten minutes early for everything?”
I smiled sheepishly at my best friend, sounding board, and inspiration. “I am so sorry,” I told her as I rounded the table and threw my arms around her.
Laura and I had met in college. We were two peas in a pod as they say and were both aspiring writers. Our friendship was quick and fierce and now ten years in, we were sharing a booth at a Romance convention. Laura with her romantic suspense’s that drove her fans wild, and me with my fascination in the world of mythology and legends brought my fans into new worlds. We made a great team.
Laura hugged me before taking a step back and eyeing me. “What were you doing?”
I waved my hand in a dismissive gesture. “Time just got away from me.”
“Why?” she asked curiously. “I stopped by your room last night and called you. Where were you?”
I smiled coyly. “I went out, and stayed out.”
“You little whoreo cookie,” she said in a scandalous tone. “How good was he? And when are you going to see him again”
I laughed. Whoreo cookie?
How do you describe the best night of your life? The most passion that had ever heated your body? I didn’t have words that wouldn’t sound cliché or like something out of one of my novels. So I went with the only thing that I could think to say. “Mind blowing, earth shatteringly good, and I’ll be seeing him tonight.”
Laura whistled. “That’s some good praise. Thank God, hopefully he pounded your fixation with Jace out of you.”
I shook my head, my mouth opening to speak but my mind refusing to feed it any words. Of course Laura had picked up on my feelings for Jace long ago, but she never said a word about it.
“Why do you look like I just kicked your puppy?”
“I-uh…,” I stammered like a moron. “Um well, it was Jace.”
Her eyes widened with shock and maybe even appall. “Tell me you didn’t. What the hell is he doing here?”
“He’s here for a wedding.”
She snorted. “You know I love you. But he’s married, Avery.”
I shook my head. “No, they’ve been separated for eight months and divorced for a couple weeks now.”
Her brow arched. “Really? That’s the line he’s feeding you?”
“Don’t do that.” I said softly.
Laura held little trust for men and refused to ever take any shit from them. She had a very rocky relationship with a real piece of shit and she tended to project that on every man that came around. Fans often ask how much of our writing stems from our real lives. I was pretty sure that every evil bastard Laura wrote was another side of Jerome and how he had affected her. On the flip side of that I also believe that she writes such amazing heroes because she sees men in a fair light. Her heroes are flawed but their love runs deep. Which essentially is all any woman wants. A man to love her in spite of her flaws and faults, just as we all want a man who is raw and real. My vampires didn’t fit that category but her hunky men sure did.
“Don’t ruin this for me. He’s important to me and he’s no longer married.”
Her narrowed eyes gave way and softened. “God, I can be such a bitch, I am sorry. What happened with him and his wife?” she asked.
“She left.” I wasn’t going to tell her details, they were his to share and I certainly didn’t want my best friend judging either of us.
She blew out a deep breath “All right, not married… I can get on board then. So, mind blowing you say?”
I smiled. “And earth shattering.”
Chapter Ten: Jace
Fan-Fucking-Tastic Friends
“So really, no details?”
I slid a sideways glance at Cole. “No details,” I confirmed.
“You do realize I am being a fan-fucking-tastic friend by accompanying you to some fucking Romance convention. You could at least give me a few little tidbits.”
My laugh was sharp. “I didn’t ask you to come,” I reminded him.
Cole grinned. “True, but you did say Avery was doing a reading at a Romance convention. Hot chick reading about sex, did you really think I wasn’t going to tag along?”
I narrowed my eyes on him, and he reached out to pat my shoulder.
“No sense in giving me that look. And you�
�d better get used to people calling your girl hot.”
My girl. I certainly liked the sound of that. It had taken every ounce of strength I had to let her leave this morning. After the shower I just wanted to pull her back to bed.
I shook my head as we entered the room where Avery and Laura had their booth. I sought out her beautiful face and my heart sped as I took in her radiant smile. She was chatting with a woman while signing something for her. A line had formed at their booth. There was no way we were getting close right now. It didn’t matter though, I was happy to step back and simply drink her in.
“Who’s the smokin’ blonde?”
I let my eyes briefly stray from Avery. “That would be Laura James. She writes Romantic Suspense.”
“Hot.” Was all Cole said as he watched Laura.
Avery’s gaze lifted from the crowd in front of her, her eyes scanning until she found mine, her smile held a promise as she flashed it at me.
Cole and I milled around until Avery and Laura closed down their booth and headed for the smaller quieter room where Avery and Laura both would be doing short readings from their books.
Avery took the stage first. With her ‘knock you off your feet’ smile firmly in place as she sat on the stool in the center of the small stage.
“Hi,” she said excitedly and the crowd greeted her with applause and some whistles. I wasn’t at all surprised to see that Cole and I weren’t the only men in the crowd. Books cross gender, sexual orientation, racial, and status lines. They lay a story out and carry the reader away to new places where they decide what the story means to them. I didn’t doubt the fact that Avery, being fucking drop dead gorgeous also added interest for the men in the audience.
“I tossed around what to share with you all today,” she continued, “and from which book I would choose.” Her gaze locked on me. “I decided on a little shower scene between Stone and Addy.”
The room erupted, the crowd liked the idea. Avery cleared her throat and her eyes fell to the open pages before her.
My heart pounded. I either wanted to slap the smug son of a bitch or pull him closer. “Asshole,” I growled and stomped into the bathroom. I was going to wash the intoxicating scent of him off of my skin.
Steam filled the room and the water burned in that all too good sort of way. I heard the bathroom door creak and my jaw clenched.
“I swear to God, Stone, get the fuck out.”
The glass door slid hard, bouncing against the metal frame, I flinched, expecting it to shatter and litter the floor in tiny skin piercing diamonds. Stone’s naked form stood there like a very hard erect statue. He sniffed the air and stepped into the shower yanking the door closed, and trapping me between tile, glass and the stone of his body.
“Feeling feisty this morning, Addy?” He asked, taking a step closer to me.
Heat pooled in places that only heated my anger. What the hell was wrong with me… right, I fucking loved him. It was the most dangerous thing I had ever done.
“I’m pissed, Stone.”
He chuckled. Grabbing my hips, he lifted me and pressed me to the warm tile. His fangs dropped and a lust filled smile twisted his sinfully kissable lips.
“Then let me make it up to you. Don’t be angry that I love you too damn much to risk anything ever taking you from me. You. Are. Mine.”
Avery lifted her gaze from the words to find mine. A sly twist of her lips had the crowd groaning then clapping. A few people begged for her to read more.
She laughed. “I can’t,” she said coyly. “It gets a little x-rated from there.” She slipped from the stool and moved from the stage. She took her seat with the other authors who were waiting for their turn at reading some of their work, but kept her eyes on me.
“I get it now,” Cole muttered.
“Get what?” I asked.
“Why you do what you do.” He grinned. “Sexy ass woman, reading and writing about sex that you want to turn into movies.”
I shook my head and turned to look at him. “You make it sound like I produce porn.”
He was still grinning. “I bet if you followed the book without changing anything it would be porn.” His grin grew. “The kind of porn that women would love because it actually has a plot.”
I chuckled. “Still wouldn’t be able to find good actors.”
Cole grunted his agreement. I assumed it was his agreement. It was hard to say with him. Cole didn’t say another word as he focused back on the stage where Laura had taken a seat and commanded the audience’s attention. She gave a sugar sweet and sultry smile then started in on her reading.
****
“Do you want me to go back to my room?”
I stepped from the bathroom, toothbrush in hand and looked at her sitting in the bed. The covers pulled to her chest.
“Why?”
She titled her head, a softness shining from her eyes. “Because you’re going out with the boys.”
“And?” I prompted.
She sighed. “Do you want to leave me in your room while you go out?”
I went back to the bathroom rinsed my mouth and stalked to the bed. “Why? Are you going to snoop or steal something?”
She harrumphed at me and gave a slightly irritated look. “Of course not.”
“Then why would I want you anywhere but right here.”
I leaned over her, pushing her back against the soft mattress, my hands landing on the pillow caging her. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. It was a move that had me hard in seconds. I groaned and pulled back, knowing if I didn’t move away I was going to rip the covers away and devour her.
She laughed as I put space between us. Settling on the small couch, I grabbed my shoes and finished getting ready to go.
“I need a room key,” she said quietly.
I grabbed the spare, shaking it so she would see it, and dropped it into her purse.
“Why wouldn’t you just hand it to me?”
“If I go over there, the last thing that will be on my mind is the fact that I am going to be late and that I have to walk out that door.”
She gave a rueful smile and shifted onto her knees then let the sheet slither down her body. She tilted her head. Giving me sad eyes and pouty lips, she asked, “So you’re not going to kiss me before you leave?”
Ah hell, I was going to kiss every inch I could get my lips on.
Chapter Eleven: Avery
Hook-Up Service And Test Drives
Mmm, every sinful touch was worth us both being late. For the second time in one day Laura was waiting on me. Not good. Still worth it, though. I thought ruefully.
I smiled apologetically as I slid into the seat across from her. “Sorry, sorry.”
She arched a brow, her green eyes surveying me as she took a slow sip from her glass of wine.
“You’ve got a hickey on your shoulder.”
“He better not have left a hickey on me.” My eyes snapped to my bare skin as I tried to see what she was talking about. My eyes narrowed as I saw no blemish on my skin.
She smiled, a sparkle in her green eyes. “Well now I know why you’re late. It’s a good reason.”
“There’s no mark?”
“No,” she said with a satisfied smile, “but if you had been late for any other reason you wouldn’t have franticly tried to find one.”
“You’re such a bitch.”
“True.” She smiled broadly. “It’s part of what I love best about myself.”
I scoffed, “I bet.”
“So…,” she took another sip of wine and tried for a detached manner, “who was the guy with him today?”
Oh this could be good, Laura had spotted Cole.
“Oh shit,” I laughed, reaching for my own glass that she had thoughtfully ordered for me. “That would be Cole.”
Her face sparked with recognition. “You’re kidding? That was the hot friend?”
I nodded.
“Wow, so his pictures were real, huh?”
“I
guess so. You want me to play matchmaker?”
She laughed. “That or hook up service. I’d take him for a test drive.”
“Well, considering he didn’t take his eyes off you during the reading, I think it’s safe to say he’ll let you test drive all you want.”
Her eyes took on an impish glint. “They’re at a bachelor party. Right?”
“I am not crashing James’ bachelor party.”
“Oh, yes you are.” She reached across the table, snagging my phone from my purse.
Her fingers flew across the touch screen as she sent Jace a text.
I groaned. “What did you say?”
Her face stretched in a grin that spelled trouble. “I asked him where they were and told him you were super horny and ready for a rumble in the bathroom.”
I dropped my head to the table top. “Tell me you didn’t.”
She laughed. “Of course I didn’t. I did tell him that your super hot best friend wanted to take his friend for a test drive.”
I lifted my head. Her expression said it all as my phone chirped. She smiled as she read the response then handed me my phone.
“Two hours and a party bus.” She said excitedly.
I furrowed my brow and read the text.
LOL. Cole says hell yes. Be ready in 2 hours, there is plenty of room on the party bus.
“So, I need to change,” Laura said as she eyed me. “So do you.”
I looked down at my clothes and frowned. “What’s wrong with this?”
“Well, I plan to slut it up a bit and frumpy jeans and a strapless top is not what I was thinking.”
“My jeans are not frumpy, they’re comfortable.”
“Avery, please. This is no time for comfort,” she said dramatically.
I shook my head and tossed some cash on the table. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Twelve: Jace
Temptation On Two Gorgeous Legs
Painted on dark blue jeans, black mid-calf boots and a white and black printed halter top. All I could think the second I saw her was how much fun it would be to peel those jeans off her.
Sinful (Restless Nights) Page 4