by Mandy Baxter
Hands down, the best night of her life.
“Be sure to stir constantly,” Chef Isaacs continued. “You will begin to notice that your cream is starting to foam as it reaches the near-boiling point.”
And though washing Jase’s masculine scent from her body was the last thing Avery wanted to do, she’d reluctantly showered, removing every trace of him from her this morning. She figured her fellow students would appreciate it if she showed up to class clean. Personal hygiene was pretty damned important in the food industry. Besides, no one wanted to advertise that they’d spent a wild night in bed, even though Avery had earned some serious bragging rights.
Jason freaking Blackwell. Ho-ly cats.
The sound of cream sizzling on the burner pulled Avery from her thoughts and she scrambled to turn down the heat as her pot boiled over. “Too hot, Ms. Lockhart,” Chef chided as he passed her station. “You’ll have to start over and heat it to the proper temperature before you add the lemon juice now.”
“Yes, Chef.” She felt the eyes of her classmates on her as she set the pot of scalded cream aside and mopped up the mess. This wasn’t the first time she’d made a spectacle of herself after spilling or dropping something, but for some reason, she was more embarrassed than usual. As though everyone around her knew every dirty thought that had distracted her focus. God, she was such a loser.
How could she possibly concentrate while images of Jase’s perfect body butted their way into her thoughts? It was hard enough to convey an aura of confidence without the distraction.
“Someone’s got her head in the clouds today,” Kristie remarked as she measured out a tablespoon of lemon juice and added it to her cream. “Don’t tell me, Billion Dollar Blackwell gave you the private tour of his bedroom after everyone left last night.”
Avery cringed and her friend’s eyes widened to the size of serving platters. “Oh my god,” she exclaimed, nearly tipping her own saucepan over in the process. “He did! You slept with him!”
“Shh!” Avery seethed, looking around to make sure no one overheard. “I’m not trying to share the details of my love life with the entire room, Kristie.”
“Maybe not,” she remarked, “but you sure as hell better share them with me. Spill.”
Avery checked the temperature of her cream to make sure it had cooled to one-ninety and put the saucepan back on the burner as she measured out a portion of lemon juice. “It just sort of happened,” she said. Usually, she wouldn’t have thought twice about divulging to Kristie the dirty details of her romantic encounters, but this was different. Jase was a secret she wanted to keep to herself. “My car wouldn’t start and—”
“Ah!” Kristie exclaimed. “So lucky. I wish my car was a piece of shit.”
Avery cut her a look.
“What? I so would have loved to have been stranded in his driveway. I take it he gave you a jump?”
She laughed as Kristie waggled her eyebrows. “He’s actually really …” Sexy? Amazing in bed? Built like a freaking Greek god? All of the above. “Sweet,” she finally said. “Nothing like what I expected.”
“And … ?” Kristie looked as though the suspense might cause her to spontaneously combust.
“And what?” Avery said with a laugh.
“Are you going to see him again?”
Definitely not. Last night couldn’t be anything more than a one-night stand. Avery knew it was best to cut her losses now before she got too involved and gave Jase the opportunity to hurt her like she knew he’d inevitably do.
“I doubt it.” She kept her attention on the saucepan in front of her. “I think last night was a once in a lifetime thing.”
“All right, everyone. Your cream should be properly thickened by now and can be transferred into your sieves. Be sure to line them with cheesecloth first, people.”
At Chef’s instructions, Avery switched gears, preparing for the step that would separate the whey from the cream and make the mascarpone cheese. Tomorrow they were making tiramisu, and she wanted her mascarpone to come out perfectly. She’d yet to impress Chef Isaacs and she was desperate for her instructor to see beyond her scattered appearance and clumsiness. On the flip side, she’d tried not to think too hard about last night, but Kristie had managed to send Avery’s already frazzled thoughts into overtime. Jase didn’t ask for her number. He didn’t even say he’d see her later. Why should it matter if she never saw him again when she’d convinced herself that she didn’t care either way?
“Oh god.” Avery brought her hand up to her face, completely oblivious to the fact that she still held a spoon in her fist. The spoon smacked her forehead, bathing her face in too warm and too thick cream that clung to her face like plaster. “Ow! Ow, ow, ow.” She grabbed a towel and wiped her face, rinsing it under cool water before wringing it out. Of all the bone-headed, clumsy …
“You’ve got it bad,” Kristie said as she helped to wipe down Avery’s hair. “That boy’s got you tied in knots.”
One night with Jase Blackwell, and Avery was as good as ruined. So much for emotional detachment. That plan had backfired in a grand fashion. “No, I don’t.” Just because Kristie could see it didn’t mean Avery was about to admit it. “I couldn’t care less about him.”
“Uh-huh. Sure.” Kristie returned to her station and began to ladle her soon-to-be cheese into the sieve. “You just keep telling yourself that, Ave.”
She would. Because she didn’t think her heart could take being broken by Jason Blackwell.
∗∗∗
Hands down, it had been the best practice of Jase’s entire football career. The offensive staff as a whole had been beyond impressed with his performance and convinced that he was ready to start tomorrow’s game. And despite the fact that his place on the team finally felt secure, up until last night there had still been a nagging insecurity that Willis would be starting their first game of the playoffs and not him. So to say that he was relieved was the understatement of the year. Avery really was his good-luck charm.
Fuck. Yeah!
Jase pulled up to Avery’s apartment complex, still flying high on the endorphins and anticipation for tomorrow’s game. Thank god they were playing at home because right now, all he could think of was the fiery brunette who’d rocked his world not once, but twice last night. And despite the fact that he’d been instructed by his friend to “hit it and quit it,” he was dying to see her again. As he locked his pickup, Jase gave himself a precursory sniff. Damn it, he should’ve showered. But in his haste to get to Avery, he was lucky he’d had the presence of mind to change out of his damned cleats. Hopefully she wouldn’t mind.
Jase’s fist hovered at the door as his stomach twisted into a knot. What if she wasn’t happy to see him? What if she’d realized that last night was a mistake? Or she’d been after nothing more than a one-nighter like so many other football groupies. Just another conquest to add to her list. Jesus, nut up, dude. Luke would mock him unmercifully if he could see him getting all twisted up over a woman like this. The problem was … after only one night with her, Jase knew that Avery was more than just a random hookup.
He knocked three times and held his breath.
When she opened the door, Avery’s brow furrowed. “Hey,” she greeted, clearly bemused as though she was surprised to see him standing in her doorway or some shit. Seriously? How could his presence come as a shock?
Jase’s mouth hung slack. He’d planned to say something but words failed him. Instead, he was possessed with a need that overrode any brain function. Avery was too damned beautiful. Too desirable. So instead of saying hi, or any other civilized thing, Jase rushed through the doorway and took Avery in his arms, kissing her like his next breath depended on it.
She answered his impassioned kisses with a matching fervor. Gripping the hem of his shirt, she broke their contact for only as long as it took to drag it up and off his body. Likewise, Jase wasted no time in freeing the buttons of Avery’s shirt, popping a couple in his haste to get her good and
naked. He kicked a leg behind him and the door closed with a resounding slam that neither of them seemed to notice as they continued to claw and tear at each other’s clothes.
Jase lost his balance as he toed off his shoes, taking Avery with him as they tumbled down onto her couch. If he didn’t get inside of her soon, he’d lose his damned mind. Her tongue slid against his in a wet tangle and Jase groaned into her mouth. Sweet lord, her scent, her taste drove him into a frenzy of mindlessness and he cupped her flesh as he slid her stretchy yoga pants over the curves of her ass and down her thighs.
“Oh, god, Jase, now,” Avery breathed as she broke their kiss. “Fuck me right now.”
Her urgency spurred him on and he spun her around and positioned her so she was draped over the arm of the couch. His fingers shook as he unhooked her bra, leaving her to pull the straps down over her shoulders as he fished in his pocket for a condom just before he shucked his jeans and underwear. With his teeth, he tore open the foil packet and rolled the condom onto his cock, entering Avery in a single desperate thrust.
“You’re so wet,” Jase panted as he pulled out and drove home again, eliciting a low moan from Avery that tightened his balls. “So damned tight. Sugar, you’re gonna be the death of me.”
She answered him with a whimper that only stoked his lust, a sound that echoed his own need to a tee. Words died on his tongue as he fucked into her, at first a slow and measured action that bordered on torture and ending in quick, fierce thrusts that left them both gasping for breath. Jase leaned over Avery, cupping her breasts in his palms, her back sculpted to his. He couldn’t get close enough. Deep enough. He growled his frustration from between gnashed teeth, her slick tight heat gripping him with every pump of his hips.
“Oh, Jase, just like that,” Avery panted. “Don’t stop. Harder.”
His body slammed into hers and the sound, mingled with their guttural cries, drove him closer to the edge. Avery’s pussy clenched him tight as she came, her entire body shuddering with each renewed spasm and her voice raw and ragged as she called out his name over and again.
“That’s it, sugar. Come for me,” Jase said against her ear. His own pleasure crested, his shaft damned near aching as his balls grew tight. The orgasm ripped through him on the heels of Avery’s pleasure. The tidal wave crashed over him and swamped Jase with intense sensation that ignited all of his nerve endings and left him weak and trembling on top of her.
Each time with Avery was better than the last.
He eased her up from the couch and leaned back onto the cushions, taking her with him. “Hi,” he said with a grin, smoothing her hair from her face.
“Hi.” The smile Avery gave him in return was equal parts sinful and sweet, a combination that stoked Jase’s lust anew. “How was your day?”
“I’d say it was good, but now? It’s perfect.”
The flush on her cheeks deepened with Jase’s words and his chest swelled with emotion at the realization that he could affect her in that way. He was telling the truth, though. Today had been great. Better than. But one look at Avery and even the best day of his life paled in her presence.
“How was your day?” He leaned in and kissed her forehead, her temple, the hollow of her cheek.
“Mmm.” Her eyes drifted shut as she leaned in to his kisses. “Good. But better now, too.” Jase kissed the corner of her mouth and her lips curved into a soft smile. He moved downward across her jaw to her throat and she shivered against him. “Did you come straight from practice?”
“Uh-huh. Why? Do I smell?”
“Like a locker room,” she said with a laugh.
“Sorry.” For the record, he totally wasn’t sorry. “I was anxious to see you and a shower would’ve taken too long.”
Avery sighed, her warm breath fanning across his cheek. “I bet you say that sort of flattering stuff to all the girls.”
Her voice was still husky with desire, lazy and low. The sound rippled through him, tightening his skin and prickling with a heat that settled low in his gut. “You’re the only one, sugar.”
She gave a little snort as though she didn’t believe a word of it, but he couldn’t have spoken truer words. Jase wasn’t some inexperienced kid and he sure as hell didn’t have to work hard to get a date. Hell, he didn’t have to work at all. He’d never paid any of them a compliment that equated to more than “nice ass.”
And whereas Avery had the finest ass he’d ever had the privilege to lay eyes—or his palms—on, she deserved more than some vapid comment about her body. She intrigued him, and he found that beyond his blinding lust, he simply wanted to be with her. Talk to her. Spend whatever free time he had with her. Could it be that this would be the beginning of a real relationship with Avery? Holy shit. He’d been after nothing more than a casual fling. A one-nighter to steer his luck in the right direction. What was quickly developing between them was so much more than Jase had bargained for. And it scared the fuck out of him.
“Not that I’m not happy you decided to come over, but don’t you have a playoff game tomorrow? I might be wrong, but I heard it’s sort of a big deal.”
How could Jase think about football, or anything else when she touched him that way? Avery’s fingertips danced across his skin, skimming over the surface of his pecs, down his ribs, and the ridges of his stomach. She ventured lower, past his torso and the trail of hair that led from his belly button and Jase held his breath. His cock twitched as though it had been trained to respond to her touch. Jesus. “I, uh.” His voice cracked and she stifled a laugh. He cleared his throat and started over, trying to ignore the sensation of her fingers flirting along the border of where his hips met his thighs. “I do have a game tomorrow. And yes, it is a big deal.”
She reached between them and cupped his sac. Jase let out a slow groan as she kneaded his flesh in her palm, her skin so damned soft. He wanted her again, but he couldn’t press his luck this close to a game. His legs felt like Jell-O already. Another go with Avery and he’d be useless on the field tomorrow.
“Home game?”
“Uh-huh.” She stroked down between his thighs and Jase’s brain went blank. Her hand ventured back to his cock and he thrust into her hand, his body committing all-out treason against his mind. “You should come.” No, he should come. Again. Right now. He needed to get his mind out of the gutter, but how, when Avery was performing magic on him with her hands? She worked the condom free of his renewed erection and her hand slid across his stiff flesh.
Jase swallowed audibly, stifling a groan. “I’ll get you tickets. Front row. Fifty yard line.” Hell, if she kept stroking him like that, he’d get her down on the goddamned field if she wanted him to.
“I can’t.” Her voice was nothing more than a whisper in his ear. “I have to work back-to-back events. But maybe we could go out to dinner tonight? Hang out until your bedtime?”
Her teasing tone didn’t go unnoticed. But the thought of having to get dressed up and spend time fending off fans and autograph hounds just didn’t appeal to him. He wanted to stay right here with her, naked on the couch, for as long as possible. “How about I take a shower, so I don’t stink up your apartment, and we order in?”
“Oh, okay.” Jase wondered at her disappointed tone. “Sure.”
A nasty thought took root in Jase’s mind. What if what was really important to Avery was that she be seen with him? He didn’t want to believe that she was just like all of the other users out there, and it soured his stomach. He wanted her to be different.
No. He needed her to be.
Chapter Seven
“Shouldn’t you be fueling up on something healthier? Carbo-loading on whole grain pasta and power foods for tomorrow?”
Jase folded the wide slice of pizza into his mouth and took half of it off in a single bite. “I’m totally carbo-loading. I plan to eat this entire pizza by myself. It’s a good thing we ordered a second one for you.”
He gave her a wink and Avery couldn’t help but smile at his easy cha
rm. In fact, it was too easy to be with Jase. Too comfortable. Her plan to keep him at arm’s length was failing miserably. She tried not to let her disappointment ruin the evening. The fact that Jase had turned down her suggestion to go out stung despite the fact that she’d coached herself into believing what was happening between them was nothing more than a fling. You didn’t go out on dinner dates with a guy you were sowing your oats with. Her heart didn’t need to be in the equation. Keep it light. Fun. No strings attached so she wouldn’t get hurt.
“Your car should be ready by the end of the week. I told the guy at the garage to deliver it here when they’re done. I hope that’s okay.”
Okay? Was he kidding? She wouldn’t even have to find someone to take her to pick it up. It was better than okay. “Can I get his number? I’ll need to talk to him about working out some kind of payment plan.”
Jase waved her off. “Already taken care of.”
The last thing she needed was for him to think she expected him to spend his money on her. She wasn’t that sort of woman and she didn’t want him to get that impression. “Jase—”
“It’s already taken care of.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he shushed her. “And if you argue with me, I’ll just go out and buy you a new car.”
“I’ll pay you back.”
“Do you like Mercedes or BMW better?”
Avery grinned but kept her mouth shut. She had a feeling he’d go out and buy her a damned car just to prove he could. His triumphant grin caused her stomach to rocket up into her throat and float back down to her toes. “Good. I’m glad that’s settled,” he remarked before snatching up another slice of pizza.