“Why are you wearing so many clothes?” she demanded, and I laughed as I pulled my t-shirt over my head.
“Better?”
She nodded. “Getting closer. Hurry up. The game will be back on in ten minutes.”
“What if I want to take longer than ten minutes?”
“You won’t. You’ll get off in three strokes.”
“Awfully confident.” I kicked off my shoes and pulled off my socks.
“I warmed myself up,” she murmured, running her fingertips across my abdominal muscles.
“Did you now?” I unbuckled my belt.
“It’s nice and wet.”
“What is?” I unbuttoned my jeans and lowered them.
“My pussy.”
“Prove it.” I stepped out of my jeans and boxers, and we were on equal ground in the clothing department. My erection pointed straight up at my chin. I was rock hard for this woman.
She dropped two fingers down and then pulled them out and held them toward me. They glistened with her arousal, and she was right. I was never going to last because just watching her do that was almost enough to make me come.
I pulled her fingers to my mouth, allowing the tip of my tongue to stroke them as I caught the appetizing taste that was Avery.
Her eyes closed, and a soft moan escaped her lips as I sucked on her fingers.
“Back up against the door,” I instructed, dropping her hand. She did it, and frankly I was surprised. She didn’t seem like the type to take direction well, yet she was.
I secured my condom before I moved into her orbit.
I tapped her leg, and she automatically lifted it and hooked it around my hips, pulling me closer to her.
I lowered my mouth to hers and brought my hand up to her breast.
God, her breasts were fucking perfect. Everything about her was fucking perfect.
I couldn’t help the way I kissed her. I ravaged her mouth. Destroyed it. Our tongues battered as our lips bruised. Teeth clashed as our mouths slammed together in a violent collision. I kissed her like I was a dying man and this would be my last meal. I kissed her like I was a hungry man taken to a buffet of all of the best food in the world.
I kissed her like I felt something for her. Something serious.
And no part of her held anything back as she returned my kiss with just as much enthusiasm.
For two people who didn’t want something serious, that kiss…
Fuck it.
That kiss was serious.
My hands moved across the planes of her body as if they had a mind of their own. They grabbed and caressed, clutched and fondled, gripped and rubbed as hers did the same to me.
I slid my dick into her, and she wrapped her other leg around my waist as I thrust into her, fucking her against her front door.
There was nothing soft and gentle about the moans emanating from her. We grunted together as she held on around my arms and I held on under her ass, a sheen of sweat building between our bodies as we writhed together in passion.
“Fuck me harder,” she yelled.
I drove my hips upward, and she screamed out my name. And fuck it all, that’s what did it for me.
I grunted out my release as I came powerfully. I shuddered into her, and then I felt her entire body tense under me before she squeezed the shit out of my arms and came while I held her against me.
I watched her with rapt attention as she fell apart in my arms. The second she was done, she breathed a soft sigh and I heard a whisper of my name pass her lips.
Jesus.
She was fucking perfect, and I found myself becoming addicted to her scent, her lips, those fucking brown eyes.
I pulled out of her and set her down. Neither of us moved for a moment. Our eyes locked and I grinned at her. She smiled back, and then I moved in closer to her, pinning her to the door with my body. I kissed her again, that same kiss we’d shared moments before I fucked her, and even though we’d both shattered into staggering orgasms, our kiss was just as intense as it had been before the sex. It was fueled with need and want. Nothing changed despite the fact that we were both sated, because the satisfaction would only be temporary before we’d need each other again, before we clawed our way back into each other’s bodies.
She finally slowed the kiss.
“Game’s coming back on,” she hinted. I grinned. She really might have been the perfect woman. She wasn’t one to put on pretenses. She got what she wanted; that much was clear.
What exactly she wanted, however, remained to be seen.
I headed to the restroom to take care of the condom, and then I joined her on the couch. She was still naked. Who the hell was I to make her sit naked and alone on her couch while she watched the game?
Just as I’d imagined earlier, we made out during the commercials and stopped while we watched the game. She was hilarious to watch a game with. She understood the game, she knew the players, and she wasn’t an asshole like Andrew was. She made the calls before the refs, but not in an annoying way. She cheered (loudly) for her team and hurled insults at the television when the other team scored. She was as enthusiastic watching the game as she was in pretty much every other aspect of life I’d witnessed.
In a word, she was hot.
I loved every second of watching football with her.
I never wanted to watch Andrew’s eighty-five inch projection screen again. I wanted to sit with a naked Avery and her much smaller flat screen and grope during commercials like a fucking teenager.
I took her one more time when the game was over right there on her couch, pulling her on top of me as her tits bounced around in front of me. Afterward, she headed to the restroom and I put my clothes back on. I felt her earrings and bracelet in my jeans pocket, but part of me wanted to hold onto those just a little while longer. I wasn’t sure why, but I wanted the insurance that meant I had a reason to see her again.
“You aren’t staying?” she asked, glancing up at me with those warm brown eyes of hers when she came back out wearing just a t-shirt.
I thought about it as I eyed her. She somehow managed to make a goddamn t-shirt look hot.
Staying meant expectations. I didn’t want to lead her to something that wasn’t there, to something that couldn’t be more than what we’d just done.
Yet something unfamiliar inside of me clawed at my thoughts. Something made me realize I wasn’t creating expectations or leading her on because staying with her meant we’d be together. And to be honest, that idea just didn’t sound so bad to me.
But it was too soon. If I stayed the night now, she’d expect it every time. I didn’t want to play games, necessarily. But there was always the concern if I held her in my arms through the night like I’d done the night before, I’d end up exhausted from a lack of sleep. I’d find myself falling for her when my mind specifically told me I still wasn’t ready for love.
So I took the coward’s way out.
I shook my head. “Not tonight, Ave.”
She shrugged, trying unsuccessfully to mask her disappointment. I saw it flash across that gorgeous face before she hid it.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized, not bothering to make up some feeble excuse when the truth was that I was terrified I was already in deeper than I wanted to be.
*
“He’s on the fucking schedule,” I said, trying to exercise the control I knew was somewhere in me.
“Well I don’t know where the fuck he is,” Lucas yelled at me.
Yelling was getting us nowhere.
It was definitely a Monday. “I’ll call him again,” I said, knowing even as I said it I wouldn’t. Sometimes Lucas was a giant pain in my ass.
I slammed my phone down on the desk, causing Kristy, my secretary, to jump as she stood in the doorway of my office.
It wasn’t my fault when one of the trades didn’t show up on time. Part of Lucas’s job as job site superintendent was short-term scheduling. Part of my job as a project manager was long-term scheduling. I’d
done my part; the rest was up to him.
While our jobs required us to work together fluidly, the guy just rubbed me the wrong way.
“You okay, Mr. Carpenter?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I nodded. I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands. “I’m just tired.”
The truth was I was fucking exhausted, and as long as I was placing blame that morning, I blamed the hell out of Avery.
The night before, I stared up at the ceiling as I thought about her. All night long.
Her big brown eyes.
The way her hair seemed to float around her shoulders when she moved.
The curve of her breasts.
Jesus.
I wished I’d just stayed with her. At least then I’d have some sense behind my blame. This way was stupid. I was blaming her for something that clearly wasn’t even her fault, but I was crabby from two nights of lost sleep and a shitty day at work. It just felt like no one around me was keeping up their end of the deal.
My phone dinged with a text, and I ignored it while I studied a printout of the next week’s schedule. There was something wrong with the schedule, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Lucas’s text could surely wait.
My phone dinged again two minutes later, and a third time two minutes after that. Sometimes I really thought I should turn off the repeat notifications on my phone.
I grabbed my phone with anger, opening the screen without looking as I started drafting my reply in my mind.
Imagine my shock when I found the text wasn’t from Lucas at all, but from a gorgeous blonde who wouldn’t get the fuck out of my head.
Had fun this weekend. –A
That was it.
No big show. No drama. Just a short little fragment that summed up our forty-eight hours together.
The forty-eight hours that were fucking with my mind and telling me it was time to move on from the mistakes of the past.
For maybe the first time ever, I pushed away my thoughts of Rachelle and allowed my thoughts to linger on another woman.
It was liberating.
And that liberation told me maybe I had actually, finally moved on from Rachelle. It had taken four years, but it was time. I needed to let go of the past and start looking toward the next phase of my life.
I thought about what to text back, the schedule in front of me completely forgotten. I wanted to say something witty and clever, something that would tell her I wanted to see her again without scaring her or pushing her away.
Based on the few things I’d heard about her both from my sister over the years and from Veronica at the reception, I was fairly certain she wouldn’t want to get into a relationship.
A stab of regret pierced my abdomen at the thought.
I was turning into such a fucking pussy over this bullshit.
I finally texted back, deciding to keep it short and sweet. Me too. –G
Okay, so it wasn’t a super witty response, but it was a response.
I watched my phone. I saw my message had been delivered. That meant she saw it.
I saw the little bubbles appear. That meant she was writing back.
I waited.
And waited.
The bubbles stopped.
And there was no response.
I finally pulled the schedule back out. I was getting paid to work, not to stare at my phone waiting for a text from Avery.
It was four hours later when the text finally came. I can’t stop thinking about you. –A
I grinned at my phone. Ironic, considering she hadn’t left my mind for even a second.
I want to see you tonight. –G
Her reply came quickly: You think I don’t already have plans? –A
You’ll break them for me. –G
It’s Monday Night Football. –A
I didn’t know another woman who put such a high priority on football. I liked it. Record it. We can watch it after and skip the commercials. –G
I liked how we watched commercials last night. –A
Me, too. We don’t have to fast forward through halftime if you don’t want to. –G
I could be on board with that. You don’t have plans? –A
I chuckled. I might. If the girl I want to see says yes. –G
Yes. –A
I was an idiot smiling at my phone. I heard voices in my periphery, but I couldn’t pay attention when I was focused on my text conversation with Avery.
“What the fuck are you smiling at?” Lucas’s loud voice boomed into my thoughts.
I glanced up at him and slid my phone to the side. “Fuck off, dude.”
“Gus never showed.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.”
“I can’t get ahold of him, either.”
“Not my problem.”
“We’re partners on this, Carpenter. I need you to hold up your end.”
“I fucking did, Lucas.” I felt the blood pounding in my ears. I wanted to pummel Lucas’s face into the fucking ground with his insinuation that I hadn’t correctly done my job.
My phone started ringing.
I glanced at it, hoping it was Avery, but it wasn’t. It was Gus.
“Speak of the devil,” I said, and then I answered my phone.
It was obviously a Monday for Gus, too. He explained his flat tire and dead cell phone, and I relayed the message to Lucas.
“Whatever,” was his response.
The asshole could never admit when he was wrong, but at least it got him the fuck out of my office so I could get back to my texts with Avery.
I’ll pick you up at seven. Dinner and a surprise. Wear shoes you can walk in. –G
Her reply came quickly again. Deal. I’ll be the hot one wearing hooker heels. –A
I’ll be the lucky one with the hot date. –G
My date will be pretty hot, too. And he’s got that python in his pants. –A
Jesus. Just her fucking texts gave me a hard-on.
*
I pulled up to her apartment right on time, tugging down on the bill of my baseball cap nervously. It struck me as odd that I was nervous. I was always confident around women, but Avery was different. Plus, this was an actual date.
When she opened her door to me, I was tempted to skip our date. Kissing Avery was quickly becoming one of my favorite hobbies.
But we had plans, and I wanted to start building something with her aside from the animal attraction we suddenly shared.
God. Something was seriously wrong with me.
I wondered if it had always been there and I’d just ignored it. How could I have been so blind to her?
I kissed her because I’m human, after all, and right when it passed the point of a little too hot, I pulled back.
“If we keep this up, we’ll never make it.”
She shrugged as a wicked smile took over those gorgeous lips. “Then maybe we miss whatever it is.” She winked at me, and then she headed over to her counter to grab her keys.
“No purse?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Phone in one pocket, wallet in the other.”
“Low maintenance. I like it.” She didn’t look low maintenance, exactly; she looked like she put in effort to look good for our date, but she still looked natural. It was just one more thing I liked about her.
I reached into my pocket and produced the earrings and bracelet she’d left in my hotel room. I figured it was time to return them. I sort of thought I could handle things on my own without the insurance.
She looked at me with curiosity as I held them out to her. “You left these in my hotel room,” I explained.
“Thanks,” she said. She gave me a strange look, as if she was wondering why I hadn’t handed them over sooner, but she let it go.
On the way to our destination, I felt her hand on my thigh. I was doing seventy-five on the highway.
“Does this make you nervous?” she asked as she inched her hand up my leg.
I chuckled. “Nervous isn’t the right word.”
<
br /> “What’s the right word?” Her hand slid up slowly, and she leaned toward me over the center console.
“Horny.”
She laughed, and then her hand located what she was looking for. “I can’t stop wondering if there’s somewhere quiet and private wherever you’re taking me.” Her voice was low as she cupped my cock through my jeans.
“There’s somewhere quiet and private in my backseat,” I muttered.
We pulled into a parking lot at San Tan Regional Park, and I grabbed a cooler out of the trunk. The sun had almost completely set, and the dusk cast a tranquil glow over the picnic area. I pulled out the pre-packaged salads I’d bought at the grocery store on my way to pick up Avery along with two plastic bottles I’d filled with wine.
“A picnic in the park?” she asked. She seemed surprised this was our date, but not in a bad way.
“A picnic in the park followed by a guided moonlit walk.”
“Romantic, Grant. I didn’t expect that from you.”
I grinned. I was glad I was able to surprise her, because she was continually surprising me. “What were you expecting?”
“You said walking would be involved, so I figured dinner and a walk around the mall or something.” She poured the salad dressing over her salad and mixed it all together.
“I work better magic than a mall, Peaches.” I took a bite of my salad.
She laughed. “Peaches? Again?”
“It’s your new nickname.”
She took a bite of her salad. “This is nice. I haven’t been out on a real date in a long time.”
“Why not?”
She shrugged. “Seems like I tend to meet guys and it goes kind of like our Saturday night did. Then I move on to whatever’s next.” Her voice was quiet, like she was confessing something to me she wasn’t proud of.
“Why do you move on so quickly?” The question was out of my mouth before I could stop it.
She stared down at her salad for a moment, and then her eyes locked on mine. “I could ask you the same question.”
“My answer is simple. One woman fucked me up.”
She chuckled. “Just takes one. That girl who you mentioned on Saturday?”
So she remembered. I had wondered if she’d been lucid enough to recall the things we’d said to each other in our quiet confessional in the dark. I nodded.
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