Come Again

by Kate, Jiffy

  Avery’s phone must have died because I’ve tried her several times and it’s gone to voicemail. I thought maybe she was in flight and had it turned off, but she probably didn’t have time to charge it before getting on the plane.

  We stand there for a few minutes, watching the exit for arrivals.

  “So, who’s Frank?” I ask, remembering she named someone else.

  “Oh, Frank’s my Jack Russell Terrier.” She smiles sweetly. “We’ve been together for eleven years. He usually goes everywhere with me, but he’s keeping Bill company in the car.”

  I want to laugh at the fact that she considers a dog to be one of her soulmates, but who am I to judge that? If Avery has taught me anything, it’s that we can have more than one soulmate and we never know where love will find us and who will bring it into our lives.

  “He sounds great,” I tell her, giving her my profile and hoping my thick beard hides the twitch of my lips.

  “Oh, he’s the best,” she muses. “Smart as a tack. And listens way better than my Bill. Well, Bill is nearly deaf. Lost most of his hearing in a plane crash.”

  “Plane crash?”

  What the fuck?

  “He used to be a pilot,” she says proudly. “Mostly just personal aircraft. He was flying to Baton Rouge one day to visit his brother and had engine failure...landed in a swamp.”

  “Holy shit,” I say before catching myself. “Sorry.”

  A rueful chuckle escapes her. “Oh, honey, I said more than that.” She’s quiet for a moment. “And just to think, a plane crash is how I lost John.”

  My heart sinks.

  “That’s...” I begin but get caught up in my own thoughts and fears.

  What would I do?

  What if Avery got sick like Liz?

  Am I prepared for that?

  Am I ready to experience that kind of heartache?

  Isn’t that what I’ve been protecting myself from all these years?

  “It was an ironic twist of fate,” she finishes for me, very matter-of-fact. “After John died, I was afraid of flying, nights, knocks on my door...Saturdays. But eventually, I realized I didn’t have to be. The world kept turning. Everyone else goes on with life and I had to do the same. When it’s our time to go, it’s our time to go, whether we’re thirty thousand feet in the air or have our feet planted firmly on the ground. Years later, when Bill crashed his plane, I had the worst flashbacks, old memories that paralyzed me. I wanted to tell him he was never allowed to fly again, but I couldn’t do that. We have to live our lives...we have to keep on taking chances and doing what we love. If we don’t, we’re not really living.”

  I nod my head, but my mind is still in limbo, reeling from the whirlwind of fear and concern.

  Movement catches my eye as a rush of people begin to make their way out of the arrival gate. I watch as a pretty, blonde-haired woman—probably in her mid-forties or early fifties—comes up to the lady I’ve been talking to and gives her a tired hug.

  “Mama,” she sighs. “I told you to wait in the car with Daddy. What are you doing here?”

  “Shush,” the older woman says. “I might be eighty, but I’m not dead...I’m still running circles around your daddy.” She laughs, patting the face of her daughter, who I can now see resembles her mother so much.

  “It was lovely speaking with you,” the older woman says, turning to me. “I hope your Avery shows up soon.”

  “Thank you,” I tell her. “Have a good night.”

  Both women give me a small wave and make their way to the baggage claim.

  “Shaw,” a voice from behind me has me whirling around. Avery is standing a few feet away—tired, a little rumpled from a day’s worth of travel, but gorgeous all the same. “I figured you’d have given up on me by now.”

  “Never.”

  Her lips twist to the side and she bites down on her bottom lip.

  “What are you doing standing all the way over there?” I ask in a husky tone I almost don’t even recognize as my own. “Get over here.”

  Letting her backpack slip off her shoulder and into her hand, she walks toward me, standing toe to toe before dropping her bag to the floor at our feet. “I missed you,” I whisper, slipping my hand under her hair and around her slim neck, running my thumb along the line of her jaw. “How in the world did three days start to feel like three months?”

  “I thought it was just me,” she says, laughing slightly, leaning into my touch. When she turns her lips to my hand and kisses my palm, it sends an electric jolt straight through me. I was planning on kissing her, tasting her—just a little, enough to get me home—but now I’m thinking that might not be a good idea.

  I want her too bad.

  Too much.

  Once I start, I might not be able to stop.

  Placing my lips on her forehead, I breathe her in. “Let’s go home.”

  She wraps her arms around my torso and I fold her into me, relishing in her closeness and the rightness of her, us. This is right. We’re right. She’s worth the risks.

  The drive home is quiet. I keep glancing over at Avery, because I can. Fuck, I missed her. The closer we get to our exit, the heavier her eyes get. When she’s telling me about some gingerbread her nana sent home to me, her words slow to a slur and then she’s silent.

  Reaching over, I brush her hair away from her face so I can see her better—the soft lines of her face, her button nose, pouty lips...long lashes that lay so peacefully on her pale cheeks. It’s then when I realize she looks more than tired and I wonder if she’s been feeling okay. She looks a little thinner...her cheekbones a little more pronounced.

  It’s probably all the working and moving and everything she’s been dealing with over the last month or so, but it still makes a pebble of worry settle in my stomach. Keeping my eyes on the road, I run my hand gently down her arm and find her hand, lacing our fingers together, needing her touch.

  When I pull into the drive, I carefully lean over to wake Avery with a soft kiss to her cheek and then the side of her mouth. Her eyes flutter open and she looks around. “Your house?” she asks, trying to gain her bearings.

  “Is that okay?” I guess I should’ve asked, but I need her, damn it.

  “Yeah,” she replies, more awake as she lets out a soft yawn and stretches a little, exposing the creamy skin of her stomach and making my dick stand to attention.

  He’s a fucking horny bastard.

  Give him an inch of skin and he’ll take a mile.

  I clear my throat and move to open the door, but turn back to her. “I can take you home if you’d rather sleep in your bed.” I’ll hate every second of it, but I will do that if that’s what she wants.

  “No, I want your bed.” I know I’m a little rusty, but I’m pretty sure there’s an underlying meaning there, something along the lines of I want you. Or maybe that’s just my dick’s wishful thinking.

  Regardless, her in my bed is enough, even if it just means sleep.

  Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

  Jumping out, I grab her backpack and then jog around to open her door. When I reach for her hand, she smiles up at me and leans into my shoulder. Something about this moment makes me think of the first time I brought her here...when I had her like a seven course meal on my kitchen counter and then took her to my bed for dessert. That was one of the best nights of my life until I went and fucked it all up.

  We will not be having a repeat of that disaster.

  Turning the key in the lock, I open the door and let her walk ahead of me, flipping on the light above the island. “Are you hungry?” I ask, setting her backpack down on one of the barstools and walking around to the refrigerator. “I can make you something.”

  “I already know what I want.” Her tone and words are full of confidence and fuck if it’s not the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard, better than any porno I’ve watched, that’s for damn sure. My hand pauses on the refrigerator door and I breathe in the cooled air, willing my dick to calm the fuck down
.

  This is not a sprint.

  It’s a fucking marathon.

  Maybe a literal fucking marathon.

  Yeah, that’s not helping.

  Clearing my throat, I turn toward her and see her eyes devouring me. Maybe she’s remembering what we did in this kitchen too?

  Maybe she’s remembering the way I spread her wide for me and made her scream my name?

  “What do you want, Avery?” I ask, placing each word intentionally.

  “You,” she answers simply. “I’ve been thinking about it and I know you said you want to go slow—”

  “Fuck slow,” I tell her, repeating the words I told myself earlier. “I want what you want...when you want it...how you want it...I just want you.”

  There’s a stretch of silence but Avery’s expression speaks volumes—need, want...love. Closing the distance between us, I reach out for her waist and pull her to me. The baggy sweatshirt she’s wearing is definitely in the way and has to go. When I take the bottom hem of it and pull it up, she stretches her arms over her head and allows me to pull it off. I just need to see her, feel her.

  Avery must need it too, because as soon as her arms are free from her shirt, she goes for mine, tugging at my standard white t-shirt. Saving her the time, I yank it over the back of my head and toss it on the floor with hers.

  “Better?” I ask, pulling at the loops on her jeans to get her closer.

  Instead of answering with words, she sighs and it sounds like relief, like she’s been in a desert and just got her first drink of water. Wrapping her arms around my neck, she pulls herself up to me and kisses my lips...softly, tenderly, until her teeth come out to play, nibbling on my bottom lip and starting a frenzy.

  I grab her ass and pull her up to me and her legs wrap around my waist, our mouths battling for dominance.

  “I missed you,” she says breathlessly between kisses. “Not just the past few days.”

  “I know. I missed you too.”

  “It’s like you took me to heaven and then dropped me back to earth...I—I’ve never felt the way I felt when I was with you,” her voice takes on an insecurity I haven’t seen from her in a while, if ever. “You made me feel things nobody ever has.” The way she emphasizes nobody makes me swallow, feeling jealous and possessive. I don’t like thinking about anybody else touching Avery...or making her feel anything.

  “Nobody else matters,” I growl. “I’m getting ready to erase any memories of anyone else from your mind...all that will be left is me and the way I make you feel.” It’s not a threat, it’s a promise, and I’m getting ready to make good on it.

  Her soft skin against mine is enough to make me weak, but I need more. I need her completely naked and laid out before me. I carry her out of the kitchen and up the stairs. When we get to the bedroom, I walk to the bed and drop her legs. “All of this needs to go.”

  Without any words of acknowledgement, Avery does as I ask and strips bare. Her eyes never leave mine as she slowly sits down on the bed and slides back, but I pull her legs until her ass is at the edge of the bed.

  “What are you—” she starts to ask, but when I kneel between her legs, she knows.

  Bracing herself on her elbows, she never looks away. No awkwardness or insecurity, just Avery...naked, vulnerable, and mine.

  I place a gentle kiss on the inside of her thigh and am rewarded with a tremor reverberating through her body. Brushing my scruff against her smooth skin, I get another shiver followed by a moan. As I work my way up to her sweet pussy, I feel the anticipation rolling off of Avery and I smile into the tender, wet skin, flicking my tongue out to taste her.

  “Oh, God.”

  I glance up to see her eyes close and her head lull back. Her perfect breasts are on full display, giving me a front-row seat to what I’m about to do to her...shattering her just so I can collect all her pieces.

  “Look at me, Avery,” I demand, slipping two fingers inside her tight, hot center. “I want to see you when you come.”

  Pumping my fingers in tandem with the movements of my tongue, she struggles to obey my command, but eventually manages to give me those big, brown eyes. The same ones I could die a happy man staring into. The ones that own my soul and see beneath the hard surface I try to put up. She’s melted the cold exterior and pulled me back to life.

  When I suck her clit into my mouth and curl my fingers to reach her sweet spot, Avery cries out, not holding back and I eat up her pleasure.

  “Let me hear it, Baby...I want to hear you.”

  “I’m coming,” she moans.

  I quicken my fingers, imagining my cock in their place and feeling it stiffen, pressing against my jeans as it begs to be let free. As much as I want to be inside her, I need this. The picture she’s painting for me is a masterpiece—head thrown back, gorgeous tits, one of her hands pulling at her tight nipples, the other twisted in the quilt beneath her. When her legs begin to shake and she cries out again, I feel the walls of her pussy clench.

  “That’s it,” I coax, leaning down to devour her one last time, taking everything she’s giving.

  When she’s sated, breaths coming in labored spurts as she tries to make her way back to earth, I take the time to get rid of my pants and boxers...and socks, because that’s fucking weird. Stroking my cock a few times, I stand back and take her in, appreciating every dip and curve of her body.

  “Shaw.” Avery’s voice sounds detached, but still needy, pleading. “I want you...I need you inside me.”

  What the fuck was I waiting for? Why have I been denying myself this woman?

  She doesn’t have to ask me twice. Moving her up the bed, I kneel between her open thighs and rub my cock into her wetness, using it as lubricant. Leaning forward, I place my lips on hers, kissing her soundly. Avery groans and then lifts her hips, searching for what she wants. “Inside,” she demands. “I need you inside.”

  “You want my cock?”

  Her eyes open and lock with mine, going wide and then hooded.

  “Yes,” she says slowly, quietly. “I want your cock...inside me.” The way she repeats the words makes me think she’s trying them on for size for the first time, finding confidence as she goes. A wicked smile crosses her pretty mouth and it makes me impossibly harder.

  “This isn’t going to be soft...or easy,” I warn, feeling my need to feel her and make her feel overcome my need to be gentle. “I’ve been dreaming about fucking you for weeks...months. Finally having you and then going cold turkey has only made me want you more. I promise I’ll make love to you later, but right now...” I pause, steadying my voice, “I’m going to fuck you.”

  That wicked smile is back and she runs her hands into my hair, giving it a pull. “I don’t want soft or easy...I want hard. I want you. I want whatever you want to give me.” She repeats some of my words from earlier and it makes my love for her grow, if that’s possible. I love that even though we’re so different in so many ways, we’re compatible...we complement each other...and where it matters the most, we’re the same.

  “Hold on tight.”

  She takes the warning to heart and wraps her arms around my neck as I push my way inside her. The tightness from the first time we were together is still there, the perfect way we fit...the way her body stretches to take me in and wrap around me in the most delicious way makes me want to bust a nut before I even get a chance to move. Distracting myself with a searing kiss, I begin to move, relentlessly pounding into her.

  Avery’s cries from earlier are nothing compared to now. She’s literally screaming out her pleasure as the bedframe begins to rattle the walls, while I thrust into her.

  “Oh, fuck,” Avery cries. “Oh, my God...Shaw.” A series of incomprehensible chants and moans fall from her lips as she presses into me, seeking friction.

  Pulling myself up on my knees and out of Avery, my cock weeps at the disconnect, but is quickly satisfied when I bring her up to me and plunge back inside. My hands grip her hips and pick up speed. Avery’s ha
nds reach up to grab her tits and I take a hand off one of her hips to give her clit the attention it deserves.

  Literal cries rip from Avery’s chest and I almost stop because I think I’m hurting her, until she makes eye contact with me, that intangible cord between us being tugged, as we fall into a visceral experience. Sweat pours from my forehead and drips down on her body while I plunge my cock into her, over and over, finally succumbing to the coiling in the pit of my stomach.

  Tingling at the base of my spine.

  White light exploding behind my eyes.

  Avery tightening around me.

  My body erupting.

  Small pulses, milking my cock.

  Spent, I fall forward, bracing myself on my arms to keep my weight off Avery. She’s panting too, eyes fluttering, as she whispers words of adoration and praise. The emotions that rise in my chest are unexpected and nearly knock me back on my ass. “I love you,” I whisper. “I love you so fucking much.”

  “I know.”

  Her slow smile and gorgeous eyes practically put me in a trance. But when she darts her tongue out to wet her bottom lip and then traps it between her teeth, I feel my cock come back to life while it’s still inside of her.

  Avery’s eyes widen in surprise and I can’t hide my smile. It’s a bit smug, I admit, but honestly, this is all her. She does this to me. She makes me feel like I could fuck her all night.

  “Round two?” I ask, thinking for a split second that I should let her sleep after such a long day, but the selfish, greedy bastard in me wins out. She nods slowly and I grab her legs, twisting her onto her stomach. “Get on your knees.”

  We’ll make love...later.

  Chapter 35

  Avery

  Jumping out of bed, I rush to the bathroom and brace my arms on the toilet as I begin to dry heave, only this time, they’re not just dry heaves. The contents of what I ate yesterday come back to haunt me, or should I say the lack of what I ate yesterday.

  As my forehead breaks into a sheen of sweat, I kneel down onto the cold tile of Shaw’s bathroom and lean my head over to rest on my arm, waiting.