by Jolie Day
Even as Joel bunched the soft material of the sheets around them and carried Avery back to bed, his lips pressed to hers as their bodies pressed tightly together, he knew that this was dangerous. Not only for her, but for him as well. If the wrong people found out about who he was and what he was and how deeply he cared for the woman in his arms, their lives would be thrown into turmoil. They’d never be safe again.
But he couldn’t help himself as he backed her into the wall next to her bed. And he couldn’t help himself as he pressed open-mouthed kisses up and down her throat, like her skin was the most addicting drug he’d ever had the pleasure of tasting on his lips. He couldn’t stop the cant of his hips or the roam of his hands or the growl in the back of his throat as he felt Avery bite down on his bottom lip, or the shiver as she let out a tiny moan when he speared his fingers inside of her. He couldn’t fight whatever it was that was attracting him to her this strongly. He’d never felt anything like it before and, honestly, he didn’t really know if that was the best or worst thing about this.
But there was only one way to find out and Avery let out a sound that was somewhere between a high-pitched squeal and a guttural moan as he turned and pressed her, quite suddenly, down on the bed, his fingers still inside her and moving at a rapid pace. He knew that this was dangerous—feelings like this were always volatile—but there was nothing he could do right now to stop them.
He just decided to enjoy the ride.
*****
The second time she awoke, Avery was alone in her bed. Her curtains were closed, but she could see the slight glimmer of sunlight as it filtered in through the cracks and landed at the foot of her bed…over a rose. Avery pushed herself up and crawled across the bed, completely bare, on her hands and knees, reaching for the flower to bring it to her nose. It smelled sweet and it put the widest grin on her face as she rolled over, stretching out sore muscles and bruised skin.
For a long moment, she allowed herself to bask in her feelings. In the warmth of that small strip of sun over her face and the curve of her breast. In the smell of the rose as it tickled her nostrils and made her insides flutter. In the satisfying ache of the muscles between her legs, the small bruises and nips littering her neck and chest and thighs, bringing the memories associated with them. Memories of Joel’s body moving over hers—into hers—and coaxing her to multiple releases.
They’d spent half the night with their bodies moving as one, moaning and groaning and just…being. Eventually, though, they’d both run out of energy (it was bound to happen, eventually) and Avery had curled herself, once again, against Joel’s body as they settled into a fitful slumber. It had been exactly what she needed to break her years-long dry spell and she found herself looking forward to the next time Joel would make his way to her bed—or she would find herself in his.
Avery took a deep breath and in the time it took for her to exhale, a panic had settled low in the pit of her stomach and her eyes popped open, her body tensing as she came to a realization. One that, honestly, she should have thought of before.
He’s my boss.
It was like being dunked, head-first, into freezing cold water. Avery’s spine went rigid and she sat up in bed, the rose slipping from between her fingertips as she clambered out of the bed and reached for her robe—which hung on a hook on her closet door—and made her way out into the living room. The panic was welling up inside of her and the only way she could think to calm it was by pacing the apartment. Pacing and cleaning, picking up the articles of clothing that had been discarded the night before; his bloodied shirt, her panties, his suit coat, her dress, pooled in the corner, where they’d left it. Joel’s pants and underwear were gone, as were his shoes, and Avery imagined him creeping up to his apartment, completely bare from the waist up.
She couldn’t imagine him doing that at any time when his sister might possibly catch him, so it probably wasn’t long after she’d drifted off for good that night. It had to be well before the sun had risen, that much was certain. She pictured him creeping around the apartment, slipping his bottoms on and trying to make as little noise as possible—which wasn’t too hard for Joel, she recalled—and then slinking out of the apartment, head hung low so as not to be recognized.
He was probably just as embarrassed about what happened last night as she was. How unprofessional, the voice in the back of her head chastised, even as she lifted the suit coat to her nose. It still smelled like him and her heart skipped a beat, her fists clenching in the fabric for a long moment before she suddenly released it, allowing the garment to flutter back to the ground.
This can’t happen, the voice said. Not so long as you work for him. And you’ve come too far to quit now. This can’t happen.
“So it won’t,” Avery said, allowed, reaching for the coat again and holding it, pinched, between her thumb and index finger. She placed it over the back of her couch and made a note to give it back to him later, before she padded toward the bathroom, already planning out a relaxing, hour-long soak in the tub.
She tried not to think about what it might be like to have company…
Chapter Sixteen
Joel was in the middle of a very important business call when he heard the knock at his door and groaned. It was probably Kara. And if it was Kara that meant she was there to push those nursing home pamphlets in his hands again. Which meant he was about to have a long, grueling fight with his older sister.
Again.
“Jeremy,” he sighed into the receiver, “can I possibly call you back a little later? Yes, I know this is incredibly important and we’ll talk about it, but there’s somebody at the door and it’s Sunday…Jeremy, let’s not forget who controls the career of whom.” His voice became harder, effortlessly, when the man on the other end began to argue with him and give veiled threats as to the future of his company. Joel couldn’t help but grin as Jeremy almost immediately backtracked, his feet carrying him across the apartment to the door. “That’s what I thought,” he said, confidently. “Yes, of course I’ll call you back. Tomorrow. For now, let’s just go ahead and enjoy our day off, huh? Go spend time with your wife and kids. Or with your mistress, I don’t really care. Goodbye, Jeremy.” He left the man sputtering on the other line as he took the phone away from his ear and pressed ‘End Call’ and slipped it into his pocket.
The knocks had become more insistent as he made his way to the door and Joel rolled his eyes. Kara had always been incredibly impatient.
“Alright,” Joel called out, even as he dragged his feet a bit, “hold your horses. I’m coming.” The knocks persisted and he reached for the door, practically growling as he ripped it off. “Kara, what do you—” The words died on his lips and his eyes widened at the sight of the woman in front of him who was certainly not his older sister.
Avery James stood in his hallway, wearing a red t-shirt, ripped jeans, and absolutely no makeup whatsoever, and had his suit jacket on a hanger in one hand and a plastic bag in the other. Her face was…impassive. Or, at least, attempting to be. He saw something flash in the hazel depths before it was replaced with something akin to determination.
“You left your jacket,” she said, shoving it at him. “And your shirt.” She practically threw the bag at his face and he could see her starting to turn away before she even said goodbye, so he stopped her with a hand on her wrist, tight enough to cause her pause, but loose enough so that she could slip away if she wanted to.
When Avery turned back to him, her eyes were wide with shock, staring at the place their skin touched. He watched her throat bob as she swallowed thickly and the slow scan of her eyes as they lifted to his. She was silent.
“Come in.” It was a request, but his voice was firm, staring straight into hers. He could see Avery begin to melt, even as she tugged her arm weakly from his grip.
“I shouldn’t,” she said, looking down and away, her opposite hand reaching for her wrist, rubbing the skin his palm had kissed. “We shouldn’t…we shou
ldn’t be doing this.”
“Why not?” The words tripped off his tongue without his permission. He knew why they shouldn’t be doing this. They both knew why they shouldn’t be doing this and he knew even more than she how dangerous it could be—what it could mean for them—but he found himself both unwilling and unable to let her just…leave.
And Avery didn’t seem to have a retort to the question, anyway. Her lips opened and then closed and then opened again, her head shaking gently as her resolve crumbled. She didn’t take a step towards the apartment, but she also didn’t step away and Joel took that as a good sign.
“Please,” he said. “Come in. We’ll talk.”
But Avery knew as well as Joel did that there would be no talking the second she stepped over that threshold. There couldn’t be; not with the way his blue eyes pierced into her hazel ones. And it was stupid and it was dangerous and God help her, but she didn’t resist as he reached out for her again.
There was no talking as his lips covered hers.
*****
Avery felt like her entire body was on fire.
Everywhere Joel’s hands and lips and tongue touched, she could feel it being burned into her skin. She was certain that she would look down her body and see nothing but marred flesh over every inch that he’d mapped with his body. But all she could see was the softness of her pale curves and the slight patches of red left by his sucking lips and the scruff on his unshaven jaw.
And his eyes, which caused all the breath to leave Avery’s lungs. She could feel Joel’s smug smile against her lower lips and Avery tried to be annoyed at him for that, but she couldn’t find it in her to care as his tongue swiped through the wetness pooled between her legs. They’d been at this for hours now and the sun had set nearly an hour earlier, as he’d taken her bent over the kitchen counter.
Joel’s apartment was much bigger than Avery’s, but the layout was similar. The rooms bled into each other, but instead of a curtain to separate his bedroom, there were actual walls and a door. The same could be said for a home office and another bedroom across the hall. After their third round, he had dozed and she’d slipped out to use the bathroom—wearing nothing but the T-shirt she’d been wearing when she arrived—and had somehow wandered into his kitchen, which was twice the size of hers.
Avery had felt her stomach rumble and was half-stretched across the kitchen island when he’d come up behind her and placed his hands on her hips, his lips to her ear as he let out a low growl. Avery had canted back into his hips and welcomed Joel into her body for the fourth time in the last few hours. Her hands had clawed at the counter tops as he took her, hard and rough. Her screams echoed off the walls and reverberated around the room. She completely forgot about food in that moment, deciding to focus on sating a different hunger.
When he had coaxed her and himself into another of orgasm, Joel had let her gather up any food she wanted to take into the bedroom. He’d fed her and she him before they began their next round. Now, full and feeling soft and sleepy, Avery stretched out over his king-sized bed as he mapped the curves and edges of her body with his mouth and hands, lulling her into a state that was so close to sleep and yet so far from it at the same time. She burned and ached between her legs, but she wanted more.
She didn’t think she’d ever get enough of this man. And while she knew it was wrong, she just couldn’t convince herself to stop. So she ceased trying.
She allowed Joel to coax her to yet another orgasm with his mouth and fingers, hers clutching at the deep red Egyptian cotton sheets beneath her body, her legs falling open wide and her hips canting into him. No matter what she once thought of Joel Harper, good or bad, there was no denying that the man had his talents. One of them was making her scream his name as stars danced behind her tightly shut eyelids.
She may have blacked out for a moment or two.
When Avery came, Joel was next to her, leaning halfway over her body, one hand holding up her head as his opposite stroked soothing patterns up and down Avery’s body. He smirked at her and Avery marveled at the sharp, white teeth in his mouth. She’d never seen a smile quite like his and it made her shiver to know that they had, just seconds prior, scraped over her flesh. She turned, curling her body around his. Her hand stroked down to find him hardening against her thigh. Avery began to lower herself, intent on paying back the favor, but Joel stopped her.
“Later,” he said, his voice rough. “I’m still a little tired.”
“Afraid you’ll fall asleep on me?” Avery teased.
“That could never happen,” Joel promised, nipping at her bottom lip. Avery chuckled and pressed her face into his neck, sighing as she relaxed against his body and allowed herself to drift again. Joel softened against her, but she knew he could be hard again in a matter of seconds.
They had plenty of time for that.
When she opened her eyes again, the room was a bit darker and his body had been replaced with a pillow, wrapped as securely in Avery’s arms as the blanket wrapped around her body. She had a brief panic that he’d left again before she remembered that this was his apartment and she found herself relaxing into the sheets again, a smile on her lips.
She stayed like that for several more minutes before the call of nature had her rising once again and reaching for his shirt.
*****
After relieving herself, Avery caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror and her eyes widened. Her hair was a mess, sticking up in several directions all over her head, and there were a few purplish bruises spattered along her neck and chest from where Joel’s lips had sucked and nipped earlier. They’d be easy enough to hide with a turtleneck sweater, of course, but she couldn’t help the blush that rose in her cheeks at the thought of there being something—anything—from this day on her body, right where anybody might be able to see it.
Would she get in trouble, she wondered, for sleeping with the boss? Probably. Kara was head of HR but she didn’t seem like the kind of person who would allow this kind of behavior—not even if it was her younger brother. And while Avery knew it would be smarter to stop it all right here and now and walk out, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She couldn’t walk away.
She had tried to walk away. She had shown up at his door to return his jacket and ruined shirt, wearing no makeup at all and her loosest clothing; shapeless jeans and an old, stained t-shirt. Her hair had been up in a messy bun and she was certain that there was a pimple on her chin, but he had looked at her like…like she was the most sublime creature he’d ever seen. She could still feel the heat in his stare, the warmth of his fingers surrounding her wrist, pulling her back to him. The hair on the back of her neck stood up at the memory of his lips on hers as he pulled her into the tight embrace of his strong arms and a shiver ran down her spine at the phantom feeling of his hands on her backside, lifting her up his body and pressing her against the nearest wall. She could practically still hear their moans echoing around the apartment and wetness began to pool between her legs again.
Stepping back from the mirror, Avery turned and walked out of the bathroom, intent on finding her lover and hopefully initiating another round. Professionalism and HR be damned.
She found Joel in the kitchen, fully clothed—in a pair of form-fitting jeans and a wrinkled Henley—and standing at the stove, cooking up some kind of meat and vegetables in a pan. It smelled heavenly and Avery felt her stomach begin to growl again at the thought of a hot meal.
She approached as silent on her feet as she could manage, hoping to sneak up on him, but before she could so much as touch the skin of his back, Joel was turning around and wrapping her in his arms, his lips descending on hers to take her breath away.
When he pulled back this time, there was a wide, cocky grin on his face and if it weren’t for the fact that she was panting and flustered, Avery might have hit him. For making her feel like this. For making her feel powerless and exhilarated at the same time. For making her fall for him.
<
br /> Instead, she just scowled and huffed and he grinned and pressed another, softer kiss to her lips, chuckling as she nipped him. “Go sit down,” he said, his voice practically a growl in her ear. “Food’s almost ready.”
“What’re you making?” Avery asked, moving away as Joel’s arm loosened its grip.
“Venison and vegetable stir-fry,” he informed her, returning to the stove. She could hear the scrape of his wooden spoon on the bottom of the pan, and the sizzle of the meat as it fried in the oil.
“Venison?” Avery asked. “That’s like…deer, isn’t it?”
“It’s exactly like deer,” he affirmed, smirking at her over his shoulder. “It’s delicious.”
“It smells delicious,” she complimented. “Where exactly do you buy deer meat, though?”
“You can probably buy it at any grocery store,” he replied, shrugging. “But this one I hunted.”
“You…you hunt?” Avery pictured the broad-shouldered man before her in a hunting cap and reflective vest, carrying a gun as he pushed up his glasses. It was strange to think that the same man was her boss and wore designer business suits to work each day, but she could still see it. He looked like a hunter.
“My entire family hunts,” Joel said, which surprised Avery even more.
“Even Kara?” She couldn’t picture the kind, warm-hearted woman with a gun in her hand, period; let alone to kill a defenseless little deer.
“Not so much anymore,” Joel admitted, “now that she has the kids and a career to uphold, but she was quite the hunter in her day.”
“I…I really can’t picture that.”
