When Carter finally looked up again and, saw Avery caressing her own breasts it turned him on beyond his own comprehension. He had been hard for a long time and seeing how ready she was, was all he needed.
Avery screamed out loud in painful pleasure as he entered her. He completely filled her, and she was transported into a cloud of torturous lust. She winced and called out his name and loved every second of it. His thrusts began slow, but she dug her nails into his back, the way she had always told him that she wanted it harder and faster.
The intensity of being inside of her left Carter with a sense of reckless abandon. She was tightly gripping him as he plunged in and out of her, making him feel frantic. Their bodies reacquainting with the perfection of their chemistry, remembering everything. He lowered his head and nestled it into her neck, saying her name over and over again. When he felt her nails dig into his back, Carter lost it.
He was moving inside her with a savage intensity as they both moaned louder and louder, their bodies rubbing against each other. Avery felt the spiral of pleasure begin to tease at her nerve endings; her fingers, her nipples, her toes. She wrapped her arms around him tightly as he thrust harder and harder. When the sensation took her, Avery yelled in ecstasy that vibrated through every inch of her. Her body began to quiver all over and her head fell back. She was in heaven and couldn’t imagine that it would ever end.
As soon as the post-love-making euphoria was over, their bodies separated, Kimberly and Michael immediately returned to reality.
“We’ve never had a problem there,” Michael said as Kimberly sat up in bed, her back to him. He looked at the curve of her spine, her back wet from perspiration. Every inch of her drove him crazy.
“Just with everything else,” Kimberly said as she scooted off the bed in search of her clothes. She found her skirt bunched up at the end of the bed, but her shirt was torn. She grabbed her bra and put it on.
Michael was trying to find something to say to negate her response, but he couldn’t. She was right. “This is a mess. We used to be . . .”
“That was lifetimes ago.” She turned to him, hating herself for being so weak for him.
The day she knew he would hate her forever was the day she and Michael were in Steven’s office at Chase Beauty. Michael had explained her past to his father and how everything culminated in David’s death. Once she realized that both he and Steven thought the sex tape of her and David, which David had threatened to put on the Internet, wasn’t from when she was a teenage hooker, but from the day before, Michael lost it.
She knew that he would never tolerate her cheating, even if it was an attempt to make David go away. But that it was with David, had made it a point of no return. Michael had never judged her for the life she had before she began modeling in New York, but she knew he was always uncomfortable about the hold David had had on her as a young woman.
“Everything doesn’t have to be lost.” Michael wasn’t sure of what he was saying. He only knew that she was a second away from leaving and at that moment, he would do anything to keep her there and back in his bed.
“It was lost six months ago,” she answered, her voice wavering and weak.
“But what if we can . . .” Michael doubted his words even before he said them, but he felt a desperation inside that only Kimberly could bring out in him. “What happened on that plane . . .”
“Stop.” She held up her hand, unwilling to listen to this and not trusting herself to maintain even what little shred of dignity she had left. “We’ve gone too far in the wrong direction to ever turn back. No matter what happened to you, this . . . this won’t happen again. Ever.”
Michael felt his heart harden toward her, urged on by his ego. He swallowed his pain, feeling a white-hot hatred for her that consumed him.
“Then what are you standing there for?” he asked. “Get out of my room.”
Kimberly didn’t give him a chance to tell her to leave again. She was gone in a second, slamming the door behind her. She was a fool; that much was clear. She’d been a fool forever, but she wouldn’t be again. She wouldn’t even allow herself to consider a fresh start with him.
Would she?
8
Carter was in the main conference room of Chase Law watching the presentations of his recruiting director, Rachel Dawson. She had laid out all the credentials, experience, and pros and cons of this year’s top law-school-graduate applicants for Chase Law. He was trying hard to concentrate because he knew how important this was. But somehow a group of twenty-six-year-olds, eager to make six figures for working ninety hours a week, didn’t interest him.
He was thinking of Avery; only Avery. Part of him was very upset that she left, taking Connor with her, while he was in the shower. But most of him was just happy that he had made love to her again . . . and again. There was a lot of time to make up for and he couldn’t wait to be alone with her again.
Yes, he contemplated the Pandora’s box he had opened, but nothing mattered. Except of course the fact that Avery hadn’t returned his calls and that was two days ago. He knew not to push it too much. She would only use it as an excuse not to see him.
“Mr. Chase!”
Carter blinked, coming back to reality, realizing that Rachel had called his name three times. “You were saying?”
Rachel was standing in front of the whiteboard that was attached to the wall of the cherrywood and gray marble conference room at Chase Law.
“I was saying that if we’re only going to hire three,” she said, “we should decide between candidates C, D, and F. They all have Ivy League top-fifteen-percent academics, but based on his postgraduate clerkship with Judge Marble, candidate E is a forgone conclusion.”
Carter nodded. “Let’s put together an offer with all the bells for him immediately. Do we know who else C, D, and F are interviewing with?”
Rachel nodded to her assistant, Sammy, who nervously typed at her laptop.
“Yes,” Sammy said. “F is Charlotte Peretti and she’s interviewing with Ismen, Smith and Prescott and . . .”
The buzz came from the conference phone in the middle of the long wooden table everyone was sitting at. Everyone knew to stop talking because the only person that was allowed to interrupt sessions in the conference room was Patricia, Carter’s assistant, a middle-aged woman who had been with him since he started the firm.
“Carter.”
“Yes, Pat?”
“Mrs. Harper is here to see you.”
It took Carter a second to realize she was talking about Avery. He had blocked her last name from his mind. To him, she would always be Avery Jackson until she was Avery Chase.
“She’s here?” Previously leaning back in his leather seat, Carter sat up straight.
“Yes, sir. I asked her to wait since she doesn’t have an appoint . . .”
“I’ll be there in a second.” Carter leaped up from his seat, looking at the other five people in the room staring at him. “This is fine. I want to see the offer for E on my desk by the end of today. Put together a report on our competition for the top three by tomorrow. I’ll decide then.”
He was out of there and down the hall to his office within seconds. Telling Patricia to hold all calls and not let anyone in, Carter rushed into his office and looked to his right. Avery loved the ceiling-to-floor window wall in his large corner office. She could look out over downtown L.A. and beyond. That’s usually where she had waited for him in his office when they were together. He would come up behind her, wrap his arms around her, and they would look out the window together, talking.
But could he do that again now that they had slept together? He wasn’t hers . . . yet, and the way she stood with her arms crossed over her chest told him she was upset. “Avery.”
When she turned around, Avery saw Carter coming toward her and she was struck with the desire that immediately took her over. She had stopped wishing he wasn’t so ridiculously handsome, especially in those expensively tailored suits. Despite the f
lush she felt, she held out her hand to stop him before he reached her. He looked upset as his arms, which seemed poised to hold her, lowered and flattened to his sides.
“We need to talk.” She stepped away to create more distance between them.
Seeing him now only made her feel more conflicted inside. The last two days she had been in a haze. All she could do was think of making love to him. It was more like a dream than a memory. It was mind-blowing perfection and she hadn’t been able to think of anything since.
But her guilt had gotten the best of her. Once he had gone to the shower, she was overwhelmed with shame and could barely breathe until she got her clothes on, grabbed her sleeping baby and left. When Anthony had come home, she told him she wasn’t feeling well and just wanted to go to bed. She couldn’t even look at him.
“That doesn’t sound good.” Carter contemplated her morality causing them problems, but there was no going back now.
“You can’t tell me you don’t feel any guilt about yesterday.”
“None at all.” He took a seat in his chair. “Everything about us making love, was right. I know you felt it.”
Avery walked over to the side of his massive desk, placing her purse down. She began wringing her hands together, trying to maintain the courage to say what she’d come here to say.
“I felt horrible.”
“You can’t lie to me,” he said. “I felt, tasted, every inch of you and I made you feel great.”
“All of your arrogance aside, I wasn’t talking about us making love.” She turned to take a seat on the black leather sofa a few feet from the desk. “I was talking about afterward. I was too ashamed to look at Anthony.”
“Were you too ashamed to look at Connor?” he asked. “She was what we made the last time we made love.”
Avery’s heart warmed at the thought, but she quickly composed herself. “No, Carter. This can’t happen again.”
“Are you going to start quoting the Bible?” Carter stood up and made his way to the sofa. “Because I would prefer we move past that.”
“You can mock my faith all you want,” Avery said. “But I broke my vows with you. Do you understand what that means?”
“You want to know what I understand?” He slid so close to her that their knees were touching. “I understand that the second I kissed you, the entire time we’d been apart disappeared. I know that no matter what definitions of good or bad exist, what we felt was nothing other than right.”
“We can’t . . .”
“We can.” He reached up to touch her face and was glad she didn’t turn away as he ran his finger softly against her cheek before urging her toward him. “We can and we will.”
His lips on hers sent Avery under his spell. He was so masterful and seductive in every move of his tongue inside her mouth. He would stoke her fire with every kiss and make her want him more than what was right.
“Do you remember what you told me six months ago?” he asked, still holding gently to the side of her face. “About how you knew you would give in to me if I pursued you?”
Avery nodded. “I said I would give in, but I would hate myself.”
“And if I had pursued you, that would have happened.”
“But . . .”
“But I didn’t. We kept our distance, Avery. We did what was right and what happened?”
“We ended up together anyway,” she answered. “But this wasn’t an ordinary circumstance. So much has happened to spur this on.”
“Exactly.” Carter held back nothing as he looked into her eyes. He wanted her to see how weak he was for her, and how unashamed he was of loving and wanting her. “What happened was life. All those things we think matter, things we’ll get to in time and plans we make for some reward later in life, mean nothing. All that matters is what is deep in our guts.”
“Wanting you is deep in my guts,” she responded, knowing there was no sense in pretending anything else. “But so is wanting to be a good wife and a good example for my daughter.”
Carter let her go as he stood up. Looking down at her, he asked, “You don’t want this to go any further?”
“No,” she answered, unable to look up at him. “I don’t.”
“I’ll leave you alone, Avery.” Carter paused for a moment. “I don’t want to put myself through this and I don’t want to hurt you. So, even though it will kill me, if you look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t love me, I’ll leave you alone.”
Avery felt weak in her knees as she slowly stood up. She tried hard to think of everything she believed in; her faith, her vows, her husband. It had to be enough to give her the strength to do what was right.
She took a deep breath and looked into his intense hazel eyes and opened her mouth. Nothing came out.
Without another thought, she reached out for him and pulled his head down to hers. She kissed him with all the possession of a woman kissing her man; the man she loved. Only a week ago, she’d thought she’d lost him forever and now he was wrapped around her. She couldn’t bear to let him go.
When Michael used one of his crutches to kick the door open and stormed into Carter’s office, Patricia was right on his tail, but he didn’t care. “None of those rules apply to me! Ask Car . . .”
He was stopped in his tracks as he saw the end of Carter and Avery’s kiss. They quickly stepped away from each other, with the look of perfect guilt on their faces.
“I’m sorry, Carter.” Patricia stood at the door with her hands on her hips, looking ready to hit someone. “I didn’t expect him to be so fast on those crutches.”
“I broke my other leg skiing when I was twenty-two. . .” A smile spread across Michael’s face as he took a few hops toward the love birds. “Well, what do we have here?”
“None of your business.” Carter stepped in front of Avery as if to shield her from his brother. “Wait outside, Michael.”
“What for?” he asked. “I saw you. You can’t put this toothpaste back in the tube. Besides, it’s too much labor for me to walk out and come back.”
“This isn’t what you think.” Avery avoided eye contact with Michael as she rushed to the desk to grab her purse.
“No,” Michael corrected her. “It’s exactly what I think, and that halo over your head looks a little crooked.”
“Hey!” Carter eyed his brother as his lips pressed together. “Not another word.”
Leaning into his crutches, Michael lifted his arms in the air in surrender and made his way to Carter’s chair behind his desk. He slammed his crutches on the edge of the desk before sitting down.
Carter caught up with Avery as she passed Patricia and started down the hallway. He took hold of her arm and turned her to him. “Where are you going?”
“I have to get out of here.” Avery felt ready to panic. Having this between her and Carter was bad enough. Now Michael, who never liked her, knew. This could only get worse. “What if he tells Anthony?”
Although Carter wanted to tell her that Anthony was going to have to find out sooner than later, he knew she needed to be reassured right now. “He won’t.”
“He can’t,” she said desperately.
“You know that Michael would never betray me.” Without thinking, he noticed a couple of lawyers walking by and removed his hand from her. He took one step back and kept silent until he was sure they were out of earshot. “You have nothing to worry about. All that matters is when I’m going to see you again.”
Avery couldn’t believe she was doing this; thinking of a way to see Carter behind Anthony’s back. Who was she? What was going on?
“Avery.” His tone hinted at his impatience, but he wasn’t going to test her again. “When?”
“Call me later today at the gallery,” she answered after a while. “I’ll know better then.”
She rushed away, feeling both dread and excitement in the pit of her stomach. Since the day she left View Park, after finding out she was pregnant with Connor and fearing what a vengeful Carter might do, sh
e’d had dreams of being with him again. In her dreams, they were married and happy. They were a family. The lies and deceit had never happened and life was perfect. Then she woke up and realized that this life she dreamed of would never happen. She had made her choice. She loved Anthony and he had sacrificed so much for her and Connor. She had made vows and thought nothing could make her do what she’d done yesterday.
She felt angry at the weakness of her own faith. Where was that strength in the face of temptation? Where was that horrible guilt that would kill her inside and give her no choice but to end this affair now? She had come to Carter’s office with it, but it wasn’t even strong enough to last five minutes. And she left with a schoolgirl-like sense of eagerness about seeing him again.
Carter slammed the door behind him when he entered his office. “Get the hell out of my chair.”
Michael didn’t move. “I’m a cripple, man!”
Carter approached the chair, his hands gripped into fists at his sides. “Get up.”
“So how long has this adulterous relationship been going on?”
“Get up.”
“I want an answer to my question.” Michael swiveled around once, stopping by grabbing onto the desk. “I’ll count to five or . . .”
“I’ll count to three.” Carter took hold of one of the crutches. “Then my fist goes through your face.”
Michael and Carter argued almost every day, but as they grew older, those arguments rarely turned into physical fights. Yes, a fist flew every now and then, but they were averaging a drawing-blood type of fight once every couple of years. Sensing another one coming on, Michael grabbed his crutch out of Carter’s hand and got up from the chair as quick as he could.
A Price to Pay Page 14
