by Durano, Liz
“That’s not what I was getting at, Mom.”
She eyes me for a few moments as I chew on the curried chicken salad she prepared, bits of apple and celery crunching between my teeth.
“You don’t want to leave, do you?” She pours me a glass of iced tea. “Then maybe you should stay… but not because of me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do it for you. Who knows? You could open your own ad agency in town. The lease for the office above the shop expires in a few months and the tenants have indicated they’re not renewing so it’ll be available soon. You could set up shop there. You do most of your work online anyway, right?”
I nod. “Kinda.”
“And you like the doctor,” she adds. “You just don’t want to admit it.”
“Mom…”
“And don’t worry,” she continues. “I’m not going to ask how you guys know each other like Lisa is dying to. I mean, you’re old enough to meet anyone you want, after all. What I do care about is that you don’t deny yourself the things you deserve.”
“Like what?”
“You don’t have to close yourself off to relationships just to focus on your job. You can do both.” She pauses, frowning. “Except dating your boss. You tried that and it didn’t work. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that if you like this doctor as much as he likes you, you should let it happen. And I don’t mean just the sex. I mean here.” She rests her hand over her heart. “Just let it happen. Let go… like that song all the kids sing all the time. Let go.”
“It’s Let It Go, Mom. Not Let Go.”
“I know,” she says, resting her hand over mine. “But what I’m really saying, Ava, is that there are other things in life more important than work… or that corner office you’ve always wanted. Sometimes a view is just that, a view.”
* * *
Parker arrives at seven wearing a light grey sweater that accentuates his muscled chest, dark jeans and ankle boots. There’s a totally West Coast vibe about what he’s wearing that’s totally Northern California at that, and I like it.
“You look… you look amazing, Ava,” he says when I emerge from the front door wearing a hand painted chiffon dress over a matching solid color slip I’d bought as soon as I left his house the day before. I must have been walking on air because I’d picked colors that were totally not what I’d have chosen had I been back in New York. Swaths of pinks, reds, purple and yellow reveal delicately painted flowers lend a playful air to my dress, making me feel really feminine, too. Somehow I’d forgotten how that feels like.
I’d begged Mom to stay inside but it’s no use for she and Lisa open the door and step outside just as Parker and I are making our way to his SUV.
“Have a wonderful time, you two!” Lisa says and I can almost feel the neighbors’ eyes on us, too.
“And remember, there’s no curfew!” Mom says as I get in the passenger seat and Parker closes the door
“I’m so sorry. I warned you about the whole small town thing,” I say when he gets behind the wheel and starts the SUV. By now, the neighbors are watching us from their windows.
“Guess that means I better be on my best behavior.”
“Me, too.” I pause, frowning. “Although, if that means tonight’s going to end up being a boring date because of it, by all means, be bad. Please.”
Parker pinches my chin. “Oh, don’t worry, Ava. I’m planning on it.”
For the next two hours, I can barely remember where Parker takes me for dinner except that it’s a Victorian house in Grass Valley that’s been converted into a type of restaurant and dinner is by appointment only. Something about fire codes, he tells me as the host seats us in an intimate corner away from everyone else.
The food is delicious, the wine giving me the buzz I so desperately need to get work out of my mind. The whole time, Parker hardly takes his gaze away from me, our bodies constantly touching whether it’s his hand brushing against mine on the table or his fingers pushing away a lock of hair that falls loose around my face.
As we talk about Auburn Springs and its historic houses throughout dinner, I barely notice my phone buzzing, although by the the third time (and seeing that all texts are from Ryan), I silence the damn thing completely. Tonight’s my night and heaven help me, but I aim to be bad. Really bad.
After dinner, as we head to the car, Parker takes my hand, his expression thoughtful. “I was thinking maybe we could drive to–”
“Wait. If this involves anything other than the last part of the house tour you never got to finish yesterday, then I’m not interested,” I say as he pulls open the passenger door and I get in.
He leans toward me, so close I can smell his cologne and feel my stomach do flip flops. For the first time since he picked me up from the house, our lips brush ever so lightly, a move that sends tingles running up and down my spine. “Just checking.”
Chapter Eight
Parker
We barely make it through the front door. Hell, we barely make it to the house for that matter, not when Ava’s hand slides over my thigh and presses against my erection that’s been straining through my jeans.
How I’d managed to stay rational while all the blood kept heading south with every lick of her lips or playful glance throughout the entire dinner, I can only chalk up to the fact that Auburn Springs is a small town and people talk. I also happen to be the newest neurologist destined to take over the department one day and so I need to be on my best behavior no matter what happens.
But not anymore.
As she strokes my cock through my jeans, I tell myself to focus on the road and get us to my house in one piece. And I do, even if we end up stumbling over each other as we make it up the stairs, both of us worried someone may be watching us through their windows although at the same time, we’re too horny to make an effort to hide anything.
But the moment I close the front door, it’s a different story. No more giggling, no more teasing. It’s mouths and teeth meeting, our tongues sparring for control as Ava’s hands move lower, undoing my belt and unbuttoning my jeans. I lean against the door for support as she tugs my jeans and boxer briefs down my hips, my cock springing free as she gets down on her knees.
Her hand coils around my cock and I gasp. As I pull off my sweater, she kisses my flat belly, tracing my tightening muscles with her tongue. My cock twitches as she continues to tease me with kisses on my hip bones, my thighs, the skin just below my belly button. Everywhere but where I want her mouth to be, driving me crazy. We’ve only been playing this game for the last three or four days. Shit, I’ve lost count but it feels like I’ve been waiting for this moment forever.
“Ava…” I feel her hot breath over the head of my cock, her warm tongue underneath the sensitive shaft.
She looks up at me innocently as she flicks her tongue along my length. “Yes?”
“You’re driving me crazy.”
“Good.”
Before I can respond, she wraps her mouth around my swollen tip, her tongue still flicking at my skin as she begins to pump up and down. Suddenly I’m lost, every ounce of willpower gone as I grip her hair in my hands, this time taking control of her movements. I don’t want to come just yet. I want to taste her and feel her shatter in my arms like she did the first night we spent together. I want to see her be vulnerable with me like she was that night.
“Ava, not yet. Come here.” I pull her to her feet and kiss her, my cock pressing against her belly as I pull her to me. “Let’s go up to my room.”
“The tour?”
I nod, pulling up my jeans up my hips and buttoning it so I don’t trip on the stairs. “Yeah, the tour. I hear it’s the best room in the house.”
She doesn’t need any more prompting. I take her hand and lead her up the stairs, the last four or five steps covered in a sprint, her giggles back in full force. I like hearing her giggle. It softens her.
By the time we make it to my bedroom, the urgency we started the evening with is
gone. In its place is something that’s tender, as if we’re seeing each other for the first time and we want to cherish each delicious and anticipated moment.
I kiss Ava again, pushing the straps of her dress off her shoulders, the path of my hand followed by my mouth and my tongue. She sighs, shrugging off one strap and then the other, the top of her dress and her slip sliding down her hips. As I take her breast in my mouth, circling my tongue around a hardened nipple, she wriggles her hips, her dress pooling at her feet with a breathless whisper.
“Your turn,” she whispers, her hands finding the button of my jeans and undoing them, pushing them down along with my boxer briefs.
“No, it’s my turn,” I murmur as I lift her in my arms and lay her on the middle of the bed. I slide down her body, kissing the smooth skin of her belly, each hip bone just as she did with me earlier before nudging her thighs apart with my knees and settling between her thighs.
“Parker…” she breathes, closing her eyes as I stroke her folds with my tongue, tasting her. She moans, throwing her head back against the pillows. My tongue flicks her clit and I feel her body writhe beneath me.
I grab her hips and pin them down with my arms as I continue to lash my tongue along her slick folds. One night. It was just one night but it’s all coming back to me like it was yesterday and I’ve missed her. I’ve missed this.
She grabs the sheets around her as I push her closer and closer to her release, feeling her near the edge before I slow down, teasing her. She’s breathing hard, saying my name over and over again.
“I want you inside me,” she whispers, her fingers grabbing the top of my shoulders and I move up her body, kissing her hard and deep, sharing taste of her on my lips, my mouth, my tongue.
I reach for my bedside table and pull out a condom from the drawer. Ava watches me rip open the corner of the packet with my teeth and roll the condom over my cock. As my mouth covers hers one more time before I claim her completely, there’s no turning back from here. She’s in my arms again and it’s where I want her to stay.
Ava gasps as I slide into her. She’s so wet and so ready for me. For a few moments, I don’t move, simply relishing the feel of her pulsing around me as I slide deeper inch by inch until I’m balls deep inside her. She feels amazing and I’m at a loss for words. She’s so beautiful when she’s like this, and it’s just as I remember when we spent that first night together. The adventurous side of her coming out, taking over, and just letting go.
My lips graze against hers as I fill her completely, our breaths caught in the space between us. She feels so warm and wet. She’s soaking wet for me, her walls clenched tight around me as I pound into her. Hard and harder. I can feel my orgasm building at the base of my balls. I’m close but Ava is closer.
“I’m coming, Parker,” she breathes, her nails digging into my shoulders.
“Look at me,” I rasp, my release building. “Look at me when you come, Ava.”
She cries out my name and I feel her close around me as she comes, squeezing so tight it takes my breath away and opening the door to my own orgasm that’s been building and building until it takes over me completely, leaving me weak when it’s over.
This is how it feels like to be home, I want to tell Ava. It’s being with her like this, making love to her, and feeling her shatter for me as she comes. It’s letting go of everything as I welcome my own release, knowing that when I fall—just as I’m falling now—she’ll be there to catch me.
Chapter Nine
Ava
The buzzing of my phone wakes me at three in the morning. I should ignore it but I don’t want to wake up Parker who’s lying next to me, sleeping.
I slide to the edge of the bed and reach for my purse lying on the floor next to my dress. What if it’s my mother? What if it’s Lisa telling Mom fell again? Panic hits me. I should have been home instead of spending the night somewhere else.
But as I glance at my phone, it’s not my mother or Lisa. It’s Ryan and he’s in a panic, his text message in full caps.
I NEED YOUR HELP ASAP!
I pause. I shouldn’t click on the message. After all, I submitted all the files to him yesterday and other than reviewing a few things, the project is ready to go.
But curiosity gets the best of me. I tap on the notification, instantly regretting doing so as I read his message. Ryan claims he’d been working on the project at the office last night and had accidentally deleted a file we needed for the project and could I please please please help him retrieve it? I almost laugh out loud. You honestly expect me to rescue you all the way from California? I almost texted back but I don’t. He’s still my boss.
And so I texted back, asking him which file he had accidentally deleted. Surely we have backups somewhere, as well as backups of backups. I know I do because it’s just like Ryan to mess something up and so I make sure to have more than three different places to back up my files. Of course, ever since I’ve been gone, they’re on their own but that’s not my responsibility.
Only it is now my responsibility since I just texted him back that I’d help him. Within minutes, he emails me the details I ask for and right after that, I start going through my own file folders to see if I have an earlier version of the one he’d accidentally deleted.
Parker’s arm tightens around my waist as he pulls me away from the edge of the bed. “Working already?”
“It’s 7 AM in New York and my boss is freaking out. I just needed to approve a few things,” I say, tapping Send on the display.
“From your phone?” Parker’s mouth nuzzles against the back of my neck, his stubble tickling my skin and making my belly clench.
“It’s not ideal but in a pinch–” I pause when Ryan’s response appears on my screen.
Why don’t you just return to NY. The presentation is in two days and I could really use your skills.
As I start to respond, I stop myself. What the hell am I doing? What else could be more important than this moment with Parker? Being present, being here?
I set my phone on the floor and roll onto my back to face Parker. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me,” he murmurs, his voice thick with sleep. “Work is work.”
“True, but I don’t see you diagnosing anyone while in bed.”
“That would be a violation of patient privacy laws,” he says, pulling me closer and nuzzling his face against my neck. “But you’re right. I wouldn’t.”
“Technically, I shouldn’t be working,” I say and as the words leave my lips, it’s as if I’m still trying to convince myself of the same thing. “I’m supposed to be on leave.”
Parker’s brow furrows. “Then why are you working?”
I sigh. “Because it’s my team and… and the creative director doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. He never did and now he’s floundering.”
“Why aren’t you the creative director if this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing?”
“Because he’s the boss’ son and I used to date him which makes my refusal to help him out... awkward.” I pause, sighing. “And I feel guilty for thinking that dating him would be the quick way up the ladder.”
“Did it work?”
I roll my eyes. “Do those things ever work?”
Parker looks thoughtful. “It depends what your goals are, I guess. I know in medicine, it won’t, and even if it does, it could cause harm.”
“Thank God it’s only advertising. The worst thing that could happen is that the ad flops,” I say. “But the sad thing is, even if you knew you earned your promotion, there will always be people talking about how you only got it because you slept with your boss.”
“That’s the past,” he says. “You can always do something else.”
I exhale. “I’ve been at this thing so long that I also don’t want to give up now.”
“Then why don’t you just go back? Your mother is back home, isn’t she?” He pauses, exhaling when he sees my hurt expression. “I’m
sorry. That was unfair.”
I shake my head. “No, it was a fair question, and you’re right. Sad thing is, I don’t even know why.”
Parker rests his head on the pillow and I rest on my face on his broad chest. “Do you enjoy what you do, Ava?”
“I think so.”
“You think so?” He peers at me. “You mean you don’t know?”
“Before I heard that my mother broke her hip, my answer would have been a resounding, ‘why yes, Parker, I love what I do,’” I say. “But all that changed when I saw her at the hospital and realized it’s been eight months since I’ve been home. And even then, I was only home for two days before I had to fly to Las Vegas to fill in for my boss-slash-ex-boyfriend.”
“Is that why you cut your vacation short? Because he asked you to?”
“I didn’t have to, but I wanted to secure the ad account for myself. I wanted the credit for doing so,” I say. “Only it didn’t exactly work that way. The moment the client signed on, he told the president of the company that he was responsible for it. And that’s where the complication of sleeping with you boss comes in.”
Parker’s brow furrows. “That’s when we met, isn’t it, when you were in Vegas, doing what was supposed to be his job?”
“We’d broken up by then, in case you’re worried.”
“And now he expects you to set aside your mother’s health for another job.”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
As Parker studies my face, I suddenly feel vulnerable. He knows nothing about me and yet he’s the first person to say the things I’d never been able to admit to anyone, not even to myself.
“So knowing what you know now, or knowing how this guys works, why do you still do it?” He asks.
Habit, I almost reply, although the real reason is a desire to never be without money the way Dad left us for some woman he met during a business trip. Thank God Dad signed his share of the house over to Mom so we wouldn’t be homeless. That and the meager child support payments that came sporadically. But Mom’s garden shop was a different story.
