by Amanda Boone
Avery pulled back and then forced me off the bed. He spun me around and then pushed me back down so I was bent over in front of him. “Hold the bed, Maggie.”
I gripped the bed and waited. I heard the foil packet rip open and then I felt the head of Avery’s cock sliding up and down my lips. I moaned and spread my legs open wider.
He positioned himself at my opening and slowly pushed his head in. He hands landed roughly on my hips and he squeezed. “Are you okay?”
I was so okay. He was stretching me, but I was so wet that it wasn’t uncomfortable. I flipped my hair to the side and looked back at him over my shoulder. “Fuck me, Avery.”
His jaw worked like he was fighting for control, and then he slid the rest of the way into me. The sound he made was more animal than man. “Fuck!”
My body pulsed around him and my eyes slammed shut at the intense feelings that washed over me. I’d never been so full.
Avery pulled out and then thrust back into me. My knees threatened to give out, but his arm was suddenly around my hips like a steel bar. His front pressed fully against my back, and his other hand tangled in my hair and pulled it tight. “Too much?”
I tried to shake my head but he had my hair. “No! No, no, no. More.”
Avery thrust into me again and again, harder each time. His mouth moved over my back, kissing and then biting my skin until I was shaking under him.
I wasn’t even holding myself up anymore. My toes dragged the floor and somehow I’d ended up with my face pressed into the mattress again. Each thrust drew a loud moan from me and then a scream the longer we went. I’d dragged all of the blankets over to us and I was still fighting to bury my nails in something.
Avery tilted his hips and his fingers found my clit. Each hard thrust hit a new spot in me that had me screaming his name. I flew into a hard orgasm that tightened me painfully around him. A scream tore from my throat, and I felt my face turn red and the veins in my neck stand out as wave after wave of pleasure wrecked me.
My whole body convulsed under Avery, and I tightened around him even further. He thrust into me once more and stayed there. A loud growl roared from his chest as I felt him come, even through the condom.
12.
I was wasted. It’d been a few minutes since Avery had lifted both of our exhausted bodies into bed. He hadn’t even pulled out of me, so every aftershock that coursed through my body drew a moan from his mouth.
I didn’t think my legs would ever work again. My brain was still sluggish, too. “Holy shit.”
Avery chuckled and then moaned when another wave of pleasure caused me to pulse around him. “Jesus. You have a fucking miracle between your legs, Maggie.”
I tossed a look at him over my shoulder. “Finally, a compliment I can write home to Mom about.”
He laughed and slapped my ass before pulling out of me finally. He rolled over onto his back and sighed.
I sat up and pulled his discarded shirt over my chest. “What?”
He looked over at me and smiled. “I’d always heard that you have to get under someone new to get over someone. I never knew it was true.”
My brain kicked in at full force, and Amanda’s earlier comments raced through my mind like an 18-wheeler. He wasn’t sad because he was lonely without his single brothers. He was sad because he wanted Sara Jane.
I’d been his way of getting over the pretty school teacher. Heat flooded my face and I scooted out of the bed, searching for my clothes.
“Where are you going? We’re not finished here.”
I found my robe on the back of the bathroom door and jerked it on. It took me three tries to actually get a knot tied in the belt. My hands were shaking so much I was having trouble gripping anything. “We’re definitely finished here.”
He raised his hands and sat up. “What are you talking about?”
I grabbed his clothes and tossed them to him. “Get out, Avery.”
He acted like I’d slapped him. “What the fuck?”
“You just fucked me to get over Sara, Avery? Did you picture her when you were spanking me? Or maybe not? She’s probably too good for that.”
Shock and then anger ran over his face. “Amanda told you?”
Pain pricked at my eyes but I ignored it. I could be upset about not getting a heads up from Amanda later. “No. You just did! You’ve heard that you have to get under someone new to get over someone? Dammit, Avery. I could’ve really felt good about tonight. This could’ve ended and I never would’ve known about any of this shit. Now I can’t stop thinking that you just fucked me without even knowing it was me.”
“Fuck, I’m sorry, Maggie. I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking. I didn’t picture her. I was very much enjoying that it was you under me.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and pointed toward the door. “Get out, Avery. I’m done.”
He shoved his legs into his jeans without the briefs and left them undone on his hips. “Maggie, can we please talk about this?”
I turned away from him and felt tears forming. I couldn’t help it. I was furious, but I was also feeling pretty stupid and hurt. I’d thought he’d finally recognized me as a woman and liked what he saw. In reality, I was just an easy mark to try to see if he could get over Sara.
“I’m so sorry I said that. I was just feeling lighter than I have in a year. It’s stupid, but I just said it. I didn’t think of her when we were together, Maggie. I was very focused on you. How could I not have been? You’re amazingly hot.”
I turned back to him and let him see that I was crying. “I’ve been trying to get your attention for a year, Avery! As soon as you got back to town, I made an effort to pass you in stores or run into you places. You never once recognized me. You never once looked twice at me. I had to throw myself in your face with my tits out for you to even deem me acceptable enough to glance at.
“I thought you were still the same sweet kid you were all those years ago when you were best friends with Jay. You’re not, though. You’ve been miserable the last couple of days. And you know what? It sucks that you just ruined one of the best couple of orgasms I’ve ever had, but it’s really okay. I just realized that I don’t even like you.”
I sucked in a deep breath and pushed on. “The fun I’ve had wasn’t because of you. You had nothing to do with it. I don’t need this silly crush or you to go out and have fun. Fuck, you’ve been a downer the whole time. So, if anything, I should thank you for showing me that my silly crush was just that. Silly. A little girl’s blind infatuation. Now, get out of my house.”
He didn’t move, so I stormed into the bathroom and slammed the door shut. I locked it and turned the shower on full blast. Steam quickly filled the small room, and I tossed my robe on the floor before stepping in.
The water burned my skin, but I needed it. I let it sting my scalp and then my back while I faced the ceiling and let angry tears slide down my face.
I hadn’t expected him to write stupid sonnets about me, but knowing that he had used sex with me just to see if he could get over Sara stung worse than the water. I closed my eyes and let the water run over my face.
Possibly worse than Avery was that Amanda hadn’t warned me. She’d known that he was in love, or lust, with Sara Jane and hadn’t bothered to tell me to back off. She’d only tried to warn me once Avery had started showing a slight interest back.
I scrubbed my skin, wincing when the skin on my ass burned. I twisted around and, sure enough, it was bright red still. I washed my hair and took my time to deep condition it and shave. Anything to avoid running into Avery again.
Thankfully, when I got out of the shower he was gone. He’d left a note on my bed, but I just balled it up and threw it away. I didn’t want anything else from him. I’d just chalk it up to a bad choice and go about my business.
I ripped the sheets from the bed and threw them in the washing machine before getting dressed in a pair of sweats and a baggy T-shirt. Then I curled up on my couch and contemplated ski
pping church the next morning. I felt like I deserved a day off.
13.
In the end I decided that my father might be more apt to accept the changes I was making if I still showed up at church. I didn’t dress in my usual drab clothes, though. I donned a pretty white sundress with a nice green cardigan to throw on top of it. I wore nude sandals and let my hair curl like it wanted to. A swipe of mascara and lip gloss and I was out the door.
My mom’s eyes went wide and teary when she saw me. She gripped my Dad’s arm tighter and motioned for Jay to scoot down a seat so I could fit in. “You look beautiful.”
Dad grunted and stayed facing forward. Jay shot me a dirty look, but then his eyes moved past me and he frowned deeper.
I turned to see what it was that had Jay puckering his lips like a sad fish and stopped short. Avery stood behind me, dressed in a nice pair of jeans and a crisp flannel shirt. His hair was combed and his beard was trimmed.
As much as I’d decided I didn’t like him, my body still did. He was too sexy. I swallowed and bit my lip when my body reacted like we were about to jump each other on the church pew.
He leaned past me and shook my Dad’s hand before waving to Jay and my mom. “I figured I could do some repenting today.”
I glared at him and crossed my arms over my chest. “There’s no room for you here.”
Mom leaned around Dad and swatted my arm. “Nonsense. We’ll make room for you, Avery.”
It all happened so quickly. Everyone shifted down a seat and the preacher opened the sermon and I had to scoot over so Avery wasn’t just standing awkwardly in the aisle. He stood beside me during the opening song, and when we sat down his arm went along the back of my chair.
His thigh brushed mine. His fingers played with my hair. He even went as far as leaning close to me to whisper in my ear about what book of the bible the preacher was reading from. He was driving me insane.
I didn’t have any experience with the Avery sitting next to me. It was like he was pursuing me. He didn’t even seem cranky, which was unheard of.
When his fingers tugged a little too hard on my hair and my mouth parted on a moan, I’d had enough. After covering the moan with a cough, I excused myself and almost ran to the bathroom. I locked myself in the small room and tried to even my breathing. It was hard, though.
My body was locked on Avery like a nuclear missile. I was wet, my nipples were trying to poke through my bra, and I had goosebumps all over.
I sat on the counter and hung my head. This cannot be happening. I’d been going to church my entire life and nothing had ever happened in it that could potentially get me sent straight to hell. I’d heard of deacons’ and preachers’ kids doing wild things in the church. They were normally some of the worst. I’d heard of blowjobs on church buses and handjobs in the sanctuary when no one there.
That wasn’t me. Dad scared me enough that I never branched into that special form of deviance. However, in my mid-twenties, I was having thoughts bad enough to induce spontaneous combustion.
A knock sounded at the door, and, figuring it was Mom coming back to taunt me some more, I unlocked the door. Instead of Mom, it was Avery, though.
He slipped inside and locked the door before pulling a potted plant in front of the crack I hadn’t known was in the door.
“You know about the crack?”
His grin was almost endearing. “Of course. I came a lot with my parents when I was young. Everyone knows about that crack.”
I just frowned. I hadn’t known about the stupid crack. I shook my head and made myself focus. “What are you doing in here?”
He approached me slowly, his demeanor nonthreatening. Before I realized it, he was practically on top of me, resting his knuckles on the countertop on either side of my thighs. “I need to talk to you.”
“Really? And you thought this was the best place to do it?”
He shrugged. “I don’t care where it is. You just happened to be here, so here I am. Will you give me a chance to talk?”
I pulled my lips into my mouth and rolled my eyes. “And if I say no and then scream?”
He stared into my eyes, and the inner corners of his eyebrows lifted and his bottom lip poked out slightly. It was a ridiculous puppy dog face, but it was working. Compared to the way he’d been lately when I saw him, it was a whole new Avery.
Of course, if I were in love with the woman my brother had married, I’d probably be sad, too. That thought took away any warmth that his puppy dog face caused, because it reminded me that he’d slept with me to get over her. Like that was something that worked.
“Spit it out, then.”
Avery stood up straight and then stepped closer until he was nearly wedged between my knees. He tilted my chin up and made me look at him. “Last night was the best sex I’ve ever had. I had fun. I can’t remember the last time I’ve just had fun. I’ve been so busy being a little shit about everything. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I said that last night and I’m sorry I was mean to you.”
I bit my lip and shrugged. “It’s not a big deal anymore. I’m over it.”
He moved his hands and his thumbs stroked my thighs. “Does that mean we can continue from where we left off last night?”
I gave him a blank stare. “No. It means I’m over it. I’m going to keep having fun and you can go and find some other girl to pretend to be Sara for you.”
Avery stepped back and groaned. “I promise I didn’t pretend that you were her. It’s fucking weird, Maggie. I’ve spent a year thinking that I was in love with her, and something just clicked last night. If I was in love with her, I couldn’t have been with you like that. Seeing you Friday night at the bar had my heart pounding; I was so turned on by you, even before you started doing a wet T-shirt strip tease. Then last night…I tried to stay away. I just couldn’t.”
I pushed his chest to get him farther away. “You pretty much told me that you just used me last night.”
He shook his head. “No. Okay, I know what I said sounded bad. Honestly, I was half braindead. I was just…happy. And I said stupid things. Let me take you out. I want to take you on a real date. Just us.”
I jumped down from the counter and shook my head. “No. And I don’t have to explain more than that.”
I let myself out of the bathroom, but instead of going back into the sanctuary, I let myself out of the church and got in my car. I needed to do something fun to distract me from the shitty feeling in my stomach.
14.
There was nothing going on that Sunday. I just went back home and made a big deal of shredding all of my old clothes that were too worn to give away. I bagged up the rest and put them in the trunk of my car.
Monday was quiet. Amanda didn’t come in, which was unusual for her. She used that back table as an office, so I didn’t know if something was up or not. I still had to talk to her about Avery. I had a feeling she knew it, too.
When she did come in on Tuesday, I had a class from the local daycare. I spent the day going over the library cataloging system and reading books aloud to kids while she kept casting worried looks in my direction.
By Wednesday I was ready to tie Amanda to a chair to get the chance to talk to her. When she came in, she had Devon with her, though. If he was some sort of defense mechanism, I wasn’t worried. I’d plow through Devon if I had to.
Once my last real patron left, I hightailed it over to their table. Devon looked happy to see me. Amanda looked like she might want to vomit.
“How could you not tell me that Avery’s in love with Sara?”
Devon’s face went from happy to horrified in about one half of a second. He snapped around to Amanda and raised his hands. “What the hell is she talking about?”
I put my hands on my hips. “Avery is in love with Sara Jane. Has been. I didn’t know this until Saturday night, after we had sex. Amanda knew from the start, before she tried to hook me up with him.”
Amanda groaned. “I thought that he just needed a distraction. He�
��s been so sad. Plus, you’re so nice and beautiful. He’d be lucky to end up with you.”
I snorted. “Well, that’s not happening.”
“Avery’s in love…no. That’s not true. Jesus, you knew about it, Amanda?”
She turned to Devon and frowned. “Why do I get the feeling you’re about to be angry at me?”
“Um, I don’t know, because you knew something about my little brother and never told me? No wonder he’s been miserable lately. I’m going to find him.”
Devon stomped away, leaving a sad Amanda pouting up at me. I just shook my head. “You shouldn’t have tried to hook us up. How could that have worked out well for me? It’s sweet that you thought enough about Avery to try to help him feel better, but I wish you would’ve thought a little about how it could’ve hurt me.”
I went back to my desk to stew, and Amanda gathered her things quickly to go after Devon. I spent the rest of the day slamming books around the library like I’d never cared about cracking a book spine a day in my life.
I skipped church that night because I was still a pissed-off mess. I didn’t trust myself not to blow up on someone in public. I needed to blow off steam, but the town would be dead until the next night.
I’d seen a sign around town for a small mechanical bull riding competition. It was going to be at Hank’s and I already had my outfit picked out. I was going to have some fun and forget that my feelings were kind of icky after everything with Avery.
Thursday night came without any other sightings of a Steele or Amanda. I’d heard through the rumor mill, though, that Justin and Sara were home from their honeymoon.
I’d never been close to Sara, but suddenly I didn’t like her. No matter how I tried to rationalize with myself, I still felt annoyed at the woman.
I dressed in skintight jeans, cowboy boots, and a tiny, white, crop-top camisole. I’d straightened my hair and taken more time than usual to do my makeup. The smoky eye turned out better than ever. I was ready.
A crowd had already gathered around Hank’s. It was always busy, but it seemed the mechanical bull had drawn in more than its fair share of people. I made my way to the bar and ordered a beer while looking around. Amanda spotted me across the bar at the same time I spotted her.
