“Hey, tell me the truth now.”
“Preston, I feel like a pin cushion. I’m bound to be sore.”
I leaned in and kissed her forehead. “You look really great.”
“Puhlease. If I look anywhere close to what I feel, I’m sure I look like dog meat.”
My emotions grabbed me then, twisting my guts and tearing into me like a freaking tidal wave. I swallowed that burn, once, then twice, before I could utter a word. My voice trembled and was hoarse as I spoke. “You’ll always look great to me. I thought I was losing you Avery. When we got back to your place and you collapsed and I saw what was happening. I didn’t think...didn’t know...”
Her arm snaked out and latched onto mine. “Hold me Preston. I need to feel you holding me.”
I folded her in my arms and laid next to her on the bed. She put her head on my chest and we held each other.
“Avery, I love you with all that I have to give. We’ll never go through that again. I just left Pete and told him that he’d better get his boss to send in the cavalry and take care of this problem because I’m not going to deal with it anymore.”
She lifted her head and looked at me. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
I gave her the detailed explanation. Then she wanted to know, “Do you think they’ll do it?”
“Oh yeah. The last thing they want is media exposure.”
********
Four days later, Avery was released from the hospital. We couldn’t go back to her place because we didn’t want to take any chances. Instead, we booked a four bedroom condo at the Vail Chalet so we could have round the clock security and I also hired a nurse for Avery. She balked at that idea, but I wanted to make sure she had good care, particularly for her wound, and at least for the first seventy two hours. However, after the first day, the nurse left, saying Avery didn’t really need her. Avery just gloated over that.
Justin was on the phone with us about five times a day. He wanted Avery to call her other brother Pearce, who was a trauma surgeon, but Avery refused, saying it would alert her mother. That was the last person Avery wanted descending on her.
“Justin, if Mom comes here, I will first off, go insane. And then, I’ll hop on a plane to Seattle and strangle you.”
“Okay, okay. I understand,” he said.
I had put the phone on speaker so we could all talk.
Avery contradicted him, “No, I don’t think you do. She’d sail in here and tell me how terrible I look. And then afterward she’d tell me I needed to lose fifty pounds. Then she’d have me crying. She’s the last person I need to see right now.”
“Oh come on Ava, she’s not that bad.”
“Not to you she isn’t. She doesn’t criticize every little thing about you. You’ve never paid attention to how she treats me. Why do you think I left Charleston?”
Avery was getting extremely agitated. Her hands were clenched on the coverlet I had draped across her lap and her mouth was set in a thin line. I didn’t like how she was reacting to this conversation at all.
Justin began to comment, but I cut him off. “I think this conversation needs to end. Avery is upset and this is the last thing she needs right now. Justin, I’m capable of taking care of her so I don’t think we need your mom in here.”
We ended the conversation and I knelt in front of Avery, taking her hands in mine. “I want you to know something. If I ever hear your mother say one disparaging word about you, all bets are off and I’m gonna let her have it. I’m just saying.”
She gave me a half assed smile and I squeezed her hands.
“What can I get you?”
She gave me a hard look and I knew those damn wheels of hers were spinning. “I wanna go to the cabin.”
Whoa! I was not expecting that.
“Okay. We can’t leave yet. You know we have to wait until it’s safe and until you’re cleared by your doctors.”
She bit her lower lip and then asked, “How long do you think it’ll be until it’s safe?”
“I don’t know honey, but I’m hoping for sooner rather than later.”
“If I get cleared by my doctors soon, could we go to the cabin with security?”
After thinking about that for a few minutes, I answered her, “I don’t see why not.”
What I didn’t tell her was that as soon as we got the go ahead, I wanted to be a part of that mission that took that fucking cartel out. They had taken away too much of my life, so I wanted to watch as their lives were taken away from them. Right now, Pete was working on the plans with the CIA and the Special Forces. They were going to go in covertly and take them down. We wouldn’t get cooperation from the Mexican government because if they did, too many lives would be lost. If we went in undercover, and without the Mexican government’s knowledge, it would be a far quicker and cleaner operation.
The call from Pete came two days later and I couldn’t put off the talk with Avery any longer.
Chapter 29
Avery
I had just returned from my doctor’s appointment. He’d told me everything was fine and he’d released me. I was elated because I wanted to head up to the cabin and get away from Vail for a couple of weeks, or until they had taken care of the cartel. I was sitting in the den, reading when Preston came in and asked the security detail to wait outside.
My stomach twisted into a knot. Don’t ask me why, but I had a bad feeling about this.
“Pete just called. Everything is set for the mission in Mexico.” He’d taken a seat on the couch, but sat at an angle. He awkwardly looked at his feet, his eyes shifting all over hell and half of Georgia.
“What’s going on Preston?”
He rubbed his face and then looked at me. I knew in that instant.
“Say it. I want to hear you say it Preston.”
“I’m going. I have to go. I have to see this thing completed with my own eyes.”
My heart flipped and then tumbled to my toes. My hand grabbed my chest, where I imagined my heart to be, and I began rubbing the ache that had started to form. I wanted to say something, but I felt like I was being strangled. Tears burned my throat as I shook my head. I honestly didn’t know what to do. That he would even think of doing this had never entered my mind. I rose to my feet and clumsily walked to the bedroom. He followed, as I knew he would.
“Say something Avery.”
Words wouldn’t form. There were so many things I wanted to say, but for some reason, they wouldn’t come out of my mouth.
“Avery, please.”
The tears flowed and then the sobs followed.
“Christ. Please talk to me.”
Finally, between sobs, I eked out, “I don’t want you to go. What if you die?” My body shook so badly I felt like I was having a seizure. “I can’t do this Preston.” I’m not sure he could even understand what I said.
“Avery, they have controlled my life for years. I have to see an end to it. I have to know.”
“I told you from the start I wanted no part of this.”
“I know, and this is the final part.”
Still weeping so hard that I trembled, I said, “If you walk out that door, don’t come back.”
His eyes widened to a point I almost thought they’d roll out of his head.
“Please. You can’t mean that.”
“I do. We talked about this Preston. I can’t be a part of this. I can’t sanction this. If you go, you go on your own. Without me in your life. You choose. Me or them.”
“Avery. That’s not fair.”
I swiped my face with my hands, trying to get some of the tears off. “And this is?” I pointed to myself. “I almost died because of those bastards. We almost died. And now you’re choosing to go back. If you go, you go alone, without me.”
We stood there and stared at each other for an eternity. And then I turned away, not waiting for him to tell me what I knew he’d already decided. Then his strong arms came around me from behind, pulling me against his chest.
<
br /> “I lost you once and I won't lose you again. I won’t go. But I have to go to Pete and be with him for the course of the mission. Can you handle that?”
“Where?”
“EPIC.”
“For how long?”
He turned me around so he could look at me.
“I don’t know Avery. I’m hoping not long. I’m hoping they’ll get in, take care of business and get out.”
I grabbed his shirt in both of my fists. “You promise me Preston that’s all you’re going to do. You promise me right now you’re only going to EPIC because I swear to God if anything happens to you...”
He kissed me then. Not tenderly, but possessively, bruising my lips with his as he invaded my mouth. When we both found we needed oxygen, he broke away and whispered against my mouth, “I swear to you and nothing’s gonna happen to me. I’ll stay right there and when it’s over, I’ll be back here. I promise.”
We kissed again but in the end, he made the decision that I would go with him. He pulled out his phone and made the call to Pete, telling him he was out of the mission, but coming to EPIC and bringing me along. He didn’t want to leave me alone, even with the security detail.
We left the next morning for El Paso. “What if the mission fails?” I asked him on the plane.
“It won’t,” he answered as he reached for my hand.
“How can you be so certain?”
“Because we’re dealing with the CIA and the U.S. Military. Failure won’t be an option.”
Chapter 30
Preston
EPIC...when I left there a month ago, I thought I wouldn’t be back for a while. Life threw another one of its curve balls at me. I was getting damn tired of them too.
Avery was nervous. I tried to assure her everything would be fine, but her body wouldn’t let her believe it. Neither would her mind. Getting shot did a number on her. Hell, it did a number on me too.
We made it through the first two levels of security, but we needed Pete to clear Avery for the last. They didn’t want to allow her in the situation room. I was adamant about her being there. When I made up my mind about something, I was as thickheaded as they came. Pete finally had to intervene to get her clearance, but he did. The DEA had run an in-depth background check on the whole Middleton family back when Terri was going into the witness protection program and then again when she married Justin. So getting Avery cleared wasn’t much of an issue. There was no way in hell I would leave her alone while all this was going down, and Pete knew it.
Pete had organized a team of thirty. They were a talented combination of CIA hit men and U.S. Special Forces. They hit the main compound of the Juarez Cartel in the middle of the night, taking down the entire organization, from top to bottom. They also dismantled the operations and pulled all their data from computers and hard drives that they could carry. It would give us information on all their connections all over the world. After tonight, the Juarez Cartel would no longer be a threat to me or Avery. All my information would be wiped clean from every piece of data they had, giving me the freedom to live my life in peace. Not only that, I would be able to live without fear of Avery being in danger. My mother and sister would no longer have to live in fear either. I sat back and closed my eyes as years of anguish rolled over me. These fuckers had destroyed so much of my life, the liberation I thought I would feel was laced in so much sadness, it was just bittersweet. My breath came out in ragged gasps as I struggled to hold back my emotions.
“You don’t have to do that you know,” I heard her soft voice next to my ear. “You can let it go. We’re alone now.”
Her hands and arms were around me as I shuddered with the assault of my emotions. I’d never grieved when my father was killed and I’d never grieved for my sister when she went through her dreadful nightmare. And my mother...I can’t even think about what she endured. I grieved for it all in Avery’s arms. When I was spent, I raised my head and wondered aloud, “How did I ever think I could go in there? I would’ve been a total fuck up. And I wouldn’t have had your shoulder to cry on. Christ. This shit just doesn’t end, does it?”
“I think it just did, Preston.”
“Avery, are you even sure you want to be with a fucked up...”
“Stop it. We’ve been over this and it’s a worn out discussion Preston.”
“But look at me.”
“I am. What’s your point?”
“I’m a mess. I’m supposed to be the strong one.”
“You are. How many people do you know could’ve gone through what you’ve been through and made it out alive? You don’t give yourself any credit. I don’t even want to talk about this. You need to be happy it’s over.”
“I am. I am happy. Now I don’t have to worry about you, or Caroline or my mother.”
“Precisely. So, when can we leave?”
I huffed out a laugh. “Eager, huh?”
“Yeah. I’d like to go to the cabin for a couple of weeks.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Oh yeah!”
She gave me one of those looks that she probably shouldn’t have, considering where we were, because the temperature in the room seemed to increase by twenty or so degrees. I think I even broke out into a sweat. Then she started purring as Avery-kitty returned. I had to lock the door for a while. We even knocked a few chairs over as that conference table was put to good use. Unfortunately, I forgot that the room had an audio recorder in it. Lucky for us, Pete turned the damn thing off. Good thing he turned the video off too.
We left the next day and flew to Bozeman. We stayed at the cabin for exactly two weeks before we went back to Vail. Avery was right all along. I’d thought I’d wanted to sell that place, because of the last time I’d been there. But she said when we went back, she was going to change my mind, and she certainly did. She did some things to me there that I never thought I’d ever let her do...much less enjoy. I had been so wrong. When I made that promise to her that I’d try, I didn’t know that I could let myself go like I did.
We were lying in front of the fireplace and she made her move. It was quite sudden and I hadn’t expected it. So when her mouth wrapped around me, I initially froze. But then, her hand reached for mine and held onto it tightly, passing her strength and love to me in that one small gesture. It made me forget everything except her and our love for each other. I was soon lost in her mouth, her lips, her tongue as it swirled, sucked and worked its magic on the sensitive areas of me. She slid my entire length into her mouth as she held me at the base, and moved up and down, in and out. It wasn’t long before I could feel my climax nearing.
“Avery, I’m going to come.”
I heard her purr in response.
“Tell me that’s okay. Please, tell me baby.”
She stopped, lifted her head, smiled and said, “Oh Preston, it’s beyond, okay. It would be awesome if you would come.”
Ah fuck!
That was all I needed to hear and I didn’t fall, I shot off into orbit, groaning, as I called her name. It was really something to watch her, how she had done that to me, but what was even more amazing was that she enjoyed the hell out of it.
The aftermath was even more spectacular. Avery didn’t just stop. Avery-kitty came out and did her licking thing. She began where she started, licking every last inch of me and then moved up to my abs, taking care to pay close attention to each of my tats. Skipping up to my chest, she straddled me and really got into my nipple rings, going after them like they were catnip. Finally, when she reached my mouth, I wrapped my hands in her hair and stopped her.
“You’re amazing. Have I told you that lately?”
“Not today,” she breathed.
“Then I’ve been remiss. No worries though, because I plan to show you instead.” And I did. All night long.
The last thing I would ever do was sell that cabin now. It was our special place, where we would come to get away from everything, when we needed time alone to just be together. It was where it all be
gan for us, where we were joined, where we fell apart and where we put ourselves back together. The cabin would always be there for us, waiting with open arms.
Epilogue...Vail Two Months Later
Avery
It was late March and there were only a few weeks left until the ski season would end. Preston and I had just finished up skiing for the day. It was the perfect spring day with bright blue skies and warm yet great snow on the slopes. We’d decided a chilly beer was in order, so we’d headed over to Tres Chicas and were sitting out on the sunny deck, enjoying the view.
“How do you do it honey?”
“Do what?” I asked, puzzled.
“Move the way you do up there?”
“I just do. Remember, I’ve been doing it most of my life.”
He gave me one of his sexy grins that always managed to send shivers down my spine. “I wanna ski just like you.”
“Okay. I think you can. You’re really good.”
“I think you’re just saying that.”
“I am not.”
“You are too.” He winked at me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this huge flash of neon green, but before I could register what it was, it had crashed into Preston, threw him down and had him on the ground.
Then I heard, “I’ve got him for you! I’ve got him for you.”
Jumping up, trying to save Preston, I landed on neon green’s back and started pounding on it, yelling, “Let him go! Let him go!”
A crowd began to form around us, clearing the table and chairs out of the way. I was still beating on neon green’s back, screaming at the top of my lungs. Preston was swinging his arms and scissoring his legs, but neon green’s massive size had my vision blocked. I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on, until I saw this giant wad of pink fuzz poking me in the face.
“Melissa! Melissa, is that you?” I screamed.
Kissing Fire Page 24
