Finding Forever (4 page)

This is weird
.

Nevertheless, I put my arms around her anyway. I barely even knew this woman, aside from the fact that she was my sister’s friend, yet here I was, lounging with her on a private beach as if
we
were the newlyweds. And strangely,… it felt good. That realization hit me like a Mack truck, nearly taking my breath away. It had been a long time since I’d felt this amount of peace in the presence of woman that wasn’t a part of my family, and even that experience didn’t come close to the intense feeling of contentment coursing through me now as I breathed in the clean, sweet scent of Tori’s hair.

“So what’s with you and the beach?” I asked, trying to pull myself out of my own head.

It took her a moment to respond, and when she spoke, it was in a strained voice. “My mother. I grew up in a house on the beach in Florida, and my mother would take me out all the time before she passed.”

Crap.

“I’m sorry, I—”

She shook her head, waving off my apology. “It was like, twenty years ago, so I’m fine, I … I mean, I remember her, so I still miss her, and I’m admittedly emotional right now, with… everything else. Being at the beach always makes me feel close to her, in a good way. I’m happy. I should make my way to the beach more often.”

I knew exactly how she felt. Des and I had lost our parents at a young age as well. Before his death, our father had owned a popular neighborhood mechanic shop. Because I was too young to do it, my uncle — Deidra’s father— had taken over the business, keeping it alive until I graduated college and took over. I did it with enthusiasm, changing the business model and name, moving into an improved space, and soon Ignition was a successful luxury auto-repair business in Chicago, with three different locations. However, I didn’t stop there. I kept growing, hiring new people, opening new locations until the chain was in eight different states. I knew my dad would be proud of how far I had come, and it was my connection to my father that pulled me underneath the hood of a car every so often to get my hands dirty, even though I was now the owner of a multi-million dollar company.

I toyed with the idea of mentioning all of this to Tori, but quickly dismissed it. Women usually went glazy-eyed, tuning me out when I started talking any of those things — cars, the company, or my dad— and I had no reason to believe she would be any different.

“What about you?” she asked, patting me on the knee. “I remember Des telling me your father was a mechanic too. Is that how you got your start?”

I was glad her back was to me, so she didn’t see my jaw go slack in surprise. I recovered quickly, answering her question and several follow-ups. I was even more shocked to discover she knew a little about cars herself, thanks to a father and stepmother who were both into antiques. We settled into an easy conversation that had me feeling… baffled. I honestly couldn’t remember a single time in the last year, maybe longer, that a woman had been able to hold my interest beyond sex, and vice versa. Even when Tori and I fell into a comfortable silence, there was an unspoken communication between us I didn’t understand.

And strangely… I wasn’t sure I minded.

— 2 —

— Tori —

I had no real answers for why I was in such an intimate position with a man I barely knew, but it felt good, and at that moment, I really didn’t feel like I needed more reason than that. At thirty years old, divorced, and in a beautiful place as close to paradise as I’d ever been, I would damn well do what I pleased.

Rafael had never held me like this, making me feel this safe, and content, and— “Wait a minute, what are you doing?” I grumbled, disappointed at the removal of one of Avery’s arms from my waist.

Avery laughed as he tucked my hair over one shoulder. “Relax, girl. Nobody is going anywhere, I was just trying to get your hair out of my face.”

“Oh!” I pulled the simple, black ‘emergency’ ponytail holder from my wrist where I’d placed it when I changed after the wedding, and twisted my hair up into a messy bun. “Better?”

“Much.” He placed a kiss against my exposed shoulder blades, allowing his lips to linger for a few seconds. The touch of his lips sent a tingle up my spine and I froze, holding my breath. When I glanced back at him, he looked as surprised by the kiss as I was.

He took a hard swallow, then lowered his gaze. “You’re shivering… wanna go back inside?”

“Maybe in a minute.” My shivering had nothing to do with the temperature, but I didn’t complain when he began unbuttoning his shirt — he’d left the jacket to his casual linen suit in his room— and took it off to place around my shoulders. It gave me an unobstructed view of the hills and valleys of his abs, a sight I quickly turned away from. What was I
really
doing here with him?

My relationship with Rafael had been doomed from the start. I knew he had a reputation as a playboy, because he was constantly in the media, hopping from starlet to pop princess to socialite, but for some reason, I had naively thought it was just rumors. However, when the sex tapes kept coming, and pictures didn’t stop, I couldn’t sit around and take it. I stopped letting him touch me, and once that happened, he stopped bothering to come home. Des didn’t know
that
either. It was embarrassing!

Rafael swore it was who he was, he loved women too much to stick to one, but that didn’t change the fact that it made me feel unwanted, and unattractive to see him betraying our vows with other women. I would never put myself in a position to feel that again, but I hadn’t been touched in months. My desire for sexual contact had been flipped off for months, but that simple little kiss Avery planted on my shoulder blade had turned it all the way on.

He caressed my cheek, and I positioned myself so I was sideways in his lap, locking his gaze with mine as he lowered his mouth to kiss me. Our lips barely brushed at first, testing the waters, but then he pulled me closer and my lips parted. Avery’s kisses were unhurried, intoxicating kisses, designed to melt away any possible resistance with every little suck, nibble, or probe of his tongue.

With one hand buried in my hair, he used the other to cup my breast through the skimpy fabric of my dress. Avery dragged his thumb over my nipple, teasing it into a peak before his let his hand travel lower, down to my thighs, which I parted willingly when he found his way underneath my hem. He let a ragged groan when his fingers made contact with my hot, bare skin, slickened by arousal. “No panties, huh?” he breathed into my ear, then pulled my earlobe into his mouth. Before I could respond, his fingers were inside of me, massaging me into a sensual haze. I opened my legs wider, arching into him as he brought his thumb into the equation, strumming with skill and precision that made my legs quiver.

“I wish you could see how sexy you look right now,” he murmured, biting his lip as our eyes met again, his filled with a lust so raw and hungry that for a second, I
did
imagine how I looked, wantonly gyrating on the fingers of a man I’d
just freaking met.

What the hell am I doing?

“Avery… stop.” His fingers immediately stilled, and his expression change to confusion. I pulled myself away from him, and he dropped his gaze almost
guiltily
to the ground.

After a few awkward moments, he spoke. “You hungry? I can call up to the main building, have them bring something down and set it up for us on the deck.”

“Uh, that would be nice,” I agreed. I hung back, clutching his shirt around me as he carried the chaise to carry back to the villa. I explored his suite while I waited for him to finish his call to room service, and found myself lingering at the opening to the sandstone-walled flower garden, which housed the bathroom. Feeling a hand against my back, I turned to see Avery standing behind me. “I’m gonna take a shower while we wait, okay?” He stepped past me into the room, and I quickly realized he had already stripped out of his remaining clothes, and was proudly displaying every inch of his magnificent body.

Struggling to keep my eyes above his waist, I tapped out of prudence, and into my boldness reserves, using every drop to take off his shirt, which I was still wearing, and then pull my dress over my head, tossing both items to the floor. “I’ll join you,” I said, holding my head high as I walked over to the shower and turned it on, willing my hands not to shake.

“You sure this is what you want to do?” The desire in his eyes told me he didn’t want me to say no, and the wetness between my legs told me
I
didn’t want
to say no either. “I don’t want you to have any regrets. I mean… there’s Des…”

“I know.” This could create an awkward tension in my friendship with Des, but Avery and I were adults. We knew this was about fulfilling a need, and it was something that was going to stay here in the Maldives. “But I want to do this anyway.”

Are you about to shower with a man you just met a few hours before? What are you doing? What in the world has gotten into you?

“Hey… relax,” Avery said, stepping under the light stream of the rainfall spray with me. He lifted his hands to my shoulders, kneading the tension away before he wrapped one arm around me, pulling me close. I closed my eyes, clearing my mind of everything as I relaxed back against his chest. Filling his hands with soap, he cupped my breasts, giving them a light squeeze before running his hands over the rest of my body. I did the same for him, taking my time — as he had with me— to explore his body, even shamelessly caressing his erection. It felt like the natural thing to do.

After our shower, Avery lifted me onto the smooth stone counter and wrapped my legs around his waist. With his erection pressed between us, he captured my mouth with his and slid his tongue against mine. I quickly forgot any reservations I had about being completely nude in the open air as he cupped the back of my neck with one hand, and pushed the other between my legs.

Avery pulled my bottom lip into his mouth as he gently sank his fingers inside of me, swallowing my moan with a kiss as he began to stroke, using his tongue to give my mouth the same slow, sensual torture he was giving me with his fingers.

“A-Avery,” I gasped when he pushed his fingers deeper, causing me to clench around him as I buried my face into his neck.

“What is it? You want me to stop?” He nudged me backward until the top of my back was touching the mirror, but continued working me with his hand. He lowered his mouth to one breast, using his tongue to circle my nipple before he pulled it into his mouth.

“No… no, don’t stop.”

Don’t you dare stop!

Even when the molten pressure building between my legs became so intense I thought I might burst, I didn’t want him to stop. Even when the room service waiter came in and began setting up our late dinner less than ten feet away, in full view of where Avery had sunk to his knees, and now had his head buried between my legs, I didn’t want him to stop. I simply closed my eyes, getting lost in the ecstasy as he used his fingers and tongue to pleasure and tease. The feeling of his mouth against my sensitive flesh was thrilling, and intoxicating, and I found myself losing my ability to form a coherent thought. It was too much to handle, and I tried to gently push his head away, in attempt to ease the intensity. He pushed my hand away, but I tried again, a move that prompted him to stop completely, and stand up.

“I asked you if you wanted me stop, and you said no… has that changed?” he asked, cupping my chin.

I quickly shook her head. “No, not at all, it’s —”

He interrupted me with a kiss, allowing me to taste myself on his lips and tongue. Placing my arms behind my back, he pinned both wrists with one hand and used the other to spread my legs again as he lowered his mouth. He was hungrier this time, devouring me as if I was the most delicious fruit he had ever tasted, and he couldn’t get enough. Avery was intent on making me combust with pleasure, and it didn’t take him much longer to reach that goal. With my hands pinned behind my back and his arm locked around my thigh, I had nowhere to go and nothing to do but give in, and release hit me with the intensity of a tsunami, sweeping away any last vestiges of doubt in my mind that coming to Avery’s villa had been a good idea.

With my energy sapped, and body still tingling with pleasure, I couldn’t move. Avery chuckled as he pulled me down from the sink, then wrapped both of us in thick cotton bathrobes before leading me out to the light dinner of seafood, with fruit for dessert that had been set up on the deck. As we ate, I started to feel nervous again. What was going to happen when we were done? What did I
want
to happen when we were done? Should I leave now, escaping before things went further, or stick around, and see what else Avery had in store?

Now
that
was appealing. I could stay, and let Avery use his hands, mouth, and the thick, beautiful erection he had been parading around to work my body to satisfaction, then go back Dallas to start fresh, with no delusions about love. Living a happily single life, surrounded by work, my friends, and my family.

It sounded wonderful.

When we finished our meal, Avery took me by the hand, leading me to the bed where he unbelted my robe and pushed it off my shoulders. I sighed as he cupped my breasts in his hands, running his thumbs over their hardened peaks. He took my mouth in yet another scorching kiss as he pushed me back onto the bed, covering my body with his. I whimpered with pleasure as his tongue trailed along the side of my neck, across my collarbone, down the valley that separated my breasts, to my belly button, and then arrived at the warm juncture of my thighs. He kissed me there with same intensity he had kissed my mouth, making sure I was ready before he reached for the condoms he had placed on the bedside table.

I arched away from the bed, gasping as he entered me. I draped my legs across the backs of his thighs as he slowly pushed deeper, allowing my body to adjust to his size and relax before he began driving into me with languid, rhythmic strokes that ignited a fire in the pit of my belly. The blaze burned hotter as I shifted my position and began lifting my hips to meet him thrust for thrust, taking as much of him as I could. I couldn’t help the whimpers and purrs of pleasure that escaped my mouth, and Avery found them motivational, driving harder, deeper, or faster in response to my moans.