Starting From Scratch (24 page)

her shorts, let me push them down her legs. She stepped

out of them and paused, letting me set the pace. I took a

step back from her.

“I just…just let me look at you.”

Breathtaking didn’t begin to describe her, and I hoped

I wasn’t drooling all over myself as I took her in.

Surprisingly, the simple white bra and pink and white

striped panties only added to her casual sexiness, and even

in the dim light, I was awed by her. I roamed her body

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with my eyes, wondering if she could feel it, feel how much

I wanted her. I took in every inch of her, from her

bashfully smiling face down the long column of her neck

to her freckled shoulders, lingering on her modest breasts

and anticipating what they’d taste like, the color of her

nipples and their hardness against my tongue. I knew I’d

be dipping into that belly button as I held onto the slight

roundness of her hips and I had every intention of going

lower, wanting to feel those long, sexy legs draped along

my back as I buried my head between her thighs.

It was hard to tell in the faint light, but I thought a

tremble rippled through her.

“Avery.” Her voice caught, not much more than a

murmur. e sound of my name was like a caress, and I

swallowed hard. Stepping closer, I used one finger and

placed it against her lips. She kissed it sweetly and her eyes

never left mine as I dragged it over her chin, down her

throat, between her breasts, along her tummy, and over the

front of her panties. Her gasp was very slight, but sexy as

hell, and I could tell she was trying hard to keep control of

herself. I retraced my path back up.

“You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” I

said quietly, and I’d never meant anything more in my life.

I couldn’t keep my mouth to myself any longer. I

pulled her head down to mine and I kissed her then. Hard.

With purpose and intention, conveying with my lips and

tongue and teeth exactly what I wanted to do with her.

What I wanted to do
to
her. For hours.

Two steps backwards, her legs hit my mattress and she

was down, on her back with me crawling up her body, my

destination being that sweet, hot, wet mouth of hers.

Despite my intention of slowing things down, they seemed

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to speed up instead. I barely remember scrambling out of

my own clothes, though the excited gasp that escaped me

as I removed Elena’s bra is burned into my memory. e

warmth, the smoothness, the taste of her skin is

magnificently clear to me. She dug her fingers into my hair

as I moved along her body, sampling every inch of her with

my mouth, dipping my tongue into her navel and moving

slowly lower. She was tall, but rather slight in build, and

my smaller hands fit to her like a sculptor to clay, as if I

wasn’t only touching her, but molding her, pressing and

sliding my fingers and palms along her bronzed skin,

stroking her as I would a piece of art, gently, reverently, and

with immense awe.

e first touch of my tongue to her center sent her

hips up off the bed, a quiet, strangled cry emanating from

her throat. It was nearly the end for me as I felt her heel

press into the small of my back and the fingers of one hand

fist in my hair to direct me, to pull me in more snugly. She

was sweet and tangy and salty and I seemed to know just

what to do, how much or how little pressure to give her,

when to slow down or to speed up. It was as though I’d

been making love to her for years and I was stunned by our

compatibility. I shifted slightly so I could reach up and cup

her breast without taking my mouth from her. I rolled her

hardened nipple between my fingers and she stifled a

groan, whispered my name, pushed herself harder against

my tongue. And then she tipped over the edge.

She made very little sound as she came, but every

muscle in her body spasmed and I half-expected to be

missing a chunk of hair when she finished, though I didn’t

mind; the pressure was delicious. Tightly grasping her

hips, I stayed with her, stayed pressed to her hot, wet flesh,

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until her climax subsided and she gently tugged my head

back from her.

Ragged breathing was the only sound for several

minutes and it filled the room. I lay with my head on

Elena’s stomach, her fingers twisting my hair softly as we

recovered. Heat radiated from both our bodies and the

musky scent of sex permeated the air.

“Wow,” she finally said.

I grinned against her skin. “I’ll say.”

“at was absolutely amazing, Avery. Good God.”

I turned my head so I could look at her face. “You

have the quietest orgasm I’ve ever heard,” I said with a

chuckle.

She laughed. “I have a child. at’s a sound he doesn’t

need to be woken up by. Ever. Believe me, I know.” e

grimace that followed told me she’d heard more than

necessary when it came to the sex life of her parents and I

laughed with her.

I propped myself on an elbow and gazed at her skin as

my fingers played across it. I traced the fine, barely visible

scar that cut across her abdomen and through her pubic

hair. “Max was a C-section?”

“Poor little guy was all wrapped up in his umbilical

cord. He almost strangled himself.”

“Were you scared?”

“Terrified. Here I’d done everything necessary to

prepare. I’d gone to Lamaze classes, read every book I

could get my hands on, I was all ready to take on natural

childbirth. I was in the hospital all of an hour when my ob/

gyn realized she had to go in and get him. I knew nothing

about C-sections. Not a thing.”

“Yikes.”

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“It was a pretty stressful ordeal.” She stroked my hair

back off my forehead. “Luckily, everything came out fine.”

I nodded, still enamored with the lightly pinkened

flesh, still running my fingertip over it and absently

wondering if the doctor had even a moment of regret

before taking a scalpel to such perfect skin.

“Hey, come here.” She tugged gently at my hair. When

I was face to face with her, she whispered, “Enough talk.

We’re not finished. Kiss me.”

Never one to disobey a direct order from a beautiful

woman, I did as I was told. In a matter of a few mere

seconds, I was on my back, Elena was stretched out above

me, and her fingers were everywhere. It was a blur of

sensual pleasure, nothing solid, just waves of pure bliss as

she ignited my skin with her mouth and her tongue and

her hands. When her fingers pushed into me, hard and

knowing, I had no reservations about noise and I cried out

her name, grasping blindly for my headboard, needing

something concrete to hold onto, to ground me. She pulled

out slowly, thrust back in with determination, and I heard a

rumble in the distance, followed by colors behind my

closed eyelids. I lifted my head and realized with disbelief

that the local Independence Day fireworks display had

begun, viewable out my bedroom window over the trees, as

they are every year.

Elena glanced over her shoulder as the next burst hit,

filling the room with green light. I could see a wickedly

amused smile spread across her face as she turned back to

me.

“Well, isn’t that apropos,” she stated, then refocused

her attention on my body. My head slammed back onto my

pillow as her hand resumed its movements and her mouth

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fastened onto my breast, the hot, wet suction sending me

into oblivion in a few short, heavenly moments.

ere were actual honest-to-God fireworks as I came.

We lay in the aftermath of our lovemaking, in the

aftermath of the fireworks, in the aftermath of the feelings

racing through my bloodstream. Catching our breath, we

were quiet and not uncomfortable. My head rested in the

crook of Elena’s neck, the sound of her heartbeat a muffled

thump-thump beneath my ear. She drew lazy circles with

her fingertips on my shoulder and I did the same thing on

her belly. We weren’t done. We were far from done. I could

feel it. My body still thrummed with the excitement of

being so close to her skin and I could almost hear her

soaking up the energy for another go around.

I couldn’t remember the last time I wanted somebody

so badly. Or so constantly.

“Why are you single?” she asked suddenly, softly.

“I’m sorry?” Her question took me by surprise.

“I’m just wondering why a successful, intelligent, sexy

woman like you hasn’t been snapped up. I mean, look at

you. What the hell is wrong with the last person you were

with? Is she blind? An idiot?”

“I could ask the same questions about you,” I pointed

out, flattered beyond belief.

I felt Elena give a little shake of her head. “No. You

already know my story. My ex
is
an idiot. Tell me about

yours.”

“Lauren.”

“Lauren.” Elena seemed to try the name on for size.

“What’s wrong with her?”

For some reason, I thought about the idea of karma

and decided I should be nice. After all, our problems

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weren’t all Lauren’s; I was equally, if not more so, to blame.

“I wasn’t in love with her.”

It was a simple statement, not a lie. It was almost all of

the truth.

“Ah.”

“I thought I was at first. And when I realized I wasn’t,

I tried hard to be. She’s a sweet girl. She’s really very nice.”

“So you broke her heart.” She didn’t accuse, just stated

a fact.

I sighed. “Yes, I did. It was pretty awful for a while, but

she deserved better.”

“Has she found it?”

“Not yet. I don’t think. We still talk on occasion. She

calls once in a while to say hi. She’s really—”

“Very nice,” Elena finished for me, a grin in her voice.

“She is,” I replied, feeling just a touch defensive, but

playfully so. I lifted my head and looked into her eyes. It

was dark and late and I couldn’t see much detail, but I held

her gaze for a long moment and she didn’t look away.

“I don’t do this kind of thing with just anybody,

Avery,” Elena whispered, the sound sending a pleasant

shiver tingling across my skin.

“Do what kind of thing?” I propped my head on my

hand, my elbow next to her ear, and studied her face in the

dark, ran my fingers lightly across her throat.

“Fall into bed after two dates. Have an inability to

carry on a conversation without thinking about…” She

trailed off.

“Sex?” I finished for her teasingly.

“Yes. Sex.” She looked away then, fiddled with the

edge of the sheet, and her voice became even softer. “I don’t

have casual sex, Avery. at’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

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She swallowed audibly and turned back to meet my eyes.

“It means something to me.”

e warmth that spread through me then was like a

pleasant version of a hot flash. My blood warmed, my skin

flushed, and I felt almost high with giddiness. I wanted to

jump up and do a little Snoopy dance around my bedroom,

but I somehow managed to leash my inner geek and stay

calm. Instead, I smiled down at her, let my fingers play over

her lips, so soft to the touch.

“It means something to me, too.”

And this time when I kissed her, when she kissed me,

it was different. It was deeper, both physically and

emotionally. We took our time, explored and looked into

one another’s eyes. I wanted to touch every single part of

her body. I wanted her to feel me everywhere. We melded

and sweat and pushed and stroked and groaned and filled

each other. And hovering in the room with us, hanging in

the air like a mist, was the unmistakable promise of a

possible future. is time when I pushed Elena to her limit

and then nudged her off the precipice, when she said my

name on a guttural moan, I closed my eyes in bliss and felt

tears stinging behind my eyelids. Her ragged voice, her

hands in my hair, her body arching into mine, it filled me

up, made me feel whole, made me feel invincible.

Hours later, we rested, drifting in and out of sleep as

dawn broke over the horizon out my window. I lay in bed

on my side, Elena’s warm body curled behind and around

me, spooning me so perfectly it was almost surreal. Her leg

was tucked snugly between my thighs, pressed up into my

own wet heat that I now worried might be never-ending.

Her arm wrapped around me, under my own arm and

against my chest where I clasped it with my hand, brought

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it to my lips and kissed the knuckles softly. I could hear

and feel her gentle, even breathing near my ear, and smell

the scent of arousal and foreplay and raw, primal sex that

hung suspended in the air, wafting like remnants of a

dream. I breathed it, took it into my lungs, into my body,