“Mmhmm. Relax. I’m not about to tickle you after you said you hated it.” He didn’t move his hands away from my waist, instead pulling my lower body closer to his. “Besides,” he said, with his mouth so close to my ear I felt the brush of his lips. “Don’t you think I’d know if you were ticklish? I’ve already touched you everywhere, Tori. Remember?”
I was too stunned to respond, and I didn’t have a chance anyway, because the next thing I knew, his lips were against mine, and my entire body relaxed in relief, as if I had been waiting on him to do this all night. Had I been waiting on him to do this all night? He teased my lips apart with his tongue, then eased it inside to thrust against mine as I dropped my purse and lifted my hands to the back of his head. I returned his kisses with fervent, frantic ones of my own as he lowered his hands to cup my behind and pull me closer to the eager erection struggling behind the zipper of his jeans. Completely defying everything I’d established about a relationship of any kind with Avery, I was ready to invite him inside. The Maldives were three months too long ago, and his mouth was way too skilled for a silly thing like common sense to prevail.
But… then he was backing away. He gently pulled his lips away from mine and stepped back, shoving his hands into his pockets as if that were the only way he could keep them off me. Confused, I tried to meet his eyes, but he averted them away as he backed up a little more, then lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck. “Tori, I’m…. I’m sorry about that. I told you this wasn’t going to be a date, and then I… turn it into one. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“What? Avery… I’m not sorry you kissed me. I had a good time with you tonight, and the kiss… was a perfect ending.” I swallowed hard, and this time it was my turn to avoid his eyes.
He grabbed my hand, gently tugging until I looked his way. “So… what does that mean?”
I thought about it for a second, then smiled. “Remember what you told me earlier, Avery… don’t over think it.”
“So you’re gonna use my words against me, huh?” He chuckled, kissing the back of my hand. “Really though…. what just happened?”
Now that the heat was turned down, a little trickle of good judgment broke through. I needed to reign this back in. “What happened is two friends went out together, and had a great time. At the end of the night, they shared a kiss, and moving forward, one friend is going to continue working towards fulfilling her obligation to find the perfect woman for the other friend to hopefully spend his life with.”
He gave me a dry laugh, then a little hug after he released my hand. “Fair enough.” We exchanged our goodbyes, and I took my painting in with me, leaving it propped inside the front door after I locked it behind me.
— 7 —
— Tori —