Letting out a quiet whimper, I resigned myself to the fact I was just going to be going to sleep hot and bothered— but that didn’t mean I had to suffer alone. I pushed aside any inhibitions and turned to face him, looking him right in his eyes as I threw my arms around his neck, then began slow grinding against him to the beat. That… was a bad idea. A very bad idea. Avery didn’t shy away from my gaze. Instead, he met it with lust-filled eyes of his own as he moved with me. I looked away first, overwhelmed by the amount of heat flushing through me. I felt his erection growing against me, and this time that little voice started telling me “Girl, run!”
I didn’t. I marinated in the heady little cocoon of arousal created by his arms around me, his hands unabashedly gripping my butt to pull me closer to his groin, and the leathery, masculine scent of his cologne. By the time the song began winding down, I knew I needed to get the hell away from him before I did something I would regret.
Or… would I?
“Tori, did you hear me?”
The song was over, and his mouth was so close to my ear that his lips brushed against me, sending a pleasant tingling sensation straight to the juncture of my thighs.
“Hmm?”
“I was asking what hotel you were in… it’s pretty late, I should get you back.”
“Oh! Uh, the Thompson.”
He nodded in recognition. “That’s pretty close by… you feel like walking?”
“Yes!” The hint of cool in the early fall air was probably exactly what I needed.
Avery led me out of the restaurant, possessively draping his arm around my shoulders as we stepped onto the crowded sidewalk. It felt so natural to slip my arm under his blazer to rest at his waist it made my heart ache. I never felt this connected — without saying a single word— to Rafael, even though we were matched. The gut feeling I relied on so heavily for my clients had never presented itself with him, but I’d gone in full force anyway, relying on our on-paper match and sexual chemistry to do the job. The only things I’d gained were a failed marriage and a keen determination to never freely offer my heart again— even to a man who made me feel the things Avery did.
Avery was in the same emotional place I’d been when I met Rafael. Willing, and desperately wanting to give it one last chance before hanging up his gloves, and giving up the fight. It made me angry to think of him getting to the point where I was now: lonely, but hopeless, unwilling to take a step deeper into the quicksand— even if it meant the difference between being rescued or certain death — because I was afraid of the aftermath if it failed. I didn’t want him to know this feeling.
We spent the short walk to the hotel in silence, each absorbed in our thoughts, but as we approached the door to my room, the thought of going in alone to deal with the same torrent of emotions I’d been dealing with before dinner — and now the blowup with Des — made me lightheaded.
“Hey, you wanna join me for one last drink?” I pressed my back against the door, looking at him as I felt in my purse for my keycard.
“Depends on the selection.”
“Well, I have wine… and whatever’s in the mini bar.”
Avery chuckled. “Wow, you’d dip into the mini bar to accommodate me? I can’t say no to that.”
An hour later, we were perched on the couch in the sitting area of my room, drinking wine straight from the bottle. More accurately, we were close to finishing a freshly opened bottle, and the warm buzz of inebriation was starting to settle over both of us. I’d discovered yet another thing Avery and I had in common — we were goofy drunks. Well, neither of us was exactly drunk on one shared bottle of wine, but we were undeniably tipsy, and everything was a little funnier because we were.
“Wanna know something?” I asked him, sliding my bare feet into his lap. We had long ago stripped off shoes and jackets.
“Hell no.” Avery’s eyelids drooped low as he grinned, a result of the alcohol and the late hour. “Is this about to be another crazy story about the shit you used to get into with Des?”
“No… maybe. Yes. Okay, I won’t tell you that one then. You probably don’t want to hear very much about your sister’s sexual adventures, huh?”
“I’d rather not,” he said, laughing as he took the now empty wine bottle from my hand and sat it on the floor.
“Ok then… I’ll tell you something else. Truth moment.”