Edge of Desire

Chapter 18

Preston

When she rose to her feet, I could only gape. Her body was bathed in the bright moonlight. It reflected every curve and nuance that only an artist’s hand could’ve painted, and I couldn’t stop staring at her. Her head dropped and I knew instantly I’d made her uncomfortable. “Please don”t. I’m only admiring what is an amazing sight.” My finger traced a pattern on her cheek.

We moved into the tent to save our things from becoming damp. Once we were settled, she moved to get inside of her sleeping bag, but I stopped her.

“Are you cold?”

“Not really.”

“Can you wait to get in there?”

She eyed me suspiciously at first, but then settled down on top of her bag.

“I’d like to tell you some things. First, I love you exactly like this. I don’t want you to ever change. I don’t want you to be a skinny, shapeless girl. I want you curvy and beautiful, like you are, the way women were meant to be.” I kissed her then. Afterward, I ran my hand across her breast and watched her nipple pucker, so I had to follow with my mouth. I sucked on it and then flicked it with my tongue, circling and then gently biting it. Whenever she moaned, there was a direct connection between her voice and my groin. I was hard again, unbelievably so.

“Look what you do to me, Avery.” I took her hand and put it on me. “If I didn’t think you were lovely, I wouldn’t react this way to you. Christ, one look at your body and mouth and I’m completely at your mercy. That”s how fucking hot you are.”

She wrapped her fingers around my cock and began moving her hand up and down. Now it was my turn to moan. When she raised herself up to her elbow so that we faced each other, and bent her head to target my nipples, I thought I was going to bust one right there.

I sucked in my breath between my teeth, willing control back to me. “You’re going to make me come, just by doing that.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“No, but I’d rather us come together.”

“Please, let me do this, Preston.”

The way she asked, the tone of her voice made a refusal impossible.

I groaned and watched her move over me. She sucked one nipple and then the next, her tongue playing with my piercings as she stroked me. It wasn’t long before I climaxed and called her name. If I thought that was going to be the end of it, I was crazy. The next thing I knew, she straddled me and kissed the hell out of me. I pulled her arm down next to her and flipped us around so she was on the bottom. Running my tongue along her upper and then her lower lip, I backed away and said, “Now, it’s your turn.”

I did all sorts of things to her that night with my tongue, things I had been dreaming about since I first saw her. I licked the entire length of her spine and then settled in for a long, drawn-out sucking and nipping session on those dimples right above the cheeks of her ass. Of course, I didn’t stop there, as my attention carried on to those lovely globes. By the time I got to spreading her legs, I couldn’t stand it any longer and ended up spooning with her. She turned her head so we could see each other as we both came together.

“I’m so sorry, babe, but I think you’re going to be very sore tomorrow.”

“Hmm, probably. But it’s so worth it.”

She rolled over right into my arms and snuggled down next to me. It felt like she was molded just for my body because she fit perfectly into my side.

“You know what?”

“What?” she answered.

“We were supposed to be out here for another two nights, but I’d love to take you back to the cabin so we can have a night in a real bed and get in the bathtub together. What do you think?”

“You must’ve read my mind,” she answered. I felt her lips kissing my chest and her breath against my skin. God, I loved this woman.

“Avery, you know I won’t ever let you go.”

“Preston?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s a good thing because I don’t want you to let me go.”

Sometime in the middle of the night, I heard Avery fumbling around in the tent. I sat up and switched on my headlamp to find her trying to unzip the tent opening.

”What”s going on?”

”I have to pee.”

”Here, let me get that for you and I”ll go with you.”

”You don”t mind?”

”Of course not,” I assured her. I knew how frightened she was to be out there alone.

I unzipped the tent and told her to get her flip-flops. ”Should I put some clothes on?” she wanted to know.

”No one’s around for miles, so it”s not necessary.”

”Okay.”

We went outside and she grabbed my hand tightly. ”It”s really spooky out here, with the mist and all.”

”I think it”s beautiful. Mysterious looking.”

”You would. You”re a lot braver than me.”

I chuckled at her. I picked out a good spot and turned my back to give her some privacy. Suddenly I heard her yell, ”Shit hell mother fucker!”

It wasn”t like her to curse like that and with such intensity. ”What”s wrong?” I asked, concerned.

”I just peed all over my foot! What am I gonna do?”

I broke out into fits of laugher. I couldn”t stop.

”Would you quit already? What the hell am I gonna do? I can”t go back to bed like this?”

”It”s not a big deal,” I eked out between my peals of laughter.

She gave me a nasty look. ”Easy for you to say. You”re not the one with tinkle all over your foot.”

”Tinkle?”

”Yes, tinkle, damn it!”

Grabbing her arm, I pulled her into me and hugged her. Then I told her, ”Look, we”ll go down to the stream and you can wash your foot off. Okay?”

”But we don”t have any soap. It”s up in the tree.”

”I have some unscented wipes in the tent you can use. It”s all good, baby. We”ll get you tidied up.”

”Okay.”

We went back to the tent to grab the wipes and then I took her to the stream so she could rinse off her tinkled-on foot. I had to bite my lip the whole time to keep from laughing. When she was nice and clean again, we headed back to bed. The best part of all was when she snuggled next to me, kissed me and said, ”Thanks for taking such good care of me, Preston. I love you.”

”I love you too, Tinkle Toes!”

She popped me in the side for that one.

We made it back to the house much faster than I thought possible. Laughing, we ran up to the master bath, stripping our clothes off along the way. I bent over the tub to turn on the water and Avery snuck up behind me and said, “I don’t want to startle you, but don’t move.”

Her hands splayed across my back and her fingertips sank into my muscles right before her lips touched my skin. She massaged me as she kissed my heated skin moving lower, inching along. Firm hands gripped my hips as her cheek brushed across my lower back and then she was licking every curve, indentation, and raised surface of that word that was cut into me. I threw back my head and groaned out of sheer pleasure. Her hands kept moving, sliding along my body, as if they knew exactly what I needed and when I needed it, but when they wrapped around me and held my erection, I couldn’t contain myself any longer.

“Avery,” I breathed. I spun around so fast, surprise was noted on her face, but I couldn’t help myself. “I need you. Now.” I reached for her and pulled her up to me, feeling for her sex to ensure she was ready. “You feel so damn good,” I murmured into her mouth, as I entered her.

Her nails raked my back and that set me off. It was hard to rein myself in during these moments with her, but I wanted to make sure she was satisfied before I was. Her tongue caressed my neck, doing things to me that made it difficult to maintain my control.

The way her breathing changed coupled with the way she arched her back always jerked a response from me.

“Harder, Preston, harder.”

I backed her up against the wall and lifted her leg around me as I pumped into her. It was impossible to make love to her without watching. Her expressions, her eyes were so fucking gorgeous. Everything about her was amazing. I felt her inner muscles around me change. Grabbing her hand, I raised her arm above her head and pressed it against the wall.

“Good?” I asked, as I thrust into her.

“So good.”

I inched away just enough so I could roll her nipple between my fingers. She squeezed my shoulder in response as she cried out for more. I took my other hand and cupped her ass to increase the friction where she needed it most. When I did, she rewarded me with the sexiest moan I’d ever hear.

“Is this good, Avery?”

“Oh yeah. More. I want more. And harder.”

I rolled my hips and then thrust into her again and again, and then I knew it was coming on. Grabbing the back of her hair, I tugged it, so she had to look at me. It was her eyes I always longed to see. There was so much love and lust shining from them, I couldn’t let an orgasm slip by without observing them.

“Come for me, baby.”

She called out my name as she did. She spasmed around me and they went on and on. I loved every minute of it, especially since I got my own out of it as well.

Even when we both were finished, I still pumped into her, just because it felt so damn good. But the best part of all was having her rub her cheek against mine and then say those words.

“I love you, Preston. That was some great sex, wasn’t it?”

“The best,” I answered her, kissing her.

Then we heard water splashing and I looked over at the tub and yelled, “Oh hell!” We’d forgotten the water was on and the damn tub was overflowing.

“Turn it off,” Avery yelled.

“I’m trying.” I still hadn’t pulled out of her. We both ended up on our asses, sliding all over the place.

“Shit,” she shrieked.

We scrambled over to the tub, still slipping everywhere, but we finally got the water turned off.

She started to go in search of towels and I pulled her back down on my lap.

“What are you doing? We should soak this water up or you’ll have a mess.”

“I have a drain in here. See? It’s all good, baby.” I pointed to the drain on the floor near the tub so she could see all was well. Then we both cracked up.

In the end, I told her everything about me, every gruesome detail about prison. She cried and held me as she comforted me. I bared my soul to her as I had done to no other and it was freeing. Unlocking those memories I had buried for so long was so liberating that it was strange at first. I hadn’t felt this free in ages that it took time to adjust to it.

We’d been here three months when one night we sat around the fire and I couldn’t stop myself from asking her, “Why did you not ever judge me?”

“What do you mean?”

“When you found out about me being in prison? You knew what they’d done to me.”

“Well, yeah, but it wasn’t like you wanted it, Preston. Why would I judge you for that? It was forced upon you. You were raped. Remember, we discussed this a while ago. You said yourself that if I had been raped, you wouldn’t hold that against me.”

“But, Avery, it’s different because you’re a woman.”

“What difference does that make? Rape is rape, no matter who it happens to.” She picked up my hand and kissed the palm of it. “I’m not sure where this double standard of yours came from, but you need to get that notion out of your head. I’d like to ask you something. A while back, you wondered why I had such a tough time with my body, why I was so shy and all. Well, I’d like to ask you why you feel so inferior about something that was forced on you.”

She looked at me with her not blue/not green eyes and I had to be honest with her.

“Because like I told you before, everything they did to me made me feel so damn dirty. It doesn’t matter that it was forced. It still makes me feel that way. I’ll always feel that way, Avery, and I’ll never think I deserve you.”

“We’re quite the pair, then, aren’t we?” she whispered, right before she kissed my mouth, running her tongue across my lips.

“There’s something else you need to know, and I hope to God you don’t hate me for this.”

Giving me one of her million-dollar smiles, she said, “Like I could ever. What’s so damn important that you’ve interrupted a kiss? You know how I love to kiss you.”

“I’ve been less than honest with you.”

She pulled away from me and still had a half smile on her face. “What do you mean?”

“About our situation here.”

“I’m not following.”

I looked down and then back at her eyes. Taking a deep breath, I plunged in before I lost my nerve. Hurting her was the last thing I wanted to do, but I was afraid I had gone too far and there was no stopping it now. “We’ve been out of danger for quite some time now.”

“You mean with the cartel?”

“Yes.”

“How long is quite some time?” she wanted to know.

“Since a few weeks after we got here.”

Dead silence. Nothing. No movement, no yelling or screaming, nothing at all.

“I see,” was all she said. And she responded in a very small voice, quite unlike the Avery I was accustomed to.

“It that all you’re going to say?”

I watched a thousand different expressions drift across her face, but none of them settled down long enough to stay.Her throat worked feverishly, as she tried to swallow. Whether she was attempting to hold back tears, I couldn’t tell.

In a strangled voice that drove a knife deep into my heart, she whispered just one tiny word. “Why?”

“I was selfish and madly in love with you. I wanted to spend time alone with you to see if there was the slightest chance of us being together. I thought if we had sufficient time together, perhaps we could make a go of it. When I saw how much you loved it here, it gave me hope. It was wrong and I know that now. I’m sorry.”

“Is that supposed to make it better? Is that supposed to make me feel good or something? You lied to me. You falsified things. You made me think my life and your life, not to mention Justin and Caroline’s was in danger. For weeks I lay awake at night and worried about you. I worried about Justin and Caroline. You destroyed my life. My job. I have no home now because of what you did.”

“I’m so fucking sorry. But you’re wrong. You do have a home. With me. I’ll take care of you. Always.”

“Is this some kind of a twisted joke? Because if it is, it’s a poor attempt at one. I don’t want to be taken care of. I’ve never wanted to be taken care of. I want to be self-sufficient. I want to earn my own way in the world and not be dependent on others. You stole all that from me. And you made me believe you loved me and then you made me fall in love with you.”

With the subtlest of movements, I watched her stiffen her spine and flinched as her eyes came to rest on mine.

“I want to leave.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

She walked up the flight of stairs, and if her heart was hurting as badly as mine, I’m sure she felt like she was dying.