Flirting Lessons

Chapter Twelve

Twelve

Taylor woke up the next morning in Avery’s bed.

She was snug under Avery’s linen sheets and fluffy comforter. A gentle breeze blew in from the open window. A soft, herbal scent was in the air. Avery’s arm was draped over her hip, with Avery’s hand resting at the top of her thigh. Taylor sighed softly and let her eyes flutter closed.

They snapped open again. She’d woken up in Avery’s bed. Again. After sleeping with Avery. Again.

She hadn’t meant to. They’d painted pottery, for the love of God! Nothing against pottery or painting it—she was sure there were plenty of sexy potters out there—but she had not expected anything remotely sexy or flirtatious to happen at Let’s Paint! A store with a built-in exclamation point didn’t seem like it would be a hotbed of sexual tension.

And yet she’d ended up in Avery’s bed anyway.

Taylor had been so proud as she’d listened to Avery almost effortlessly chat up the pink-haired lovelorn Cat, who responded to it like she was a flower and Avery was the sun. Taylor hadn’t been jealous as she’d listened to Avery’s very Avery way of flirting. She was perfectly happy to sit next to Avery all night, to listen to their conversation so she could give Avery tips later, all the while remembering how Avery’s skin felt, how pink her bottom lip got after Taylor kissed her, how hard her nipples were between Taylor’s fingers, how soft and sweet and surprised her sighs and moans were. As she’d listened to Avery talk to Cat, she was impressed with how far Avery had come and, fine, a little smug that while Cat looked at Avery like she wanted to eat her up, Taylor already had.

But damn, had she felt triumphant when Avery left with her , and not Cat.

Avery sighed softly in her sleep. Taylor really had only meant to come back here last night to help Avery paint. Seriously. But then Avery had changed into a thin old tank top and shorts to paint—while making yet another joke about clothes to get dirty in—and she had looked so fucking hot in them. And after they’d painted the test patches in the bedroom, she’d cocked her head in the cutest way to look at the different shades of pale green, and Taylor hadn’t been able to help herself. She’d kissed her. She had to.

If Avery had stopped her then, or said, Are you sure? or I thought we decided …maybe that would have been it.

But Avery had responded to her without hesitation. She’d kissed her back, this time with the knowledge and self-assurance of recognition, of familiarity. They’d moved quickly from kissing standing up with their clothes on, to kissing standing up with their clothes off, to kissing on the bed with their clothes off, to fucking for hours.

Now it was morning, and here she was curled up in Avery’s bed, where she’d never intended to be again. And she wanted to stay right where she was.

And you know what? Nothing was stopping her from doing exactly that.

She felt a stirring next to her, then Avery’s hand moved from its perfect spot on her thigh and slid backward. Taylor put her hand on it to stop it from moving to Avery’s side of the bed.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Avery said. “I was trying not to wake you up.”

Taylor turned over to face her. This time, Avery hadn’t done her middle-of-the-night washing of her face and moving their clothes into neat piles. She had taken out her contacts and put her hair up in a bun, but that had been after round one last night. Taylor liked her like this, a little squinty, with creases in her cheek from the pillow, not quite put together, but still Avery. But then, Taylor was discovering she liked Avery most ways.

“Good morning,” Taylor said. She moved her hand up to rest on Avery’s bare hip.

“Good morning,” Avery said, a sleepy smile on her lips.

“We find ourselves here again,” Taylor said.

“We do,” Avery said. “I hope this doesn’t mean you have to plan another baby shower.”

Taylor laughed.

“No, thank goodness. Just the one.”

Avery didn’t make any move to get up, and neither did Taylor. They just lay there, looking at each other, Taylor’s hand caressing Avery’s skin.

“What are we going to do about this?” Avery finally asked.

“I have an idea,” Taylor said, moving her hand up along Avery’s torso. “What if we…kept doing this?”

“What?” Avery started to sit up, but Taylor pulled her back down.

“Hey, I’m comfortable here,” Taylor said.

Avery laughed.

“So am I. Sorry, I was just surprised. That’s not what I expected you to say. So…what, you’re saying you want to be friends with benefits, or something? Because I—”

Taylor shook her head.

“I don’t believe in friends with benefits. Either you like each other and you’re fucking, which means you’re dating, or you don’t like each other and you’re fucking, which means you’re just fucking. If you try to pretend there’s a middle ground, it all goes to shit. I’m saying I like you, and I want to keep hanging out with you, and I definitely want to keep fucking you.” Her hand moved up to the side of Avery’s soft, pillowy breast.

Avery stared at her for a second without saying anything.

“That’s really not what I expected you to say. On Saturday morning, you said—”

“I say lots of things. Forget what I said on Saturday morning. I changed my mind.”

Avery’s eyes narrowed.

“Saturday was only four days ago. Are you sure about that?”

Taylor nodded.

“I’m sure.”

And she was. Not that her reasons from Saturday weren’t still valid, they were. But sometimes things defied reason. Plus, those had been the reasons not to sleep with Avery again. There were probably just as many reasons that she should sleep with Avery again, and continue to sleep with Avery.

For instance, she had a hell of a good time with Avery, in and out of bed; Avery always surprised her, usually in a good way; she always enjoyed Avery’s company whether they were doing fun things (going to the bookstore, dancing) or boring things (loading boxes at the winery, trivia, fucking pottery painting); the sex was good and had the potential to be great; Avery made her laugh all the damn time, and vice versa; and she hadn’t been this comfortable in someone else’s bed in a very long time.

“Hmm,” Avery said. “You sound so definite.”

Taylor smiled as she looked at naked, tousled Avery, with that firm, daytime Avery sound in her voice. The contrast delighted her.

“I am,” she said, moving her hand again. “But I’m just me. How do you feel? On Saturday, you said you weren’t ready to date anyone, I don’t want to push you. What do you want to do?”

Avery’s eyes half closed, then opened.

“I was going to say we should stop the flirting lessons, because it was going to be too hard for me to keep hanging out with you once we’d done this again. But that was when I thought…”

Her voice trailed off.

“And now?” Taylor prompted her. She thought Avery wanted the same thing she did, especially since Avery was still naked in bed with her right now, but she couldn’t be sure.

“I can’t concentrate while you’re doing that!” Avery said, looking down at Taylor’s thumb, lazily moving back and forth across her nipple.

“Does that mean you want me to stop?” Taylor asked, looking at Avery’s hard nipple, not stopping the motion of her thumb.

“No!” Avery said in such an irritated voice that Taylor leaned forward to kiss her. Avery wrapped her arm around Taylor’s neck and kissed her back hard.

“Is that my answer, or do we need to talk about it some more?” Taylor asked.

Avery pulled back and looked at her for a minute without saying anything. Taylor waited for her answer.

“Mmm, yeah, we probably should talk about it some more,” Avery finally said. She ran a hand up Taylor’s inner thighs and pushed her gently over so she was on her back. “I think we have a lot to talk about, don’t you?”

Taylor looked up at Avery, whose lips hovered over hers, and whose hand rested in between Taylor’s thighs.

“Like what?” Taylor asked her.

“Well, dating sounds great, because I like you, too, and I certainly want to keep fucking you,” Avery said. God, why was it so hot to hear Avery talking even a little dirty?

“Excellent,” Taylor said. “Why does it seem like you’re about to say ‘but’?”

“But,” Avery said, and Taylor groaned. Only partly because Avery’s fingers were gently caressing her. “I’ll be sad to give up our flirting lessons.”

Avery’s fingers were still softly moving up and down. Too softly. Oh my God, the bitch was teasing her.

Okay, that was fair. She probably deserved it.

Taylor grinned at her.

“Oh, we don’t have to give those up. And now you can practice on me all you want.”

Avery nodded.

“You bring up a great point. I have a suggestion. Maybe part of that ‘practice,’ as you call it, can also be sex lessons.”

“Sex lessons?” Taylor started to sit up, and this time Avery pushed her back down.

“Yes, sex lessons.” Avery slid one finger inside of her, and Taylor opened her legs wider. “You see, as I said last time, I don’t really know what I’m doing here—”

“You seem to have a pretty good handle on it,” Taylor said.

Avery smiled at her.

“I appreciate that, but you know me, I always strive to do better,” she said. “Plus, I have a lot to learn about what you like.”

Taylor settled back and enjoyed the feeling of Avery’s fingers inside of her, sliding slowly up and down, circling, dipping in and out.

“Hmm, well, something that you may or may not know about me is that I love morning sex,” Taylor said.

Avery moved her other hand up Taylor’s torso.

“See? I didn’t know that. What do you like so much about it?”

Taylor’s eyes closed for a second as Avery’s thumb brushed across her nipple.

“Mmm, just about everything. It feels sort of illicit, like we’re supposed to be doing something else, but instead we’re in bed together, and it’s only ever because we want to be. It always feels either lazy and comfortable, like we have all the time in the world, like right now, or it’s rushed and urgent, because we both have to get somewhere but we desperately need to fuck first, and that’s hot as hell. Either way, I’m having a great time.”

She watched Avery as she talked. Avery was so focused on her, so intent on feeling her way around Taylor’s body, and Taylor fucking loved it. Her eyes were closed, but Taylor could tell she was listening to her. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had really paid attention to her the way Avery did. It felt good. All of this felt good. Taylor was suddenly very pleased with her snap decision to keep this up with Avery.

“Well,” Avery said as she moved down Taylor’s body. “My goal is definitely for you to have a great time.”

She pushed the covers back, and Taylor opened her legs all the way so that Avery could settle in between them. She leaned back on Avery’s big pillows and looked down at Avery. She loved this view. She was glad the pillows were so fluffy so she could watch her.

Avery started off slowly, just by dropping small kisses on the insides of her thighs, and then a few eager licks along Taylor’s lips. But soon, her tongue danced in quick circles around Taylor’s clit, and those very talented fingers of hers moved in and out, at first slowly, but then faster. She pinched Taylor’s nipple softly; when Taylor gasped at the sensation, she could feel Avery smile. Then she moved to really concentrate on Taylor’s clit, and Taylor slid her fingers into Avery’s hair. Taylor moved against her as she licked and sucked, and then they moved together, faster and faster as the pressure built inside her, until Avery sucked just a little harder, and the whole world exploded around her. Taylor arched her back and held on to Avery, who kept licking and sucking her as the waves of pleasure shook her body, until finally they both collapsed against the bed.

Avery crawled up next to her, and Taylor pulled her into her arms.

“That was worth another baby shower,” Taylor said. “At least.”

Avery laughed and stretched out next to Taylor.

“Let’s wait until after you’ve done one baby shower to say things like that, but I very much appreciate the sentiment.”

Avery rested her head next to Taylor’s. She felt triumphant, sexy, on top of the world.

Taylor grinned at her.

“I’ll update you after I do the one.”

God, that grin just did things to her. Now she didn’t have to hide that Taylor’s grin did things to her, or that she looked forward to seeing her every Tuesday, or how much she had wanted to have sex with her again after Friday night. She’d pretended—to Beth, sure, but also to herself—that she didn’t care, that one night was fine, that she didn’t really want or need to do it again. None of that had been true.

She kissed Taylor softly, and then sat up.

“I have a meeting soon, unfortunately. I’m going to make coffee, you want some?”

Taylor opened her mouth, then stopped herself. Avery laughed.

“Oh, that’s right, I forgot, you’re a coffee snob, aren’t you? Fine, you can come into the kitchen with me and look at my coffee-making apparatus and see if it’s good enough for you.”

Taylor sat up and crossed her arms over her chest.

“I wasn’t going to say anything! I was just going to say, ‘Yes, I’d love some coffee, thank you!’?” She swung her legs off the bed. “But since you offered…”

Avery laughed out loud as she pulled a robe on. She took another one out of her closet and tossed it to Taylor.

“Here. It gets chilly in my kitchen in the mornings.”

Taylor shrugged the robe on and followed her into the kitchen.

“What else do you have today other than that meeting?”

“A bunch of calls all day, and I’m having dinner with Luke.” Where she would probably tell Luke about whatever this was going on between her and Taylor. Would Taylor have a problem with that?

Taylor didn’t react. Instead, she examined Avery’s coffee maker, and then sniffed her bag of ground coffee. Maybe she hadn’t heard her.

“Not terrible, but can I—”

Avery took a step back.

“Yes, you make the coffee.”

Taylor opened a drawer and pulled out a measuring spoon.

“Dinner with Luke, huh?” So she had heard. “What does he know about all of this?”

Avery took the oat milk out of the fridge.

“Nothing yet. I mean, I told him about the flirting lessons, but not…about Friday night. I haven’t seen him since then, and this felt like an in-person conversation.”

Taylor laughed as she measured far more coffee than Avery would have into the filter.

“I wish I could be a fly on the wall when you tell him. He’s going to flip out.”

Oh good, Taylor wasn’t going to be weird about her telling Luke. Not that she thought Taylor would be, but you never knew.

“He sure is,” Avery said. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you what he says.”

“You’re doing WHAT with Taylor?” Luke half shrieked. Avery was glad she’d decided to have this part of the conversation in the car.

“I mean, do you want me to go into detail, or…?”

Luke shook his head vehemently.

“No, that’s not what I meant, you know what I meant!”

Avery giggled. She couldn’t help it.

“Yes, I know what you meant, but I’m pretty sure you know what the word dating means.”

Luke glared at her.

“That’s not how you said it. You made this dramatic pause before you said dating , like there was another word you were thinking about putting in there and didn’t.”

Avery giggled again. It was way more fun to tell Luke about this than she’d thought it would be.

“Well, yes, we did…another word before we decided we would start dating, but you get weird when I tell you about doing that word, so I didn’t mention it.”

“ I get weird? You get weird, too! Remember when I—” Luke shook his head again. “You’re trying to get me sidetracked. Back to the point. You and Taylor? I thought she was just teaching you how to flirt? I thought you knew you didn’t want to have anything with her because you knew she was kind of a heartbreaker? What happened to all of that?”

Right, this was why she’d been worried about telling Luke.

“I guess her flirting lessons worked too well.” Avery shrugged. Luke looked at her. She should have known she couldn’t get away with that with him.

“Okay fine. Nothing happened to all of that, it’s still true. But really, this is just a casual thing. She doesn’t do serious, I know this, she knows I know this, but that’s okay, I don’t want a serious relationship right now anyway. We have a lot of fun together, and when we did you-know-what, that was a lot of fun, too, so we decided to keep doing both things. Actually…” She let out a sigh. “After we did you-know-what the first time, we both said we shouldn’t do it again, and we would go back to the flirting lessons, but that didn’t last very long, so we decided to go with it. Don’t freak out about this. I’m a big girl, you know.”

“I’m not freaking out,” Luke said. “Taylor’s great, I like her a lot, you know I do. I just don’t want you—”

“To get hurt, I know,” she said. “But Taylor’s the first person in a long time who I’ve dated that I’ve had actual fun with. I don’t expect this relationship to lead anywhere, it’s not like you and Margot; I know what Taylor’s like. I’m not going to be one of those people who thinks I can change Taylor, I swear. But it’s been a hard few years; I want to keep having fun.”

The worried look faded—a little—from Luke’s face.

“I’m glad you’re having fun,” he said. “I want you to keep having fun, too.” He opened the car door. “Come on, let’s go get something to eat, I’m starving.”

Avery got out and fell in step with Luke as they walked toward the restaurant.

“Not coincidentally,” she said, “she’s the first person in a long time I’ve dated who you like.”

Luke grinned at her.

“That hadn’t escaped my attention, either.” He threw his arm around her and pulled her in for a hug. “I’m really happy for you,” he said. “I should have started with that. I haven’t seen you this relaxed and happy in a long time. You used to laugh like that all the time, and it’s only now, seeing you do it again, that I realized you’d stopped. I’m glad that laugh of yours is back. I’m glad you’re with someone who makes you laugh like that.”

Avery stopped walking and hugged him back.

“Yeah,” she said. “Me, too.” She took a step away from him. “Now can you stop it with all this mushy stuff and buy me some tacos?”

Luke opened the door of the restaurant with a flourish.

“Absolutely.”

Taylor walked into the kitchen at Noble Family Vineyards on Thursday morning and found Elliot at the coffee maker. She breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh great, you made the coffee.”

Elliot pulled out a mug and poured her a cup.

“Finished brewing a few minutes ago; I was late today.”

Taylor picked up the mug and breathed in that wonderful, strong dark coffee smell.

“I’m glad you got here before Margot, anyway.”

“He did not get here before Margot,” Margot said, walking in with a thermos in her hand. “Margot has simply ceded the control of the coffee maker to the two of you and brings her own from home. Did you think I didn’t know you both rush to make coffee before me so you could make it to your weird specifications? I know you weigh out the coffee by the gram, I refuse. I’ve seen the looks you share when I put milk and sugar in my coffee. I know when I’m outnumbered.”

Taylor and Elliot looked at each other, and then all three of them burst out laughing.

“Sorry, sis,” Elliot said. “We didn’t want to hurt your feelings, we just both like each other’s coffee better than…”

“Better than mine, I know, I know. Anyway, good morning to both of you. Busy day all around today.” She turned to Taylor. “Speaking of, we have a few VIPs dropping in later. Definitely not the day for it, of course, but what can you do?”

Taylor followed Margot back to her office, her coffee mug in hand.

“They always pick the worst possible days to drop in, but at least it isn’t Saturday.”

Margot held up her hand.

“Bite your tongue, I’m sure some will come on Saturday, too.”

Taylor made a face. Margot was right. It was August and high tourist season, and every day was booked solid at the winery. Which was great for the health of the business but made it a very busy time for all of them. And probably a bad time to ask Margot about the shower. Unfortunately, she had to do it.

“Oh, um, there was something I wanted to ask you about,” she said.

Margot looked at her warily.

“Go for it.”

Hmm, she’d possibly picked the wrong morning to make fun of her boss’s coffee. Doing it right before asking her if she could host a baby shower at the winery perhaps wasn’t the best idea. Why did she always have to be a smartass at exactly the wrong time? Classic Taylor.

“So, I’m hosting my best friend’s baby shower—yes, I see your face, it’s true—and I was wondering if I could do it here at the winery? Outside in the garden, if you think that would work? I understand if we’re too busy, or you think we’re not ready for events, though.”

“Oh.” Margot’s brow cleared. “I thought from that look on your face that you needed time off this weekend or something. Yeah, sure, of course. That’s perfect, actually; I’ve been wanting to have more events here, and that’ll be a good test run to do something smaller than the anniversary party. And with you in charge, I won’t be stressed about it.”

That had been exactly what Avery had said Margot would say. Not that it took mind reading to know that; if she’d been thinking straight, she would have thought of this herself.

“Fantastic, thank you,” she said to Margot. “That’ll make this whole thing much easier.”

Margot went over to her big wall calendar.

“When and what time?”

Taylor pulled out her phone.

“Great question. Let me ask Erica. I’m guessing sometime in September?”

Taylor

Margot said yes to having the shower at noble, what did you say were the best dates for you again?

She might as well slip some other news in, too.

Taylor

Fyi, avery’s going to help me with the shower, she’s great at this stuff. she’ll make sure I won’t just set a case of wine down with a congrats sign and call it a day. by the way, we’re dating now

Maybe she was being petty to ignore what Erica had said about Sloane helping out, but whatever.

Erica’s first text came in right after Taylor pressed send on her second.

Erica

Yay! tell margot I said thank you! I was targeting the last weekend of september! late afternoon? I know sloane was excited to host it at her house, so if it doesn’t work to do it at the winery, then we could still do it that weekend at sloane’s…

Over her dead body.

“Does the last weekend of September work?” she asked Margot. “Sometime in the afternoon? It’ll be hot then, but there’s shade over in that garden area.”

And then the second text arrived.

Erica

Excuse me what??? when did this happen? what happened to she’ll fall for me too hard and i’m not ready for anything and neither is she and on and on?

Taylor slid her phone back into her pocket.

Margot picked up a pencil as Taylor’s pocket buzzed. She ignored it.

“Works for me. Let’s say Sunday afternoon? Obviously, no charge for you; you’re doing me a favor. This will be a good dry run for events here.”

Taylor saluted Margot.

“I’ll make sure all goes well, boss, don’t worry.” She picked up her coffee mug. “See you later, you know where to find me.”

Margot sat down at her desk.

“Holler if you need me.”

By the time she’d gotten into the tasting room, her pocket had buzzed two more times.

Erica

Helloooooo

Omg you cannot drop something like that and leave me hanging like this I am going to murder you

Taylor elizabeth cameron!

When Erica started using her full name, she was approximately twelve seconds from calling her.

Taylor

I was checking with margot about the date! she says the last sunday of september works

And yeah I remember what I said, I changed my mind

I like her, what can I say?

She knew that would disarm Erica. But it also had the advantage of being true.

Erica

I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about this immediately

Awww ok

But wow I should have bet you that if you actually started dating avery, you’d have to be godmother. lost opportunity on my part

Taylor laughed out loud at that.

Taylor

You did yourself a favor there. imagine me as your child’s godmother. you can’t, can you?

Also you need to tell me who I should invite to the shower and all of that

Erica took the Avery thing better than she’d expected. These texts hadn’t had the judgmental tone she’d had sometimes lately. A lot of times lately.

Erica

Maybe you and I and sloane and avery can all get together to plan the shower!

That was honestly the last thing she wanted to do.

Taylor

Sounds good. ok winery is opening in fifteen minutes, talk later

Erica

Ok! and i’ll send you an email with an invite list spreadsheet and my registry links later today!

An invite list spreadsheet. Oof. Thank God she had Avery to help with this, otherwise she would be very bitter about losing this bet.

A few hours and many winery guests later, she heard the chime of the tasting room door and looked up, her customer service smile on. And then she relaxed.

“Did you hear that it was busy today and decide to come by to help out?” she asked.

Luke grinned back at her.

“No such luck, I’m here to pick up Margot. Her car’s in the shop so she’s borrowing mine.”

Taylor waved him toward the employees-only door.

“You know your way around; head on back to her office. Good to see you.”

Luke took a step in that direction, but stopped and came back over to her at the bar. The grin on his face faded into a tentative smile. Ah. Right.

“She told you,” Taylor said.

Luke nodded.

“She did. I think it’s great. She seems really happy.”

Taylor raised an eyebrow at him.

“But?” She liked Luke a lot, and she knew the feeling was mutual, but she could tell he had something else to say.

He shook his head.

“But nothing. Avery seems happy, and that’s the most important thing. The only important thing, really.” He paused for a second. “I really care about her, you know.”

“I know,” she said. “It’s nice.”

Luke smiled faintly, but went on. “Avery has been there for me…anytime I needed her, and a few times when I thought I didn’t need her but was wrong. She doesn’t ask for help much, but when she does, I’d do anything to help her. She’s a great person. A special person.”

This conversation should feel strange, but somehow it didn’t.

“I know she is,” she said.

Luke looked at her hard.

“I really hope you do,” he said. “She’s gotten pretty hurt in the past. I don’t want her to get hurt again.”

Why did he assume that she would hurt Avery? What had she done to deserve that?

Plenty of things, actually. Fine, Luke, that was fair.

It was very sweet that Luke cared this much about Avery to corner her for a little talk. If Luke were a different kind of guy, she’d call this a warning. But then, if Luke were that kind of guy, Avery wouldn’t be his best friend.

“I know you don’t,” she said. “I don’t want her to get hurt, either.”

Luke nodded once. Twice.

“Okay.” He took a step back. “I should go get Margot. I just…I just wanted to say that.”

Taylor grinned at him.

“Okay,” she said, slightly mimicking his tone of voice. She hoped it would make him smile, and it did. “Good talk.”

Luke nodded again.

“Good talk.”

He disappeared through the employees-only door, and Taylor smiled to herself. That had been very sweet. She couldn’t wait to tell Avery about it.

Though Avery would probably think Luke was being overprotective, when he was just being a good friend. On second thought, that conversation could stay between her and Luke.