Chapter 36 Tanner
Tanner
“There are some benefits to driving a heap of junk,” Avery said, and she had to force the joke out through chattering teeth as they pulled up in front of Tanner’s house. “We’d have ruined your seats and you’d never get the stink out.”
He acknowledged the truth of that with a low laugh.
“A shower wouldn’t hurt, that’s for sure.
” She gave him a long look and there was something in her eyes that had Tanner’s heart rate kicking up.
A hesitant softness that pressed down on his chest and left him cupping a delicate handful of hope as he said, “Want to come in, Stretch?”
The moment unfolded into a lifetime, then finally, as another shudder gripped her, Avery nodded. “I guess hot water sounds pretty good right now.”
Before she could change her mind, Tanner jogged around to her side of the car, pulling open the door just as she undid her seatbelt.
They headed into the house and straight up the stairs to his room; there was no sign of Arlo or Mats.
He’d take a guess that they’d ended up at the Barrel after the kickball game and, as Tanner turned on the shower in his en suite, he was grateful for the privacy.
“Get your clothes off and climb in,” he told Avery, who was hugging the doorway, the hem of her shirt dripping onto the tiles. The blue of her eyes was luminous, even through the sodden strands of her bangs which were plastered to her brow, and he found it hard to look away.
She tugged her lower lip between her teeth and Tanner stifled a groan.
“Should be hot enough now,” he rasped and left her to it. Stepping back into his bedroom, he braced his arms on the dresser and hung his head.
How did she do this to him every time? His whole body ached for her; his chest burned beneath icy skin. She had him twisted in so many knots that he was stretched taut. Something had to give.
Dragging his t-shirt over his head and peeling his shorts and boxers off his legs, Tanner dropped the whole grungy, stinking armful into a heap on the floor.
When he returned to the bathroom and slid open the glass door, Avery let out a muffled gasp.
“Tell me to get out if you don’t want this,” he said huskily as he stepped inside.
The instant warmth was blissful but he held himself tense and kept his distance.
“I will stick to any rules you like, do anything you want me to do—you only have to say the word.” Tanner swallowed roughly.
“But if there’s a chance to be near you, I won’t turn it down. ”
His knees went weak with relief at the greedy gaze that Avery traced over his jaw, his shoulders, his abdomen—and lower. It stoked the lick of heat that was just beginning to overcome the chill in his belly and spread like molten gold through his bones.
“The whole ‘one night’ thing has been working pretty well for us.” He clenched his hands by his thighs. “How do you feel about seeing if ‘rainy day sex’ can beat ‘wedding sex’?”
His breath strangled in his throat as he waited for her answer.
A multitude of thoughts spun behind Avery’s eyes and he couldn’t read a single damn one of them until desire reduced all the others to ash. Snared by the flames, Tanner let himself burn as she parted her lips and breathed, “I guess that . . . could . . . work.”
The shower was a huge one so he took a step closer. Water ran in steaming rivers down her neck and over her breasts, her hair clinging like copper seaweed to her collarbones. He brushed it off one shoulder with his thumb.
“So fucking pretty.” He was talking to himself more than her.
“Yes,” Avery agreed. “So fucking pretty.” She laid her hand over the center of his chest and Tanner’s heart thumped extra hard beneath her touch.
“You take that back, Stretch,” he grumbled, less than half his attention on what he was saying—all of the rest on the tantalizing movement of her fingers. “I’m a stud. Handsome, hunky, hot. A snack. I’ve got the DMs to prove it.”
“A snack?” Avery’s hand traveled lower. Her eyelashes were damp semicircles, her freckles glistening under the spray.
“A snack.” His voice grated and broke as she followed the happy trail from his navel to his dick and closed her fingers around him. Tanner dragged in a tortured breath. “Fuck . . .”
“Good enough to eat?” Her eyes flicked up to his face and down again. The question had the muscles feathering on either side of his jaw. When Avery slid her grip along the length of his erection, he felt the pull throughout his body.
Tanner grunted, his weight rocking on his heels until his back was pressed to the tiles.
She pumped him again, her gaze intently fixed on the movement of her fingers.
He ached in her grasp, his hips moving of their own volition.
Heat rose so sharply through his breastbone, he expected the falling water to evaporate on his skin.
“Come here.” Reaching for Avery, he bit off a fractured curse when she lowered herself to her knees instead.
For one mortifying moment, Tanner thought he might blow immediately.
He reached above her hand to grip the head of his cock and squeezed for a couple of seconds to regain control.
Her eyes, flicking up to his, nearly had him losing it all over again. He ground his teeth. “Fuck, baby.”
Parting her lips, Avery ran her tongue along the underside of his shaft, her lashes fluttering as the water streamed down the sides of her face.
He jerked in her grasp and groaned. When she closed her mouth around him, Tanner reached blindly for her hair, winding his fingers into the drenched strands and clasping them tight.
The vibrations of her moan buzzed against his dick.
Avery braced a pale hand on one of his thighs and took him deeper.
Between her mouth and her grip, she had him losing his mind.
The look of her on her knees in front of him made his legs shake, his heart pound.
He wanted to drop to his own knees and worship her instead, but Tanner couldn’t bring himself to pull away from her touch.
He hit the back of her throat and swore.
She only picked up the pace, torturing him on and on, winding him tighter and tighter.
A shiver sparked in his groin, building steadily and spreading to the base of his spine.
Hanging on by a thread, he lasted until she raised her eyes to his face again, holding his burning gaze with her own.
Color and light painted the insides of his eyelids when he exploded in blissful streams on Avery’s tongue.
The universe collapsed in on itself, leaving only her touch and her warmth to hold him steady.
Tanner wasn’t sure he could speak.
He pulled her to her feet with trembling hands beneath her armpits and tugged her to his chest. Kissing her temple over and over, he closed his eyes against the falling spray. They stood like that for several long minutes while his heart steadied.
“I need to wash my hair.” Avery was the one to draw back in the end. She smiled up at him and it was still a struggle to form words.
When she reached for the shampoo bottle, Tanner took it from her fingers, squeezing a small swirl into the palm of one hand.
Guiding her around 180 degrees, he soaped her hair into a lather with silent reverence, washed it off, and repeated with conditioner.
That she stood so still and let him take care of her had a prickle starting up behind Tanner’s nose, like a sneeze building that never came.
After a quick wash of his own hair, he shut off the shower and slid open the door. Wrapping Avery up in a huge towel first, he grabbed another one for himself.
“Will you stay?” Tanner asked and his voice didn’t sound like his own. “Please don’t go.”
Avery studied his reflection in the mirror for a few seconds. Maybe it would make it easier for her to let him down gently if she wasn’t looking directly at him. Tanner flexed his fingers.
“OK,” she said at last, and he might have picked her up and spun her around if there had been space to do it.
Not trusting himself to speak, he found her a clean t-shirt and a new toothbrush instead. They brushed their teeth side by side in silence before he collected their clothes and ran them down to the washer, taking the stairs in twos back up to his bedroom, as if he were on a bungee cord.
When he still hadn’t said anything more by the time he threw back the covers and crawled into bed, Avery’s smile was slipping.
“Is something wrong?” She ran jerky fingers through her damp hair, the hem of his t-shirt dancing against her thighs.
“Babe . . . no.” How could she think that? Tanner sat upright, forearms on bent knees. “I just—” He cleared his throat. “I’m feeling pretty lucky right now.”
Avery smiled then, and there was relief in the curve of her lips as she chose to take his words as a general statement. “You’ve worked hard for all your luck. You deserve it.”
With a lazy grin to hide how much her words mauled at his chest, he tried to keep the atmosphere light. “You wanna see if some of that luck could rub off on you?”
She sniggered. “Maybe I will, hotshot. Let me find a band and do something with my hair first.” Avery looked around for her shorts before realizing he’d taken them.
“Try my nightstand. There are some in there.” Happy just to watch her, Tanner flopped onto his back, folding his arms behind his head.
She tugged open the drawer and her hand paused halfway to reaching inside. “Why do you have so many? There’s like a hundred in here.”
He rolled over to snake his fingers past hers into the far corner. “The most important one is here.” When Tanner drew his hand back, he was holding a faded and frayed single strand of elastic in his palm. “The real source of all my good fortune. This is my lucky talisman.”
“Is that—?” Avery poked at the dangling scrap.
“Yeah. The last hair tie you gave me when I left Pine Springs.” Tanner curled his hand around it.
“I lost the first two. They shredded and broke on my sneakers so I never put this one on my shoe. I wore it around my wrist for years. It kept me calm and more focused when I fiddled with it. I was devastated when it snapped, but I carried it in my pocket instead and bought myself a dozen more packs—as similar to yours as I could find. I still have phases when I like to wear one for a while.” Tanner ran his fingers through the damp strands of his hair.
“During the season, I keep your broken one in my locker. It’s my most prized possession because, however much money I earn, it’s irreplaceable. ”
Avery’s lips had parted. Her eyes fixed on the broken elastic.
“Turns out, you were irreplaceable too, Stretch. I couldn’t find anyone else who makes me feel the way you do.” He reached for her hand and chose to take the leap he’d cautioned himself against. There was no hiding it for him anymore. “It’s always been you for me.”
She looked at him then, terror battling disbelief in the searing blue of her irises. Tanner swallowed, his grip tightening as he prayed she wouldn’t run for the hills.
“You’re probably not ready to hear it, but I love you so fucking much.
I’ll give you everything, if you’ll let me.
” The words spilled from him, unexpected, unplanned, and his heart pounded like he’d just finished a bag skate.
“I want us for real. For good. And I know you don’t do relationships.
I know you find it hard to trust. But I’ve wanted you for fifteen years now so I’m all in, and I swear I won’t hurt you.
Just give me a chance, please. Don’t leave me with only a hair tie this time. ”
He couldn’t breathe as he waited for her to say something.
Anything.