Chapter Fifteen
Fifteen
Avery sighed as she looked through her closet and tried to figure out what to wear to go out with Taylor. Something that makes you feel flirty —not helpful, Taylor! What could she mean by that?
Wait. She knew Taylor well enough to guess what she meant by that. She meant something that Avery felt great in, that she felt like herself in, but maybe a tiny bit more risqué than she’d wear in her daily life. Something that when she wore it, she looked in the mirror and felt both nervous and excited.
With that in her mind, she flipped through her closet again and stopped at a dress she’d bought a few years ago but had yet to wear. It had a deeper V-neck than she usually wore, and a skirt that moved beautifully when she walked in it, and she remembered that when she’d initially gotten the package and tried it on at home, she’d walked around in it for a while, delighted by the way it felt on her and how she felt in it.
But somehow, she’d never worn it out of the house. It wouldn’t be right for a work event, and she hadn’t been to any social events in the last few years where it made sense to wear it. But every time she did a closet purge, she always kept that dress, because she loved it so much.
She had no idea if it would be appropriate for whatever she and Taylor were doing tonight, but to hell with appropriate. She was going to wear this dress that she liked because yes, she absolutely felt flirty in it.
As soon as she opened her front door to Taylor, she knew she’d made the right choice. Avery could feel the heat from Taylor’s eyes as they swept up and down her body.
“Where the fuck did you get that dress, and can all of your clothes come from there for the rest of your life?” Taylor finally asked her.
Avery laughed and beckoned her inside.
“I can’t believe this, but you’re ready and I’m not. Let me just finish my hair.” Taylor looked pretty great herself, in black tuxedo pants, silver oxfords, and a silky black sleeveless top. Avery wanted to reach out and stroke her, even more than she did usually.
“I hope I interpreted the brief correctly?” she said as she combed product through her hair with her fingers so her curls wouldn’t get too frizzy in the early September heat.
Taylor smiled at her from outside the bathroom doorway.
“If you feel flirty in it, then you interpreted it correctly,” she said, a cryptic smile on her face.
Avery glared at her, and Taylor just laughed.
“You know what I mean!” Avery said. She started to walk out of the bathroom, but Taylor didn’t step out of her way. She just stood there with that knowing smile. Avery had no choice but to kiss her. Kissing Taylor felt like a treat every time she did it; she couldn’t believe that she could pull Taylor close and kiss her, anytime she wanted to. She remembered that first time, how much she’d wanted it, how nervous she’d been, how much of a daze Taylor’s touch and smell and lips and taste had put her in. She still put Avery in that daze, every single time.
“Mmm, I see that this dress definitely makes you feel flirty.” Taylor’s hand went to her waist. “It makes me feel flirty, too. Did you know that would happen?”
Avery slid her hand up underneath Taylor’s shirt and moved her fingers over her soft, smooth skin, before she gently brushed her thumb over Taylor’s nipples.
“I didn’t know that,” she said, “but I really hoped it would happen. And I don’t know if you gave yourself the same assignment that you gave me, but that outfit of yours definitely makes me feel flirty, too.”
Taylor’s eyes smiled into hers. If there was a way to bottle the feeling that Taylor Cameron gave a person, she’d make a million dollars on just one sale.
“Good,” Taylor said. “I hoped it would. But as much as I would like us to keep going with this flirting practice right here, we have to go. I don’t want to be late.”
Avery kissed her one last time, and then picked up her bag and slid her feet into her sandals.
“This had better be worth me missing out on some very important flirting practice,” she said. Taylor laughed that low, throaty laugh that made Avery want to drag her into the bedroom immediately. Instead, she grabbed her hand on the way out the door.
When she got into the car, she remembered her promise to Beth, and sighed to herself. She’d meant to bring this up the last time she’d seen Taylor, but she’d been stressed about work, and she hadn’t wanted to have a difficult conversation when she was in that kind of a mood, so they’d just eaten takeout and watched Drag Race . Which meant she had to do it now. She would feel like she’d broken a promise to Beth if she didn’t.
And to herself, for that matter.
“Can I ask you a question?” she asked. She was asking a question by asking that, wasn’t she?
Taylor shot her an amused glance.
“You know you can. What’s up?”
How should she phrase this? She wished she’d thought this out earlier.
“Do you like having sex with me?” Shit, that wasn’t the right way. “I mean, don’t answer that, let me rephrase that. That first time, I said I didn’t really know what I was doing, and then another time you said I’d gotten pretty good at things, but I just want to know…because to me, the sex is really, really good, great even, but I don’t know, I mean, I’m not sure if you feel that way, too, and if not, I want to know what I should do, or—” Oof. This sentence had gone on long enough. “I meant to say all of that much better.”
Taylor turned and glanced at her, a stricken expression on her face, and then pulled over and stopped in what Avery wasn’t sure was a parking spot.
“Have you been unsure of this the whole time?” she asked as soon as the car was in park. Then she held up a hand. “Wait, let me answer you first. Yes, yes, I absolutely like having sex with you. I like it a lot. A lot, a lot.” She put her hand on Avery’s. “A thing that you might not know about me, probably because you’re not like this, is that I don’t stay in situations for very long where I’m not enjoying the hell out of myself. Many people see this as a character flaw, and I don’t necessarily disagree with them, but that’s how I am. And that means that I enjoy the hell out of myself all the time when I’m with you, and that absolutely includes when we’re having sex. Yes, sure, you’re not that experienced, but experience isn’t everything. You pay attention, and you listen to me, and you remember what I like, you tell me what you like, and you’re up to try new things. And most of all, you make it clear that you’re enjoying yourself—which I know isn’t easy for you—and that makes me enjoy myself. And that makes having sex with you both exciting and a lot of fun. And my God, Avery, I’m so sorry if I’ve said or done anything to make you feel like I didn’t feel that way, please tell me what I did, and I’ll never do that again.”
Well, damn, now Avery was on the point of tears. No one had ever said anything so kind and blunt and wonderful to her.
“No, no.” She shook her head. “You didn’t, I promise. And I never feel like that when I’m with you. But sometimes I get…anxious that I’m not measuring up, and I didn’t want to say anything because it felt stupid to say something, so it just became a thing I would worry about and then forget about, and the cycle would repeat. I only brought it up today because I said something about it to Beth, and she made me promise to talk to you about it.”
Taylor intertwined her fingers with Avery’s.
“Remind me to thank Beth for that.” She kissed Avery. A long, slow, shimmery kiss. When she pulled away, she traced the outline of Avery’s lips with her fingertip. “I really want to keep doing this, right here, but I’m excited about our plans tonight. Remember where we were later, okay?”
Avery smiled at her.
“I will.”
Taylor put her seat belt back on and drove off, her hand still tightly clasped with Avery’s. Had Avery believed her? She hoped so. Everything she’d said was true, and she and Avery were always honest with each other. But she knew Avery had some trust issues, and it made sense that she was insecure about sex. Taylor should have been better about going out of her way to praise her, but would that have felt condescending? She hoped things were good now.
When they pulled into the community center parking lot, Avery laughed as she looked around.
“Another event here? This is the same place we did the dance class, isn’t it? That was really fun.”
Taylor tried not to smile too hard.
“I thought so, too.”
When they got out of the car, Taylor could tell Avery was looking around at everyone else in the parking lot, trying to figure out who they were and where they all could be going.
“I can’t tell if I’m overdressed or underdressed,” Avery said to her as they walked toward the auditorium.
“You are dressed just right,” Taylor said to her. “I thought I made that pretty clear back at your place?”
Avery’s lips crinkled up in that way they did when she was trying not to smile and failing.
“That’s not what I mean! You aren’t the only judge of how appropriate my outfit is, you know that!”
Taylor grinned as she looked Avery up and down again.
“No, you are the only judge of your outfit, I’m just the happy appreciator of it, that’s all.”
Avery smiled for real this time. Then she looked around, and her eyes widened. Taylor followed her gaze and saw that she was looking at the sign outside the auditorium. She turned to Taylor, a slightly confused look on her face.
“Dance class again? I’m not complaining, I loved it the first time, but…”
“But why are we doing another salsa class when we’ve done it already?” Taylor finished that question for her, and Avery nodded. “Because I thought it would be even more fun if we got to dance with each other this time.”
She didn’t say what she felt, didn’t quite have words for that, but when she’d seen the email about this class, she’d remembered how she’d felt at the last class, watching Avery dance with all those people who weren’t her, and how, in retrospect, she realized how much she’d wanted to dance with Avery that night. Now she could, and she didn’t want to pass up that opportunity.
Avery turned to her with a soft, sweet smile on her face.
“You’re absolutely correct,” she said. “That will be even more fun.”
Avery opened the door and waved her inside with a bow.
They went into the auditorium, and everything was the same as their first class—the sign-in was the same, the teachers were the same, their funny patter at the beginning of class was almost the same. But everything between her and Avery felt totally different. Instead of walking around the class, chatting with people she knew, encouraging Avery to chat and flirt and smile with her dance partners, and trying to ignore how much she wanted to dance with her, to hold her in her arms, touch her, she had Avery to herself. She didn’t usually feel that way about people she was dating. She liked to be around them, sure, but she also liked to socialize with a crowd, to mingle and flirt and chat with whoever else was around. But tonight, she was happy to stay right by Avery’s side, with one hand in hers and one arm around her as they danced together.
At first, they stumbled, made the wrong moves, laughed at themselves, and then tried again. As the night went on, they learned each other’s movements, Taylor stood up straighter, Avery relaxed her hips, and their feet moved in unison, Avery moving back as she moved forward, and vice versa.
She put her hands on Avery’s hips when a new song started.
“Okay, now it’s time to shimmy. I know you have it in you, I want to see it.”
If she’d said that to Avery two months ago, Avery would have looked terrified and stricken, but tonight she just laughed.
“I’m glad you know I have it in me, because I’m not sure I know that.”
Taylor leaned forward until her lips were against Avery’s ear.
“You know you have it in you, too. I’ve seen the way your hips move when my mouth is in between them.”
Avery let out a tiny gasp and pulled back with a scandalized look on her face, but the laughter in her eyes belied the frown on her lips.
“Taylor! You are a very naughty girl.”
Taylor pulled her close.
“I know you’re not just now figuring that out.”
A giggle escaped Avery, and they grinned at each other.
“NOW!” Elena boomed out.
Avery’s hips shimmied and sashayed as her feet moved in time with Taylor’s, their eyes locked, their hips moving in sync as they danced. It felt like they were moving as one body, they were so in tune with each other. Taylor felt like she could keep doing this forever. When the music stopped, she didn’t want to stop dancing.
“How was that?” Avery asked, a shy smile on her face.
Taylor honestly had no idea how to answer that.
“That was so good that I can’t fucking wait to get you home tonight,” she said. That was true, but there was more to it.
Avery dropped a quick kiss on her lips.
“Me, too,” she said.
Avery wasn’t a PDA person—a peck on the lips in public from her was like actual groping from someone else. Taylor could feel the ridiculous way she was smiling at Avery. Of course they were going to have sex that night when they went home; that was basically a given at this point. And yet, she was as full of anticipation as a kid on Christmas Eve.
They laced their fingers together as they walked to the car after class.
“I’m glad we did that,” Avery said. “It was a lot of fun.”
Taylor smiled at her.
“I thought so, too.”
Avery turned to her on the way back to her place.
“I was wondering…We haven’t talked about this in a while, but have you talked to Margot? About your business idea, I mean.”
Taylor shook herself back to earth.
“Oh. Right. Um, no, not yet. It’s so busy at the winery right now, when I’m around Margot, it’s because we’re both working hard, and when she’s there and not in the tasting room, she’s usually on the phone or in meetings. But I’m going to do it, really.”
Avery put a hand on her knee.
“I know you are. I’m not, like, nagging you to do it, or anything. I was just wondering. I know it’s important to you.”
Taylor put her hand on top of Avery’s.
“No, I know you weren’t. And thanks. I appreciate that.”
She parked right in front of Avery’s building, and as soon as she turned off the car, she pulled her into a kiss. A long, sweet kiss that got a lot more than sweet by the time they both came up for air.
“Let’s go inside now,” she said in Avery’s ear. “Because I’ve been dying to see those hips of yours move again for me, but up close this time.”
Avery flung open her car door and jumped out. Taylor laughed all the way up the stairs.