Chapter 15 #2
It wasn’t sweet or careful. It was messy and hungry, all want and heat.
The kind of kiss that made Avery forget the crowd and the music.
She gasped against Quinn’s mouth, hands fisting in the front of her shirt, pulling her closer.
Quinn kissed her like she meant it, like she’d been waiting all night for an excuse to stop pretending she hadn’t been staring.
When they finally broke apart, breathing hard, Avery’s lips were swollen, her pulse racing. She blinked up at Quinn, dazed and smiling.
Across the dance floor, her friends wooed loud enough to cut through the bass. Gabby laughing, Andrea holding up her drink like a toast, Natalie shaking her head with a grin.
Avery groaned and dropped her face against Quinn’s shoulder. “Oh my god.”
Quinn laughed, her arm still firm around Avery’s waist. “What? We’re celebrating.”
“You’re insufferable,” Avery said, though she was grinning against her collarbone.
“Maybe,” Quinn murmured, brushing her lips against Avery’s ear, “but you like me anyway.”
Avery looked up, eyes soft, lips still parted. “Yeah,” she said, voice low. “I really do.”
They stayed that way for another song, pressed close, moving with the music, letting the crowd blur around them.
And when the lights shifted again and the air grew thick and warm, Quinn leaned down, whispered something Avery couldn’t quite hear, and kissed her temple before tugging her toward the edge of the floor.
“Come on,” Quinn said, her voice rough but amused. “Let’s get some air before your friends start chanting our names.”
Avery laughed, letting herself be led toward the door, fingers still laced with Quinn’s, heart still beating too fast.
Outside, the night air was cool and sharp, a welcome shock after the heat inside. They stopped under the soft neon glow of Velvet’s sign, still a little breathless, still grinning.
“You really can dance,” Avery said, stepping closer, her hands sliding up into the lapels of Quinn’s jacket.
Quinn smirked, brushing a thumb slowly over Avery’s lower lip. “I adapt,” she murmured.
Avery didn’t answer right away. She leaned in instead, kissing her again—slower this time, less wild than inside but somehow deeper. Quinn’s hand settled at the small of her back, holding her there, steady and sure.
When they broke apart, Avery rested her forehead against Quinn’s. “Let’s go home,” she said softly, the words warm and deliberate.
Quinn’s eyes darkened just slightly. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Avery said, smiling in a way that wasn’t teasing now. “Before Andrea starts a chant and Natalie tries to record it.”
Quinn huffed a quiet laugh. “We should probably say goodbye like functioning adults.”
They slipped back inside together, hands still linked. The music swallowed them immediately, bass vibrating through the floor. Gabby spotted them first.
“Leaving already?” she called out, eyebrows raised knowingly.
“Yeah, we’re pretty tired,” Avery said.
Andrea pointed between them with her drink. “Sure. That’s what we’re calling it.”
Natalie grinned. “Text when you get home. And Quinn,” she added, mock stern, “don’t let her boss you around too much.”
Quinn’s mouth curved. “No promises.”
There were quick hugs, cheek kisses, exaggerated wolf whistles from Andrea as they turned toward the door again. Avery laughed the whole way out, warmth still buzzing through her.
They took a cab home. In the back seat, Quinn slouched into the corner and slid a hand high on Avery’s thigh, fingertips idly tracing the seam of her jeans. Quinn was warm with tequila and sweat, with the kind of happiness that made everything feel louder and softer at once.
“Isn’t this against everything you stand for as a New Yorker?” Quinn teased, nodding at the meter. “You, voluntarily in a cab?”
Avery scoffed, grinning. “I just spent three hours in heels. The MTA can survive without me for one night.”
Quinn hummed, squeezing her thigh. “I’ll allow it,” Quinn said.
They tumbled out on Avery’s block, giggly, buzzed, still touching. Upstairs, Henrietta met them at the door with an outraged meow, like they were late to a royal audience.
“Hi, menace,” Avery said fondly.
Quinn crouched without hesitation, scratching under the cat’s chin until Henrietta tolerated her like a duchess deigning to accept tribute. “You’re ruthless,” Quinn murmured. “I respect it.” She popped the treat tin and offered two like she already knew the ritual.
Avery grabbed two cans of LaCroix from the fridge, cracked them open, and handed one over with a smile.
“No wine glasses?” Quinn teased, arching a brow as she stood.
“Too much work,” Avery said, taking a long pull. Her eyes flicked over Quinn’s mouth, smug and soft. “I want to down this, take you to my bed, and fuck you.”
Quinn’s answering sound was a pleased, low hum. “Fair.”
They went into the bedroom still laughing, the kind of tipsy warmth that made the world feel soft at the edges.
Avery tossed her coat over a chair and unbuttoned her jeans, kicking them off, swiftly followed by her top and underwear.
Quinn followed, pulling her shirt over her head, removing her bra, and trading her jeans for a pair of Avery’s joggers.
Avery watched her do it and felt that low, possessive spark light up in her chest. It shouldn’t have been as hot as it was to see Quinn in her clothes, but it was.
They didn’t talk about it because they didn’t have to. They moved around each other with the quiet ease of people who already knew exactly where this was going, not rushing and not pretending otherwise.
Avery pulled one of her soft T-shirts over her head, the kind she’d worn a hundred times before, worn thin from washing and memory. Quinn shed her blazer and slipped into one of Avery’s old Lilith tees from the early days of the company. It was faded, soft, and just a little too big on her.
“You look good in that,” Avery said, leaning against the dresser as she let her gaze travel.
Quinn smirked, smoothing the hem down. “You just like seeing your name on me.”
“Maybe,” Avery said, smiling, already imagining peeling it off her.
They climbed into bed, not tired and not done with the night, just close. Henrietta jumped up onto the comforter, claimed her spot at their feet, and immediately started purring.
For a moment, everything settled. The soft hum of the city outside. The warmth of Quinn’s body beside her.
Avery turned on the lamp, keeping the light low and gold so it caught on Quinn’s skin. Quinn leaned back against the pillows, shirt slipping off one shoulder, completely unaware of how devastating she looked.
The way Avery looked at her made something tighten behind Quinn’s ribs.
This wasn’t about sleep. It was the kind of pause that stretches right before something deliberate begins.
Avery shifted and crawled closer, slow and intentional. “You look so fucking good like this,” she murmured.
Quinn’s lips curved into a small, vulnerable smile. “Do I?”
“Mm-hmm.” Avery leaned in, hands bracketing her hips. “And you’re going to let me have you tonight?”
That answer did something to Avery.
She pulled Quinn’s shirt up inch by inch. Quinn lifted her arms without being asked. The fabric disappeared somewhere behind her. Avery leaned down again, kissing along Quinn’s jaw, her throat, the soft hollow at the base of her neck.
Quinn’s breath changed first, and Avery noticed everything.
“You always try to be in charge,” Avery said quietly. “But you’re not tonight.”
Quinn swallowed. “I know.”
Avery’s hand slid along her hip, tracing the line of her body with intent. Quinn arched slightly, the smallest movement, but it was enough.
“Tell me what you want,” Avery said.
Quinn didn’t look away. “You.”
The word came out rougher than she meant it to.
Avery smiled faintly and leaned in again, letting the moment stretch until Quinn’s patience frayed.
When Avery finally touched her, Quinn’s reaction was immediate. Her breath sharpened, her fingers tightened, and her body gave up ground. Avery didn’t speed up. She let the tension build until Quinn stopped pretending she wasn’t unraveling.
“Avery,” Quinn whispered.
“Not yet,” Avery said.
Quinn let out a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh.
Avery shifted position, moving with purpose now. She slipped briefly from the bed and returned with something she had already decided on long before tonight. Quinn watched her without speaking, eyes dark, pulse visible at her throat.
Avery didn’t rush. She made Quinn wait.
“You said you wanted this,” Avery said softly.
“I did,” Quinn replied.
When Avery shifted back between her legs, Quinn’s hands found her hips without thought. The first thrust was steady and intentional. Quinn gasped, muscles locking for a beat before she gave in completely.
Avery held her there, steady and unyielding.
“Look at you,” she murmured. “You’re perfect like this.”
Quinn laughed under her breath, but it came out shaky. “You’re impossible.”
Avery didn’t respond. She moved again, finding a rhythm that made Quinn forget sarcasm, forget control, forget everything except what was happening between them.
Quinn didn’t beg often, but tonight she did, and Avery didn’t stop until Quinn finally broke beneath her, body trembling, voice gone, hands fisting in the sheets like she needed something solid to hold onto.
Afterward, Avery stayed close. She removed the harness quietly and kissed her way back up Quinn’s body, slower now, gentler.
Quinn pulled her down beside her without speaking.
They lay tangled together, their breathing gradually evening out.
“That,” Quinn said eventually, her voice hoarse, “was unfair.”
Avery smiled against her shoulder. “You didn’t complain.”
Quinn turned onto her side and studied her for a moment. The bravado was gone. What was left was softer.
“I want to make you feel like that,” she said.
Avery looked at her, surprised by the sincerity.
“You can,” she said.
Quinn nodded once, like she had just made a decision.
And Avery knew she meant it.
* * *