Kissing Fire (7 page)

Strength, I needed strength when I was around her.
Why the hell did my brother-in-law have to have such an incredible
looking sister?

“Well, I guess that’s everything then.”

I looked at all of her suitcases and chuckled.
“Planning to stay awhile?”

“Yeah, I’m moving here, remember?”

Nodding, I said, “Right.” My brain was on one thing
and it wasn’t her clothing. It was the absence of it.

She bent over one of her bags to tuck something in
the pocket and her hair fell forward. It was long shiny, pale brown
that had been kissed by the sun, leaving its lightened streaks
behind. But her ass, dear God, her ass had me imagining my hands
gripping it as I pumped into her, bringing her to the most amazing
orgasm she’d ever had. Christ, I needed to get my mind straight
here! But hell, that ass of hers was unlike any I’d ever seen. She
was so...soft and inviting. My arms struggled with the urge to hold
her. I didn’t even realize she had stood back up and was looking at
me.

“That’s rude, you know.”

“I’m sorry,” I choked out. I wasn’t really. I wanted
to stare at her for the rest of my life.

“I’m going to call for a bellman.”

“Yes, good idea.” Suddenly, I was tongue tied. I
watched her pink mouth as she spoke on the phone. I wanted those
lips on my body. Anywhere would be fine. My hand would do, or my
arm. Even my pinky finger. I would die a happy man for one touch
from her plump lips.

She cleared her throat. “Ahem.” I looked at her
eyes. They were large, almond shaped and I wanted to fall right
into them. They reminded me of the Caribbean Sea. They couldn’t
decide if they wanted to be blue or green. I would imagine,
depending on her mood or the time of day, they could be either or
both. That was okay with me because I loved both colors
equally.

“Are you even listening to me?” she wanted to
know.

“Pardon me?” Her voice sounded like silk as it
swished against itself. I was drowning in the sound of it. I didn’t
ever want her to stop speaking.

“I asked if you were ready.”

“Whenever you are.”

“Let’s go.”

We headed down to the Lobby so she could check out
and then we were in the Range Rover, driving back to
Caroline’s.

********

“Miles, can you take her luggage upstairs and show
her to her room? She’ll be in the one across from yours.” Caroline
was busy preparing dinner so I got all of Avery’s things up to her
room and showed her where everything was.

“I’m really sorry you had to do all of this today.
You didn’t know you were going to be a pack mule, did you?”

I laughed. “No worries Avery. It was my pleasure.”
That wasn’t the whole truth. What really would be my pleasure would
be to see her naked and hear her calling out my name. Or to have my
mouth on her lush breasts. I could only imagine what they’d look
like. Plump, full and begging for my mouth to suck on them. I
jerked in my pants and knew I needed to get my mind out of the
gutter.

“I think I’ll change before dinner,” she said
quietly before closing her door. I stared directly into her eyes
until the door cut me off.

That was my cue to get the hell out
of her face. Giving myself a quick adjustment, I went back to the
kitchen to see if my sis needed a hand with dinner. She was making
one of my favorite things ever, her homemade lasagna.

We chatted as I prepared the salad. She was layering
everything in the pan and getting it ready to put in the oven. I
had opened up a couple of bottles of wine and I whispered to her,
“Remember your mannerisms. Don’t do anything the old girl would’ve
done. Tone, action, gestures.”

She was nervous. I could tell by the way she was
fidgeting and the erratic movements of her eyes. “Stay calm and
you’ll be fine.”

I poured her a glass of wine and soon we heard the
clicking of Avery’s heels as she approached. God, she looked
amazing. She had changed into a pair of white jeans and a white
sleeveless sweater. Those jeans clung to her and it should have
been me that was wrapped around her like that. I had to walk away
for a second to make another slight adjustment to my junk. Things
were heating up down below.

“Mmm. This smells good. Can I do anything to
help?”

“Yeah, there’s an antipasto tray in the fridge. Can
you pull it out so we can snack on it?”

Avery put the tray on the counter and I asked her,
“White or red?”

“White please.”

I poured her a glass of pinot grigio and we both sat
at the bar while Caroline stood on the other side as we
chatted.

“So did you get settled?” she asked Avery.

“I did and thanks again for having me. You all are
great to do this.”

While Avery and Caroline talked, I pretended to
listen, but what I was really doing was stealing glances at her
mouth as she spoke. She had this habit of dragging her perfect
teeth across her lower lip. I was sure it was because she was a bit
on edge. I thought she’d caught me a couple of times checking her
out, but I was able to divert her attention back to Caroline. This
was going to be a long night.

As the night moved on, Caroline would glance at me
every now and again, I think because she needed a bit of
reassurance. She was doing great. Avery didn’t suspect that she was
the old Terri at all. Caroline had lived in this role now, had
really become this new person and had put Terri to rest so even she
believed in herself. That’s what made it work so well.

The lasagna was ready and Caroline was letting it
rest the required fifteen minutes before serving it. She heated up
the bread and I distributed the salads.

“We’ll eat at the table in here instead of the
dining room. We don’t usually eat in there unless we have a large
crowd,” Caroline explained.

“Sounds great,” I answered.

“Yeah,” Avery agreed. “I don’t normally even eat at
a table. I just eat in front of the TV. That’s my usual
evening.”

Everyone laughed. “I know what you mean. I do the
same a lot myself. That is when I have time to eat dinner,” I
automatically responded.

“So Just Miles, what exactly do you do?”

Oh hell! I’d opened myself up for that one.

“I’m a private investigator.”

“Really? How interesting!”

“Not really. It’s very boring. Sitting and watching
guys, trying to catch them cheating on their wives, or vise versa.
Not very exciting.”

“Oh. I always had this idea that it was a lot more
than that.”

Finally, Caroline piped in. “Miles always says he
wants to do something more exciting, like become a banker.”

“Ha! Why don’t you go into finance, like me? Now
there’s some excitement for ya!” Avery added with a smile. I wish
she hadn’t done that because all I could do was stare.

Both women were waiting on a
response from me, but my eyes got tangled up with Avery’s and the
words got stuck somewhere between my brain and my junk. What I
wanted to say wasn’t fit for present company...not unless I wanted
my sister’s shoe up my ass.

Caroline clapped her hands and said, “Well then, I
guess we should eat.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I murmured, still wrapped up in
Avery’s not blue not green eyes. Then the corners of her delectable
mouth turned up, ever so slightly, and I knew I was in for it. When
she took one side of her lower lip and put it between her teeth, I
jumped up and said something, I’m not sure what, and headed for the
nearest bathroom.

My face was covered in beads of perspiration and my
damn pants were so tight I felt like my circulation was getting cut
off. I was a mess and needed to get control of myself. What the
hell was going on here? I was thirty five years old, not some
teenager for Christ’s sake. Cold water...I needed some cold water
on my face. After I splashed some on, I didn’t really feel better,
but I told myself I did. I needed to get my ass back out there or
they would think something was wrong with me.

They were waiting to take their seats when I
returned.

“Sorry. I realized I needed to wash my hands.”

They both gave me odd looks but there wasn’t much I
could do about it. We all sat down and started eating. I had to
hand it to Caroline, she sure made some excellent lasagna. As I
watched Avery out of the corner of my eye, I could tell she was
enjoying it too.

“Caroline, this is perfect. I think this is your
best ever.”

“Thanks Miles.”

Avery had just taken another bite and she nodded.
“Mmm. It’s wonderful.”

I loved to watch that fork as it entered her mouth.
For the first time in my life, I wanted to be a fork. Tonight, I
would dream of becoming a fork...Avery’s fork. Oh, to be Avery’s
personal fork and to feel her lips around me every day.

What the hell Preston! Get your fucking mind off of
sex and on this conversation damn it!

“Miles? Are you listening?”

“W-what did you say?”

Caroline huffed, “I asked you if you wanted to go
with me to show Avery some of the sights tomorrow?”

“Oh. I’m sorry. I have some things I need to take
care of.”

Did I just see disappointment cloud
her eyes
? Oh, Avery. I’d love to go, but
you can’t be tainted by someone like me.

“Okay, but you’re gonna miss out,” Caroline
teased.

“Don’t I know.”

At that moment, Avery went to take a bite of her
lasagna, and I saw her hand tremble slightly. As most things like
these do, it all happened in slow motion. The chunk of lasagna on
her fork tumbled off and hit her white sweater right between her
breasts, leaving a big red splat. But that wasn’t the worst of it.
No, the beastly chunk then bounced off and continued to make its
way to that very spot that I’d been dreaming of. That bastard piece
of lasagna got to be the lucky one. It landed right where I
would’ve given my left nut to be. It was proudly perched right
between her legs, that little fucker. I sat there and cussed it
out. I wanted to beat the piss out of it for even daring to go
there...for having the nerve to touch her there.

Because of my jealousy over that lucky chunk, I’d
missed Avery’s acute mortification of having her white outfit
completely ruined. She gasped. Then sighed. All I could think of
was how I’d wished it was me that had produced those little sounds
she emitted and not the offensive lasagna.

My foot suddenly was being stomped on.

“Ouch,” I cried. I finally tore my gaze away from
Avery’s crotch to see my sister giving me one of her ferocious
looks.

Oh hell. I’m in trouble now.

“Avery, let me get you something to help clean that
up.” Was that an appropriate thing to say? Should I have offered
her my tongue?

“Avery,” Caroline said as she jumped to her feet,
“let me get you some club soda. Miles, get her some paper towels to
pick up the lasagna with.”

“Right on it.”

I went to hand her the paper towels and I saw tears
in her eyes. Now I felt horribly for having all those lewd
thoughts.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you tidied up in a second
here,” I said as I went to make a grab for the lasagna. Then she
cringed. I mean really cringed. Like she thought I was going to
attack her or something. Her hands came up in front of her face and
she sort of tucked into herself. I looked up to see if Caroline was
around but she wasn’t anywhere in sight. So I whispered, “Hey,
Avery, I won’t hurt you. Ever. I promise.” She lowered her hands
and that lip of hers was trembling. I don’t know what happened to
her in her past, but something had to make her act this way. And it
was a something that I didn’t like. “You okay here?” I asked.

“Yeah, thanks.” She sort of did this thing to wipe
her eyes a bit and then she gave me a half assed smile. “Not too
cool...the lasagna bite, huh?”

“Oh, I don’t know. As far as misses go, it was
pretty spectacular.” I gestured with my hand to indicate the trail
it left behind.

She laughed really hard and it made me feel all nice
and warm inside.

Chapter 7

Avery

Could this day possibly get any worse? It was bad
enough when Just Miles saw my super duper vibrator and all its
attachments, but there I sat, in all my glory, with a ginormous
hunk of lasagna wedged in my crotch. Oh, did I mention that it had
first ricocheted off my boobs before it finally came to rest there?
And that I was wearing solid white. Lovely. I was a vision in
white, splattered in lasagna.

Then, when Just Miles tried to help
and went to wipe the lasagna from my crotch, I had this vision of
Little Dickie when he attacked me and I cowered. I slunk into my
chair, from him. He noticed it too. Oh God, I was so lame. Way to
make an impression on the only man I’d been attracted to in
years
...yes years, damn
it!

Well, it didn’t matter anyway. Just Miles cleared
that all up for me later on that night. I’d sort of thought that
maybe he was a little attracted to me too. I mean, he’d been kind
of looking at me and all, but now, thinking back, maybe I just had
something stuck in my tooth. I don’t know. But when we were
cleaning up the kitchen, I accidentally touched his arm, and he
acted like I burned him or something. Then he gave me a look like I
disgusted him. Caroline was brewing a pot of coffee, but after
that, I really didn’t want to hang around anymore. I made my
excuses about being tired and headed up to my room. I wanted to be
alone and collect my thoughts. This whole day had done a number on
me. It seemed like it was one thing after another. It was only nine
thirty, but I got ready for bed anyway. I pulled out my iPad and
decided I would read for a while.

That romance I was reading must’ve taken a turn for
the worse because I was being pushed and shoved and someone was
really hurting me. I tried to cry out for help, but my voice got
jammed in my throat or something. The harder I tried, the worst it
got stuck. He started to tear my shirt off and his hands were
hurting my arms as they clenched mine so tightly.