Authors: L.A. Bressett
Although, as soon as we are out on the dance floor and my eyes search the other side of the room, I wish I had never left the ladies room to begin with.
The first sight to take over my line of vision is Olivia, hand in hand with Avery, like the entire world didn’t somehow shift today. My mind slowly tries to wrap around what I’m seeing, but my heart already has it figured out by the raging ache in my chest.
I don’t know what I thought would happen; we didn’t exactly talk about our plans, but after everything that happened today, I’m ready to set everything straight with Jesse, to come clean about everything.
My head starts to spin and my stomach feels sick the closer and closer we get, so I stop and send Vic on ahead.
Avery bringing her in here tonight is just too much. Not with the afternoon he and I spent together. Not after every single wall between us has been knocked down and I’ve bared every single part of myself. How could he? The way he’s holding her hand and touching her is making me sick. I dart off to the bar and order four shots of the strongest alcohol they have. Ignoring the dirty look I get, I take one glass in each hand and throw them back before he’s done pouring the rest of my drinks.
The burn of the alcohol has to numb the ache in my chest. I glance across the room to the roped off VIP section and watch as Olivia leans in and kisses his neck, right by his ear.
Snorting I turn to the bartender and laugh, “She’s had how many years with him and still doesn’t know that he likes the spot by his Adam’s apple kissed! Ppffft!”
The guy gives me another weird look and asks if he can get me a glass of water. I pick up my last two shots and raise them up beside my face, smile extra big, and shake my head no.
Three burn. Four burn. I almost toss the empty glasses across the bar. Oh, to hell with this, I walk off to lose myself in the ocean of people on the dance floor.
Everyone in the club turns around as they hear the music being cut and someone tap the mic.
“Can I have everyone’s attention? Tonight we have a huge treat for you! I just bumped into a longtime friend of mine with a voice like a rock goddess! I have convinced her to grace us with a song tonight, so help me welcome my friend, Miss Taylor, to the stage!”
I make my way on stage, trying really hard not to stumble as I do, the blinding lights making the scenery even better. The less of that man-stealer that I have to see tonight, the better.
“How are we doing tonight, L.A.?” I call out into the mic with a laugh. The audience cheers and I reach down and pick up an acoustic guitar I had my friend Danielle bring out for me and plop down on the stool behind the mic.
I close my eyes and slip the strap around my head and let the feel of the guitar against my body comfort me in a way nothing else can. I started to strum, with no particular song in mind, but one just starts to come out on its own. I’ve never had the nerve to sing an original song, but with this much alcohol in my system, I didn’t seem to care at all about nerves. Or men.
“This is a song I wrote recently. It’s about being selfish, but sometimes, it’s just about damn time, ya know?” I breathe into the mic as the crowd roars and I begin to play.
As the first few notes start to drift around the room, I notice a few bodies moving toward the stage.
“Oh shit,” Vic curses under her breath as a very intoxicated Chase makes her way on stage and begins to play a song that only she had heard her purple haired friend sing late at night.
“God, she’s beautiful up there,” Jesse murmurs, making his way toward the stage. Watching the scene unfold around her, Vic grabs Avery’s hand.
With a fake grin, “Well, come on, you owe me a dance and what better time than now! I’ll just borrow him for a bit, Olivia! Tell Kennedy I’ll be back in a few!” and with that she yanks his ass out of the VIP section and off toward the stage.
“This is all your damn fault you know,” she hisses at him as they push their way to the stage. A moment after, finding themselves beside a very mesmerized Jesse as the guitar strumming begins.
“She could have been happy with Jesse! You should have just let her move on!” Vic whispers to the blonde.
Before Avery can argue, the soft hum of Chase’s voice fills the air and stops Avery in his tracks.
“I want everything you promised
The love and the laughter.
By the look in her eyes,
I can tell she’s nothing but disaster.
Take it all back, don’t give in to her,
It was meant for me, my happily ever after.
The taste of your kiss, the push of your hips; with you I’m always selfish…”
The last note falls from my mouth and I almost hope that the song dealt the man at my feet a blow like he gave me when he came in here with her.
By the look on Avery’s face, he’s got my message loud and clear. You are meant to be mine. You belong to me. Me, not her. I sigh as the applause erupts around me. Smiling, I thank the crowd and walk back through the curtain. Not paying attention, I turn down the back hallway. Opening a door, I find myself in a small storage room.
“Shit!” I slur under my breath. As I turn around to find my way back out, a body suddenly appears in the doorway. The door shuts and locks. I look side to side. There is nowhere to go.
Bring it on stranger, I’ve got nothing to lose tonight
, I think to myself.
In one swift move, I’m up against the cold brick wall and Avery’s lips are against mine, matching the desperation that I had just poured into that song. His strong hands pin mine above my head, the grit of the bricks digging into my flesh should hurt, but it feels like heaven.
God, Vic had been right all this time about men and walls.
“I am trying so hard to do the right thing here, Chase. I don’t want to hurt anyone,” he says, roughly pulling back from our kiss and staring into my eyes. Doesn’t he see how much I’m hurting?
“No matter what we do, someone is going to get hurt,” I mutter slowly, panting, hating that he’s wanting to talk right now.
He swallows, keeping his tormented eyes on mine. “I hate this. I hate what it’s doing to me. I hate that I’m tired of doing the right thing.”
This time I swallow roughly and tilt my head back, boldly pushing my hips into his, “Then stop being right.”
He licks his lips and leans in, the coarseness of his stubble scraping ever so lightly against my neck as he drags his lips against the shell of my ear.
My eyes flutter at the incredible feeling of his breath on me, but his voice in my ear sends chills right through me.
“I. Am. So. Fucking. Tired. Of. Doing. The. Right. Thing.”
I whimper a second before his kiss crashes into me again.
“Do you have any idea how much I want you?” he breathes against my lips, not fully stopping our kissing to talk. It drives me absolutely crazy with need or maybe with anger, I’m too distracted and tipsy to tell the difference. I shake my head, knowing that is a damn lie. I can feel how much he wants me as I force my body as close to his as I can, desperate to feel the heavy pounding of his heart instead of my own.
“I would give anything to have you Chase, to pretend like we weren’t in the middle of this damn mess.”
I wriggle my hands free of his grip and grab his face, kissing him harder. I don’t want his words right now; I want his mouth, his hands—his body.
“You know it kills me… watching him kiss you. I want to scream when I watch you touch him back. It wrecked me to hear you sing that song. To know that you’re at home in your bed thinking of me… writing about tasting me. It makes me ache for you,” his voice is so low and rough, straining through gritted teeth as he hoists me in his arms. I wrap my legs around his waist and moan against his mouth as he pushes me back against my new favorite wall.
“Can you feel the way I ache for you, Chase?” Avery whispers huskily against my neck, trailing his soft, wet lips against my jawline and down my throat as he grinds his hips against me, making sure that I feel every single inch of the way he’s aching for me. I lose it right then.
“Oh god, Avery, I take it back. I take it all back. I don’t care what kind of girl it makes me. I’m yours, I’ve always been yours,” I cry out, lacing my fingers through his hair and crushing my swollen lips against his.
He groans against our kiss, tearing his jacket off in one swift motion. I reach down, pull my shirt off, and watch as his follows, leaving behind the long chain hanging around his neck. I can barely breathe as he leans back into me and slides his lips over mine again, but if I’m going to suffocate, god, let me die just like this.
His hands impatiently pull down the straps of my bra, and I reach out, trailing my fingers down the toned muscles of his abdomen, and yank open his belt buckle. I can’t wait for this anymore. I’ve done enough waiting.
After removing the fabric from my flesh, Avery’s mouth lowers to my breasts, desperately kissing each one. He takes turns tugging each of my nipples between his teeth, flicking his tongue across them, repeatedly, teasing each one until my body is on fire for him.
I cry out, my head falling back against the cold, stone wall. He lets me slide down his body just long enough for us both to take the rest of our clothes off. The moment I’m naked in front of him, he grabs me up in his arms again and wraps me around his large frame. Our tongues dance against the others’ as we stumble back against the gritty, brick wall, the music thumping through the walls so loudly that it vibrates right through our bodies. I don’t have time to think or talk, as his hard, thick length slips slowly inside of me, stealing the breath from my lips. He pulls back and thrusts so hard that the bricks bite into my skin. The feeling is even more incredible with Avery buried deep inside of me.
“Fuck, you feel so good, Chase. So tight,” he rasps, nipping at my neck and jaw.
“Oh, god, yes,” I groan, grinding my hips into him, wanting him to feel just how much I want him; how much I’ve always wanted him.
Avery starts to pound into me, harder and harder as if he’s reading every thought in my mind. I reach up, grab onto his chain, wrapping it around my wrist, and pull him in for a kiss. Letting out a low, guttural growl, Avery lets a hand go, and instead, steadying us by putting that hand behind us on the wall.
I tighten my legs around him as I feel my body start to shudder. My back arches as one of the most incredible orgasms I’ve ever had rips through my body.
I know I scream his name out, but I’m so lost in the ecstasy he’s giving me that I don’t even hear myself; my body trembles against his, but he doesn’t stop. He continues to slam into me, going deeper with each passionate stroke. My body trembles as another world-shattering climax threatens to tear through me.
“Look at me, Chase,” he groans as I hold onto his chain so tightly that the silver feels like it’s cutting through my skin. I open my eyes as my body begins to quiver, his stormy gray eyes watching me intensely as I fall apart in his arms.
I’m not sure if it’s still my own body shaking or if Avery starts trembling too, but his forehead presses against mine as a he calls out my name, sinking into me one last time as he reaches his own climax.