Dinner at Eight-epub (10 page)

But then how deluded could he be when he had no idea what had happened with Anthony?

“Hah?”

“You’re suggesting I tie your hands behind your back so you can devour every inch of me, your friend. That’s not complicated?”

“It’s as complicated as you make it. I love you. I’ve wanted you for as long as I can remember. And if the few kisses you’ve fed me are any indication, you want me too. It’s as simple as that.”

“I…I do want you.” So damn much—which surprised the hell out of her, considering she hadn’t thought of Jared in a sexual way since high school. But she also wanted to turn tail and run, fast. Get away from here and from the potential threat Jared posed. 

“Then take me. As much or as little of me as you want.” Jared turned around slowly and held his hands out behind his back. “You decide.”

Ava gaped at his hands and yanked nervously on the ends of his tie. Should she do this? Could she do it?

More importantly, did she want to?

“If you had the slightest clue how much I want to grab you with both hands and strip off your clothes, you wouldn’t hesitate to tie my wrists together.”

Ava’s chest tightened, her breath squeezing through her lungs.

“If you knew how I wanted to stroke my fingertips over every inch of your flesh, cup your breasts in my palms, and shove your legs apart so I can taste your pussy, my arms would be immobilized already.”

She began to tremble.

“I wouldn’t stop there. Hell, no. While I had my tongue on your clit, I’d slide two fingers deep inside you, over and over, preparing you, exciting you, making you come so many times, that when I finally bury myself in your cunt, you’d be ready for me.”

“God! Jared!” His words shocked her to the core. Her friend was talking about her pussy. And God help her if it didn’t make that very same pussy slick with arousal and desperate to feel his tongue and fingers on her. In her.

His cock too.

“Tie them together, Ava.”

She wanted to. So much. But a part of her, a part that hadn’t existed a year ago and struggled with blind faith, couldn’t do it. Not yet. Not until she’d pushed him. Tested his boundaries. “And if I don’t?”

His voice was very soft when he answered. “I… I’d be crushed.”

He would? “But would you do all of those things anyway? Stroke my skin, cup my breasts…?”
Shove my legs open?

“Much as I wanted to? No.”

“Why not? It’s what you want.”

“But it wouldn’t be what you want.”

Yes, it would!

“It wouldn’t be what you’re ready for.”

She stared at his hands, itching to wrap the tie around them. But still she hesitated. She let the seconds tick by as she listened intently to his breathing, waiting for him to contradict himself—and do what he wanted but promised he wouldn’t.

Jared began to sing, something about superheroes turning their pain into power. It sounded awful, but it also filled Ava’s chest with warmth and affection. Half of her wished he would contradict himself. She shivered with the possibilities of what could follow. The other half shuddered in fear.

Seconds ticked by. Jared stopped singing. The silence between them became deafening.

Finally he released a long, sad breath. “I…I thought you were ready for this. I was wrong.” He sounded crushed. “I figured the tie would help. I’d hoped it would make you feel safe with me. I’m sorry it didn’t.” Without turning to face her, he walked toward her front door. “I’ll leave you now, baby. Give you whatever space you need.” His shoulders drooped, as though heavy with disappointment. He turned to her. “Call me?”

She gaped at him.

Say something. Talk to him. Stop him.

Yet the words refused to come. His hand was on the doorknob before she found her voice. “Wait.”

He did, without moving. He just stood where he was.

“I…” Her heart pounded. “I
am
ready.” Was she? Maybe not a hundred percent. But she definitely wasn’t ready for him to leave. God help her, she wasn’t sure she ever wanted him to leave.

If she’d thought he’d been wound tight before, it had nothing on the intense waves radiating from him now. His eyes narrowed. “For what?”

She held up the tie. “For this.”

Jared’s knuckles turned white. “And everything that comes with using that?”

She nodded.

“Are you sure?” His question was solemn, and she gave it the consideration he deserved, searching deep to find her answer—which she knew revolved around two issues.

First, her desire for Jared. She wanted him with a fierceness she’d never dreamed possible. Especially not after what Anthony had put her through. This desire was very different from her childish crush at school.

Second, and possibly more important, Jared himself. He wasn’t Anthony. He would never hurt her the way Anthony had.

“Yeah, Jar.” She pulled the tie taut. “I’m ready.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw, but still he made no move.

The ball, she realized, had been placed in her court.

Jared gripped the doorknob so hard he feared he might bend the metal.

With every step Ava took toward him, the fear and doubt in her expression turned to determination and desire. He’d waited forever to see her look at him like that, and fuck knew, it was worth the wait.

This time, it was Ava who reached for him, waiting for Jared to release his grip on the door. And when he did, she calmly took his hand in hers and wrapped the tie around his wrist.

The light touch of her fingers sent tingles up his arms.

She drew his arm behind his back and took hold of his other wrist.

Jared couldn’t see her or what she did. But her nimble fingers worked quickly, winding the silk of the tie around his other wrist. Then they dipped and tickled, knocking against him, before tugging once, then again, binding his arms together.

“There.” Her hands fell away.

Jared yanked at the restraint, testing it. It held tight. He turned to face her. “Still scared?”

“Terrified.” She licked her lips. “I haven’t done this in a while.”

“Tied a man up?”

“No, Thurston.” She shot him a droll look, but her chest heaved, as though she had trouble breathing. “I’ve never done that. I mean I haven’t made love to a man in a while.”

Jared’s pulse hitched, and his chest swelled. “You’re in charge, Torres. You have complete power over me. Take this only as far as you’re comfortable.”

Ava didn’t answer. Instead she ran her hand down the front of his shirt, starting at the top button and moving down, skimming it over the material with a touch so light Jared almost couldn’t feel it. She reached his waist and kept moving, down, down, skimming over the front of his pants.

A breath hissed from his mouth and blood pooled in his groin.

She did it again, running her hand from his neck to his erection, her touch a little firmer this time.

Jared closed his eyes and swayed backward, his shoulders hitting the door. He leaned against it, grateful for its support.

The next time, Ava used both hands, running them over his chest, taking her time over his nipples—which hardened beneath her touch—before pressing one hand to his erection.

“Feels so good, baby,” he murmured, part encouragement and part plain, honest-to-God truth.

She left one hand there, cupping him, and tugged on his collar, pulling him down.

Jared let his neck drop, his head dipping, and Ava pressed her mouth to his. 

There was nothing tentative about her action. The instant their lips touched, her tongue sought entrance to his mouth, and it was game on. She moaned, kissing him with greedy zeal, her tongue dueling with his, licking into his mouth, retreating, only to thrust back in again.

Jared rocked into her grip, rubbing the length of his cock along her palm, both frustrated by his clothes and turned on by the barrier they created. Instinctively, he pulled against the tie so he could grab her arms and yank her close. He almost growled in aggravation when the binds failed to give.

And then he remembered that without them, Ava would not be kissing him at all. His arms relaxed instantly.

He chased her tongue into her mouth and spent long, hot minutes losing his mind to the taste of her lips and her breath.

“H-how’s that tie working out?” she gasped against his mouth.

“Too damn well,” he griped and kissed her again.

“S-so I can do this,” she asked when Jared finally came up for air, “and know there’s no way you can stop me?” Her hands found the buttons on the shirt and undid them, one at a time.

He looked down at her from beneath heavy eyelids. “You could do whatever the fuck you wanted, and I wouldn’t try to stop you. Even if my wrists weren’t bound.”

“Language, Jar.” But there was no heat to her warning. There was, however, fire in her eyes. The same fire he’d believed extinguished just a few short nights ago. If he was responsible for putting it back there, then any effort on his part to make Ava his was well worth the risk. And the risk was high. He was putting his oldest and closest friendship on the line.

Ava’s gaze was pinned to his now bare chest.

His shirt hung open, and Jared watched Ava watch her hand as it trailed down the right side of his chest and back up the left.

Every abdominal muscle twitched and jerked at the feel of her palm on his bare skin.

“A six-pack?” She traced the outline of each ridge of it. “Nice.” And then she bent and ran her tongue along the same path her fingers had just taken.

Jared groaned. “You trying to kill me, Torres?”

She laughed against his skin, the sensation sending chills straight to his dick. “With my tongue?”

“It’s a good way to go. I’d die happy.”

“Hold out a bit. I’ll make you even happier.”

His brain short-circuited. “Do it again.”

“What?”

“Lick me. Like you just did.”

She did, and Jared thought his eyeballs might roll back into his head from the pleasure.

“I have one too, you know.”

He looked at her through one eye, too damn satiated to open the other. “One what?”

“A six-pack.”

“You do?” He raised a brow. “You get it from eating Phish Food?”

She straightened up. “No, big mouth. I got it from training like a demon.”

Yeah, right. He grinned. Ava and training did not go together. Even her yoga classes had come as a surprise.

“Show me.” Jared issued the challenge, knowing it meant she had to lift her shirt. The one she had on was so big and so shapeless, Ava could be pregnant beneath it, and he’d never know.

Truthfully, he didn’t care what she hid under her clothes. He just wanted them gone, so she could press her stomach to his and he could feel her bare skin against his.

Ava eyed him for a good few seconds before she tugged the T-shirt over her shoulders, tossing it to the floor.

Whatever oxygen Jared had in his lungs deserted him in a shuddery breath.

Both eyes were open now, his gaze eating up the sight of his best friend in black yoga pants and a plain white bra. “Holy shit.”

The soft and supple Ava of yesterday—yesteryear—was gone. In her place stood a toned, strong woman, and when she braced her stomach, a clearly defined six-pack stood out. 

She’d warned him she had muscle. Twice now. Even made a point of showing him her well-hidden biceps. Still, nothing prepared him for the physical transformation of her body. Another change his friend had undergone in the time he’d been away.

“I’d ask if you approve,” Ava said with a half smile. “But I see there’s no need.”

Christ, yes, he approved. His cock was throbbing with that approval, his erection growing every second. Jared wondered if he’d ever been this hard.

But it wasn’t only Ava’s new body that turned him on. He’d be equally aroused by her old, softer one. What turned him on was the sight of her bare flesh—and the courage it had taken for her to remove her T-shirt in the first place.

The old Ava would have had no trouble showing off her body, but this new one? Yeah, this new Ava wasn’t flashing skin to just anyone.

He frowned, the expression obviously fake, and shrouded his voice in disappointment. “Truth is, Torres, I’m not getting a very good visual.” He let his gaze come to rest on her chest. “Can’t see so well with your bra in the way.”

“Ah, right. My underwear’s interfering with your view of my stomach.”

Jared nodded regretfully. “It would seem. Better take it off so I can see clearly, you know?”

“Yeah, Jar. I know. I’d hate for something as clumsy and big as this—” she tugged on the stringy shoulder strap, “—to interfere with your line of sight.”

And Jared watched, spellbound as she reached behind her, unclasped the bra and tossed it aside. The two full, firm globes popped out of their confines, exposing dark pink nipples that had tightened into hard beads.

The sight singed his eyeballs. Fire zinged through him. Jared had to clear his throat to speak, and when he did, his voice came out hoarse. “I think…I might very well be having a heart attack.”

Ava grinned at him. “Yeah, the girls tend to have that effect on men.”

“I might never recover.”

“You’ll be fine.”

“Soon as I get my hands on them, maybe. Or, as is the case tonight, my mouth.”

Ava cupped her breasts, holding them even higher for his inspection. “I’d like you to get your mouth on them.”

He swallowed several times before he could talk. “Oh, I will,” he vowed, his mouth already watering in anticipation. “But here’s what I don’t get.”

She raised a brow in question.

“Why would you, or anyone with a body like yours for that matter, hide beneath clothes designed for a baby elephant?”

She frowned. “I’m not exactly sure that’s a compliment.”

“You look…” Jared shrugged helplessly and gestured down to his groin with his head. “Do I even need to tell you how stunning you look? How sexy and…how fucking hot. I swear, I’ve never been this hard for anyone.” A drop of perspiration slid down his spine. “But I miss the Ava who sat so comfortably in her own skin. Who liked her body and herself, and didn’t try to hide from the world.”