“You’re too far away.” He pulled on my hand. “Come here, lovely Laurel.”

I let him pull me upright, and then I crawled onto his lap, straddling his knees.

“Hi,” I whispered.

He ran his hands over the back of my hair, cupping my head. “I like you here, when your face is close to mine.”

I brought my hands up to his cheeks, rubbing my thumbs over the thick stubble. “You’re beautiful.”

He smiled, and I would have fallen to my knees if I hadn’t already been there.

“You make me believe that’s true,” he said.

“Oh, god, it is,” I breathed. “Have you seen you?”

He gathered my hair, holding it firmly in his fists. “You make me think a lot of crazy things.”

“Do I drive you crazy?”

He leaned in and licked a line from my collarbone to the hollow where my jaw met my neck. “Fucking mad,” he growled.

Then he found my spot on the side of my neck with his lips, shutting off my thoughts completely. All that existed was Avi and his gorgeous mouth and his winter scent.

I rocked in his lap, needing to be closer. Finally, my core met the hard length beneath his zipper, making me moan. I raked my hands through his hair and ground against him.

“Your skin is so delicious. I’m going to lick every inch of you.” He pulled my shirt over my head and set to work on his promise. His tongue traced my collarbone, and then he kissed up the center of my throat to my chin. When he reached my lips, he tipped my face toward his and kissed me like I was the prize he’d just won. There was a sense of tenderness to his kiss, but also a claiming. And in that moment, my mouth was fully his. I was fully his. I sank into him, holding on tight to his hair as our tongues met and swirled around each other. It wasn’t a pretty kiss like the one we shared a couple nights ago. This kiss was all tongue and passion, a kiss to be closer, a kiss to be inside each other.

He stood suddenly, with me in his arms, and I gripped him with my legs around his waist. There was no need, though. He held me firmly against him, not letting more than a breath of air come between us.

“I’m taking you to bed,” he said.

I nodded against his shoulder, expecting to go upstairs, but instead, he headed downstairs to his room.

“Are you taking me to your lair?”

“I want to see you spread out on my bed. I want to be able to picture your gorgeous tits and your little pussy when I’m lying there at night fisting my own cock.”

I didn’t have an answer to that. The thought of Avi jerking off to my image turned me on so much, I’d been rendered speechless.

He flipped on every light in the basement, but I didn’t have a chance to take in my surroundings. He tossed me on his bed, making me bounce and giggle. Then he just stood there, staring down at me. I wanted his mouth and his hands, but his eyes were enough to make me writhe around on his soft bedding. Since he wasn’t touching me, I gazed up at him and ran my hands over my chest, pausing to cup my breasts, then down my sides. I hooked my thumbs in my pajama pants and started to slide them off my hips.

I thought he’d take over, but he stayed there above me, watching. So I slid my pants the rest of the way off, left only in my plain, black cotton underwear. Still, he waited, and I realized I was doing exactly what he wanted me to do. Keeping my eyes on his, I pulled my underwear off, tossing them behind me somewhere. I was naked while Avi was still fully dressed, but I didn’t feel shy. I wanted him to see me. I wanted him to have this mental image of me so turned on by him, my thighs were wet from my arousal.

I opened my legs and let him see the effect he had on me.

“Touch yourself, Laurel.”

Pulling my bottom lip between my teeth, I nodded. Then I used two fingers to tease my clit, ever so softly circling it. Just that barest touch had my hips lifting off the bed, seeking more.

As I rubbed my clit, I said, “I thought you were going to taste every inch of me.”

He shook his head back and forth. “You are the hottest thing I have ever seen. I need to look at you for another minute.”

I arched my back and slipped one of my fingers inside myself. If Avi wanted a show, I’d give him the best show he’d ever seen. With my free hand, I played with my breasts, pulling at my nipples and driving myself to the brink.

Avi started to undress, never taking his eyes off me. He took his time, carefully unbuttoning his shirt. As more and more of his golden skin came into view, my hips rocked against my hand and my belly tightened. When he threw his shirt on the ground, drool pooled in my mouth.

When his fingers moved to undo the button of his jeans, my body went wild. Like a teenage boy, I came without warning all over my hand. My orgasm barreled through me, knocking the wind from my lungs and sending my hips flying off the bed. My eyes were screwed shut, but Avi was burned into my brain: those long, lean muscles, his deft fingers, and the thick bulge behind his zipper.

He gripped the back of my thighs, pulling me to the edge of the bed. Before I could register what was happening, he knocked my hand away and replaced it with his mouth. The orgasm I’d just started to come down from crested again, and I came and came, until I was breathless and boneless. He didn’t stop, though. He pushed two long, thick fingers inside me, working me into another frenzy.

I yanked at his hair and squeezed his head with my thighs. This wasn’t the polite, efficient sex I was used to. Avi was a man who wanted my pussy to coat his face. His stubble scratched against my delicate skin, and I hoped I’d be red and raw from him. I wanted to feel this and remember it tomorrow. I wanted to look between my thighs and have visual evidence of Avi devouring me.

He sucked my throbbing clit into his mouth, and I came with a scream. He held onto my thighs, not letting me soar off the bed.

“Avi,” I panted. This time when I yanked at his hair, he moved up my body, kissing and licking a wet trail over my torso. Then he stood, pushing his jeans off his hips and freeing his cock. He produced a condom from somewhere and slid it over his length desperately, as if he couldn’t wait another second to be inside me. Then he grabbed a pillow and stuffed it under my ass, tilting my hips up.

“I can’t go easy on you, Laurel.”

I shook my head, my sweaty hair plastered to my neck. “I don’t want you to.”

He growled and pushed my thighs apart as wide as they would go, then slammed into me, filling me to the brim. Just like the first time, there was no time to adjust to his size or catch my breath before he was pulling out and filling me again.

He slung my legs over his shoulders, keeping a firm hold on my ankles as he took me hard. The only thing I could do from this position was hang on for the ride and drink my fill of the gorgeous man who was fucking me like I’d never been fucked before.

“I love the way your tits are bouncing. You’re so beautiful,” he said.

I palmed my breasts, lifting them up like an offering, which he took. He grabbed my nipple, rubbed it roughly between his fingers, then pulled it into a sharp point. He let go, smiling at his handiwork. “So pretty.”

He never slowed his pace, filling me and filling me, until I was on the brink of exploding. I wanted to touch him, to feel the weight of his body on mine, but I couldn’t form the words to tell him that. All I could do was let him bring me to heights of pleasure I’d never known. He played my pussy like it was his favorite instrument and he knew exactly how to make it sing for him.

When my inner muscles started clenching around him, he pressed his fingers to my clit, sending me spiraling into another orgasm, tearing me apart at my seams. I cried his name and said words that would have made me blush at any other time. But when Avi was inside me, there was no outside world, no rules of decorum. When he was inside me, I was free from it all. I could be wild, and I could be loud, because he made me feel safe.

He moved his hands from my ankles to my ass, his fingers digging into my flesh. “I’m gonna make you come every day. I won’t be able to live without seeing you like this.” His voice was husky, thick.

His strokes grew shorter, his rhythm erratic. “I’m mad for you. Crazy, fucking out of my mind.” Drips of sweat fell from his forehead onto my belly, sliding slowly up my tilted torso.

“Next time, I’m gonna come all over your pretty tits. But right now, I need to come inside this sweet pussy. You ready for me?”

I nodded, my toes curling. I didn’t want this to end, but I needed to see his control slip. I needed to see him lose it the same way he made me.

He pushed into me one more time, roaring. His yells traveled from his lungs to mine, filling my chest with an ache so big, I had no choice but to cry out too.

I lay there boneless and slightly delirious as he pulled out of me and turned to dispose of the condom.

Over his shoulder, he said, “Don’t even think about moving.”

I laughed to myself. As if I had a choice.

When Avi came back to the bed, he lifted me gently, turning me so my feet weren’t dangling off the edge, and then he joined me, collapsing with a sigh.

“Come here,” he said.

I looked over at him. He had his arms open, waiting for me to lay in them. So I did, because it felt like the most natural thing in the world. And when I laid my head on his shoulder, he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me even closer, so I was almost completely on top of him.

He stroked my back with his fingertips, covering the space between my ass and shoulders. “I want to do so many things to you.”

I raised my head so I could see his eyes. He had a goofy, crooked smile on his face. I traced the edges of his mouth with my fingers, studying the smile I worshipped fervently.

“You have a filthy mouth,” I said.

“You like it.” It wasn’t a question. He knew what he did to me, how I responded to the things he said.

“I’ve never been spoken to that way.”

He stiffened beneath me. “Laurel...please don’t tell me about past lovers. I don’t want to know.”

I frowned. “I wasn’t planning on going into detail, Avi.”

He kissed my frowning mouth. “I know. I’m sorry. It makes me a little crazy to think of you with another man.”

Which was understandable. He’d been cheated on by the woman he loved. Trust was probably hard to come by these days. But we’d had sex twice. We were friends. We weren’t in a relationship. He certainly had no claim on me, and I didn’t have one on him. But the thought of him with another woman made me want to gag.

“We both have a past. Hell, your very recent past showed up on our doorstep.”

He held my jaw in his hand. “That’s out there. When you’re in my bed, there’s only this.”

I freed myself from his grip. “You act like this is going to keep happening. What if I don’t want that?”

He rolled us over, his hips pressing mine into the mattress. “You don’t want this? Because I have wanted to be inside you again since the second I left.”

I circled my arms around his neck. “I can’t say I don’t want you. That wouldn’t be true.”

He rocked his hardening length against me. “And do you always tell the truth?”

No! “Ninety-eight percent of the time.”

He brushed my hair from my face, his palm covering the top of my head. “With me, it will be one hundred percent. I need you to always be truthful.”

“Okay,” I said softly. I hoped I could keep that promise. If he never asked about my past, I would be able to.

He pressed a tender kiss to my temple. Then, he whispered in my ear, “Good. Now, I’m going to fuck you again. And I’m going to take my time. I’m going to take you so deep, you’ll be thinking about me tomorrow each time you move your legs. When you sit down, you’ll remember my cock buried inside you.” He leaned back to see my eyes. “You like that, Laurel?”

I inhaled sharply, taking in his scent mixed with our sex, and wrapped my legs around his waist. “I love that, Avi.”