Illicit Affairs by Holly Dixon

Forty-Three

“No,I kid you not, she ended up in a wheelie-bin drunk as a skunk singing ‘Proud Mary’ at the top of her lungs and demanding that I push her!” Ava laughed, running her finger along her watering lash line as she sat at the dining table with not a single bite left of the best pancakes she had ever eaten.

“But why in the hell was she is the trash in the first place?!” Nate chortled, sipping on his coffee as they spent the last hour reminiscing about her late best friend.

“Who knows, but Sam claimed that because the bin had wheels, I had to help the ‘big wheels keep on turning’!”

Grief came in waves that, to begin with, were so strong they swept you away with the tide. They came at such random moments, replacing any semblance of normality with tears that set fire to your soul. However, in time, those waves soon lessen and eventually allow the happy memories to flood in instead. In time, the pain and sadness, the anger and despair, is soon replaced by waves of smiles and warmth, those funny and sweet things that were said. And one day, you wake up no longer crippled by the sting of loss but remember it as a single missing puzzle piece from your soul.

Nate could see that Ava was trying hard to allow the joy back into her life. He had never met a woman so strong and was forever dazzled by her willpower.

“I should probably tidy all of this up now,” Nate said with a groan as he rolled his neck and stood, making his way over to the mess left behind in the kitchen.

“Oh no! I’ll get that, you sit down!” Ava insisted, getting up from her seat and standing upon her weak leg which refused to take her weight as she went tumbling with a squeal.

“Whoa there!” Nate rushed over and only just managed to catch her as his arm snaked around her waist and pulled her to safety. “You alright?”

This is why you need your damn walking aid.

With her back swooped down low, Ava peered up at him with damsel’s eyes and felt her heart wake up from a month of slumber. It was as though her body was trying to remind her of the effects that this painstakingly gorgeous man had on her.

Every wall she had wrapped around herself for the past few weeks began crumbling to ash as her heart screamed out for the love of her life. With her arm around his neck, she pulled herself towards his lips and whined with relief as their mouths mated and his arms cinched her body tight against his chest, finally reuniting their hearts. It was as though he had the power to breathe life back into her as she parted her lips and tasted home.

Nate hadn’t realised just how starved he was until her lips were against his. He poured all the love in his heart into this kiss, willing it to heal and take all of her pain away. Both of his arms squeezed her tiny waist as though he were terrified to ever let this woman go again before carefully picking her up into a bridal lift and carrying her towards the sofa. He laid her down delicately, never once interrupting the kiss as he hovered over her and planted a trail of adoration down the side of her neck.

Shivers ran down Ava’s spine like waves of pleasure trickling inside her body as her soul finally accepted the light back in. She whined softly as his fingertips ran up under her dress, bringing their bodies closer touch by touch. The only frustrating thing was how weak her thigh was, feeling heavy and awkwardly wrapped in the unflattering cast. Her good leg wrapped easily around his side as her other failed miserably. However, as if he somehow knew of her struggle, his palm found her thigh and glided up to her knee. She wanted to scream at the hard fabric blocking his touch until she felt him bring her leg slowly up to his side and hold it there for her. Moans escaped from her lips, her back arching for more as she felt him press down between her legs.

“Take this off,” Ava whimpered, fingers tugging at the hem of his white cotton tee. When he obliged, she didn’t waste a second as her lips brushed across his collarbone and down over each pectoral, lavishing his flesh with kisses. There was a time, not so long ago, that she thought she’d never get this again so made sure to worship every inch of him in this moment.

There was something different about her and Nate couldn’t figure out what. Each brush of her lips on his chest, every caress of her fingertips on his sides, the way she held him close, it was softer and less demanding than before. She was savouring this. Savouring him.

Nate slowly peeled her knitted dress over her head before running his lips down her bare chest. As his lips glided over each of her pink buds, it wasn’t solely to give pleasure, although the sweet noises leaving her lips were welcomed. He too wanted to savour her.

This was uncharted territory for Ava. Her body was on fire but in ways it never had been.

Everything she felt for Nate was smouldering inside the furnace of her heart that pumped molten emotion around her body. She burned for him. For the first time, she experienced pleasure through emotion more than she did through feeling.

As their clothes came off and they embraced one another as two bare embers, there was a moment of lull, a single moment where they stared into one another’s eyes, sharing a type of intimacy that eclipsed their flesh and bone.

“God, I’ve missed you,” Nate whispered against her jaw before his nose skimmed up against the peak of hers and their eyes met once more.

“Nate…I…” Ava swallowed the bundle of flames in her throat, trying to suppress the fire into the pits of her heart that could no longer contain the magnitude of it. “I love you.”

He stared into her eyes, failing to hide the surprise on his face as those three words that he had longed to hear finally reached into his heart and made it whole.

“I love you so damn much,” he rushed his words, choosing to show rather than tell as his lips crashed down against hers and his hands fisted her hair to bring her closer.

Ava wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, feeling like he was pushing her towards supernova as their kiss grew hotter. Their bodies naturally found one another as her lips spread against his, swallowing each other’s moans as his manhood filled her silky walls in one effortless tilt of their hips.

Nate growled into her mouth, his body and soul aching for her as he rolled slowly in and out of her. She felt incredible, sheathing his length, and connecting him to the deepest parts of her.

With the backs of his fingers trailing across her cheek, they found their way down and around her neck, squeezing the sides as he brought her attention back to him. He loved it when her eyes scrunched with pleasure like that, loved the way her jaw descended as he angled himself right at that spot that made her putty in his hands, and loved the way her wild eyes watched him as if awaiting instruction.

“Say it again,” he demanded breathlessly despite only having just begun.

“I love you,” she moaned, back arched as she brushed her lips against his. “Make me yours, Nate.”

A deep animalistic growl left his lips as his self-control faded and he felt his primal urges resurface, desiring nothing more than to grant her wish. With his hands in her hair again, and without any warning, his hips suddenly jolted into her with sharp movements that made her yelp and mewl for more as her nails scored down his back.

“Fuck,” he ground out against the delightful pain as he tilted his head back before peering down and summoning her attention once more. “I need to feel you now.”

Ava didn’t know what he had meant until his hand appeared between her legs, fingers twirling around her bundle of nerves and making her see stars as she begged for more.

“Mmhh!” she whined as everything pulsed and ached for him, her body trembling with pleasure and struggling to hold back the flood of euphoria. Her back arched high until her stomach pressed against his, her neck craning back as she closed her eyes and felt herself become weightless, like a balloon filling with helium, ready to burst at any moment.

Nate felt her on the brink of an orgasm, the way she clamped him and made his dick beg for release. No woman held the level of power over him like Ava did. He couldn’t hold back any longer, dangling over the edge with his body feeling overloaded with emotion, sensation, and love for her.

“Open your eyes,” he all but begged her and the moment her beautiful sapphires opened, creased with pleasure and full to the brim with adoration, his body finally betrayed him as he groaned loudly and yelled her name. It was like her body was in sync with his, her orgasm wrecking him as she spasmed around his manhood and brought on his warm silken spurts to bathe her insides.

For such a short-lasting moment of physical intimacy, the high they both felt was endless.

Ava had foolishly always lived her life under the presumption that duration qualified for good sex, but nothing could ever come close to what she just experienced moments ago with Nate.

Their bodies glistened in the morning sun with sensual sweat, Nate lying atop Ava as his hips undulated lazily with his face nestled into her shoulder. He wanted to freeze time and hit replay, specifically to the moment she confessed her love for him. Reaching up, he stared down at her with a lovesick grin, palming her cherub face.

“Mine,” Nate affirmed, drowning in her oceans as she nodded her head.

“Yours.”