Kissing Fire (15 page)

I’d been lying on my back staring at the ceiling, so
I rolled to my side and lifted myself to my elbow so I could see
him.

“You said you were tainted and dirty. But I
disagree.”

“Oh, I see.”

“No, I don’t think you do. Preston, if that shit
head Little Dickie had raped me, would you think any less of
me?”

“No! How can you even ask me that?”

“Because you seem to think that I
should think less of you because of what you’ve been through. It’s
the same thing.”

I was met with dead silence.

After a bit he finally said, “No Avery it’s not.
I’ve chosen to be with prostitutes.”

“Well that’s because you don’t
think you’re worthy of any other women. Am I right?”

“Well, yeah, but...”

“So, if you thought you deserved other women, you
would never have chosen to be with prostitutes, correct?”

“Well of course. But...”

“No buts Preston. Just a yes or no will do.”

“Avery, are you a lawyer?”

“Very funny Preston. I’m trying to
show you something here. You’re putting yourself in this position.
Did you hear what I just said. YOU ARE putting yourself in this
position. No one else is. I actually admire you for what you’ve
done. I could kill the bastards who hurt you. Just like you said
you could kill Little Dickie for trying to hurt me. But it’s the
same damn thing. You have to get over this thing and take that
stigma of feeling not worthy off of yourself, because you
are
worthy. I think
you’re
very
worthy. I know everything about you and I’m not running away.
I don’t think you’re tainted, dirty or filthy. It pains me to know
how you were brutally hurt, but that’s it. I’m going to touch you
now Preston. But that’s all I’m going to do. Just touch you. I’m
not even going to kiss you. I just want to touch you.”

And that’s what I did. I reached out my hand and my
fingers started with his lips. They traced the outline of their
fullness before they moved to his brows. I smoothed the creases
between his eyes away as I massaged light circles with my thumb.
Then I touched his cheeks and neck. He was uncommonly beautiful,
with the glow of the moon forming shadows across his face. I wanted
nothing more than to kiss him, but touching him seemed so much more
important right now.

Scooting next to him so that our bodies touched, I
let the tips of my fingers slowly make their way all over his
torso, moving from top to bottom. I could feel the raised surfaces
of each scar as I tripped over them. I lingered on each one,
memorizing each contour and trying to understand how much pain it
must have caused him. My eyes pooled over with water as I continued
my journey of getting to know Preston’s body. It seemed like when I
ventured to the most sensitive areas of him, the more concentrated
his scars became. The bastards knew where to hurt him the most and
my heart broke for each time he was injured and the torture he had
endured. A long time later, I lay my head over his stomach and
hearing his heart beating against me, I drifted to sleep with my
arms curled around him.

********

The morning came all too soon and when I awoke, I
was still wrapped around Preston like paper around a Christmas
present.

“Well, good morning there.” His voice was even
huskier than usual, making me belly tighten.

“Good morning back to you.” I didn’t want to look at
his face yet. I wanted to inspect all of his tattoos that I
couldn’t see from the night before. They were everywhere and sexy
as hell. My face was right there, next to that fine sprinkling of
hair that had me so enticed as it trailed right on down past the
waistband of his boxers.

“You know something Preston?”

“What’s that honey?”

I finally raised my head and had to refrain from
gasping. The man was a hundred and one ways to all kinds of sexy.
His hair had that mussed up curled thing going, and his face was
covered in the perfect amount of scruff. Half lidded golden eyes
stared back at me as I swallowed a few times and then licked my
lips.

“God, you're a tease.”

“Oh, I couldn’t possibly compete
with you Avery. Not even close. Here you are all twisted around me
like I don’t know what, and you’re undoubtedly the most gorgeous
thing I’ve ever seen. Your warm breath has been tickling my abs for
well over an hour now as I’ve just laid here and watched you.
Honey, you definitely win the tease award.”

“Nope, no contest. You don’t have a bird’s eye view
of all sorts of hot ink like I do. Preston, you are killing me
here. These are amazing.”

“You really think so?”

“Um, hell yeah!”

“Well, I’ll have to tell you what they mean someday
then, won’t I?”

I ran my hand across several and looked back at him.
“I’d really like that.”

He took my hand and laced his fingers with mine.
“Come up here. You’re way too far away.”

I scooted closer.

He started kissing my cheeks, then my nose and then
my lips.

“What a perfect morning,” he said.

“Couldn’t agree with you more.”

After a little bit, we got up and headed down to
make coffee and breakfast. I made omelets and toast. Preston raved
about them, but they weren’t anything special. He was just being
polite.

“You up for a hike today?” he asked.

“Oh yes!” But then I realized I didn’t have any
hiking boots. “Oh no! I can’t.” My glum expression conveyed my
feelings to him.

“Why, what is it?”

“No hiking boots.”

“You have running shoes, don’t you?”

“Well yeah, but...”

“They’ll do for today. We’ll stick to the smoother
trails. Tomorrow we’ll drive into town and get you set up with a
pair. How does that sound?

“Perfect,” I smiled, “if it’s not too much
trouble.”

We both got dressed and Preston got our gear ready.
He had large CamelBaks with water reservoirs that he filled. Then
he pulled together some trail mix and stuff for lunch and we struck
out about an hour later. It was a perfect day with a clear blue sky
and the temperature was in the sixties. We both had on light
jackets but it wasn’t long before we had shed them. I tied mine
around my waist and he stuffed his into his pack.

As we hiked, I followed him and admired the view.
Not of the mountains as one might think, but of Preston’s ass. He
had a mighty fine ass. He reached up behind his head to grab and
adjust his pack and his shirt slid up, exposing the waist of his
shorts. That’s when I realized he was armed.

“Preston, do you always carry a gun with you?”

“Yeah, usually. Does that bother you?”

“No, not particularly. I just now noticed it. Do you
ever not carry one?”

“Yeah,” he said smiling as he turned around. “When
I’m laying in bed with a lovely woman draped over the top of
me.”

“I see,” I said, smiling in return. “Is that
it?”

“No. I don’t carry when I bathe.”

So he was being a smart ass about this.

“What about when you swim?”

“Always when I swim.”

“Really?” I didn’t know guns worked under water.

“No, Avery, I was just kidding.”

I slapped him on the stomach. He grabbed me by my
shirt and pulled me close to him. Since I hadn’t been expecting him
to do that, I stumbled into him and he caught me, letting me regain
my balance again. Once I had, he held me by my hips and planted a
kiss on my lips.

“That’s all I’ve thought about since we’ve been
hiking.”

“Good.” I wanted him to think about me as much as I
thought about him which was all the freakin’ time. He had wedged
his way into my thoughts and I had intermittent visions of him.
When I wasn’t imagining how he looked, I was thinking about things
he’d said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that. I think about you, so I only think it’s
fair that you think about me.” I smiled sweetly at him.

“When you smile like that, it’s deadly you
know.”

“Preston, you give me way too much credit.”

“You don’t give yourself nearly
enough credit.”

I spun him around and gave him a gentle shove,
forcing him to move along. Smiling, I began to hum a song to
myself. A little while later, our walk had slowed and I saw his
hand reaching back for mine, his fingers wiggling their silent
invitation. My hand sought his and I felt its warmth as our fingers
laced together. Neither of us spoke a word as we walked along, and
even though my life had taken an unwanted turn, I’d never felt
happier in all of my twenty eight years.

Chapter 14

Preston

Sunshine was the first thing I thought of when Avery
came to mind. She reminded me of the brightest rays of the sun.
Seeing her swathed around me this morning was the most erotic thing
I’d ever witnessed in my life. Her golden streaked caramel colored
hair fanned across my body while her arms surrounded me as if she
were protecting me from anything that got in her way. My heart had
never felt so...so grateful for anyone. Her actions spoke volumes
to me and the way she had tenderly touched me the night before was
the most emotional experience of my life. Her fingertips had been
so soft; it was as though she explored my body with reverence, if
such a thing were even possible.

“Preston? Are you in there?”

She had asked me something but I was so deep, so
deep in my thoughts of her, I hadn’t heard her. Stopping, I turned
around and said, “What?”

“I asked you if you were hungry or thirsty yet?”

“Oh, damn! Forgive me Avery. I can be totally
insensitive about these things. Yes, let’s find a place to take a
break and have a bite to eat.”

“Why do you say you’re insensitive?”

“Because I’m just used to going for hours, sometimes
days, without stopping to eat.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Days?”

I didn’t want to linger on that so I grabbed her
hand again and steered her to an outcropping of rocks that looked
like an excellent place to stop for lunch.

“Let’s sit here. This is perfect.”

I took off the pack where all the food was. I’d also
thrown in some bottles of Gatorade, so I pulled those out and
handed her one. She unscrewed the cap and guzzled one down. There
was something about the way she drank that was over the top sexy.
My mouth hung open as I stared at her.

“What?”

I shook my head and said, “You look terribly sexy
when you drink like that.”

“Really? I always thought I looked like a man. At
least that’s what my mom would tell me. ‘Avery, stop drinking like
that. It’s not very lady like.’ I would get that all the time from
her. But sometimes when you’re really thirsty, you just can’t help
it.”

“Oh Avery, do me a huge favor, will you?”

“Sure, what is it?”

“Don’t ever stop drinking like that.”

She laughed, really hard. I loved it when she
laughed like that. I started laughing along with her.

“Preston, my mom surely would not approve.”

“Honey, I don’t give a damn about
your mother’s approval.”

We sat and ate our lunch. It was the perfect amount
of food. The snow capped mountains in the distance were the perfect
backdrop to our little picnic. I’d put in a couple of chocolate
chip cookies for dessert, so I pulled them out and handed her one.
She bit into it and some crumbs tumbled onto her chin. She let out
a little giggle, but I grabbed her hand, preventing her from wiping
them away. Instead, I bent my head and nibbled them off with my
lips.

When I lifted my head, she had a heated look in her
eyes. Her not blue not green eyes had morphed into a deep passion
blue as she slid the bottom right half of her lip between her
teeth. After I could no longer hold myself back, I tugged her
against me and kissed her. I meant for it to be a brief kiss, but
it wasn’t. There would never again be any more brief kisses with
Avery. She had consumed me...every last tiny bit of me. And it was
getting worse by the minute.

“Avery, Avery, Avery. What am I going to do with
you?”

“That depends Preston.”

“On what.”

“On you and what you’re willing to do.”

Just like that, she laid it out on the table. I
looked at her for a minute and then I spoke.

“I want it all with you Avery. But not yet. I can’t,
until it’s the absolute perfect thing to do. I won’t hurt you in
any way. Not if I can help it. Does that make sense?”

“I guess so. But don’t I have a say in this?”

“Always. But where you and I and
this are concerned, I already know what you want and that you’re
willing already. And I think, or at least I hope you know I want
you more than words can even say. But when we do go there, I truly
want it to be perfect.”

She smiled at me then. “It’s all good Preston.”

“Everything about you is so damn
good.” I kissed her hand. “You’re the first girl I’ve ever...” I
let my voice trail off because I had suddenly become a bit
embarrassed over what I had been about to tell her.

She wasn’t about to let me drop it
though. “I’m the first girl you’ve ever what?”

My eyes couldn’t connect with hers
at first. They were all over the place until they finally settled
home. Her not blue not green eyes always seemed to comfort me.
“You’re the first girl I want it to be right with. I never cared
about it much at all with the others. Oh, I wasn’t a jackass if
that’s what you’re thinking. But with you, I’m more concerned about
your heart...your feelings...than I’ve ever thought possible. I
don’t want it to be just about the sex. I’m probably sounding like
a total moron or something.”