Page 70 of Tailwhip
I shake my head. “You really listened to that whole conversation, didn’t you?!”
Holding onto my hands, he says, “The way your eyes lit up when you talked about him, I just thought you were still together.”
I don’t know what compels me, but I blurt everything out right there to Avan. When I talk about the accident, I notice he has tears waiting to drop down his cheeks. When he notices that I see them, he quickly looks away and wipes his eyes.
I grab the side of his face and turn him back to look at me, “Avan, I’m okay. Everything is fine. I promise.”
Avan moves closer to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder, leaning his cheek against the side of my head. “So, the accident pushed you all apart?”
I let out a very humorless laugh and throw my hand up. “I guess you can say that. He told me he was done with us. He also said I was a distraction.”
With that, Avan lets out a laugh. “You’re seriously laughing about that?” I ask him.
“I’m sorry, P, but he really just used that as an excuse. I use it all the time on girls who start to get clingy with me. Trust that it was just a baseless excuse.” I just stay silent after that. “Can I say something about all this? If I put myself in his shoes, I would have probably acted very similar–maybe not to the extent of leaving you. He probably thought that was for the best, though. So, I would say show him some forgiveness, even if you all don’t get back together, at least he can have that.”
I really have nothing to say to that. We finish up our hot chocolate and continue our walk. We come up to this gorgeous tree that is full of lights. “Avan, thank you for talking to me. You are the first person I was able to talk to about all of that.”
As we stroll near the tree, suddenly, a light show begins, illuminating all the trees around us. I am smiling so much, my cheeks hurt. I look over at Avan and he is staring at me with an intense look in his eyes.
“Is everything okay?” I ask him.
He nods his head. Putting his hands on the side of my neck and caressing my jaw with his thumb, he asks, “Ashlynn, would it be wrong if I kissed you right now?”
Not even thinking twice about it, I close my eyes, stand on my tip-toes, leaving my lips so close to Avan’s I can feel his breath fan across my mouth, and he closes the gap, with a slow and sweet kiss, sweeping his tongue along my bottom lip. He moves one hand to my lower back, pulling me as close to him as I can get, and his other hand tangles in my hair under my beanie, deepening our kiss. He bites my lower lip and sweeps his tongue once again for me to open my mouth more for him and I do. I don’t know how long we stand there, but once we pull away, the trees are lit with one single color.
Avan leans his forehead against mine. “Ashlynn, let’s go home. I want to kiss you in private.”
I grab his hand and lead the way out, back to the car.
We are both quiet on the ride home. I don’t think either of us thought that this is where we would end up tonight. Once we pull up to the cabin, it’s dark. It’s safe to assume that Cora and Neha are asleep, hopefully, but we aren’t that lucky. We walk in the front door, and they are in the living room watching a movie, but their attention quickly turns to Avan and me. Cora and Neha both zero in on our hands. I look at both of them; Cora smiles and shakes her head and Neha wiggles her eyebrows at me. I smile and look down as Avan leads us to his room. Softly closing the door behind us, he starts up the fireplace; I’m thankful he has one of the rooms with one.
He turns toward me. “Ashlynn, this is going to sound crazy, because it sounded crazy the whole way home as I practiced it in my head.” I cover my mouth to try hiding my smile, but stop quickly because Avan is being serious. “I know, you recently have been hurt and I also know you still have strong feelings for Anthony.” He pauses and takes a deep breath. “Tonight, Ashlynn–I just want this one night with you. I know we aren’t going to ever be anything more, but let’s just have tonight to be together.”
After he tells me this, he leans down and captures my lips again, and I melt into him. Maybe I am a bit vulnerable right now, but Avan and I never had this in our relationship, and I want this one night, too.
I pull away from our kiss, holding onto his wrist. “Okay, Avan. One night together.”
He smiles wide, his full dimples on display. I wrap my arms around his neck and pull his lips back down to mine. As we are kissing, Avan places his hands on my hips, walking me backwards to the bed; my legs hit the mattress and he slowly lays us both down on the bed. Leaning up slightly, he pulls his shirt off with one hand and throws it to the floor. He stands to his full height, starting to remove his jeans. I drink him in: his chest, stomach, back and arms are covered in tattoos. All things that make Avan, Avan. The tattoos are all snowflakes, pine trees, mountains, and other designs. All the tattoos stop at his wrist, leaving his hands clean. I sit-up and he starts to remove my shirt and I have a lacey bra on, and his eyes somehow manage to turn darker than their normal color when he zeros in on my pierced nipples. “Fuck, Ashlynn!”
He moves to take off my jeans; I lift my hips for him to slide them down my legs. Laying back down, he wraps his arm around my waist, lifting me off the bed and sliding me up to the top. “Ashlynn, are you sure you’re okay with this? We can stop.”
I grab his face. “No, Avan. I want this. We never got to have this together.”
That’s all he needs; he starts to kiss my neck, collarbone and back to my lips. He pulls away, grabbing a condom, tearing it open with his teeth and rolling it on one-handed.
Once he gets the condom on, he fits himself between my legs. I can feel him shaking. “Avan, you’re shaking.”
He put his lips right by my ear, lightly kissing me, and says “So are you, Ashlynn.”
Then, he slowly starts to press into me, making me let out a soft moan. I haven’t been with anyone since Anthony. So, I am tight. Once Avan is fully into the hilt, he holds still for a minute before he moves his hips, pulling out and thrusting back in, a little harder with each thrust. He wraps his arms around me in a tight hold, breathing and moaning into my ear. I don’t know what it is about that, but it pushes me over the edge. He pulls back and looks down at me with strands of his hair falling onto his damp forehead. Grabbing the back of my neck he pulls me to him for a kiss right as I start moaning from another orgasm. He moves his hand down to my neck, not squeezing, but just holding it there. Grabbing the back of my knee, Avan starts to thrust quicker and harder. I tangle my fingers through his hair and push him further into me; he leans his head down in the crook of my neck, moaning into me with his orgasm. He sits up on his forearms on both sides of my head, running his fingers through my hair, and kisses me multiple times.
After cleaning up and settling back in bed, we fall silent once more. It feels like closure for both of us, in some odd way. We lie on our sides facing each other—I'm holding his hand, and he rests his mouth against the back of mine. I am starting to get heavy eyed. “Avan, please don’t leave without saying goodbye.”
I close my eyes and hear his soft whisper. “I won’t leave you again without saying goodbye.”
It’s 4:00 when Avan caresses my face to wake me; I open my eyes and he is kneeling by the bed. “I have to get to the airport.”
I shake my head because I don’t want him to leave, but I know we both agreed to just one night together. “Have a safe flight. Thank you, Avan.”