Any response she might have made was balled up in her throat, so she nodded, which seemed to satisfy him.
Avery lowered his head. His lips slanted over hers, his tongue lapping across them as if asking permission. Answering with an invitation of her own, she wrapped her legs around him and sank her heels into the back of his thighs.
His hips flexed, leaving her nearly empty. He rocked forward in a slow-rolling grind, and like a match to a tender box, he was a fire she couldn’t outrun. She didn’t want to. Instead, she ran toward him as he fucked her with a tenderness she didn’t dare interpret as anything other than the residual effects of tonight’s events.
And she memorized every breath against her cheek, every heartbeat against hers, every touch until it blurred into not just Avery, not just Jo, but an us. Until a groan slipped past the haze controlling her. Until he thrust deep one last time, hips locked, and the pulse of his release shuddered through her.
Jo choked on a whimper and a pain so bittersweet she couldn’t breathe as her heart and her body went up in flames.
****
Jo listened to Avery’s heartbeat counting down the minutes as the sun broke over the horizon and panned across the room. Time was up.
One more minute.
She’d told herself that for the last ten. One more minute of lying in his arms, her head on his chest, their legs tangled. One more deep inhale of his scent, a mixture of citrus and sex appeal. One more teasing touch of his fingers on her skin.
Dragging out this last moment only made leaving that much harder.
As if sensing her inner turmoil, Avery rolled Jo to her back and settled beside her. Head propped in his hand, he traced the curve of her jaw with his thumb. “Tell me what’s going on in there.”
Too much. It’s all a jumble. I don’t know where to begin.
“Thank you,” she blurted, “for everything you did last night. I know you don’t like Chase. And honestly, I’m not that fond of him either. I had a hard time believing he was capable of that kind of malice, and I certainly never wished him harm.”
He held his fingers an inch apart. “Maybe just a little.”
She forced a smiled, hoping it wasn’t as brittle as she felt. “Maybe.”
“I get it,” he said, all teasing gone from his voice. “I misjudged him, and I didn’t want to like him because he was such a D-bag to you. I’ll owe him an apology for breaking his nose, and I’ve been thinking about his timing. At first, I thought he caused the situation by showing up, but if he hadn’t, her path to you next weekend would have been clear. She might have actually carried out her plan.”
“I thought about that, too.” Her stomach turned queasy. “I still can’t believe she hated me enough to want me dead.”
Quit stalling. Get it over with.
“Jo?”
Even Avery knows you’re stalling.
She finally looked at him. “I have to go.”
“You should sleep first. I’ll take you to the hospital later.”
“No, I mean, it’s time for me to go. We’ve reached the end of our arrangement.”
He leaned back slowly as her words took hold one emotion at a time. Confusion. Realization. Resistance. “What if we don’t end it?”
Her heart skipped a beat. Was there an actual fence? Was he straddling one of his own for her, like Maverick was for Olivia?
“I had the idea last night,” he continued, “when I was watching you at the craps table. What if we extended our agreement?”
Extended. Another deadline. Another ending.
“No.” She couldn’t do it. More time with him would only make her fall deeper and hurt worse. “I think we’re done.”
His brows dove into a frown. “The fuck we are. There’s a lot more between us we need time to explore.”
Slowly, Jo sat up, reached for the towel on the floor and wrapped it around her. Rising, she faced Avery. “And what? We’ll just pick up where we left off when you get back from Greece?”
