Why Not Now? (The Blue Vista Crew #2)

26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Derek

I ’m not exactly sure how, especially given how late I’d asked for the tickets, but Nessa got me excellent seats. I also couldn’t say if I actually liked the ballet or not since I spent most of the night watching Ava watch the show, sitting on the edge of her chair, attention rapt. Her hand finds mine a number of times, squeezing my fingers in excitement. I make a mental note to ask Nessa when the next ballet is going to be, so I can bring Ava again. Maybe also to some musicals and plays this year. Ava had always been a fan of live theatre, but we’d so rarely gone when we were younger since we didn’t have a lot of disposable income. That’s not a problem for me anymore and I want to make it up to her now.

During intermission, I get my chance to ask Nessa about future ballets because she finds us while Ava drinks a second glass of wine and I introduce them. After an injury a couple years ago, Nessa doesn’t dance anymore, taking more of a leadership role at the dance troupe. She asks how Ava likes the show and Ava goes on and on about how beautiful it is. Before Nessa leaves us, she says, “Oh. Carter wanted to know how you’re liking the car and if you’ve had any problems with it.”

“It’s been great,” Ava says. “No issues at all.”

“Good. He was worried about the battery lines or something, but said the new one he put in should have solved the issue it was having.”

“I wasn’t aware there had been any issue with the battery,” Ava says.

I hold my breath, waiting for what Nessa is going to say next. Waiting for her to mention that I paid for the maintenance on the car before Ava bought it.

Instead, she waves her hand. “I’m sure it wasn’t a big deal. I have to get back. Bye.”

She leaves us and we return to our seats for the second half of the show.

“Maybe I should call Carter and ask about the battery,” Ava says as we wait for the curtains to rise.

Now is my chance to bring up the fact that I paid for the maintenance. Just explain everything rationally and it’ll all be fine. But I remember how she’d been so excited about the ballet, and I don’t want to ruin that with a difficult conversation. So, I put it off again.

Instead, I say, “It’s probably nothing to worry about or he would have mentioned it when you picked up the car.”

“Yeah. You’re right.”

She doesn’t say anything else about it because the show begins and she returns to the edge of her seat.

When it’s over and the bows and ovations are done, I guide her to my car, one hand on the small of her back. I hand her my phone. The music is always her choice, even though I’m praying to anyone who will listen that she doesn’t choose the song that had been set to play next on the Cool Down list. It’s the one song that hurts the most to hear.

Thankfully, she chooses some classical music I’m almost certain is from the ballet we just watched, and we drive to her house where I park in the back next to her car, grabbing an overnight bag before following her into her room. She goes upstairs to check on Lacey and I take off my jacket, draping it over the chair with her stuffed animals gathered together. I reach into the inside pocket and pull out the little velvet box that has been in my drawer for close to nine years. I don’t open it, looking at the outside, spinning it between my hands as I consider whether I should give it to her.

Regardless, it’s hers.

I hear her steps on the stairs and put the box back in my jacket pocket before returning to the door to take off my shoes.

“She’s already asleep,” Ava says, pulling pins from her hair. “I’m going to wash my face.” She steps out of the shoes, dropping an inch and a half in height, and leaves the room again.

I set my phone on her dresser and untuck my shirt, pulling the belt from my pants next. Mostly things just to get more comfortable than because I’m anxious to be naked with her. Though I am. I’m looking out the back window when the first piano chords of “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri start playing.

I turn to see Ava with my phone in her hand, the bedroom door closed behind her. She’s taken off the earrings, but left the necklace on, and it looks so good around her throat, partly because I put it there.

“I was wondering if you’d like to dance,” she says, dropping the phone into one of the dress pockets.

My heart aches as she crosses the room to where I’m standing. She must know what she’s doing, the song she’s chosen. I can’t be the only one who remembers.

She twists her arms around my neck and I pull her against me, my hands on her waist as we sway to the music. Our eyes remain locked together.

“That was some dance, wasn’t it?” she says.

I know she’s not talking about the ballet we just watched. She’s talking about the one when we’d danced to this song. “It was the Christmas dance,” I say. “Grade twelve. You wore a green dress—”

“Just like tonight.”

I shake my head. “It was a lighter green, and it sparkled.”

“You remember,” she says with a smile. “This one is better. It has pockets.”

I snort. “That’s why Adalie and Lis picked it out. Women and pockets.”

She must have put the song on repeat because it starts over and we continue dancing.

“That was the night we said—”

I cover her lips with my hand. “Don’t. I can’t.”

Her body stiffens, and she looks hurt, like I’m rejecting her. Could she have brought up the memory because she feels the same way now as we did back then? Do I take the chance that she does?

With my heart doing acrobatics in my chest, I close my eyes and decide to risk everything. I lean my forehead against hers and don’t open my eyes. Like the first time I said it, I can’t bear to look if I say this now and she doesn’t say it back.

“Before I say this, I need you to understand. I’m not just trying to replay the memory. This is me saying it to you now.” I take a breath, trying to calm my nerves. “I love you, Ava.”

For a moment, she doesn’t say anything. Then she gently removes my hand from her mouth and I realize I hadn’t actually let her go.

“I love you, too, Derek. Now. Today. I love you.”

My eyes fly open and I search hers, hardly daring to believe we’ve gotten here again. I crush her lips beneath mine, pulling her body flush against me. I find her zipper and drag it down, my lips not leaving hers as I slide the ribbon straps off her shoulders and the dress falls to the ground. I can’t help pulling her back immediately, needing her skin touching me.

“Wait,” she says, breaking the kiss, and I groan. She just smiles at me. “I don’t want this song on repeat for the whole night.”

She picks up the dress and takes my phone out of her pocket, unlocking it and switching the playlist from repeating one song to shuffling the whole thing. I can’t take my eyes off her in the black lace underwear, my hands fisting to keep from grabbing her as she moves away to set the phone on her side table.

“I’m not sure if you’re more beautiful with the dress on or off,” I say when she turns back to me.

She blushes as she reaches for me, undoing the top button on my shirt.

“I would appreciate it if you just undid them tonight instead of ripping it open,” I tell her. “As much as I love knowing how much you want me, I also kind of like this one.”

She laughs, her hazel eyes finding mine while she works on the rest of the buttons. “You rip a man’s shirt one time...”

Before long, she has it undone and her hands dive in to touch my skin, pulling the shirt off my shoulders, letting it fall to our feet with her dress. I tug her toward me so her lace clad breasts are pressed against my bare chest. I groan at the soft, scratchy sensation of her bra on my skin, cutting the sound off as my mouth finds hers again.

I wrap one arm solidly around her back and reach my other hand into the front of those black lace panties, parting her hot, wet folds and dipping inside her before lightly dragging a finger over her swollen clit.

She gasps, one hand clutching my shoulders, the fingers of her other threading into my hair and pulling.

Very slowly, I perform the motion again, dipping a finger into her core before lightly teasing her clit. I continue rubbing her, from her opening, over her clit and back, barely touching her, until she’s panting and trembling in my arms.

“I need,” she says, her voice little more than breath. “Fuck, Derek.”

“Have I found a way to make you swear, sweetheart? It’s just a little teasing.”

She shakes her head, her eyes closed, clinging to me, shifting her hips to urge my fingers to move faster. “It’s not enough,” she says.

“Are you sure?”

I push my fingers deeper this time into her molten heat, and she moans, rising onto her tip toes to give me more space to move. I slowly pull my fingers out, sliding them up again to her clit, which I circle softly once, twice, three times, until she breaks, shaking, crying out as a first orgasm pulses through her. When she falls limp against me, I remove my hand from her panties and lift her into my arms, depositing her on the bed carefully, then backing up to remove my pants and boxer briefs. She watches me, eyes heavy-lidded as I return to her, grabbing a condom from her bedside table drawer where she’s started keeping them and bringing it with me.

“I’m still in my underwear,” she says as I climb over her.

“And so you shall remain, sweetheart. I have plans for this beautiful lingerie. And plans to take you with me to buy you more. Lots of it.”

I kiss her again, a deep merging of lips and tongues, not moving from her mouth until she arches against me.

“You’re very impatient tonight,” I say against her skin.

“You’re very slow tonight. I want you to fuck me, please, Derek. Please.”

I still as my control threatens to break at the sound of her begging me. “Normally, your wish is my command, sweetheart. But I want to drag this out as long as I can.” I lift up to look into her eyes. They’re sparkling with lust and love and it’s all I can do not to plunge my cock into her right now. “Let me do this. Be patient. I promise you won’t regret it.”

Her breathing is shallow. “What are you going to do?” she asks.

“I’m going to lick your pussy until you come again. Then I’m going to flip you over and fuck you from behind while you’re still wearing these lace panties so I can see your gorgeous ass in them while I make you come a third time.”

Her breath catches. “Well, when you put it that way, carry on.”

I grin and kiss her one more time before sliding down her body, planting kisses on her skin, biting her nipple through the bra, causing her to arch into me again. I continue down over her stomach to her thighs, where I bite and suck until there’s a fresh mark.

“You should know,” she says. “Adalie, Lis, and Lacey saw those today. Hopefully Lacey will just forget all about it, but your friends…”

I place a kiss on the newest mark. “Are nosy fuckers, I know. I don’t care who sees these marks, Ava. If you want me to stop making them, I will. But I like seeing them. I like knowing I put them there. They make me feel like you’re mine.”

She threads her fingers into my hair. “I am,” she whispers. “I love you, Derek.”

My eyes close at the feeling of her fingers and her words. I place a soft kiss on the black lace. “I love you, Ava.”

Then I tug the damp fabric to the side and lick her dripping folds, opening her with my tongue. She jumps beneath my touch and I hold her still, though there’s not much I can do about the rhythmic shifting of her hips as she writhes under me. I stroke my tongue from her opening to her clit—the same soft dance my fingers had moved in earlier—until she’s trembling. Then I focus on her clit, swirling my tongue around it, lapping at it and sucking on it. I settle two fingers at her entrance and she shifts her hips, her body begging where her voice is not, for something to fill her.

I continue my assault on her clit, the tips of my fingers barely brushing her, until she starts to quiver, her body poised on the edge of an orgasm. I sink my fingers into her and she cries out, her body clenching around them as the second orgasm breaks. I withdraw and slide in again, my tongue still circling that bundle of nerves.

She slaps a hand over her mouth as she screams her release.

Before her trembling has subsided, I turn her over, a puddle of sated bliss, propping two pillows beneath her hips to keep them up. I roll the condom on and press into her, slowly filling her, the panties still shoved to the side. I draw my hand along her back to where the bra is clasped and release it. Her breasts fall free as I seat myself fully inside her.

“Derek,” she says over a moan. “You feel so good inside me.”

I drag my hand along her back until I grip her hips, holding her still as I pull out and push in.

“You feel so good around me, sweetheart.”

She glances at me over her shoulder, her eyes soft. “Will you fuck me now? Please?”

I groan, my head tipping up as I thrust into her. “How am I supposed to say no to a request like that?”

She pushes up onto her arms, her ass pressing into my lower abs as I thrust again, harder, deeper. She meets me every time, her moans and pants driving me to go faster, harder.

I slide my hand over the plump roundness of her ass framed in the delicious black lace.

“Fuck, Ava. Your ass looks fucking divine. I want to bite it.”

She laughs, making her body clench around my cock as I pound into her and I groan at the sensation.

“Might be tricky to bite from where you are,” she says, before breaking off into another moan.

The sound of our bodies slapping together mixes with her cries and I try to listen carefully for the change in pitch that will tell me she’s about to come. When I hear it, I reach around to find her clit with my fingers, rubbing it lightly. She buries her face against the bed and screams.

I continue hammering into her as she clenches on my dick, driving her higher until I follow her over the edge, groaning as I empty into her and we both collapse in a tangle of limbs. I press kisses against the salty skin along her shoulders.

After a few minutes, I get up and go to the bathroom, cleaning up and throwing away the condom. I wash my hands, take out my contacts, and brush my teeth. While I’m doing that, Ava comes in, wrapping her arms around my waist and leaning against my back.

I turn and kiss her when I’m done, leaving her to get herself ready for bed.

She’s already turned off the music, and when she joins me again, we snuggle together, my mind returning to that little box in my jacket pocket, the secret about the car that I still haven’t told her. I should be able to tell her about both. She loves me. I love her. I should tell her I paid for the repairs on her car before she bought it. I should tell her about what’s in that box.

I draw her closer, kiss the top of her head.

“I love you, Derek,” she whispers into the darkness of the room.

“I love you, too, Ava.”