Page 103 of Against The Tide

My cock thickens at the sight of her, at the realization that my mark on her skin is doing to her what watching her touch it is doing to me.

Hazel eyes flick up in the mirror, finding mine. For a beat, neither of us moves. Then, slowly, deliberately, her gaze drags down my reflection. My chest. My stomach. Lower.

Avery holds it there, staring at my hardening cock with zero shame and a smirk that makes my blood run hot.

“Like what you see, Doc?” she murmurs, her eyes still fixed below my waist.

“Do you, sweetheart?”

“Yes. It’s so good, you know...” Avery finally looks up to meet my eyes again, and the smirk morphs to a pensive pout. “Having a mark on my body that reminds me of something beautiful. Something wonderful instead of—” She swallows with a frown. Then with a deep breath continues, “It’s sort of liberating.”

The word catches me off guard. “Liberating?”

“Yeah.” My girl turns the mark toward the mirror again, studying it like something precious. “When you lose control with me, it’s… empowering. Knowing that I can make you that desperate, that hungry, and still feel completely safe?” Avery meets my eyes again. “That’s freedom, Rhett.”

I’m behind her in two strides, my hands settling on her hips, my chin on the shoulder that doesn’t carry my mark. Our eyes lock in the mirror.

“I’m your safe place, Avery.” I press my lips to the bruised crescent. “And you have never looked more beautiful than you do right now with my mark on your skin.” My grip tightens on her hips, and my pulse picks up at her hum. “The sight of you is going to live in my head rent free forever.” I press another kiss to it. “For fucking ever, sweetheart. And every second I’m not with you, I’m going to have to contain every ounce of need I have for you. It’s going to be the end of me.”

Avery leans back into my chest and sighs. A soul-deep, all-body hum that warms all the way through me to the core of my chest.

Fuck. It doesn’t matter that I had her not even an hour ago, my dick is bobbing to attention.

Every one of my muscles clenches in response to the woman in my arms. I’m in a haze, watching in the mirror as she tugs one of my T-shirts from the top drawer and then pulls it on along with her pajama shorts.

Avery’s brushing out her hair when I sit on the bed and take a deep breath to ask her about this weekend.

“Would you come with me to DC?” Avery asks quickly as though she wants to get it over and done with.

“Ah…”

“You don’t have to,” she adds, finding my gaze in the mirror. “It’s just that Callie thinks it would be a good opportunity to talk to some of my father’s acquaintances. I don’t know… I…it’s…”

“Actually, I was going to ask if you wanted to go visit Haas with me tomorrow. Rowan looked into him, and apparently he golfs at the Congressional Country Club every Friday afternoon, and turns out that⁠—”

“Nora is hosting the fundraiser there?”

“Yeah.”

“Freaking Callie! She really did work me over…” Avery shakes her head while gathering her hair on top of her head and twisting it into a messy knot there. “What happens if he doesn’t want to talk to us? In fact, how are we even going to access their golf course? Do you have any idea how exclusive that place is? It’s like the Platinum Club.”

“It’s about who you know, right?”

“Rafe?”

“No, Avery.” For a moment I wonder if Rowan got something wrong, because the way she’s looking at me doesn’t tell me that she has a membership. But then realization sets in as she asks, “Me?”

“You’re a member, right?”

She turns to me with a worried look on her face. “My dad was…I guess we’ve had membership since I can remember, but…”

Avery grows silent with an awkward shrug as she turns to face me. Her gaze is downcast as she continues. “With everything that’s happened and Dad being gone, I can’t see our family membership still being active. That club is extremely hoity-toity. They have a ridiculous waiting list…”

“Well, Rowan seems certain you’re still a member.” Coming to stand in front of me, she looks down at the ground, hands knitting over her flat belly. Something about her reaction doesn’t sit right with me. “We don’t have to do anything you’re uncomfortable with. My diary is clear for Monday, so I can go see him at his office then.”

“I didn’t think we’d be going back to DC this soon, and I’m a little overwhe⁠—”

“I don’t wanna go back!” Iris blurts, looking between the two of us. “You promised!”