Page 16

Endless Sweets

W here they ended up, Liam would never have guessed. Not because it was some bizarre location, which he had been prepared for, or because it was ridiculously upscale, which he’d also been prepared for. Instead, it was because the place Avril parked them in front of was closed. It was always closed on Sundays at this time. Everyone knew that.

As was always the case, the rules didn’t seem to apply to Avril Knight.

Climbing out of her car, she began boldly walking toward a set of glass doors that ought to have barred her entry. Yet, before Liam did the same, she proved that assumption wrong. Inserting a key into the doors, she swung it open and headed inside.

How? he wondered, knowing he’d only find an answer if he pursued her inside. So, he did.

Carver’s Ice Cream was a small store, the kind that didn’t attract much attention at a glance. It was one of a line of brick stores in this lot, all conjoined, all built well before his time. It was fortunate enough to have one of the corner spots, which allowed it more chances to show off than those pinched in the middle, but its exterior still hardly stood out. Maroon and white pinstripe awnings covered its doors, which shared their sight in and out of the store with numerous massive windows. An oval sign planted into the brickwork hung above these doors. Carver’s, it pronounced proudly. The other stores in the line did similar things to catch the eye. In a city with a hundred different ice cream shops just like it, it didn’t stand out much.

Word of mouth was the reason that Liam knew anything about Carver’s. It was the reason everyone knew about Carver’s. It was the hook in everyone’s mouths, which salivated when any mention of a visit came up.

Because, damn, the ice cream they sold was good.

Good enough for the family-owned and operated business to close early on Sundays. Typically. Not today, it seemed.

Yet, following in Avril’s wake—a familiar enough experience in his time knowing her—he entered an empty store. Indeed, Avril needed to throw on the store’s lights for illumination, as it’d already started getting dark by the time they pulled in. It felt surprising that she knew where those lights even were, but at this point, he just assumed that Avril was magnetically drawn toward whatever would keep him confounded.

As some of the lights flashed on, specifically those deeper in the store, so as not to make anyone passing by think Carver’s had spontaneously reopened on a Sunday, their reflections gleamed off retro-style tiles, alternating between white and maroon. However, they didn’t illuminate any workers. It was just the two of them, alone in a store that had closed over an hour ago.

Arms behind her back, Avril walked up to a deep black—like licorice, which could be found among the various candies sitting in wooden slots on nearby shelving—counter, then pushed through the café door that blocked access to the employee’s side. Scooping a maroon apron off a standing rack, Avril threw it on as she moved behind the counter, then leaned on it.

“So, dear customer, what would you like to try first?”

“Some honesty,” Liam grunted, approaching the counter. He was used to Avril’s antics, so he recovered pretty quickly. Somehow, she’d set all this up with nary an issue. He knew it was true.

“Know the owners,” Avril said, wearing a catlike grin. “Got the okay.”

“Of course you did.” Liam glanced down. The top of the counter was glass, allowing customers to peer at the three-dozen flavors of ice cream—by far the most typical reason to visit, even if their soft serve options were also excellent—available. “So, we’ll be cleaning up after we’re done here, or I will?”

“We’ll do a little, but the morning shift will give it all a once-over before opening, of course. Let’s just not drop any scoopers on the ground, yeah?”

“I’m sure they’ll be thrilled about that,” Liam said.

“I don’t think they’ll mind too much,” Avril said, reaching into one of her leggings’ pockets. Pulling out her phone, she pried off her case and removed the five one-hundred-dollar bills she’d pinned between the two. Sidestepping, she dropped them into a currently empty tip jar on the counter.

She waited for him to comment, but he just grunted again. At this point, he understood that five hundred dollars from her was the equivalent of a normal person depositing a fiver. He had a watch in a glass case that proved that.

“Now, make your first pick,” Avril said, gesturing at the many flavors available to him. “Feel free to mix and match. I’ve got…” She paused, glancing over her shoulder. “Cake cones, waffle cones, cute paper cups. Yeah, all the ones you’d expect.”

Taking a moment to judge his appetite, Liam decided he’d be down to indulge in some of Carver’s famed ice cream. After lunch, he’d gotten fairly active, burning off those calories in his favorite way. Today was a day to splurge, he supposed.

“Start me off with two scoops of vanilla,” he said, anticipating Avril’s response. “In a cup.”

It was as flat as he’d expected. “Vanilla, come on.”

“You saying it’s not good?”

“It’s good, but I wanted to throw together something less basic as my first order,” Avril grumbled.

“Customer’s always right,” he said, which caused her to roll her eyes.

She didn't need to sidle over to obtain the vanilla ice cream. It was already there, right in the middle of the counter. After grabbing a shallow but wide cup from the stack behind her and an ice cream scoop, she slid open the glass door on her side of the counter. Eyeing him sourly, she reached in and removed the top from the carton of vanilla ice cream, then began digging out his first scoop.

“Do I need to pay?” he asked, smiling at her sourness. It always seemed to be that way with them. The one with the upper hand grinned, while the one on the back foot glared.

“You’ll pay, don’t worry,” she said, dropping his first scoop into the round cup.

Even though he didn’t doubt it, his grin expanded nonetheless. After she added the second scoop and stuck a tiny plastic spoon into it, Liam received his first taste of Carver’s in a while. Since… last summer, he believed.

The line was usually out the door on the weekends, and he didn’t have the time to wait around for ice cream, delicious or not, when he was back in town. So, yeah, it’d probably been eight or nine months since he’d last been able to get any. They did sell smaller cartons, which could be found in coolers near the door. Perhaps he could bring a couple back with him. He wondered if Grant and the others had ever heard of Carver’s.

“It’s super good,” Liam said after taking a bite. The creamy ice cream melted on his tongue, the robust vanilla flavor disseminating like fast-moving propaganda over his taste buds. They thanked him for the treat, so it was only right for him to thank the woman responsible for setting all this up. “Thanks for bringing me along. What led you to do all this, anyway?”

“Think I didn’t know you’d bring chocolates or something?” Avril asked, packing a cake cone with a scoop of strawberry cheesecake ice cream.

Now, who’s being basic? Liam wondered, though he didn’t interject.

“I figured you’d bring something like that along. And so, in order to maintain the proper power dynamic in our relationship, I knew I’d have to do something like this.”

“And just what is the proper power dynamic in our relationship?”

Avril batted her eyelashes, then took a meaningfully slow lick of her ice cream. “Hasn’t it always been obvious? You’re the cute, na?ve little brother; I’m the capable, beautiful big sister.”

Liam rolled his eyes, then thrust himself across the counter long enough to steal a taste of Avril’s ice cream. It was rich and sweet, as expected. Carver’s didn’t make mistakes when it came to its flavors.

“Hey, back off!” she said, flicking at him, but he’d already retreated to his side of the border. “You’ve got yours!”

“Didn’t know we needed to be stingy with our ice cream. After you left such a big tip, I figured we could go through as much as we like.”

“We can, yeah, but keep your grubby tongue off my ice cream.”

“Grubby tongue? Since when?”

“Since always,” Avril said, holding her cone away from him as if he’d leap after it again.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize that. I can keep it quarantined from now on. I guess your lusty moans whenever I’m running it up your throat had me thinking otherwise.”

Avril wasn’t the type of woman to blush unless he pulled out all the stops. Like he had a moment ago, she rolled her eyes.

“Like you could keep it to yourself, even if I told you to. You like the taste of my skin too much.”

“More than this ice cream, you think?” Liam asked, depositing another mouthful onto his tongue.

“You tell me.”

He grinned and pointedly didn’t tell her. The two of them locked eyes, saying nothing. As if they were waiting for the clock tower’s toll at high noon.

Avril had yet to bring up the message that Tess had dropped into their shared group text. While he didn’t think this was a response to it, as she made it sound like it hadn’t been a last-minute thing but a plan long since laid, he kept waiting for her to mention it. Perhaps that was it, though.

She was waiting for him to bring up the fact that she was staying mum about the text. If he cracked and mentioned it before she did, she’d “win.” That was a very Avril way of looking at things, and he grew increasingly confident that this was the route she was going.

So, did he let the topic languish, or did he let her marionette him into doing what he knew she wanted him to do?

“Know what you’ll want next?” Avril asked, taking a long lick of her ice cream.

Liam decided to keep any mention of the text in the chamber. For now. “Sure, but you’ll have to let me come behind the counter.”

“Can’t do that, you don’t work her.”

“Neither do you.”

“I do, temporarily. I even got a rundown on Friday. So, I’m in the know—more than you, anyway.”

“Then you’ll have to come over to the customer side, I guess.”

Avril eyed him, which was hardly a bad thing. Every moment her attention was on him, he got to look back at one of the most beautiful beings on the planet. From her vibrant green eyes to the red strands of hair framing her lovely face, if Carver’s could have somehow convinced her to take a summer job at their store, the line probably would have doubled or tripled.

“For a little bit,” she said. “I’m still ‘working,’ so I need to stay behind the counter, in case my customer decides he wants to try a bolder flavor than just vanilla.”

“You’re really trying to get a good tip, aren’t you?” Liam asked, grinning.

“Please, I want much more than just the tip.”

He could hear her voice saying that phrase in his mind. It, or something like it, seemed as predetermined as the sunrise. It was so expected, in fact, that when it didn’t come, it left Liam mildly mystified.

Setting her cone down, she eyed him as she moved through the swinging door and returned to his side of the store. Because of how tightly she’d tied it, the apron contoured to her phenomenal figure, and Liam didn’t fail to admire it. A smirk appeared on Avril’s lips.

“Alright, I’m here,” she said once she stood beside him. “Now what?”

Now what, indeed? Liam rapidly considered his options, then picked the one he felt would provide him with the most entertainment yet might also potentially catch Avril off guard.

“Here you go,” he said, then handed her his ice cream.

Almost instinctually, playing her part as an employee well, Avril accepted it, then stared down at two scoops of mostly uneaten vanilla ice cream confusedly. When her verdant eyes came back up, she found him smirking.

“What?” she grunted.

“There’s something wrong with my ice cream.”

“No, there isn’t.”

“Is too.”

Avril glared at him. “There is not. You were just making stupid faces with every bite.”

“Was not, and there is, too,” he said firmly. “Go on, take a bite. I’ll prove that it tastes weird.”

Suspicion sat around Avril like a shroud of smoke. He could see the cogs turning in her mind, wondering what game he was playing. It was rather fulfilling, being on this side of things, knowing what she didn’t, waiting for her to waltz into his trap.

He even had contingencies for if she tried to shove the ice cream back into his hand. However, they proved unneeded.

“Fine, but if it tastes anything but amazing, I’m gonna make you add a twenty from your wallet to that tip jar.”

“Fine,” he said. It was an expense worth the prize.

Still looking at him suspiciously, Avril collected a healthy amount of ice cream onto his spoon, then brought it to her lips. It paused there, her scrutinizing stare narrowing, but Liam didn’t give anything away. So, a moment later, Avril took a bite of delicious ice cream. She savored it, let it melt on her tongue, and then swallowed it.

“It tastes as good as it always does,” Avril announced.

“No,” he said adamantly, “it tastes weird. Take another bite.”

“You’re on a short lease, whatever it is you’re doing,” Avril grunted, though she ultimately let him continue having his way. The scene from moments ago replayed itself.

Avril deepened her voice once she’d swallowed this bite. “It. Taste. Good. Yum. Yum. Nothing. Wrong.”

“You’re just not getting it,” Liam sighed, throwing his hands up. Grabbing his ice cream and spoon from Avril’s grasp, he scooped up a third bite, then extended it toward her.

“You haven’t gone looney on me, have you?” Avril demanded, folding her arms. “What kind of bit is this?”

“Not ‘bit,’ take a bite, Miss Cavewoman,” he said, grinning.

Rolling her eyes harder than he’d ever seen her do, Avril leaned forward, mouth open, and accepted the third bite of ice cream.

That was when Liam struck.

Before it could melt on her tongue, even before she could fully pull away, he struck. He’d intentionally held the spoon back, forcing Avril to lean toward him to collect the ice cream on his spoon.

Scheming 101. Distract, befuddle, strike.

His mouth pressed into hers before she knew what was happening. Like she’d done to him earlier at her apartment, he came in for a kiss when she wasn’t prepared to defend herself. However, he didn’t redirect at the last second. Not one bit. He did the opposite.

While her eyes widened, his tongue pushed into her mouth. He pushed it into the ice cream on her tongue like a determined driver trying to make it out of their neighborhood following a blizzard. It chilled his tongue, but that, too, was a price worth paying.

Avril’s defenses came up sluggishly. That gave him all the time in the world to deepen the kiss, to maneuver them both so that he could press her back against the counter, and to absorb the shock emanating from her eyes. He wasn’t sure what was more satisfying, the taste of ice cream mixed with Avril Knight, the surprise his tactic had evoked, or what came after. Because Avril did regain her composure, and as she was not the type to stay on the defense, after regathering her routing forces, she came back with a charge of her own.

Swinging her arms around his neck, she pulled him into her mouth. Sticking his spoon into his ice cream, he extended the container to his side, then set his free hand on Avril’s hip as he leaned into her. The heat of their tongues rapidly melted the cream in her mouth, and then she had full use of her tongue again. Coiling it around his, holding him to her lips, she didn’t release him until they were both equally out of breath. It was messy, passionate, and satisfying—a perfect summation of his feelings about Avril.

Avril’s eyes shone like a pair of emeralds that had infiltrated the stars as their mouths parted. Like Anna, she didn’t unwrap her arms right away. That kept their mouths close, nearly touching, their breath hot against the other’s face. They each trembled with desire, worked up enough that it felt inevitable that things would escalate.

It didn’t. Again, Avril’s non-response surprised him. She didn’t order him to strip; she didn’t invite him to strip her. He got a few more quick kisses, and then she let go of him.

“You’d better drop that twenty in that tip jar, sir,” she whispered, grinning.

That part, the grin, confused him even more. If she’d been upset about something, unusual as it might be to see her upset about something, he would have at least understood why she didn’t stay with him. Yet, as she moved back around to the other side of the counter, clearing her throat and pointing at the tip jar, he was mired in confusion.

“I’d hoped you’d stay over on my side a little longer,” Liam eventually said once five hundred and twenty dollars now awaited the morning crew, deciding to say it straight up. “For a lot longer, potentially.”

“I’m at work,” Avril said, leaning over the counter with a smile. “We can’t fuck while I’m at work. You’ll get me fired!”

So, she’d really brought him here only for the ice cream? Accepting that was like trying to swallow a brick. It felt so off from the woman he knew, enough that it shouldn’t be possible unless he’d fallen into an alternate universe when he wasn’t looking.

“But we can make out?”

“Sure,” Avril said. “We can do that plenty. That’s normal workplace behavior.”

Is it? he thought dubiously. While it might be slightly more acceptable to employers, most probably didn’t like seeing their employees lock lips for prolonged lengths of time during their shifts.

“But no sex?” Liam asked, trying to wrap his head around this new angle of Avril’s scheme.

He’d graduated from Scheming 101. He’d forgotten that Avril had graduated from far more advanced courses.

“No sex,” Avril confirmed. “Can’t be doing that, not while I’m on my shift.”

“And… when does your shift end?”

“When I take off this apron, lock things up, and we head back to my apartment for some leftover paella.”

“I… see.” But he didn’t see, not really. The storm clouds weren’t parting, allowing him to glimpse the clear blue sky. “I was hoping to see you in only that apron. Is that also forbidden?”

Avril pursed her lips, briefly thoughtful. “Maybe the top half can come off. A compromise for you, so you don’t keep pouting.”

“I’m not—!”

He cut himself off. He might be pouting; it was hard to read his current suite of emotions. After learning about these unpleasant stipulations, he didn’t know what kind of expression he now made.

“Admittance is the first step,” Avril teased, picking up her cone and cleaning up its sides before it started dripping onto the counter.

“Whatever,” he said, grabbing another bite of his ice cream. “So, no sex tonight. Kind of unexpected, coming from you.”

“I live to be unexpected,” Avril grinned. “Besides, we both know your dick got plenty wet yesterday. I bet you could use a day of recovery.”

“I’ve got a whole week of it coming after tonight,” he growled in response. But he also clutched what Avril had just let slip. Even though she’d acted like she knew what he and Anna had gotten up to, she was seriously underestimating her best friend. After all, his dick had gotten “plenty wet” more recently than yesterday.

Plenty is correct, Liam thought, fondly remembering what Anna had done to lubricate his cock only a couple of hours ago.

“So, you are mad about that message Tess put in our group text!” he accused, letting the fact that he’d been the one to send that message stay unstated. “Why are you taking it out on me?”

“Mad? Who’s mad?” Avril began finishing up her single scoop of ice cream. Meanwhile, Liam had pretty much forgotten about his. “Why would I be mad? I was the one who helped you land that sexy, sexy professor, remember? Things are going great, I’d say.”

“Except right now, where you’re cutting me off from getting to fuck your sexy ass.”

“You can’t go a single weekend without churning my insides, Liam?” Avril asked, batting her eyelashes. “Are you that addicted to me?”

He could have denied it, but what was the point? The lie would be as unbelievable as an adrenaline junkie proclaiming that his new favorite sport was mini golf. Such a lie would get him nowhere. So, instead, Liam finally pursued an answer to that question he’d been wondering about for the past few weeks.

“I figured my girlfriend would want me to ‘churn her insides’ on Valentine’s Day. I’m wrong about that?”

Mid-lick, Avril’s tongue—her whole body, save for a single eyebrow—paused. That eyebrow arched, then held there.

“Girlfriend? I think you’re mixing me up with someone else. I thought she was your girlfriend.”

Liam held her gaze and asked, “Well, then what are we?”

Another part of Avril came free. Her smile could have rejuvenated a man on the brink of death. It wasn’t teasing, it wasn’t playful, it was just pure, undiluted radiance.

“You’ve become so, so conniving. I remember when I had to pave the path for all our conversations. And now look at you!”

“I want an answer,” Liam said firmly. “We can talk about it first, obviously.”

“What’s to talk about?” Avril said lightly, night to his day. “I’m your big sis. And your talented, beautiful teacher, who needs to be the angel on your shoulder so very often.”

The devil, you mean, Liam thought.

“The giver of gifts, the granter of vacations,” Avril continued, counting off on each finger. “The Sultan of Swat, the King of Crash, the Colossus of Clout.”

Liam’s brow creased. “Yeah?”

Anna’s expression immediately transformed into a dull stare. “You’re killin’ me, Liam.”

She paused, obviously waiting for him to make some sort of connection. When he didn’t, Avril hurled her hands into the air and scoffed loudly.

“Come on!” she griped. “Those are iconic lines, Liam! From The Sandlot! Please tell me you’ve seen it.”

“I’ve heard of it.”

“Ugh,” Avril groaned. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed in you than right now.”

“Harsh,” he replied. “I’ve seen Field of Dreams, at least.”

“If you hadn’t, I’d have to dump you on the spot.”

“So, we are dating?”

“Duh,” Avril snorted, rolling her eyes. “Even if you’ve just gut-punched me over your lack of culture, I still like you… well enough.”

“Sweeping me off my feet with such a compliment,” he said drolly, and Avril turned groan into grin.

“The best someone who hasn’t seen The Sandlot is gonna get from me, frankly. At least I know now that you need to watch it on our flight. No joining the Mile High Club until you do. That’s for me or Tess, in case you’re wondering.”

Liam opened his mouth to say something, then let the words die on his lips. That, of course, was because he hadn’t yet really thought about the plane ride itself. How far was the trip to Fiji? Eight hours? Ten? How would he spend that time?

Apparently, some of it was now called for, as it’d just been decided that he needed to watch a thirty-year-old baseball during the trip. But the other many, many hours?

“Would you like a napkin for your drool, sir?” a husky voice called from the other side of the counter.

Snapping himself back to the present, Liam found Avril smirking at him. He blushed and grunted that he didn’t. Which did little to curtail her amusement.

“You’re still so innocent,” Avril said, leaning her arms on the counter, then her chin on her arms. “It’s like you’re frolicking in this beautiful, peaceful meadow, unaware of how much-depraved sex is happening just over the nearby hill.”

“Seeing as how I’m involved in that depraved sex, I don’t agree.”

“But you weren’t thinking about fucking me and Tess on the plane, way, way up in the clouds?” she pressed, already knowing the answer.

“It’s still a month and a half out,” he said.

“So, when did you think you’d start planning to make it happen?”

Liam shrugged, and so Avril’s smirk remained.

“What about our next threeway?” Avril added, tilting her cheek onto her left arm, staring at him pointedly with gorgeous eyes. “When have you decided to plan that one for?” She flicked a finger up before he could say anything. “Wait, don’t tell me. You haven’t been working toward getting another one.”

“How does someone ‘work’ toward getting a threeway?”

“Same way he works toward getting anything like that,” Avril said. “By bringing it up, by working it into the conversation. By being active about it.”

Steps behind. He always was. Each time he felt like he was making progress, Avril had to flick him on the forehead and shake her head, amused at him for thinking he’d risen to the same level as her. In this, much like yesterday, he was barely competent at chess, while Avril could play multiple masterful games simultaneously.

“Would you be up for—”

He let the question die on his lips, watching Avril exaggeratedly nod up and down from practically the first word.

“Okay, so there’s one yes,” he said.

“And now it’s up to you to get Tess to agree. I bet it won’t be so hard. Especially if it’s something you suggest we could do during our exotic getaway.”

“Yeah… I’ll bring it up,” he said.

“Nervous about doing so?” Avril asked. “Think she’ll get mad at you over wanting to see two beautiful women worshipping your cock at the same time?”

The image alone caused some blood flow to redirect itself into his groin, so Liam knew the reality would at least live up to the one prior event. That one had shocked him, and he’d spent much of the unforgettable experience in awe that it was even happening in the first place. This would be different. Avril was making it clear that she wouldn’t do the legwork this time around.

He needed to check with Tess about her willingness to engage in another threesome. According to Avril, he should have already done it.

Would it shock her if she learned about my deal with Victoria? he wondered. He felt it’d at least earn him a visual reaction, though he knew he could only fantasize about how it would look. He intended to keep his word to Victoria, even if it meant that Avril continued thinking he was still several steps behind her.

“Don’t you worry about it,” he said, poking her forearm. “But if you don’t hurry up and get out of your clothes, I’m going to start thinking you’re stalling.”

Snorting, Avril shoved herself away from the counter. Within seconds, she’d escaped the apron’s loop behind her neck. As the apron bent in half, falling to her waist, the gorgeous redhead began undoing the buttons of her cardigan. It hit the counter not long after, leaving Avril in only a plain white tee.

And the bra underneath. If she didn’t remove that too, he’d complain.

Without looking the slightest bit hesitant, Avril removed her shirt, revealing the smooth, fair skin beneath. He suspected it’d be a little cool to the touch right now, as Avril’s resilience to the cold was near the worst he’d ever seen. Standing behind a refrigerated counter, he almost expected her to begin shivering before long.

Dumping her shirt beside her cardigan, she was left standing in nothing above the waist but a light gray sports bra. It sat so snug against her large breasts that Liam couldn’t help but stare. Avril smiled as she began to remove it.

He asked her to stop.

“You want my bra to stay on?” Avril asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“No, I just want to be the one to take it off,” he said.

“Customers aren’t allowed on this side of the counter,” Avril repeated.

“Make an exception just this once?” Liam asked. “For your boyfriend?”

Avril narrowed her eyes, but he continued to hold his expression. With a mighty sigh, the gorgeous woman across the counter relented.

“Fine, you can come back here. However!” She suddenly grabbed a new ice cream scoop, then gestured with it toward his groin. “All pants will stay as they are on this side of the counter. No cocks will become visible, or else they get scooped off.” Avril made an upward arcing swish with the metal tool.

“That sounds incredibly painful,” Liam said, already walking around toward the swinging doors that would let him reach Avril—his other girlfriend. His heart skipped a beat, but he wasn’t sure if it was from that realization or imagining how it might feel to be castrated by a blunt ice cream scoop.

“It’s supposed to,” Avril said, waving the metal implement at him as he finally stepped across the line.

Holding his hands up as if Avril were leveling a much more dangerous weapon at him, he made a show of slowly edging toward her. In response, she made a show of warding him away with her blunt implement. A sidle, then a jab, a sidle, then a jab. They repeated the process until he found a safe place behind the voluptuous redhead.

A “safe” place, anyway. This was hardly a good place to relax, as evidenced by Avril subtly pushing her hips back. It took Liam’s resilience not to grab hold of her curvaceous figure and pull her the rest of the way back.

Wait… why wasn’t he doing that?

Idiot, he thought, then followed through with his desire. If ever there was a time to put his hands all over Avril, it was right now. Grabbing her hips, he pulled her back the rest of the way. Her heavenly butt found his hardening cock, and glancing over her shoulder at him, eyebrow lifted by amusement, she swirled her hips gently.

“Careful,” the beautiful woman warned, lifting the ice cream scoop. “No pants, no service.”

“I’m just admiring one of your many enviable aspects,” Liam said, grinding his cock into her butt. It sent a thrill through him, spreading like electricity racing down powerlines after the fix to a power outage. God, he wanted to fuck her right now. But when didn’t he?

“What other ones are out and about?” Avril asked, batting falsely innocent eyelashes.

“Funny you should use that choice of words,” he responded, pressing deeper into her. At the same time, his hands began their excited climb up the deep curves of her body—and he did find her skin slightly cool to the touch. He almost made a joke about it, but he found his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. Her figure was sublime, and his hands ached to linger and explore more of her sides. He didn’t let them. Not this time, at least.

“Funny?” Avril purred as his hands edged closer to the fabric of her sports bra. “Intentional.”

Grinning, Liam leaned forward and kissed the back of her neck through her vibrant hair. His fingertips buzzed with anticipation as they climbed the final few inches of creamy, smooth skin before they met fabric. There, they settled, but only briefly. Like the end of an arduous climb up a cliff face, they took a rest right before the summit. Summits.

Slipping his fingertips between her bra and skin, Liam cleared his throat when Avril didn’t react. More loudly, he did it a second time when she remained inactive.

“Oh, sorry,” she said, wearing a cheeky smile as she glanced back at him. “I thought you had it covered.”

Her arms went up afterward, bending at the elbow as she set her hands behind her head as if he were intending to throw handcuffs around her wrists. Damnit, now he had to push through that fantasy. Unbeknownst to them both, it was one that he would eventually make good on.

Once Avril had dropped the top half of her apron and bumped her butt against his cock for good measure, Liam finally started to let her breasts escape their snug confines. He made sure to take his sweet, sweet time, and he even got a shiver out of her.

“Cold?” he whispered.

“Yes, freezing. We’re in an ice cream shop, silly boy.”

“Yeah, but I’m feeling plenty warm,” he replied, lifting the bra higher. Her breasts escaped, though his visibility was poor for that specific delight. It was a price he paid, as it allowed him to set his lips on the newly revealed skin of her back. Kissing it multiple times, he carried her bra up past her shoulders, then her head, all the way up to the crook of her arms.

Before Avril could make another wisecrack, he let go, letting her decide where to put the thing. He focused on getting his hands where they desperately wished to go. His warm palms pressed into Avril’s sides; his fingertips landed on the sides of her large breasts. The contact thrilled him with another thunderbolt of desire. The anticipation burbled at the cauldron's edge, about to spill over.

“Should I put my apron back on?” Avril asked teasingly.

“Go ahead, then turn around and let me have a good look. Maybe a few pictures?”

“Maybe,” Avril cooed. Depositing her bra with the rest of her clothes, she reached down to collect her apron. Slowly. Intentionally slowly.

Liam moved a little less slowly. He didn’t rush; he had the self-control to resist charging ahead. He also had the experience—more and more with each coming weekend. Especially with these beautiful breasts.

As Avril slowly began to grip the fallen half of her apron, Liam slid his fingers beneath her breasts. Even with all his familiarity, their heft always caught him slightly off guard. Combined, they must have weighed five or six pounds, and he lifted them slightly with his hands. It almost felt like a necessity, some undisputable urge, as though he couldn’t start to explore before reminding himself of just how much there was to explore.

Liam's hands arced upward like a sunshade rising to dampen sunlight rushing through a window. They followed the perfectly curving slope of Avril’s full breasts, then skimmed across the front. Over two stiffened nipples, which he knew she would also say was solely because of the coldness behind the counter, then up to the gradual end of her breasts. Up a little higher, fingertips gliding over her collarbone, then the base of her neck. Then back down, with Liam kissing her shoulder blade as he resettled his hands beneath her breasts.

“You love my titties,” Avril chuckled.

“I love your titties,” Liam confirmed, feeling no abashment at all to admit it.

And she loved it when he touched them. As evidenced by how she’d paused when his hands had started their journey. Slow had become frozen, and the apron would have to wait a little longer before it could cover her stomach and breasts.

On their next journey, he circled his fingertips in gentle motions as they made their climb. Avril drew in an appreciative breath, pushing her whole body into him. Not as sensitive as Anna, but still sensitive. He was happy about that. He didn’t ever want her to feel bored or impatient when he touched her.

Making their way toward her areolae, he stayed soft and pleasant. Circling her pert nipples over and over, he resisted the need to pinch them too quickly. Rather than a breath, this attention received a tremble. Avril’s breasts rose with each deep breath she took, and she indulged even longer in the continual bliss he provided. The heat, too, which his fingertips spread with each circular pass.

“Say when,” Liam whispered, taking full advantage of one of the rare times when he was wholly in control.

More often than not, he would have expected Avril to bite her tongue and resist. But that was apparently the last thing she wanted to do right now.

“When,” she whispered breathily.

Liam closed the loop of his fingertips. Centimeter by centimeter, until they met the base of Avril’s stiff nipples, he brought them together.

They were also a little chilly, though that would also soon change. Bringing his forefingers and thumbs together in unison, he lightly pinched both of Avril’s nipples. She inhaled again, remaining perfectly still, awaiting his decisions. That, in and of itself, aroused him.

He chose to keep things light, which he knew was her typical preference. Not only that, but he needed to keep himself in check. He didn’t think she was hoping he’d break her one rule, so if things got too energetic, it might be unpleasant for them both when she had to rein him in. Though, he could check. What was the harm?

“That rule about pants, it’s concrete?” he asked, gently rolling her nipples between his fingers.

“Mmm, very,” Avril whispered. “It’s gotta last the night.”

“Okay,” he said, unable to entirely hide his disappointment.

Looking over her shoulder, Avril smirked playfully. “Are you no longer in a good mood?”

“I’m fine, I’ll be fine.” Refocusing on what he could have, he kept playing with Avril’s nipples. And she started grinding against him, which didn’t help him stay coolheaded. Two aroused bodies pressed upon one another, and it felt almost impossible that they didn’t rip more clothes off.

Instead, the opposite occurred. Of Liam’s own doing, in fact.

“It’s not going to stop once you have that apron back on,” Liam said. “My hands will fit underneath just fine.”

“Oh, will they?”

He nodded. “Let me prove it.”

Remotivated into action, Avril finally lifted the apron. Liam didn’t let go of her breasts, nor did he stop titillating them. The gentle gyrations continued as the apron’s fabric covered the backs of his hands. Avril bent her neck forward, then refitted the apron into the proper place.

As promised, his hands didn’t stop playing with her breasts.

“Can you make me my next order?” he asked, pulling on her right nipple. Avril hissed between her teeth, then glared at him. He responded by rolling it, which caused her luscious lips to tremble.

“What do you want?” she asked, voice sounding a little fractured, a little less composed.

“They’ve got butter pecan?” He knew they did.

Avril looked around but didn’t find it in any of the tubs within arm’s reach. “I’ll have to look for it.”

“Should I let go?”

“You want that ice cream, don’t you?”

“I suppose,” Liam sighed, finally releasing Avril, who raised an eyebrow but started moving away, searching for the correct tub. She found it near the end of the counter.

She made sure he enjoyed the following sight, bending forward exaggeratedly as she rolled up a ball of butter pecan ice cream in its tub. From heel to head, she was just so dangerously sexy. In the way her long legs traveled to a shapely ass, in the way her gorgeous eyes glowed as she glanced over at him, and in the way her luscious mouth framed a coy smile.

As she “worked,” the apron fell away slightly, giving him more and more of her right breast’s side to look at. He could still see its nubile peak pushing through the fabric. Gathering up a healthy ball of ice cream, she finally stood back up. She deposited just the one scoop into a nearby cup. Her hand extended it toward him.

Like a fish that desperately wanted to see where its hook led it, he glided toward her. He absentmindedly took the ice cream from her, but neither expected him to slow down. Not until his mouth took hers and their chests pressed together did his momentum lessen. And it only lessened. Avril tried to hold her ground, but she couldn’t. Propelled back a step, she gripped the counter with one hand to keep from being forced back another.

She grinned throughout the passionate kiss, throwing her arm around the back of his head, the attached hand rushing through his hair, further pushing his lips into hers. Mere seconds after he’d received it, he discarded his ice cream on the nearest section of the counter. He’d decided he wanted to hold onto something else.

His hands hurried to cup Avril’s phenomenal ass, feeling as his hands sank into its ampleness. Desire overcame any sign of hesitation, and he lifted Avril off the ground. Her eyes glowed like viridian flames when her feet left the floor, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. With her mouth above his, she pressed down, their kiss spiraling into one of uncontrollable lust.

“Don’t,” she breathed huskily, drawing in a breath after each word, “make a mess.”

Growling in response, he searched for the right place to place the seductive redhead. If they’d been on the other side of the counter, he would have had any number of tables to choose from. Back here, his options were far more limited—and crowded. But there was one area of the back counter where he could fit Avril’s fine ass.

Carrying her to it, he set her down, shifting his hands from her butt to her breasts. One went under the apron, while another stayed over it.

By the time they were through there, his ice cream was halfway melted. His original cup of vanilla was practically a puddle.

“Hold up,” Avril whispered breathlessly, grabbing him by his shirt. They’d finally pulled their lips apart, and he’d been in the process of giving her some space. No longer, it seemed.

Skewering him with a smoldering look, Avril’s left hand moved to her right breast. Hooking her middle finger underneath the apron, she pulled it toward the center of her chest. As she settled it into the valley between the pair, one incredibly perfect, alluringly heavy breast re-revealed itself.

Liam’s heart pounded, but he still kept a calm expression—somehow—as he met Avril’s verdant gaze. “And what am I supposed to do with that?”

“Whatever feels natural,” Avril purred huskily.

His mouth, warm and wet, worked its way around the expansive territory for the next several minutes. He didn’t leave an inch unexplored, and Avril’s cooing whispers thanked him. His tongue eventually met her areola, then her nipple, and then he had it in his mouth, sucking, biting, pulling. All three elicited hisses of pleasure from the gorgeous redhead.

“More, ahhh, just like that,” she gasped, holding him close. “Fuck, Liam, I ought to take you out more. You turn it up when we’re someplace new.”

“Wait until I have you on a warm beach in April,” he replied, brimming with pride from her compliments. She didn’t usually toss them out so straightforwardly, so he felt he could trust that she was truthful with this one.

“I’m counting down the days,” Avril purred, kissing the top of his head.

“There’s still plenty for us to do until then,” he remarked, hoping she’d intuit his meaning.

“Like sucking you off as quickly as I can? Is that what you have in mind?”

“It’s been on my mind a lot, yeah,” he admitted, rolling his tongue over Avril’s nipple. “During winter break, you hyped yourself up a lot. You’re not afraid of some competition, are you?”

Snorting, Avril flicked him on the crown of his head. “Obviously, I’m going to play along. You’ll get your heap of blowjobs from me—starting next weekend. Based on that time, I bet Tess didn’t try all that hard. She wanted to set a time that could be easily beaten, didn’t she?”

“Maybe.” Liam shrugged, then a glint of light caught his eye.

“I’m sure she could have done better,” Avril said. “I’m sure she’s not that much worse at sucking your cock than I am.”

“Says the woman who won’t suck it today, so we can see,” Liam remarked, eyes drifting toward the object that had created that glint. It was the ice cream scoop that Avril had used to get him his most recent scoop of ice cream. She’d set it down over here, apparently. He hadn’t even noticed.

“What, do you think I’ll be practicing over the week, somehow?” Chuckling, she kissed his head again. “Just wait your one week, baby. Then you can cum in my throat until you can’t cum anymore.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Liam said, kissing the highest spot of her areola. At the same time, he freed her other breast, imitating what she’d done a few minutes before. Avril didn’t stop him, probably expecting that he’d move his mouth over to that underappreciated breast.

He would. Just not yet. First, he had some chill to add, and a little flavor too.

In an odd gesture, he extended his left arm to the side, naturally drawing Avril’s attention. His right chose to be a little more subtle. Collecting the ice cream scoop, he carried it to Avril’s newly exposed breast before she could react.

And then she really reacted.

Sharply inhaling when the cold implement met her stiff nipple, she straightened her spine. Once she’d seen what he was doing, she glared at him.

“A little warning goes a long way, Liam.”

“So does no warning,” he said, smiling.

“Rude boy.”

Still smiling, he rubbed the sloping back of the scoop over Avril’s nipple. It hadn’t been out so long that the ice cream on the back had started melting too much, so it smeared on relatively thickly.

“You know, you’d better extra wash that one when we’re done here,” Avril said. “I won’t be letting anyone think they could get a taste of me so easily. I cost way more than a scoop of ice cream, Carver’s or not.”

Liam snorted and focused on adding a bit of butter pecan to her areola. Once he was through, he set the scoop down, then moved his mouth from one breast to the other.

“I’m just making sure I can actually get a taste of this flavor. You distracted me from getting to take even one bite of what you made for me.”

“Oops,” Avril said, not a hint of sorriness in her voice.

Extending his tongue once his mouth grew near, he enjoyed the ice cream’s vivid flavoring. A little less than he enjoyed licking it off Avril’s breast, but enough to consider it as one of the cartons he took home with him.

“Now, there’s only the one rule, right?” he asked.

“That’s right,” Avril confirmed again.

“Okay.”

He had her nipple in his mouth under a minute later, after a labor-intensive yet delicious time spent cleaning off all the ice cream. Even then, he could still taste the rich buttery flavor on her skin. But he wanted more—he had more to give to the woman who’d set all this up for him.

Unfortunately, unlike her roommate, Avril was confident that breast play alone couldn’t bring her to orgasm. And so, since that was what he wanted, he’d need to allow his adroit fingers to ensure her moans reached the breathy volume he was after. That wouldn’t break the one rule, after all. And he’d checked—doublechecked, even.

Yet, he didn’t rush to do so. So, his hands stayed above her waist. Mostly. A few reminders of how wonderful her ass was were pretty much mandatory. As though he could forget. As though anything about Avril was forgettable.

Arching forward, she gave him the best access to her breasts—he might have only a single mouth, but his fingers were quick to take up the task of playing with whichever his lips didn’t currently attend to—that she could. And as he’d hoped, the volume of her moans intensified.

“Anna doesn’t know what she’s missing out on,” Avril whispered, stroking his hair as he pressed her toward the cliff’s edge. “Her boyfriend is pretty good at playing with tits.”

Thankfully, Liam had a nipple between his mouth, so it wasn’t strange when he didn’t reply. Still, thoughts of both women, side by side, each of them hoping he would spend more time on their bodies than the other, simmered within his mind. Their eyes shining, their beautiful breasts heaving as he swapped back and forth between them, their hair spilling out around them as they writhed beneath his passionate attention.

Liam drew in a sharp breath, then focused on the present, not an unlikely fantasy. More improbable than the chances of Tess agreeing to join in on such a thing. The combination of Avril and Tess was possible, potentially even probable. Yet, Avril and Anna continued to dominate his thoughts throughout the remainder of the night.

“They’re staying on,” he noted once he finally pulled his mouth away from her breast, then wettened his fingertips. Avril had eyed him then but ultimately agreed to let him slip his fingers underneath her leggings. From there, he got to show off. With fingers and mouth working in tandem, the established rule that neither could resist the other’s offense received another sheet of evidence for the folder.

When Avril eventually climaxed, shivering and gripping him tightly, her beautiful voice lost its usual tenor. He couldn’t help but compare her breathy moans to Anna’s. The yearning within him, for both women, couldn’t be extinguished. His dreams later that night ensured that he woke up thinking about them tomorrow, as well.

But the present beckoned, and once Avril had steadied herself, he backed off and let her climb down from the counter. On slightly wobbly legs, she exhaled a long breath.

“You’re maybe getting a little too good at that. You look so cocky right now.”

“Apt choice of words,” he retorted, nodding toward the erection he’d been sporting for almost half an hour. “With no relief in sight.”

Rolling her eyes, Avril kissed him, then fixed up her apron. “I guess I’ll keep this, seeing as what it leads you to do when I wear it.”

“So long as you’re wearing it the same way you are now.”

“Is that even a question?” Avril asked, breezing by him. “Now, let’s try a little bit of ice cream, then get out of here. You’ve got to get home safely, no? Then start waiting for me to suck you dry next week.”

“Don’t remind me,” Liam grunted.

They spent a little more time in one another’s arms before they got back to sampling ice cream flavors. At the end of their time at Carver’s, washing everything up before their departure, Liam had decided to bring home a carton of butter pecan—he’d gone back to it and gotten a proper taste test—and simple chocolate. However, Avril’s offer to pose with them would ensure he remembered them by their sight, not their taste.

Because that offer, which he accepted instantaneously, caused Avril to hold them up in front of her naked breasts while Liam snapped some photos. And then some without them in the way. And then some with the apron back on. And then some with the apron revealing one breast, then the other, then both.

Liam ended the night with a phone loaded up with new pictures. And yet he still hoped for more. He just couldn’t announce that thought on the drive back to Avril and Anna’s apartment, as those photos might not be of Avril. It all hinged on how successful his final plan of the night ended up being.