Her words were unexpected and powerful enough to knock the breath from my lungs. They also left me feeling warm from the inside out. I hadn’t realized how heavy the guilt I’d been carrying was until she forgave me. Years of regret, of replaying that final fight, of wondering what might have happened if I hadn’t given in to her brother… All of it loosened its grip on my chest. Iphysicallyfelt it.
I swallowed hard. “You have no idea what that means to me.”
She gave me a watery smile. “So what now, Mountain Man?”
I chuckled at the old moniker.
“Are we going to be friends now?”
I parted her knees slowly and then stepped between them. She didn’t pull away. Her eyes stayed locked on mine, steady and open in a way they hadn’t been before. I slid a hand around her nape and touched my lips to hers. The kiss was slow, a gentle exploration. My tongue traced the seam of her lips until they parted. I dipped inside, tasting her sweetness. Ava sighed into my mouth, her fingers curling around my arms.
When I eased up, she breathed, “Friends don’t kiss each other like that.”
“Precisely.” Fuck no, I didn’t want to befriends.
Fire flared in her eyes, letting me know she didn’t mind if we were more than friends. Why go back there when I’d had her in every sexual position known to man over the last few days? She tugged at the tie of her robe and slid the garment off, revealing a white and gold bikini.
Immediately, my eyes dropped to her breasts, barely cupped by the material. My mouth watered.
“Thank you for this,” she said. “The swimwear, lingerie, clothes, jewellery, shoes. Now that we’re a little more than friends, I don’t feel weird accepting all those things.”
“A little more than friends?”
She shrugged. “Well, we are fake dating, so maybe… justa bitmore than a little…?”
Recognizing the familiar teasing glint in her eyes, I gave her a mock glare. “I’d saya lotmore than little, considering how loudly you screamed the last time I made you cum.”
Her cheeks flamed, and she scoffed. Ducking out of my hold, she jumped into the water and splashed me. “The arrogance.”
Chuckling, I wiped the droplets off my face. This was good. Incredible. This was how we once were with each other. My heart lifted with renewed hope.
I lunged forward with a grin, but she was quick, darting away and sending another splash.
“Oh, it’s war now,” I said, laughing.
She shrieked and tried to swim away, but I was faster. With a few powerful strokes, I caught her around the waist and spun her around. Her giggles mingled with my laughter until we reached the pool’s edge, where I caged her between my body and the wall.
Our laughter faded, replaced by something more intense. Hotter. I lifted her to me, and she wound her legs around my waist. Now we were eye to eye. I could see droplets clinging to her eyelashes.
“I haven't played around in a pool like this since…” she stopped.
Since we broke up. Something hit me in the chest, shoving me back into the past. Ava and I were in a pool the first time we expressed words of love in person. Before that, it was over the phone.
I had held her just as I did now.
“I love you, Lincoln.”I could still hear her voice in my head, echoing years later. It had quivered slightly, and her eyes had been wide with uncertainty as if she feared things would be different in person. As if I wouldn’t say the words back. I did, of course.
“Lincoln?”
The same voice, with a lower tone of maturity, drove away the ghosts of the past. I blinked and stared into Ava’s eyes.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
Yes. Something was—something big. She forgave me, but could she ever love me like she once did? We’d just takenanother step forward. We were… alittle morethan friends now. I didn’t want to push it. Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, I said, “No.”
Swooping down, I kissed her again. I kissed her with the hunger that had simmered for years and the satisfaction that there was hope for more between us. I kissed her with everything—deep and unrestrained—until we were both panting and ready to go further. She reached between us to free me from my shorts while I undid the strings of her bikini bottom.
I took her hard and fast, with a wild desperation that had built up for a while. I swallowed her moans with deep, ravenous kisses. She clung to me as if sheneededme. Even if she didn’t, that’s what my mind led me to believe, and I like it.
