A Little Too Late (Madigan Mountain #1)(37)

With a laugh, I pull her closer, and she gives me an angry kiss. But I can work with that. I grasp her hips as she nips my bottom lip.

Ava groans as we line up, wet skin sliding against wet skin. She’s wearing a red bikini with polka dots. It’s gorgeous, but the top half is in my way. I yank it down and take her breasts in my hands.

“Reed,” she pants, as we make out like the sex-crazed college students we used to be. I taste her deeply, and every dirty thing we ever did comes back in a rush. And I’m so greedy for it. I want to relive every shameless act. I want to collapse in a tangled, sticky heap on my narrow bed. I want to sleep wrapped around her and wake up naked and desperate to start again.

I want a do-over. I want to toss the misshapen mess I made against the art studio floor and start over.

But that’s impossible, so I settle for the next best thing, which is kissing Ava until we’re both breathless and frustrated. I run my tongue along the column of her neck. Then I tip her backward in my arms so I can tease her nipples with my lips.

“Jesus, that’s…” She moans instead of finishing the sentence.

My cock is an iron bar in my trunks. I’m made of lust, but it can’t be satisfied here. I need all night and a bed.

Still, I don’t want to stop. Not yet. Not ever.

Ava sits taller and kisses me again. I pull her lush body tightly against my own. I brace my feet on the bottom of the tub, and move to the edge of the bench, so Ava has more room to move against me.

She gasps as I bring her hot core down on my cock. Her legs are spread at a wanton angle, and I lift my hips to grind against her.

“Oh,” she gasps again. “Yes.”

I move without thought or direction. Our kisses are endless, and the last ten years never happened. There’s just Ava and the sweet sounds she makes when she’s about to come.

Give this to me, just one more time, I think as our lips crash together. I never believed in second chances until right this moment.

I hear a delicious hitch in her breath and a keening whimper. I am lit up with victory as I slow down my kisses. She melts, shuddering and shivering. I used to live to make this woman happy. Because she made me happy every day.

With one last, deep kiss, she collapses against my very horny body. And I smile up at the stars in the sky, happy against all reason.

“Jeez,” she breathes into my neck. She’s still, and the only sound I can hear over the jacuzzi jets is our mingled breathing.

Slowly, I stroke her bare back. After a long moment, she straightens up, her face turned away from mine. “God, what did I just do? I didn’t mean to...”

“Shh,” I whisper. “Best idea you had all day.”

She still won’t look at me. “God.” She makes a noise that’s half disbelief and half embarrassment. “And you didn’t even…”

“Don’t worry about me. You can take care of that later, after I talk you into my bed upstairs.”

“Reed.”

I just laugh. “Come to the Vista Suite with me. I hear the views are great.”

She doesn’t take the bait. “It’s not smart. I’m not smart.”

“You are one of the smartest people I know. But the way I want you isn’t smart, baby. Tonight I want to be stupid just for once. Is it really so bad to be stupid together?”

Ava sighs. “I’m embarrassed, for starters.” She pulls up her bathing suit top as if to illustrate the point.

“Why?” I press. “Because we have a habit of getting carried away together? I really don’t want to hurt you, and I’ll leave you alone if you need me to. But I don’t feel any shame for wanting you or for remembering what it felt like to be young and a little reckless. I think I forgot on purpose.”

“I think I forgot, too.” Her eyes are sad.

I kiss the underside of her jaw. “Come on, before we’re boiled like lobsters.” I take her hand and help her to stand. “Let me change in the spa. I can’t walk through the lobby like this.” I wave a hand at my crotch.

Ava’s eyes dart to my trunks. It looks like I’ve propped a banana inside of them.

A hand flies to her mouth, and she barks out a laugh.

“Hey, now. It’s mean to laugh at a man’s package. Especially when it’s so excellent.”

“Was it always that big?” she asks. “Your ego, I mean.”

Now it’s my turn to laugh.





Ten minutes later, Ava and I exit the spa and enter the hotel looking respectable again.

“Have you eaten?” I ask Ava as we cross the lobby, heading for the elevators.

“Not much, no.” She shakes her head.

“How’s the room service menu these days?” I’m just about to push the button, when a familiar voice yells my name.

“Reed Madigan! Hold up! I came all this way to yell at you.”

Holy hell. I blink once just to make sure I’m not seeing things. But no, it’s Harper Schmidt, the woman I’d dated a few times before standing her up one time too many.

The same woman I forgot to call on my way to Colorado. And the one who’s bearing down on me now, dressed head to toe in high-end ski gear.

“Harper,” I stammer. “What are you doing in Colorado?”