26. Tanner
Chapter Twenty-Six
Tanner
More than one first
You have too many clothes on.
Ava stared at me, holding my gaze. Her chin lifted, her skin flushed all over. Even though I could sense she was a little anxious, her boldness revved the engine of my pulse. My heart pounded so hard it felt like a kettledrum in my ears. I was so hard, I ached. For her.
I’d had a plan—that we were going to take it slow, one step at a time. But so much for plans. They'd gone up in smoke, burned in the fire of need that her mere presence kindled higher and higher.
I wanted Ava. All of her. Now. But I didn’t want to rush.
Her demand drew a chuckle from my throat. “Impatient, are we?” I managed to tease, my voice ragged from my frayed control.
“I am, actually,” she said honestly.
That was the twist with Ava. Although she affected me like no other—and had since the moment I met her on the mountain that afternoon—there was an honesty between us. I didn’t know if it surprised her as much as it did me.
It wasn’t that I’d ever actively been dishonest in any other situationship or relationship. Just that this level of openness, the way she called to me and reached inside, was new and different.
I swiftly unbuttoned my jeans, peeled them off, and tossed them aside. I hooked my hand into my T-shirt and yanked it over my head, leaving me in just my fitted boxer briefs.
Ava’s cheeks flushed a deeper shade of pink as she looked up at me. When she slid her tongue across her lips, my cock twitched, swelling even further.
“Oh, Tanner, this is unfair.” She sighed dramatically.
“What? Now I have more clothes off than you,” I said, stretching out on the bed beside her.
“Maybe, but…” She lifted her hand, trailing her fingertips over my chest and down over my abs. “You are in really good shape. In case no one ever mentioned that to you.”
My laugh was choked, because I could hardly bear her touch. I trailed my knuckles along the edge of her jaw, needing to kiss her again, needing the connection, needing to stop thinking. That was a first for me.
Her mouth opened easily underneath mine, and we tumbled into another hot kiss. Fuck me, I really could kiss Ava forever. Yet all the while, the drum of my pulse and need pounded harder and faster inside.
I slid a hand down to tease her breasts, savoring the way she arched up into me. I could feel the tight peak of her nipple through the fabric. She broke away abruptly, her breath ragged.
“I need this off.” She shifted up, yanking her tank top off. I glanced down to take in the lush curves of her breasts. She wore a white lace bra, revealing her pink nipples through it.
I wasn’t even thinking when I dipped my head down and sucked one in. She let out a sharp cry, her fingers spearing into my hair. When I lifted my head, her lips were parted, her eyes wide and dark. She didn’t even speak.
I needed more. Swiftly, I unsnapped the clasp between her breasts, and her bra fell open.
“Oh, fuck me, Ava.” My words were guttural and raw.
“Well, I mean, we could get right to that,” she said. Her eyes were entirely serious when they met mine.
I chuckled again, loving this easy warmth between us. “We could. But first this…”
I sucked her other nipple into my mouth. She cried out again, arching up.
I teased both of her nipples. When I lifted my head, they were damp, dusky pink, and—sweet fucking hell—her breasts were gorgeous, full and lush.
Her belly had a delectable soft curve. I let my hand trail down over it, sliding between her thighs, and she shifted her legs farther open. Her panties were drenched.
“I had a plan, Ava,” I said, my voice barely a rasp.
“What was your plan, Tanner?” she asked.
I tried to think, to collect my thoughts into something sensible. “Fuck, I don’t even know what my plan was.”
“Please just fuck me.”
I let out something between a laugh and a groan.
“We’re gonna get there.”
“Are we, though? Because I don’t want to go slow.”
“Let me just make sure you’re ready.”
“Oh, I’m ready.”
“Trust me, Ava,” I said.
I made my way down her body, kissing her belly, her thighs, easing my arm under her bottom to shift her farther down on the bed. I dusted kisses on the inside of her knees, pushing her panties to the side and teasing my fingers into her slick folds.
Her hips rocked up. With little finesse, I managed to drag those panties down and even maneuvered them around her boot.
I made my way back up, dusting kisses on her thighs again, hot and slow, pressing them apart.
When I brought my mouth to her sex, she let out a ragged cry with my name following.
The sound sent a shot of blood straight to my already aching cock.
She tasted salty and sweet. I sank two fingers into her, gratified when her channel clenched around them. “What do you need?” I asked, lifting my head.
“More…” she gasped.
Slow and easy, I kept pumping my fingers into her, teasing with my tongue. She was already so close. I could feel her entire body trembling. Her channel clenched faster, convulsing around me. I dragged my tongue in a slow swirl around her clit just as she shuddered and cried my name in a chant.
I stayed with her until she relaxed, sagging against the pillows. Slowly, I drew away, easing my fingers out and rising up to rest alongside her.
Ava’s eyes opened, and she looked at me. “Oh, wow,” she gasped.
“That’s one way to put it,” I murmured.
I wanted to be inside of her right this fucking second, but I realized we’d forgotten one step. “I need to get a condom,” I said.
“No, you don’t. I have an IUD,” she announced.
“Are you sure?”
“About what? I’m sure I have an IUD, and I’m sure I trust you.”
When she saw the hesitation in my gaze, she added, “Of course, if you prefer a condom…”
“No, it’s just… I’ve never had sex without a condom.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh. Oh, well. First time for everything, huh?”
Ava held my gaze, the heat in hers sparking like wildfire in the air between us.
The combustion of our combined need burned hotter and faster by the second, with every breath.
The rush of it was so consuming I could hardly think, reason, or do anything but want.
At that moment, my awareness was narrowed to Ava.
“Tanner,” she whispered. Her voice was breathy and low, like a kick in the flank of my already galloping pulse.
“Yeah,” I managed.
“Are you having second thoughts?”
I realized as soon as she asked that she was serious. “Fuck no,” I said flatly.
“Well then, get with the program, would you?” she teased.
That was exactly what I needed. I chuckled, leaned close, and gave her another kiss—because, as we’d already established, kissing Ava was something I could do forever.
Oh, I wanted more. But even if this was all? Chef’s kiss.
Lifting my head, I glanced toward her ankle.
“Don’t you look at my ankle,” she said quickly.
“I’m just contemplating the logistics.”
“The logistics are you fuck me.”
That drew another startled laugh out of me. “I know, but I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You’re not going to hurt me.” She shifted her leg with the boot, bending her knee. “See? I can’t even move my ankle in this. It’s all stabilized.” She wiggled her knee back and forth to demonstrate.
“I know, but—”
“Don’t. Don’t you worry about it.
“Okay, I understand, but I’m going to worry about your ankle.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes, hard. Maybe not as hard as my cock, but still. “It’s so unsexy.”
“Ava, everything about you is sexy. Including that.” I gestured toward her boot.
Her lips twitched with a smile, and when she giggled—fuck me, that sound—it slipped through the cracks around my heart like cold air sneaking in through a drafty window in winter. There was no way to keep it out. No way to keep her out.
I was in treacherous waters, and I knew it. After my broken engagement, after coming to terms with the kind of man I was—dutiful, reliable, and always a little worried I might have a touch of my father in me—I hadn’t thought I’d want to be with anyone again.
The most startling thing about Ava was how she was already showing me everything Laney never had. Oh, I had loved Laney. But it was young, immature love. I hadn’t understood much about myself then, or Laney, or life. In all the years since, I hadn’t fallen for anyone else—or even come close.
But Ava, with her snark, her sass, her boldness in spite of what she told me about her own relationship, her insecurities, her vulnerabilities that I knew she tried to hide—they were all there to see. She was too much of herself to hide them even though I knew she hoped she did.
Ava shimmied a little closer, and when I felt the press of her breast against the side of my chest, where I was angled close to her, the feel of her skin was like lightning across my nerve endings. All of me felt shockingly alive.
“And I should point out,” she said, “if your hesitation is because of the condom thing, go for it.”
“It’s not that,” I said, taking a breath. “I didn’t expect you, Ava.”
Suddenly, the moment shifted, becoming intimate in a way I hadn’t planned. Hell, I hadn’t even intended to say that.
She blinked, lifting her hand to trail her fingertips along the stubbled edge of my jaw. “I didn’t expect you, Tanner. Does that mean we should stop?” Her smile was uncertain.
Ava’s smiles were beyond endearing and tempting. They were a tease, a jolt, a gift. I’d chase her smile every day, every minute.
“All right,” I murmured as I lifted my lips from hers. “If at any point your ankle hurts, you say something. Immediately. Are we clear?”
She shimmied her shoulders under me. “Absolutely. I love it when you’re bossy, Tanner.”
Yet again, I was laughing. This joy with her—tangled inside this desire—was something I honestly couldn’t have imagined. Yet it came easy with Ava.
She leaned closer, dusting hot kisses along my collarbone, her hands sliding down over my chest to curl around my length. “Please, Tanner. I don’t want to keep waiting.”
As if I could have waited much longer. The next few moments passed in a blur as I eased my weight over her.
Our kisses were messy. I savored the sweet tang of her skin when I nipped lightly behind her ear, and she shivered beneath me.
She was all soft curves, and every inch of her pressed against me was a heaven I never imagined.