Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Avery
Every muscle in my body ached. Even muscles I didn’t know I had. What was it about gardening—or, more specifically, wrestling with weeds the size of small trees—that was so exhausting?
I let the hot water spill over my head and streak down my body in rivulets, washing the dirt and grime as well as the stress of the day down the drain.
It wasn’t just a day spent in the hot sun trying to tame the garden that had drained me, and I knew it. The confrontation with Jacob had taken more out of me than I’d realized. Or maybe it was the reality of what that conversation had meant. I knew he was right. I wasn’t going to let him have the inn. No matter what. But would I really let everything my grandparents loved so much be destroyed rather than let him have it?
The question had plagued me all day. Did I even deserve to have the inn if that was true?
No matter how many overgrown shrubs I’d pruned, dead plants I’d dug up, or invasive weeds I’d pulled, I still didn’t have the answer to that question.
I cranked the faucet to the left until the water was steaming and almost scalding as it washed over me. The steam filled the bathroom and only belatedly did I realize I should have started the fan. But it didn’t matter. If there was condensation on the paint or water damage, it was just one more thing on my list that would need to be fixed.
The thought of the ever-growing list would’ve made me cry if it wasn’t for Reid. If I didn’t have Reid, all of this would be so much harder. I don’t know how or when it happened, but somewhere over the last few weeks, I’d started to rely on him for more than just fixing up the inn.
He’d become my confidant, my shoulder to cry on, and…
“Avery?” I heard my name and the knock on the door almost at the same time. “Are you in—what the…it’s like a steam room in here.”
“Reid? Oh. Yeah, I forgot to turn the fan on.”
A moment later, I heard the flick of the switch and the creaky old fan in the ceiling started up. “Sorry,” Reid said. “I didn’t mean to barge in on you. I just saw the steam and I didn’t want anything to?—”
“It’s fine.” My voice shook with a surge of emotion for this man who’d known me for such a short time but cared more than some of my own flesh and blood about the inn—and me.
I wasn’t the only one who noticed the waver in my voice. “Avery? Are you okay?”
Normally, I’d lie. Especially considering I was naked and only inches away from him with nothing more than a thin plastic sheet between us. But with Reid, I didn’t have to pretend. “No,” I said after a moment. “I had a rough day with Jacob and…I just…”
“Can I help?”
Suddenly, my best friend’s voice popped into my head. Could he help? Yes. If help meant taking my mind off my worries and stress, even for a few minutes, then yes , Reid could definitely help.
Besides, as Carrie had made clear to me, we were married, after all. Why not consummate it?
Before I could let logic or good sense get in the way, I tugged the shower curtain open to see Reid looking sexy as hell in sawdust-covered jeans and a T-shirt that strained against his chest and tightened over his biceps.
His eyes darkened as he took in the sight of me. His nostrils flared and he took a step closer.
“Yes,” I said softly, my gaze locked on his. “I think you can help me very much.”
Reid
Fuck yes. I could help her. I could help her very much. As long as the help she needed involved my mouth on her lips, my hands on her body, and my currently rock-hard cock buried very deeply inside her.
My shirt was off before my next breath. My hand on my belt as I took another step toward her. I didn’t take my eyes off hers. Afraid if I looked away from the need in her eyes, I’d come to my senses about what I was about to do. Then again, Avery was my wife. We were consenting adults. And she had invited me in.
I’d be a damn fool not to get in the shower with her. And I was a lot of things, but I was absolutely not a fool.
Not when it came to the beautiful and very naked woman in front of me.
“Avery?” I dropped my jeans to the ground. My dick, free from its confines, stood hard and proud. I watched as her eyes dipped lower before once more meeting my eyes. “We’re good?”
She bit her bottom lip, sucking it between her teeth in a way that sparked something primal deep inside me before she nodded. “Oh yes. We’re good.” Avery stepped aside, making room in the shower for me. “Very good. Now get in here.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
In a flash, I was under the spray of hot water. I took a moment to take in the magnificent sight in front of me. Damn, was she ever beautiful.
Avery was all soft curves, from her round, perfect tits to the swell of her hips and the delicious ass cheeks that had been teasing me in those cutoff shorts from the very first day I’d met her.
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous.” It was the only thing I could say before my lips crashed onto hers and I pushed her back against the tile wall.
She tasted even sweeter than she looked, and it wasn’t long before I knew I was never going to get enough of her. A moan slipped from her lips as I deepened the kiss, twisting my tongue with hers.
Every inch of my body was pressed against her slick skin, but I still couldn’t get her close enough. Without moving my mouth from hers, I let one hand slide down her side. “You feel so good, Avery,” I moaned against her mouth before once more claiming it with my own. “Every fucking part of you feels so amazing.”
It took every bit of self-control I could pull together to keep from taking her right there against the shower wall, because dammit, if her body felt this good pressed up against me, being inside her would be incredible.
Forcing myself to slow down, I tore my mouth away from hers, leaving her gasping for more as I turned my attention to her neck and the sensitive spot behind her ear.
“Oh, oh.” Avery arched her back and pressed her palms flat against the tile while I nibbled, kissed, and sucked her neck. “Reid, that feels so good. It’s been so…yes.”
Was she about to tell me how long it’d been since she’d been kissed properly? Touched the way she deserves to be touched? The thought both angered me and fueled me at the same time. Angry because this woman deserved to be worshipped and kissed like the goddess she was every single day. And that fueled me because I was more than happy to give her what she wanted. No, what she needed.
But it wasn’t enough. It was never going to be enough with Avery. I knew that long before I set foot in the shower with her. This would only be the beginning. At least for me. Whatever this was, whatever was going on with her that led her to pull that curtain aside, I didn’t care. Because for me, this was about so much more, and I had to believe she felt it, too.
Leaving her neck, I moved down her body, taking time to lick the rivulets of water off each of her breasts, sucking first one nipple and then the next into my mouth.
I used my hands to knead her perfect mounds until she writhed with desire, thrusting her hips hungrily.
“Reid, I?—”
“I know.” I silenced her with a finger. “I know what you need, sweetheart. And I’m going to give it to you, I promise. But I’m going to do it my way.”
“How did I know you were going to say that?”
I dropped to my knees on the tile and grinned up at her. “Because it’s always my way, sweetheart. You must know that by now?”
She laughed and threaded her hands through my hair. “I just let you think that.” Her wink was wicked sexy and had my cock throbbing.
But I couldn’t deny it. Nor did I care to. Not when her sweet pussy was right in front of me. Oh no, I had other plans, and they involved making my wife scream as she came so hard she forgot whatever had her worked up when she got in the shower tonight.
With a hand on each thigh, I tugged them apart to give me better access.
I looked up long enough to see the look of shock on her face before I buried my face deep. Avery cried out as my tongue traveled the length of her slit before plunging between her sweet folds.
Damn. I was right. She was just as delicious as I knew she would be.
Already so wet for me, her juices coated my tongue as I took my time kissing and licking.
“Reid.” My name was little more than a breath on her lips as she struggled to maintain control. It was the one thing I wanted her to let go of.
“Come for me, Avery.” I looked up and met her eyes. “Let go, sweetheart.” With a wink, I once more bent to my task. This time, my lips locked over her sensitive bud and I suckled with just enough pressure for her to come completely undone.
Her orgasm hit hard and fast. I used one hand to brace her hip while I continued to kiss and lap up her delicious juices before getting to my feet.
I used one hand to wipe my bottom lip before kissing her long and slow. “There,” I said when she could once more focus on me. “Did that help?”
Avery nodded slowly, a sly smile crossing her lips. “Definitely.”
“I aim to please.”
“You certainly did that.” She reached out and dragged a finger down my chest, to my belly and the head of my very hard cock. I shuddered under her touch. “But I think I might need a little more help, still.”
My grin matched hers, and I almost lost complete control when her fingers wrapped around my girth and squeezed. “Fuck yes. I was hoping you’d say that.”
Avery
Steam clung to me as Reid backed me out of the shower, toward the bedroom. His eyes never left mine, his hands firm on my hips, guiding me exactly where he wanted me. As if I’d go anywhere else.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he murmured, his voice low and rough, full of need. His lips hovered just above mine. “I can’t believe you’re mine.”
I sucked in a breath at his choice of words but didn’t have time to respond before his lips were once more on mine. The kiss was deep, desperate for more, and filled with everything we’d been holding back for far too long.
Our warm-up in the shower had been just that—a warm-up. I needed more from him. I needed all of him.
Mine.
The word, fresh off his own lips, sent a shot through me. But the last thing I wanted to do was think about what it might mean.
My breath hitched and my fingers tangled in his damp hair. Cool air from the ceiling fan washed over me, a sharp contrast from the heat of my body, but it did nothing to cool the fire flowing through my veins.
Reid groaned, his hands tightening on my hips as he backed me up until my legs hit the mattress. His hands were there to steady me before I fell. His mouth trailed slow, deliberate kisses down the curve of my neck. A gasp escaped me as he lowered me down, his weight settling over me, his gaze dark with something I wasn’t quite ready to name. But I knew I wanted this—I wanted him.
Badly.
“Reid.” His name was little more than a plea on my lips.
He sucked in a breath and stilled above me. “You drive me crazy, Avery. In all the best ways.” His fingers traced a slow path down my side, sending shivers up my spine and straight between my legs.
“Good.” I reached for him and pulled him down. “Because I don’t want you to stop.”
He growled as his mouth found mine. With his tongue twisting with mine, Reid used his thick thigh to push my legs apart. I pressed my hips up to meet him, his hard length notched to my core.
We hadn’t discussed birth control. The idea that I’d need to talk about such a thing with my husband struck me as funny, but I swallowed back my laughter when he pulled away, the question in his eyes.
“I’m on the Pill,” I whispered. “And I’m…there hasn’t been…”
“There hasn’t been anyone else for me either,” he said. “Not for a long time. It’s only you, Avery.”
His words and the way he looked at me made something deep inside me clench.
It’s not real. It’s not real.
But it sure as hell felt real when Reid’s hand found my cheek, he tilted my head, looked me straight in the eyes, and said, “Only you.”
Too many emotions slammed through me, so I did the only thing I knew to do. I kissed him. Every feeling I couldn’t name, every emotion I was scared to acknowledge—I poured it all into that kiss.
I was completely lost to him. It was only when he thrust deep inside me that I once more found myself in the moment as I cried out.
Reid pulled away just enough to look at me. There was a storm of emotions in his eyes. I had to close my eyes to keep myself from getting pulled in.
“Avery. You…”
“Yes.”
None of it made sense. It didn’t have to. Because the only thing that did make sense was the moment. Him and me. Together.
“Yes,” I said again as he moved rhythmically inside me, stoking the flames that burned brighter and brighter until finally, I couldn’t hold it in for a moment longer.
My hands clawed at his back as my muscles tightened. A second later, my orgasm tore through me.
I cried out as my body rode wave after wave. I barely registered it as Reid took his own release, joining me in a powerful climax that left us both wrung out, exhausted, and, at the same time, completely and totally satisfied.
A moment later, he rolled to the side and pulled me with him so my head rested on his chest. I drifted off as he stroked my hair. The last thing I remembered thinking was how not only had he succeeded in taking my mind off my rough day, but he’d somehow managed to make me feel whole in a way I hadn’t felt in a very long time.