A Little Too Late (Madigan Mountain)

REED

Ava makes a frustrated groan as we come together. As if she’s torturing herself. Our lips crush and seek and slide hotly together.

Earlier today we practically set her couch on fire. That kiss was not all my idea, either. We were meant to do this.

That’s how it always felt before.

Until I fucked it all up.

Pushing that thought away, I deepen the kiss. Ava makes a helpless little moan, and the sound stirs me up, like a bear coming out of hibernation. I cup her head in both my hands and delve inside her sweet mouth.

She shivers, so I pull her closer. My hands slide freely across her wet skin, my thumb dipping into her bikini top, stroking the swell of her breast.

“Reed,” she whispers against my lips.

“I know,” I whisper back. We used to be so wild and free with each other. Effortless. After Ava, I never felt that way again. Not once.

Our next kiss is as deep as the night sky. But we’re still not close enough. I need more. I pull Ava into my lap until she’s straddling me, the way I used to do in my dorm room. The motion is so familiar, as if the last ten years never happened.

Ava pulls back from the kiss, and for a split second I think I’ve ruined it. “This is not a good idea,” she says.

“Maybe,” I agree in a rough voice. “But I don’t care. This is us. We were reckless once. And I loved every minute of it. We were young and wild, and I loved you with my whole heart. I hope you know that, even if you’re still angry.”

She exhales, her bright eyes darting away for a moment. “Stop talking now.”

“Okay. But feisty Ava is hot.”

“Shut up.”

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?”

Her eyes flash with anger, and I want to kick myself for saying that.

But seriously. What is she doing in Colorado?

She props a hand on her hip and lets it fly. “I came all this way to tell you you’re an ass, and that we’re finished dating. But also to ski. I broke into your apartment to get that book I lent you, because I was too pissed off to let you keep it. And while I was there, I noticed you had a stack of Madigan Mountain passes on your desk. Some of them were about to expire. So I took some.”

Ava gasps. I whip around to see if she’s okay.

She is not. Her eyes are wide, and her face is red, and I know exactly what she’s about to do even before she does it.

“I’ll just…” she mutters. “See you later.” She turns on her heel and hurries back the way we came.

Well, shit. This is ten kinds of awkward for two different women, and all of it is my fault.

Harper pauses her rant to track Ava with sharp eyes. “Okay, who’s that?”

“My ex,” I admit as we both watch Ava make a fast escape. I want to run after her. But I owe Harper an apology that probably can’t wait.

“Interesting,” Harper says slowly. “You’ve never mentioned an ex. Not once.”

I flinch. “You know when people say it ended badly? Well, we practically invented it.”

Her brown eyes return to mine. “Your fault, I assume?”

“Of course.”

She snorts. “Maybe you’d better go after her, Reed. She looks spooked.”

“I’ll do that in a bit. I have unfinished business with a lot of people, it turns out. A lot of apologies to make.” I’m almost good at it now. “Let me buy you a drink, Harper. You can yell at me before Ava gets another turn.”

She actually smiles as she shrugs her shoulders. “Okay. Lead the way.”

I grab her suitcase and lead her over to the bar, where I’m hoping Ava’s friend Halley is not on duty.

She’s not, but unfortunately, the man wearing an apron behind the bar is my own damn father.

Fuck my life.

“Reed! Who’s this?” he asks, polishing a beer stein.

“Dad, this is Harper. We, uh, were recently dating.”

Harper snorts. “Very recently. But not anymore.”

“That seems to happen to Reed,” my father says, even though he doesn’t have the first idea about it. “What can I pour you? I’m filling in here for a few minutes while the bartender calls his grandma.”

Harper orders a glass of cabernet, and I ask for a beer. As soon as it lands on the bar, I look Harper in the eye and apologize again for my thoughtlessness. “It was bad form not to call you the second I knew I was leaving town. I’m sorry.”

She rolls her eyes. “I accept your apology. Unless you were making a booty call to screw your ex. In which case you’re an even bigger asshole than I knew.”

Ouch. I might even deserve that. “I didn’t know she was here. But, uh, it turns out we have some things to resolve. If I haven’t totally borked that up already.”

“Honestly, whatever it is, fix it. This whole chilly thing you’ve got going on gets old after a while.”

I flinch.

“You never lied to me, Reed. You said right up front that you were just interested in something casual. But I honestly thought I had a shot to be the woman who thawed your bitter little heart. Because I’m pretty amazing.”

“Hell, I like you already,” my father says, shamelessly eavesdropping.

I put my elbows on the bar and bury my face in my hands. Not that it helps. “Yeah, you are pretty amazing. But I’m kind of a mess.”

“I’m getting that,” Harper says, taking a sip of her wine. “What did you do to your ex?”

It’s hard to even put it into words. “She was my first real girlfriend. My first love. Then things got a little complicated, and I left her, like an asshole.”

“A little complicated how?” my father asks.

“Dad…” I sigh. But maybe saying this out loud is how you finally get past it. “When I was twenty-two, we lost a pregnancy.”

Both Harper and my father stare at me for a long beat. “A pregnancy,” my father echoes in a hushed voice.

“A baby?” Harper corrects.

“A baby,” I repeat, as my heart seizes up inside my chest. “And I didn’t handle it well.”

My father braces his hands against the bar and drops his head as if it suddenly weighs too much. “Poor Ava. And you, too, son. That’s a big loss.” Then he actually reaches over and covers my hand with his for a brief moment.

I inhale, and something loosens just a little bit inside my chest. Maybe only ten percent. But still.

Then my father steps back, removing his apron as another man arrives to resume bartending duties. “Alexander, this is my son Reed and his friend,” he says to the young man. “No tab for those two.”

“Yessir,” the youngster says.

“Nice meeting you, Harper. Enjoy your stay with us.”

“Oh, I will,” she says cheerfully. She studies me for a moment as he takes his leave. “You know, that’s a big secret to sit on for ten years. It explains a few things about you.”

“Does it?” I mumble. I’m really not in the mood to be psychoanalyzed.

“Totally. You are so emotionally unavailable, Reed. You even choose shower sex over the bed, because then you won’t have to cuddle me afterwards.”

The young bartender’s eyes widen. He moves quickly down the bar to give us some privacy. He’s definitely getting a tip. “That is not true,” I hiss. “I just feel really horny whenever there’s warm water around.”

She lets out a low laugh. “Okay, dude. Sure. Now what are you going to do to fix this thing with your college sweetheart?”

“Fix it?” That’s not possible. “The best I can hope for is some closure. I keep thinking up new ways to say I’m sorry.”

“It’s a start,” Harper agrees. “I’m a fan of roses.” She kicks my foot with her stylish winter boot. “But not everyone is. What was your love language when you were in college?”

“Hmm. I guess it was pizza.”

“Really?” Harper giggles.

“It was college.” I glance up and signal to the bartender. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Probably,” he says. “But don’t ask me to take sides, here.”

“All I want to know is whether you have pizza and whether it’s any good.”

The kid looks relieved. He reaches for a menu. “The veggie option is a little bland unless you ask for extra garlic. But the rest of them are great.”

“Ooh, pizza,” Harper says. “Pass me that menu when you’re done. And also? Forget the roses. I need a room for the weekend.”

“Uh-huh,” I say, eyeing the pizza choices. “I’m sure you do.”