Always Loving You (12 page)

Suzy was already wearing a green string bikini when Ava arrived at her house after work. She handed Ava a black bikini that looked similar in style. “Er . . . do you have anything else—like maybe a one-piece?”

Suzy shook her head, before pushing her toward a bathroom off the hallway. “No, of course not. If I did, I wouldn’t let you wear it. Mac doesn’t want to see you dressed like his mother. You’ve got a banging body; you need to show it off.”

Ava knew it was futile to argue. Instead she took the swimsuit and quickly changed. She looked at herself in the mirror and decided that even though it looked okay, she’d never felt so exposed in her whole life. Was anyone ever really comfortable in a swimsuit on the beach in front of dozens of people? Ugh! “Do you have a shirt or something I can put over this?” she yelled back through the door.

“No,” Suzy yelled back. “Come on out, we’ve got to go. And don’t put your clothes back on over that suit!”

Ava gaped at the door, wondering how the other woman had known that she was considering doing
exactly that. Grumbling under her breath, she picked her clothing up and walked out the door. She came to an abrupt halt when she spotted Gray standing in the living room grabbing what looked like a handful of Suzy’s butt.

Ava had started to edge backward, trying to make her escape before being spotted, when Gray’s eyes landed on her. He smiled at her apologetically before swatting his wife’s ass lightly and saying,“behave yourself, minx. You are embarrassing your partner in crime.” Suzy spun around, narrowing her eyes as she saw Ava clutching her discarded clothing to her chest. She noticed that Gray still kept a possessive arm wrapped around Suzy’s waist, seeming to want to be in constant contact with some part of her. They were the sexiest couple that Ava had ever seen.

“Ready, chica?” Suzy asked, before leaning up to kiss her husband. “We’ll be back in a few hours, babe. You’ve got Mac coming over, right?”

Gray looked from his wife to Ava and then back again. “Mmm-hmm. Mac seemed a little surprised that I needed to meet him this evening just to discuss an upgrade. Neither he nor I could discern why it was suddenly so earth-shakingly important to my beautiful wife.” When Suzy just gave him her best innocent look, he shook his head in resignation. Kissing the top of her head, he said, “Be safe, baby.”

When Gray walked off into another room, Suzy wrestled the clothing from her hand and threw it into a nearby armchair. “Come on, drop the body armor. We’re going out onto a beach. There are many people with
swimsuits on. It doesn’t matter who you are or what size you wear, just own it. Confidence is sexy.” With those words, Suzy pulled her out onto the deck and then down the steps that led to the beach.

Ava felt naked with strangers around but tried to take Suzy’s words to heart. Was it as simple as just seeing yourself a certain way? Even though she had been told she was attractive, a part of her had always felt ugly . . . since that night. She thought if she exposed too much skin, she was asking for bad things to happen to her. She had lived with the fear for years that she had somehow been responsible for her assault. Had she given him the wrong idea by how she dressed and the things she said? All the books said no. That there was never anything you could do to justify those acts of violence, but deep down inside, the doubts festered.

Being exposed like this now, for strangers to see, was almost paralyzing. Sure, she had worn more revealing clothes lately but always with some kind of escape plan in mind. But here and now, there was no car near, there was nothing to hide behind. If she freaked out and ran, everyone would see . . . Suzy would see.

Ava had no idea that she had stopped walking until Suzy put hand on each of her arms, shaking her lightly. “I don’t think . . . ,” she began to explain before letting the words trail off. Why? Why couldn’t she stop being afraid?

“Hey,” Suzy said quietly, “listen to me. I know you’re all up in your head right now. Trust me, I recognize the signs. I’m not going to force you to see this through. But I will promise you this: I’ll be with you
every step of the way. I won’t leave your side. We don’t have to parasail today. We can just hang out. No one is going to bother you; I’ll make sure of that.”

Ava studied her new friend for a minute, seeing nothing but sincerity in her eyes. If there had been one ounce of pity, Ava would have collapsed, but somehow Suzy’s strength fueled her own. She really looked at her surroundings for the first time, seeing other women on the beach dressed just as she was. She didn’t stick out here. No one was looking at her; she was just another face in the crowd. Releasing the breath she hadn’t been aware of holding, she gave a nod of agreement and a tentative smile of reassurance. “I—okay. Can we just watch other people do the parasailing before I commit, though?”

Doing a little victory dance, Suzy threw an arm around her shoulders. “Hell yeah, we can. If we’re being all honest and stuff, I almost pissed my pants the first time I tried it, so I’m all for taking baby steps. Most important thing is that we’re actually considering it, right? Big points for that! Hey, by the way, what was Mac’s reaction to your sext today?”

Ava felt her face go up in flames as she looked around to make sure no one was listening before saying, “He said to be at his house at eight . . . with no panties.”

“No, he didn’t!” Suzy all but shouted. “I bet you don’t make it as far as the bedroom tonight before he jumps your bones! That man probably hasn’t been able to think of anything else all day. You go, girl.”

Next, Ava did something she would never have
thought possible while being scantily dressed in public: she let loose a full-belly laugh and felt years of repression start to lighten from her shoulders. She’d had sex, walked on a public beach in a bikini, and done her first ever sext—all in one week—with only minor moments of panic. After so many years of almost giving up on herself, she was getting her life back, and in that moment, she felt like a carefree teenager again. Fun, fearless, and ready to take on the world.

Without stopping to overthink it, she pulled a now-worried Suzy up to the sign advertising parasailing before it hit her. “I didn’t bring any money!” Maybe it was divine intervention, but she didn’t want to stop now. She had been determined to see this through without letting her fears win.

Suzy looked at her disappointed expression before cursing under her breath. In a move that made the young man taking the money gawk, Suzy stuck a hand into her swimsuit top and pulled out some bills. “I know I’m going to regret this, but if you’re all set to go for it, then I’ve got your back.” The poor guy seemed to struggle not to swallow his tongue as he took the hundred-dollar bill from Suzy’s outstretched hand. When he was finally able to get it together enough to return her change, he motioned for one of the thankfully older men on the beach to help them into the boat.

One man drove the boat while the other hooked them in their harnesses and then helped them onto the flight deck. The man handling the equipment explained that they would be launched and retrieved using a hydraulic winch. Ava was relieved to know that they
wouldn’t suddenly catapult into the water. When the winch started to launch them into the air, she felt her stomach drop to her feet. “Oh my God, why did I let you talk me into this?” she screamed over at Suzy.

“What! I was happy to stay on the ground! I told you that we’d take baby steps today. That meant walk around and think about doing this shit, but not actually do it!” Suddenly, they both looked down, realizing that the boat was now only a small speck in the distance. “Oh, holy fuck-a-moly! Remember what I said about pissing my pants? Well, it may just happen this time!”

For Ava, that was all it took. Hearing Suzy curse and toss out threats along with the adrenaline rush of doing something so completely crazy was enough to make her snap. Instead of the panic that she would normally feel, though, she started laughing. Tears rolled down her face, and she could barely breathe, but she only laughed harder. She had well and truly lost her mind this time, but in a good way. She threw her hands up into the air and started to squeal between bouts of mad laughter. “Ahhh, yayyy!” she screamed over and over. After a few minutes, she noticed someone echoing her crazy yells and turned to see Suzy doing something similar. They looked at each other, grinning like idiots.

“Girl, you are crazy!” Suzy gasped out. “Everyone within a five-mile radius can probably hear us, but who in the hell cares? This is the bomb!”

When the guy below hoisted them in, he was grinning at them, trying hard to suppress his own laughter. “Sounds like you ladies had a good time.”

Instead of shying away and waiting for Suzy to
answer, Ava gave him a thumbs-up. “It was off-the-charts! We’ll definitely be back, right, Suzy?”

Suzy gave a small thumbs-up in return before slumping back against the boat seat. “Ur—yeah, I’m afraid we will.”

After that, they took a leisurely walk on the beach, laughing over how crazy they had sounded before heading back toward Suzy’s house. Ava had expected to see Mac there and was disappointed when Gray said that he had already left.

At Suzy’s insistence, she left her swimsuit on but borrowed a T-shirt to throw on over it. It did seem crazy to put her work clothes back on after being on the beach. It wasn’t exactly sexy lingerie, but still she hoped that Mac would like it.

*   *   *

Mac paced back and forth across his entryway, waiting for Ava to arrive. When he’d shown up at Gray’s house earlier, the other man casually mentioned that his wife and Ava were parasailing down on the beach and would be back in a few hours. Parasailing? Holy shit! Mac’s concentration had gone out the window after that. He was only half listening to Gray’s questions about an alarm system upgrade as he imagined the woman he loved breaking her neck and drowning in the freaking Atlantic Ocean. It had taken everything he had not to leave Gray standing there while he marched down the beach and threw Ava over his shoulder. He thought he deserved a fucking medal for having that much self-control.

He had wanted to ask Gray how it was that he didn’t
seem at all concerned about his wife’s welfare but figured that being married to Suzy had probably taught the other man some patience. Mac had always heard that a smart person picked his battles, and maybe that was how Gray handled things with his wife. Mac, though, obviously wasn’t that intelligent, because he was pissed and ready to start an out-and-out war with Ava the moment she arrived. That was assuming she made it there in one piece. She was supposed to arrive at eight, which was about fifteen minutes from now.

He had been in a state of near-constant arousal since her text earlier today. Couple sexual frustration with anger, and it was a volatile combination. He knew that he needed to exercise control with her, though. He couldn’t risk scaring her away, after they had finally taken a step forward and made it this far. Her message had given him hope that she wanted him with the same all-consuming desire that he felt for her. He had already been hanging by a thread when he found out that she was, once again, doing something that could very well get her injured. He had hoped that after she had been so spooked by the man at the hang gliding club meeting, she would give all that up and come to her senses, but that didn’t appear to be the case. These stunts just seemed to be getting worse. He wanted to kiss every inch of her delectable bottom but also itched to turn it red. The woman would be the death of him.

As he continued to seethe, he heard the unmistakable sound of a car engine followed by a slamming door. That had better be her. He truly pitied anyone else who believed this might be a good night for a visit. He looked
through the side window and glimpsed her walking up the steps. He gulped as he noticed she wore nothing but a shirt that left miles of leg uncovered.
Oh, shit
. He threw the door open, noting her surprised expression as her finger hovered over the doorbell. Without a word, he took her hand and pulled her inside the darkened entryway . . . and that was as far as they made it.

A fire ignited between them that made it impossible to think rationally. Before he could even fathom how it had happened, he had her shirt over her head and his hands on her ass, grinding her against his painfully hard erection. “Mac—yes,” she moaned as he untied the strings to her skimpy swimsuit, exposing every naked inch of her to his hungry gaze.

Her small hands were on him, pushing his basketball shorts down his legs, seeming to want him just as desperately as he desired her. He hooked one hand over his back, pulling his shirt up over his head, and finally, they had what they were both hungry for—skin-on-skin contact. For Mac, self-control was gone. He was an animal in its most primitive form. “Mine,” he moaned as he took one of her nipples in his mouth, sucking the rosy peak while pinching the other one between his thumb and forefinger. “I need you, baby—now,” he growled, pushing the head of his thick cock against her wet entrance. His body shuddered as he waited for her permission. Even with the raging need he felt, he couldn’t possess her without knowing it was what she wanted. He needed to hear the words. When she moaned against his neck, he whispered, “Say it, baby. Tell me you want me.”

Wrapping a leg around his thigh, she groaned, “Yes . . . yes, Mac. God yes, I want you. Please—now, right now!” Before she finished her plea, he was pushing inside her. She was so tight that he was forced to go slow, even though he wanted nothing more than to bury himself in one stroke. He couldn’t hurt her—he’d never do that, no matter how close to the edge he was. She came first; she always had. After a few shallow thrusts into her wet heat, it became apparent he wasn’t the only one ready for more. With a voice full of impatience she snapped, “Harder, Mac!
Harder
!” When he felt her small teeth sink into his earlobe, he lost it.

Rearing his hips back, Mac seated himself completely inside her. She hooked both arms around his neck before wrapping her legs around his waist, pushing him impossibly deeper into her. “Ah, Avie, oh, baby, fuck yeah!” he chanted as his powerful thrusts nailed her ass against the wall. Her hips followed the movement of his, taking everything he gave her and begging for more. When the familiar tingle started at the base of his spine, he knew he was close, but damn it, he didn’t want this to end. Being inside Ava transcended every other moment in his life, and he’d fucking live there if she’d let him. “I’m close, baby,” he whispered against her ear, needing her to get there fast. When he would have lowered his hand to her clit, he groaned when he felt her using the base of his cock to do that very thing.