Taming the Legend (20 page)

Chapter Twenty

Camila sneaked through the woods, trying not to glance around for witnesses as that would just make her look guilty. It wasn’t unusual for her to walk through the woods or to visit campers or her staff in their cabins.

Of course, she’d never had sex with any of them.

Fortunately, all the campers and their counselors were dining in the cafeteria, and Becca
was probably at home running her face all over her professional snowboarder, so she didn’t run into anyone. She glanced at the clock on her phone as she approached the back of Ash’s cabin. Six twenty-five. Just a few minutes early.

Don’t do this. Don’t pretend you can be casual about sex with Ash.

She wasn’t pretending anything. She knew that letting go of him was going to be agony.
But the thought of saying goodbye and knowing she’d missed out on these weeks of closeness and togetherness was even worse.

Ash’s curtains were closed, so she pressed against the glass of the bedroom window and slid it open. Bracing her hands against the lower edge, she hoisted herself up. She’d just gotten her torso through the small space when her head poked through the curtains and she
caught a glimpse of a very startled Ash wearing only a towel.

Slung over his shoulders.

“Oh crap.” Her elbows collapsed and she tumbled face-first onto the cabin floor, where she lay in a heap. “Ow.”

In a heartbeat, Ash kneeled next to her. “Are you all right?”

Her cheek, elbow, knee and hip hurt, but not as much as her pride. She tried to untangle her legs from the curtains
but they were wrapped up and suspended in the air. “You said you’d put a pillow down.”

His jaw dropped open. “I thought you were kidding about sneaking in through the window.”

“Oh. No. Not kidding.” She kicked her legs again to free them, once, twice.

Creak!

The ancient curtain rod ripped away from the wall and dropped on her, smothering her with the burlap curtains. “
Now
you’re
freaking kidding me.”

Even through the yards of cheap, rough fabric, she could hear the muffled sounds of his laughter.

“It’s not funny.”

“You bet your sweet arse it is.” The fabric shifted away from her face as he tugged it off her and let it fall across his lap. “Yet again I have to ask, you all right?”

She pressed her hand against her throbbing pelvic bone. “I think I bruised
my…um, core.”

“That’s interesting. Did you know the best way to cure a bruise is by rubbing it?”

She snorted. “You are such a liar.”

“How could you doubt me? I’ve got more experience with bruises than the rest of this camp put together.”

“So you want to rub my core?”

“Well, when you offer so nicely…”

She gave him a playful shove, appreciating the heat his smooth,
naked shoulder gave off. The curtains covered his man bits—not that there was anything bitty about him. Ash might not be a very tall man, but he was larger than life in more ways than just his career—leaving her to appreciate his chiseled chest and impressively built arms. She’d worshiped those arms as a teenager. Worshiped the flex of them as he’d held her in his embrace. Worshiped the strength of
them as he’d defended her against her cousin. Worshiped the way he’d reined in that strength and treated her with nothing but gentleness.

And now one of those arms was half covered by a tattoo partly in her honor. Falling in love with him would be so damn easy.

“Mila, if you keep staring at me like that, I’m going to poke a hole in this curtain.”

“Huh?” She followed his gaze down
his rippled abs to his lap, where his erection tented the fabric. “Oh. Sorry. I was just looking at your tattoo.”

“Right.” His tone called her a liar, but he turned his arm so she could see his ink better. She grazed her fingertips over the word LEGENDS running through the center of the ball. “What would you have done if you’d been traded to a different team?”

“It doesn’t really work
like that. And I wouldn’t have gone to another team. I had plenty of offers, but Legends are my family. I could never have played against them.”

His family.
Sadness made her fingers still for only a second before trailing down his arm to where the skin was ink-free. She
loved
these arms. She skimmed the sensitive inside of his elbow and continued down his forearm to brush his palm with the
lightest of touches.

“Fucking hell, Mila,” he murmured before clasping her cheeks in his strong hands and attacking her mouth.

Nothing gentle, nothing soft. No full-body embrace or tender sighs of reconnection. Only his mouth and hers, going at it like the desperate survivors of a dozen failed love affairs. More than that—the desperate survivors of their own failed love affair.

His tongue invaded, caressing hers with strokes that sent tremors of delight shimmying down her spine. She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung tightly as she invaded him right back. They kissed for several wordless minutes, delicious desire squirming low in her belly, before she pulled away to catch her breath.

“Oh my God. That…
that…
”

He attacked again. She wriggled to get closer,
but lying on the floor with the curtain rod and drapes tangled around her made it impossible. “Ash. Help.”

He never broke contact with her mouth as he tore the drapes away from her, balled them up and slung them as far as he could, leaving himself naked. Totally and completely naked with the towel in a heap on the floor behind him. But he kissed her too thoroughly for her to appreciate the
startling, scarred, inked, battered beauty of his physique.

Panting wildly, he finally paused and pressed his forehead against hers. “Fuck. I could kiss you all night.”

That sounded like an excellent idea. She sifted her fingers through the hair at his temples. “Do it then.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You kissed me all night once before. Remember?” That night on the beach had been the
best in her life, the first time she’d felt a guy was with her because he liked her, wanted to hold her instead of getting inside her.

“Mila, no matter how old I get or how my memory fades, I’ll never,
ever
forget that.”

A relieved, grateful breath rushed from her chest. “Pasta can wait till breakfast, right?”

He chuckled against her lips. “Absolutely.”

He shoved his arms under
her knees and back, then stood and lifted her as if she weighed nothing.

“Holy crap. Have you been lifting weights?”

“No, water buckets,” he joked and carried her to his bed. He laid her down and bent to slide down next to her, but she lifted her foot and pressed it against his chest, stopping him. She let her gaze wander all over him, still amazed by the differences eighteen years made.

“I can’t believe how you’ve filled out. I mean, you know, I’m not just talking about your—” she gestured toward his erection, “—though it’s definitely very…
full.
”

Oh God.
Her cheeks burst into flames.

He rubbed his mouth, but he couldn’t hide his amusement. “You’re such a smooth talker, Mila. You should give lessons.”

“Mmm, I could be a seduction coach. Step one, break into
his house. Make sure he sees you falling on your face…because men love ungainly women.”

“That we do. Step two, chastise him for not breaking your fall with a pillow.”

“Well, you
did
promise.”

“From now on I’ll never assume you’re kidding when you come up with a ridiculous plan.”

Her grin faltered at the implicit promise of
from now on,
a promise they both knew he couldn’t keep.
“Step three?”

“Admire his cock.”

She burst out laughing, and the mattress shook beneath her.

“What? We men think highly of our cocks and appreciate it when others feel the same. So go on.” He nuzzled the sensitive hollow behind her ear and she shivered. Taking her hand, he laid it on his chest and ran it so slowly down his body that she could feel the outline of every muscle until
she got to the one she loved most.

He was hot, hard and heavy against her palm. She stroked the pad of her thumb over his tip, and his whole body shuddered in pleasure as he groaned. Turning so she could cradle his lips with hers, she murmured against his mouth, “You’re supposed to be kissing me.”

“You didn’t say we couldn’t do anything else.”

She kissed him as she let go, every
cell in her body cursing her as she curled her arms around his back, well away from his cock. “So I’m saying it now. Kissing only.”

He groaned and dropped his face to her shoulder.

“When you’re used to sex being part of a relationship, it can be tough to find other ways to appreciate each other.”

He rubbed his nose against hers. “I appreciate you, Mila.”

Half expecting him
to follow up with
Now give me a handjob,
she waited. Nothing. “But?”

“But what? You think I can’t kiss you all night? I may be an old retired fella, but when it comes to this I’ve still got the stamina I had when I was eighteen, sweetness.”

She’d never doubted his stamina. Her fear centered on his interest in doing something so rudimentary when he was used to having so much more. Seeming
to read her thoughts, he pulled her arms away from his back, threaded his fingers through hers and planted their hands on the pillow next to her head. He stretched out on top of her, balancing most of his weight on his knees and elbows so she could still breathe. His erection pressed against her thigh, but all she could feel through her jeans was hard pressure. It had only been one day, but she
missed the feel of his bare skin against hers and nearly backed down on her challenge.

But then he took her up on it, and there was no backing down. “I said I could kiss you all night, Mila, and that’s what I’m going to do. Will you do me a favor, though?”

“Anything.”

“Keep your clothes on. Don’t undo a single button. Don’t even let your shirt ride up to expose a centimeter of your
stomach. Otherwise you’ll find out I lied about my stamina.”

She grinned. “Are you saying the sight of my poochy tummy would be too much for you to handle?”

“I’m saying I love your body and we’ve got a fucking lot of years to make up for. Taking my time and going slow won’t be easy, so have a little mercy on me.”

She drew his head down to hers. “No mercy, Ash. Just kissing. Lots
and lots of kissing.”

And then she got down to the business of taking her time with him.

* * *

They kissed and dozed and kissed and dozed until Camila’s stomach rumbled and Ash got them some cheese and crackers to snack on in bed. Then they kissed and dozed some more. When Ash woke up, crumbs dug into some of his more sensitive areas. He tried to brush them away without waking Camila,
but she’d always been a light sleeper and she blinked awake.

Watching him through sleepy eyes, she snuggled with her pillow. “What time is it?”

“Quarter to five.”

She groaned and buried her face in the pillow. “Ugh. That’s too early, even for me. Please tell me you’re still jet-lagged and this isn’t a normal time for you to wake up.”

“Fuck no it’s not normal. I wouldn’t have
woken up except there were crumbs trying to go places no food has ever gone before.”

She unburied herself enough to peek at him through one eye. “We kissed all night.”

“Oh, so that wasn’t a dream I had?”

Moving swiftly, she smacked him with her pillow. “I’m sure you would’ve come up with better things to do if it had been a dream.”

Now that was interesting. He pushed a lock
of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Tell me what’s better than kissing you.”

“Winning the World Cup’s got to be up there.”

He pretended to think about it, but it was scary how close the two were. “Maybe. I think my body hurts more today than it did the day after the final, though.”

She glanced at his semi-awake erection. “Sorry about that.”

“Liar.” His
body was all wound up, having been pushed to the edge of orgasm over and over yet determined not to succumb because his restraint had meant something to Camila.

She was right. It was really hard not to jump straight to sex when all his adult relationships had included a healthy dose of it. Snogging like a teenager, finding ways to tease and tempt Camila with only his mouth, had led to more
laughter and more pleasure than he would’ve imagined.

Grinning, she stretched, still covered by her jeans and a long-sleeved shirt that had stayed on all through the night. Somehow the sight of her fully dressed seemed just as erotic as her naked body.

Though Ash would happily get her naked to test that theory. In the name of science, of course.

She finished her stretch and rolled
toward him, her hands becoming curious as they roamed over him. After a night without her touching the places he missed her most, his whole body became one big erogenous zone. Her fingertips meandered down until she reached his cock, and her lips followed in their wake. He sucked in a breath, helpless to do anything but watch as she took him into her mouth. “Oh, God.”

Her tongue flicked across
his frenulum, nearly making him come from the obscene pleasure. His hips jerked, and he grabbed the fitted sheet so hard the corners popped away from the mattress and the loose fabric bunched around him. Camila never broke his gaze as she stroked and flicked and licked and sucked.

Jesus, he hadn’t been attended to with this much enthusiasm since…since Barcelona.

Her eyes, her mouth…everything
about her mesmerized him. He wanted her and needed her so badly, and right now his bollocks were too tight for him to think of anything but being with her forever and ever.

Always. Always her. Always had been. Always would be.

He was too close. Too close to begging, negotiating. Right now he’d do anything. He plowed his hands into her hair, holding her head and panting her name in warning.
Then ecstasy. Then gratitude.

She took all of him, staying with him through the dying waves of orgasm as he trembled and reached for her. But she didn’t crawl into his arms the way he wanted her to. Instead she gave him one last intimate kiss and raised herself to her knees. She crawled away from him, got out of bed and crossed to the window. “The sun’ll start coming up soon, so I’d better
get going. At least this’ll be easier, now that there aren’t any curtains to get tangled up in.”