Page 23

ASH

T his is not the way I thought the night would go, but I’m freaking thrilled at the turn of events.

All through dinner, I imagined coming back to the house, sitting in the hot tub with everyone again, maybe having some dessert, and then Liv joining me in my room after she got ready for bed.

I figured we’d maybe watch some TV, fool around a little, and then fall asleep. I was determined to take things slow.

That went right out the window when I walked into the room and found her bending over, with her hot pink panties peeking out from under her robe.

I don’t know how this happened—how the universe put the two of us together and then kept putting us together until we got to this exact place—but I’m very glad it did.

She’s all soft, warm curves, and even softer sighs as I continue to touch and kiss her.

I love her responses, the way she moves beneath me.

I love the way her back arches to force us to stay close and connected.

But more than anything, I love her choice of nightwear because it’s easy to slide it right off of her.

The hot pink panties look even better now in full view.

I fall back against the mattress and Liv is immediately beside me, her head resting against my chest, listening to the steady rhythm of my heartbeat.

Although, I’m not sure I’d call my heartbeat steady at the moment. Right now, it’s definitely racing because this woman is turning me inside out and is sexier than I ever imagined.

And in the last twenty-four hours, I imagined it a lot.

My fingers trace slow circles along her back, the weight of the moment settling between us.

We both know what’s next and it’s important for me to know that we’re on the same page and hear her tell me it’s what she wants.

Her body may be saying one thing, but I need to know her heart and mind are on the same page.

"Are you sure?" I murmur, my voice a gentle whisper against her hair.

She lifts her head to meet my gaze, her green eyes shining with trust. "Yes," she breathes. "Are you?"

A small smile tugs at my lips as I brush a stray strand of hair from her cheek. "I’ve never been surer of anything." I swallow hard. I don’t want to ruin the mood or cause any doubts. I want her too much.

Instead, our lips meet—tentative at first, exploring, learning. We’ve been kissing on and off for what feels like hours, and yet it’s still new. Every touch, every angle, it’s all new and exciting and I want more. So much more.

The soft press of our lips deepens, and soon, the space between us disappears entirely as I roll Olivia on top of me. My hands slide along her arms, slow and reverent, memorizing the feel of her soft skin, while her fingers curl into the pillow I’m resting on, holding me close.

The heat and need between us grows as our bodies move together, a dance of whispered sighs and soft gasps. Each touch is careful, unhurried, until it isn’t. Her movements become a little more frantic, and I’m cursing the fact that there are still bits of fabric between us.

I feel her shiver as my fingertips skim along her spine, causing her to moan with pleasure into my mouth. I’m harder than I’ve ever been before and I’m almost desperate to be inside her. Claiming her. Loving her. Pleasing her. I’m on the edge and I don’t think I can wait much longer.

I roll us over almost brutally and I hear her soft gasp of surprise. In the blink of an eye, her panties are gone, but it takes a little longer to kick my own shorts away. But once every barrier between us has disappeared, I pause. My forehead resting against hers, breathing her in.

There are so many things I want to say—how she makes me feel, how beautiful she is, how my self-control is hanging on by a thread—but she looks up at me, caresses my jaw, and says one little word.

“Please.”

And I’m no longer thinking; I’m doing exactly what we both want and need, and it’s better than anything I’ve ever felt.

It’s after midnight and we’re finishing our brownies when we hear a strange sound.

“What is that?” Liv asks.

It takes me only a few seconds of quiet to realize one of the dogs is crying and scratching at Roxie’s door. I go to stand up, but she stops me.

“What are you doing?”

“I should go and let whoever’s crying out.” I stand and pull my shorts back on and then grab a t-shirt out of the dresser.

“You don’t think Roxie’s going to do it?”

“I don’t know if you noticed how much she drank at dinner or how tired she was even before that, but…”

“I didn’t,” she says wearily. “I hope being here with all of us—especially now that you and I have sort of…you know…buddied up, that she doesn’t feel left out.”

Buddied up? Seriously? We just had some of the most mind-blowing sex of my life and she’s looking at me as a buddy?

There’s a bark in the distance, so that becomes my priority, but not before I lean in and kiss her soundly. “I’ll be back in a few.”

Scrambling from the bed, I watch as Olivia shimmies back into her panties and grabs her robe. “I’m coming with you.”

“Why?”

“Because if Roxie’s sleeping through all that noise, something’s wrong!”

“Good point.” I reach for her hand as we leave the room and head down to the second floor. When I open the door, Gunnar comes bolting out and runs down the stairs. “I’ll deal with him; you check on Roxie.”

She nods and goes inside as I jog down the stairs to find Gunnar scratching at the front door to go out.

“Okay, buddy. Give me a sec and I’ll grab your leash.”

It takes a few minutes for me to grab it and grab someone’s flip flops to slide on since all of my shoes are up in my room. Mike and Loren are still out in the hot tub and I kind of cringe because they’ve got to be super pruney by now.

Either that or they did it in the hot tub, and I don’t even want to think about that.

Luckily Gunnar barks frantically and I immediately get his leash on and let him drag me out the door and down the steps.

He’s clearly on a mission and I just let him lead me to wherever he needs to go, but it still takes longer than I thought to get back to the house.

As soon as we’re back, Gunnar runs straight back up to his room, and I run into Mike and Loren in the kitchen.

“Hey! We thought we heard someone,” Mike said before nodding to the dog. “How’d you end up on dog duty?”

I briefly explain about hearing the dogs and how Olivia was concerned since Roxie wasn’t waking up to hear them.

“She mentioned how tired she was a bunch of times when I carried her up earlier,” he explains. “But damn. That’s some deep sleeping if you don’t hear a dog barking in a small room.”

“Should I go up and check on her too?” Loren asks, just as I notice Olivia coming down the stairs.

“Everything okay?”

She nods and comes over to join us. “She is just super tired and…very, very sad.” She sighs, looking at Loren. “I think we need to give her a little TLC over the rest of this trip. Seeing all of us together has her feeling left out.”

Wow. She really called that one.

“I didn’t even think of that,” Loren says miserably, even as she leans in to hug Mike. “She’s always with us, and it never seemed to bother her before.”

“Yeah, well…then I couldn’t stay in the room because of the dogs and the snoring, and Ash and I hook up, and…”

Hook up.

Buddies.

I have seriously misjudged everything and I’m feeling really stupid right about now.

“Do you think the guys and I should maybe leave for a few days?” Mike asks.

“Wait, what ?” I demand, shocked by his question.

“I don’t think we need to do anything that drastic,” Olivia assures us. “But maybe we need to be doing some more separate stuff for a few days, that’s all.”

“That’s fine because there are plenty of activities we can do that have us out of the house most of the day,” Mike explains. “We can’t do anything about meals and whatnot, but I think we’re more than okay with keeping ourselves out of your way for the bulk of the day, right, Ash?”

“That actually sounds great. It’s kind of what I thought this trip was about.”

Do I sound a bit surly? Yes.

Do I care? No.

“Great! So let’s plan on leaving here tomorrow around ten and hitting the place where we can rent jet skis! It’s about thirty minutes from here and we can take them out on the sound all afternoon,” Mike tells us.

“Oh, man! That sounds like fun! Can we go too?” Loren asks, squeezing his arm.

“Um…babe? Remember why we’re doing this?”

“Right. Right. Time to shower Roxie with some extra attention. Got it.”

“Maybe after the guys all leave and it’s just us, we can go,” Olivia suggests. “Although I’m not sure how comfortable I am with riding a jet ski, but it could be research for the book!”

Great. Now she’s already planning for when I’m gone. Do I need the ton of bricks to fall on me?

“Cool. So we’re all good then.” Mike yawns and hugs Loren. “Let’s clean up the deck then and head up. Big day tomorrow! Night, guys!”

“Good night,” Olivia and I both say at the same time, but we don’t move right away. When she turns and looks up at me, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say because I’m feeling a little foolish about how I perceived this relationship.

I nearly jump when she takes my hand and smiles. “You ready to head back up?”

Right. She’s staying in my room.

“Um…yeah. Sure.” My voice is flat, and I let go of her hand and motion for her to head up the stairs first. I don’t miss the look of confusion on her face, but she walks ahead of me without a word. And I do my best not to notice those hot pink panties peeking out from under her robe.

Up in the room, I shut the door and ask, “Should we watch something on Netflix?” But when I turn, she’s standing there, arms crossed, and staring at me.

“Did I do something wrong?”

Inwardly, I groan because this is not a conversation I want to have.

“Um…”

“I mean, we were fine, but when you got up to help the dogs, it’s a like a switch flipped or something,” she goes on. “If you want me to go or you’re having regrets…”