Page 78 of Wild Heart

Ava’s hand still hadn’t released the doorknob, but at my question, with her eyes never once leaving mine, she closed the door. The moment it was shut, I expected her to respond, to say something.

She remained silent, her chest heaving, and her eyes focused squarely on mine.

“Ava, please talk to me,” I begged, stepping out from behind the conference room table.

“Did you have sex with her?”

Though I hadn’t really had much time to consider the possible things Ava could have said to me, I was confident that I could have had days to come up with a list and there wouldn’t have been a chance of that question popping into my head. It was so jarring, it brought me to a grinding halt.

“What?”

“Francesca. Did you have sex with her the night you walked with her to the cabin at the mountain?”

This had to be a joke. “Have you lost your mind?”

Ava was on the verge of tears. “Just answer me, Tate. Please, I need to hear you say it. Did you sleep with her?”

If I had to choose one word to describe the sound of Ava’s voice, that word would have been agony. She sounded utterly tortured, like this was a matter of life and death.

So, even though I thought it was a ridiculous question that needed no answer, I didn’t hesitate to respond. “No. No, I did not sleep with her.”

Something that sounded like a choked sob escaped her, and in a move I didn’t see coming, Ava practically flew across the room, launching herself at me. I wrapped my arms around her, catching her just as she circled her legs around my waist and kissed me.

How we’d gone from her asking me the most absurd question I’d heard in my life to this, I didn’t know. As unexpected as it was, my body reacted accordingly. It was like no time had passed since I’d last had the privilege of kissing Ava. Or perhaps it was that too much time had passed.

Because while my hands and my mouth seemed to just know what to do immediately, it took my brain a little longer to catch up. It was as though it registered what was physically happening between us, but there was a disconnect somewhere.

I could only assume it had to do with the way things had been between us for the last couple of weeks and the question she’d just asked me.

If I was a smart man, I would have stopped this. I would have torn my mouth from hers and set her down on her feet so we could talk. Ava and I had been through far too much for me to not be absolutely certain that something wasn’t wrong.

But either I wasn’t that smart, or something else had taken over—something primal.

A year and three months of almost zero contact with her, followed by the single best night of my life, and three more months of complete despair.

There was nothing I could do to stop what was going to happen in this room. It had been too long. There had been far too much time and space and distance between us.

With just a single touch of her lips and one swipe of my tongue into her mouth, a guttural moan tore from Ava’s throat. That sound mixed with the feel of her fingers in my hair and her body pressed tight to mine, even through her layers, had my cock swelling.

All the tension I’d been feeling from the moment she flung the door open and stood there with that look of panic and fear in her eyes had dissipated. The heaviness was gone, warmth and heat moving through my body.

And my heart.

My heart was pounding so wildly, I was sure Ava could feel it.

Ava gripped my hair firmly, tugged my head back slightly, and tore her mouth from mine, her breathing even more labored than it had been when she first burst into the room.

Her gorgeous lips were swollen, her eyes swirling with lust and desire.

“Are you back, wild one?”

She tipped her chin down slightly. “My body might not have been here, but my heart never left.”

Ava leaned in and kissed me again. Her hands left my hair and came to the front of my throat, where she started to work at the knot in my tie.

I stepped closer to the table, set her ass down on it, and whipped her sweatshirt and T-shirt over her head. As she tossed my tie aside and went for the buttons on my shirt, I forced my suit jacket down my arms.

Ava was still working at my shirt, pulling it out of my pants, when my body came over hers, urging her to her back on the table. She continued to fumble with the buttons while my mouth sought to kiss and lick and suck any of her exposed skin.