‘No condom,’ she said, breathlessly in his ear.
And he got it, pulling back just enough to slide his hand between them and when he found her clit, she lit up from the inside and threw her head back and let him take her higher and higher. His wet lips found a nipple and he tugged and suckled and tasted her, feasting on her breast as he took her higher and higher, faster and faster, fiercely, over the edge until an orgasm rippled through her body. Ava held her breath, savoured the delicious ache and the throb and tug inside her, digging her fingernails into his strong shoulders as she breathed.
‘Ava,’ he murmured against her cheek.
‘Oh, God,’ she whispered. Callum Malone had just made her come and she would never recover.
He dipped his head and ducked under the water, taking her other nipple between his teeth, gently biting, sucking and licking her. The cool water and his hot mouth almost had her orgasming again. She reached under the water and gripped her fingers around his cock, still hard, all hers.
When he came up for air, his eyes wide, he said, ‘Condoms are upstairs.’
*
When they reached Callum’s bed, dripping wet and panting, Ava threw herself backward on the crisp sheets and watched as he sheathed himself, all languid, quivering limbs and pounding heart. When he lowered himself onto her, he was heavy and hard. And yes, this was what she wanted. She moaned his name again, suddenly free to say it out loud, and spread her legs wide to take him in, because she wanted to feel full of him, wanted him deep inside her. Primal, urgent, out of her control, she gripped his butt and pulled him into her as he kissed her and buried himself in her.
When he came it was with a shudder and she gripped her legs around him, wanting to keep him there forever. When he finally slipped out, she said, before she could stop herself, ‘Don’t go.’
His dark and shining eyes searched hers. ‘Give me a minute.’ Callum crawled off the enormous bed and went to the bathroom. She lay spreadeagled like a starfish, drowsy with lust and post-sex haze. She’d missed the feeling so much she felt tears well in her eyes. How unfair was it that she had to give him up?
This man. This kind of sex.
This wanting. This desire.
This heat. This love.
When Callum returned, he stood at the end of the bed, watching her. She lifted her head to see what he was doing.
‘Come back,’ she said, a little coy suddenly that he was looking right at her sex. She brought her legs together and raised her knees.
‘Open your legs, Ava,’ he said, his voice rough but not demanding. She did as he asked and his eyes blazed.
She knew what was going to happen next. ‘Make me come, Callum.’
And he did with a tongue and fingers that melted her bones.
*
After, they lay in bed, spent, drowsy, sated. The bedroom windows were wide open, and the sound of the ocean down below was soothing and soporific in the late afternoon heat. Callum was on his back, one hand behind his head, and Ava was lying in the crook of his arm, drawing soft circles on his chest as she trailed a finger over his ridges and muscles. She slipped a knee over his thigh and curled up against him, savouring his body, his heat, the way he’d made love to her.
He was everything she knew he would be. Damn hot naked. Considerate. Oh wow, was he considerate. A mouth that set her on fire with his words and with what he managed to do with his tongue. A cock that had filled her. Arms that had enveloped her, hips that ground against her, a chest that had cushioned her when she’d ridden him and then collapsed on top of him. Hands that swept her hair up into a knot and smoothed their way down her shoulders, her breasts, her ribs and her butt.
She savoured every minute of their lovemaking. It would have to last her a lifetime, this secret afternoon. There could be no encore performance. And if this thing she had felt for Callum had to go out with a bang—literally—it had been worth it.
So totally worth it.
And that’s all she ever really wanted, right? Had she ever really imagined anything more than a fantasy fuck with Callum? She had a vision for her work, always had, and it had driven her. But she’d never had a vision for her love life because the man she loved was someone else’s. So instead, she imagined a future filled with vague notions that she might one day meet a great guy and they might get a puppy. Perhaps they would share the rent in a slightly bigger apartment in Bondi. Sunday morning brunch. That’s what she’d imagined a decent relationship would hinge on. A smashing Sunday morning brunch. It’s what couples did, right?
How would she know?
‘You all right?’ Callum pulled her closer and put his lips to her hair.
Ava sighed and wiped the tears from her eyes. There would be more, she knew it. ‘Callum? When you called me from Singapore you said we needed to talk. I think this is the time, don’t you?’
‘I know what you’re thinking,’ he murmured.
‘Do you really?’
‘Yeah, I do. You’re thinking that this is complicated.’
‘Sex is never complicated,’ she said on a sigh. ‘It’s what comes after that is complicated.’
‘So we had great, uncomplicated sex,’ he said and kissed her hair again.
‘“Great” does not even begin to cover what we just did.’
‘Hot?’
‘Sizzling, and you know it. The kind of sizzling that makes a girl forget her name.’
Callum peeled back the sheet covering them and moved on top of her. It was the sheer weight of him that squeezed the air from her lungs. When she spread her legs apart, it was only to bear his weight more comfortably. And when she slipped her arms around his neck, it was for safety.
‘Your name is Ava Gibson and you just had hot, uncomplicated sex with me.’ That smile cut her in two.
‘How could I forget?’ And she could feel that he was hard again. She wanted—no, needed—to come again and she pushed herself against him, wrapping her legs tight around him, moving her hands down to squeeze his perfectly formed butt.
Callum dipped his head and planted a trail of soft kisses down her neck, across her chin and then he kissed her mouth. Demanding, urging, his tongue dancing with hers. He broke the lip lock for a moment to reach for another condom, and when he was back and protected, she was so ready and wet that he plunged into her, his breath hot on her lips, his bottom lip between her teeth, her hands pushing and urging him deeper and deeper. When he came, the tension left his body in a guttural groan and she held him, feeling his chest rise and fall, loving the way his face slipped into her neck, her flowing hair all around them.
She found her breath but when he rolled off her and moved in close, his fingers finding her clitoris, so wet, so ready, he made her come again and this time she really did think she was going to die from lack of oxygen.
When he kissed her after, and searched her face, she closed her eyes against what she was feeling for this man. For how impossible it was.
‘Ava? What we just did? What we do to each other? That’s not complicated.’
She averted her gaze from him.
‘Look at me.’
She wanted to be brave enough for this, to be strong enough to own what she had to do. She opened her eyes. ‘What?’
‘I know what you’re thinking.’
She exhaled slowly. ‘Good for you. My brain is a bubble of mush right about now, and I can barely remember my own name. But let’s just say that if I was thinking, it would be along the lines of ‘You’re the bastard who cheated on Lulu and I’m the awful sister who has betrayed her by sleeping with you.’
He tensed. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’
‘There is absolutely nowhere for this to go. What were we thinking, Callum?’
‘Wait a minute? What?’ Callum moved off her.
And then her tears flowed. She didn’t care. She couldn’t hide them. ‘We’re horrible people, both of us. Don’t you see? We’ve both cheated on her.’
He looked incredulous. ‘You don’t know, do y
ou?’
‘Know what?’
Callum slowly sat up, dropped his legs over the edge of the bed. His strong back was to her, flexing as he rubbed a hand over his hair. Everything about him was beautiful, masculine, tender and loving, which made Ava feel even more dreadful and bereft.
‘You think it was me? You really think I could be that cruel? And yet,’ he looked at her, studying her, with something in his eyes that looked like hurt. ‘You’re here with me in my bed.’
‘I …’ She stopped. What had he just said? ‘Wasn’t it?’
‘You really don’t know,’ he murmured.
She reached a hand out to him, something desperate in her tone now. ‘Please Callum. Tell me. What don’t I know?’
‘There are things you don’t know about your sister. But I’m not the one to tell you. You have to hear it from her.’
Ava sat bolt upright. ‘Please tell me.’
‘But there’s one thing you need to understand. What happened here? How I feel about you? This is about you and me, Ava. No-one else.’
Ava’s heart thudded in her chest. Don’t say you and me. There is no you and me.
He looked back at her over his shoulder, his eyes intent. ‘I want you, Ava. I might even love you. And that scares the hell out of me after what I’ve been through. But we need to start with the truth. Go talk to your sister.’
Something shot right through Ava’s heart. ‘Did you say … you might love me?’
‘Yeah, Ava the Terrible. I might love you.’
‘Well, hell’s bells,’ Ava said. She pulled the cotton sheet around her and crawled over the bed and sat next to Callum. He held his hand to her, palm up, and she put hers in his. This was so like her. Sex first. Holding hands second.
‘How long has this been going on?’
‘Since that day at The Meadows. You were lying on the grass looking up at the sun.’
‘Holy crap,’ she said. ‘I’d better go talk to Lulu.’
‘I’ll be waiting.’
She stood and pulled the sheet tighter around her. She needed to hear it one more time.
‘So you might be in love with me?’
He gave her a sad smile. ‘Yeah.’
Chapter Seventeen
‡
Ava drove directly to Lulu’s, her head a mess, her emotions as tumultuous as a Sydney storm. What the hell was going on? Callum had left Lulu, right? He’d broken her heart, hadn’t he? Or was everything she thought she knew a lie?
There are things you don’t know about your sister.
What things didn’t she know? What goddamn things? And why hadn’t he told her instead of forcing her to drive to her sister’s with a head full of mush from more orgasms than she could remember and these questions?
Was he saying that Lulu was the one who had ended their marriage? Had she hidden the truth from Ava all this time? But why? Ava felt another swell of frustration and guilt. She’d readily hated Callum out of sisterly loyalty to Lulu. Until she’d got to know him, she’d thought him every kind of cruel bastard for hurting her sister.
Even though she had loved him, she’d hated herself for loving him, and had convinced herself to never, ever forgive him.
Ava pulled up abruptly in front of Lulu’s semi-detached terrace and bolted to the red front door. She needed answers and immediately. The love of her life was waiting at his house, having given her the clue to unlocking his heart. And she didn’t want to wait one more minute to be loved by him.
It took a few solid knocks before Lulu came to the door. She was wearing bright purple workout gear and had ear buds draped around her neck. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a high ponytail and her tiny feet were clad in matching joggers. She looked beautiful and serene, as always. And it hit Ava like an avalanche. Lulu’s perfection was all a show, a mask. Her perfectly ordered world had fallen apart and she hadn’t known how to cope with it. That was the secret of her sister.
‘Hey, Ava. What a surprise,’ she smiled.
Ava pinched the top of her nose. Stay calm, she willed herself. This is going to be hard, no matter what the truth is. Lulu stepped forward and hugged her sister.
‘Hey, Lulu,’ Ava said. ‘You got a minute?’
‘Of course. I was just about to head out for a walk but that can wait.’ Lulu ushered Ava inside and closed the front door. ‘Can I get you a coffee? You look like you need one.’ Lulu stood on tiptoes and peered into her sister’s face. ‘You all right?’
‘No to the coffee, but thanks.’ They walked down the centre hallway to the kitchen at the back of the house. It was modern and white, clean and tidy. Lulu had always liked her childhood bedroom to be just so. Ava was beginning to realise she had always liked her life to be like that as well.
‘What have you been up to today?’ Lulu asked as she boiled the kettle and fetched herself a cup, placing it on the pristine and empty benchtop.
What had she been up to? Working. Having sex. The regular.
‘I’ve been talking to Callum and … this is hard, Lulu, but there’s something I need to talk to you about.’
Lulu’s face paled. ‘You’ve been talking to Callum?’
Ava breathed deep. She was here to get to the bottom of secrets, not create new ones. ‘I’ve been doing more than that.’
‘I don’t think I understand …’ Lulu’s voice trailed away but the expression on her face told Ava she knew. She came and sat down opposite her sister.
‘I’m here for the truth, Lulu, and that means I have to tell you my truth as well.’ Ava clutched a hand to her stomach. She wanted to vomit. Five years of secrets came spilling out. ‘I’m in love with Callum.’
Saying it out loud after so many years wasn’t as liberating as she thought. If she was wrong about this fool’s errand to her sister for the truth, it would poison their relationship as quickly as weed killer.
‘You are?’
‘I’ve been in love with him for years.’
‘Years?’ Lulu gasped. ‘What do you mean years?’
‘Five years. One year while you were engaged. Three years while you were married to each other and the year after that, since you’ve been divorced. Which pretty much takes us up to today.’
‘Oh my God,’ Lulu whispered. ‘But … but you hate him!’
Ava shook her head. ‘I pretended to because of you. I saw the way he loved you. His heart was yours. But it’s not now and … we’ve just had sex. And it was the best sex of my life.’
‘Oh, Ava,’ Lulu said.
‘And the thing is, all this time, I’ve felt so guilty. So horribly, humiliatingly guilty. First, because he was your husband and then, after you two broke up, because he had hurt you so terribly. I couldn’t believe I still had these raging feelings for a man who’d treated you so badly. All he’s told me is that I should talk to you. He hasn’t told me anything, Lulu. He’s much too decent a man for that. And on the way over here, I thought back to every conversation we had about your break-up and I realised you never actually told me what happened. I thought you were being private because of how much he’d hurt you. But was it the other way round, Lulu?’
Lulu startled and burst into loud sobs.
And then Ava began to cry, too. ‘Lulu, don’t.’
Her sister’s shoulders shook and she sniffed. ‘He really didn’t tell you anything?’
‘Nothing, Lulu. He’s not the bastard you think he is.’
Lulu looked across the table at her sister. ‘God, Ava. He’s not a bastard.’
Ava was in turmoil. ‘Tell me, Lulu. Please.’
‘It was me,’ she cried out. ‘It was my fault. You see … I’m the one who cheated. I’m the one who fell in love with someone else.’
‘Oh no,’ Ava said, only half believing what she was hearing.
And then, after so many half-truths and silences, it all came blurting out. ‘It was Michael. We fell in love and I wanted to be with him. I didn’t set out to betray Callum, you’ve got to believe that. But it happened
and the minute I summoned up the courage to tell him the truth, I left his house and I left that marriage. I’m not proud of what I did. In fact, I’m ashamed. He didn’t deserve it. We should never have got married. I … I got swept away with the fantasy of it all. With the fantasy of him. He was one of those men who wanted to rescue me, you see? Rescue me from the restaurant and from that life. Men take one look at me and think they have to save me. Michael was the first man who didn’t. That’s why I know it’s real with him.’
‘You left Callum?’ Ava gasped.
Lulu nodded and sobbed again.
Ava had hated him for what he’d done to her sister. She’d been so wrong.
‘Don’t hate me, Ava.’ Lulu reached out a hand to her sister.
‘Of course I don’t hate you.’
‘Things happen in marriages that you can’t see from the outside.’
‘I get that but … all this time you let me believe it was him. That it was his fault.’
Lulu wiped her eyes into streaks of smudged mascara. ‘I couldn’t tell you, Ava. I knew after a year that I’d made a mistake. It happens, you know? But when you’re not happy, it eats at you and you start searching for happiness somewhere else. Because everyone deserves that, don’t they? To be happy?’
Ava felt winded. Her pulse was pounding in her forehead and she pinched the bridge of her nose to squeeze it away. She took in a deep breath and let it out. Six more times.
She’d been utterly and completely wrong about Callum.
She’d said terrible, hurtful things to him. And he’d let her, instead of revealing Lulu’s secret. Out of loyalty to a woman he’d once loved. Out of respect for Ava’s relationship with her sister. Because he was a good man. Because he was the best of men.
Lulu gripped her sister’s hand tight. ‘Does he love you?’
‘I think so,’ Ava’s voice trembled. ‘I think he might.’
Lulu smiled through fresh tears. ‘He’s a wonderful man, Ava. He just wasn’t the man for me. You deserve to be happy and so does he.’
‘Thanks, Lulu.’
Ava pushed her chair back and stood. She had somewhere to be. ‘Thank you for telling me the truth.’
The CEO (The Millionaire Malones Book 2) Page 13