Love Match
Regina Carlysle
Attending her college reunion is just the tonic Chloe Wells needs to bring a little spark to her life, but she never anticipated the pure, unadulterated, panty-drenching lust she experiences when bumping into the man she loved back in the day. Talk about fireworks! Talk about sizzle! She loved him once and he walked away. Her analytical mind says no to taking another chance, but her sex-starved body says yes, yes, yes!
The moment former tennis star Michael “Ace” Banner sees sweet, sexy Chloe again, he’s ready to serve up a weekend of hot sex and wicked seduction. His greatest regret was leaving her all those years ago, but now he’s ready to play for keeps. A rematch? Hell yeah. Winning is within reach—and the trophy is Chloe’s heart.
A Romantica® contemporary erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave
LOVE MATCH
Regina Carlysle
Chapter One
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
I can’t tell you how excited I am to see you’ve signed up for our class reunion at good old Western Indiana U! It’s hard to believe that it has been ten years since graduation and I hate that I’ve lost track of my roomies from those days. That big old rambling Victorian next to ‘hottie house’ is still standing and I’m happy to say, I bought it. It’s been so much fun fixing it up! Expensive but FUN. LOL. Anyway, with the reunion and all, I’ve been wondering if you’d like to stay here with me. I’ve invited the others too so it could be a blast to hang out and catch up. Texas seems so far away from here, Chloe, and I’ve missed your smiling face! Please say you’ll bunk here. Pretty please?
Love,
Lindy
* * * * *
Chloe shifted the strap of her purse more firmly on her shoulder as she pushed the blue plastic cart across the supermarket parking lot. She hadn’t shopped here since her college years and that was a long time ago. Still, some things never changed. People were warm and friendly here, even though she was a stranger in these parts now. Such was small-town life and, considering she still lived in a fairly small town, she understood the dynamic. She’d just driven into town in her compact rental car and was on her way to Lindy’s house to get the party started when she decided to stop here. Showing up empty-handed wasn’t her style. It wasn’t fair for her hostess to have to furnish snacks, so Chloe stocked up on chips, dips, peanuts and plenty of soft drinks.
She’d snapped up a couple of nice bottles of wine too. What the hell. How often did the group of them get together anyhow?
Smiling, she rolled the basket up to the trunk and popped the lid. She’d just reached for a couple of sacks when a large, warm hand settled on her elbow.
“Hey, sweetheart. Let me help.”
Gasping, she jerked upright and found herself staring into a pair of sexy, chocolate-brown, very familiar eyes. The paper sack dropped from nerveless fingers and her hands flew over her mouth. Delight sped through her system, heating her blood and making her heart race in a frantic pitter-pat.
Michael “Ace” Banner stood grinning oh so seductively, his white teeth flashing as the sunlight caught and held in his dark, closely cropped hair.
“Ace! Oh my God. Oh honey.” Unable to stop the forward motion, she launched herself into his big, strong arms and squealed like a middle schooler when he swung her up high against his chest and buried his face in her hair. Lord have mercy. They’d been such an item throughout college. “It’s been ten years. Can you believe it?”
Ace laughed and set her back on her feet. Standing there looking like sex on a stick with those long, strong legs encased in worn denim, he sent sparks of memory zipping through her head…and elsewhere. Tall, broad-shouldered and strong with lean muscle, he’d been her ideal of hotness, and when he wasn’t traveling with WIU’s tennis team, they’d been together both on campus and off. In bed and out. In those days, love had held her in its soft grip and Ace had been the center of her world.
Yep. A long time ago.
He settled his hand on her shoulder and negligently massaged the spot, sending the other hand into the hair at his temple. Chloe noticed it was lightly flecked with gray.
Ace shook his head. “Hell yeah, I can believe it’s ten years. Lately I’ve been feeling every one of those years too.”
She sent her gaze over him and tried not to drool. Oh yes, the years had been more than kind to Ace Banner. The worn black Grateful Dead tee shirt he wore molded to the muscular mounds of his chest, and his jeans were faded in the front, cupping his cock like a pair of loving hands.
Um. Yum.
“Doesn’t look like it to me,” she managed as the wind caught her hair and whipped it into her eyes. Shoving it back with restless fingers, she wondered what this man she’d once adored thought of the way she looked now. The years definitely hadn’t been quite so kind to her.
But then, as if he’d seen her fears or read her thoughts, his smile faded a little and he reached out and settled his broad palm on her cheek. His eyes softened before his thumb traced the faint circles she wore beneath her eyes as a constant reminder of what she’d been through. She carried a few extra pounds, the remnants of motherhood and birth and, along with those damn circles, her reminder of death.
“Are you tired, honey?” he asked. “I read in the newsletter that you lost your husband a few years ago.”
It had been two years but her eyes burned. “Um. Yeah. Car wreck.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thank you. Scott was a great guy. I miss him.”
Ace went very still, studying her intently. “Are you doing okay?”
Summoning her brightest smile, she drew a breath and nodded. “Yeah. Gotta tell you though, being a single mother is hard. Never realized until I had to do it myself.”
He smiled slowly then kicked it up a notch. “No shit? A kid?”
“Alyssa. She’s four.”
“Bet she’s as gorgeous as her mom. Please tell me she got your sunny blonde hair and blue eyes.”
“We’re a team.”
Ace laughed. “Bet you are.” Finally he reached into her basket and began settling the sacks inside her trunk. “Are you planning to feed an army here?”
“Just about. The girls are getting together at the house and hanging out for the next few days. Didn’t want to arrive empty-handed.”
“You going to be at the welcome cocktail party tonight?”
“The one at the Ambassador? Yes, a bunch of us are going together. You?”
“Yeah, some of the guys and I planned to meet up there.”
Hmm. The guys from Hottie House? Back in the day, she and her roommates had loved watching the comings and goings next door. And what red-blooded young woman with a fully functioning, beating heart wouldn’t drool over the beefcake they served up over there?
Of course, she’d had eyes only for Ace.
Despite how desperately she’d loved him, right after he’d graduated they’d had a nasty fight. It was so long ago she didn’t recall the details and they’d both been so young, but it had been enough to end things abruptly. Chloe had always regretted they’d ended things so inauspiciously.
That was then and this was now.
Her insides fluttered as if a million butterflies had set up residence. Oh yeah. She wasn’t dumb. She totally got that Ace wanted more time with her while both of them were attending the reunion. All those fluttery, bubbly feelings just served as a brutal reminder that her current life was a series of one grueling day after another, with no time for anything that smacked of romance or passion. The notion of hooking up with Ace had her pussy practically twitching with expectation. Her panties dampened and, damn it, she wanted to whimper.
Her life was currently a sexual wasteland and h
ere stood Ace, looking like a tall drink of water to her poor thirsty self.
Lame. Okay, she had to say something. “Sounds like fun. Um, maybe I’ll see you there.”
Ace moved in, caging her against the open trunk of the car. His sexy smile was so hot she almost melted into a puddle at his feet. He stretched one arm high, settling his hand on the open door of the trunk, and wrapped the other arm around her waist to pull her close. Her nipples pearled and tightened the instant they connected with the front of his tee shirt. His belly rubbed hers and she felt his erection press insistently against the juncture of her thighs. Ace’s gaze settled on her lips and focused. “You can count on it. You know, I don’t think there’s been a day in the past ten years that I haven’t thought of you at least once.”
“Just once?” She’d wanted to joke and lighten the mood but her question just sounded all whispery and faint. She cleared her throat. “Sorry. Dumb.”
“I’ll tell you what’s dumb.” Ace moved his face close enough that she could feel his breath slide warmly across her cheek. “What’s dumb is that I took off the way I did, thinking that somewhere along the way I’d find home. I went on the pro tennis tour thinking I’d travel the world and maybe somewhere I’d find my place and someone who gave a shit about me. Talk about dumb. I’d been holding home in my arms for the past four years and never realized it until I looked up one day and you were married to someone else.”
Chloe lost her ability to breathe. Lust and love and a crazy kind of terror caught her up.
His eyes went soft and heavy lidded as he lowered his head and took her lips, softly at first, and then with a hunger she hadn’t experienced in years. His tongue swept along her bottom lip then sank deep into the depths of her mouth for a full tasting, and God help her, she returned his kiss with unexpected fervor that had her practically panting. His hand tightened and she drank in the rough sound he made. Finally he pulled back. His breathing was sharp and ragged. “There’s not a dumb bone in your body, sweetheart. Matter of fact, right now I believe we’re thinking very much alike.”
He stepped back and closed the lid on the trunk with a snap of finality before dragging his thumb along the length of her tingling, swollen bottom lip. “See you tonight, Chloe.”
* * * * *
The din of voices in the main ballroom of the Ambassador the crowd, the music—none of it prevented her from feeling Ace’s gaze on her. For roughly the past hour, he’d stood across the room nursing a beer as he talked to a couple of guys whom she vaguely recognized from their college days.
Nervously she smoothed her hands down the sides of her midnight-blue cocktail dress and tried not to feel out of place. Crowds weren’t her thing and that was a fact. Perhaps it had been this bit of insecurity that had prompted her to splurge on the hot little number she wore. Before heading out tonight, Lindy and the other girls had assured her that she looked good enough to eat. Hm. Considering the way Ace kissed her in the parking lot, she didn’t think that was a problem.
But was she ready for a steamy little fling?
Was she ready for a man like Ace?
A shiver of awareness shook her as she recalled the way he’d brought her poor, tired body to screaming, aching life in the parking lot hours earlier.
The boy she’d known ten years ago was a man now, and one who knew what he wanted. Looked as though he wanted her. But why? Ace Banner had traveled the world, first as a tennis player and then as a photographer well-known for his dazzling sports photos. All the major magazines and news service agencies used his work. How was a small-town nobody like her supposed to compete with the glamorous, exotic women he’d surely had spread out beneath him in bed?
With hands that shook, Chloe grabbed a cocktail napkin and a small plate and picked around the festive finger foods. It was a heck of a spread for sure, but she had no clue why she was there. Nerves had descended and any bit of earlier hunger evaporated as she felt Ace watching her. Then suddenly he was there. His hand settled at the dip of her lower back. A pair of warm lips settled near her ear for a soft kiss. Sensation raced over her neck and breasts at the feel of his breath on her skin.
“Ace.”
“Hey, beautiful.” He flashed her a wicked grin. His hand stroked her gently before he stepped back to look at her. “Been waiting all night for a chance to talk to you. Figured I’d better make my move before these other single guys get any ideas.”
He handed his empty bottle to a passing waiter, grabbed another long-necked beer for himself and a glass of sparkling white wine for her.
“This okay?” he asked, holding the flute up for her inspection. “I assume you still don’t like beer much.”
She smiled. “The wine is fine. Thanks. Are you hungry?”
Next to her, he went quiet and she glanced up to see he’d gone perfectly still as his gaze took her in from top to toe. “You might say that.”
Chloe’s mouth went dry as she busied herself filling a small plate with shrimp and other goodies from the buffet, then she followed his lead as they wound their way through the crowd of partiers to a small, unoccupied corner table. Anxiety skipped through her belly and she struggled mightily to hide it. She was a woman who’d faced down bickering four-year-olds and distraught clients with the ease of a Zen Master. She was tough.
Yeah, right.
With a mental eye roll, she set down the plate and allowed Ace to pull out her chair. Rather than take a place across the small table from her, he sat next to her, so close she could feel the warmth of his rock-hard thigh pressing against hers. He leaned close and settled his arm along the back of her chair.
Another song began to play and Chloe nervously glanced toward the dance floor, instantly spotting a number of her friends dancing. No one seemed at all uncomfortable meeting up with people they hadn’t seen in years. Maybe it was just her. The last time she’d danced had been when she and Scott had celebrated her birthday just before the accident. A long time ago.
“What are you thinking?” Ace leaned close and whispered the words against her ear, sending a rush of pleasure over her skin.
She shook her head and sighed, unprepared to share her memories of Scott. That had been their time. What she might share with Ace over the next few days would be something entirely new. With sudden insight, she realized that things were unresolved with this man who sat watching her as if he wanted to eat her with a spoon. If he wanted to dig into this a little deeper, then so be it. She was sick to death of being lonely and having nothing but her daughter to claim as her own. She was tired of finding satisfaction in memories and a little motivation from her handy bedside helper.
“Nothing really.” Summoning her courage, she looked him straight in the eye. “You?”
Ace settled back to study her. “Mainly I’m thinking about how gorgeous you look.”
Chloe laughed. “What? This old thing?” Letting her laughter fade into a smile, she ran her hands over the silky dark-blue fabric covering her thighs. “It is pretty, isn’t it? Bliss designed it and so I splurged a little. Most accountants-slash-moms-slash-small-town girls don’t find many occasions to get all dressed up. I couldn’t wait to slip into it.”
Ace went still then reached up to snag a long curl. He wound it lazily around his finger, his hot gaze focused on her lips. “And I’d sure as hell like to slip you out of it.”
Her breath caught at his words, but then she realized this was Ace she was talking with. He’d always been a straightforward man. What she saw was what she got with him. Maybe that’s why their relationship had always worked. She was a much more careful person and prone to hide away in that protective little shell she’d built. Bottom line was, Ace had always made her laugh. If he thought she was wrong, he said so. If she looked pretty, he said it. She’d always loved that about him.
She flashed him a smile, dredging up her inner wanton. She wouldn’t see most of these people again after tonight. It was freeing. Teasing him, she grabbed the knot of his tie, pulled him close. She pr
essed her lips to his chin and looked him straight in the eye. “You’re moving awfully fast, especially since you haven’t seen me for ten years.”
“Feels like yesterday to me, Chloe.”
“In case I haven’t said it, Ace, you are looking awfully good too. You’re even sexier now than you were then, and that’s saying a lot.”
A flash of heat simmered in his eyes along with a bit of surprise. She’d never been a forward person, and that naughty little imp dancing in her mind was tickled pink that she was stepping so neatly out of her comfort zone. It was about time.
Just then, she made the decision.
If she was ever going to have a hot, down-and-dirty affair, who better to do it with than Ace Banner, the man she’d never been able to forget completely? She’d return home in a few days but at least she’d go with the knowledge that she could feel something again.
Maybe it was time to make a memory or two.
Chapter Two
Ace watched the expression on Chloe’s face change and felt his heart speed up to a frantic pace. Damn, but she was pretty. Always had been, but now there was a maturity about her, the evidence of heartbreak mixed with strength on her face. She was a delicate woman, soft and sweet, possessed of an inner calm that soothed him, but it was readily apparent she’d been through a lot. Hell, she was still going through it. A single mom raising a daughter, and a wife who’d lost a man she obviously cared for.
The flash of bitter regret he felt caught him off guard. If he’d played his cards right, he would have been the man who’d built a home with her and begun raising a family.
“You are my biggest regret, Chloe.” Ace caught her hand and lifted it to press his mouth to her fingers.
A quick frown puckered her brow. “What do you mean?”
Releasing her hand, he sent his fingers into her hair to cup her head. “I never should’ve let you go.”
Her pansy-blue eyes widened incrementally then lowered to zero in on his lips. Lust zipped straight to his cock. Arousal rolled through his belly as his erection pressed painfully against the cotton of his briefs. He was hers, all hers, if she wanted him. Ace traced her high, delicate cheekbones with his thumbs. “I’ve called myself every kind of dumbass for the past ten years.”
Love Match Page 1