I told myself that I was going to tell him about Ava tonight. But then I kept rethinking it. We were celebrating his promotion at work. I didn’t want to spoil that for him. The timing just wasn’t right. I shouldn’t tell him tonight.
“Where is Miss Ava tonight?” Ace asked as we split a sinfully sweet chocolate lava cake for dessert.
Surprisingly, I didn’t panic at the casual way he asked about her. “I took her to my mom’s place for a sleepover,” I told him. “She was thrilled. Both of them were.”
Subconsciously, I knew that I had done that for a reason. If Ace and I were just going out to dinner, I could have had Maisie come by and watch her again. Even if I’d feel bad, doing that twice in the same week, especially if we stayed out as late as we had last time, I knew that Maisie would be fine with it.
But now, it didn’t matter either way. If I came home late, or if I didn’t come home at all, Ava wouldn’t find out about it. I had fibbed a little to Mom, told her that I had an early interview the next morning and probably wouldn’t have time to get Ava dressed and ready and still make it to the interview on time. But I was okay with that.
I didn’t want to tell her that the real reason I was handing Ava off to her was because I was enjoying a date with Ava’s dad.
If this was even a date anyway. It certainly felt like a date. Of course, I had told Ace I was paying because this was a celebratory dinner and because I had invited him out. But it felt like a date.
“Ava’s at her grandma’s,” Ace said slowly. “For the whole night?”
“The whole night,” I confirmed.
I could tell exactly what he was thinking, judging from the way his eyes darkened and he eyed me speculatively, with more than a hint of lust to his gaze. And I could feel my body responding to that, my pulse speeding up and my needy pussy tightening with want.
It was all I could do to act nonchalant as I took another bite of cake, trying to ignore the zing of pleasure that shot through me when our fingers brushed against each other’s.
The rest of the dinner was charged, heavy with lust and desire. By the time I paid the check, I knew exactly what was coming next.
But I didn’t have any qualms about the evening turning out this way.
I’d spent the past couple days thinking about it. Thinking about what would have happened if I had invited Ace up to my apartment the other night. Thinking about him, and about Ava, and about him with Ava. He knew that Ava existed. He had to have realized that if we started dating, he was going to have to get involved in Ava’s life; she was my whole world.
And he had to have decided that he was okay with that. He wasn’t stupid, after all. We were both adults, and he knew what he was getting himself into. If he was okay with the idea that I had a kid, then I had to trust he was okay with it. Maybe things had changed since Kuwait. Maybe he had gotten a few years older and realized that he really did want to settle down and have the whole family life.
After all, he had told me in Kuwait that he planned on staying in the military for the rest of his life, yet here he was, no longer on active duty. I had to think that that meant something. Maybe he really had changed.
I liked the idea of it, of us, starting something together. I wanted to take things slowly, but I liked the idea.
And even though I wanted to take things slowly, in some rational part of my mind, even though I knew I should be upfront with him about Ava before we went any further with this, my body was overruling my mind. I hadn’t had sex since the last time he and I had had sex, and I craved this with every fiber of my being.
It seemed like Ace was pretty interested in me as well, and that only stoked the flames of my lust even higher. There was definitely something sexy about being desired by someone as sexy as Ace.
While I paid the check, Ace crowded up close behind me, his hands on my hips as he pressed against my ass, under the pretense of looking over my shoulder as I signed the bill. I wiggled a little, pressing back against him, imagining that I could already feel how hard he was through his slacks. It was going to be a long ride back his place, even if it should take less than ten minutes.
I had the stupid desire to touch him right there in his truck, to slide my hand down his pants or maybe to get my mouth on him. But I tried to be patient. We weren’t teenagers. And this, reconnecting with him, was something special. I didn’t want to waste that first new time in his truck; I wanted to at least make it home.
We pulled up outside his place, and he groaned. “Stone’s home,” he said, indicating all the lights that were turned on in the place. “It’s not a big deal; I have my own room and everything. I just wasn’t expecting him to be here.”
“My place is totally empty,” I pointed out, feeling breathless already.
Ace raised an eyebrow at me, reaching over to squeeze my knee and watching the way I squirmed. “Your place it is,” he said, putting the key back in the ignition.
“Do you want to come in for a drink or something?” I asked Ace as we pulled up at my place. I didn’t know why I said that; it was obvious I wasn’t inviting him in for a drink, but he just grinned darkly at me.
“I’d like that,” he said.
We barely made it through the front door before his lips were on mine, his fingers hot against my skin. He practically tore my dress from my body, and where he’d once shown such care, folding his clothes and setting them neatly in a pile at the foot of the bed, now he just let the material lie haphazardly where it fell.
He pushed me back against the wall, nipping at my neck and collarbone with maddening kisses that left me whimpering for more. I got his shirt unbuttoned and pushed it back off his shoulders, running my hands over his smooth, tattooed skin. Fuck, I’d thought I was never going to get this again. But I was impatient. I needed this more than I could say. So without a second thought, I started in on his belt.
We were both down to our underwear. Ace pushed my panties off to the side and pressed his fingers inside of me. I was practically dripping with excitement, and his digits glided easily in through my opening, which clenched around him. He hissed out a breath and drew his hand back. Suddenly, he hoisted me up into his arms, carrying me backward into the living room and laying me down on the couch. He lay down with me, kissing along my body, pulling my bra off and discarding it on the floor.
He kissed each breast, blowing cool air across my nipples until they perked up sharply against my skin. I wriggled, desperate for more, desperate to be filled.