Touch & Go by Mira Lyn Kelly Page B

been, then he wouldn’t have been watching her the way he was, thinking about what it had been like to be inside her, fantasizing about all the things he’d wished he could do. Looking for any sign that she was doing the same.
    Had he driven a wedge between them?
    “It’s not you.”
    Bullshit.
If it wasn’t, she’d have her arms looped around him and her forehead buried in his shirt.
    “Then what is it?”
    Ava’s hands came up to her face and she turned her back to him. Another first. Another fist to his gut.
    Why hadn’t the one night been enough?
    “It’s what happened, Sam.”
    He was nodding, because what else could he do? He already knew. But at least she was talking to him. If they were talking, then they could work through anything.
    He wouldn’t believe anything else.
    “It was stupid, Ava. I’m sorry. But it doesn’t have to be any big deal. We can work through this.”
    She turned to him, confusion in her eyes. And then frustration as they raked down the length of him. “Of course we’ll get through it. I’m just…I’m wound too tight. You know I’m not like you, with all the casual company and regular outlet for sexual tension. And I guess it had been awhile for me. Long enough that one night—one great night, because it really, really was amazing and you shouldn’t feel bad about it or like you didn’t deliver, because you totally did—”
    Didn’t deliver? What was she talking about?
    “—but now, it’s like I’m ready to burst. Like what we did was just enough to make me want more. And I’ve been going crazy. And because I’m not quite so casual as you, I figured my best bet for letting off some steam was a few personal accessories. But I was kind of hoping the whole world wouldn’t have to know about it.”
    Sam blinked. “So if I have this right, you pulling away from me just now wasn’t because I’d gone and fucked everything up by taking you to bed. It was because you needed more than the edge taken off and you were embarrassed for me to see that you were taking matters into your own hands. So to speak.”
    Chin pulling back, she shook her head.
    “Why would you think things were effed up with us?” she asked, her voice starting to get that pinched sound that told the story of just how worried she was. “Is that how you feel?”
    Giving in to a relieved laugh, he pulled her close. “How I feel is like maybe our
mutual
problem isn’t that we gave in to a night between us, but after twenty years of close proximity, we thought a single night would be enough.”

Chapter 12
    Ava had to be hearing him wrong.
    Either that or she’d actually died of embarrassment right there in her apartment and this was heaven rolling out the welcome wagon to greet her. Because the idea that she’d heard him right? That Sam wanted more than the single night they’d shared? That maybe, finally, after all these years he’d realized he wanted more from her than friendship—that he wanted it all? She couldn’t let herself go there. Couldn’t give in to the temptation to believe in something with the ability to wreck her completely if it wasn’t real.
    Only then Sam’s hands were coasting back to her hips, his thumbs coming to rest low against her abdomen in a hold too intimate to pretend it was anything other than a return to the night this man made her body his own.
    Oh God,
was it possible?
    “It wasn’t enough for you?” she asked, her voice thready, unsure.
    The eyes that met hers were the softest blue, gently frayed at the edges from a life of wear and tear, a life they’d spent so much of together.
    “I thought it would be. Hell, I thought one
kiss
would be enough. But Ava,” he breathed, the fingers at her hips gripping tighter, “I’m going out of my head here. And the things I keep thinking about…it’s like every wayward thought I’ve had since sixteen is suddenly making a play for attention, asking for a second chance at becoming more than the fantasy I knew