Tucker laughed, joy rippling through him. “How about I make us some dinner and we can keep talking?”
“Part of me wants to fight you.” Avery frowned. “But part of me is really hungry.”
In the kitchen, he found steaks chilling in the fridge and set about making steak and eggs. Avery took a seat at the kitchen table and kicked her feet up, just like she had in high school. He wanted to hear her voice.
“How was work?” It was a far less sensitive question.
“Oh, it was…unexpectedly busy.” She let out a little chuckle. “I wasn’t going to open the clinic but people from town lined up one morning. I couldn’t send them away.” Avery told him about the pets who were the first patients in each of the exam rooms, and the owners who had been desperate to get a vet appointment, and all the grateful thanks she got. She told him about the bouquet of flowers Mrs. Miller sent for the reception desk, and the puppy that got loose and sprinted around the waiting area, barking like he was free in an open field.
“That sounds great,” Tucker said. “We should have a grand opening.”
Avery sucked in a breath, and he abandoned the plates he was fixing to look her in the eye. She sat up straight in her chair, eyes on him, face slightly flushed. “You keep saying we, Tucker.”
“I’ll stop, if you want.”
Avery stood up slowly from her seat. “That’s the thing. I don’t want.” She crossed the room and traced her fingertips down the side of his cheek. “I’ve been so furious with you. And yet this is the most relaxed I’ve felt since you went back to your own ranch.”
He caught her hand in his and pressed it to his cheek, every nerve alive with her closeness. “I’ve been a wreck without you, Avery.”
She rose up on tiptoe and kissed him.
He kissed her back, hard, like he’d never have another chance, and Avery melted into his arms. He acted on instinct, scooping her up and running for the stairs. Avery laughed against his lips, throwing her arms around his neck. She held on for dear life as he took the stairs two at a time. In her bedroom, he set her back on her feet, breathing hard. Avery shrugged off her white coat and stripped her shirt over her head.
“Well?” She looked him up and down. “What are you waiting for?”
He shed his clothes like they were on fire and pulled her close again, sliding his hands down every available inch of her. Tucker kissed her deeply, a new desire washing over him. Still, after all these years, she tasted sweet and alive and lovely. He nudged a hand between her legs, pressing her thighs apart, and found her wet and waiting. He stroked that softness and Avery groaned against his mouth. With one thumb, he worked at her clit, circling it until she came in a burst of juices on his fingers. Her knees went weak. Tucker caught her again. He wanted to catch her just like this, every day for the rest of her life.
Tucker carried her to the bed and spread her out. He took a moment to drink her in, and Avery reached for him. She pulled him down on top of her and licked the side of his neck, possessive and hot.
“I got it,” he mumbled against her collarbone, kissing her skin over and over as he pushed inside her. He wanted her too much to wait. Too much to go slow. “God, Avery—”
Avery rocked her weight against him, taking him in deep, and the next thing he knew she was pushing back against him so the both of them went over. She threw her head back, gorgeous from this vantage point, and let out a contented noise before she met his eyes again. Her fingers dug into his chest, and Avery rolled her hips, erasing all his thoughts with a wave of pleasure. “Hold on tight, Tucker.”
He did.
16
For a few seconds when Avery was waking up, she wasn’t sure what day it was. Had Tucker slept with her last night for the first time? She reached out and found empty sheets. No. This wasn’t the first time. It was the second, and he had come to the clinic…
She blinked herself into awareness and found a note lying on his pillow.
Went home to my place. –Tuck
The tone of it struck her even though the words had only been scrawled on paper and not spoken into her ear. Had something happened? Beyond the sex, anyway. That had definitely happened. Avery threw on some clothes, choosing them haphazardly from her dresser. An old hoodie from college. A pair of yoga pants. Good enough. She put on her boots and coat at the door and went out.
Her teeth chattered in the truck on the way over to Tucker’s cabin. There wasn’t enough time for the heat to kick on, and she was still cold when she got out and went up to the door. It opened under her hand. He hadn’t shut it all the way.
“Tucker?”
She realized, once the door was open, that she hadn’t needed to call for him. Tucker stood in the living room, a big suitcase open on the sofa. He held a stack of T-shirts in his hand. It didn’t make sense.
“Hey,” she said, shrugging her shoulders to try to get some body heat going in the coat. “What’s going on?” He met her eyes then, such naked pain in his face that she took half a step back. “Tucker, what are you doing?”
“I’m packing.” Every inch of her braced for the words that she knew were coming next. “I have to go.”
Avery thought she’d been prepared to hear it. She thought she’d imagined it happening enough times, but it felt like a blow to the gut. “What? Why?” Her mind spun in wild circles. “Did I imagine last night? It was you who came to the clinic,
