Page 107 of When Love Takes The Ice

“You two need to talk.”

“We will.” I nod. “Now, enough about that—should we go grab some takeout?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“It’s good to have you back, at least for a while,” I tell her. Knowing she’s probably going back to Seattle soon enough, maybe before either of us can blink.

“It’s good to be back. Taylor is coming over as soon as he can. Now, with everything going on with Ash, I’m not sure when that will be.”

“We’ll work it out,” I assure her. “Mom is always saying things have a way of working themselves out.”

I think about that statement for a moment, hoping that it’s true. Because right now, I need it more than I ever thought.

I’ve dreamed about Ash every night since he left. I wake up usually in a pool of sweat, panting. And they’re not bad dreams, or nightmares. Quite the opposite.

I have an appetite for him that needs to be curbed, at least for the moment.

I’m still hurt by him shutting me down so fast, as much as I don’t want to admit it.

And I feel bad for even thinking that, because it can’t be easy with his dad in a coma, hanging on for his life.

I don’t know how things can go from being amazing one minute to being terrible the next, and now everything for Ashton is hanging in the balance.

We text back and forth over the next couple of days. I haven’t had the gall to call him, and I assume he’s been tied up with what’s going on at the hospital.

Still, I wake up feeling his absence each morning.

My body aches for him. It aches in places that my trusty bullet or rabbit can’t soothe anymore. And I feel bad for even trying at a time like this, so I don’t bother.

I endure the ache, hoping it will get better as the days pass on.

I’m hanging out to talk to him, but I don’t want to come across as either pushy or needy.

As usual, I occupy myself with work. An offer comes in on Wednesday morning for the Overton’s property. They’re still on vacation and on cloud nine from the auction.

I guess a lot can happen in a few days.

“I knew the Overton property wouldn’t last long,” Tess says when I’m packing up for the day. Em and I are going to catch up with Wren and Elle tonight and have a few drinks at my place. “You’ve done well, Mads. You’re my best agent, you know that, right?”

That makes me smile because I know it’s the truth. “You know me, Tess. I don’t like to toot my own horn.”

She laughs. “Speaking of blowing—how is that fine specimen of a man doing?”

It bowled her over about the whole Ashton Rivers thing, and has never stopped encouraging me to go for it. Despite me telling her about the accident, she’s unaware of why my sudden plans to take a few days off changed.

“I haven’t spoken to him,” I admit.

She gives me a look as I tidy my desk. “Why haven’t you spoken to him? I’m pretty sure you two were getting hot and heavy right before that auction—and now you’re not even talking?”

I blush, glad I have my back to her for a moment while I busy myself. Yes, well, letting him dry hump me in one of the offices, and jerk him off before I began work, was another first for me that was pretty out there. Even if I enjoyed the risk.

That’s the other thing I haven’t thought about for the past few days. How Ashton likes to take risks with sex and us fooling around. I never even knew that was a thing or that I liked it until I met him. Now I just think it’s hot.

Having sex at the stadium after the charity game was a real highlight for me.

I can’t even think about it now without licking my lips and my body yearning.

I craved his touch from the very first time he laid his hands on me.

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