John took his time removing Ava’s clothes. He knew he was lucky as hell to get a second shot with Ava. Looking at her as she stood in front of the bed, bared to him, he let himself feel all the things he’d been burying for a long time.

She was so much more than he deserved.

He ran a hand over her cheek, threading his hand into her hair and lifting her gaze to meet his. “You’re so damned beautiful, Ava. So damned gorgeous.”

He saw her cheeks flush and she glanced down like she might argue with him. To hell with that.

He growled and closed his mouth over hers, swallowing her objection. He laid her back on the bed, settling beside her to run a hand down the length of her body. Her skin was silken under his touch, the curve of her hip and thigh feeling so right, like she’d been made for him.

“So fucking beautiful,” he said again, this time punctuating his statement with a kiss to one breast, her nipple pebbling under his tongue.

She let out a small moan and shifted her legs. He smiled at the motion. She did that when she was turned on. He didn’t think she knew it, but she rubbed her legs together like she might be able to relieve the ache there.

He wanted to be the only man to give her that ache and the only way to satisfy that need.

He moved to the other breast, using his mouth to tease the nipple to a taut peak as his hand found the warm mound between her legs. She was wet and slick, his fingers sliding into her heat with ease.

“John,” she groaned, making him smile. He loved the catch in her voice.

Hearing the way her breath quickened and seeing her wriggle with need beneath him had him so turned on, he couldn’t see straight. But there was no way he was rushing this. He’d force himself to wait so he could wring every bit of pleasure from her body before taking his own.

He wanted to listen to her voice go throaty and needy as he made her come with his mouth and his hands, before he sank into her and felt her come around his cock.

He lowered himself, running his tongue over her stomach, detouring to her hip bone to tease her as she writhed.

He returned to her stomach to trail his tongue in a circle around her belly button.

“Please, John,” she gasped, grinding her hips up.

“Something I can help you with, Av?” He kept his voice light as he kissed the soft spot where her thigh met her hip, moving everywhere but the spot he knew she needed him most.

Her response was half growl, half plea and John laughed as he gave in, his mouth covering her center. The taste of her filled his senses, so sweet she overwhelmed his sanity and threatened his control.

He thought he might come right then, putting a damper on their night, but he forced himself to resist the urge to enter her. He feasted on her, loving every whimper and moan. He loved the way she tightened around his fingers when he slid them inside her. Loved losing himself in her.

When he was with Ava like this, nothing else mattered. He could forget the job, the case, the world. All of his responsibilities. She was his everything in that moment.

Ava cried out, his name slipping from her lips as she came, making his heart clench at the sound of it. And then she was tugging at his shoulders, pulling him up to her.

“John,” she whispered, when he settled on top of her, after taking a minute to find a condom and put it on. “I want you inside me.”

“Nowhere else I’d rather be,” he said. It was true.

When he slid into her, he stopped, holding perfectly still for a minute, wanting to hold onto that feeling for as long as he could. The feeling of coming home. The feeling of connecting with Ava. Of being at peace. Of having everything and everyone he needed in his world. She gave him that and more.

When he began to move, she wrapped her legs and arms around him and he lost himself. Lost control. Lost all rational thought. There was nothing but the feel of her in his arms, the sound of their love making in the quiet room, the connection of two people who took too damned long to come together again.