“Well, I’m supposed to have a surf lesson today.”
Suzy cringed immediately. Emma’s sister’s death was still fresh in all their minds. “I don’t think that’s the best idea. Couldn’t you come up with anything else?”
“I know.” Ava sighed. “But living in a beach town means most of the activities here revolve around the beach. I’m going to cancel it.”
“Hey, I’ve got it! How about parasailing? I’ve done it a few times before and it’s awesome. I could go with you. They’ll even let us go up together. It’s just down the beach from our house, so you could come over this afternoon and we’ll walk there.”
“And Gray doesn’t freak out over you doing stuff like that?”
Suzy grinned, looking completely mischievous. “Well, of course he freaks out, but he knows he can’t change me. He just makes it his mission to catch me if I fall.”
“It sounds scary,” Ava admitted, “but kinda fun.”
“Best part, Gray has been saying for a week that he needs to get Mac to come over because he wants to upgrade our security system. I’ll suggest he do that this evening while I’m out. Actually, I’ll insist on it.”
Feeling embarrassed, Ava asked, “You aren’t going to tell Gray why, are you? I mean, I have to face him over a conference table at least once a week. I don’t want him to think I’m some desperate woman trying to pick up a man. Even though I guess I am.”
Shaking her head, Suzy smiled. “Nah, I won’t tell him. He’s a little gun-shy on the whole matchmaking thing after having his brother and my sister making out secretly in our house for weeks before we found out. I still think about them screwing on our kitchen counter when I’m in there, but what are you going to do? It happened.”
Ava choked on her sip of tea at Suzy’s matter-of-fact analysis of Nick and Beth’s courtship. She could easily picture both Gray and Suzy avoiding their kitchen like the plague. “Oh my God, that’s funny. Poor Nick and Beth.”
“Poor them? Shit, poor us! I’d burn the place down if I didn’t love it so much.”
Their food arrived and after taking a few bites, Ava asked, “So, what time should I be at your house?”
“Can you be there around five thirty? You can wear one of my swimsuits to keep from going home first.”
Ava tried not to imagine what a swimsuit of Suzy’s might possibly look like. She’d have to borrow a T-shirt to put over it. “Sure, that sounds good.”
“Cool, now get out your phone and text something naughty to Mac. Just to let him know where your head is.”
Her sandwich dropped back onto her plate with a thump as her eyes widened. “Wh-what?”
“You did say for me to give you the same advice that I would Emma. Well, that’s what I would tell her. All men love hearing that you’re thinking of THAT. Trust me, I practice what I preach. Gray gets some interesting texts and it never fails to make for a memorable evening.”
Despite herself, Ava was intrigued. She’d never done anything like that, since she’d never actually had a boyfriend. It did sound fun, though, just like something someone normal would do. “So, what would I say?”
Suzy winked at her, saying, “Well, the last one I sent Gray said something like ‘thinking of you while I touch myself,’ but since he knows you’re at work or in this case at lunch, it might be harder to pull that one off—but not impossible, mind you. Maybe we should start off kind of mild, just so this first text doesn’t send him over the edge. How about . . . ‘I know you’re busy today, but can you add one thing to your to-do list? Me’?”
“What?” Ava shrieked. “I can’t say that!”
“Oh, come on, why not? It’s perfect. It starts out as business and ends as a party. It’s just the right amount of sweet and sexy. I guarantee that he’ll be busting out the zipper of his pants within sixty seconds of reading that.”
Red-faced, Ava said, “Oh . . . I can’t, I just—what would he think if I said something like that to him?”
“Honey, what he’d think is that you want him as much as he wants you and that you’re not afraid to let him know. It’ll also shock the shit out of him in an ‘I’m so hard I could explode in my pants’ kind of way.” Eyeing Ava’s clenched expression, she let out a growl. “You aren’t going to do it, are you? Ugh, just go ahead and say something like ‘thinking of you’ or some other PG stuff.”
Ava grabbed her cell phone before she could change her mind. It was just a text message. She and Mac had had sex. Honest-to-goodness, real sex. A text message was nothing. She needed to be comfortable joking around with him. This was the kind of thing that women in relationships did all the time, wasn’t it? Suzy had admitted to doing it with Gray. Mac had a great sense of humor; he would love something like this. With Suzy looking on in approval, she typed out the message word for word as her friend repeated it and then hit SEND. There, it was done. No turning back now.
She really, really hoped that Mac was a lover of sexting.
* * *
Mac was in the middle of a staff meeting with Dom, Gage, and five of their employees when his phone chimed to alert him to a new text. When Gage started going through some new reporting procedures with the other men, Mac picked up his phone, surprised to see that it was from Ava. He smiled as he clicked on it, hoping that she wanted to see him tonight. He was still trying to honor his plan to let her control the pace of their relationship until she was more comfortable, but damn, he missed her already. His eyes almost bugged out of his head when he read—I know you’re busy today, but can you add one thing to your to-do list? Me.
“Fuck me.” Mac had no idea that he had uttered those words aloud until all heads at the table swiveled his way.
Gage looked at him in question before giving him a sarcastic grin. “Something you wanted to add?”
“Um—no. All good here,” he grumbled in reply. Shifting uneasily in his chair, he tried to alleviate the ache in his crotch where his cock was now pushing painfully against his zipper. He didn’t think he’d ever had a problem with fighting wood during a meeting with the guys before and it was damn disconcerting. Even Dom was giving him a funny look. Thank God there was no way that they could see what was happening to him under the table.