“And yesterday I was only slightly nauseated, and today no nausea. See…I’m better, and ready for sex.”

Sitting up in the chair, Garrett anchors his legs on either side. This causes me to rise up and straddle his lap. His hands come up to rest on my thighs and his face is only inches away. “Have you ever wondered what it is that could cause a man like me to give up his philandering ways and only have eyes for one very hot and sexy woman?”

“Just to be clear…that woman we’re talking about is me, right?”

Garrett swoops in and gives me a swift kiss, pulling back just as quickly. “Yes…I’m talking about you, dork.”

I wrap my arms around Garrett’s neck and stare at him intently. My voice is utterly serious when I tell him, “Honestly, Garrett…I have no clue why you’d change your ways for me. I’m not exactly an easy woman to be with right now.”

“See…that’s just it,” Garrett says with annoyance. “You are an easy woman to be with right now. The easiest I’ve ever been with.”

“Hey, don’t hold it against me that I hopped in the sack with you on our first date,” I tease.

“No…I’m not talking about sex. I mean, everything with you is easy. Conversation, humor, silence. I don’t feel like I’m putting on a performance with you, and I know you don’t need me to. You like me for me, and I like you because of that. It’s just nice to be with someone that makes everything easy.”

“But you know everything about me isn’t easy. Nothing about dealing with my cancer is easy,” I say quietly.

“That’s true,” he says after a moment. “But it’s not a hardship for me either.”

My fingers play absently with the hair on the back of his head and I chew on my lip while I consider the magnitude of what he said. Raising my eyes to his, I say, “I think you’re a very special man. You took a chance…stepped out of your comfort zone and then stepped right into a hornet’s nest. Not many men have that type of strength or confidence.”

Garrett’s big hands stroke up over my hips and across my back. “And that turns you on, right?”

“Big time,” I say with a grin, and then nip at his lips. “But seriously…never in a million years did I imagine that when you and I met it would lead to this. I wasn’t looking for anything other than a quick fling, and you weren’t either. It’s kind of surreal.”

“I’m kind of digging it,” he tells me with a grin.

“Me too. Now, can we go have sex?”

Garrett stands up from the chair with one powerful move, carrying my weight with him. “No sex. But we can go cool off in the water for a bit.”

I stick my lip out to pout, but honestly…I am feeling a little tired from all the shit I’ve been through in the last few days. So, I hang on tight to Garrett while he carries me down to the water.

—
My eyes blink open as the morning sunlight filters in the window, and the first thing I notice is that I’m ravenously hungry. I haven’t felt like that for several days, and I think it’s safe to say that the nausea is completely gone. The second thing I notice is that I’m hot because Garrett’s body is practically wrapped around me in a cocoon. The third thing I notice is that I have to pee…really bad, so I manage to wriggle out of Garrett’s death grip and head to the bathroom. When I’m finished, I pad into the kitchen and drink a large glass of orange juice. I think I’ll cook both of us a big breakfast, and I smile…because that would be a nice way to wake Garrett up.

Breakfast in bed.

Of course, I can think of an even nicer way to wake him up, and that has more appeal to me than cooking right now. Setting my juice glass on the counter, I head into the bedroom and take a moment to watch Garrett sleep. After I escaped his clutches, he rolled onto his back and his head is turned my way. His face looks so peaceful…almost boyish in his slumber. The arm with the blackbird tattooed on the inside of his biceps is thrown over his head and his other arm rests casually over his stomach. The sheets are pulled down to his waist and my fingers itch to get at him.

I quickly but silently take off my clothes and stealthily creep back into bed so as not to wake him up. Sliding in as close to him as I can get without touching, I reach out and carefully pull the edge of the sheet up from his waist, taking a peek at what’s below. I had gone to sleep before he did last night, but he had stripped down to his boxers before getting into bed. We had gone for another walk on the beach after dinner, and by the time we got back, I was ready to go to bed. I guess Garrett was right…I was still a little weak from everything.

But I didn’t feel weak this morning.

The boxers present a little bit of a problem for me, and I chew on my lip while I contemplate how I can best gain access to what lies underneath without waking him up. Possibly I can just slip my hand under the waistband, or maybe even reach in through the fly in the front. Regardless, I know once I get in, I’ll have to be very efficient in my ministrations, because I want to get him crazy with lust while he’s still incapacitated by sleep so he can’t put me off again.

Yup…I think I need to go with the fly approach. It’s stealthier, and my blood starts humming with the prospect of what I’m about to do. I reach my hand out very slowly.

“Are you done staring at my underwear?” Garrett says loudly, and I yelp in fright, practically scrambling backward off the bed as I drop the sheet I had been holding up.