He looks at me seriously, and then starts snickering again. I smack him on the stomach to get his attention. “Stop. I need to concentrate.”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Garrett says as he surges up from the bed. Placing his hands on my shoulders, he spins me away from him and pushes me back onto the mattress, bringing his body over mine. “You can blow me some other time. I need to take control of this situation or neither one of us is going to get off.”

“Nice,” I mutter over his filthy words, but secretly, I’m pleased he’s taking over. I really, really want to be good for him, and all my doubts and then us laughing have me off-kilter. I want Garrett in every single way, and that includes having him in my mouth and sucking down every drop he offers me. I need to be on my A game for that because I want it to be perfect for him.

Garrett kisses me softly, then pulls back to look in my eyes. “Seriously, though…how are you feeling?”

My hands inch around the back of his neck so they can plunge into the softness of his hair. I give him a sweet smile. “I promise you…I really feel good today. No nausea at all, and seriously…I am actually really hungry for food, so I think the sickness is gone.”

“Are you tired?”

“No.”

“Weak?”

“No.”

“Horny?”

“Definitely,” I say with a grin.

“Good. Me too,” he says, and then leans down to kiss me again. It’s a slow, leisurely kiss…very deep, with tongues and moans. He presses his erection into the juncture between my legs, causing pleasure to fire hot through me.

“I’ll be gentle with you,” he says after raising his lips from mine.

“Don’t you dare,” I warn him as I thrust my hips up and rub against him. He groans, but makes no further move.

“It’s sweet and gentle or you don’t get it at all,” he says confidently.

And, yeah…my heart flops over like a puppy asking for a belly rub. Garrett is sex on a stick, and he’s shown me how ferocious his appetite can be for some hard and slightly rough sex. But now it’s important to him to show me his gentle side, and I’m betting he didn’t even realize he had that within himself.

“I think sweet and gentle sounds lovely,” I tell him, just before pulling his face down again for another kiss.

Chapter 15

Garrett

Alex opens the door almost immediately after I hit the doorbell. Just like the last time…a wide grin on his face in welcome. I’m actually expected this time, and I assume this is a peace-offering dinner that Sutton is extending to me.

“Where’s Olivia?” Alex asks in confusion.

“She ended up getting a call from her oncologist to come in and discuss the results of all the tests. He worked her in to his schedule really late this afternoon. She’ll drive straight here.”

“Gotcha,” he says, and steps back to let me pass. I look around the house with interest. Alex has settled right into a comfortable life with Sutton in her little house. It’s still very much her style, but there are now touches of Alex spread throughout. Framed photos of Alex and Sutton, even Alex and his dad, grace the mantel and end tables. There’s now a big leather recliner in one corner that usually has Alex’s ass parked in it when we watch sports over here.

“I’m manning the grill,” Alex says as he heads back toward the kitchen, which leads out onto their deck. I follow behind him, a little wary about seeing Sutton. We haven’t spoken since the day I’d seen her in Olivia’s apartment after her second chemo visit.

Alex has stayed strangely quiet about it and never mentioned a word about Sutton today at practice or our workout, only to say that they wanted me and Olivia to come over to dinner so we could all hang out together. I didn’t think that was such a bad idea, although I’d rather have Olivia all to myself. But I figured if I was going into the dating thing with her, then I needed to actually do things with her outside of the bedroom. Because otherwise, that’s just two people fucking each other, and our relationship has definitely transcended that.

I wish the weekend at the beach could have lasted longer, but we reluctantly made it back home early last evening. Olivia had to be back at work on Monday and I had an early morning practice with the team. The last two and a half days, Olivia and I spent wrapped up in each other, physically and metaphorically. I’ve never talked to a single human being more than I’ve talked to her.

And yesterday morning…when I made love to her so very sweet and gently as I promised, I almost got swept away in some weird emotion that clogged my throat and compressed down on my chest. I wanted to be careful with her, because despite how good she said she felt, she was still recovering from her treatments. I figured it might be a little difficult to hold back my baser instincts. The few times Olivia and I have fucked, I’ve all but lost control with her, so insane is my lust when I get inside her.

Yet oddly…I found that the slow pace I set and the quieter moans were just as much of a turn-on as going rough and fast. I could feel everything just a little more clearly…the slide of flesh against flesh, the heat of her mouth on me, the way that she pants when she’s close to coming. All things I really hadn’t paid much attention to, but realized yesterday are a very sensual way to experience sex.

“Hey, Alex,” Sutton says softly as she stands behind the kitchen counter, cutting up vegetables. My body stiffens when I hear her voice, and I hear Alex mutter something like, “I’ll just be outside so you two can talk.”