CHAPTER 14
Lia
Zeke was miserable through the first couple of days of his illness, and he was a terrible patient.
I’d had to stomp my foot down pretty hard to keep him in bed after the initial severity of his infection started to subside.
“I can’t just lie here anymore, Lia. It’s driving me crazy,” he said on the fifth day. “At least let me go get a shower. You’ve been waiting on me for days now.”
He was recovering, but judging by his occasionally unsteady gait when he was moving to the bathroom, I could tell he was still weak.
I put my hands on my hips. There was probably no reason he couldn’t get up. His fever was gone, and I knew he was getting restless and frustrated. “I’m going in with you,” I insisted.
He grinned up at me. “Do you really think I’m going to object?”
“No funny stuff, stud,” I said adamantly. “I just want to make sure you aren’t going to fall down while you’re in there.”
“I feel fine, sweetheart,” he answered as he threw the covers back. “I have since yesterday.”
I shooed him into the bathroom, and when he started to brush his teeth, I dashed back to strip the bed and put on clean sheets.
I hurried back into the bathroom and turned on the water of the rain shower, and then stripped off my clothes as I anticipated the warm water on my skin.
Exhaustion was taking over my body since I’d had little sleep. Not because Zeke had been demanding, but due to the fact that I’d been worried about him anyway.
Zeke had quickly become my world, and seeing him down and out had shaken me up enough to realize that I was going to have to spill everything to him. I owed him that. I had to tell him that I was pretty sure I’d always loved him, and ask him why he hadn’t taken me up on my offer to be more than friends years ago.
But not right now.
I stepped into the water that fell like a gentle rain, and sighed as I watched him finish shaving.
He was the hottest man I’d ever seen, even if he was recovering from an illness. Dressed only in another pair of pajama bottoms that clung to his hips like a lover, I’d never seen a more gorgeous sight than Zeke.
I reached for the shampoo and body wash, making quick work of getting clean as Zeke entered the large space with me.
I’d dashed into the shower a couple of times, but it had been so quick that I hadn’t really relaxed.
“You look tired,” Zeke said unhappily as he got his entire body wet.
“I’m fine,” I assured him. “It feels good to be able to relax. I was worried about you.”
Done cleaning myself up, I opened my eyes and reached for the soap that Zeke used.
“I know when I have it good. I’m not planning on dying anytime soon,” he answered gruffly.
My heart sped up as I filled my hands with his soap.
Was that what I’d been afraid of all along? Was I manifesting the fear that Zeke would somehow be taken away from me?
That terror was irrational, and I knew it. He was young and healthy. But my parents hadn’t been very old, and they’d been gone so suddenly that it was scary.
My grandmother had been older, but not really old enough to have left me so suddenly. Unfortunately, cancer was a greedy beast. And it had swept my grandma away in a matter of months.
“I don’t want to lose you,” I told Zeke bluntly as I started to soap up his body. “I’m not sure I’d survive if I did.”
“I know you’ve lost everybody you ever loved,” he said in a patient baritone. “But you’re not getting rid of me that easily, Lia. I can’t stand to think about anything happening to you, either. But life is kind of a crapshoot. And I’m a gambling kind of guy. I’d rather be with you and deal with whatever happens than to be without you my entire life.”
I looked up at him steadily as I said, “Me, too.”
Love was always a risk, but Zeke was worth taking a chance. I’d rather love him for as long as we both had, with no regrets.
He closed his eyes and leaned back against the tiled shower wall with a groan. “You’re going to kill me now if you don’t stop.”
I’d finished his back, and was running my hands freely over his muscular chest and gloriously toned abs.
One glance lower, and I knew why he was complaining.
His cock was rock hard, and doing a full salute.
I didn’t hesitate to move my hand down to wrap it around the enormous, steely shaft. “I can take care of this,” I told him in a sultry voice that I couldn’t control. “Relax.”
“Not happening if you’re touching me, baby,” he rasped loudly.
I stroked his massive cock, my anticipation building as I watched his face.
He looked hungry.
He looked frustrated.
And he looked like he was mine to pleasure.
Everything with him always happened so fast that I’d never gotten the chance to just touch him, taste him, and I relished the opportunity.
“I love you,” I said as I dropped to my knees.
“Fuck! I love you, too, sweetheart,” he said in a desperate tone.
His words rushed through my body like adrenaline, but there was also a gentle peace that was right there beside the excitement.
I rinsed the soap from the hard shaft before I took him into my mouth.
I started off lazily, my mouth and tongue savoring him before I finally started to apply some suction.
His body jerked as my movements got rougher and rougher, my hands grasping his tight ass to move at a steady pace.
A feral sound left his mouth as he tangled his hand in my hair and guided me. “Touch yourself, Lia. I’m not going to last long.”
I looked up and caught the carnal expression on his face. It spoke of lust, longing, and so much crazy love that my sex spasmed violently.
His eyes were pleading, so I took a hand from his tight butt cheek, and slid it boldly between my thighs.
There was no hesitance from me. I wasn’t shy about giving us both what we wanted.
My fingers slid through the wet heat, and I shuddered as I rubbed over my clit.
I was primed and ready, my body as tight as a bow as I found a rhythm that felt good, and stayed with it while I continued to swallow Zeke’s cock.
I felt his hand tighten in my hair, and when I looked up again, he was watching me, his gorgeous blue eyes molten and burning with an incendiary heat that consumed me.
We connected without words, and Zeke didn’t take his eyes away until his head fell back and an animalistic growl was wrenched from his mouth.
The sexy sound sent shockwaves through my body, and I sped up my fingers, rubbing harder at the bundle of nerves as I felt my impending climax.
I moaned around Zeke’s cock, and the vibrations set him off.
“I’m done for, Lia,” he groaned. “Move back.”
Was he crazy? I worked too hard to coax him to orgasm. I wasn’t going to give up the chance to taste it.
I swallowed hungrily as Zeke exploded, reveling in his essence as it flowed powerfully down my throat before I finally let go and found my own release.
“Zeke,” I said with a moan as pleasure flooded my body and my soul.
I relished the hot water flowing over my body as I panted on the tile, one hand gently stroking Zeke’s cock and the other still between my legs.
He pulled me to my feet and wrapped his powerful arms around me as he said huskily, “Do you know how damn crazy you make me feel?”
“As crazy as you make me?” I asked in a mumbling voice.
I still hadn’t completely recovered, so I laid my head on his shoulder.
“Crazier,” he rumbled as his hands stroked over my soaked body, as though he was afraid I’d suddenly disappear. “Let’s get out of here.”
I didn’t protest as he turned off the water and we stepped out. He toweled us both off before we collapsed together on the bed.
He pulled the covers up, and I cuddled up to his side when he protectively wrapped his arm around me like a vise.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Never been better,” he teased. “Sleep, Lia. I’m not going anywhere.”
I let out a sigh of contentment as my eyes drifted closed, and I did exactly what he told me.
I slept a very long, dreamless sleep that left me feeling normal again by morning.