by Claire Adams
She raised her red hand and cupped my cheek, running her thumb against the area she had slapped moments ago. The tears had dried up in her eyes, but they were freshly brewing in mine, and I saw this woman in a completely different light. There were those words again, those words that made my heart soar and set my mind at ease, but I was still hesitant about walking this road with her.
“You’ve already suffered so much because of this,” I said.
“Well, then it’s a good thing one of us isn’t a coward,” she said, winking. “I was raised with three very important morals. One is to take a shower every day.”
“That’s a good one,” I said, smirking.
“Two, always greet someone with a smile.”
“Wouldn’t wanna rob the world of yours,” I said, bringing my hand to cup the back of hers.
“And three, always support the man you love,” she said. “I’m going to be there the next time you go to the doctor—when did you say? Monday?—and whatever has to happen with Jenna, I’ll take care of.”
“Lucy.”
“Stop. Being. A coward, Jason,” she said.
I was rooted to my spot. This woman, who had walked home in the rain after tossing tea at a man who’d said some very ridiculous shit to her, was cupping my face and telling me she was willing to walk this road again. This woman, who had lost her husband to cancer, was willing to now go through this process again with me.
I felt a tear streak down my face just before she caught it with her thumb.
“I can’t imagine how petrified you are, but I’m not going anywhere. I literally can’t, since I’m your neighbor, but I’m not figuratively going anywhere, either,” she said.
“I’m so sorry, Luce,” I said.
“I know,” she said. “I know you are. I can see it in the pain behind your eyes. So make me a promise.”
“Anything,” I said breathlessly.
“Don’t you ever take my choices away from me again.”
And as I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into my body, I held her close while the Thanksgiving wind kicked up around our trembling forms.
“I promise,” I whispered into her hair.
Chapter Thirty-One
Lucy
I sat there and looked at the doctor as he fidgeted around in his chair. Jason was talking about how much better his arm was feeling and how he hadn’t had a numb episode since Thanksgiving morning. I could tell that triggered something in the doctor’s mind. I could see him searching around in his notes. I could see him going back through the x-rays, trying to figure out why Jason was getting better instead of worse. I watched his every move while Jason talked, and I knew there was another explanation for what was going on.
I knew when a doctor was hiding something.
I stayed in the doctor’s office while Jason went back for another x-ray, and around thirty minutes later, everyone trickled back into the room. Jason’s leg was jiggling a thousand miles a minute, but all I did was sit and stare at the doctor. He took the x-rays out of the sheet and held them up to the light, and that’s when I decided I’d had enough.
“Put them up on the light board, please,” I said.
The doctor looked at me, registering the tone of my voice, and he stuck them up there as Jason flickered his gaze over to mine. I was over this doctor stringing us along any further, and I was ready for some answers.
“So, you remember me telling you how this mass was growing taller instead of wider, and how bone cancer usually grows in the opposite direction?” the doctor asked.
“Yep,” Jason said.
“Well, here’s the x-ray you took a few days ago.”
The doctor put up the side-by-side comparison and, in fact, it was better. The mass was smaller, which was why he was no longer having numbing episodes, and the sides had actually crawled back in a bit.
“The biopsy we did showed some abnormal levels in your bone marrow and the mass because you have a benign cyst,” he said.
“So, wait. The cancer’s benign?” Jason asked.
“No. You don’t have cancer at all. It’s a random growth of abnormal tissue. Your body tries to fight it off like an infection, hence your skyrocketing white blood cell count, and the abnormal growth of the cell tissue registers similar to cancer underneath a microscope,” the doctor said.
“So, I don’t have cancer?” Jason asked.
“Nope. Just a cyst that’ll keep growing and shrinking as your body is able to fight it off. It’ll still have to be surgically removed, but we can schedule the surgery at any convenient time for you.”
I panned my gaze over to Jason, whose fury was clearly building. His neck was turning red, and his hand was white-knuckling the chair. I wrapped my hand over his as he started to speak.
“You mean to tell me that I worried myself sick over the weekend only t—”
I pulled him up out of the chair, threw my arms around his neck, and wrapped his lips with mine. The room fell silent, and Jason seemed absolutely stunned. But I didn’t care. The man I loved didn’t have cancer, and it was the dream I had hoped for since the day David had been diagnosed.
I’d gotten a second chance with Jason, and that’s all that mattered.
I fell back down onto my feet, and Jason’s strong arms caught me on the way. He dropped his forehead onto mine while the two of us breathed each other’s air, and Jason spoke up without so much as moving to break the moment.
“You put us through hell, doctor,” he said.
“You put a little bit of the hell on yourself,” I said, smirking.
“I’m so sorry, Jason. If you want, you can make an appointment to come back in a couple of weeks, and we can see where the cyst is at that point. If it’s still shrinking, your body might fight it off altogether without surgery being necessary,” the doctor said.
“I’ll do just that, doc,” he said, grinning.
“The important thing is you don’t have cancer, Jason,” I said.
“Let’s get the hell outta here,” he said.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the office, and we hopped into his truck. My heart was elated, and my hands couldn’t stop shaking. Jason reached over to rest his hand on my knee. My entire body warmed up at his touch, happy to feel some part of him against me after this entire ordeal. I looked over at him and just studied him, wanting to memorize every line and every muscle.
I studied his strong jawline and how the grin slightly creased his eyes. I took in the beautiful slope of his nose and the plumpness of his lips even as he smiled. I took in his beautiful head of hair and his neck that sloped into the strongest pair of shoulders I’d ever dug my fingertips into. At that moment, I was thankful for the life we had. It had been hell for the past few days, but it couldn’t erase what the two of us had built and shared with one another.
Life was important, and it was fleeting, and I couldn’t waste another moment of it being upset with this beautiful man sitting beside me.
We pulled up into his driveway, and we still had a few hours before Jenna was out of daycare. I had called out of work and taken on Angie’s schedule for tomorrow so I could be here for this, so I decided to walk on inside with Jason instead of going home.
“I’m really glad you’re gonna be here for a little while,” he said as we walked inside. “My head’s still reeling a bit.”
“I can only imagine,” I said.
I shut the door behind me and watched him walk over to the couch. That beautiful ass of his was flexing with every step he took, and my nipples wasted no time puckering hard against my bra. I wasn’t going to let another moment slip from my grasp without feeling his body against mine. I thought I was going to lose him the way I lost David, but I had been granted with him the second chance I wasn’t able to have with David.
I wasn’t going to let another second go by without doing everything I could possibly do with this man. Life was too short and way too evil to put off what you wanted, and in that very moment—as I wat
ched Jason sink down onto his couch—I knew I wanted him. I wanted every single part of him he had granted me before this entire debacle started, and I wasn’t taking no for an answer.
We had wasted so much time already, and I wasn’t about to waste a second more.
So, after he settled on the couch, I grasped the hem of my shirt and slowly pulled it over my head. The cool air of his home hit my skin, causing my skin to pucker at its breath, and I could feel Jason’s gaze on me as the fabric tumbled to the floor. I was shaking in the dim lighting of his home, anxious to feel his body against mine yet again. For nights, I had dreamed about him. For nights—even after he left me—I had silently begged for him to come waltzing through my door. I had cried out for him in the shower, wanting nothing more than for him to slip in, press kisses to my back, and tell me how sorry he was.
And now, all I could think about was how he was mine again.
“Lucy?” he asked.
“Mhm?”
My shirt laid there on the floor as I slowly walked toward him. I undid the button of my jeans, teasing him with the body he could have as I kicked my shoes off in the kitchen. I made my way to the living room while his eyes raked up and down my body, and the moment he brought his gaze back up to mine, I knew what he wanted. I could see the primal lust behind his eyes coupled with the sorrow he felt. He had denied himself the comfort of my body because he wanted to be a strong man. He had denied himself a woman that drove him wild simply because he didn’t want to hurt her.
In the process, however, all he did was hurt us both—and I could see that reality raging behind his eyes.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Celebrating the beauty that is life, Jason,” I said.
I toed out of my jeans and stood before him in nothing but my bra and panties. I could see his chest panting as my entire body flushed underneath his gaze. I saw his dick straining against his pants while his mind fought between sweet motions and primal wants.
I wanted him to give into me. I wanted him to take what he knew was his and do with me what he wished.
The clip in my hair came undone easily when I reached up to release it, letting my hair tumble down my back. His eyes were hot and wanton, darkening with every piece of clothing I removed. A ragged breath came from him when I moved my fingertips to unsnap my bra and let my breasts swing free in front of him, and I knew in that very moment I had him.
I dropped the material to the floor before I strode across the room, and his arms wrapped tightly around me as I dove into his lap.
His lips were all over me and then headed straight for my breasts. My back arched into him while my fingers raked through the locks of his hair, memorizing every single feeling as his tongue worked its magic. He had no rhyme or reason to anything he did. No trail he was following, no spots he was trying to hit, and no method to his madness. He was a man who had missed the comfort of a woman he had come to greatly care about, and I was drinking in every moment. I was aware of every twitch his body made and every muscle that moved in time with him.
I was aware of his want for me, just like I was aware of how his body made mine burn.
He lowered me onto the couch while he worked me out of my panties, and I could feel his cock throbbing against my body through his jeans. I smiled at the feeling, clocking how his heart rate sped up as he peeled my soaking wet panties from my body. Oh, how I had missed this. How I had missed feeling beautiful underneath his gaze. How I missed feeling electrified by his touch. How I missed seeing the roaring pleasure light his eyes on fire when I laid naked for him in his own home.
I would never allow him to rob me of this again. I would never allow him to rob either of us of this again.
“Please don’t make me wait,” I said, begging.
He stood up and stripped as fast as I’d ever seen him, and when he was bare and naked in his living room, I couldn’t help but rake my eyes down his body. His chiseled abs and his thick thighs trembled for me, even as the sunlight poured through the window, and he sat down on the couch with his cock aimed up in midair before he pulled me onto his lap. I giggled at the sensation as my breasts flounced around in his face. His hands gripped tightly onto my hips as he helped me steady my knees beside him, and I could feel the tip of his raging cock teasing my sopping pussy entrance.
I locked my eyes with him before I ran my fingertips through his hair. I bent forward—hovering over his dick—and I planted a small, sweet kiss against his lips.
“You are everything to me,” I whispered against his skin. “Make me yours and never let me go.”
Without another word, I sank my glistening pussy down onto his thick dick, and the groan that tore from his lips sent shivers down my spine. Oh, how he filled me in all the right ways. I’d missed this, being pushed to my limits by the girth of his cock. I missed how my pussy timed its pulses with his cock. I missed how my body shook with every thrust he took.
I missed how addictive his cock was.
I wrapped my arms around his neck while his hands dug into my hips. He set a slow and steady pace, pushing and pulling my body to fit the pattern he sought for himself. I wrapped my arms around his neck, clinging to him as I pressed my chest against his. I could feel his muscles flexing with every tug and push his arms made, and I peppered the crook of his neck with kisses as our bodies warmed one another’s.
“Rock for me, baby,” he said into my ear. “I’ll show you how.”
His hands slowly moved my hips to the rhythm he wanted to set, and I was more than happy to let him take the reins. I was clinging to the man I loved while my body was staked to his, and the only thing running through my head was the glorious news we had gotten earlier. All I could think about was the relief I felt in the doctor’s office the moment we realized his diagnosis was wrong. The only thing I could think about was the second chance we now got to have with one another.
Jason, the man I had fully given myself to, didn’t have cancer, and it brought tears to my eyes as my teeth sank into the pulsing meat of his neck.
My hips rocked back and forth on his pelvis while his dick twitched and grew inside of me. My clit began to swell with need, and my lips kissed every single piece of skin on his body I could reach. My teeth raked across his shoulders while his fingernails dug into my thighs, and soon I was bouncing on his thick cock, chasing my own orgasm while we breathed into each other’s space.
“Oh, Lucy. Holy fuck, yes. My God, I missed you. So much.”
I captured Jason’s lips as my juices glazed over his skin. The couch bobbed and squeaked with our motions while my tits bounced against his chest, and I could feel that burning sensation prickle in the small of my back. Goosebumps raised the hairs on Jason’s body as my pussy began to massage his cock, and the wetter my pussy became, the thicker his cock grew inside of me.
“Oh, Jason. Please. Please, don’t stop.”
I kissed him all around his cheeks before I buried my face into the crook of his neck and locked my arms for the ride. His hips rose into mine, thrusting so hard, his balls were lifting and smacking the crack of my ass. I bit down into his shoulder, moaning and groaning, while his dick filled me to the brim time and time again.
“Jason. Oh, fuck. Jason. Please. Yes. Just like that.”
My body quivered and trembled while my pussy pulled his dick further into my body. I slammed down onto his hips one last time, and his hand flew to my hair and yanked my head back. He slammed his lips onto mine while my pussy milked his cock, sucking his cum deep into me as his heavy dick painted my walls. I could feel him trembling, holding me close while our tongues battled for dominance and our bodies melted into one another’s.
Our intermingled juices slipped out onto the couch while the whole of my existence collapsed into his. I panted into his strong chest while his fingers ran soothingly up and down my back, and he stayed there, sheathed inside of me, until he slowly lowered us to the couch.
He sank himself on top of me, our bodies still shaking fro
m our pleasure, and all I could do was look up into those beautiful eyes of his. I had a second chance with those eyes. The eyes that raked me up and down whenever he wanted me while simultaneously making me feel safe. The eyes that always scanned the forest for me, making sure I was protected whenever we were hunting. Those eyes that gave me reassurance on the days I wasn’t feeling confident.
Those eyes that had given me a world I thought had been ripped away from us both.
“Stay with me,” he said.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said.
“Please stay with me,” he repeated.
“Jason, I’m right here. And I’m not leaving.”
“Please stay,” he said. His grip tightened around me, and I pressed myself as deep as I could get. He was still trembling—shaken to death from the whirlwind of the past few days—and he buried his face into my neck. It was a physical reaction, a shaking release of its own, when the whole of the past week descended upon him all in one fell swoop.
I knew this reaction. It was a reaction I’d had the day after I’d buried David. I was sitting alone at my kitchen table after preparing two mugs of coffee, and I looked up to see no one sitting across from me. The steaming mug of coffee was simply sitting there growing cold, and it was the first time it had hit me that David was dead.
My body shook so violently at the table that morning that the coffee sloshed over and burned my fingertips. My body shook from me tears that took my breath away. The only thing I could think about at that moment was everything that had happened: the cancer, David’s body wasting away, that damn phone call from the doctor, and that beautiful voice message I couldn’t ever bring myself to delete.
It had all hit me at once, and I shook so badly I vomited into my coffee cup.