Stepping back just a fraction, I let my gaze roam down her body. She’s a fucking angel, with her long, wet hair hanging down the creamy expanse of her back. Her ass is perfection and shimmers with the water that coats her skin. Reaching out, I take her by the hips and pull her back just a tiny bit. With her hands on the wall and her ass tilted, I am consumed with an insane lust for her.

I take my cock in hand and step back up. Bending my knees a bit, I line up and rub myself against her for a few brief strokes. Olivia moans with need and says, “Hurry.”

That’s all I need, and then I’m pushing inside, working her flesh with short strokes in and out until I feel her melt and expand around me. When I’m sunk in as deep as I can go, my pelvis pressed to her ass, I push her forward again until she’s flat against the wall. Putting my hands her waist, I brace myself and start to drive in and out of her.

She grips me tightly. So fucking good. So hot. So wet.

I thrust in, pull out…not too fast, and certainly not too slow.

Leaning forward, I press my cheek against hers. “I love being inside of you,” I tell her with quick pants, because my lungs feel deprived of oxygen. “Love fucking you. Love the way you squirm and moan. Love it when you come all around me. And I’m so going to love coming deep inside of you.”

“Oh, God,” Olivia moans with a jerk of her hips, and just like that she starts to fracture in front of me. Her wet channel grips me hard and her body quakes against me. Her head falls back and I can see that look of cosmic release on her face that’s so fucking sexy.

I feel my own orgasm start to ricochet through me, and give an extra-deep push inside her just as I start to shoot my load. I bite down hard on my lower lip as I start coming…wave after wave of pleasure coursing through me.

Man, oh, man. Please tell me it will always be this good.

This freeing.

This comforting.

This spectacular.

Exhausted from my release and the events of this day, I drop my head to Olivia’s shoulder and wrap my arms around her. I hold her tight to me, and her arms come up to cover mine. Her fingers stroke my skin and tiny pulses of pleasure still cause my cock to jump inside her.

“Feel better?” Olivia says, and I can hear the smile in her voice.

“Much better,” I tell her, and then place a little bite on her shoulder.

“Can I share a secret with you?” she asks hesitantly.

“Anything.”

“We’ve seen so much tragedy today. There’s been death. And yet…right now…with you, I just feel so alive.” Her voice falters, but then, with a slight cough, she says, “I’m so thankful to be alive. You make me feel alive.”

I know exactly what she means. Since meeting Olivia, I feel like blinders have been taken off my eyes. Things seem brighter, funnier, happier. Sex is off-the-charts mind-blowing and I feel a fullness inside me that I haven’t felt before.

Yeah…I know exactly what she means. I feel more alive than ever, and it’s due solely to the woman in my arms.

Chapter 24

Olivia

“God, I fucking hate this,” Garrett says in a voice so low, I almost don’t hear him.

I lace my fingers through his and squeeze. “Me too.”

We walk slowly up the sidewalk to Zack and Gina’s house. I hate to even let the thought cross my brain, but I can’t help but relish how handsome Garrett looks in a suit. I usually only see him in super casual clothes likes jeans and T-shirts, or his hockey gear…which yeah, he’s super-hot in that too. But even as somber as it has been today, when Garrett showed up at my apartment to pick me up for the funeral, I involuntarily sighed over the fitted cut of his dark, charcoal-gray suit with a silver-blue tie. Even with his sad eyes that spoke of a heavy heart, he was still like a ray of light on a dark day.

Gina’s funeral capped off the end of a terribly bitter week.

Zack was released from the hospital on Monday morning, so Garrett and Alex headed over to his house to visit him. Garrett came to Fleurish that afternoon, clearly distraught. I tried to ask him how it went, how Zack and Benjamin were, but he was light on details and heavy on the grumpiness. He snapped at me that he didn’t want to talk about it, and I got it. I totally understood. That night, after he made love to me, he apologized even while he was still lodged inside me.

“I’m really sorry I was an ass today. I just wasn’t ready to talk about it,” he said before rolling off me and pulling me into his arms.

“It’s okay. I understood,” I assured him.

Garrett was silent for a moment, then I felt a shudder run through him. “You should have seen Zack. He’s like a zombie. He’s there, but not really. It’s like his eyes are dead or something.”

My stomach sort of curled in on itself from the horrified awe in Garrett’s voice. He was really shaken up over this, and although I try not to let my thoughts wander in a certain direction, I couldn’t help but think: Is that how Garrett would be if something happened to me?

Probably not to that extent, because Zack and Gina had years together…they had a child together. We had only a few months. But what if we stayed together? What if I died after we were together several years? Is it fair to make Garrett suffer that type of pain and misery? Am I wrong and selfish to keep him?

My own body shuddered with the possibility and my heart was uneasy.

The rest of the week went by in a blur. The Cold Fury played at home on Tuesday and I had tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat when the team skated out onto the ice, each with a black armband on to honor Gina. The announcer asked for a minute of silence from the fans, and I saw signs everywhere that said things like WE LOVE YOU, ZACK and SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS and COLD FURY UNITED.