He had the most amazing blue eyes, and in them I saw all the love he was confessing to me. I hoped he saw the same love shining back at him in mine.
“We’re one,” I said, holding his gaze.
He nodded, and a new lightness came over me. With him inside me physically, with me emotionally, I felt my heart, my soul, begin to fuse back together. In the coming weeks and months, my treatment would be hard. It was possible it wouldn’t work. But I’d have this moment with him. I wanted to take in everything; his scent, the beat of his heart against mine, the feel of his breath on my cheek, the pulsing of him inside me. This, along with the memories of a perfect day with my children, would be the things I held on to. When I needed strength or soothing, I’d think back to moments with Brayden and the kids.
“I wish we could stay like this forever,” he whispered.
“We will. In my mind. This will be my go-to place when things get hard.”
His breath hitched with emotion. “Terra.”
“You know it now, so if I need help to be strong, you can remind me. Remind me of how perfect we fit. How much love flows between us.”
He nodded and bit his lip. It was then that I noted his eyes had welled with tears. I kissed one and then the other.
“For now, we live and love.” I rocked my hips, forcing him to groan. I hoped it would pull him out of thinking about what was to come and instead be in the here and now. “Come in me. Fill me with your life.”
He rolled me over, thrusting in deep again. He supported his weight on his forearms as he cradled my face.
His gaze held mine as he withdrew and slid in. Controlled. Building to a slow, delicious burn.
I arched, wanting to take him in deeper. Wanting to pull him into my soul.
“Where are you?” he whispered. “Tell me everything.”
“I’m here. Close.”
He thrust in and I gasped.
“Yes…more…You feel so good, Brayden.”
“What do you need?” His pace hastened only slightly. It was wonderful and frustrating at the same time as I hovered near the edge of release.
“You.”
“I’m here, baby.” He shifted and hooked a hand under my knee, lifting it. I opened more and he sank deeper.
“Yes, oh yes…” I gripped his biceps as he ratcheted up the tension coiling tight in my pussy.
“Do you feel me? Do you feel me inside you Terra?”
“Yes…so good…” My breath quickened.
“I feel you.”
“Yes.”
“I feel every muscle fucking my cock…God I need to come.”
“Yes, come in me…” I was delirious from sensation and his words and all of him.
“Come with me…” He growled. “Together.”
I tilted my pelvis, rocking to meet his thrust, moving with him in a perfect dance. My pussy spasmed, quaking as I teetered on the edge.
“Yes, now, now, now…” I chanted.
He drove in, grinding his hips against me, hitting that one delicious spot inside me and rubbing my clit all the same time. My body went taut as a blast of intense, white hot, pleasure detonated.
“Yes, baby yes,” he shouted as he levered up on his hands and gave free rein to his own release. He plunged in again and again and again, drawing out my own release until I was a whimpering mass.
“Ah fuck,” he gasped as he collapsed on me. “Jesus…fuck…” His breath was harsh against my neck. Even as he lay there, his hips lifted and sank into me again, sending additional shimmers of pleasure through me.
I gripped him and buried my face in his chest as emotion swept through me. Love, guilt, fear.
“Oh god, did I hurt you?” He moved to get off of me, but I held him tighter.
“No.” I shook my head not realizing until then that I was crying. “No. I’m not hurt. Don’t move. Please. Just hold me.”
He gathered me close and kissed my temple. “What’s wrong baby?”
“Nothing. Everything is perfect.”
I didn’t know how long we lay like that. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that we were together.
Eventually, he rolled off and grabbed one of the blankets we’d gotten for the campout with the kids. He covered us both and then lay on his side, looking down on me.
He brushed my hair from my cheek. “Tell me you’re okay.”
I took his hand in mine. “I’m scared, Brayden.”
“Should we have not done that?”
“We should have. We should do it more. As much as possible. I just meant…I’m afraid I won’t survive.”
He dropped his forehead against mine. “I’m fucking terrified. The worst feeling in the world is not being able to make this go away. We’re about to be rich beyond our wildest dreams, and yet all that money can’t—” His voice cracked.
I knew what he was saying. Money didn’t always beat cancer. I knew it first hand because my father spared no expense to cure my mother, and she’d still died. Emma and Derek spent a fortune on alternative and traditional treatments, and he’d died.
“I wish it was me,” he whispered.
I shook my head. “No.”
“It would be better for the kids and your dad if it was.”
“I don’t worry about them.” Not anymore anyway. It was unfair and unreasonable to think Brayden wouldn’t take good care of the kids if I died.
“They need you. I need you, baby. Promise me you’ll fight. Promise me you won’t give up.” His voice was filled with such anguish.
I nodded. I’d once considered not fighting if it was a doomed endeavor. But now I knew that any chance, no matter how slight that treatment would work, I had to take it. If I died, I’d be gone forever, so any time with my family, even if I was too sick to enjoy it, was time I wouldn’t otherwise have. My mother couldn’t do much but lay helpless in bed at the end. But I do remember her
