"Coach...will you be the one to tell Zack?" someone in the back of the room calls out.
"Yeah...Suzie and I will stay here until he wakes up. Then we'll go in and talk to him. Now go on...everyone get home and get some rest."
I stand from my chair, pulling Olivia up with me. Her cheeks are wet with tears and I take a moment to wipe them off while she stares at me with sad, sad eyes. I pull her in for a hug, letting my arms around her and hers around me be about the only comfort we can glean at this point.
Alex claps me on the back. "Hey...you two want to go get some breakfast?"
I look down at Olivia and she nods. "Yeah...sure. Let's meet over at Bunky's. Over on the Fayetteville Street Mall."
Alex and Sutton nod, giving us both a short smile. We all walk out of the waiting room, the entire team walking with heavy hearts and bowed heads. We're all thinking the same thing.
How will Zack ever get past this?
--
After breakfast, which was a subdued affair, Olivia and I head back to my house.
"I think I'm going to take a shower," Olivia says softly as she walks back into my room. I don't follow her, but rather go to the kitchen. I pull a bottle of water out of the fridge and twist the top off.
I can't believe Gina is fucking dead. I don't know when the reality of it will hit me, and I imagine it will take a bit longer for Zack to comprehend what's happened. My heart aches for him in a way that I know would not have hurt if I hadn't met Olivia. Now that I've seen what it's like to have someone who you care about--and who cares for you--it just puts a different perspective on things for me.
Setting the bottle down, I walk back to my bedroom and hear the hiss of the shower running. I walk that way, taking my clothes off as I go. Olivia's body is barely visible through the frosted-glass door of the shower, but I see enough to make my cock start to swell. Her hands are on her head, which is tilted backward under the spray. It pushes her breasts out...and, yeah, I fucking need her.
As I open the shower door, she turns her face over her shoulder to look at me with droplets of water coating her long eyelashes. She moves forward a few feet to make room for me, and I close the shower door behind me. The majority of the spray is hitting my back, so I reach out and pull Olivia closer to me. Drag her right up against me so my entire front is pressed to her back. My cock is hard as a rock, and yet it impossibly gets harder still when she curves an arm upward to reach around the back of my head. Her head falls back and rests on my chest.
"Are you okay?" she asks, her voice filled with sweet care as her fingers massage my neck.
Wrapping one arm around her waist, I bring my palm up to cover her breast. Leaning down to nuzzle her neck, I say, "No. Not really."
"What can I do to help you?" she murmurs, arching her back so her breast pushes up harder against my hand. My arm around her waist drops and my fingers start playing between her legs. Light, silky touches...subtly teasing. Her breath catches and she spreads her legs a bit wider for me.
"Let me get lost inside of you," I say in a low voice, slowly sinking a finger into her heat.
Olivia moans, rolls her hips, and pants out, "Yes."
That one word of surrender fires my blood hot, and my cock pulses against her backside with aching need. Once I get inside her, all the terrible thoughts churning through me will finally be put to rest. At least for a little while.
"Olivia," I say urgently...desperately. "I want to fuck you...without a condom. Tell me it's okay."
"I'm on the pill," she whispers, her hips now moving in such a way that she's riding my finger.
"And I swear I'm clean. I've never been with a woman without a condom before. I promise."
"I trust you," she says, and then it's all over for me.
I push against her body until she steps right up against the back wall of the shower. Pulling my hand out from between her legs, I capture her by the wrists and raise her arms above her. "Keep your hands up there," I tell her as I plant her palms against the tile.
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 di