Free Bared by Him by Red Garnier Page B

out she was sick, stage four … I couldn’t even touch her like she wanted me to. I couldn’t even … do that for her.”
    Ivy slid off the ottoman, and a barrage of raw emotions opened in her chest as she
     realized why he was so angry. And at whom.
    “She wanted me to have sex with her,” he said through gritted teeth, glaring down
     into the sink, his arms bulging and straining as he braced himself on the marble.
     “She wanted to know what it felt like. And after all those years I’d been waiting
     like an idiot, settling for a hand job, I could not even … get … my … cock … to work !”
    Ivy slid her fingers up the back of his arm, the pull to touch him, comfort him, too
     strong to resist. Cade was such a sexual man, she couldn’t imagine his frustration
     at the time. But sickness took so many things from you, even when you weren’t the
     sick one. It took so many things, things you never even appreciate when you’re all right.
    “Cade, people cope differently. Survival mechanisms kick in and things don’t run so
     smoothly. Sometimes we close up and our bodies don’t do what we’d like them to. I
     saw you there every day . Every day.” She lifted her head and held his gaze in the mirror, which had risen
     up in search of hers. “Everybody talked about how … sweet you were. How devoted. I
     wished if I ever had a husband, I would have one like you.”
    His face twisted. “I couldn’t even make love to my own wife, Ivy.”
    She melted for him, stroking her hands soothingly up his taut, muscled back. “But
     she knew you loved her, Cade. She had to have known that.” She slid a hand upward
     and turned his head sideways until he looked at her. “And I know from experience that
     you do make love.”
    He turned away, his gaze downcast. “I fuck, Ivy. We—just— fuck .”
    Her heart stuttered for a tiny second, but she wouldn’t let it hurt. She wouldn’t.
    This was exactly what she’d signed up for. The only thing she’d allow herself to get.
    “If you’re trying to hurt me, it won’t work, Cade. I happen to like the way you fuck
     me very much. We’re just playing with each other, right?”
    He groaned as he whipped around and snatched her against him, cupping the back of
     her head and pressing her jaw to his chest. “I’m sorry.”
    “Don’t apologize.”
    “I’ll go with you.”
    “No! You’re too grumpy with my friends.”
    “I’ll behave.”
    She laughed. “Cade, I’ll be back to say good-bye before I leave Monday. She lives
     near my apartment, so I’ll pack my bags and leave straight from here early Monday
     morning.”
    “No, damn it, I’ll go with you. I can see some of my friends when you see yours, and I can sleep at your
     place.”
    The excitement she felt was so powerful, alarm bells began clinging all around her.
     “Cade. You know, we’ve been together too many days and I don’t want to get attached
     to you.”
    He slicked his hair back and covered the scruff of his beard with shaving cream. “I’m
     not attached to you. I’m playing with you, remember?”
    The act of watching him shave felt so intimate, so erotic, she stood there for a second,
     watching him. It took her a moment to realize it was her turn to answer. “I’m playing
     with you, too.”
    He smiled as he splashed water onto his face.
    And yeah, that smile was still a great look on him.
    *   *   *
    Cade was on his laptop that evening, answering a thousand e-mails that had popped
     up from his office. He’d never taken a vacation, never even taken a day off since
     Laura had died. So he sure as hell wasn’t sorry he was taking one now.
    Wiping his tired eyes with the heels of his palms, he glanced around the eclectic
     décor of Ivy’s cozy little one-bedroom place, finding it so unique and colorful. So
     like Ivy.
    She still had the Christmas thing going on. Bits from Halloween splattered here and
     there. All this in the middle of July. He’d asked why, and