thrusts, so she hurried her hips to make up the difference.
He caught one in a desperate grip of his hand. “Lia, wait, wait. I’m too close.”
“I don’t care!” She didn’t. She didn’t want to think about anything but the feel of him, and the way he made her feel. She wanted everything but this to go away and leave them alone.
That brought his head up, and he frowned down at her. His face was flushed, and his hair dripped sweat. “I do. And you do, too. Not now, maybe. But later, you’d care. So gimme a minute, please.”
When she relented, he closed his eyes, took a deep, slow breath and let it out. Then, moving slowly, he let her hip go and cupped his hand around her breast instead. Gingerly, he folded his body so he could suck her nipple into his mouth.
Oh god, the feel of his mouth there. Showers of sparks all through her, until she was so full of fire she couldn’t help but move. She arched her back, lifting her breast into the amazing sensation, and the motion shifted him inside her. He groaned again but didn’t stop. Instead, he let go of the breast he continued to suckle and slid his hand between them, his fingers finding her clit.
There was no way she could be still now, but Alex didn’t try to stop her. Instead, suckling her, fingering her, he began to move again, now hard and fast, desperate. Lia felt his body becoming stone as they rocked and writhed, but she couldn’t stop, needed to feel this completeness. She needed to come, needed to come, needed to come!
She did, rolling up from the bed to press herself tightly against Alex’s rigid body while the spasms shot through her with such force she hurt. Almost too much. She wanted it to stop but never wanted it to end. Then, as soon as it was over and she dropped into a heap to her pillows, he yanked himself out of her. Lia opened her eyes and saw his face gone deep red and drawn into a caricature of pain.
When his climax finished, he dropped onto her and lay heavily, panting and slick with sweat.
“Fuck,” he finally muttered. “You okay?”
Lia wound her arms around him. “Right now, I am. I feel okay right now. With you.” It was more than okay she felt, in this brief moment, but any other word would be both too much and too little.
But Alex understood. “I really do love you, Lia. If I could make things good for you, I would.”
She brushed her fingers through his damp hair and smiled—it felt right, that smile. “I really love you. And you are.”
~oOo~
The house was full of people; a steady stream of family had been cycling through since they’d come back from the hospital, and they came and left in twos and threes, as if somebody somewhere had made up a schedule.
Ari hadn’t left them since Christmas Eve, and Uncle Donnie seemed to have moved in, too, though he went out with Papa to do some kind of work every now and then, and sometimes they were gone for several hours.
This morning, in addition to all the people who actually lived here, and Alex, and Uncle Donnie and Ari, Aunt Carmen was there, too, and Aunt Rosa and Uncle Eli. It was strange to have all those people together in one room and have the room so quiet.
It was stranger when something like normal conversation rose up—and positively shocking when someone laughed. But it happened. Already, only two days after, tendrils of normalcy were creeping up from the foundation of the house.
They all shared a breakfast made up of a dazzling array of baked goods brought by friends, family, and neighbors, and people moved around the kitchen, making up their plates, refilling their coffee or their tea or juice, making mundane remarks about the food or requests for someone to pass a tray. The dishwasher was running, and Ari came in from the laundry room with a wicker basket of towels.
It wasn’t normal, but it was close enough to be disorienting. Like real life played at half speed. It made Lia feel queasy.
In the midst of it all, Mamma sat at her seat at the breakfast table, bathed in bright winter morning sun, wearing her red Christmas robe with the big snowflakes, and contemplated the cooling cup of coffee before her. She hadn’t showered since Christmas Eve, and her grey hair was stiff