Page 94 of Just This Once

My hands were still shaking. I’d done everything she needed, and yet it still didn’t feel like enough. But she’d scared the fuck out of me.

Burying my nose in her hair, I closed my eyes and inhaled her smell before clearing my throat and asking, “Did we do too much tonight?”

Of course, we had. I’d pushed her too far. Worn her out.

When she didn’t answer, I pulled my face back. “Hope?”

Her eyes were closed, and her body was still.

“Hope?” I lifted my hand to her mouth. When I felt her breath on my fingers, I exhaled in relief, then tested her brow for a fever.

Convinced that she was just sleeping, I wiggled out from under her and climbed off the bed. Not even that made her stir, so I took a moment to stroke her hair and watch her face before I turned away.

Out on the balcony, I fished my underwear from the hot tub and wrung the material out before finding a place for it to hang and dry. Then I closed up the roof access and found my phone still in the pocket of my jeans.

Returning to the bed, I curled my body back around Hope’s and looked up a couple of things about liver failure. Didn’t find much about dizziness, but fatigue was there, loud and clear, along with bruising, loss of appetite, disorientation, easy bleeding, diarrhea, vomiting blood, itchy skin, abdominal pain, and swelling.

Yellowing of the skin was the first symptom, but I also found a site that said it didn’t necessarilyhaveto be one.

I gnashed my teeth and glanced at her, already spotting a new bruise on her shoulder.

Trailing my finger over it gently, I wondered just how far along and advanced she was.

She’d said five years, which gave us time to find a fix, plus she hadn’t acted too concerned about it yet. But shehadstarted that fucking bucket list, reason number one why I was here right now.

Tossing the phone aside because it hadn’t answered what I needed to know most, I found my keychain with the ghost amulet on it and held the little glass bubble just over her face.

A pinprick of darkness immediately formed in the center, growing and swirling until ribbons of smoke filled the entire vial. The green color had a slight yellow tinge to it this time, making it appear lighter than the last time I’d checked it.

“Fuck.”

That wasn’t what I’d wanted to see. It was supposed to still be the brilliant emerald color it’d been earlier in the week. Or no reaction at all would’ve been better.

Still, I had no idea how much time that really gave us until I needed to worry.

After setting the keychain on the bed stand next to my equally unhelpful phone, I ran my hands over my face and glanced over at the sleeping girl next to me. She was here now, I told myself. She was okay.

Determined to keep it that way, I laid down next to her and curled my body around hers as she slept on.

I haveno idea how long I was out before hands on my chest pulled me from the depths. Bare toes slid up my calf, a thigh over my knee. Then fingernails filtered down my chest, abdomen and along my happy trail until my dick was gloved within a tight feminine grip.

With a grunt, I started to rouse a little more ardently.

“Well, look who’s awake,” Hope’s husky voice greeted as she slithered down my side. But she wasn’t talking to me. A second later, her hair brushed past my hip and I could feel her breath on my cock. “Hey there, big guy. Good morning.”

Done addressing my dick, she took him into her mouth.

“Fuck!” I gasped, my eyes flying open wide. I clutched her hair, thinking I should pull her off, but my grip only tightened in her locks when she sucked me in deeper. “Uhn… Hope.”

She muffled out a greeting but didn’t halt what she was doing, and I wasn’t inclined to stop her. Pleasure built, my breathing picked up, and my muscles locked. I dug my heels into the mattress under me and arched my head back as I ground out, “Coming.”

I gave a brief tug at her hair to alert her in case she hadn’t heard me, but she didn’t pull away, and when I realized she wasn’t going to, my eyes crossed as I jetted into her mouth.

Afterward, my muscles were twitchy, and I felt wrung dry.

Hope wiped at her mouth as she sat up to grin at me. “Morning.”

“Yeah,” I panted, still trying to catch my breath. “Morning.”

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