Page 1 of Never Stop
CHAPTER ONE
Brooke
It’s not every morning you wake up in your fiancé’s arms for the first time.
This, however, wasthatmorning.
Of course, when I made the decision to move in with Easton and Cheyenne two months ago, I’d thought that Easton and I would get married one day, but that thought changed when I started radiation. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life with him.
It was because radiation kicked my ass.
My weekdays always began the same way: wake up and go to radiation. Sometimes radiation would take hours. You never knew how long you’d be there. You could go in, say a quick hello to the ladies you saw every day before being called in back to the room where you lie on the machine with lasers, and then be on your way. Other times the technicians would be running late, so you’d wait with the other women while piecing a puzzle together to distract each other from talking about cancer. The men were across the hall, doing their own thing, but I knew they weren’t talking about their ailments either because no one wanted to compare stories. We just wanted to get in and get out, hoping we’d all beat whatever we were fighting.
After the clinic, I would go home and eat lunch. By the afternoon, fatigue would come crashing down on me, and I’d take a nap until dinner time. I tried not to be a zombie on the weekends, but all I wanted to do was lie on the couch and sleep while the TV played in the background. Being on the couch and not in bed made me feel as though I wasn’t bed ridden even though I slept most hours.
And each week was worse than the last.
But waking up the day after my last radiation treatment—engaged, no less—put a little energy into my system.
Easton was still asleep, which wasn’t like him. His internal clock would usually wake him up early because, during the week, Cheyenne had to be at school at eight. But today was Saturday, and Cheyenne didn’t have a softball game, so she’d spent the night across the street at her friend’s house. Taking advantage of the empty house, Easton and I spent the nightcelebratingour engagement. I’d had energy after showering, but I was certain it was only adrenaline that had given me the extra boost—because holy shit, Easton proposed and I said yes!And my radiation roses—God, that man knew how to tug at my heart strings. It was the sweetest gestureever.
I thought I was living a dream.
Since finding out about my tumor, I had put on a brave face. I tried to act as if it wasn’t a big deal, but each day the radiation burned a little more of my insides. But it was as if Easton knew that I cried when no one was watching. The roses and the ring put everything into perspective.
Itwasa big deal. The roses symbolized I had kicked radiation’s ass, and the ring meant I wasn’t going to let a tumor hold me back. I had a long life in front of me, and I was going to spend it with Easton.
Halfway through our celebration, I became tired, but I fought my body. I wanted to go back to the time when Easton and I could spend hours exploring each other’s body, but now, if I wanted todoanything, it needed to be in the morning when I woke up with more energy. Dr. Fisch, the radiation oncologist, explained that even though radiation treatments were complete, I would still experience side effects for up to three months.Three effing months!Radiation had burned a nerve in my tricep, so he prescribed medication for the continued pain, but he couldn’t say if I would always need them. Nerves basically did what they wanted to do. Hopefully, the burned nerve would heal itself.
I felt Easton’s hard morning erection poking me as he held me in his sleeping arms. I had a little energy to continue the satisfaction of our newly engaged status, so I slipped from his arms and slowly pulled the comforter and sheet down, exposing his hard chest and rippled abs. My mouth watered in anticipation as if it couldn’t get enough of his taste—as if it longed to consume him. I knew I could never get enough of him.
We were going to spend forever together. We would add another baby or two to our family as we watched Cheyenne graduate high school, get married, and start her own family as we grew old together. It was what I’d always wanted and pictured for my future.
I watched Easton’s face for any sign that he was awake as I continued to pull the sheet down his body. I opened the slit of his red boxers just enough for his erection to slip out. His eyes were still closed, his chest slowly moving up and then back down. Just as I lowered my mouth to lick his tip, he rolled onto his back. My eyes flicked back to his face. He still had his eyes closed, but he was definitely awake. There was no doubt. He’d rolled over to give me a better angle. I half expected him to start removing his boxers with his eyes still closed pretending he was doing it in his sleep.
Two could play that game.
The plan had been to wake him up with my mouth, but instead, I moved back to my side of the bed and started to get out. But his hand wrapped around my wrist, halting me. I turned slightly toward him, my eyes narrowing.
“You’re gonna leave me hanging with my dick out?” He gave a cocky grin.
I shrugged, pretending I was mad at him.
“Aw, come on. You know me turning over was—”
“A better position for me to suck your dick?”
He smirked. “Well, yeah.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Don’t roll your eyes. It wasn’t my idea to begin with.”
“No, but you ruined my plan. Now I’m gonna go get some coffee,” I lied.
My gaze drifted down toward his crotch. He was now fully hard. I sucked in a light breath and swallowed. I didn’t want to leave my sexyfiancéwith his erection pointing straight up at the ceiling through the slit of his boxers when I knew what he could do with it, but I couldn’t show him how much I wanted to straddle and ride him until we were both exhausted and needed a nap at nine in the morning.
Surgery and radiation had put a damper on our sex life. There were moments when I would look at him as we watched TV and wonder why he was still with me. I knew about Easton’s past—he’d been witha lotof women before me. He’d explained that ninety-nine percent of those women only gave him blow jobs, but I wasn’t even doing that for him. I barely had the energy to keep my eyes open to watch an hour of one of my favorite TV shows before I’d pass out on the couch only to be woken up with him kissing me and telling me it was time for bed.
