Block Shot (Hoops 2)

“And he didn’t want me there,” she continues. “I literally had to use his contract and force him to let me stay.”

I don’t respond but fold my arms and wait for something I know I won’t like.

“After we got the diagnosis and it was obvious how serious this is,” she says. “Things changed. He knew he needed my help, and he knows I’ll do everything I can to get him all that he needs. He said he would allow me to help him on one condition.”

“A condition?” I squeeze the bridge of my nose. “And what would that be?”

“I have to put things on hold,” she says, her voice soft but steely. “Things with you on hold. Well, he doesn’t know it’s you, but he—”

“The fuck?” The expletive explodes from me before I think to check it. “He can’t make you do that.”

“He’s not making me,” she says, her voice controlled but quaking. “Jared, please don’t make this any harder for me than it already is.”

“Why?” I demand harshly. “Why do you think he made that his one condition, Banner? Don’t you see he wants you back?”

“Yes.” She looks at me unblinkingly. “He told me that.”

“Oh, he did? What exactly did he say?”

“He said he wants to fight for me, but he has to fight for his life right now and he can’t do both.”

Motherfucker. What am I supposed to do with that?

“He said that he wants a fair fight.” She releases a heavy breath. “And an even playing field, and he can’t have that while he’s sick.”

She already knows this is some shit.

“And I’m supposed to sit by patiently and wait while you live with him for the next three months?” I ask, swallowing down my rage and frustration. Struggling to appear reasonable. “That’s how you see this happening?”

She runs a shaking hand over the hair I loosened when we kissed.

“I can’t ask you to wait for me, Jared,” she says wearily. “I know that. I understand it’s a long time and you have . . . needs. I get that and wouldn’t blame you for saying we’re done. For finding someone else.”

Finding someone else? The hell?

What she doesn’t seem to realize is there isn’t anyone else. I’ve tried all the “someone elses” and none of them simultaneously drive me wild and settle me inside the way Banner does.

“I didn’t mean that I would find someone else.” I hold her chin between two fingers and palm the curve of her waist. “I meant we’ll see how long you last without me.”

A slow smile dawns on her face with her realization, but it’s a sun that sets before it fully rises. She frowns up at me and shakes her head.

“I won’t lie to him,” she says. “And I won’t cheat. He specifically said we aren’t to sleep together.”

I don’t have enough curse words for some son of a bitch, cancer or no cancer, telling me when I can or cannot fuck my girl. I don’t care if I did steal her from him. Mine now. And I know how to keep her.

I hope.

“He specified that, did he?” I ask. “You know, I thought we were supposed to be the negotiators and the master strategists. Seems like Zo knows exactly how to get what he wants.”

I press my palms over the curve of her ass, pressing until her breasts are crushed against my chest and she moans, dropping her head to my shoulder. If this is going to be torment for me, it’s sure as hell going to be torment for her, too.

“The problem is,” I whisper in her ear, as if we aren’t the only ones here. As if we’re nurturing a secret between our bodies and souls. “He wants something he can’t have. And he can delay it for three months, but it won’t make any difference.”

“It won’t?” She pants the words as I grind my erection into her belly. I want her wet and horny for me flying with him to their new townhouse in fucking Palo Alto.

“No.” I squeeze each cheek, loving that my hands can’t hold all that ass. “Because this ass is mine.”

My beautiful, brilliant girl with her Julia Roberts lips and her lush ass. He thinks he can take her from me?