Thrusting the condom into my hands, he starts to unbuckle his belt. I don't move but just watch him as he whips the belt out of the loops around his jeans and unbuttons them. My chest is heaving up and down, my breath coming in desperate pants.

"Open the condom," he commands me gruffly.

I blink hard, then start tearing at the foil, my fingers slipping twice before I get it open. Looking back at Alex, I see he has his jeans opened and is pushing them down his hips until his cock is freed. He grasps it in hand and starts stroking himself, but he's already hard and deliciously engorged. I stare at him, fascinated to watch the way he touches himself. He's utterly beautiful in his masturbation and a shudder ripples through me at the sight.

"Put it on me," Alex demands and my eyes flick briefly up to his. His expression is fierce, his eyes glittering with desire. My own lust roils thickly and I already feel on the verge of exploding. I hate to admit it, but the way in which he is taking control is just as thrilling as the touch of his fingers inside of me just moments ago.

As he steps forward, Alex's hand falls away and I easily roll the condom on, my hands only slightly shaking as I make contact with the heat of the silky skin of his shaft, and hear the moan that he lets out.

"Arms around my neck," Alex tells me softly, but with no less authority than he has used before.

I don't even hesitate, and the minute my arms wind around his neck, he reaches down with his hands and grips my naked ass, hauling me up his body. I wrap my legs around him and feel the hot press of his erection between my legs.

I have no clue what Alex intends to do with me but it doesn't matter because my thoughts scatter as he attacks my mouth with his own. He tilts his head to angle in perfectly, and his mouth covers mine, his tongue taking complete possession. Our soft moans fill the air and I'm vaguely aware of Alex walking; then my back is pressed against my front door. His fingers dig into the muscles of my butt, one hand sliding lower to graze his fingers against my wetnessa which causes me to cry out with more frustration.

My hips tilt back and forth, rubbing myself against Alex's cock in a frenzy, eager to get him inside of me.

Pushing me into the door, Alex uses one hand to adjust himself and dips his pelvis slightly until he's lined up perfectly. He takes a moment and his lips go still against me. His forehead falls forward until it's touching mine and a harsh breath blows out of his mouth across my lips. Then he flexes forward and pushes into me in one burst of motion, all the way to the hilt...so very deep. The groan that Alex releases speaks of a hunger that's about to get satisfied in a brutally fast way.

I moan long and low, a tightening twinge of pleasure spreading from between my legs and snaking its way up my spine. I won't last long...just a few moves from Alex and I'll be finished.

"God, Sutton...you feel so fucking good," he whispers, his forehead still resting against mine.

I respond by clenching my muscles around his dick and rotating my pelvis to grind down on him.

"Shit," he grates out, answering me by pulling out and slamming back into me, causing the door to shudder.

"Oh, Alex," I moan, because I think that was just the best feeling in the entire world. "Do it again."

"I'm going to fuck you so hard," he warns me.

Nodding my head, I reiterate, "I told you I wanted harder."

Alex lifts his forehead and stares at me somberly for a moment. "We'll try soft and sweet later, okay?"

"Okay," I agree breathlessly, just as eager to see him that way.

But he doesn't move, still staring at me. "There's going to be a later, right?"

My brows furrow in, surprised by this vulnerability I'm seeing from Alex, especially coming on the heels of his promise to "fuck me so hard" just moments ago.

Uncoiling one of my arms from around his neck, I touch his cheek with my fingertips. "Yes, there will be a later. A lot of laters, I hope."

He rewards me with a smile that is relieved and grateful, but then is immediately replaced with carnal determination. "Then hang on."

I loop my arm back around Alex's neck, using the leverage to pull myself up just as he draws backward. I come down just as he pushes back into me, creating delicious friction between our bodies.

Alex pulls back with a sigh and surges forward with a gruntaover and over again. My own breath is forced from my chest every time he pounds into my body, causing my pulse to speed up. He's hitting me so very deep and I feel light-headed from the fog of passion permeating the air. The sounds of our hard fucking are sinfully dirty, only adding to the excitement and fueling us on to go harder...faster...deeper.

The door is rattling, our skin is slapping. Alex is groaning from deep within his chest, and he's slamming into me so forcefully at times, I'm starting to make little mewling noises because it feels so good. A droplet of sweat rolls off of Alex's temple and drops down to my upper chest, which is still gracefully covered by my robe. It scorches me, and my legs squeeze tighter around him as he tunnels into me deeper and deeper.

Like an avalanche rumbling down an unsuspecting mountain, my orgasm starts right at that spot that his cock is hitting inside of me, then bursts outward in a cataclysmic explosion that catches me off guard. I have no choice. I cannot stop myself from screaming Alex's name because this is the most intense pleasure I have ever experienced in my life.

Whether Alex was just ready or he was excited by me calling out his name, he slams into me one more time, hitting me at the deepest point imaginable, and buries his face into the crook of my neck.

"I'm coming," he groans, and then he pulls back and slams forward again with a grunt. "Fu-u-u-ck."

I can feel him flex his hips inward as he orgasms, a shudder of ecstasy cascading through his body. He pumps in and out of me a few more times, the friction causing microbursts of pleasure to course through me.

When he finally goes still, I become overwhelmed with emotion.

This was utterly perfect.

The most uniquely thrilling moment of my life.

I have never felt so good and I wonder if this will ever be replicated.

Alex gave me exactly what I asked for. Exactly what I needed. And without an ounce of shame, I realize I want more from him.

Tightening his grip under my butt, Alex nuzzles against my neck and I can feel him pulse inside of me again. "Are you okay?"

"Mmm-hmm," I reply as I sift my fingers through his hair and arch my back. "That was amazing."

Pulling his face back, he looks down at me, still keeping me pinned to the door. His eyes are curious and warm. "Was that what you needed?"

"Mmm-hmm."

Leaning in to kiss me softly, he asks, "Can you say anything other than aMmm-hmm'?"

"I'm hungry," I murmur against his lips.

"Chinese?"

"Mmm-hmm."

When Alex pulls out of me and sets me down, I keenly feel the loss of his warmth inside of me, and it makes me sad. My legs feel like jelly, so I just lean back against the door as I watch him pull the condom off and knot the end.

"Bathroom's first door on the left," I tell him, pointing down the hall as I watch him pull up his jeans with his free hand. "I'll order the food."

He gives me a soft smile and nods. Just before he starts down the hallway, he turns to me. "Then you can tell me about your day?"

"Sure," I say softly.

Although not that long ago I wanted nothing but to purge the memories of today into a black hole of forgetfulness, I have an overwhelming desire to share my misery with Alex. I feel a needaalmost painful in natureato seek comfort from him. Something more than just hard and sweaty sex.

I need to hear his voice, and maybe have his arms wrapped around me, while I tell him all about Mara and how useless I feel right now.

Long after Alex fucked me up against my front door, and long after we stuffed ourselves with cold sesame noodles and fried rice while sitting on my living room rug, eating our meal from my coffee table, and only after Alex pushed me down to said living room floor and took me in a frenzy again, do I finally tell him about what happened with Mara.

He pulls me up from the floor and into his arms, walking me back to my bedroom, where we crawl into my bed and pull the covers up snugly around us. He holds me while I share with him the details of Mara's overdose.

Alex doesn't say a word while I talk but just strokes my back with his fingers and every so often grazes his lips against my temple. When I admit with no small amount of shame that I'm terrified I'm going to lose Mara, and that I am doubting my own abilities as a counselor, Alex takes his fingers and places them against my lips to silence my words.

"Don't," he says quietly. "Don't doubt yourself...not for a minute."

Turning my head to the side to dislodge his fingers from my mouth, I argue, "But I don't think I can reach her. You should have seen her in the hospital. She wouldn't even look at me. Wouldn't talk to me."

"Some people don't want to be reached. Some people love the misery."

"No," I deny adamantly. "She doesn't love misery. She hates what the drugs have done to her parents."

Leaning down, Alex kisses me softly. "But she took the drugs to avoid the misery. And she loved how the drugs made her feel. I imagine it's going to be hard to reach her right now. She's tried them twice...both times she didn't die but experienced escape from her misery. I'm not sure there's anything you could say to her, Sutton, that will get her to stop. You're just going to have to keep plugging away with her, and hope that you will eventually get through."

I let my gaze slide to the left and stare at the moon filtering through my window. Alex is right...I have to keep pushing at her and pray to God that she will be careful.

"Let's try to get some sleep," Alex says as he continues to stroke my back. "I have to get up early to meet Garrett at the gym."

"Okay," I whisper, wiggling in tighter to him as I wrap my arm securely around his waist.

I listen to the sounds of our breathing even out and grow more measured. Just as my eyes start to droop, I hear Alex say, "Sutton?"

"Yeah?"

"You reached me. When no one else ever has."

My eyes pop wide open and my heartbeat skips erratically over his words. They are meant as a means of bolstering my confidence, because Alex Crossman by admitted history has some dark demons in his closet. I have no clue what they are because he hasn't shared them, but I do know that they have shaped the person he used to be. And I do know that he's apparently not the same person he was before we met.

Tilting my head slightly, I bring my lips to the skin on his chest and give him a kiss. "Thank you," I tell him with a smile on my face.

He squeezes me tightly and then I close my eyes and drift off to sleep.

Chapter 17.

Alex

"This is starting to become a habit," Sutton pouts but she doesn't sound in the least bit perturbed.

"It's a good habit, don't you think?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm all for making this a permanent habit."

We're sitting on the floor of my living room, eating delivery pizza from my coffee table. Sutton is wearing one of my T-shirts and nothing else. I hastily threw on a pair of workout shorts when the pizza dude rang the doorbell.

I had intended to cook dinner for her tonight, something I've never done for another woman in my life. Hell, I've never even bought another woman dinner in my life.

Yes, my plan was to cook dinner, then see if I could surpass the heights we reached last night when she confronted me with a see-through robe and a box of rubbers. I don't know that I had ever been so turned on in my life.

But unfortunately, when Sutton showed up at my apartment tonight and I saw her standing there, looking beyond amazing with her fiery hair in a high ponytail and wearing nothing more than her classic jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt, I was overcome with such lust, I pulled her quickly in and pushed her down on my living room couch.

She didn't complain or dissuade meanot that it would have done any good. Instead, she just gave the most pleasurable sigh I've ever heard when I made short work of stripping her bare and burying my face between her legs.

I gave her no mercy and within seconds she was moaning and writhing on the micro-suede cushions, her hands gripping my hair for dear life. She tasted fucking divine and I plunged my tongue in and out of her ruthlessly, fueled on by her groans of pleasure and the way her hips would buck hard against my chin. It turned me on so much, I may have gone a little crazy on her. I put my tongue to work in other ways, licking and sucking at her while my fingers pushed in deep.

She came fast, and hard, and she screamed my name again, and I swear I almost came just from hearing that. I laid my chin just above her pelvic bone and watched her come back to awareness. When the fog cleared from her eyes and she focused in on me, she grinned and said, "Get naked."

And then I had a condom on and was pounding inside of her and it was just as good, if not better, than last night. She urged me to go harder, deeper. She dug her nails in my ass and even bit me on my shoulder which in turn caused me to fuck her just a little bit rougher.

And then I came super fucking hard, way faster than I ever have before. So hard, I had lights winking in my peripheral vision, and even after the shudders had gone silent within me, I found I wanted her again.

But that's when I noticed a burning smell in the air, and when I opened my eyes, I saw a haze of smoke above us.

"Fuck!" I yelled as I jumped up and ran buck-ass naked into the kitchen. Opening the oven door, I looked in and saw that the lasagna I had put under the broiler just before she rang the doorbell was burnt to a black crisp, smoke curling away from the pan and rising into the air.

"Guess we're ordering pizza, huh?"

Turning around, I saw Sutton standing thereajust as naked as I wasawith a grin on her face.

"Sorry," I muttered with an apologetic grin. "Guess I got sidetracked when I saw you in my doorway."

Sutton sauntered up to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. She pressed her body in warmly to mine, and I felt my cock jump at the contact. "I'm glad it burned. I rather liked the way you greeted me tonight."

I kissed her then, softly, because I hadn't even bothered to kiss her before when I was just fucking her in my living room a moment ago. Her tongue met mine and we moved our mouths against each other with delicate softness.

And while the kiss was sweet and sensitive, it in no way diminished my lust, which was growing for her once more, as evidenced by the fact I was getting hard again.

"How hungry are you?" I asked as I pulled away from her lips.

"Not very," she whispered, her fingertips grazing across one of my nipples.

Fuck, that felt good.

"We'll order pizza later," I told her as I bent down and lifted her up over my shoulder.

Giggling, she braced herself with her hands on my lower back. "What are we doing now?"