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He shifted uncomfortably, wishing he’d never brought it up.

“Do you…?” Her voice broke, so she started again. “Do you not like it?”

“Of course I like it! But I don’t like being so needy.” He managed to blurt out the explanation because he couldn’t stand for Eve to think he was rejecting her.

She relaxed immediately and shook her head at him. “You’re not needy, Jude. You’re sick. And this is one of the very few things I can do to help you. Please let me do it.”

He exhaled in a rush. Responding to the plea in her voice, he nodded and then stretched out on the couch with his head in her lap the way they’d always done before. She gently pulled the tie out of his hair and stroked his hair back from his face.

She caressed him lightly for a minute and then began to apply more pressure to his scalp. He moaned long and low as the massage released the pressure and tension from the past two days.

“That’s better,” she murmured, pushing her fingertips against his head with deep, relieving pressure. “There’s no reason to be so stubborn about this. Life isn’t some contest for who can endure the most for the longest.”

“I know,” he mumbled.

“You’re allowed to feel better sometimes.”

“I know.” He closed his eyes and moaned again. He couldn’t seem to help it. She made him feel so much better.

“So why the resistance?”

“I don’t know. It just makes me feel…”

“Feel what, Jude?”

“Feel… weak.”

“You know that’s not true. You’re sick. But even if you weren’t, I still wouldn’t mind doing this for you.”

“Yeah?” He felt a ludicrous flicker of excitement at her words.

“Yeah.” She didn’t continue immediately. Just rubbed his head with her small, strong fingers. “I… I didn’t expect to feel this way, but I kind of like taking care of you.”

On Sunday morning, Jude woke up early feeling good—without even a hint of a headache—so he went out for a run just as the sun was rising.

When he returned, Eve was still asleep in his bed, where she slept every night now, so he didn’t turn on the bedroom lights. He moved as quietly as he could, taking off his shoes and socks and then grabbing a clean pair of underwear before heading into the bathroom to shower.

So far the weekend had been great. He and Eve had taken a hike yesterday morning. She’d been in a laughing, teasing mood afterward. They’d ended up taking a shower together when they got home and then had some very good sex. Eve had really been into it. He’d made her come with his hand during foreplay, and then she’d wanted him to take her from behind. She’d come three more times in that position. She was never loud, but she’d been more vocal than normal, gasping and whimpering as she got urgent and then making these soft, sexy sobbing sounds as she approached orgasm each time. She’d been limp and exhausted afterward and admitted that she’d never come so much and so hard in her life.

He’d been shamelessly proud of himself, and the high lasted most of the afternoon. They’d stayed in and taken it easy, watching the entire run of a sci-fi show that was one of his favorites but she’d never seen. They’d had sex again under the covers before they went to sleep. It wasn’t as long or vigorous asearlier that day, but it was still good. They’d kissed a lot, and he’d taken his time, and she’d come just before he did.

As he was showering, he recalled the previous day so vividly—Eve’s hands on his body, her face as she came—that he turned himself on and had to take care of himself with his hand before he got out.

He wasn’t normally this horny, but his body demanded release nonetheless.

Getting out of the shower, he felt clean and even more relaxed. He dried off, pulled on his boxer briefs, and then took the time to trim his beard because Eve had somehow talked him into going to Mass with her this morning.

She hadn’t nagged at him or even directly requested it. She’d said she’d been wanting to visit the church but was a little nervous because the Catholic service was so different from what she was used to as a Protestant.

Jude didn’t want to go to Mass. At all. But Eve had done so much for him and asked for so little. He’d heard himself offering to go with her.

Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad.

He combed out his wet hair and pulled it back with a tie—he very rarely bothered to blow-dry it—and then came out of the bathroom to discover that Eve had woken up. She was sitting on the side of the bed, smoothing down her messy hair.

“Did you run?” she asked him, turning her head to smile at him.

“Yeah. I woke up early.”