Broken to Pieces (16 page)

"Adam," she said.

Before answering, he grabbed her hips and pinned her to him.

"Yeah?"

"Did you really mean what you said?"

He reached down and pulled out his member, then hooked one finger through her panties and jerked them to the side. Emily could feel him poised at her entrance. The very tip of his hot, stiff head slipped between her moist folds.

"Now and always," he said quietly into her ear.

With both hands, he reached up and pushed Emily's bra up, allowing her full breasts and perky nipples to fall right where his lips were waiting. In the same moment, the second half of his round tip penetrated her.

"Oh god," she gasped as his lips surrounded one of her small points and he started to suckle.

Emily grabbed onto the sides of the boat and, with one last gasp, threw her legs open wide. The rest of Adam's shaft sank into her, making both of them cry out with pleasure.

They paused to kiss again.

"Please," she begged, pressing her breasts against his naked chest, "take me."

Adam reared back and thrust his hips against hers, making a loud, wet pop where their skin met. By then, Emily was panting with desire.

"You said," she arched her back and rocked her sweet spot against his firm muscles, "that you would do anything."

Still buried deep inside of her, Adam sat up and looked down to where his stiffness disappeared into her folds. He reached down and, with one thumb, pressed down gently onto the tender circle of flesh that surrounded her bud. That was, in his own way, the truest response to her statement.

Adam started to sweep his thumb in wide circles, massaging Emily's throbbing area with a steady rhythm that matched the increasingly rapid pumping of his hips. Over time, he worked up to a pace that was quick and hard. Emily's breasts bounced up and down under the force of him, allowing his tongue to flick and tickle them over and over.

Emily tightened her grip on the boat's sides and threw both legs up along with them so that her bare feet dangled into the water right alongside Adam's pants. Using both, she forced her slit onto him harder, essentially riding him from underneath.

She couldn't control herself. Everything that he did-every move that he made-incited a maelstrom of need inside of her.

"Wait," she gasped and kissed his lips.

"What?"

"Can you lay down here?"

"Anything," he answered again.

The pair switched places seamlessly. Emily hovered above his glistening member. Without hesitating, she forced her way down him, pushing her knees apart further as she descended onto his stiff member.

Adam reached around and grabbed her rear with both hands.

"Ride me," he demanded in a rough voice.

The orders were all that Emily needed to hear. Right away, she began to bounce and rock over his pole. She raised both hands over her head, gathered her wild locks up into a bunch, and pinned them to the top of her skull. Her breasts' soft flesh jiggled and bounced with their synchronized movements.

"Oh fuck," she groaned under her breath and arched her back.

Again Adam used a single finger to caress her swollen nub, making a quick jerking motion over it. The tight, hot sensation of orgasm tickled the back of Emily's throat, making her moans louder with each passing second. Deep in the pit of her stomach, just above where his wandering finger coaxed her closer, she could feel her muscles wrenching themselves until taught.

With a couple last rocks of her quivering hips, Emily brought her and Adam over the edge together. His warmth was welcome and, in a way, almost magical. It sent violent shivers down the length of her spine and made her wailing cries of pleasure become lodged in the very back of her throat.

Emily ran her hands over her throbbing breasts one last time before slumping down to the bottom of the boat and lying with her head on the upper half of Adam's left arm. Both of them desperately gulped down the air in a feeble attempt at slowing down their breathing. Neither of them, however, spoke for a long time. When someone finally did almost an hour later, it was Adam.

"What are you thinking about?"

She looked over to him and spoke in a reserved tone, "Back near my school, there is an airport. Most of the time, we don't really hear anything. But on those nights when the winds would pick up just as the sun went down, every flight would pass over my apartment. When they did, every once in a while the roaring jets would sound like a bomb falling."

He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"It's hard to explain. The engines howling would hit the wind just the right way and it would sound like we had front row tickets to The Blitz. And every time that I would hear it, I would get a sinking feeling in my gut. It felt, just for a second, like the skies were going to open up and change everything." She paused, "Like nothing in the world could save me. I know it sounds really dumb, but-"

He leaned over and stroked her check with his thumb. Beneath them, the bobbing boat swayed gently.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because," she said, "I feel the same way right now."

Adam didn't know how to take her comment.

"Is that a bad thing?"

She let her head fall into the crook of his shoulder and wondered what the answer was. The only thing that was certain was the fact that, no matter what she chose, life would never be the same. The rose-colored glasses of youth had been ripped away, leaving behind a blindingly stark reality that was becoming harder and harder for the unsure young woman to cope with.

"Do you think that there could be a happy ending here?"

Adam sighed and curled his arm around her shoulders, "I think that life, like art, ends up meaning whatever you want it to mean, you know? If you want a happy ending, sometimes you have to make it yourself."

Emily didn't respond. She couldn't. What words were there to explain the struggle going on inside of her lonely heart?

"Most of the time," he continued, "we see what we need to see just to get by."

"And you don't think that's the way it really is?"

"Not always. Look-"

He rolled onto his side and raised his body up so that he was leaning over her.

"-I don't have a lot to offer you, but I can promise that I would do whatever it takes to keep you happy."

Emily looked past him to the star-lit sky twinkling overhead.

"Is this about Mitch?"

Just seeing her say his name made Adam crumble back down onto the floor.

"It's more than that."

"I figured."

Adam laid his head down over hers and asked, "So what now?"

"I don't know, Adam. I really, really just don't know.

They lay there that night, their naked bodies sparkling from white light of the waxing moon overhead. There were no more words that needed to be said, only choices to be made.

The very next day-a Sunday-the sound of Barbara and Gary's rental car slowly rolling into the parking lot woke Emily up well before dawn. According to her alarm clock, it was precisely 3:48 am.

She stumbled out of her room and through the front door.

"Gary? Barbara? Are you guys okay?"

Her voice was just loud enough to carry its self over the crickets and the pathetic sputtering of the engine as it shut down. Emily raised her hand over her eyes to shield them from the constant, yellow glow of the lights overhead. Inside of the car, there was only one person.

"Guys?"

Barbara popped the door open and slowly climbed out. Emily hopped down the stairs and the two met near the bottom.

"What's going on? Where's Gary?"

"He's," she stumbled over her words, "um, not coming."

"Oh," Emily gasped. "Is he okay?"

"Oh yes," she said and started up the stairs. "I'm sure him and his other wife are very happy."

Her words made Emily stop dead in her tracks.

"What?"

"Could you come in and have some coffee with me? I'm hurting for some caffeine in the worst way."

"I, uh, sure," she stammered and raced into the kitchen behind her.

Five minutes later, the two leaned against the counter with their steaming cups in hand.

"I don't understand," Emily continued. "What do you mean 'other wife'?"

Barbara took a hearty swing with a grimace. It was still scorching hot.

"Well, it turns out that his other wife and two children were his motivation for going to Richmond, not sightseeing. I do have to admit that I saw a whole lot of sights, if you could call them that."

"Two kids?! How long has this been going on?"

"From the looks of it," she closed her eyes and opened them back up very slowly, "about ten years or so. I didn't stay around long enough to ask."

"And you had no idea that all of this was going on?"

"Not a clue," she replied plainly. "I followed him on a hunch and everything had to come out."

"So you just…left?"

She shrugged her heavy shoulders and raised her chin defiantly, "There is nothing left for me in the life that we shared."

The sentiment sounded all too familiar.

"What do you mean by that?"

"He owns everything. Our children are grown and scattered all over the country. Hell, I had to put down my only dog two days before we came here. And if I did stay, what would I ever have to look forward to?"

Though she knew it was a rhetorical question, Emily wished that she had some kind of answer to give her.

"You mean to tell me that without him you literally have nothing to go home to?"

"Correct."

"But why did you leave him so quick? Why didn't you try to work things out if he was all that you had left?"

Barbara sighed and tapped the side of her cup with one of her long nails.

"You could also say that he was the one last thing holding me back. The best choice isn't always going to be the safe one, you know."

Emily swirled the last quarter of the coffee in the bottom of her cup.

"Are you trying to say that I should be with Adam?"

Barbara set her mug onto the counter top. Her large wedding ring, Emily noticed, was already gone. In its wake, only a tiny sliver of tanless skin remained.

"What I'm trying to say," she grabbed the younger woman's shoulders and forced their stares to meet, "is that life guarantees you and me nothing. No man or woman-regardless of their money or connections-can change that, Emily."

All around Barbara's eyes, the tell-tale black whispers of running mascara scarred her usually bright skin.

"We can't stop the flow of life," she continued. "But it seems to me like those decisions that we
do
get to make should be judged by the heart, not the head. It might save you a lot of trouble later on. Trust me." She paused and then continued, "You can't be afraid to take a chance. After all, life is nothing but one big roll of the dice anyway."

Both women fell silent. Emily stared down at the tepid puddle in the bottom of her cup and carefully mulled over every last word that she had just been told. Her time to make a decision was up and she felt even more torn than before. Both sides of her mind screamed for resolution.

"Emily?"

The soft resonance of Adam's sleepy voice shocked her back to reality. She spun on her heels and came face-to-face with her equally unsure lover. In his arms, the two books of paperwork stared up at her mockingly.

"Adam," she set down her cup and rubbed her face, "what are you doing? Why do you have those?"

She reached out to grab the folders but he moved his arms away.

"I just wanted to make a point."

Emily's arms fell to her sides in defeat while Barbara watched on quietly.

"What's that?"

"My point," he presented the books to her, "is that neither of one these is the right path unless we are walking it together."

Emily studied the longing look in his eyes, and then shifted to where the paperwork sat sloppily on the counter. There, amidst the refrigerator's pulsing hum and the strong, bitter scent of coffee in the air, she closed her eyes and, finally, let go of the seeds of fear that had been planted deep within her soul.

"I want to stay here," she reached out and touched his arm, "with you."

His eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, "That's all I've been wanting to hear."

She glanced over to his painting that still hung proudly on the wall. From where she stood, only the bottom corner by his signature was visible, though that did little to change the effect that it had on her.

"What about your art?"

He tossed the books aside and took both of her hands into his.

"I can't paint beauty without having it in my life."

Emily smiled and let his arms snake over her shoulders. He pulled her in tight and all three people in the kitchen went quiet as the first golden rays burst through the eastern horizon and forced their way through a small, round prism in the window that Emily had hung when she was only four. The tiny trinket cast an impressive swath of dime-sized rainbows all over the room and its occupants.

It was, for the hour or so that they all stood and watched, a peaceful stillness that only comes after the worst of storms, though there was still a cloud or two lingering in the proverbial distance.

—

When Mitch's slick sports car rolled into the parking lot, taking up three spots on one side, Emily was just about to start feeling better. But when she caught sight of the glimmering paint job and the chromed additions, her heart sank into her stomach. If she could simply wish him away, she certainly would have done so right then. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option.

Mitch kicked the door open with his black leather shoe and stepped out. The back of his fitted jacket fluttered behind him as he unbuttoned it and slipped both hands into his pockets.

He called out to the house, "Emily?"

Though it was the last thing in the world that she wanted to do, the young woman forced herself to climb out of the couch where she was napping and go outside. The sun overhead was bright but the air around them was cool and still. That day, unlike any of the others leading up to it, was exceptionally mild. It was, to everyone, a much-needed relief.