Wrecking Ball (22 page)

Brandon

When we get Tia home, we put her to bed and Antonio and Sophia busy themselves mothering over her. When Tia finally drifts off into a medication induced sleep, Antonio, Sophia, and I eat dinner and drink wine. There is little conversation and after we clean the dishes we all bid each other good night.

As Sophia and I approach our bedroom doors, she turns and takes my hand. “Will you sleep with me tonight?” she asks. “I don’t want to be alone.” The pain in her eyes seizes me. I hate she’s going through this, and I would do anything to take that hurt away from her.

“Whatever you want
, baby.” I gently stroke her cheek.

Holding
my hand she leads me into her bedroom, and I shut the door behind us. The room is dimly-lit by the moonlight that shines through the French doors leading out to the balcony. When we reach the bed, Sophia drops my hand and begins taking off her clothes. I watch her in silence, as she pulls her dress over her head revealing her pert breasts in a lacy white bra and her skimpy panties. My mouth goes dry. When she unhooks her bra and it slides down her arms my breath hitches.

She approaches me, determination and want in her eyes. “Brandon, please make love to me.”

My mind whirls with her words. I want nothing more than to touch her, make her feel ecstasy to numb the hurt coursing through her veins, but I know she’s emotional and we all make bad decisions when we’re emotional. The last thing I want is her to regret sleeping with me because she was looking for a temporary fix.

“Sophia.” I breathe her name as my hands cup her face. “I would love to, but you’re upset. I don’t want to take advantage of that.”

“I don’t want to waste any more time, Brandon. I don’t want to look back and think I didn’t live to the fullest. I need you, Brandon. I always have. When I saw you with her, it felt like the world crushed me.”

I clenched my eyes shut as the guilt sucker punched me in the gut. I put this pain in her. How could I do that to Sophia?
She talked about seeing me kiss Nadine before, but never how it made her feel. I’ve never done anything I’ve regretted more in my life. “I swear I’ll spend my life making it up to you.”

“The truth
is, Brandon, although it hurt like hell to see that, it woke me up, too.”

I open my eyes and stare at her, beautiful and naked before me. “What do you mean?”

“I kept waiting for you to come to me, to tell me what you wanted. About everything. My world revolved around making your life easy and comfortable, even when it came to sex. You’d be busy, reject me when I initiated so I stopped trying thinking I’d let you come to me when you wanted it.”

Memories
resonate of a few times I was wrapped up in my work and Sophia would be flirting with me, hinting she wanted my attention and I put her off, my mind unable to switch from work to play time with my wife. How could I have been so busy I neglected her?

“Maybe I let you down in some ways
, too.” Her brow furrows.

I shake my head vehemently as I cup her face tighter, forcing her gaze to meet mine.
“No, Soph. You’ve been nothing but wonderful to me. I’m sorry I let you down, neglected you.”

Her hands move
to the hem of my shirt. “I lost myself in you, but that’s not who you fell in love with. You loved me because I was my own person. You loved me because I had opinions and wants and desires. I’m not going to waste another minute.” She pulls the shirt over my head and tosses it aside. “From now on when I want something, you’ll know. I’m not going to wait for you anymore.”

“Does this mean you won’t leave me?” My tone comes out pleading.

“I want us to go to counseling. I want you to work less and if that means you have to work somewhere else and make less money, than that’s what I want. I want us to finally buy a vacation place or travel. I want us to live. I want our daughters to see us so much in love it embarrasses them. I want them to know what love looks like. We’ve always loved each other Brandon; we just forgot to show it as much as we feel it.” She’s unbuckled my belt and undone my pants and is sliding them down my legs. I step out of them and kick them aside.

“I want that
, too, Sophia.”

“I want us to be happy. I want
to show our girls what real passion is so they grow up knowing what to look for.” My boxers are now off and we stand in front of each other, naked and vulnerable. Sophia’s eyes are rich with desire and my cock is throbbing for her, but I need something from her.

“You are my world. I’d be lost without yo
u,” I breathe, letting my trembling hand take one of her perfect breasts. She immediately moans at the contact. “But I need something from you.”

“
Anything,” she breathes, her body humming with sexual tension.

“I
want to kiss you,” I whisper nervously. “Do you want me to kiss you, Sophia?”

Her eyes open and meet mine. Silence hangs between us like a thick fog
, and I swallow the nervous lump in my throat. Maybe she’s second guessing this, realizing her desire for me is only a symptom of the grief she’s feeling over Tia. I want to erase her hurt, but I can’t make love to her unless she really wants me to.

She licks he
r lips and her expression softens. She smiles softly. “Go on then. Do it,” she whispers and the knot that has been tied up inside of me for the past few months unravels.

My hand is immediately in her hair, pulling her to me, o
ur mouths crashing together like strong waves against a stone cliff. I kiss her hard, my need raw and selfish. I kiss her for all the kisses I haven’t given her in the past few months, for all the kisses that I haven’t given her while I’ve had my head up my ass busy with work, for all the kisses I wouldn’t have given her if she had left me.

Remorse for hurting her floods me, gratitude pumps through me that she’s willing to forgive me, but passion; a passion I thought we’d lost erupts through me as I cling to her, wishing I could absorb her inside of me. I pull away for a brief moment. “Thank
you, Soph. You won’t regret this. I promise.” And with that, my mouth finds hers again.

Sophia

Brandon’s hands grope me everywhere, as if he’s starved and my body is the only thing to sate his hunger. It feels good to have his hands on me, touching me, wanting me. His lips move from mine
and feather my neck with kisses. My hand wraps around his hard cock and his lips pull back as he hisses in pleasure, but they never leave my skin.

“Please, Brandon. I need you inside of me.” I’m in no mood for foreplay. The ache between my legs is making me a wreck. This week of teasing each other has me tense and starving for him to be inside of me.

Brandon pulls away, scoops me up, and lays me on the bed. His movements are frantic as his body meets mine, the head of his erection meeting my wet aching flesh. I admire his body as his muscular arms bend beside my head to support his weight. My husband is still as sexy as when we met and
I run my hands over his shoulders and chest in appreciation. His erection presses against my sex, but he doesn’t push inside of me.

“Fuck
, you are so wet, Soph,” he grits out as if his self-control is being put to the limits.

“Now
,” I demand and the word hasn’t finished leaving my mouth before he plunges into me, both of us moaning. My body begs for rough unforgiving sex. I want us to punish each other. Brandon takes my legs and puts them on his shoulders, driving into me hard. “Touch yourself,” he orders and I obey slipping one hand down to my clit. My orgasm thunders out of me in a surge of moans and cries and just as I’m coming down from my high, Brandon’s body tenses and he moans my name as he comes, filling me.

His body falls on me
, and I take the weight gladly, wrapping my arms and legs around him as he softens inside of me. Relief and satisfaction flood me, but from out of nowhere my throat tightens and I begin to cry. Brandon immediately pops up and stares at me, his expression full of hurt and fear.

Brandon

Laying
on top of Sophia, still inside of her, my stomach knots as I see the tears streaming down her face. She really didn’t want this and now she regrets it. I should’ve known better.

“I’m sorry
, Soph. I should’ve said no. You’ve had a long day.” I pulled out of her and pushed up, but she grabbed my hips and slammed me back down.

“No,”
she whimpers. “Don’t leave me, Brandon,” she begs. “I wanted this so badly. I’m just hurting.”

“Did I hurt you?” I ask stupidly wondering if maybe I was too rough.”

“No,” she whispers softly as her hand strokes my cheek. “I’m just sad.”

Letting my weight rest on her, I kiss her cheek where a tear sits. “You can be sad
, baby. Cry it out. I’ll be here through it all to pick you up,” I whisper.

“I know
,” she says and wraps her arms around me tightly.

***

The next morning, I wake and find Sophia fast asleep on her stomach facing away from me. Every part of me wants to rouse her, sink deep inside of her until she cries my name over and over again, but I fight it. She needs to sleep. She cried for hours last night curled up in my arms. We talked about Tia and the road ahead. We talked about the girls and we talked about us. Where did things go wrong for us?

We rolled out the map of our dreams, ones we planned long ago, but had put aside for one reason or another, and brushed off the dust from them, agre
eing it’s time they come to fruition. We talked about how to start over and move on from the hurt. Sophia never ceases to amaze me. I hurt her deeply, and there will forever be a scar on her heart because of it. But she’s taken it, decided to forgive me, and wants to be better because of it. She’s the most unselfish person I know.

When I head downstairs planning to make a pot of coffee for everyone, Antonio is at the table, a steaming mug in front of him, speaking on his cell phone.
He looks exhausted and I wish there was something I could do for him to help him. As I find a mug in the cabinet above the pot and pour coffee for myself, he ends his call and sighs.

“How are yo
u, man?” I ask, concerned.

“I’m…” He doesn’t finish, instead runs a tired hand through his hair. “I’m going to marry her tonight.”

“Really?”

“It’s a surprise. I’ve been making arrangements all morning. It’ll be on the beach tonight.”

“So she has no idea?”

“No.” He smiles mildly. “She hates surprise
s, too.” I smile widely. I know Tia is going to die, but at least the two of them have time to give themselves to each other.

“Congratulations.” I nod.

“Thanks.”

“What can I do to help?”

“Not a thing.” He sips his coffee. “But I’ve been thinking about something. You and Sophia seem to be working towards moving past your problems. Why don’t we make it a double wedding?”

“What?”

“Come on, man, Tia was out cold because of the pain meds she’s on, so I heard what happened last night. You guys made up.”

I let out a
subtle laugh. I hadn’t realized we’d been that loud. “We have a long road to go, but we both want to work it out so we’re going to do everything we can to make it happen.”

“That’s good because the two of you belong together. I watched Sophia the weeks she was here before you arrived. She was always pleasant, but something seemed missing, then you showed up and it was like a light went on inside of her. You can really see how much she loves you.”

“I took that for granted. I’m a lucky fucking bastard that she took me back.”

“Well why not renew your
vows. It’s a romantic way to make a new start.”

I th
ink about it for a minute. Marrying Sophia was the best decision of my life. If we are starting a new, maybe renewing our vowels is just the place to begin. “I think it sounds great.”

Sophia

“He
told me to wear red.” Tia shimmies on her red fitted sundress as I watch from her bed.

“Brandon told me to wear white.” I shrug.

Antonio and Brandon have been tight-lipped all day about some secret plan they have for us tonight. Two hours ago they told us to go get ‘dolled up’ instructing us what to wear.

“How are you feeling?” I ask as she fixes the straps to her dress.

“Just a little tired, but better than yesterday,” she assures me.

Tears mist my eyes as I remember the horrible news and crushing blow that was delivered. The beautiful and audacious woman in front of me is dying. Tia turns to me and smiles sadly.

“No more crying, Phi. I want to laugh until were keeled over clutching our stomachs in pain because we’re laughing so hard.”

“I’m sorry, I’m just so sad.” I cry as tears run down my
face. “I don’t know how to laugh knowing you’re going to leave us.”

Tia bends down on her knees in front of me. “Phi. Celebrate with me. I’ve lived such a beautiful full life. I know you think because I didn’t have the husband and kids I missed out, but I have loved
, Phi. God, how I’ve loved.” She takes my hands in hers. “I’ve seen so many places that some people only dream of. I’ve had a sister and a best friend.” She squeezes my hands so I’ll know she’s talking about me. “So don’t cry. Laugh and celebrate with me.”

I feel awful that she’s the one about to die and I’m blubbering away while she comforts me. “We should call Mom and Dad
,” I mention. I’ve been holding off bringing them up because I knew Tia would want to wait, but our parents need to know. They need to be there with her.

“When it gets closer, I promise. You know Mom will be a mess
,” Tia sighs sadly.

“
Yeah,” I agree. She won’t be the only one.

“I’m just not ready for the freak out they’ll have.”

“Tia, you’re their daughter. I would be devastated if Ferrah and Chloe kept it from me.”

“When we get to your
house, okay?” she offers. “Now, no more tears. You’re not a pretty crier.” She smirks at me and I snort out a laugh.

“Thanks,” I say dryly.

She stands and twirls in front of me. “How do I look?”

I watch her a moment. “You look like a woman that’s lived Tia.” I smile and stand.

She takes my hands and smiles. “And you look like a woman that has finally remembered how to.”

I hug her tightly. “I love you so much
, Tia.”

“I know.” She squeezes me before pulling away. “Now let
’s go see what our men have been up to.”