Page 94 of Play With Me

She twisted her body toward me and looked up. “I’m confused. And I don’t mean this to be rude, but how can you understand? How can anyone understand?”

“Because Sophie lost her mom. I lost my wife just like you lost your husband.”

As soon as she gasped, confusion covered her face. “Evie?”

“No, before Evie. Marissa. Her name was Marissa. There was never a good time to tell you that Sophie’s birth mom died the day Sophie was born. She wasn’t breathing after the accident. I had two broken arms and I couldn’t help her. Someone dragged her out of the car, then they dragged me out. She had no pulse. I told him to save our baby. I told him to do anything he could to save Sophie, and he did, but Marissa died. I have nothing left of her except for our daughter.”

“That’s who you were visiting at the cemetery that day. Your wife died?”

“Yes. Sophie’s my life now. She’s my everything. I wanted to make things right for Sophie, and I’d known Evie for a long time. I was depressed and lost, and Evie helped me move on during a difficult time, but we didn’t click. She accepted Sophie as her own from the beginning, so we decided to raise her together, as a family.”

I paused. I had never talked to anyone about that day. Not even Evie. “I didn’t want Sophie hurting ever again, and after we separated, I promised myself that Sophie’s life would be as stable as possible. I guess I failed.”

“Brook, you didn’t fail. You’ve done a great job with Sophie. She’s amazing. Does she know?

“Yes. We talk about her other mommy being in heaven.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for all your pain.” She slid her hand over my abs and up to my chest, right on top of my heart, and I felt it beating even harder for her. I felt it beating fully for her.

“You’re the first woman since Marissa that I’ve felt a lasting connection with. I don’t know how, but I’ve felt that connection since the day I met you. I know you’re supposed to be in my life the same way Sophie knew that Boo needed her.”

“Are you comparing me to a bear, Madman?”

“I wouldn’t dare. What I’m trying to say is that I need you in our life. Mine and Sophie’s. I know I haven’t done a great job with her. Jesus, you must think I’m crazy. You must think that I’m a shithead of a father for allowing her to stay with us in that forest and letting her run away in the first place.”

“Actually, right now I’m just happy that you’re not mad about the haircut.”

“I’m not, though Evie will be pissed.”

“So I should stay clear then?”

“Never.”

“I may have to.”

“I said never.” I twisted and lifted my body to hover above hers. She took my hands and lifted them over her head, stretching us both. Her skin glowed in the flickering fire and she looked like the most beautiful angel beneath me. The touch of her fingers along my arms, her breasts against my chest, her thighs at my hips, her legs parted and ready, put me in the perfect position. I could just slide in and take her all over again. And so I lowered my mouth to her nipple again, sucking on it, teasing her with my tongue, biting gently.

“Ouch.” She squirmed underneath me in pleasurable pain. Her knees pressed to my hips, her pelvis tilted, and her breasts rose. She needed more, and tonight I would fuck her and then make love to her and then fuck her again until she lost all that energy she claimed to have stored. I would devour her over and over, sucking on her delicious pussy, fingering that need right out of her until she was spent. She wouldn’t be able to walk tomorrow, and that was the point. I’d tire Lola out so that she’d stay in my bed. I’d make sure there was not a watt of energy left inside that beautiful body. She deserved this, including rest. Tomorrow morning, I would finish our job, come home to her, and I’d ask her to stay. I’d ask her to move in with me and Sophie because I loved this woman. I was crazy-mad in love with her, and I’d do everything to show her just how much.

“If you’re going to keep biting on my nipples so hard, they’ll bruise,” she giggled, twisting again then moaning. Lola rarely giggled, but what I didn’t expect was the sudden yawn. It looked like my solar panel was running out of energy already.

“I should be careful, then. They say that most accidents happen close to home.”

“Not all of them,” she replied. Her voice suddenly lowered, and I paused, lifting my head, watching her face as happiness faded and distress took over. She looked to the side, biting her lip.

It hurt me to see her that way. I worried that her thoughts were taking her to dark places when I wanted her happy, and that inevitably took me to mine. But this was the present, not the past, and I was choosing to live in the present, with Lola. It was time to put that awful airplane accident behind me. The investigation had finally closed. On Sophie’s birthday, I would find out whose life Marissa’s heart had saved. If they let us, Sophie could listen to it beat through a stethoscope.

“I assume your accident wasn’t close to home.”

I slid up her body and kissed her lips again.

“No, it wasn’t. Did you hear about the airplane accident in Michigan eight years ago? The one where Captain Tanner tried to land on the road?” she asked, but her eyes were closed. A stray tear trickled from the corner of her eye as she gripped my shirt in her fist.

I froze above her, my muscles tightening. Was she being serious?

Lola held her breath. I felt her body tense in my arms as she said, “A lot of people died that day.”

She was right. A lot of people did die that day. Including my wife, Marissa.

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