No Deal Breakers (28 page)

"I know! That's the strangest part to me.
Hey, what do you think Paul is going to make him do?"

"I don't know exactly, but I do know that his
image and money are the most important things in his life, so I
would imagine something that would affect that."

"You're right, that would probably be much
worse for him than jail time," they both grew quiet again. They
continued to snuggle and Brian ran his fingers through her hair. It
always amazed her how differently his touch affected her. Right now
it was having a calming effect, and before she knew it, her eyelids
were growing heavy and she lost the fight to keep them open.

The next morning Brian woke before Aria, they
were still in their clothes from the previous day, and she was
still snuggled into his chest. He looked down at his sleeping
beauty and was in awe of her once again. She'd endured so much and
yet here she was; trusting another man, standing up for herself,
and moving on with her life. Watching her confront Warren yesterday
were the most terrifying and rewarding moments of his life.

He knew the terror that King brought to her
dreams and memories, he knew how much he'd taken from her. Yet, she
still had the courage to stand in front of him and tell him exactly
who he was and what he'd done. He knew it couldn't have been easy
for her, but she'd done it flawlessly.

"Good morning, what are you thinking so hard
about?" Aria had woken up and was staring back at him with those
big, beautiful eyes of hers.

"Morning. I was thinking about you, and how
brave you were yesterday, how hard that must have been for you, and
how weird the whole situation is."

They adjusted so they were both sitting up in
bed. "I'm still in disbelief myself. What are the odds that your ex
employer and almost father in law turns out to be the man that's
haunted me since I was twelve?"

"Pretty slim, I'd say. How are you doing with
everything?"

"Honestly, I'm fine. Much better than I
thought I would be, but seeing him there yesterday actually gave me
confidence, and helped me realize what I've known all along, that
you aren't him. I realize now that all of my fears about seeing you
the way I see him were pointless, there's a big difference between
what he did to me, and what I want to do with you." He rolled this
around in his mind for a few moments, she really did look fine.
Better than he'd ever seen her, the traces of worry and fear that
normally lurked in her eyes when they talked about her past were
all gone.

"What do you mean, you said sex was painful
and were worried about me hurting you, that doesn't seem pointless,
even now." She just smiled at him.

"Yeah, it might hurt physically, but that's
not what I was worried about. What I realized was with him, with
all of them, was that they were doing something
to
me. With
you, I'll be doing something
with
you. With you I have a
choice, I'll be a participant, I won't just be lying there praying
for it to be over." He turned to her, and took her chin in his
hand, staring into her eyes.

"I want you to know that you always, always
have a choice with me. no matter what we're doing, you say stop and
we're done. No questions, no hesitation. And if you ever decide to
'just lie there'
to appease me, I will stop."

"I know, and that's just one of the many
reasons I love you," she said as she leaned forward to kiss him
deeply.

"So, how are you doing with all of this?"
Aria surprised him by asking later that morning while they were
finishing breakfast.

"Me? What do you mean how am I doing?"

"Yes, you. I've known since the moment I told
you about my past that you wanted to see the men that hurt me
punished. Now we find out that you know one of them, were almost
related to him and he walked away without punishment. That must
have been weird for you. So, I ask again, how are you doing with
everything?"

He pushed his empty plate away and leaned
back in his chair, "I'm still processing. When I realized who he
was it was such a battle with myself, probably the worst I've ever
fought. Part of me wanted to pick you up and run as far away from
there as I could to keep you safe, another part of me had to hold
back from killing him…or at least causing bodily harm. I've never
felt rage like that before, I saw red and was shaking so bad, it
was everything I could do to stay glued to that spot and not charge
him or scoop you up and run." Remembering it sent chills through
him even now.

"I was really worried you
were
going
to attack him there for a moment, when he fell into me." he groaned
and ran a hand down his face.

"I was. I'm not proud of it, but seeing his
hands on you, even accidentally, just snapped something inside me
and I lost it."

She stood, and came to stand behind him,
wrapping her arms around his neck and planting a kiss on his cheek.
"
Almost
. You
almost
lost it, but you didn't. no one's
ever protected me like that. Thank you. I'm glad you were willing
to, but I'm also glad you didn't need to."

"I'm glad Paul was there to stop me, I
haven't felt anything close to anger like that since Julia was
raped," he admitted, trying to hold back the emotion that was
assaulting him from both memories.

"You never did tell me about that…I mean, you
don't have to, of course, but I have wondered about it a few times
since that night," she resumed her place across the table from
him.

He took a deep breath to steady himself, "She
went to a party with some friends, a boy she'd known her entire
life offered her a drink, she didn't think twice about accepting
it, why would she? They went to kindergarten together, were in the
same Sunday school class, and had the same group of friends their
whole lives. They were even Mary and Joseph in the Christmas play
when they were eight.

"She had no reason not to trust him, not when
he handed her a cup and not when she started feeling sick so he
offered to drive her home." He paused to take a breath and ready
himself to tell the next part. "She stopped trusting him when he
pulled off onto an old dirt road a few miles from our house and
forced her into his backseat. By that point the drugs were in full
effect and she said she felt completely out of control of her own
body." He shuddered as he recalled Julia telling the story from the
witness stand.

"Steven actually found her that night, in our
barn where that…that…jerk dumped her. She and Steven were best
friends, he lived near us, and they would leave each other notes
and gifts out in the barn all the time, since they were kids. He
knew she was going to be out with her girl friends that night, he
was upset about being friend-zoned, they'd had a fight," he waved a
hand dismissively, "I don't remember all the details, anyway, he
was bringing over an apology letter when he found her drugged,
disoriented, and disheveled, for lack of a better word.

"Her clothing was torn and in a pile next to
her. He didn't even bother re-dressing her. Steven wrapped her in
his jacket and carried her up to the house. They immediately took
her to the hospital. The…jerk didn't even use protection, which
made it easy to get his DNA of course, but it also had my whole
family on edge for weeks, breath held that she wouldn't become
pregnant as a result. She told us all she'd find a good home for
the baby, if there was one. Still we all just hoped and prayed it
wouldn't happen, she was the least worried of all of us," his tears
were flowing heavily now.

"Of course, he denied it and claimed that it
was consensual, the whole town was divided. People accused Julia of
lying for attention, the whole thing got really ugly. Julia
withdrew from everyone, pushed us all away, jumped around men that
weren't Steven, Dad or myself. You reminded me a lot of her during
that time when I first met you, actually," he shuddered again. He
hated that two of the women he loved the most had been through such
horrific experiences.

"Anyway, the trial drug on for over a year
until he finally confessed to it all, he's still in jail. By that
point her and Steven had started a relationship, so of course the
people that were against her and thought she was lying used that
for fuel for their fires. After he confessed the whole thing a lot
of people came forward and apologized to her and our parents, but
by that point the damage had been done.

"Julia couldn't wait to get out of there, so
as soon as they graduated they got married and as soon as they
could they moved as far away as they could, Steven has family in
Maine so that's why they chose to go there. Plus, I was living here
at the time, so I got to see them more frequently than I had
before."

He watched Aria wipe tears from her eyes and
take several soothing breaths before she responded, "That's
horrible. I hate that that happened to her, she's such a confident
person, she always seems so in control. I never would have guessed
she'd been through all that." Brian nodded in agreement.

"It's been almost ten years now, it took time
for her to get where she is now, Steven really helped bring her
through it."

"I really liked getting to meet them in
person, I'm actually a little upset that we won't get to see them
when we're so close." He reached his hand out to hold hers.

"Me too, but we've got to head back today,
unfortunately. Hopefully we'll be able to take some time soon and
go visit them, maybe after she has the baby."

"That would be nice, I miss Ami. That little
girl grew on me fast," he laughed.

"I think she feels the same about you. We'd
better get around, we have a plane to catch."

"Shoot! I left my purse and leftovers in the
back," Aria said, batting her beautiful eyelashes at him, he pecked
her on the cheek and went back to the garage to get them. It was
Friday, their regular date night, and he was pleased to see that
Aria was finally comfortable enough to not force herself to eat her
entire meal in one sitting.

They had been back home for almost four weeks
now, and Aria seemed to be doing much better than he would have
ever suspected. She'd talked to him regularly about the healing and
strides she'd made that day, and he couldn't be more pleased with
the progress she was making.

"Hey, where'd you go?" He called out upon
returning to an empty kitchen, he'd only been gone a moment.

"Getting ready for bed," came her reply from
their room. He smiled to himself,
their room
. A little over
eight months ago when he first brought her home he never would have
believed he'd be saying that. He put her leftovers in the
refrigerator and shut off the lights before going down the hall to
their room.

When he got to the door he stopped, frozen in
place, sure his jaw was on the ground somewhere. There was jazz
music playing softly on the stereo and candles lit all over the
room, but what had him immobilized was his beautiful wife standing
in the doorway to the master bathroom, clad in only a short, sheer
robe and barely there undergarments, none of which he'd seen
before.

They still hadn't made love yet, he was
always very careful to stop himself before it got to that point.
This was by far the most of her he'd ever seen, and he couldn't
stop staring, she was breathtakingly beautiful, inside and out.

Finally, he tried to speak; "What-I
mean…uh…Aria, you…wow," so maybe talking wasn't his strong suit
right now. She giggled and pushed herself away from the doorframe,
stopping directly in front of him, she started unbuttoning his
shirt.

"Here's the thing, Brian, for the last
several weeks I've been trying to let you know I'm ready to give
all of myself to you, but you keep stopping me. It's either because
I've been too subtle or because you don't want me," she pushed his
shirt off his shoulders and took a step back, he was still
incapable of movement.

"I'm done being subtle," she opened her robe
and dropped it to the floor. He swallowed hard and finally pushed
some words past his throat.

"Are you sure? Honey is this what you really
want?"

"I'm sure, I've been ready. Unless you don't
want—"

"Don't be silly, I love you. Of course I want
to, but I don't want to hurt you, are you sure it isn't too soon?
What if—" She stepped back up to him again and placed a finger over
his lips, stopping his babbling.

"If it's too much or I'm really not ready,
then I'll tell you. I know you won't hold it against me even if I
change my mind five minutes in. So please, can we try? I really
want to…and I never wanted to before I married you. I'm tired of
letting my past control me, I told you that."

He pulled her to his chest and kissed her
passionately. She returned it for several moments before grabbing
his hand and leading him to the bed. He prayed this would only
serve to heal her farther and unite them more fully in their
marriage and not pull them apart or damage her emotionally.

He almost laughed at himself, nearly thirty,
married for the better part of a year, and yet here he was sweating
and as nervous as he was before his first kiss. He knew it was
stupid, but some part of him was afraid that he wouldn't measure up
to her expectations, or that he wouldn't know what to do to make
her happy.

He swallowed hard and followed her onto the
bed.

*~*~*

They were snuggled up in bed, Aria let out a
contented sigh, Brian must not have heard the happiness in it
because he stiffened and began babbling again.

"Are you okay? Did I hurt you? Oh no, I did,
didn't I? Aria, I am so sorry, we don't ever have to—" before he
realized what she was doing she was straddling his stomach and
stopping his worries with her lips.