FicWad

The sun shone over the aqua blue water and sparkled against Tyler's pale chest. My skin singled underneath the heat, I was enjoying every moment of it, but it was coming to an end. Tyler and I were enjoying the last day of our Mexican honeymoon courtesy again of my parents. It had been two weeks of pure bliss and the perfect way to end an amazing year. We were going to spend our last evening in Mexico, New Years eve, closed up in our hotel cabana but by Tyler's choice. I insisted that we attend the party that our hotel was throwing, but he was adamant that we spend the night alone. It was a honeymoon filled with sex, as any one should be. But it didn't seem to be enough for Tyler. Even if I wanted to take an early morning walk along the beach before he was awake, he always seemed to be alert and would either join me or stop me from going. He didn't want to spend time away from me; I would soon find out why.

Tyler looked over at me as I lay on my back taking in the last sun I could. It didn’t matter that we lived in Vegas, I never seemed to be able tan, year round I was as pale as a china doll.

Ignoring Tyler, I flipped my hair just as a muscular man jogged by us. He seemed to get the wrong idea and paused, smiling over at me.

“You’re looking at my wife!” Tyler called to him, making him start back along his jog.

I turned over onto my back to make sure that my tan would be even. I was already a good three shades darker. Tyler again looked over at me before he got up and disappeared. I paid no attention, closing my eyes and breathing in the pleasant beach scents. A moment later, he returned and straddled my body.

"What are you doing?" I squirmed to get out from him, but he held me and leaned down to kiss me.

"I'm going to make love to my wife," he whispered and started to untie my bathing suit top.

"Tyler!" I cried and tried even harder to push myself away from him. "Not on the beach!"

"I could care less about where we are,” he whispered against my ear. “I've never been so happy in my life. You are the love of my life, I am so lucky to be your husband. There are guys who would kill to have you." He looked into my eyes and then said something that scared me. "If anything were to ever happen to me, I'd want you to move on and love, and be happy." His tone reminded me of that one I had heard on his wedding day. The desperation and fear behind his words scared me more than I wanted to admit.

He kissed my shoulder and successfully pulled my gold bikini off my tanned body and threw it down on to the sand. His mouth silenced my protests and questions as he pulled me up off the sand and carried me back to our cabana, only a few feet away from where we were. We made love for the first of three times that day, each somehow better than the other. By the end of the night, before it was even New Years day, Tyler and I fell asleep, tangled up in each other. But the following morning, before I was fully awake, we were at it again. And then once again when we were back home in our new apartment. I didn’t even get a chance to play wife because he wouldn’t let me leave the bedroom. I fell asleep soon after because I hadn’t slept on the flight, but I was rudely awake a few hours later when there was a loud banging at our front door. I rolled out of bed and put on my bathrobe to go answer it but Tyler was already there. Before he answered, he turned to me.


"Please go to the bedroom," he pleaded, fear in his eyes.

"What's going on?" I asked, taking a step towards him as my heart rate picked up.

Tears sprung to his eyes as the banging intensified and he yelled at me, "Just do it!"

"Tyler, what-!?"

"Valerie, please!" He screamed. He grabbed me in his arms and kissed me roughly. "I love you, baby. Don't ever forget that. Please just do this for me." He kissed me once more and pushed me towards the bedroom. He waited until I had shut the door before he answered. I sat myself down on the bed just as I heard the front door bang open against the wall and at least half a dozen yelling voices. I didn’t know whether to rush out or phone the police, but when more yells rang through the apartment, I backed in to the corner of the room and fished for my cell phone out of the bedside table. I had just finished dialing 911 when Tyler let out a painful scream in the next room. I dropped the phone and ran into the next room, my eyes immediately landing on my husband face down on the floor, blood spurting from his nose as someone’s foot was on his throat as he gasped for air.


"What are you doing?" I screamed at the large man who had his foot on Tylers throat. I ran towards my husband, my arms outstretched, but someone grabbed me from behind and picked me up. Tears stung my eyes as I cried and tried to get myself out of the strangers grip. His strong arms didn't budge from my waist and carried me into the bedroom, where he threw me on the bed.

"We are not here to hurt you. This has nothing to do with you," I heard someone say. I was lying face down on the bed and I couldn't bring myself to look at whoever was in the room with me. I had assumed he left when the door closed but as my sobs started to grow louder, I felt a hand on my back and the voice spoke again. "Valerie." Outside, Tyler screamed even louder, making me cry harder.

"Valerie," the voice said again. "You're never going to see him again. Don't come looking for him because you're never going to find him. He'll be dead within the hour."

I turned to scream at the intruder. He had no right in telling me anything. I was beyond livid, but when I turned around, the room was empty. I rushed into the living room, but the only trace of any of them was Tyler’s blood on the carpet. I screamed once more and rushed to find a phone and called the police, but it was too late. They were long gone, and when the police had arrived, I could barely talk. I sat frozen on the carpet beside the blood stains, even when the police were trying to take pictures of the scene. One of the officers finally had to pick me up and move me to the couch.

They went right to work in trying to figure out what had happened, but they told me repeatedly there was nothing to go on. Finally, a week later, as I returned to my house from Travis' after the first time we had slept together, I found three cop cars parked outside my building. I didn't have to ask to know what was happening, and I was proven right when made I made it to my floor and cops were already inside my apartment.

"What's going on in here?" I asked as my body began to tremble. There were cops going through the book shelves and drawers in my bedroom. An older cop sat me down on the couch and said what I had been fearing all week.

"Mrs. Smith, we believe your husband has been murdered. We found the clothes he was said to be wearing along a river bank just north of Indian Springs. We haven't found the body yet but we do believe he's somewhere along the river and we hope to recover his body sometime this week."

I doubled over and began sobbing. There had been no shortage of that during that week, but to finally hear that he was dead, I couldn't handle it.

"If he's dead," I choked out, "then what are you doing here?" I looked up in to the officer's eyes and I saw him looking back at me apologetically.

"We have evidence to suggest that he was murdered is because of you."
-----

Ryan's hands pulled gently at my hair after I finished telling him everything. He didn't say anything as his fingers then traced patterns along my face. I folded my arms around him and pulled myself onto his lap. I didn't need anything else in the world at that moment. It was as if at least part of the weight of the world had been lifted off of my shoulders. I could finally get over it. I was finally in a place where I was truly able to say that I was going to be okay, and I only had Ryan to thank.

"Do you mind if I ask you something?" Ryan asked softly, my face still inside his hands.

"Anything," I whispered and kissed him.

He smiled but it was a hesitant one. "What do you mean he was killed because of you?"

"I don't even know myself. He didn't say much after that. He said he couldn't tell me anything until they had more evidence, but they never found his body and I haven't heard from them in half a year."

He brushed my hair behind my ear. I could see there was something else he wanted to ask, and I urged him on.

"Would you ever get married again?"

I sat back, a bit shocked that he had asked something that I hadn't even asked myself. I hadn't gotten past the thought of me ever loving someone again yet alone remarrying.

"I've never thought about it," I replied honestly.

"Would it ever be a possibility?" His voice trembled.

"I don’t know," I whispered. "I can't see myself with anyone but you right now, but I was so young when I married him. I don't have any idea how I got myself so deep in to this. I'm only now beginning to realize that I was mistaken. I did truly love Tyler, but you," I said as my lips gently touched his, "you are the true love of my life. If I had met you years ago, our lives might both be very different."

There was a mixture of feelings behind his eyes before he swept his lips across mine and embraced me tightly.

"You've always been the love of my life, and I finally have you back" he whispered into my neck. I didn't have time to ask him what he meant because he was already undressing me while his lips begged for my own.

My shirt landed on the floor along with my pants. Ryan pulled back to admire my breasts, which I had come to find he loved the most. His fingers traced the lace along the top of the cup, where the fabric met my pale skin. I leaned my head back against the couch and closed my eyes. It seemed that every touch from Ryan was heightened when I couldn’t predict where his hands would be next. It was as if the thrill of not knowing where he was going to touch me next made it all the more exciting. My chest quickly began to heave after he had lowered his mouth and kissed my breasts.

"We’ve got to fix this problem" he said, biting the strap of my bra. He pulled me forward and reached around my back, unhooking my bra and sliding it down my slender arms. His gentle hands kneaded my pillowy breasts before his mouth found my nipple. My back arched and I moaned quietly, my fingers already tingling with pleasure.

"Mmph," I moaned louder when his trailing mouth reached the spot between my thighs, his fingers holding the lace aside. His expert tongue glided along my wet folds in a way only he knew how. I leaned my head back again and my eyes rolled open, landing on an upside down face.

"Well isn't that a pleasant scene," Ryan's roommate Alex said, standing in the doorway. I scrambled to sit up just as Ryan retrieved my shirt and placed it on my chest to cover me as he sat back looking disappointed.

"Please, don't stop for me," Alex grinned. "You've got quite a banging body and moans to match," he said, leaning down over my shoulder and tugging at the shirt. "I'd love to watch." Beside me, Ryan jumped to his feet.

"You may be one of my best friends but I am not above hurting you right now," he retorted.

"Chill Ty, I'm just observing. I'm not going to pull a Brendon and try to sleep with her. Maybe in my dreams tonight, though. Just dreaming of her thighs wrapped around-"

Ryan rushed over to Alex. "Don't make me do it," he warned.

"Learn to take a joke man." Alex patted his shoulder and headed down the hallway, adding, "Try and keep it down why don't you? I've got to be up early tomorrow." His bedroom door shut a moment later and Ryan turned to look at me.

"Sorry about that. I need a place of my own," he muttered before he broke out into a grin.

"Let's go back to my place," I suggested as I began dressing myself again. His hands on my face stopped me.

"That's only a temporary fix," he said quietly, looking into my eyes sincerely. "And while I like that the latter option gets me laid tonight, I want a permanent fix." He kissed me the way I loved the most; a sort of desperation behind his lips that made me feel like the center of the world, or his world at least. "I want you to move with me to L.A."

I choked on my surprise and froze. "You want me to move in to California?" My eyebrows furrowed and I stepped away from him, everything suddenly becoming too much for me.

I could see and hear the caution in him as he continued forward. "I grew up here in Vegas but it’s not my home anymore. I left when I was eighteen. I came back to Las Vegas only to take care of unfinished business, but now that I have everything I came for, I have to go back to L.A, but I'm not going to leave if you're not coming with me."

"Ryan." I shook my head. "I can’t do that."

He didn't look unfazed by that comment. He knew me well enough to know that I wouldn't say yes. At least not right away. But I could read in his eyes that he was hurt.

"Why not?"

"I may have lost more than half my life here, and I may have lost my first love here, but it’s still my home. I have friends here.”

"Wait!" he said loudly. “What do you mean you lost half of your life?”

“That’s not what’s important right now!” I retorted, even though it was another piece of my story that was extremely important and needed to be told. “I will not leave here. I have half a year of school left. And that's not all," I said over him. "My family, my-"

"The family you don't talk to?"

"How do you know that?"

"We've been seeing each other for how long and you've never once mentioned anything about your family!”

"The only reason I've stayed away from them for so long was because I couldn't talk to them. All they wanted to talk about was Tyler and I couldn't do it, it hurt too much. Even if I don’t talk to them, I can’t leave! This city, these people, it’s all I’ve ever known." I leaned down and picked up my clothes, beginning to dress myself.

“But what about me Valarie!? You just said yourself that I’m the love of your life! Don’t you want to be with me?” I had seen him angry before. I had seen him frustrated and most often happy, but I had never seen him look this way before. His cheeks were flushed and his voice was full of desperation. “I have to go back to L.A and I want you with me.”

“It’s only a few hours dr-“

“No!” He said, grabbing my shoulders. “I can’t leave you here. I’ve waited too long for you to just leave you.” He blinked away tears and held me close. “Please don’t do this to me.”

“Ryan! We have years to get there. We’ve been together for only a few months. It’s just too fast for me right now. Let’s just slow it down.

“Years?" He repeated, and the mood suddenly changed. "Do you see us being together years from now?"

"You're the love of my life, remember? I don't plan on leaving you any time soon. I want to be with you more than anything."

"Oh God," he breathed, pressing his forehead to mine. "I need you more than anything, Valerie. This is how it was always meant to be. You and me."

Our lips connected and it felt as if the world around me no longer existed. I dropped the shirt in my hand and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him towards his bedroom and on to the bed where I climbed on top of him.

"We can make this work," I said as I gently sucked at his neck. "We were made to work."