Epilogue
“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” ~ Haruki Murakami
Brian
Reina dances around our new apartment in the red sundress she bought last week. She’s singing at the top of her lungs something about ‘Never, ever getting back together’ and I grin as I watch her.
There’s so much beauty in her simple grace. Or rather ungracefulness. I wince as she trips over a box and run to catch her before she can fall. Or since I can’t really run, I should say walk quickly. I’ve learned to adjust my thinking like that.
I catch her in my arms just in time. “Gotcha, princess,” I say and hold her there, looking down at her flushed face.
She flutters her lashes. “My, my what would I do without a big, strapping man around to rescue me?”
“Why ma’am I’m just doing my duty as your local hero.” I chuckle and flash her a smile.
I lean into kiss those pouty lips of hers and she opens them on a sigh. We both sink into the kiss, letting it take over. Her arms come around my neck and she scrapes her nails through the hair at my nape. I revel in her touch and the feel of tongue twining with mine.
She pulls back. “What about your leg? Brian, I should get up. We can’t put pressure on it like this.” She pushes at me and stumbles to get up. I hold her tightly to me and her eyes widen.
“Nope, not this time, Reina. It’s been almost a year since the accident and I’m tired of you treating me like broken glass. Even when we make love, you treat me so gently.” I take her hand and kiss it. “I appreciate it, baby. But it’s time to just let go. I got this. I’m okay. I don’t know what part of you needs to hear this, but I’m going to be okay. You can’t hurt me.” It’s been a long, hard road physically and mentally, but I’ve come a long way. On both fronts. I’m still working with a counselor, but I feel better. I even wrote the captain’s daughters a letter to let them know about the conversation I had with him, and how much he loved his girls. Something about that letter helped heal my heart. I guess you could say letters have been very important during the turning points in my life.
Her eyes fill with tears. “I know, babe. I know that in here,” she points to her head and then her heart, “but in here, I’m scared shitless I’m going to do something wrong.” She sniffles. “I don’t want to break you.”
I throw back my head and laugh. “You aren’t going to break me, I promise. Now, get in that bedroom and strip. It’s time to christen our new place.”
Her eyes light up and my cock tightens to painfully hard status when she licks her lips and gives me a mock salute. “You got it, soldier.”
I slap her on the ass, and she adds an extra wiggle to her hips as she walks into our bedroom.
Our bedroom. I look around our small apartment. Our place.
There was a time when I thought we would never get here. All those months in the hospital, and then at my mom’s house. God, Reina would barely touch me back then. I had to practically throw her on the bed and tell her I was ready to at least give her pleasure. My girl has a heart of gold and she’s always been worried about what’s best for me.
But the claim to possess her the way she should be pounds within me. She is the object of every desire, and mine, and mine only. I want to show her in the most primal way. And then afterwards, I want to put the ring on her finger that’s burning a hole in my pocket. I take the small rectangular box out of my pants pocket and open it again. The ruby within shines up at me, and I grin. She’s going to love it.
“Brian, I’m getting impatient!” Reina yells from the bedroom and I chuckle. I gently shut the box and hide it in a kitchen drawer. I’ll go get it after I’ve unleashed the beast within me.
“I’m coming sweetheart, I’m coming,” I growl.
The first thing we set up when we arrived her was the king-sized bed in our bedroom, and boy am I glad we did. The sight of Reina spread out naked on our new white sheets is enough to give a grown man a heart attack.
I drop my pants and shuck my shirt so fast that she laughs. “You were takin’ a while, but now you seem rather eager,” she says. I watch, mesmerized as she uses one finger to make a journey to her nipple, then the light dip of her stomach, and finally the patch of hair right above her pussy.
I take my cock in head and stroke. “Reina, you better not touch what’s mine. That’s my pretty pussy to play with. It’s my time to make you come.”
She cocks one dark eyebrow. “What are you going to do if I do touch myself?” Her hand reaches further down to tease the skin right above her clit.
“I’m going to spank you and make sure you know who you belong to,” I growl.
She throws her head back and lets her fingers circle around her clit. Her voice is full of lust as she responds, “I don’t think that deters me, Brian. It just turns me on more.” She moans and circles her clit again, thrusting her hips up towards the ceiling.
I stroke my cock again, faster this time, feeling a drop of liquid coming from the tip. Fuck, I’m going to come so hard. But not until I’m inside my girl.
I climb onto the bed and lean down. I move her hand out of the way. “Mine,” I growl as I take in the sight of her pretty pink pussy glistening with her need for me.
I lick her with one long stroke from back to front, and her hips pivot off the bed.
Her head thrashes from side to side. “So good, so fuckin’ good, Bri.”
“I know, baby, and it’s only going get better.”
I proceed to eat her out like I’m starving for her, and in a way I am. Fuck gentle. Fuck trying to hold back. She’s mine and she needs to know it. I circle her clit with my tongue until she’s shaking beneath me. When I suck her small nub, she comes flying apart, liquid gushing from her and bathing my face. I can’t stop the sense of satisfaction that comes at knowing I just made my girl lose it.
I give her exactly one minute to shudder and revel in her release until I give another command. “Turn over, Reina. I’m about to give you that spanking we talked about and make sure you remember who you belong to.”
She turns over obediently and then looks over her shoulder at me. “I’ve always known who I belong to,” she says huskily.
My throat tightens at those words. Fuck, how did I get so lucky?
I slap one ass cheek and then the other. She moans long and hard when I caress the red marks I just made.
My cock is leaking now, ready to come inside of her. I line up behind her, and she tosses me one more look over her shoulder. I can see that she wants to ask if my leg is okay. Instead of getting angry at her need to ask, I slap her ass cheek again. “I’m fine, princess. You just focus on feeling my fat cock inside your tight pussy, okay?” She nods and I thrust inside of her. Her surprised gasp, and then low mewling when I pull back out and slam back into her again makes me feel like a king.
“Hold onto the headboard, Reina.”
She reaches out for the metal spindles on the headboard we picked out together. Her slender fingers wrap around the spindles, and she moans as I pull back and drive into her again. The sight of my cock pushing into her over and over again drives me wild and I keep pushing. I struggle to hold myself back from shooting off before she’s had a chance to come again. Her ass bouncing in front of me with red marks is enough to make me lose it. I fold my arm around her and stroke her clit, at first gently and then more urgently. “Come for me, Reina. Come.”
And she does, screaming my name so loudly that our new neighbors probably wonder if I’m killing her.
I drive into her one last time, and then allow myself to let go, feeling the release skitter up my spine and then shoot outwards, bathing her womb with my seed.
We decided last month to not use anything anymore. Maybe it’s not the smartest decision, but for us it’s right. Almost losing each other made us realize there’s so much we want in life, and there really isn’t any reason to wait. She’s decided to take a job teaching art at the local middle school while she gets her portfolio ready to shop around. I’m working on my degree in computer sciences. I now spend my days doing IT work for the base here. I love it and we’ll be fine financially no matter what happens. We’ve talked about marriage…a lot. I’m sure Reina expects a proposal soon, but probably not this soon. But my impatience has gotten the best of me. I want to see my ring on her finger now.
We both collapse onto the bed, sweaty and out of breath.
“Shit, Bri, you must have been storing that up. I can’t feel my legs.”
I pull her into my chest and place a soft kiss on her forehead. “Yep, well I couldn’t hold back any longer. I love making sweet, gentle love to you, babe, but I’ve missed taking you and showing you that you’re mine.”
She pushes off me and gives me a quick kiss on the lips. A small smile spreads across her face. “I know what you mean. I’ve missed this.” She leans down to kiss me again. “I love you, soldier boy.”
I run my hand along her naked back. “I love you too, princess. So damn much.”
She rises slowly from the bed, and I watch her naked form in admiration. “I’m going to get a bottle of water. You want one?” she asks.
“Yes, please,” I reply and cross my arms behind my head. I enjoy watching the sway of her naked ass as she walks towards the kitchen.
I hear her tinkering around in the kitchen. “I think I want some sliced up apple too. Do you know where the knives are? We really need to establish a place for everything.”
I grin. My girl, trying to be organized. I try not to laugh at the thought.
When she gasps, I sit straight up. The memory of what I hid in the drawer earlier hits me from out of nowhere. Shit, oh shit.
I do my walk/run into the kitchen to find Reina staring at the open ring box in her hand. Her mouth is wide open, and her eyes have a glazed look in them.
I take her hands in mine. “Reina, baby, um, this isn’t exactly how this was supposed to happen.”
She looks up at me. “No kiddin’,” she says in a bewildered voice.
I grin at the look of shock on her face. My heart thunders in my chest. I’m suddenly well aware that I’m about to propose to the love of my life without a stitch of clothing on in our kitchen after we just had amazing sex. I shrug. We’ll tell the kids something different one day.
I kneel on the hardwood floor. My knee hurts like a son of a bitch from bending it now and on the bed earlier, but I ignore it.
“Can you give me that box, princess?” I ask gently.
She hands it over as if in a trance. “Brian…” I see tears gathering in her eyes and I gulp. I hope like hell those are happy tears.
I turn the open box around to face her. “Reina Anderson, you are the love of my life. You have stuck by me through hell and back, and never wavered. You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. From the moment we met,” I grin thinking of that fateful moment in her dorm room, “I’ve been obsessed with you. I knew you were meant to be mine. And I was definitely meant to be yours. Stay by my side for the rest of our lives. Raise babies with me. Babies with your dark hair and eyes and that take my breath away like yours do. Please, Reina, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” I let out a shaky breath. Okay, that came out well for no practice.
She holds a hand up to her mouth. “You know we’re naked?” she asks in a tremulous voice.
I shrug. “I know. I was planning on asking tonight. You just sped the idea up a little bit.” I send her a hopeful smile. “Do you have an answer though?”
Her lips curl up into a smirk. “What if I say I’ll think about it? Do I get another spanking? Cause that was hot…like really hot.”
I chuckle. “I’ll give you another spanking, regardless, princess. Just put me out of my misery here.”
Her hands fall to my shoulders. “Get up, my love. Stand on your feet while I say this.”
I can see she wants to say something when I groan aloud, getting to my feet. But she doesn’t. She reaches for my hands.
“Brian Richards, it would be my honor to become your wife. I will stand by your side through anything and everything. I will be here to hold your hand through every hard thing that we face together.” Her fingers lightly caress my jaw and I turn to kiss them. “I am yours, and you are mine. And that’s just the way it is.”
And that’s just the way it is. What started out as a crush, then letters filled with love and laughter. Then days filled with despair and tears, has become this. Us standing in our kitchen, naked, pledging our love to each other. Because this is what was always meant to be. She is, and always will be, my obsession.