Undone (3 page)

Andrew attempted conversation with her
mom and gave up soon after when all he received were monotonous replies and cool glances from her reserved hazel eyes. This, Sophie would've expected from Nicholas and maybe even from Gabe, but never from her mother. The understanding, tolerant woman, who was Sophie’s rock, seemed to have vanished. In her stead was a cool, aloof woman who Sophie barely recognized.

"Mom, did I tell you Andrew’s studying to be a
doctor?" she began, hoping to draw her out, "a pediatrician, actually, he adores children."

Her mother’s head snapped up and she chillingly regarded the man seated next to her daughter. "Well that's quite obvious isn't it? Tell me, Andrew, do you date all your students, or was there something particularly appealing about my daughter that just
drew
you to her?" she tersely queried, her face pinched, her hazel eyes ablaze.

Sophie had never seen her
mom so angry—irritated, yes, annoyed, most definitely, but never this malicious anger that seemed aimed at herself and her boyfriend. It pained her far more than she dared imagine.

"No, Ms. Holbrook
, I can't say that I make it a habit of dating my students. What I can say, however, is that your daughter did indeed have something that drew me to her…"

"What was it? Her naivety? You're what? Twenty-seven? Twenty-eight years old?"

"Thirty, actually,” Andrew responded calmly, refusing to rise to Ellie’s bait.

"And Sophie is only twenty, still a child to some…"

"But legally an adult."

Ellie glowered
. "A child to me. She's barely old enough to drink and yet you…"

Sophie stood, the sound of her chair scraping on the floor gaining her mother’s attention. "We'll leave."

"Like hell you will, sit down."

"I'm not
a child!" Sophie countered holding her mother’s furious gaze. “Mom, please…,” she began, but trailed off when Ellie simply shook her head and left the table.

The silence of before fell on them again but this time the tension in the air made it difficult to
breathe. Sophie limply sat down, completely horrified at what had just transpired. This wasn’t at all what she’d wanted. She had never imagined it would be this bad, at least not where her mother was concerned. Sophie refused to meet anyone’s gaze at the table and when the tears began to sting she followed in her mother’s suit and left.

There had never been a problem they couldn’t see through and with her conscience refusing to let her be until she made this right, Sophie went to her parents’ room. It would’ve been prudent to allow her mother some time to cool off but Sophie needed to talk to her, needed her to understand.

She found her seated on the divan in the sitting area of their bedroom, the TV was on but there was no sound. When Sophie entered her mother looked up and noisily sighed. Ellie raked a hand through her hair before patting the empty place next to her, indicating that Sophie should come and sit with her.

When Sophie complied, Ellie playfully leaned against her. "So," Ellie began, putting an end to the awkward silence.

"Mom, I'm so sorry…," Sophie whispered, tears in her solemn obsidian eyes.

"I wished you'd told me." Ellie wrapped an arm around her daughter’s slender shoulders, drawing her closer. "But I'm the one who should be sorry. I completely overreacted to the situation and embarrassed not only you, but myself as well.”

Sophie sniffed. “Mom…”

“Thirty years old, Sophie. You have to admit that's a pretty huge gap, he's practically my age!"

"It wasn't the age that attracted me to him. He's so sincere and caring, Mom, you should see how he treats me, even when I'm so mean to him. And I care about him a lot.”

"And not once, during the eleven months you've been seeing him, did you bother to pick up the phone and tell me about him."
She sounded hurt and Sophie felt horrible.

"I was afraid of how you'd react."

Ellie found the humor in that. “Yeah, well, I guess I didn’t react too well.” She was getting way too old for this. “I’m not happy about this, but for the sake of peace, I guess I can get to know him.

Sophie pulled away to look at her mother, her eyes glimmered with hope
. "Really?"

"I don't think I have a choice, it's either that or risk not seeing you again. Besides, as he so kindly pointed out, you
are
an adult and that means you're able to make your own decisions and as your mother, I can only pray you make the right ones."

"I've never done anything to disappoint you, I'm not about to start now. I'm not trying to rebel or hurt you, Mom. I'm just trying to find what you and Dad have. Andrew is good for me,
and despite the age gap, we understand each other."

"I don't how I'm going to convince your father of going along with all this. My reaction was a cakewalk compared to what he'll say or do."

"Do you think he'll be very angry?"

Ellie snorted, that was an utter understatement of what Nicholas would be when he found out about this. “Yes,” Ellie admitted, but patted Sophie’s hand soothingly. “But it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

"Thanks, Mom.” She leaned over and dropped a kiss on her cheek. "I’m going to head back down and try to salvage the rest of dinner. You coming?”

“You go; I’ll be down soon enough.”

"Oh God,” Ellie said with a sigh when her daughter finally took her leave.

God had one hell of a sense of humor, she thought morosely. Thinking of how her life had gone from sweet and mundane to sour and hectic in less than a few hours. A wry smile tugged at Ellie’s lips. This was probably some huge cosmic retribution for all the crap she and Nicholas had put their parents through. They were going to get it back in spades it seemed. Ellie had been silently praying that her children would make it out of their teenage years without giving them a heart attack but now it seemed that it was inevitable. But she’d never expected
it from Sophie who had always been such a good girl. The only time they’d truly worried had been a few years after the kidnapping when reoccurring nightmares had made it difficult for her to get through her days. But Ellie and Nicholas had pooled their resources together and gotten her the best psychologist there was. She’d only stopped seeing him last year when she told them she could function without the sessions.

Everything had been great since then, until now. Ellie sighed again, needing Nicholas more than ever; with him things didn’t seem so difficult. He was the strength that Ellie sometimes lacked, the pillar she leaned on when life began to test them. This latest trip overseas had been unavoidable but he’d promised to return before Christmas day and Ellie was holding him to it. She missed him when
he was away, not only when it came to dealing with their children, but his presence was sorely missed in the expansive bed they’d shared for so long now.

***

He came to her in the middle of the night when the entire house was fast asleep. Stuck between a land of slumber and wakefulness, everything took on a dreamlike quality. Ellie writhed and moaned, running her hands through silken hair, arching her back for more of what he would offer. Her lover, a sun bronzed man with dark hair and piercing silver eyes mastered her with all the expertise of a fiendish god. He was a glutton for her and worked in sating his appetite between her trembling legs. When she could take no more he finally allowed her to reach her orgasm and it rippled deliciously through her. He was there to catch her breath and kissed her with a passion that scorched them both.

"Merry Christmas Eve, my love
,” Nicholas whispered tenderly against the shell of Ellie’s ear, his naked body draped over hers.

"Nicky…
," Ellie croaked, opening her eyes to stare into the grey eyes of the only man she'd ever truly loved.

"Hmm, I’ve missed these lips." Although he nibbled on her lips, tracing the tender folds with his tongue, Ellie knew that those were not the set of lips he was referring to. She felt him, hot and rock hard at her slick entrance and as she widened her legs just a bit further to accommodate him, she raised her hips slightly so that their flesh met in a kiss.

“Tease,” he groaned, then swiftly reversed their positions, with Ellie now straddling him and Nicholas beneath her. He reached up to fondle her breasts, pinching her sensitive nipples and he grinned when she hissed. “Welcome me home, Elle,” he ordered, unable to withstand a second longer of being apart from her. 

She welcomed him completely with a fiery possession that lay claim
to them both and took them to a space only known to lovers. Later, their wicked exploits took them to the bathroom, more specifically into the large round porcelain tub filled with hot water and foaming bubbles.

"Having you back almost makes up for you leaving for so long
,” Ellie said, toying mindlessly with the bubbles. With her back against his chest, she tilted her head and allowed him to glide the sponge down her neck.

"I
tried to get back as fast as I can.”

Ellie smiled. “I know,” she took his large hand and kissed his knuckles
, “I just missed you so much. The children missed you.”

“Anything exciting
happen while I was gone?”

Ellie’s heart jumped a bit as she quickly remembered the situation with Sophie. She turned in her husband’s arms and very slowly descended on his cock, causing Nicholas to lean his head back and groan as he fought to keep his hips from bucking upwards. “I think those matters can wait a few more hours, right my love?”

"Fuck yeah."

Ellie’s laughter was cut short by Nicholas’s upward thrust and
, too soon, the sounds of their love echoed against the walls of the bathroom.

~*~*~*~

Late the following morning, Nicholas and Ellie emerged from their bedroom, clean and satisfied from their morning activities. Before they made their way downstairs to greet their family, Ellie grabbed Nicholas’s arm, halting his progress.

"I need to tell you something, but before I do, I need you to promise me that you won't get mad."

Nicholas turned and gave his wife his undivided attention. "It's a little hard to make that promise without having full knowledge of the facts, Ellie,” he reasoned, but conceded when he saw that she would not tell him unless he made the promise. "But I do promise to keep an open mind. This wouldn't happen to be about Dylan's request to get a car, would it?" Since he'd turned sixteen, Dylan had continuously accosted Nicholas for his very own car and though he’d made a few good points as to why he needed it, Nicholas had countered each one with decisive points of his own; the main one being that they had the town cars at their complete disposal. Under no certain terms would he be foolish enough to purchase a teenage boy, who'd only received his permit a few months ago mind you, a brand new car he would wreck in no time at all.

Thinking on it, Nicholas figured his son had probably tired of hearing
‘no’ from him and so had finally gone to his mother. He wouldn't have any luck there, Nicholas wryly thought, Ellie was the stricter parent, as far as he was concerned. If Dylan couldn't wheedle anything from his father, then he sure as hell wasn't going to convince his mother of anything.

"No
.” Ellie shook her head and bit the inside of her cheek. She'd promised Sophie she’d handle Nicholas, but handling him wasn't as easy as she thought. "It's not about Dylan."

"Bella, then?"

"Sophie, actually.” Deciding that she'd procrastinated enough, Ellie sighed. “She brought someone home…her boyfriend.”

There wasn't anything peculiar about that, Nicholas silently thought. Sophie’s first date notwithstanding, Nicholas had slackened his hold considerably when it came to his daughters having boyfriends. He’d initially been completely against it, doing whatever he could to deter not only them, but
also the boys who’d shown up at their home. But he’d gotten better over time, Ellie’s dose of punishment forcing Nicholas to hide the weapons and call off his guard dogs to keep peace in their marriage. 

"Ellie, what's the big deal?"

"Well...he’s  a little older."

At that
, Nicholas’s brows furrowed and he slipped his hands into the pockets of his smoky grey trousers, waiting for Ellie to elaborate. When she didn't Nicholas posed his question, "Exactly how old?"

"It's not that big of an age gap when you really think about it and he's very kind, he seems to adore Sophie. He’s studying to be a doctor, Nicky, a pediatrician. He's a tall guy, very handsome…"

"You're babbling,” Nicholas said quietly, advancing on his diminutive wife, "you babble when you're lying." He watched as Ellie fell back onto the crimson suede couch, her hazel eyes downcast. Nicholas loomed over her and slipped his finger beneath her chin to raise her head.

"I'm not lying." She feigned indignation, attempting to turn her head away, but Nicholas’s hold remained firm, cupping her chin now.

"How old is he Ellie?"

"Sophie really likes him, Nicky. We have to keep that in mind…"

"
How
...
old
...?" Nicholas asked with thunderous expression.

Ellie hated being on the receiving end of that unsettling gaze. Nicholas looked particularly fierce, far too predatory for Ellie’s taste. Searching that face, Ellie saw
no sign of the man who'd evoke pleasurable cries from her lips and seared her with heated stares only hours ago. Murmuring some incoherent answer, Ellie attempted to flee from that blistering gaze, but only managed to anger Nicholas further.

"Come again, Ellie?"

"He's thirty,” she said at last. Pushing Nicholas away, she came to her feet. If they were to have a tête-à-tête about this then Ellie wanted to at least look Nicholas in the eye.

"Thirty…you're joking...?"

"I wish I was."

"And you let him
…you let him in the house? he asked incredulously, as though it was possibly the dumbest thing she had ever done.

"I didn't have any say in the matter, Nicky."

"No, say? You're her mother, Ellie! How could you let him in the fucking house! Are they sleeping in the same room?"

"He's not a criminal! Stop acting as if he's an escaped convict I let loose in the house to terrorize our children!"

"You might as well have! He's sleeping with a child! Our child! There's no way in hell I'm going to allow this!" He yanked the door open with enough force to have them banging against the wall, no doubt leaving dents. He stormed out, his long strides carrying him to Sophie’s bedroom.

"Nicky!" Ellie chased after him, hoping that everyone was downstairs, occupied with breakfast. "Nicholas, for
God sakes stop!" Her shouts fell on deaf ears, as Nicholas trudged on. Rounding the corner, he entered the east wing and came to an abrupt halt at Sophie’s door, the first in the long hall of rooms.

Without pause
, Nicholas hammered on the door not stopping until Sophie finally answered. Standing at the threshold with nothing on but a pair flannel pajama bottoms and a tank top, she blearily stared at him. Seeing the fury painted on her father's face, Sophie gulped and prayed to be anywhere else but here right now.

"Your
mom tells me you've brought company home?"

"Uh…yeah, his name's Andrew. He…he was my T.A." At that, Nicholas turned to look at Ellie, his expression thunderous. She’d finally caught up with him and
while she attempted to catch her breath, he fixed that murderous gaze on her. Sophie didn’t miss the wince that flitted across her mother’s face.