It's Better with Love

Sophie held onto her older brother Matthew as she cried. She was watching her mother's coffin be lowered into the ground; with it she felt her security be lowered as well. Matt was really her step-brother, and though she loved him dearly; at twenty, he was off to college most of the time. She would be stuck at her step-father's house. He hated her and the nicest thing he had done for her since marrying her mother four years ago was ignore her.

Rarely was she lucky enough to be ignored. Normally, he was yelling at her and picking on her. She could do nothing right. He put her down because of her looks, her grades, her habits and anything else he could think of. Her mother had always stuck up for her to him, but now she was gone and there would be no one left.

Anyone would think that today was the saddest day of her life, but in reality, the saddest day of her life had been a month ago, when her mother realized that she would in fact die from the cancer ravaging her body. She had begged her husband to keep Sophie and take care of her. Sophie had listened to her mother and begged silently that her step-father would deny her mother's dying request. She prayed to God that he would turn her out into the streets, pawn her off on foster parents; anything but agree to keep her. He had of course agreed to keep her and Sophie had sat huddled outside her mother's room crying.

Sophie had never understood what had brought her mother and step-father together. They had married four years ago when Sophie was just eight. Her mother had been a single mother working as a waitress in a dive in the middle of Houston, Texas. She had worked long hours; picking up all the overtime the owners would give her. She had never told Sophie who her father was, and whenever Sophie had asked she had merely said that he was a kind and beautiful man who had died before she was born.

One day her mother had come home and announced she was getting married. She first laid eyes on her step-father the day of the wedding. It took place at the county courthouse. There was no long, white dress, no bouquet or friends, just Sophie, her mom, step-father, step-brother and two men in suits. The entire ordeal was over in fifteen minutes and proved to Sophie that the movies were wrong.

Sophie felt her step-brother pulling her away and realized that she had not been paying attention to the service. She looked up at him and cradled her head against his chest. She hugged him around his stomach and buried her face against his breastbone. She listened to the echoes through his chest as he murmured to her that everything would be ok and that he would take care of her.

She just kept her head buried and tried to stop the tears from flowing. She knew he meant well, but he was lying just as everyone else did. He was away at college half way across the country and would be for several more years while he earned his medical degree. She would be alone until she was old enough to leave her step-father's house.

As they arrived back at her step-father's house she left everyone and made her way up the stairs to her room at the end of the hall. She sat down in the chair by the window and just looked blindly into the backyard. She heard knocks on her door, but she ignored them until they went away. She didn't want to see anyone. She no longer had the only person in the entire world that she was related to by blood.

As she sat there she heard her door open. She kept her eyes focused on the window outside; hoping whoever it was would leave. Suddenly she felt arms under knees and behind her back. Before she knew it, she was being swung up out of the chair. She squeaked and looked up to see who had picked her up. It was Andy, her brother's best friend. He sat down and rested her across his knees as he pressed her head to his shoulder.

"Shhh, Smallfry, it's ok."

"No, it's not ok at all. It will never be ok. Matt says he'll still be here for me, but he won't. He's going to college and I'll never see him. I wish I'd been sent away." She ducked her head pulled her legs up to cuddle more closely in his lap.

"I know Matt is at college, and he's busy, but I'm not going away, I'm going to college right here and I'll be around all the time."

"No you won't. You're old; you won't come here to see me. Once Matt leaves again you'll be busy with your own friends."

Andy chuckled as he kissed the top of her head. "First of all, I'm twenty, I'm not OLD, and second of all, you are my friend, who do I play chess with? Who did I ask to help me fix my car last month? I bet you get tired of me hanging around here a lot more quickly than I get tired of being here."

Sophie leaned back and looked up into his face to see if he was telling the truth. "You promise?"

Andy nodded solemnly. "How about this, I'll come over Sunday night and you and I will go out to dinner, just to the two of us."

"Can we go to Carmen's?"

"We can go anywhere you like."

Sophie laid her head back down on Andy's shoulder. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as she thought. Andy wasn't Matt, but she had known them the same amount of time. He'd always been kind to her, never got impatient or said she couldn't join in whatever they were doing. He was right, it would be ok.

Six years later

Sophie stumbled up the stairs. She was happier tonight than she had been in more years than she could count. Today was her eighteenth birthday and Matt had arranged for her step-father to be out of the house so she could have a party. He had also bought some beer and arranged for everyone to be driven home. She was so glad that he had finally moved closer to home to finish his residency. She had missed him so much that she had often cried herself to sleep wishing he was there to protect her from her step-father. But, he was home now and had given her the best party of her life.

She missed the last step and almost fell but was kept from the floor by Matt's best friend. He had also been there to chaperone and was, apparently coming back downstairs to see that everyone had either found a ride home or a place to crash in the house. Sophie stared up him, admiring the way his mouth moved. She knew he was speaking to her, but the words didn't make any sense. She just loved to watch his face as he talked. He was so animated, the way his eyes danced when he was excited and his eyebrows pulled together when he was trying to make a point. As far as Sophie was concerned Andrew Hopkins was the most handsomest man in the entire world.

Sophie grabbed him around his waist and leaned further into him. "You haven't danced with me once all night!" she pouted up at him.

Andy hung onto the banister as he felt her lean backward, making his already unsteady feet begin slip. He was supposed to have abstained from the liquor flowing freely tonight, however watching her flirt with every boy at the party had broken through his control and he had finally given in and tried to dull some of his feelings with the liquor that had been floating around.

Sophie's heel slipped off the edge of the stair and he felt her pitch backward. Andy quickly wrapped his arms around her and pulled to keep her from falling, but he lost his own balance and ended up flat on his back with Sophie sprawled across his chest.

Sophie felt her heart fall down into her stomach and burst back up into her throat before she realized that she actually safe and hadn't just tumbled down the stairs. That was scary. Maybe she shouldn't have had so much to drink after all. As she took stock of the fact that she was in one piece and hadn't broken anything she felt Andy hard beneath her stomach.

She couldn't believe it. This was the greatest dream of her life. To be lying across Andrew Hopkins and to feel him hard beneath her was more than she could have wished for. She rested her forehead against his sternum and smiled to herself. Unlike the rest of her girlfriends, she hadn't spent time looking at pictures of naked men. She hadn't 'accidentally' walked in on her brother or father while they were going to the bathroom or showering. There was only one man in the entire world that she wanted to see naked and she was now laying on top of him.

She had wanted him since she was obscenely young. She had known she was too young, yet she could not get him out of her mind. She had dreamed of him sleeping down the hall, next to her brother's room while visiting for the summer or staying over for the weekend. However, her need for him had been almost painful; she couldn't have imagined what it would have been like to actually have seen him and still not been able to do anything about it. So she had always refrained. She had always just kept her imaginings within her own head and bided her time.

Now, though, she was an Adult. With a capital A, Adult. She was eighteen now and eight years didn't seem that big of an age difference anymore. She had gotten jewelry, money, movies, cd's and books for her birthday, but she would give them all back if she could just have him.

Andy's arms were still linked behind her as she squirmed her stomach over his erection wishing she could see him for the first time ever. He grabbed her shoulders and pushed, trying to dislodge her, but she just pressed her stomach and groin down tighter against him, arching her back and letting him get a good view down the neck of her dress.

"Sophie, what are you doing?" Andy knew that if she didn't get off of him soon, there was no way he was letting her go. She had worn a floor length dress that flared at her waist. She was no stick-thin model. She had a real body. She had hips that were made for grabbing during sex; he felt jeans were designed to her ass alone. The way they hugged her curves made him hard just seeing her in them. Sometimes he wished she was older than him, so he could find a reason to rest his head on her chest. Watching her walk around on a Saturday morning in a large shirt with no bra had made him run for the bathroom more than once.

What tore at Andy the most was that he knew she was in no way trying to be enticing. She just simply was. She never wore low-cut shirts or anything that was too tight. Before low-slung jeans were in style he could see that she had to buy jeans that fit in the hips but that gapped at the waist. Even on Saturday mornings when she went without a bra she still wore long shirts and pajama pants instead of shorts or tank tops. She just exuded her own kind of sexuality in a way that irrepressible.

Andy felt Sophie twist herself around until she was straddling the tops of his legs. She lifted herself out of his arms and ran her fingertips down his stomach. He tried to reach for them, but she pulled them back too quickly. She reached down and pulled the front of her dress out from under her until is was no longer pulled tight across her front; then his eyes grew wider as he watched her start from the bottom and start unbuttoning it.

"No! Sophie, what are you doing?" Andy started trying to sit up, but she scooted herself up until she was sitting directly over his erection and pushed hard on his chest.

"I'm getting what I've always wanted." Sophie was proud that her voice was only a little breathless and not at all too high. Nothing would break the mood faster than if she sounded like a kid. She wasn't, and she didn't want anything to happen that might make him see her as a child. "I can feel that you want me too, Andy. It's my birthday and this is the only wish I made."

He tried to control his breathing as she slid herself over him. He could feel where her panties were pushed tight inside her labia and she shuddered over him at the sensations she was causing herself. If she didn't stop soon, she wouldn't be the only one going too far out here in public; he knew that he wouldn't be able to control himself much longer.

"We can't do this here, what if someone walks by?" He was panting as he spoke, resisting the urge to lift his hips to her.

"I'm afraid to move, what if you change your mind once I'm not sitting on you? What if you are just saying that in order to get me to move?" Sophie's voice was reaching a fevered pitch and he could hear the panic she was beginning to feel.

Reaching up to pull her down to his chest he half laughed-half groaned at her worry. "Two minutes ago, that would have been a great plan if I had thought of it. As it is, I can promise you that I have no intention of changing my mind."

He rolled over until she was lying under him, then taking her hand he got them both to their feet and led her to her own bedroom. Once inside, he backed her against the door. He took her face in his hands and looked at her in the light from the window. Her eyes were huge and he could feel her chest heaving as she gulped huge breaths of air.

Sophie was uncomfortable having him just stare at her. She tried to lean forward within his grasp, eager for her first kiss with him, but was restrained by his elbows on her shoulders. "We aren't in any hurry. Just let me look at you. You are so beautiful, did you know that?"

He watched her pupils dilate, blocking out the gold glowing in the shadows. She shook her head slowly as she raised her hand and ran her fingertips down the side of his face. She seemed enamored of the stubble, proving that he needed to shave. She moved her hand back and forth across it, moving across his mouth and down his chin.

He felt her lean forward again and this time didn't try to hold her back. He felt her lips on his chin. Not really a kiss, just a brushing, as if testing the texture against the sensitivity of them. When he felt her tongue flick out to taste the indentation on his chin his hands fisted against her shoulders and he shoved her back again the door, hard.

Sophie gasped, thinking that she had done something wrong, but before she was able to ask him what it was his mouth crushed over hers. She jerked when she felt her lower lip hit her own tooth. For just a second, she felt like resisting. This was nothing like what she thought it would be. He had hurt her and his lips were still bruising against her. Just as suddenly as his mouth had consumed hers, it disappeared again. She opened her eyes and tried once again to ask what was wrong, but got no farther than, "Wha"?

Andy's arms came around her and lifted her off her feet as he bent his head to kiss her neck. Gone was the bruising and fisting. Instead his hands were spread wide caressing her back from hips to shoulder blades. She twisted her own arms around his neck afraid that she would fall. There were too many sensations. Her lips were still tingling and she could taste blood from where her lip had split. Everywhere his hands passed she felt goose bumps rise.

Impatient to get to touch him the way he was touching her, Sophie ran her fingernails through his hair and tilted his head to the side. She kissed the side of his face down his temple to under his jaw, loving the different textures and scents of him. She found his ear and first flicked it with her tongue, then gently grasped it between her teeth.

It was too much for Andy, he had already been walking a tightrope of control and knew he had hurt her with his first kiss, but she was spinning him even farther out of control. He bent down hugged the top of her thighs under her wonderful ass, then lifted her up to press her against his own pulsing erection.

Listening to Sophie's whimpers as he ground himself against her, he stumbled backwards until he felt the bed behind his knees. He didn't want to let her go even long enough to get them both out of their clothes, but he was desperate to be rid of the layers between them. Finally he lowered her, bending over because she still hadn't released her arms from around his neck.

He turned his head and kissed the inside of her elbow; hearing her suck in air, he continued up her arm until it met her body, then retraced his path back down, licking, kissing and biting her as he went. He felt Sophie sway and looked up to see her with her eyes half closed, her lips slightly parted as she drew in breaths.

Reaching down, he slid her dress up her hips and over her head. Sophie offered no resistance and no help, just standing there as if in a fog. Andy pulled her to himself again and felt her breasts, encased in lacy, demi-cup bra that left the upper swells free.

Watching the look on his face, Sophie was startled out of her revelry and started to cover her chest with her arms. Before she could, though, he was already turning her until her back was to the bed and laying her down, her legs hanging to the floor.

"You are beautiful; I don't know how you can't see that for yourself." Andy was in awe. He had been with countless girls, big girls, thin girls, girls that were shorter than him, more experienced than him, even a few women several years older than himself, but he had never seen anyone to rival Sophie.

He'd watched her grow from this gawky, pudgy girl with glasses and braces, and lank brown hair into the beautiful woman she was before him now. He could remember when she'd burst into Matt's room crying and refusing to talk because she was too embarrassed to ask him to take her to get a bra. He had spent almost an hour calming her down before she finally admitted that a girl at school had made fun of her because her boobs jiggled when she walked.

Matt and Andy had both gone with her to the department store, and with their matter of fact attitude and wonderful praise, she had picked several bras that made her feel mature and pretty. He remembered her walking around for the next month with her shoulders back and her head high because she was proud of how she looked and Matthew and Andrew had told her she was the prettiest girl in the world.

However, now he had none of those thoughts. Now all he could see was a woman with wavy brown hair spread out from her head, white skin that seemed to glow in the moonlight through the window and slumberous golden eyes that glowed.

"Do you wear colored contacts?" She frowned at him, but didn't answer. "It's just that your eyes are so bright and golden. I've never seen eyes that color." As he spoke he sat beside her on the bed and lightly ran his fingers over her stomach.

"No, that's my real eye color, sometimes they are green or dark brown. I don't know what makes them change color." Sophie was having trouble focusing on the conversation as his fingers tickled along her skin.

"Matt, there is something I have to tell you." Sophie was afraid to tell him because she didn't want him to change his mind and leave, on the other hand, she did know how sex was done, and she knew that he had a right to know before they went any farther.

Trying to distract himself and gain a little bit of control before continuing, Matt picked up her hand and started tracing patterns on her palm. "Huh?"

"Well, you see, I've never done this."

He looked up startled and saw a blush rise along her cheeks and watched as her eyes darkened just slightly. "What do you mean?"

"I'm a virgin," Sophie practically huffed, annoyed that she had had to say it so plainly.

"Oh. Well, I guess I probably knew that, if I had thought about it. Are you scared, do you want to stop?"

"No! No, I swear, I don't want to stop. I just thought you should know. What do you mean you probably knew it?"

"Well, something as big as losing your virginity, you would have told Matt, and he would have told me, so I guess since he never told me you had, then I knew you hadn't ever had sex." Matt felt a little smile as he watched her blow out a huge sigh and roll her eyes.

"Does he tell you everything about me? Geez, isn't anything private?" Sophie started to roll over and away from Matt, but his hand on her hip stopped her.

"What do you mean? Private from me? I didn't know you didn't want him to tell me stuff. I'm sure he didn't either. If he had known he wouldn't have told me anything. Are you really angry?"