Heartbreak in Paradise

Aaron heard the pain dripping from Andy's soul. "Well, I believe you. I believe Devin sabotaged you, because I know what a douchebag he is. Andy, come home and take her back. Once she sees you, it will be game over."

"She hates me, Aaron. What we had is long gone, and her brother is the reason. What a fucked up life I live. Aaron, thanks for the vote of confidence. Remember that at my funeral. Engrave it on my headstone. 'Aaron believed him'. Look, I need to go. Thank you for your friendship. If you want to marry her, you have my blessing. She deserves to be happy."

"Andy, you're scaring me. You sound like you're saying goodbye."

"You catch on quick. Tell her I loved her, and I'll watch over her. But buddy, I'm done."

"Andy wait..." Aaron said to a dead phone line. The call was already ended.

Aaron didn't know what to do next. It wasn't as though he could drive to Andy's house and stop him from doing something stupid. He looked up the phone number for the police in Barnacle Bay and called for an endangered person check. Next, he called Danae, and he was pissed.

"Aaron? What did he say?"

"He told me goodbye, Danae! He told me to tell you he loved you, and that he will watch over you. Are you happy now?! You can't play with his emotions like this! If he kills himself tonight, his blood is on your hands!"

"Oh no," she cried. "No! Aaron, I have to call him." She hung up the phone and dialed his number with shaking hands. "Please Andy, pick up the phone."

*****

He sat on his bed, his face in his hands, sobbing, when his phone rang. Danae. He almost didn't answer it.

"Hello?"

"Oh thank goodness," she cried, hysterical. "Andy please don't do anything until I get there. Promise me."

He laughed at her. "It isn't like I live down the street, Danae. I'll be dead by the time you get here. I can't take this excruciating mental anguish anymore."

"But Andy, I have something to tell you," she begged him. "Please."

"Make it quick, Danae. A single bullet in the chamber of my gun has my name on it."

"Andy, I love you."

He laughed again. "No, you don't. You told me months ago you hated me with the fury of a billion suns. And if love means lying to me, making me feel rotten, and hurting me deeply, then you can keep whatever it is you call love." He spun the cylinder on his revolver so she could hear it. "I'm done, Danae. I'm sorry to leave you with three kids, but my life insurance policy will cover you. It's not as good as what Kirby gave me, but it's still enough to get them through college. By that time, you'll find someone else to love. But I'm done." He spun the cylinder again and set the bullet in the correct position. "For what it's worth, I was telling the truth about Devin. He told me he set me up. It was revenge for firing him. He made it his life's mission to ruin my life. He succeeded, baby."

"Please don't, Andy. I swear I love you. On the grave of my father, I swear." She heard a knock on the door of his house. "Answer it!" she begged him.

"Nah." He cocked the hammer on the gun so that she could hear it. She screamed on the other end of the phone, terrified she would hear him kill himself.

The police knocked again and heard Danae's hysterical screaming on the other end of the phone. "Mr. Murphy, are you okay in there?"

"Yes, go away," he said nonchalantly.

He heard the police outside his door, and the next thing he knew, they were in, having busted his door in. They saw him with the weapon and drew theirs. "Drop the gun, Mr. Murphy. We don't want to hurt you."

"Yeah, well, I want to hurt me, so have at it." A tear ran down his cheek. Danae screamed on the phone again, and he hung it up. "Sorry, that was my soon-to-be ex-wife. She's afraid I'll hurt myself. Two can play head games."

"Put your weapon down. We don't want to shoot you."

Andy put the gun down and slid it to them. "Here. I don't need it." He complied with the police, and to his great surprise, they didn't take him into custody. But he fully expected to see Danae on his front porch by morning.

A frantic knock on his door awakened Andy early the next morning. He considered answering it naked but was afraid it was the neighbor kid wanting his ball from the backyard, so he slipped his pants on quickly.

He opened the door and was not very surprised to see Danae standing there, looking tired and weary. And when she saw him, she wrapped herself around him. "Oh thank goodness you're alive," she cried, sobbing on his shoulder.

He wrapped his arms around her and rocked her the way he always used to. "Shh, baby, I'm right here."

She cried for several more minutes and then stepped inside his mansion. The entire house was barren. No furniture, no photos, there was no feeling of being warm or welcomed. Her voice echoed through the halls as she spoke. "This is truly where you live?" He nodded his head. "Andy, how can you stand it?"

"I can't. Honestly, I was going to move out and find a one-bedroom house somewhere. This is... well, it reminds me of just how much my life sucks. I can't afford this house. The monthly bills are more than I have left after spousal and child support. I'll have to move out soon anyway."

"How much weight have you lost, Andy?" He felt skinny in her arms and looked almost underweight.

He shifted back and forth on his feet, stalling an answer. "I don't know, maybe thirty, forty? I haven't checked." Despite his large paycheck, there was seldom money for food, not the way he was accustomed to eating. He was lucky to grab a bowl of cereal in the morning, and not much else. He'd lost mostly muscle mass, and he noticed it.

"Haven't you been eating well?" She looked around the inside of the mansion, shocked. Not even the kitchen was furnished, and she doubted he had dishes or silverware in the cupboards.

"I usually eat at the office," he lied. "Sometimes, I'll catch a dog at the game." That wasn't a lie. The occasional hot dog was the only protein he got lately.

Danae felt guilty. Guilty for making him live a life he hated so she could continue her life of luxury, comfort, and privilege. Guilty for playing head games with him. Guilty for not giving him a chance to explain, and not listening to him. Guilty for living a life of abundance while he was obviously barely surviving.

"I see you have your ring on."

"Yeah, I do. It's a reminder of how I once had it good and fucked it all up. Your brother gave it back for that express purpose. To remind me of what I've lost. What he stole from me." He fiddled with the ring and sighed. "Your brother's an upstanding guy suddenly, I guess."

"Yeah, about that. I lied, Andy. About Devin, about Aaron. About hating you. I am so sorry, about everything." Tears of bitter regret dripped onto the highly polished wood flooring.

"What are you saying, Danae?"

"I was too hasty. I was just so angry I didn't take the time to listen. I was pissed. I felt betrayed. But I should have given you the chance, the chance to explain your side. Andy, please come home? I need you."

"There's nothing for me on the Isle, Nae. My old job is toast. What am I going to do, flip burgers and make burritos for a living? You know me, Danae. The Sharks are doing just fine without me there, anyway. Kirby only needed me to build the team. I see they're on the way to another cup this season, too."

"The Sharks may not need you, but I do. The kids need you. Eamon and Lysie miss you. Emmitt doesn't even talk about you anymore. I'm afraid he'll forget you."

"Why the change of heart, Nae? Yesterday, you were wounding me with lies about you sleeping with Aaron. Today, you want me back."

"The divorce isn't final yet. We don't have to go through with it, you know." She tried to kiss him, but he pushed her away.

"You haven't answered my question, Danae. Why did you change your mind?"

"When I heard you on the phone last night, playing with that gun, threatening to kill yourself, I realized I am not ready to live without you for the rest of my life. I haven't had sex in almost four months. Andy, I haven't had your kisses that I love so much. I haven't been able to tell you, to show you how much I love you. And it's all making me crazy. Andy, please come home to me. I believe you about Devin, and I forgive you. I know it wasn't your fault."

He wrapped her in his embrace and wept. "Baby, I never thought I'd hear those words from you. I'm so sorry for every ounce of pain I've caused you. If you really want me to come home, I'll quit my miserable job here and go home with you tonight, even if I can't have my old job back. As long as you're with me, it doesn't matter. I'm young enough to start at the bottom again and work my way up."

"Really?" She kissed him as though it was their first kiss. "I love you, Andy. Forever and always."

"I never stopped loving you, Danae. I'm crazy in love with you. Forever and always."

She looked around for the master bedroom. "Make love to me, Andy. Please."

He picked her up and carried her back to his bedroom, and she was shocked at what she saw. Every photo he had ever taken on his phone, every family photo they had taken at the festivals, pictures of the two of them in much happier times decorated all four walls of his huge bedroom, and a glamour shot of her was sitting on his nightstand.

"If you haven't guessed, this is where I spend most of my time when I'm home. It's the only room in the house that is furnished." He set her down on the bed. "Every time I miss you, I sit in here and you're with me." He walked around the room, pointing at specific pictures, reminiscing. "I remember our wedding day, how beautiful you were. I swear I'd never seen anyone more gorgeous than you were in your mama's wedding dress. This is the first ultrasound we had done of Lysie. Your first show at Verde Park." He sat on the bed next to her. "I remember the first time we made love on our wedding night. The time we almost made love for the first time, and we didn't because your daddy would have killed me. When you went down on me in the car at the beach that night you teased me at the restaurant, and we couldn't go home to face the babysitter."

"I sit and remember the morning you saved my life, the look you gave me that kept me home, and then that night we made love in the limo on the way home from the beach. You were pregnant with Eamon then. The morning of my first flight after the crash, you were sitting on the bed at the house in the Shores, naked and wanting me. That sexy bikini you brought to the Isle after our miscarriage. Every single away game, going back to the room after the game and calling you, and you wore the toy. I'd control it, and we'd come together. Baby, every single moment when you rocked my world, these pictures bring me back there."

"When I woke up that morning with her, my eyes blindfolded, my hands tied. I should have known something was up, because you had never done that before. But I'm a typical man, I guess, thinking with my cock instead of my brain. She never said a word, she never gave me a reason to think it wasn't you. It was on purpose, Nae. I was supposed to wake up and remember that, so I'd feel guilty."

He sat beside her on the bed. "I am telling you this because I never got to explain it. Now it just makes so much sense. I didn't understand why I couldn't remember, or why I would even do something like this, and nothing made sense. Why was this happening to me? And Devin, that chump couldn't help himself. When he saw me, he took great pride in asking how we were. And then he let it all out, like it was killing him to keep it a secret. He admitted I was drugged and put into a compromising situation. He is a sick, evil man, Danae."

"I'm surprised you didn't hurt him, Andy. I can't imagine what kind of restraint it must have taken for you." She kissed him tenderly.

"I was not going to prison for him. He was never worth it. But I have my two most cherished things back. He didn't succeed after all." He looked down at his ring and looked her in the eyes. "Baby, I love you with all I have. And right now, I'm going to prove my love to you."

There he was, holding Danae in his arms again. He kissed her deeply, his moans, his passion almost too intense to ignore. But he knew he must make her come first and more than once, even to his own denial. It didn't matter as long as she had what she wanted, what she needed, and she had it in abundance.

She wore the Sharks jersey that he bought for her, and an old, comfortable pair of jeans. It was what she had worn on the airplane and Andy needed it off her body. He grabbed the hem of the shirt and removed it, unhooked her bra and gazed upon her. He wanted to kiss her breasts, to taste them, but he looked ahead to the whole package.

He undid the button on her jeans, unzipped the zipper and slid them and her panties down around her ankles. She kicked her tennis shoes off, the jeans and panties along with them. She slid her hands into his pajama pants and reached for his ass. Oh, how good it felt to caress and knead it. Then, her hands slid to his cock, hard and waiting for her to touch him. She stroked him as she removed the flannel pants. He groaned, and he shook his head.

"No, baby," he panted. "You first."

Gently, he laid her down on his bed, and just looked at her for a moment. She was naked and beautiful, and he couldn't believe she was here with him, wanting him, when less than twelve hours earlier, he was ready to end it.

He kissed every inch of her body, beginning at her neck, her ears, her breasts, and he relished her moans of pleasure. He took her nipples into his mouth, one at a time, suckling on them, almost expecting to taste her sweetness, and she sighed deeply.

"Baby, I want to taste all of you. So sweet," he groaned.

With feathery light touches, he traced her muscles and kissed her skin, leaving wet kisses all over her body. His hair fell down on her as he kissed her, tickling and teasing her. She writhed under his touch, hungry for him, needing him so badly she cried.

He danced his tongue around her navel, sharp moans escaped her lips as he kissed her. The scent of her arousal was intoxicating, and he longed to taste her. She drew her knees up into her chest, opening herself to him, and he couldn't resist the invitation. Seeing her sopping wet and aroused made him smile. Just twenty four hours ago, he was absolutely certain that he'd never see her like this again, and now he didn't want to miss even an inch of her. His hands caressed her so delicately, so sensuously. He touched her inner thighs, touched her ass so gently, traced around her lips and hairline with his thumbs. He pressed his face to her thighs, the stubble rough but it felt so good.

"Oh babe," she moaned. "You feel amazing."

Gentle kisses on her lips got things started as she squirmed. His warm breath on her skin turned her on, the anticipation increased her arousal. Her succulent nectar, the taste of her aroused him and he was throbbing with desire. But he knew this was about her, and he wanted to make sure she knew exactly how much he loved her. He continued to kiss and suck on the sensitive skin, eliciting purrs of ecstasy from her. Lick after lick, and kisses too numerous to count, he took his sweet time pleasuring her.

Her hands reached for him and twirled his hair around her long fingers. He looked up briefly to lick the fingers he could reach, and she groaned loudly. He went back to kissing her, he licked and sucked on her soft skin, the very core of her femininity, drank her nectar in and savored the sweetness. Involuntarily, she began to gyrate her hips, oh how she wanted more. His fingers caressed her thighs, her lips and lightly tickled her and traced every contour of her body while he concentrated his tongue on her clit.

Andy looked at her face, her desire for him reflected in her expression. He got on all fours, crawled up to her and kissed her deeply. Her hands caressed his face, his neck, his shoulders. Taking small gulps of air between kisses, she consumed him. And again, he pulled away from her, moved back down toward his prize. He was incredibly turned on, but it didn't matter, for at that moment, she was his entire world. He wanted, needed to make sure she had everything she required, everything her heart desired. Her breaths came in short, shallow pants, and she was passionate, edging ever closer to her climax.

His kisses on her pussy were driving her mad, and she moaned deeply as he took her clit into his mouth, suckling on it, pleasing her. She was getting close, and he couldn't wait to hear her, taste her, feel her as he brought her to orgasm. Gently he inserted two fingers inside her, massaged her g-spot skillfully, and she moaned louder than before. He knew her body intimately, what she loved, what she desired, and he pleasured her with precision. Yes, she would come for him, and he would cherish every second of it.

"Oh Andy," she growled. "I'm gonna come soon." She was hanging on the edge, that sweet, delicate precipice of ultimate pleasure, and he knew when she made it over, it would be huge, noisy and sexy as hell. His kisses got hotter on her skin, his lips surrounded her clit as he sucked on her. Her moans of pleasure grew louder as she approached orgasm, her breath quick and labored.

He circled her clit with his tongue, sucked on her and kissed her. But one last suck, a bit stronger than he'd been doing was the final push that took her over the edge and into ecstasy.

"Yes, Andy!" she growled just before her body was slammed with pleasure, an orgasm so intense, so loud, she thought she would wake the dead. And she tried, oh how she tried to keep it quiet. She came hard, his name on her lips repeatedly, she moaned involuntarily, delightful spasms of rapture rocked her body. Andy licked and kissed her until she pulled away, sensitive and satisfied.

As the tension in her body washed away, she couldn't help but cry, and she melted into his arms. Andy held her close in his strong embrace and kissed her tears away, not wanting to let her go. "Baby, you feel so good right here," he whispered, and blinked back tears of his own.

"This being apart is driving me crazy, and life is much too short to waste another minute being angry." She cried in his arms.

"Shh, don't cry honey. I'm right here." He held her close and comforted her. And though he needed her he didn't want to rush, so he simply held her, kissed her, comforted her until she fell asleep in his arms. He didn't sleep but just clutched her, protected her. He wanted to take all the pain he had inflicted upon her and shield her from any more of it. Her presence soothed his soul, and for the first time in months, he was peaceful.

She awakened about an hour later, and he was still awake, watching her sleep, holding her close. She could feel and hear the beating of his heart, and it comforted her. Tenderly, she kissed his chest and ran her fingers through the tufts of jet black hair that resided there.

"You're awake," he whispered.

She nuzzled his neck. "We didn't finish what we started earlier."

"It's okay, honey. We can go at your pace. We have a long way to―"

"Shush," she whispered. "Please, Andy, make love with me? I need to know you love me."

"I never stopped loving you, my precious, darling Danae." She reached for him and stroked him gently, and his eyes rolled back in his head, a groan of pure pleasure resounded within the walls of his bedroom.

"Do you want that, baby?" he growled.

She nodded her head, overcome with emotion and passion. "Oh yeah, I definitely want that."

He never really lost his arousal, and her hand on him sealed the deal. "Are you sure, Danae? I mean, there's no going back once we cross this line again because I will never ever let you go."