back to having her heart broken again. Yes, she could have told Eric and Steve her true feelings about them, but she hadn’t been able to. The words just got stuck inside of her. She wasn’t a demonstrative person, at least not verbally and not when it came to intimate relationships. She just couldn’t say out loud the words I love you both. Please stay with me forever.
She knew her lack of verbal skills had everything to do with how she’d been raised. Sure, she’d had a couple of great foster homes, but they had been far and few between and short-lived. She’d also been with neglectful foster parents and those were the ones that had left the biggest, negative impact on her emotions and psyche. Some of the people she’d been placed with had only been in it for the money and they didn’t care about her. In those places she’d been instructed to keep her mouth shut.
So, she’d learned to keep quiet and keep her emotions bottled. Her lack of not speaking up for what she wanted had cost her Eric and Steve. So why was she so mad at them for leaving? Because they should have known instinctively she wanted them , that’s why . She knew it wasn’t the right way to think, but over the years she’d made it their fault, not hers that she’d let them go without protest. It had been easier to deal with that way.
Stacey had been trying to drill it into her for years to fight for what she wanted. Her words hadn’t fully taken effect until after the guys had left and Stacey had died shortly after. Then Sophie had been forced to once again fend for herself. A bubble of tears blurred her vision and a burst of anger made her swipe the irritating waterworks from her eyes.
No, she wasn’t going to start feeling sorry for herself or cry over them being back. She wasn’t going to think about what she had lost with them. She didn’t need them. She didn’t need anyone. She was perfectly fine all by herself. She had some good friends, her home, her business and money in the bank for security and that was all she needed.
Except love . You need love . A teasing voice whispered from a vulnerable spot deep in her mind.
“Oh shut up!” she snapped as she stared at herself. More tears streamed over her cheeks.
Who would love you anyway ? That same voice asked.
She shook her head, chasing those negative thoughts away. She had to stop thinking such nonsense. She was still young at twenty-three. She still had time to find love. One day she would find the perfect man.
At one point she had even considered Eric and Steve as her perfect men. But they hadn’t been trustworthy. She needed someone she could trust. Someone who would never leave her and then she would have her own family.
Relief whispered through her as her dream grabbed hold. Yes, some day she would be surrounded by her own children. She would treat them with respect and she would listen to their every word and offer advice to them. She would be there for them, unlike her young parents, who’d dumped her the first chance after they’d run into trouble with their marriage.
She didn’t even know where they were
or if they were still alive. She didn’t want to know. She was better off without them.
She forced a smile as she stared at herself in the mirror and then brushed the remaining tears away. What she did want was to get a little bit of release from the sexual frustration Eric and Steve had instilled in her. And she knew exactly how to get it.
*
Sophie lay face down upon a padded bench, her fingers tightly wrapped around handgrips as the electronically controlled paddle slapped her ass and created the magnificent hot blush she craved. She moaned softly as the dual vibrator with clit stimulator stroked in and out of her pussy and ass at a rapid speed creating sparks of arousal that tingled along her nerve endings. Her body tightened as pleasure grabbed hold.
Oh, yes, this is what she wanted to help her deal with her sadness and stress at seeing Eric
Ann Voss Peterson, J.A. Konrath