Maxwell walked towards her and sighed. “I’m sorry.”
Sophie looked at him wordlessly. All she could think about was him going down on Alexis. “You had sex with her?”
He looked at her with pain in his eyes. “It meant nothing to me. Not like it does with you.”
“She lived with you?” Her voice betrayed the pain and hurt she was feeling.
“For a few months.” He sighed. “I wasn’t here most of the time.”
“Long enough to buy sex toys together,” her voice broke.
“I have a past, Sophie.” He grabbed her hands. “I’m sorry that this happened. I’m so sorry. I love you. Please don’t let this stop you from loving me.”
“I still love you, Max.” She sighed and a tear rolled down her face. “I’m just tired and sad. And I don’t want to be here. In this place.” She looked around. “It’s beautiful but all I can see is the two of you, here, together.”
He brought her close to him and held her, kissing the top of her head. “I understand.” He took her hand, “I want to show you something.” He walked towards his bedroom and she followed reluctantly. He walked over to the bed and pointed to a photo on his night table. “Look.” She looked and saw a photo of her and Ella.
“Ok,” she mumbled. “So what? You have a photo of your sister next to your bed.”
“It’s a photo of you, Sophie,” he whispered in her ear. “Look carefully.”
And so she studied the photo again. It was focused on her, and Ella was a mere blur in the background. By all accounts, it was a photo of her. She looked happy and was smiling into the camera and blowing a kiss. All of a sudden, Sophie remembered the day the photo was taken about two years ago. Maxwell had spent most of the summer working but one weekend he had taken the girls on the boat and Sophie had had the time of her life.
“But you ignored me that summer.” She looked at him curiously. “Just like every summer since I was seventeen.”
“I made myself ignore you, Sophie.” He smiled at her. “I’ve had this photo here since that summer. Even when Alexis was here.”
“That seems a bit mean.” Sophie smiled half-heartedly.
“Alexis knew I never loved her.” Max’s voice was firm.
“But you were engaged to her.”
“Not by choice.” Max sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it now, Sophie, but please believe me when I tell you that you are the only one for me.”
“I’ll try.” She looked away from him. “Can we leave this room please? I don’t want to think about the two of you, in here, you know.”
Max sighed and they walked out of the room. “I’ve had sex with other women, Sophie but they mean nothing to me.”
“Yeah.” Sophie sighed and looked away again. “Let’s eat.”
She walked back to the kitchen and went back to the slice of pizza she was so eager to eat before. But she could barely eat. She carried the plate to the living room and sat on the couch. Maxwell came and sat next to her. “Forgive me?” He looked at her searchingly.
“Yes.” She sighed as she looked into his worried face. “I’ll try.”
“I love you, Sophie.”
She chewed on her pizza and looked down. She loved Maxwell with all of her heart but she couldn’t stop the jealousy that was gnawing at her. “Is Mitch the guy I was dancing with at the bar?”
“What?” He looked at her warily.
“Alexis just mentioned a Mitch. That’s her brother, right? Is he the guy from the bar? The one you fought with?”
Maxwell sighed and took her hand. “Yes. Mitch is her brother and the man who nearly raped you.” He squeezed her hand so tightly that she thought her blood circulation had stopped.
“Ok, Max.” She yanked her hand back from him.
“Sorry.” He looked down at her hand. “Mitch is not a nice guy.”
“Yeah. Especially if he is anything like his sister.” Sophie made a face and Maxwell laughed.
“Oh, Sophie.” He gathered her in his arms and kissed all over her face. “I will never stop loving you.”
“Yeah. Ok.” She closed her eyes, trying to stop thinking of him going down on Alexis. “So was she sweet too?”
“What?” Max looked at her in confusion. “Was who sweet?”
“Alexis.” Sophie stared into his eyes unflinching as he stiffened. “She said you wanted to make sure she knew you were the one who pleasured her. I figured if you went down on her for that amount of time, she must have been really sweet.”
“Sophie, we do not want to have this conversation.” He sighed. “I don’t see what good can come of it. You do not want to know about my past sexual experiences.”
“I wonder how you would feel if my ex-lover came and gushed about me sucking his cock.” Sophie was deliberately crude.
“I’d kill him.” Maxwell grimaced.
“Maybe I should sleep with someone else so you know what it’s like.”
“Don’t you even think about it.” Maxwell grabbed her. “I’m the only one who will ever know your body, do you hear me?”
“We’ll see.” Sophie turned away from him.
“Your body is mine, Sophie.” He turned her face to look at him. “No man will ever know you intimately like I do.” He pushed his hand to her breast and cupped it. “These breasts are mine.” He pulled her t-shirt up and unclasped her bra. He then reached down and undid her pants and pulled them, along with her thong off her legs, so that she was sitting on his black leather couch naked. “Your pussy is mine too.” He ran a finger up her leg and rubbed it against her clit. “No other man will have access to it.” He bent his head down and sucked on her clit. Sophie felt her heart beating fast. She wasn’t sure how her body could betray her like this. She had wanted to remain mad at him for a few days but her body was giving in after a few minutes. She adjusted her legs and felt Max’s tongue slip into her silky folds. She threw her head back and gyrated into Max’s face as he licked and nibbled on her pussy lips. He pushed his face into her deeper and kept sucking and licking as she came in his face. When he finally pulled away, he reached up and kissed her. “You are mine, Sophie and I am yours. That will never change.”
Sophie stared into his eyes and saw the love that she had always hoped to see reflected there. “I love you, Maxwell.”
“I don’t know what I did to be so blessed to have your love, Sophie, but I will never ever take it for granted.” He then bent down and kissed her naked belly. “And I will love our baby forever.”
Sophie rubbed his head as he caressed her belly and she lay down on the couch. “Let’s sleep here tonight,” she murmured into his ear.
“Ok.” He jumped up. “Let me go and get a blanket.” He ran off and returned a few minutes later with a big blanket and no clothes. “I figured we might as well both be naked.” He grinned at her and she smiled back at him as he joined her on the couch.
Chapter 15
Sophie woke up to Maxwell playing with her breasts. She smiled to herself and turned around to face him on the couch. “Morning.” She smiled at him sweetly and kissed his lips.
“Morning, sweetness.” He grinned at her.
“Wow, you’re talking to me; you haven’t jumped up and left me yet.”
“Oh Sophie.” Max smiled at her. “I didn’t leave because I didn’t want to be with you.”
“So why did you leave?”
“I was scared of my feelings.” He closed his eyes. “I’m still scared by how much I love you.”
“You don’t have to be scared, Max. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Thank you, Sophie.” He kissed her shoulder. “Shall I make us some breakfast?”
“Yes, please.” Sophie sat up and grabbed her bag as Max walked to the kitchen. She pulled out her phone to see if Ella had called but there were no new messages from her. As she went to put her phone back in her bag, she saw some papers had fallen out of the bag. She grabbed them up and stopped before she pushed them back in the bag. They were the newspaper articles that she had printed out. She figured that it couldn’t hurt to look. She perused them quickly and felt her heart beating fast as she read the headlines. She couldn’t believe what she was reading. The Maxwell that the reporters described didn’t sound like the Maxwell she knew, but then she thought back to the words Alexis had used the night before. Rape and Murder Was Maxwell capable of either of those things?