Long Walk Back
Toni Jaquay Lynch

 

Angel sat in her favorite chair looking out of the window and watched Vincent swim in the pool just below her.
"Hello? Honey?" her husband Anthony was saying on the other end of the phone.
"Yes, Sweetie. Did you say something?"
Anthony chuckled, "I said I had to go. I love you."
Angel forced a giggle. "I'm sorry honey, I'm exhausted. Ian was a bundle of nerves after you left."
She felt bad about using their son as an excuse when it was really Vincent who had distracted her attention.
"I'm sorry honey. Go get some rest. I'll talk to you tomorrow. I love you."
Angel looked out at Vincent again; he was getting out of the pool.
"I love you too, Anthony."
Angel hung up the phone and sighed. "What the hell is wrong with me?" she said aloud. I need to write, she thought.
Angel sat down at her desk and opened her black leather bound journal. Her father had given it to her on her sixteenth birthday; it was the year he died. "Daddy..." she whispered softly as she gently laid her hand on the cover. She opened it and flipped through the pages. Watching as the various years went past her eyes. She held her pen above the paper knowing what she felt in her heart but afraid to write the words. She took a deep breath and began to write.

Dear Journal:
Anthony's gone off on a business trip again! He just doesn't understand
how lonely it is for me to be here with just Ian. I feel myself being drawn
more and more to Vincent. I know he�s my brother-in-law, but I can�t deny the way I feel. He kissed me the other night and I kissed him back.
I couldn't resist. He has this look he gives me that makes me shivers and
turn to mush. I can see passion in his eyes. I know he probably doesn't love me, but the feelings I have for him go beyond just lust. His touch is
gentling yet passionate. I want to resist him, but I can't. The attraction is
too strong. It's so strong it scares me. I'm afraid that if he comes to me
tonight I won't be able to resist...


A knock at the door brought Angel back to reality with a start. She shook herself to clear her head.
"Just a minute," she called out as she put her pen inside her journal and locked it with the key she keeps safely around her neck. She felt it's gentle weight between her breasts as she went to open the door.




Vincent struggled with his emotions outside Angel's door for what seemed like an eternity. He stood there in his swimming trunks and a towel around his shoulders. In a spur of the moment decision he had decided to stop by Angel's room on the way back from the pool.
What am I thinking? He asked himself. This is wrong, he told himself. This is my sister-in-law.
But as much as he tried he couldn't wipe away the memory of her soft lips pressed against his. He remembered vividly the feeling of her breast pressed against his chest as he held her. Vincent felt him self becoming aroused at the memory.
Goddamn it, he cursed softly. I just need to get out of this house.
He decided right there that it was time to withdraw from the tightly woven family life he had grown accustom to. As he turned to go to his room Angel opened her bedroom door.







"Vincent?" Angel said. Her heart was pounding a mile a minute. Vincent swallowed hard and his Adam's apple bobbed. Angel smiled in spite of the fear she felt in the pit of her stomach. She had always thought it was cute when his Adam's apple moved.
"Just checking on you," he said trying to be lighthearted.
"I'm in one piece," she smiled.
Vincent's eyes ran up and down her body. Every curve and dip was could easily be seen through her sheer nightgown.
"You sure are," he said huskily. He looked into her eyes and pressed his lips together as if trying to decide something.
Angel decided that if this was going to happen, and she wanted it to happen, then she would have to give Vincent the go ahead. Angel slowly moved aside and opened her bedroom door. She tilted her head and gave him her most inviting look. Relief flooded his handsome face as he stepped closer to her. He put his hands on her waist and gently kissed her. Angel put her arms around his neck and kissed him more passionately. She started to back up and pull him with her while still kissing him. She stopped kissing him and looked into his eyes. Her voice was full of passion.
"Close the door, Vincent."
Those four words aroused Vincent more than any words in his entire life.
"Oh, honey," he whispered as he led her to the bed.
His hands trembled a little as he undid the buttons on her nightgown. Angel shook with excitement as he lowered it and let it fall to the floor. Angel closed her eyes as she let out a soft moan.
"I want you, Angelica," he said holding her face in his hands.
I want you. I want you. The words vibrated in her mind like a drum. She opened her eyes and looked at him with such raw hunger that Vincent almost lost it right there. Angel put her fingertips into the waistband of his swimming trunks. She trailed kisses down his body as she pulled the shorts off. She stood up and looked at him.
"You can have me, Vincent," she whispered.
Vincent slowly lowered her down on the bed and started to cover her body with kisses. He moved so he was above her.
"Angel?"
"I want you, Vincent," was all she said.
They did their sacred dance slowly and gently. Vincent repeated her name over and over. Angel arched her back as a tidal wave of emotion flowed through her body. They cried out together as 5 years of pent up attraction, lust, and wanting came tearing out of their bodies.
They lay here clinging to each other staring into each other's eyes. Small beads of sweat were visible on Vincent's upper lip. Vincent slowly lifted his hand and brushed Angels hair from her face. She reached for his hand and kissed the inside of his palm.
"I wish I could say I'm sorry, Angel, but I'm not. I love you," he whispered.
Angel closed her eyes and a tortured sigh escaped her full lips. She started to get up and push him away. She reached for her robe to wrap around her naked body.
"Vince I never thought you did. I just always thought it lust."
Vince sat up straight now and reached for his shorts.
"Is that all you feel for me?"
"Is that all I feel for you?" she walked over to her desk and laid her hand on her journal. Remembering what she had written earlier that night she turned to him with her feeling written all over her face.
"Good Lord, no. Vincent I've loved you for five years," she said as she sat next to him on the bed.
"Five years? Since the day I arrived?" he closed his eyes and smiled.
"Angel, since the day I came here I've been in love with you too. Since the
moment I saw you. I hate to say it but I wished I would've came home earlier so I could've met you first."
They were both quiet and they knew each was thinking the same thing.
"Anthony" Angel whispered painfully. "He's my husband and I love him too, but in a different way."
"He's my brother. How could I do this to him?" Vincent buried his head in his hands.
"Don't. Don't do that Vince. Or we'll start feeling guilty and start hating each other and I don't want to hate you. What we just did was a natural thing. We love each other. It was inevitable," Angel pointed out as she pulled his head into her lap. As she looked down into his eyes she felt so much love swell in her chest.
"I wish you would have never met him," Vincent fumed.
"Don't hate your brother because he loved me first-"
"But I love you more! I love you so far down into my soul that I could never erase you, even if I wanted to," he said jumping from the bed.
Angel looked at him with a mixture of love and fear. His passion frightened her. It was all too much too soon.
"Vince, I think you should go I need to think."
Vincent felt as if he'd been stabbed in the heart. Then he knew just by looking into her eyes that she would never leave Anthony.
"Okay my darling," he said as he picked up his towel and walked to the door. "Remember though, no matter what I will be here for you."
Angel buried her head into her pillow and cried as she heard the door click softly closed.







Vincent heard her muffled cry as he stood outside her door. Why can't she just let herself love me fully, he thought. Goddamned idiot, he cursed himself. Why would she leave her husband and break up her family for a fling? He heard her get up from her bed and quickly walked down the hall to his room. The walk seemed longer than usual.

 

 

Copyright © 2000 Toni Jaquay Lynch
Published on the World Wide Web by "www.storymania.com"