A Silken Thread - Brenda Jackson [86]
“Baby, please don’t cry anymore. I can’t stand to hear you cry like this. Everything is going to be all right.” Brian tried whispering soothingly in Erica’s ear. After they’d made love and he’d held her in his arms, the dam broke. Tears began coming and they wouldn’t seem to stop. So all he could do was hold her, stroke her back and whisper how much he loved her.
She pulled away from his chest. “But I’m going to lose you. I know I am and I couldn’t handle it if I did. But Mom needs me now.”
He bit down on his lip, trying not to growl out and ask about his needs. He needed her in his life, as his wife, his best friend. He wanted to build a life with her, start making all those babies they wanted to have. It wasn’t fair. Life wasn’t fair.
“Tell me, sweetheart, what you need me to do and I’ll do it. Just don’t cry anymore. Please don’t. You’re making yourself sick. You won’t lose me. Ever.”
She searched his eyes as if she needed to see in them the truth of his words.
“Tell me, Erica, what do you need from me? If you truly believe postponing the wedding for a while and going away with your mother is what you need to do, then do it. I’ll be okay with it.”
She swiped at her tears. “You won’t like it.”
“No, I won’t like it but if it’s something you think you need to do, I’ll give my support. But then I don’t want to lose you, either.”
She reached up and cradled his face between her open palms. “You could never lose me.”
“If your mother has anything to do with it, I will. You do know that she probably is going to try to convince you to move on without me, don’t you?”
She nodded. “Yes, but I can’t move on without you. I love you. You’re my heart.”
“And you are mine and I love you, too. So damn much,” he said, caressing her cheek with the back of his hand.
For a while, the bedroom was deathly quiet, except for the sound of their breathing. Then he said, “You know we’ll have to confront our parents about what they did. We’re going to have to be fair to them, Erica.”
She lifted her chin. “Fair! We don’t owe them anything, Brian. They’re the reason I’m not getting married in three weeks. I’m not sure I’ll be able to forgive them for that.”
He didn’t say anything, knowing she felt that way now but eventually would come around. She adored her father just as much as he adored his mother. They’d made mistakes, he could accept that, but still, he wanted to know how it had happened, why it happened. His mother hadn’t been involved with a man since his father’s death. How and why had she gotten involved with Wilson Sanders?
“There are going to be stipulations regarding us, though,” he then spoke up and said.
She wiped away more tears as she glanced up him. “What kind of stipulations?”
A small smile touched his lips although his heart was literally breaking at the thought she was going away on an extended trip with a woman who hated his guts and would probably use every turn to convince Erica she was better off without him. “That you keep in touch regularly. That way I know you’re missing me.”
She smiled faintly. “I will be missing you and I will marry you when I get back. Not the huge elegant wedding we have planned now, but—”
“Hell, I don’t care how it’s done as long as it’s done,” he interrupted. “By Thanksgiving.”
She nodded in agreement. “Yes, by Thanksgiving.”
“No matter what.”
“Yes, no matter what. I promise,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. “Thanks for giving me time to help Mom through this, Brian. It means a lot to me.”
He pulled her to him and held her, knowing their separation would be a test of the worst kind. He hoped their love would be strong enough to withstand all the betrayal, deceit and manipulation he had a feeling would be hurled at them.
All he knew was that he loved her and would never give her up.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Well, well, the whoremonger has returned. Did you bring your slut back with you?”
Wilson turned when Karen entered the kitchen, wincing at her words. She had a right to be angry, but there was no reason for getting down-in-the-gutter nasty. It didn’t become her.