Read Online The Face In The Mirror by Barbara Stewart - Free Book Online Page A

doesn’t matter why I’m here. What matters is that I’m with you,
and I’m enjoying every second.”
    Me too , I thought. I wanted to say the words, but I couldn’t make them
come out. Instead, I squeezed his hand and smiled. He squeezed mine back and
I felt as though my life couldn’t possibly be better.
    After an hour or so, we returned to the condo. I grabbed clean clothes and
Mitchell said, “You go first,” but after I was in there, I wished that I’d asked
him to join me.
    I heard him tap lightly on the door. “I brought you a glass of wine for
when you step out.”
I threw the shower door open and just stood in the spray of the water
while Mitchell looked.
“Renie?” he asked.
“Yes,” was all said.
“Tell me why, Renie.”
“Because I want you to,” I whispered.
“Why?” he asked again.
“Because I screwed up, Mitchell. I want to give you back all that we’ve
missed.”
“You think that’s all we’ve missed, Renie? Sex?”
I looked at him trying to come around to what he wanted to hear from me.
“It wasn’t for me.”
“What besides the sex, Renie? What did you miss? I need to know,” he said
in a hoarse voice.
I felt tears run down my cheeks and I prayed the he couldn’t distinguish
them from the water’s spray. I felt cold and vulnerable and I wanted to close
the door and hide myself. He walked closer, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to
move away from him. I could tell he was waiting and I had to respond. Without
a word, he summoned my response, quietly demanded that I answer him. I
gulped and allowed my heart to speak my mind.
“No, Mitchell, not just the sex. I missed the friendship, and the
companionship, but mostly the love we shared. I didn’t just throw you away; I
threw me away, too. I never realized what or how much I let go.”
“I did, Renie. I loved you more than I imagined possible. I’ve prayed for
this moment with you for all of the last nine years.”
Quickly, as though he couldn’t keep himself away, he slipped his swim
trunks off and joined me.
“Renie,” he said, his hands sliding over my wet body. “You. Are.
Beautiful.”
This was different from what we’d shared so far. It wasn’t low light, it
wasn’t in bed - this was far more sensuous.
“I’ve waited for this since you put that swim suit on. You’re as beautiful as
the first time I saw you naked nineteen years ago. You were beautiful and
tender; an innocent seventeen year old on the verge of becoming a woman, and
you shared yourself with me. What a lucky man I was.”
“I’m the lucky one,” I said in a whisper, tears still streaming down my face.
“First, I’m going to kiss you breathless. My hands are going to make you
want me like you’ve never wanted anything before.”
His hand slipped between my legs and it felt like it was just days ago that
we shared these experiences the first time. Like the very first time, I didn’t want
him to stop. I wanted to feel every inch of him inside me…
n
October 1994
    It was my seventeenth birthday. We’d been seeing each other a little over a
year, and I was in love. Mitchell had been so patient with me since the very
beginning, when I knew he was the one. Oh, there had been plenty of touching
and kissing, but neither of us had ever made a move to take it to the next level.
I knew it was because of my dad. He often said things like, ‘Remember, Mitch,
she’s still jailbait’. ‘You don’t want to meet me in a courtroom’.
    I was mortified every time he opened his mouth, but Mitchell never
bothered responding. I think that pissed my dad off more. Mitchell never
baited him, and I suspect that was exactly what Wayne Ridgeway was looking
for.
“We’re going to a fancy place for dinner, like a fancy dress place,” he said
when he called me.
    When he arrived, my dad began the grilling as I stood with my mom and
waited.
“Where are you taking her?” my dad asked.
“The River House, sir,” he replied.
“You can