Chapter 11

Aric opened the door and saw the one person he really hoped he'd never see again, well in this lifetime anyway, standing there.

She was standing there looking at him with a radiant smile. She looked both hopeful and expectant.

"Yes," said Aric looking her right in the eye with a neutral expression, as he raised one eyebrow.

"He really didn't want to use the greeting May I help you because he really didn't feel like he wanted to offer to help her at all. That was a really rare thing for him to feel towards anyone.

"Hi. You seem like you're doing well," she said shyly.

"May we come in? We walked all the way here from town. Some of the folks said it was safe to come here, but with you being so far away from town, I wasn't sure how safe it would be. I remember the last time I walked into the woods looking for you," she said with a smile

Against Aric's better judgment he stepped back and let her inside.

As he did so, he noticed a young man slightly off to the side behind her. The young man was almost his height, dark but sandy blonde hair, ice blue eyes, and had a rather slim but muscular build.

Normally he would have seen him standing there also, but the shock of seeing her put him off his game. The young man should be about twenty one, thought as the young man stepped past him. The young man gave him a dark look in passing.

But as he looked at the young man he thought "Yes, the hair is different, but those features do look familiar. I wonder why he has a chip on his shoulder with me."

After they were seated, Aric sat down in a plush chair across from them and asked, "So what brings you down this way?"

The woman turned on him what could be easily called a thousand watt smile and said "Well I was visiting my parents after a few seasons of being away and father mentioned that a few seasons back you came back home for a visit. He remembered where you said you were now living now. So I thought I'd come on down see how you were doing."

Aric thought a moment and then he leaned back in his chair.

Aric then said "No really, why are you here?"

At that the young man seated next to the woman seemed really irritated and said "I know why I came. I came because I wanted to ask personally why you left my father to die."

Raising a single eye brow, Aric turned and looked at the young man "Well son your tone and the manner of your speech tells me you know nothing of the circumstances of your birth, nor what went on. And it has always been my experience if you don't know what you're talking about, you should listen and wait until you do before you put in your two coins worth. That way you won't look stupid to those of us who know the whole story."

At that he turned back to the woman, leaving the young man glowering at him.

"Andrea, for the last time, why are you here?" he asked.

This time he crossed his arms. He wasn't going to ask anymore. If she wouldn't tell him, then it would be time for her to leave.

With her smile slightly slipping, she said "I was hoping if enough time had passed you would have finally forgiven me and would give me another chance. No one can be angry at someone forever," and then suddenly the brilliant smile was back.

But before he could open his mouth to respond a red headed vision burst suddenly through the door and then into the living room.

She was wearing a loose leather vest and leather pants that were almost too tight to be seen publicly in. Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail.

She came over to Aric, sat down in his lap, kissed him lightly on the lips and said "I bet you'll never guess what happened to me today!" all excited in smiles and dimples.

Aric looked and smiled warmly at her, and said, "Well for one we have guest and it's not polite to ignore them, and two you need to go clean up and change for dinner."

The vision looked over at the guest then said "Oh ok, I'll be right back in a bit," hugged him, jumped up out of his lap, and walked to the back of the house, with her hips swing back and forth dangerously, just for the benefit of the guests.

During the whole exchange Andrea was sitting with her mouth wide open.

Her son was staring so hard his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head and roll around on the ground. He gave the appearance of both want and need as he watched her walk away.

Andrea suddenly pointed towards the back of the house.

"Whaa, whaa, whaa, what was that?? Are you now chasing girl's young enough to be your daughter because of how badly we hurt you? You should know better than that! What do her parents say about what you two are doing? What about the folks in town? Don't you have any shame? How can you just keep her around like that!?" she asked with a stunned look on her face as she rapidly fired questions at Aric.

Suddenly a voice laughed very loudly from the front doorway and said "Well that's easy enough to answer, it's because she is his daughter. And I'm not at all too upset that he is still willing to keep her around. You must be Andrea," said Brianna as she stepped into the hallway across from them.

As Brianna came into the room, she turned to lean her practice sword against the wall and then turned back around.

While she was doing this, Andrea was sizing her up.

As Brianna walked further into the living room, she slowly walked up to Aric and sat across his lap rather than in the chair next to him.

Normally she would never do something like this, but for some reason she felt extremely territorial today.

And as she walked past, she didn't offer her hand or try to introduce herself to Andrea. She pretty much ignored her until she reached Aric. And that fact wasn't lost on either Aric or Andrea. Aric wisely kept his mouth shut and waited to see what Brianna would do.

But as Brianna was walking into the room she was also busy sizing Andrea up.

It was obvious to her that Andrea had made herself up to try to be appealing to Aric. But even if she hadn't, she also knew that Aric would still find Andrea attractive, even after all these seasons

Andrea was still stunning with long blonde hair just mid way past her shoulders, and it was pulled back into a ponytail. She still had the bluest eyes Aric could still remember ever seeing, and her normally full and pouty lips had a deep rich color of red on them.

And while she had put on just a few pounds since he had last seen her, they all appeared to be in key areas that made her figure lush and soft looking.

While she still had her small and trim waistline, it was her generous breast and hips that were the happy recipients of few of those added pounds. All it did was enhance and create a figure that still had the men still stopping and staring.

She was artfully wearing hardly any makeup, just barely enough to enhance her features.

And as Andrea was sitting across from them, Brianna couldn't fail to notice that she was wearing a simple light blue sleeveless dress that was form fitting and cinched tight around her waist, and it had a plunging neckline that had her cleavage looking as if the dress was barely able to contain them.

And the way she was sitting allowed her dress to ride up some to almost mid thigh, and it showed off her trim calves and nice legs, and her sheer white stockings.

But Andrea was also busy taking in Brianna sitting across from her, who even after three kids, the only thing that had happen to her was that her breast grew a size or two.

She still had her trademark braid, but it was down almost to her hips now. There were barely a few touches of grey here and there, but it only seemed to enhance her looks rather than detract from it.

Over the seasons her bright green eyes now gave off the look of merriment, and not of the deep anger they used to have, since she had been married. So much that they now pulled men in more just by being in her proximity.

At forty two she had trained daily most of the way up till each birth, and a few weeks afterwards she was back at it. She worked hard to maintain her physical build. She still had the well defined and stunning figure that she had since her youth.

She could still fit in the leather clothes she had since the day they married. Not that she was still wearing them, but she kept them around to remind her how far she had come.

She also still had the chain mail vest hanging in their closet. One day it would be a gift for their daughter. And their daughter was the spitting image of her mother, and she was just fourteen. She looked like Brianna, but smaller in physical size. It was like someone took Brianna and sized her down two clothes sizes.

If Aric thought Daven's son had stared at his daughter with a desperate hunger, he was positively boring holes in his wife with his eyes. He looked as if he would have cheerfully given his left nut for twenty minutes of Brianna's time, and he wasn't even trying to disguise his lust for her.

"Not that I would let Daven's son near either of them," Aric thought grimly.

And he had the power to make that one fact a reality.

Aric then noticed that Daven's son was really appreciating the view from the front of her shirt that he was getting because, since her shirt had been wet, it showed off the outline of her dark areolas and that her nipples were partially hard.

Being as Brianna was just back from training with their children, she was wearing a simple, but snug thin sleeveless shirt with a low V neck that at one point had been glued to her from perspiration. And because of that, it almost gave the appearance that she was barely wearing anything.

"I wonder where her bra is?" thought Aric absently. "I know she had it on when she left earlier."

She was also wearing tight leather pants similar to her daughter. And since her shirt had been extremely wet, it also clung to and enhanced her waistline, while giving the illusion that her narrow waist flared suddenly into her pants, and they were too also in danger of burst at the seams at any given moment.

While she had been walking around the room earlier you could see her hips muscles flexing in her pants in a way that made the view from behind all the more appealing.

Brianna would normally not stay and greet any guest dressed like this in her training clothes, but she felt that these weren't normal guest.

One of them was her husbands, whom she disliked very much even though she had never met her, ex-girlfriend.

Andrea was also her husband's former intended wife. One of the one's who hurt Aric so badly. And now who appeared to her that she was only here to make a play for Brianna's husband.

Yes, Brianna was sure she didn't like her at all.

Once Brianna was comfortably seated, she kicked off her boots and pulled up her knees, and let them fall to the side as she laid her head on Aric's shoulder.

Aric noticed off hand that she was still painting her toe nails red. She knew that still drove him crazy to see it on her, even after all these seasons.

Aric was trying to not to be too distracted by how well she fit on him, or get aroused by having her sit like this in his lap. With a lot of effort he tried to talk normally to Andrea.

"Andrea, what you said earlier still doesn't explain why you believe I can help you now somehow," said Aric.

Andrea was stunned by the revelation that Aric was with someone so beautiful, possibly already married, and had at least one child by her. And she could clearly see that the other woman was silently making a point to what she saw as her rival for Aric, by sitting in his lap as she did so blatantly.

Her eyes were staring straight at Aric and Brianna. Her lips were moving, but nothing was coming out.

She had never really considered that she would have that much competition for Aric's affections, even after all these seasons and what she had done. And certainly not from someone whom she felt was prettier than her. Brianna and Aric looked like they belonged together. Certainly more than she and Aric ever did.

Then after a few seconds she seemed to finally make up her mind.

She looked down, took a deep breath and said "I always thought you would be as miserable as I was and would be somewhere waiting and wanting me. Since we were kids, we were the ones that were always fated to be together."

"I always thought you would have come to find me seasons ago after we both left Northfields. I waited for you for seasons, but you never came," said Andrea quietly.

"It was always supposed to be the two of US who ended up together, but you never came for me. Never. No man was ever good enough next to you, but I waited. And I always thought, no prayed, that one day you would come to get me and tell me I was forgiven. Then we would then be together like we were always meant to be," whispered Andrea.

"But I see now that will never happen. The reason I'm here, is because I got tired of waiting for you to realize your mistake in letting me go. I hoped it was a sign when my father saw you a few seasons back, because before that happened, no one knew where you went. So I came to you," said Andrea all in a quiet rush while still looking down.

Aric and Brianna looked at each other. Aric managed to sit up a little bit more, with Brianna still in his lap.

"Andy, you and Daven betrayed and completely destroyed me. Completely. Why would you ever believe I would try and find you after all of that?" Aric asked shaking his head.

When he said Andy she sharply looked up and her eyes went misty.

He was still the only person who she let call her Andy. And he was still the only one who she ever would.

"But it was a stupid mistake made between kids. I never could understand why you could never see that. We had loved each other since we were five seasons old. You fought to protect me countless times. You were there to protect me from being raped. You never would let anyone harm me. You were the one who always made me feel safe. Why couldn't you ever see I wouldn't have ever chosen Daven over someone like you?" asked Andrea.

She was looking intently at his face, but now the tears swimming around in her eyes were clearly visible for all to see.

"And Andy I never could understand why you didn't see that it wasn't just a stupid mistake, as you put it, between kids. It was deliberate choice you decided to make," said Aric looking Andrea in the eyes.

"I had been gone less than a month before you started sleeping with Daven. Remember I talked to him before I left Northfields while you were there," said Aric as he leaned back.

"You changed yourself into what he wanted you to be. You changed your hair to a style he liked and that I didn't. You wore makeup the way he liked, but you never would wear any when I asked. You even changed how you spoke, walked and acted, just to be the way he liked you to be almost immediately," continued Aric.

"You gave him all the liberties he wanted from you with-in that first month, ones which you always denied me in all the seasons we were together. You became everything he wanted you to be and more. You snuck around to be with him and deceived everyone you knew as you did it. That's not just a simple mistake. You worked very hard at those choices you made when you decided to be with him. Harder than any of the choices you ever had to make to be with me," Aric said

"But I didn't realize what I was doing. And it never meant that I ever stopped loving you when I did those things. Didn't you ever see that?" asked Andrea pleadingly.

"Actually it did. If you loved me as much as you always claimed, you never would have been with Daven. Ever. Your first concern would have been at how I would feel at what you would have to do to please Daven, than with your curiosity at being with him," said Aric.

"At any of the moments you considered being with him, you should have remembered the seven season old boy who stood between you and the bully who struck you and knocked you down, and should have left Daven alone in his room. And if you loved me you certainly never ever would have considered trying to deceive me into being with you right after you just had sex with him," said Aric.

"All those choices you made, you made so you could be with Daven. You used those choices to explore the world of sex with him while I was gone. And then you worked just as hard to keep me from finding out what you two had been doing," said Aric as he shook his head.

"This all played through my mind as I left the only home I could remember as a kid. There are months that I have no idea what I did or where I was for a few awhile after I left Northfields. I could have been a mass murder for all I know. And I was in the right frame of mind to be one. The only driving thought I had was to get as far away from the two of you as I could," continued Aric.

"So after all of what you two did to me, I ask you again, why I would have ever gone looking for you?" asked Aric.

"You wouldn't because you are a coward! A coward, jealous of my father's position, jealous he was with my mother, and you left him to die because you didn't want him to have anything without you. And you didn't want me as his son to have anything either. You wanted to punish both of us for being what took my mother away from you! I still don't know what my mother ever saw in you!" said the young man sharply.