Broken Obsession - Part Two

by Trisha Fuentes

  There was the woman he would die for; holding the son he always wanted and he recalled the day Leticia (his ex-wife) told him that she was pregnant for the second time. He didn’t believe her…he hadn’t been sleeping with her, unless she had been cheating on him, how else could she have gotten pregnant? It turned out that she wasn’t with child, it was a false alarm, but Amber was.

  Eduardo remembered when he found out from the nurse at the county hospital, where Amber was taken to that she had been expectant. He was in disbelief and so uncertain, but elated at the same time. He was happy for her and hoped that her pregnancy would go well and went to see Victor (his brother) to give him the good news. Eduardo would be the one to tell him that they were expecting another child, when Victor laid down the ugly truth …it couldn’t have been his baby, Victor confessed. He wasn’t sleeping with her as well; in fact, Amber and he hadn’t made love for nearly a year. So, that meant…it was Eduardo’s?! Eduardo was the father?

  Eduardo was over the moon and immediately ran to Sheila, hoping that he could make amends with her as well and it worked. Sheila immediately responded to Eduardo and with this new baby on the way, connected them all in more ways than one. He was no longer the ‘bad guy’ in the relationship, he was the ‘soon to be father’ and positive attention was given to him straight away. And oh how he loved the thought of having a child with Amber! If she only woke up, he often thought. They could be a blissful, happy family, those were his aspirations now. His once incessant need of being the best, the smartest, the sharpest attorney known to mankind unraveled to becoming the best dad ever.

  Silent days and nights with Amber now at the Palm Desert Treatment Center turned in to nail-biting months of waiting and wondering if Amber’s womb would either accept or deny their unborn child. She was in a comatose state, unresponsive and unaware of the marvel growing inside her. She was one of just a handful of women who have been recorded pregnant while being comatose and the doctors all told Eduardo to expect a negative outcome, that Amber would not survive the trauma on her body if she ever did give birth. Oh, how that tore him to pieces! There was now a terrible decision he had to make. The doctors gave him a choice to either terminate the pregnancy and give Amber a chance or let the gestation developed naturally, but not to term. Terminate the pregnancy? Eduardo thought about it all of five seconds and the answer was no. In his heart, he knew, somehow he knew that Amber would awake and her love for him still intact. But with that decision, the doctors all told Eduardo to expect the worse, bear down and accept the obvious, that Amber’s past medical history was unfavorable and therefore, the pregnancy would never bear a healthy child. If it would even make it to a full nine months…and Peyton made it to seven and a half. He was tiny, premature and needed medical care instantaneously. He was in an incubator for the first three months of his life until he gained enough weight to be on his own. And the doctors all told Eduardo, to expect the worse, bear down and expect the obvious, that Peyton would probably suffer mental incapacities, birth defects or poorer from here on in, but here he was…normal, growing by leaps and bounds and ever so smart! He was a bright child and loving, astute and Eduardo could have never imagined that this would be the happy outcome for all three of them; his wife, waking up nine months later and his little boy, healthy and thriving, learning other languages, curious about medicine and now knowing his mother.

  How lucky could one man be?

  Eduardo

  Persistence breeds determination, and determination creates boldness. So when a man owns his assertiveness, perceived as being accomplished with his intellect, then its deliberate self-assurance, arrogance and occasionally, conceit…

  And what does this all mean, everything once—and not so important anymore.

  College, graduate school and becoming an associate in a prestigious Westside law firm have all been predestined and under my control….women at all times were my weakness.

  Handsome, gorgeous, beautiful, charming, attractive, good-looking, seductive, interesting and tempting, these were the labels that I’ve had to grow up with. School was easy; college was a breeze even graduating from Harvard was uncomplicated. Girls, dating and maintaining a relationship had always been a difficult mission.

  The day I met Amber, I was supposed to meet another girl after checking in at my parents’ home. They were throwing a party for me, a barbeque with all my relatives to help celebrate my coming home and graduating Harvard. I had a one-track mind back then; family to me was not all that essential, only girls and my aspirations to get to the top. So meeting my little brother’s new girlfriend was just another fleeting duty until her eyes crashed into mine. To this day I cannot explain it. What happened to me in that moment, I felt like another world had been exposed, a mysterious one, full of new challenges and innovative possibilities. I said hello to her, but Amber didn’t return my greeting, she just kept staring, which I was used to, but I kept my sole focus on her; that I was not familiar with. I watched them walk away, my brother and his new girlfriend and I not only observed them walking away, I envied my brother’s arms around her waist. Damn, that blew my mind. I had never been covetous of anyone, especially my own brother and I had never been that drawn to a woman in all my life and I’ve dated a lot of fascinating stunning females. Gorgeous, Top Ten’s, Playboy worthy and elite model’s; only the prettiest girl would do and I was always very selective and never alone. So meeting Amber that day was probably the worst thing that could have happened to me.

  And the best.

  I was in love with her.

  I guess you could say (and I hate to admit it even to this very day) thirteen years later that I fell in love at first sight. I trusted my own feelings in that I would never allow myself to fully fall for any female. Eduardo Sanchez doesn’t fall in love with anyone. I hated to feel chaotic and confused and females play with a male’s heart and I was never fully prepared for that. I always held the upper hand; if the female got too close to me then I always found a way to let them down gently. Always the winner; never the loser but on that day of the barbecue, I had lost my fuckin mind.

  I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat—I could barely concentrate at work! Good God, I had never been that sporadic. All I wanted to do was touch her, just once, hold her in my arms and test the theory that it was only my curiosity and that I really didn’t need her or require to be by her side; but even that failed and once my investigation was met, my lust took over. Amber was my target, she was my food and I couldn’t exist if I wasn’t able to be near her day or night.

  Good God, I hated those days. Hated knowing I was one of those fools you read about who had been besotted by another human being. One of those stupid idiots I used to make fun of at night clubs or on TV, even at work; watch them crawling on their knees, getting their hearts broken in two. I wasn’t him, I couldn’t be him, but the more I thought about her, the more I was evolving into that moron and there was nothing I could do about it. Amber was always on my mind until I finally couldn’t take it anymore and I had to taste her, had to feel her body next to mine, had to be inside her and I wasn’t going to settle for just one time. Once our affair began, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stop it. Amber was all I ever wanted and I didn’t want the feeling of euphoria to end. Whenever we were together it was like magic; I had never felt so finished, she was like my drug of choice and I was so obsessed.

  I’m in love with her; still in love with Amber.

  And when she gave me that choice on that horrible day, I wished to God I would have told her that I would have left Leticia. Always wished I could go back in time and relive those moments when we were in heat and she was in anguish over my lack of common sense. I would have left Leticia in a heartbeat; I just didn’t want to hurt my family. It was reasonable, even to this day, it is still understandable. Amber said she would have done anything for me and I was such an amateur at love, the one test where I was supposed to come out the winner, I lost again; and nearly lost the love of my life.

/>   Sixteen months of living hell was my punishment for not yielding, sixteen months of anguish and torture of not knowing if she was going to succumb to her comatose state or wake up and forgive me.

  I literally fell to my knees at work when Dr. Hayward called and told me that Amber had finally woken up. Closed my eyes and vowed that I would never be that dumb. Lesson learned, it would never happen to me again.

  Chapter SEVEN

  One Year Later

  “Oh, I hate going to these things,” Amber grumbled, straightening out her evening gown.

  They were at one of the several investor slash shareholder fund raising events that they had been given an invitation to. Eduardo had gotten real good at investing his well-earned money and built his name and holding company up by tenfold and the parties were just fancy excuses to help celebrate everyone having made good ventures.

  “Stop whining,” Eduardo hissed at her, gazing around the room for a familiar face; when he spotted one of his investing partners across the span, he quickly added, “You look great, by the way.” He leaned into her and gave her a soft kiss on her forehead, “Now there’s Anthony Rivera, you know, the investor I told you about last month?”

  Amber gazed out toward her husband’s line of direction; she didn’t see anyone who looked familiar. “Yes, but no, what does he look like?”

  “That’s right, you two never met,” Eduardo realized, getting ready to go over and greet him, “Wait at the bar, I’ll go and bring him over.”

  Bring him over? Wait at the bar? Amber then rolled her eyes and looked over at the elongated mahogany with all the shiny bottles calling out her name. She did what she was told and walked over to have a sit. She waited all but five seconds before the bartender asked her what she wanted to drink. A martini sounded good and the bartender handed her something pink. Two glasses later and she was feeling mighty fine and glanced out at the crowd and didn’t see Eduardo anywhere. How dare he abandon her there!

  Amber was just about to leave her seat when her view was suddenly clouded over by a black tuxedo tie.

  “You’re beautiful,” she heard the tie say.

  Amber then raised her eyes to his face and thought pretty much the same thing. The man was terribly good-looking; she realized immediately and felt a stab of guilt of admitting the observation. Amber just smiled, “Thank you.”

  “Please tell me you came here alone.”

  Amber smiled again and looked down at her crossed legs. The tip of her knee had been exposed along with her long dark tanned legs. At that moment she did feel beautiful and looked up at the stranger and into his eyes. They were brown, but mesmerizing, hypnotic; he was also Latin and very, very pleasant on her eyes. “No,” she nodded, grinning again, only sweetly this time, “I’m here with my husband.”

  The man let out an apparent sigh and tilted his head from one side still admiring the view. “Lucky man,” he said, about to walk away only to be cornered by Amber’s husband.

  “So you met?” Eduardo asked sternly, shifting looks from his wife and then to his investment partner.

  At that moment, Amber felt a shiver go up and down her spine. She couldn’t determine whether it was the alcohol or the new arrival’s apparent physical chemistry. She felt an immediate connection with this stranger and couldn’t understand why.

  Amber then stood up from her perched position and stood up next to her husband, “Um, no honey, we haven’t met.”

  The gentlemen beamed and displayed his pearly white teeth and Amber nearly expired at that moment. Eduardo’s business partner had a polished smile and his eyes lit up when he exposed that grin which only seemed to enhance his magnetic appearance. She was so drawn to this man, it frightened her.

  “So this is Mrs. Sanchez?” The man simply relayed, putting two and two together.

  Amber looked shyly down at the ground first before extending out her hand for him to shake.

  “Tony Rivera, this is my wife, Amber,” Eduardo said next, ignoring their bizarre intense moments.

  Anthony Rivera, aka Tony to his very intimate friends, took Amber’s hand and instead of shaking it like any normal person would do, felt the impulse to kiss the back of her knuckles like a gentlemen of the eighteenth century. He had been so taken by her; he rolled his eyes only to close them because he just made an absolute fool of himself in front of Eduardo and probably pay for it financially later. He didn’t want to come off as looking like he was trying too hard, but he was never one to steal another man’s wife. Don’t get him wrong, Tony has had numerous lovers over the years, all brunettes and his female of choice. Tall, stunningly beautiful with dark or auburn hair and Mrs. Sanchez would have been some trophy. He had just broken up with his live-in girlfriend of seven years; Cara, that was her name, they even had a daughter together, but after they lost her to leukemia, they coasted apart in depression and Tony’s been drifting ever since to one girl to the next. Never wanting to be alone, he tried not to look too desperate but the next few ladies would always stay weeks at a time and grab a few baubles on their way out. His business was booming however and Tony decided to concentrate on making more money and met Eduardo Sanchez through a mutual friend of theirs. Deciding to go into trade with him, he started with a few short-term investments and turned out that those minor interim investments converted into rather large funds and figured being in business with Eduardo Sanchez was a no-brainer, and Eduardo was of equal mind; he was a smart cat and Tony fed off of him and his ideas. Eduardo had a great eye for finance and Tony would throw in his two cents and the both of them would often come out on top. Eduardo would frequently talk about his wife but Tony would always try and change the subject. Eduardo was always so upbeat and seemed too happy, even for him and Tony only wanted to wallow in his misery. He needed some serious help; he needed to get laid.

  Eduardo gave a quick look over at his wife at that moment and saw her embarrassment, or maybe, her enchantment? “So Tony, the ink has already dried,” he jokingly put out turning away from Amber, “There really is no need to score points with the misses.”

  Amber then wrapped her arm around her husband’s forearm and plainly said, “Nice to meet you Mr. Rivera. My husband’s told me nothing but good things about you.”

  Tony beamed and then shoved his hands down his front pant pockets. “It’s Tony,” he offered, making the mistake of dropping his eyes down to Amber’s diamond necklace she had hanging from a chain that conveniently laid on top of her breasts inside her V-shaped gown. It seemed to captivate him. “I have nothing bad to say about him either,” he just said, clearing his throat and raising his eyes back up to hers.

  Eduardo scanned his partner’s stance and immediately picked up on his attraction to his wife and decided now would be a good time to end the night. He would deal with his colleague one on one and on another day; tonight was just too close for comfort. “It was nice to see you Tony,” Eduardo hastily laid out leading Amber away, “Call me tomorrow and we’ll discuss what we talked about earlier, you know, about Long Beach?”

  Tony met eyes with Eduardo first before resting his glare on his wife. “I’ll be at the office all day,” he voiced, giving Amber a small smile. “It was finally nice to meet you Mrs. Sanchez.”

  Amber smiled back, “Nice to have finally met you too, Mr. Rivera.”

  That night, Amber came home a little intoxicated, not only by the two martinis she had drank earlier, but from meeting Eduardo’s new business partner, Anthony Rivera. Why was she so attracted to him at any rate? She had a man! The man of her dreams, so why was this total stranger so out of the ordinary?

  “Turn around,” she heard him say.

  Amber blinked out of her fantasy and over at her husband. He had already discarded his body of his jacket, shirt, tie and pants, was wearing only is boxer shorts and a smile. “Why?”

  “So I can unzip you,” he grinned, grabbing her by the shoulders.

  Amber felt her body twirl around and Eduardo’s hands fondle at her backside when her dr
ess suddenly dropped to the floor and warm, eager hands inched their way up towards her breasts from behind. She arched her back to receive him and his touch, his lips on her neck and without warning, his erection in her buttocks. She didn’t want to do it like that, not tonight and turned around to meet his tongue and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, leading their bodies toward the bed.

  He took the direction and lay on top of her instantly trying to find a home for his pleasure and Amber opened up her legs to welcome him in as Eduardo glided amid her, driving his high point home. Amber reached up to his neck and face and watched in mystification as his eyes turned brown…they were brown, his face had altered into Anthony Rivera’s and Amber shut her eyes to ponder on this illusion that left her heated in the first place and felt her lions pulsate from the wonderful, concentrated orgasm that this stranger was able to stir up. It had been the first time she ever fantasized about another man while making love to Eduardo.