Love Renewed

I can not believe I'm doing this! Nyla thought as they entered her whole floor studio apartment. She sold their house the minute she was able to walk and see again. "Well this is my humble abode. Make yourself at home while I go put my things away. There are drinks in the fridge." She said as she walked to her master suite.

While she went to put her things away Tyler couldn't help but look around her very colorful living space. Her walls were painted turquoise blue, the carpet was the same color but lighter, her furniture was a navy blue, and all the lamps in the living room were pink, the same color as her office chairs. In anybody else's house it would be really loud and ugly but in her house it was just right to fit her personality.

When he entered the kitchen he couldn't help but notice that it was in the same colors as her living room, but they were flip flopped around; the tile was pink with specks of blue, the counters pink marble which had to have been expensive, the table was covered in a pink plastic tablecloth, and all the accessories on the counters were all turquoise blue.

"So did you figure out what you wanted to order yet?" Nyla asked as she walked into the living room as Tyler was coming out of the kitchen.

"Yeah I think we should order a extra large pizza from Tasty's with everything." And they both said,

"Except mushrooms, and anchovies." They laughed as they remembered the time that they used to study and stay up all night eating on pizza.

"Those were the days." Nyla said as she picked up her pink phone to call the pizza place. It was a Friday night in the Fort so Tasty's was going to be a half hour with the pizza.

"I guess we better just sit back and relax then." Tyler stated as he removed his suit jacket and laid it across the back of a chair.

"Yeah, I guess your right. Did you find anything you want to drink while you were snooping in my kitchen?" she asked playfully walking into the kitchen to grab some glasses and ginger ale from the fridge; Tyler was right behind her.

"I wasn't snooping I was just checking the place out I haven't been in here before. I was just wondering if your taste had changed at all, and I can see that it hasn't." he teased.

"So what have you been doing with yourself?" she asked filling the glasses with ice.

"Oh, nothing much just trying to keep our business in the black." He owned the investment consulting firm right next door to her; they often recommend their customers to each other.

"I still can't believe that we work so close together and we hardly see each other any more." She mused out loud.

"I should've never let Shawn pull us apart that way." She said in a sad tone that had him trying to make her feel better.

"What else were you to do give up the man you love to see another man that he wouldn't like you to see?"

Tyler said with a hint of sarcasm in his tone. "Don't be getting smart with me I was just trying to share my feelings with you." Nyla said as she turned too walk away, before she could even set foot out of the kitchen Tyler caught her by the arm and spun her around.

"No body was getting smart wit you girl I was just stating a fact and you just don't want to hear the truth." Tyler said a little more harshly than he intended.

"What truth, the truth that I let a man have control over me wit out even knowing it? I didn't know that he was influencing my life so much until I thought about it after he beat and raped me. So don't tell me I don't want to hear the truth, because I already know the truth!" she exclaimed as he intently listened to every word she said.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to upset you. I was just speaking my mind as well." He let go of her arm to hold out his arms for a hug.

"Friends again?" he asked giving her his crooked sexy smile.

"Alright we can be friends again, just don't go saying stuff like that okay." Nyla said as she walked into his muscular arms. Tyler wrapped his arms around her waist, and she wrapped hers around his neck. It felt so good for Nyla to have someone she trusted hold her it was hard for her to hold her second batch of tears back. She wished that he could be there to hold her every night. She wished that he would touch her the way that a man touches a woman, his woman.

Nyla was surprised that she could feel the insides of her panties grow moist.

She smells so good! I wish I could kiss her right now. Tyler thought as he hugged her tighter. He felt the beginnings of a monstrous erection so he tried to pull away but Nyla tightened her arms and he couldn't resist staying embraced with her. All he could think about is making her feel like the queen she was. The more he thought about making sweet love to her the larger his erection grew.

"Um, Nyla let's sit down". Ty said quickly pulling away from her so that she wouldn't feel his manhood.

"Ok." before they could move to sit down the door bell rang.

"I got it", he said moving to the door and pulling wallet out.

"It's my treat this time, next you can pay." Tyler said before she could even argue about who was going to pay for the pizza.

"Okay because I wasn't going to offer to pay anyway." She said with her famous roll of the eye.

"Whatever." He said going over to answer the door.

"Ten seventy five sir." The delivery boy said. Ty gave him a twenty and told him to keep the change.

"Thanks sir!" the boy said as he handed Tyler the pizza and left.

"That was so nice of you." Nyla said admiring him for being so generous.

"Hey, you know that I know how it feels not to be left with a tip; remember I was a waiter through out college."

"Yes, I do because I use to come and get free food until they threatened to fire you for giving it away." she replied with a joyful laugh. Tyler loved to hear her laugh. Ever since the day that he had met her in Chem. Class and that wonderful laugh he had fallen in love with it. Oh my goodness! He thought. Maybe I also fell in love with her then too. Ty almost dropped the pizza coming to the conclusion that he loved his best friend.

"Hey, are you okay?" Nyla asked as Tyler stopped mid stride and stared at her.

"Tyler." She said with a nervous lilt to her voice.

Maybe he is going to hurt me. She thought as she backed up a few steps; her sudden movement knocked Tyler back into the present.

"Oh, sorry what did you say?" he asked as he walked toward Nyla to sit the pizza on the coffee table.

"No!" Nyla screamed as he got closer and closer to her. Nyla kept trying to tell herself that Tyler wasn't going to hurt her, but she just couldn't get the image of Shawn out of her mind as Tyler approached her.

"What's wrong?" Tyler asked reaching a hand out to touch her arm and steady her. The minute he touched her she screamed.

"No! Don't touch me!" she yelled as she backed further away and into the kitchen.

"Nyla, I'm not going to hurt you it's just me; Tyler." He stated calmly as he slowly walked in the kitchen.

"You've known me for years, you know that I'd never hurt you intentionally." Tyler said walking a little closer to her with each word.

"Are you okay?" he asked trying not to scare her. There were tears running down her face; there was terror and fear in those lovely deep brown eyes. It was making his heart ache that the woman he just figured out he loved was hurt in this manner. All Tyler wanted to do was hold her and make sure that no one would ever hurt her like that again.

"It's okay. Come here you know I won't hurt you baby." He said slowly wrapping his arms around her. Tyler could feel the tiny tremors of fear in her body that wasn't there before when he had hugged her only minutes ago. I wonder what made her react that way. Ty said to himself as he led them to the sofa in the living room. "Nyla, what happened? Did I do something to make you react this way?" he asked hoping that she would answer his question.

"W....when you turned around you didn't s..s..say anything. You just kept staring at me. I thought you were going to hurt me; I wasn't thinking of you I was thinking of Shawn." She paused and took a deep breath, "All I could see was him." She stated in a shaky voice that sent cold chills down his back. Tyler couldn't believe that she still dealt with so much from the trauma of that day. He could understand why, but it didn't seem as if she was dealing with it like she should.

Knowing Nyla as long as he had he could bet money that all she was doing was holding it in.

"Nyla, I'm sorry that this happened to you. I wish I could've done something to stop it." He said quietly.

"Ty, you couldn't have done something if you had tried you didn't know it was going to happen, so don't blame yourself." She said as she tried not to jump as he shifted his body. She wished that she wasn't so scarred. When they had first entered her home she had felt comfortable with him there; it had just felt like old times. But the harder she tried to think of Ty as just her friend it was harder not remember that he was a man, and for the last year she couldn't stand to be in such close confines with a man.

But Tyler was different. Nyla didn't always feel like she had to hide from him; like she did with any other man. The only time she felt that way was when she had flash backs of what had happened to her.

"Hey, Nyla don't get offended but have you been to see a counselor or a psychiatrist?" he asked trying not to set off her explosive temper. Nyla was silent for a minute before answering his question.

"Um, no I haven't." she said in a clipped tone that said he didn't succeed in not setting her off.

"Why, do you think that I'm crazy now?" she asked hopping quickly to her feet.

"No!" he said loudly.

"I'm just asking because it's been over a year and it doesn't seem like you are handling all of this very well." Before Nyla could respond Tyler kept talking,

"I know you better than anyone, you hold everything inside until you can barely handle it and everything then erupts like a damn volcano." He said harshly trying to get her to listen to reason.

"Well why do I need to pay a person to talk to? Since you know me so well why don't you talk to me then." She said sarcastically with a smirk on her face.

"Okay." He said taking her by surprise.

"What?!" She asked thinking that he must be kidding. She didn't need to talk to anyone; the last thing that she wanted to do was relive all the things that had happened to her the past. Nyla especially didn't want to relive it with Tyler. She didn't want the only man that she felt marginally comfortable with and trusted to think that she was a nasty person that she must've did something to deserve what Shawn had did her. Just thinking about it made her shiver.

"Nyla I'm serious, I want to help you get through this. The best way to get past the past is to but it behind you baby. You need to talk about it", he said giving her a hug. As he stepped back he noticed that she only stiffened a little before relaxing as he let her go.

"Alright, I'll talk to you about it, but I have a few rules." She said looking into his eyes to see if he was listening to her completely,

"No pressure, and ah no pressure." She said. Nyla couldn't believe that she had just agreed to talk about what had happened to her. She hadn't told anyone but the cops, and she didn't even have to show up for court because the judge sentenced him only having read the half of the statement that she had written. The question she asked herself was could she really talk to Ty about that traumatic time in her life. The smell of pizza shook her out her deep thoughts as Tyler opened the box to grab a slice.

"Well whenever your ready to talk just let me know." He said around a mouth full a pizza.

"Okay, I will. But let's just relax for tonight I'm tired." Nyla said pushing past him to grab a slice of pizza for herself.

"Alright, so what are we watching?" he asked going into the kitchen to grab his drink.

"Well there is a whole case of DVD's over there why don't you choose." She stated as she plopped down on the couch.

"Okay." He replied as walked over to the case of movies. He wanted to something that he had never seen before so he picked Unfaithful.

"What about this?" he asked showing her the movie. Nyla looked at it and reluctantly said

"Okay." to the movie choice. Tyler then walked over to the TV, turned it on, and put the disc in the DVD player. Just before he sat down he grabbed another slice of pizza, then down close to Nyla. The moment he sat down she hopped up from the sofa and sat in the adjacent chair. Tyler looked at Nyla strangely for a moment then sat back on the sofa figuring that she needed her space. Nyla let out a deep breath of relief that he hadn't commented on her moving away from him. Truth was that needed her space and she didn't herself that wouldn't get herself into something that she wasn't ready for.

**************************** They sat watching the movie in companionable silence for the first thirty minutes of the movie. Nyla was watching the movie but not really hearing it she was more in tuned to Tyler. She couldn't help but be aware of him because she hadn't been alone with a man in over a year. Whether she wanted to believe it or not this situation bothered her a little bit. She couldn't believe that with all of her panic attacks and night terrors that she'd had ever since that life changing moment in her life. The sound of moans startled her back to reality.

This was the first sex scene in the movie, and it heightened the tension in the room. Nyla fidgeted and held her breath while Tyler started breathing audibly faster. Tyler sneaked a look out of side of his eye at Nyla and he could see that she was just as much affected by the sex scene as he was.

"You know that we can skip this part." Ty said in a husky whisper.

"W....well, that would be nice if you don't mind." She said in a shaky voice. That had Tyler quickly skipping the scene.

Thinking that Nyla was upset he asked, "Are you alright?"

"Y....yes, I'm fine." She replied, thinking she was no where close to fine. For the first time in over a year she was fully aroused and it shocked the shit out of her. She couldn't believe that for as long as she had been a scared person living in the shadow of her past she could actually feel the way that was feeling. Nyla was grateful yet disturbed that she felt these feelings for a man that she had known for so long.

Tyler turned to look at Nyla he could tell that she had been bothered by the scene. At first he didn't know if it was from being scared of the memories that the scene had most likely put in her mind, or was it for a whole other reason entirely. Then he looked at her more closely, her nipples were hard and her eye's had widened.

Damn, she's turned on! The thought quickly went through his head. They had started watching the movie again, but he could tell that she was uncomfortable with the whole thing so he took that as his cue to leave before he lost control of his functions.

"Nyla, I think that it's time for me to go. I have an early morning tomorrow." He said quickly while stand to put his jacket on. Nyla turned her head toward Tyler sharply wondering while all of sudden he wanted to leave.

"Why the movie isn't over yet Ty." Nyla said clearly confused.

"I know, but I have lots of work to do." Nyla noticed that he wasn't looking her in the eye and was clearing his throat. She knew well enough that he was lying.

"Tyler, why are you really leaving?" she asked. Ty looked at her for a long moment before he answered the question.

"Because I'm your friend, and I don't want to hurt you." He said bluntly having the desired effect on Nyla. He wanted her to know in some with out right telling her that he was attracted to her.

"What do you mean y...you don't want to hurt me?" Nyla asked standing and putting more distance between them. When she did this Tyler realized that he had chosen the words.

"No, No not physically, mentally" He sucked in a huge breath before he admitted his attraction;

"I like you. I have always liked you. You are not ready for that kind of like and I think I should leave." Tyler said all in one breathe. Before Nyla could say something Tyler was out of the door.

"Oh my." Nyla said out loud while walking to her room for her dreaded nights sleep.