Moore Than Forever (6 page)

Spanking her hard on the right butt cheek, a surprised Mia yelped. Turning her face around to look at him, her eyes stinging with tears, “What was that for?”

Leveling her a steamy glance, “Where do I begin, my non-compliant BBC?” And with that he plunged into Mia’s wet and very compliant pussy.

Gasping, tears ran down her cheeks, “Oh God, you feel good.”

“That is smoochal, my Baby Girl. God, I have missed this. So. Much.” Pulling all the way out of her, he rammed in hard again, Mia’s muscles tightening around him.

Mia groaned, “It feels like you are going to come out my mouth. Did you grow while we were on hiatus?”

Grinding his cock into her deeply, Schooner held Mia’s hips tight as he drove into her again and again, each time deeper and harder.

Mia was turned on by his sounds, each drive accompanied by the sound he made when he served a ball on the courts. Squeezing him as tightly as she could, his groans intensified.

“Keep that up and I will be coming very soon,” he growled.

“It’s our first time, how could I not give you a pussy hug. You know reunited and all that good stuff. And since I’ve already come, you get a free pass on this ‘wham bam, thank you ma’am’ fuck.” She clenched around him as tightly as she could, squeezing, then letting her muscles relax, then squeezing again, slowly, then rapidly, then slowly again, before tightening around his cock as hard as she could and holding it.

“Oh God,” he groaned, digging his fingers into her hips and burying himself as deeply as he could get. Pulling out, he fell onto the bed next to her, “My legs are jelly.”

Mia rolled to her side to face him and immediately got lost in his pale sapphire eyes. “You’re mine,” she whispered.

Nodding, “Yes, I am. I always have been yours.”

“I love you so much, Schooner.”

Reaching out and brushing the bangs from her eyes, “I know you do, Baby Girl.” Leaning forward, he grazed her lips lightly, “So many firsts this year. And soon our first holidays and New Year’s together.”

Something flashed in her eyes that he didn’t quite recognize. A look of concern immediately clouding his own. Cocking his head to the side, silently imploring her,
“Talk to me.”

But Nathaniel was the first to speak and both their heads snapped toward the direction of the video monitor.

“Let me go get him. Somebody wants breakfast in bed.” Schooner laughed, sitting up and swinging his long legs to the floor. As he walked out the door, he turned, “And I think somebody else deserves some breakfast in bed this morning, too.”

Whatever he had seen in her eyes was now gone, replaced with happiness and contentment, sated from making love, as she snuggled back into the pillows to get ready for Nathaniel’s morning feeding.

Chapter Eleven

“Is this your first Christmas tree, Mia?” Holly held Nathaniel close as she walked around the fragrant, live Fraser fir. Her baby brother had not left her arms since she’d arrived a few days earlier.

Mia nodded, smiling. “Yeah, it is.”

Jared sat on the floor laying out the strings of lights as Seth unpacked the boxes of ornaments and ribbons he’d purchased. “Look, BBC, I found you these cool menorah and dreidel ornaments.”

“I’m sure that would make my mother very happy,” Mia rolled her eyes.

“When it’s done, I’m going to take a picture and send it to her.”

“You do that, Princess,” Mia sneered at Seth.

“I will,” he sneered back.

Joining Mia in the open chef’s kitchen, Holly watched as Mia mixed the potato and onion Chanukah latke mixture. “You’re going to have to teach me all this stuff so that I can impress Jared’s mother.”

Laughing, Mia looked at her conspiratorially, “I’ll give you a crash course on making killer chicken soup. You’ll blow her away.”

“And I can tell her that my baby brother is Jewish.” Holly kissed Nathaniel’s cheek, which was getting chubbier by the day from his voracious eating. “I hate to say this to you, Mia, but he looks like Zac.”

Looking up from the food processer, Mia nodded, “I know. I try to think of it as he looks like your dad.” Walking to the refrigerator, she kissed him as she passed by, “Do you look like your daddy, my handsome baby boy?” And to Holly, “Have you spoken to Zac recently?”

“Yeah, a few days ago. He can’t wait to get back to Exeter. He didn’t sound very happy, but he wouldn’t tell me why. I think he might be fighting with my mother.”

Concerned, Mia asked, “Have you mentioned this to your father?”

Holly shook her head no.

Mia began to drop the potato mixture into an oversized skillet filled with hot oil. The first batch of latkes were cooking. Moving to another burner on the Viking stove, Mia stirred the homemade cinnamon apple sauce.

“You probably want to mention it to him so that he can see if there are any real issues and if he needs to send over your grandparents to check on things.”

The elevator opened and in walked Schooner with Charles, Gaby and Paola. “Look who I found in the lobby,” he announced.

“Auntie Meezie,” Paola ran into the kitchen, “I have a present for Baby Nathaniel.”

Mia bent down for a kiss, “I think he might have one for you too, sweetheart.”

Kissing Mia’s cheek, Charles reached for one of the cooling potato pancakes. Mia went to slap his hand, but the latke was in his mouth before she could stop him.

“You thief. Get out of my kitchen.”

“You never made these for me before,” Charles complained.

“It’s very rare that I make them. But maybe this will be the start of a new tradition.”

“Lots of new traditions this year,” Charles commented, now that he and Mia were alone in the kitchen.

Turning to Charles, the look that passed between them was tinged with pain. “Are you ok with doing New Year’s Eve here this year? It will be a lot easier with Nathaniel.”

Rubbing Mia’s arm, Charles reassured her, “I think that change in tradition is a good one. I know this is your first New Year’s Eve with Schooner.”

Mia nodded.

“Does he know?”

“No,” her face still revealed the pain, “not that I’m hiding it, but it just never came up. It’s probably a discussion that we would’ve had before 9/11, except I was in the hospital half unconscious at the time.”

“I’ve never said anything, either. I didn’t know how much he knew.” Charles broke off a crispy edge on another latke.

“When the time is right, I’ll tell him all about him. They both deserve that,” Mia’s eyes locked with Charles’.

“They would’ve liked each other,” Charles smiled, breaking the tension.

Nodding, Mia returned his smile. “I think so, too. I’m really lucky that both of them have been a part of my life.”

They were both silent, lost in their own thoughts.

“What’s with you two, thick as thieves,” Schooner interrupted, handing Charles a scotch.

As if programmed, Schooner’s hand went right to the cooling potato pancakes and he snatched one. Popping it into his mouth, “Mmmm, these are delicious. How come you’ve never made these for me before?”

Turning to the two men, spatula pointed threateningly at them, “Both of you, out of my kitchen. Now. I’m on to you both. Pretending to talk to me and stealing latkes.” Narrowing her eyes and pointing the spatula at Schooner, “You, tall one, make yourself useful and go put ribbons or something at the top of that tree.”

Hearing the exchange from the open living room, Seth yelled, “You know you don’t have to marry her. Get out now.”

“You trying to steal my man, Princess?” Mia was smiling at Seth.

“You just keep on being you, BBC. It’s like taking candy from a baby.”

In front of a roaring fire after dinner, presents for Paola and Nathaniel were exchanged, while Holly, Jared, and Seth continued to work on the tree. Snuggled up against Schooner on the couch with a sleeping Nathaniel in her arms, Mia looked around at the people she loved, and the overwhelming thought that crossed her mind was that she was grateful. It had taken a long time to get to this place. Charles and Seth had been there through the good, the bad and the ugly. Mia inwardly laughed thinking that her escapades gave new meaning to the word ugly. But they had stayed there by her side, weathering it together with tears, laughter, support and some very tough love.

And then there was this beautiful man who she was snuggled against, holding his angelic child in her arms. This man who she held a connection with - a connection that defied time and distance. A connection that was never broken even when they were shattered into sharp, self-destructive fragments. A connection so powerful that she was certain that their souls were entwined in some dimension-defying realm.

Whatever the sources were in the universe that had conspired on the day they met, that provenience was fully aware of the fate that lay before them. Led through a maze of mirrors and dead ends, false starts and photo finishes, punctuated by breathtaking highs and gut wrenching lows, Schooner and Mia would eventually be led by those very same powers to this perfect moment. A moment for which Mia would be eternally grateful, as she basked in its simplicity, surrounded by the abundance of love that she gratefully accepted and wholeheartedly returned without reserve.

Smiling as she felt his lips in her hair, Mia looked up at Schooner, her eyes moist.

“You ok?” he mouthed.

Nodding, she smiled and then looked away, staring into the mesmerizing flames of the fire, in an attempt to compose herself.

“I love you, Baby Girl,” he whispered into her ear.

Mia wanted to tell him it was smoochal, but getting words past the burning lump in her throat was not going to happen. Instead, she buried her face in their son’s soft, sweet cheek and melted deeper into Schooner’s side.

Chapter Twelve

The late March sun was streaming through the southern exposure windows of Mia’s office, warming the room, as Nathaniel amused himself in his Exersaucer, cooing at the plastic jungle animals. Mia focused intently on the advertising copy on her laptop, trying to tighten a good concept into a snappy, succinct ad.

Picking up her ringing cell, Mia smiled at the picture of Schooner holding Nathaniel. “Hi Babe.”

“Hey, Baby Girl.”

She could hear it immediately in his voice. Something was very, very wrong. “Schooner, what’s the matter?”

“My mom just called. My dad was out golfing today with Zac and some friends and he had a heart attack.”

“Oh my God, is he ok?” Mia’s sharp tone scared Nathaniel and she watched as his face crumbled, his lower lip starting to tremble. Putting Schooner on speaker, she laid her cell on her desk and went to Nathaniel, lifting him out of his seat.

“Yeah, I think so, it appears that it was mild and there was only a small amount of damage to the front of his heart, but they have him in CCU.”

“Are there blockages?” Mia was gently swaying with Nathaniel, softly saying, “shhh” in his ear to calm him down. With his head on her shoulder, she could feel him relaxing and getting heavier with sleep.

“It doesn’t appear that he’s going to need a bypass. They are evaluating a stent in one artery.”

“How is your mom doing? And Zac?” Mia’s heart went out to them both. How scary for Dee, she thought, to see her husband of forty-five years, the patriarch of the family, the man whom she leaned on, downed without any warning. And what a difficult thing for an almost eighteen year old to have to have witnessed.

“They are both very badly shaken up. Can you get away for a few days?”

His voice told her he needed her by his side. Her and Nathaniel.

“Of course. I just need to get with Kami and Seth and migrate some work over to the team and cancel my appointments for the rest of the week. Do you want me to get Seth to book us flights?”

“Yes. That would be great. It’s kind of late in the day now, see what he can get us for first thing in the morning either into LAX or John Wayne. If we can get a flight into John Wayne, we’ll only be about five or six miles from the hospital.”

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of everything. I’ll meet you at home in a couple of hours.” Nathaniel was now fast asleep on her shoulder.

“Mia, thank you,” his voice was soft.

“Oh Baby, I just wish I could make it better and that I was there to hug you.”

The weight on Schooner was evident in his voice. Control. Protect. Fix. That was his M.O. and things that were out of his realm of control disturbed him deeply. Especially when those he loved were at risk.