PosterBoyForAverage (18 page)

“Come with me,” he said. They’d ditched their almost-full
trays of food and wandered back toward Chuck’s room and the hospital’s main
entrance.

Aubrey felt a little sad. He’d be putting her in a car and
sending her off to a room. She’d offered to walk but he’d told her she was
crazy. No way.

“There’s the doctor,” Mike said, half yawning. “I’m going to
check in.”

Off he went, still clutching one of her bags. She grinned.
He looked cute with her messenger bag slung over his shoulder. She leaned
against the wall and stifled her own yawn.

Aubrey shut her eyes for a second. In her mind’s eye she saw
him in the sand. She saw the ocean, very close to the color of his eyes. She
saw the stormy skies and smelled the ocean breeze. She wanted to be back there
with Mike. Just a while longer. Together, alone. A cocoon of time and romance.

She laughed softly, eyes still shut. She was so damn tired.

“He looks so happy with you.”

The voice was so soft that Aubrey thought at first that
maybe she’d fallen asleep and was dreaming. She cracked one eye when she
realized who it must be, her heart thundering.

“I…oh…um—”

Angela held up a hand. “You surprised me down there.”

She looked exhausted up close and Aubrey felt herself
fighting a wave of empathy for the woman. “I surprised me,” she admitted.

Angela did smile then. “I could tell. But it’s good. When
you fall for someone you should go…is it crass to say balls to the wall to my
ex’s new girlfriend?”

Aubrey snorted. “Nope. It’s fine. It seems to be a very
weird, stressful day. I know…well, I know you and I aren’t going to be all
there-were-birds-and-flowers-and-flutes-were-playing any time soon, but I hope
everything is okay with Chuck. I really do.”

The other woman nodded. “I know. He’s a good kid. And he—”
She nodded briskly toward Mike. “He is a good man. The stress of all this is
what separated us first. Then we realized we’d been limping along with patches
and glue on our relationship anyway. But bottom line is, he’s a good guy but
this is a hard situation.”

“I know, “Aubrey said. “But I’m in for the long haul.”

Angela nodded again. “Good for you. Now, let me go see what
they’re saying.”

“Can I get you a coffee or something?” Aubrey asked, wanting
to extend an olive branch of some kind.

Angela shook her head and stifled another yawn. “Thanks, but
when I do get myself wedged into one of these hospital chairs, I want to sleep
if I can.” She waved at Aubrey, a little inside joke, and then off she went.

Mike returned, looking worried. “Did she—”

“She was fine. I was fine. We were fine,” Aubrey said. “And
clearly I’ve turned into Dr. Seuss so maybe I need to go to that hotel room
after all. Let the family deal with—”

“They’re kicking me out,” he said, taking her hand.

“What do you mean?”

“The nurses are real ball-busters, especially when it comes
to kids.” He pulled her along. When Mike realized her reluctance he held her
close and whispered, “He’s asleep. It’s fine for me to leave, Aubrey.”

Aubrey relaxed. The idea of her being the reason he wasn’t
with his son was unthinkable.

“They said one parent overnight. That’s obviously going to
be his mom, since Joshua is asleep. And even ball-buster nurses aren’t going to
wake up a kid and make him move.”

Now that she knew they were leaving, the fatigue she’d been
doing so well ignoring hit her like a train. “Won’t he miss school?”

“Homeschooled. That’s why they’re here visiting family as it
is. Once things started to progress, school was a nightmare. Just trying to
juggle it all and then deal with absences and so forth. Angela decided to
homeschool him. And when that happened, Joshua decided he wanted to be with his
brother.”

They’d made their way down to the main lobby and the large
automatic doors whooshed open. They moved through the vestibule and the outer
doors peeled back to let in a blast of night air. It smelled like fall. It
smelled peaceful. It was the best-smelling air that Aubrey had ever smelled.

She stumbled a little over the metal lip of the door and
then Mike’s arm was around her waist and he was kissing her temple. “Long-ass
day, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s get to the hotel and maybe have a snack.”

“I wonder if they sell alcoholic beverages,” she laughed. “I
think I could go for a vodka and soda or a glass of wine or a keg of beer…”

“How about wine from the liquor store up on the corner.”

“How do you know there’s a liquor store on the corner?”

“I asked the nurses. I said ‘when I get out of here I wanted
to buy a bottle of something for a gorgeous woman and toast her induction into
my insane life.’” He paused under one of the blazing sodium streetlamps and
wrapped his arms around her. Aubrey thought if they stayed that way long enough
she might fall asleep standing up in his arms. “You’ve weathered your first
difficulty being my girl.”

Being my girl…

The phrase made her heart beat faster. “I gladly weathered
it. I want to be by your side. I want—”

He kissed her. His lips were soft and warm and seeking. “I want
you.”

“Aren’t you tired?” she asked, worried. But even as she
asked it, her body was gearing up to accept his. Everything was warmer and
softer and wetter than before. She could feel the change come on as suddenly as
heat lightning and she felt herself blushing.

“What?” Mike asked.

She shook her head, sighed. “Nothing. I’m just so damn easy
for you.”

He grinned and then they were walking again. “Thank God for
that. I think I’m too tired to woo tonight. I just want a glass of wine and to
slip into a hot shower.”

She sighed heartily at the thought.

“And then slip into a hot woman.” He said it right up
against her neck so the vibration of his words triggered a shiver in her. There
was that heat in her cheeks again. Among other places.

* * * * *

She touched his soapy back. Mike was facing away from her
and she could see the suds and soap bubbles sluicing down the lines of his
muscular back. He was still brown from the sun and it made her just a bit
nostalgic for summer. Even though she mostly hated the heat.

Aubrey had been the one to vote shower, then wine, then
other things. But being close to him in the heated steam, smelling the shampoo
and soap and warm rich smell that was the natural scent of Mike, she felt a bit
weak-kneed and giddy. Maybe it was the heat of the small room.

“Why are you staring at me?” he asked, not turning to look
at her.

“How do you know I’m staring at you?”

“You’re touching me, aren’t you?”

So she was. Even as she stood there relishing being this
close to him, she realized her hand was gliding up and down his back. Her
fingers tickling along the muscles that stood out and the freckles and the
small scar above his left shoulder blade. She fingered it again.

“My brother stabbed me with a wooden sword from Hershey Park
when we were kids. We were playing pirates and I stole his booty.”

She snorted softly, amused to picture him as a kid. Being a
total boy. Running and playing pirate and getting stabbed. It was an easy thing
to imagine.

He turned fast and pushed her against the cool tile. Aubrey
gasped. “Why are you staring, Aubrey?” he asked again.

He gave her a Big Bad Wolf grin and her arousal shot through
her so fast she felt shaky.

“I guess…” He kissed her nose, her forehead, her mouth.

“I’m waiting.”

“I guess I’m overwhelmed by you.”

“By me?” His hand knifed its way up her inner thighs so that
the edge of it bumped against her clit. Her heart jumped. Her stomach dropped.

“Yes by you. I’ve never…been with anyone like you. Anyone as
secure being himself as you. As loving as you. As handsome as you. As…” Her
words trailed off and he dropped low, kissing and licking the water off her
breasts. He paused to suckle her nipple, sliding his fingers between her legs.
He found her wet and ready and drove a finger inside. When she moaned, arched
forward and took him easily, he added another two fingers.

She was full of him. His fingers thrusting and dragging
against her G-spot. His mouth on her nipples, his tongue sliding along the
slope of her breast. He pressed the pad of his thumb to her clit and pressed
it.

Aubrey came. Shaking against the wall, her fingers gripping
him so she wouldn’t fall.

“We should—”

“Not done,” he mumbled.

His mouth was on her then. Warmer than the shower water. His
tongue insinuated itself between her folds. He tasted her and when he grew more
aggressive, lapping at her, giving her small bites along her nether lips, she
found herself breathless and flushed and coming. Coming hard, saying his name,
asking him to take her to bed. “Please, please, Mike, please…”

He took her hand and led her to the bedroom.

In the bedroom, she climbed onto yet another luxurious hotel
room bed and rolled to her belly. Got up on her knees.

“What’s this?” he asked. His palm smoothed down over the
slope of her hip, the swell of her ass.

“It’s what I want.”

“Is it now?”

His voice held that slow, smoky quality Aubrey now
recognized as arousal.

She moved her ass from side to side slowly. Wooing him. “It
is.”

“You don’t want to look at my pretty face?” he teased. “I
like looking at yours.” He was already running his cock slowly along her wet
pussy. She shut her eyes, hung her head.

“I love looking at it, in fact,” he murmured.

He penetrated her, just the tip pushing inside her. Her body
closing quickly around it, thrumming with anticipation and need. She tried to
push back but he stalled her with his hands on her hips.

“I love looking at your face too,” she mumbled, trying to
move back. He stayed firm, not letting her.

“But?” He pressed forward, entering her a little more.
Stretching her slowly. Her body ached dully to be filled. Her head felt muzzy,
her ears rang.

“But I want you to…” She hesitated. When he began to
withdraw slowly, she gasped and blurted, “No! I want you to take me. I need
that. I want that. After the day we’ve had and the confusion and your ex and…”
Aubrey shook her head, feeling inept with her words. Her sexual desire was overwhelming
her ability to speak.

“Tell me.” His fingers walked down her spine. Mike’s touch
was soft. It left her feeling as if she might have imagined his touch.

“Realizing how I feel about you. It’s all so big. So huge. I
need this from you. I need you to—”

Her words were cut off because he gave a sound that was more
like a growl than anything and drove into her. Aubrey heard her breath leave
her lungs as if it were happening to someone else.

She moaned softly as he gripped her hips with rough fingers
and thrust hard so that he filled her. All the extra chatter in her head dropped
away. She was nothing but pleasure-soaked nerve endings. She was mingled with
Mike Sykes. She left off where he began and she began where he left off.

Her heart jumped almost painfully with every thrust and she
pushed her forehead to the sweet-smelling hotel sheets. He reached beneath her
to put his fingers to her clit but she said, “No, I don’t need that. I’ll come
anyway.”

“I thought I was taking you, Aubrey. I want to do this. I
want to touch you. Hush.”

He touched her and within three gentle strokes coupled with his
thrusting cock, she came, sobbing against the small pillow. She began to laugh
a little but then it turned to a cry again as he hiked her closer and angled
her hips for his pleasure.

She gasped, clutching the sheets, moving back to take him as
deep as she could. To feel him as much as she could.

“Remember what you said in the shower?” His voice was dark
and deep. On the verge of letting go. He sounded very much like a man about to
lose his control and surrender to what his body wanted.

“What? Which part?” she babbled. Her hands were trembling.
Her hair curtained her face and she felt his finger press against her back
hole.

She found herself wishing he’d push it in. All the way.
Before he came.

She opened her mouth to say it but he cut her off, answering
her question. “That you were overwhelmed by me.”

“Yes, that. Yes, I do. I am…” She tried to press back
invitingly. Asking him with her body to push that finger into her there. To
fuck her with his cock and fuck her with his finger and just fuck her. Take
her. Make her his completely.

“I feel the same way. Overwhelmed by you.” He moved his
finger and she gave a little desperate cry. His other hand skated through her
juices and then he was lubricating her ass with it. “Humbled by you…”

His finger played over her tightest hole again.

“Amazed by you…”

He pressed steadily and then his finger was sliding into
her. Moving against the fragile barrier of flesh that separated cunt from ass.
She felt him moving inside her in both places and it made her head spin.

“Completely in love with you,” he said softly, and pressed
deeper still.

She came with a loud sob, her eyes prickling with tears, her
body shaking with surrender.

“I love you too. I love you too…” She said it a few more
times and when he came, she listened to the sound of his breathing, felt the
tension and relaxation that swept through his body. She was right there in that
moment with him and not another damn thing mattered.

They poured wine when they were done. But hardly drank any.
They were too tired and too ready to simply wind around each other and fall
into the dark, deep rabbit hole of sleep.

* * * * *

The phone was ringing. This was becoming a pattern, Aubrey
thought. When they slept in the same bed they woke to some intrusion. Someone
knocking on the door. The phone ringing.

Then her head cleared and she realized it could be the
hospital. She fumbled for her phone and it dawned on her it would be his phone.
It was. Mike was moving slow, so deep in sleep he couldn’t seem to wake up. She
grabbed the phone as he reached blindly.

Aubrey laughed lightly. As if he could answer the phone when
he couldn’t even open his eyes. “Hello?” she said softly.

“Aubrey? It’s Angela.”

Aubrey sat up straight. “Is it Chuck? Is he okay—”

“He’s fine, he’s fine.” She swore she heard the other woman
smile.

Mike was sitting up reaching for the phone when Angela said,
“Actually, I called to speak with you.”

“Me?” She put her hand on Mike’s and squeezed for a moment.

“I wanted to thank you for not holding my glares against me.”

“I—”

The other woman barreled on. “It’s hard to let go of
something that was, something that created children you adored, even if you
know it’s over. And it
is
over.”

Aubrey felt more relief than she cared to admit at that
declaration. Mike was awake now. Sitting up behind her, kissing her shoulder
softly.

“I understand,” was all Aubrey could think to say.

“I wanted to say thank you for understanding. And for being
nice to the boys when you met them. I’ve heard Joshua wax poetic about how you
seem like the right woman for his father.”

Aubrey didn’t know what to say. Which was fine, because Mike’s
ex went on without taking a breath.

“Which is a bigger deal than you might think, because the
last girl Mike dated, Josh glued her hair to the back of the sofa.”

A wild giggle escaped Aubrey and Mike cocked an eyebrow.

“So I wish you luck. I want to start our acquaintance with
good karma. I will do my best not to be bitchy and judgmental. But sometimes I
might slip.”

“And I will do my best not to be jealous and unsure of
myself,” Aubrey said. “But sometimes I might slip.”

She could tell Angela was smiling. “I really do wish you
luck. It’s easier to say on the phone than in person later. Which reminds me,
please tell Mike that they’re letting Chuck go today. The congestion is easing.
They feel he can recuperate at home.”

“I will,” Aubrey said. “We’ll see you soon. And Angela?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you. For the olive branch.”

“One of my better moments.” She laughed and disconnected.

“Who was that?” Mike said. Though she knew he knew.

“My new friend Angela.”

“Friend?” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her
close. They were still half-buried in the sheets.

“Well, we’re going to give it a shot. For the boys. One of whom
is being sent home today because they think he’s good to go.”

He just looked at her and then grinned. “Great. For the boys.”

“And for you. We all deserve moving forward with good karma,
right?”

Mike just nodded. “Exactly. We do. Now have I mentioned that
you are super sexy in the morning?”

“No.”

“And that you make me want to throw you back in the bed and
never get out?”

“Nope. Not that either.”

He took her face in his hands, growing serious. “And that I
love you?”

“Now that one you might have mentioned,” she said, accepting
his kiss and returning it. “But I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing
it.”