A Bad Bit Nice (17 page)

Em looked at Mick and asked, “May I?” Mick nodded. Em kissed the portrait of Grace, then the babies and Grace’s bump. Finally, she kissed each of the memorial names that decorated his chest.

Em looked up to Mick’s face to see silent tears coursing down his cheeks. She forced him to sit on the bed and held him to her, stroking his head as sobs wracked his body. When he quieted, he pulled her to him, covering them both with the quilt. Em kissed Mick’s mouth, his teary eyes, and his strong jaw as she gathered him into her arms to sleep. As she drifted off, she heard Mick’s prayer of thanks.

When Em returned to the bed after an early morning trip to the restroom, she found Mick looking at her with a lazy hunger.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said, slipping back into the bed and nestling into his chest.

“You didn’t. I was waiting for you to wake up so I could thank you.”

“I should be the one thanking you, Mick. That thing you did to me, against the wall and on the couch? That was incredible.”

Mick chuckled. “It was my pleasure. But I think you know that’s not why I’m thanking you.”

Em’s only reply was to kiss Mick’s jaw.

“’B’y, that’s so nice,” he murmured, rubbing his hands over her bare back. Em looped an arm around his neck, but then pulled it back to her side. Mick cocked his head at her, trying to figure out what was going through her head. He lifted her arm back around his shoulder and softly kissed the striated stretchmarks there.

“Are these what you’re self-conscious about?” he murmured, his lips softly brushing her arm.

Em didn’t say a word as Mick kicked off all the covers and scooted back a bit to take all of her in. He peppered kisses across her belly and thighs while caressing her bottom and making appreciative noises. His fingers danced across the trimmed triangle of hair that covered her sex before he placed a soft kiss on her mound. Kissing his way up her body, Mick finally settled back into the pillows, pulling Em close and continuing to pet and explore her with his hands and mouth.

Em pulled back and looked him in the eyes. “We should do exactly this for as long as we need to. You know there’s no pressure to do anything more, right?” Her fingers drifted over his bearded jaw to touch his soft mouth.

Mick caught her fingers in his hand and brought them to his lips. “I know. But maybe I want to do something more.”

He kissed her softly on the mouth, his hands on the side of her face. Murmuring soothing nonsense syllables into her neck as he kissed her, his hands moved over her breasts to thumb her nipples. Em purred with desire and arched her back into him, thrusting out her breasts to give him easier access to them.

Mick rolled to his back, pulling Em on top of him. His hands wandered down over her hips and over her shapely bottom. She tilted her hips over him and he sucked in a hissed breath.

Em sat up on the bed, straddling his body. His hands moved over her breasts, plucking the nipples and making them bead to hard points. She put her hands on his chest and ran them over his pecs and down to his hard abs. She leaned down over him to kiss his neck, then down to lightly bite at his nipple. Mick’s hands roamed over her back and ass while Em sucked one nipple and then the other.

Mick groaned with need. “Before this goes further, let me get something.” Mick rolled his upper body over to open the nightstand drawer. He pulled out two boxes of condoms.

“Um, wow. Planning on being busy?” Em said, stifling a snicker.

Mick made a face. “Do you have a preference?” he asked, waving the boxes in the air.

“Lemme see. Ooh, nice, big boy condoms. But not these,” she said, leaning over him to put one box on the nightstand. “I’m allergic to the spermicide. That’s absolutely no fun.”

“Okay, no spermicide. Good to know.” Mick flushed under his beard, his neck getting red. “I hope I wasn’t being presumptuous.” Mick wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Sugar, I’m naked in your bed, sitting on top of you. I don’t think you’re being presumptuous at all,” Em laughed.

“Look at me, Mick.” Mick met Em’s eyes. “We don’t have to do this. We can take it as slow as you feel comfortable with, okay?” Em kissed Mick softly on the mouth, tugging his bottom lip between her teeth. She ran her hands over his pecs, smoothing the hair there.

Mick rolled her off of him and pulled her to his side. Propping himself up on one arm, his other hand wandered back to her hips, tracing the tattoos on them. “I’ll be honest, Em. It’s been a long, long time.” His voice trailed off.

“Um, exactly how long are we talking here, Mick?” Em asked, continuing to run her fingers through his chest hair.

“How long has it been for you?” he deflected.

“Since I had sex with another person?” she asked. Mick huffed a laugh, thinking about the toy he’d found in her bathroom. “Three years. And no, I didn’t really end things with Tripp until about a year ago, but he hadn’t touched me in over two years before that.”

“He’s a fool, Em,” Mick said softly, giving her shoulders a soft squeeze. “Such a goddamn, fucking fool.” He was quiet a moment while he placed a soft kiss on her head. “As for me—well,
Nevermind
had just come out, and I remember thinking it was a great album to fuck to.”

“Twenty years?” she said in disbelief. “This,” she waved her hands over his body, “has gone 20 years without a woman?”

“Is that a problem? It’s not like I’m completely inexperienced.” Mick frowned, and he wasn’t sure, but he thought he might need to be offended.

“Mick, honey, what you did to me earlier? If you’d been more expert at it, I seriously think I would have lost consciousness. Plus, look at you! You must have had women throwing themselves at you for the past two decades!”

“I was in no mental shape for any kind of intimacy for a long, long time, Em.” Mick sighed, and closed his eyes. “In fact, you’re the first person that I’ve done more than peck on the cheek since Grace passed away. So I’m gonna ask you again: is it a problem?”

As an answer, Em pushed him back into the mattress and swung her leg to straddle him. She ground her hips against him, her wet folds caressing his hard length.

“No, sugar, it’s not a problem at all,” she whispered in his ear before she placed a soft, hot, open-mouthed kiss on his neck.

She smiled at him and Mick tangled his hands in her hair, holding her head still so he could look in her eyes. He cupped her face with his hands, while she continued to swivel on top of him.

“Let’s get you suited up, okay?” Em purred as she plucked a condom from the box and ripped the package open. She grinned impishly and put the condom in her mouth. She scooted down his body. With her ass in the air, she knelt down and took his cock in her hands. She placed her mouth over the swollen head as she used her lips to roll the condom down his rock-hard shaft, sucking him up and down. She released her mouth and stroked him, making sure the condom was securely in place.

Mick made a loud exhale. “Sweet Janey Mac, Em, I’m not going to last if you do much more of that.”

“Mick, sugar, that condom is really tight. Does it feel okay?”

“Yeah, I guess. I haven’t worn one in a long time, but yeah, it’s okay, I think.”

With a throaty laugh, Em raised herself up and guided him into her softness. She lowered herself slowly, taking him into her gradually, feeling him stretch her to her limits. She raised herself up, and then lowered herself again. The only sounds audible were those of their lovemaking and the small noises of pleasure that escaped both of them.

Mick watched her breasts bounce and shake as she shimmied against him. He leaned forward to nip at them while he rolled his hips beneath her. Em made a deeply contented noise as she rode him.

“God, you fill me up. I haven’t ever felt this full, Michael.”              

Em’s face was serious as she gazed down at him, her brown eyes soft as she ran her fingers over his lips. He caught them between his teeth and playfully nipped at the pads. He moved a hand from her hips to roll her sensitive nub with his thumb. Em suddenly shattered, calling his name and arching her back and bucking her hips in pleasure.

Mick rolled their still-connected bodies over, pushing her back into the mattress. Em wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him to her to kiss his mouth.

Mick moved one of her legs to his shoulder and lifted himself up to look at where his hard cock met her slick, wet core.

“Fuck,” he growled.

Em let out a low chuckle and arched her breasts toward his chest. Mick kept his eyes glued to their joining, slowly pushing deeper and deeper until he was firmly rooted inside her. He stopped his movement and searched Em’s lovely face. She grinned up at him and flexed her core, squeezing around him and eliciting a surprised chuckle from Mick.

“You okay, sugar?” Em asked. Mick nodded and she placed a soft kiss on his neck.

Em thrust her hips up to Mick. Unable to contain his need, he furiously pounded into Em’s flattened softness, pumping more quickly than Em thought was humanly possible. He roared as he came, groaning Em’s name in time with the hot spurts of his release. The walls of her core throbbed, milking him as he spent.

He gave her his full weight for a moment, wanting to get as close to her as possible, but then rolled off of her when she lightly tapped him on the back. He lay panting on the bed as Em crawled over him and put her head on his damp chest so that she could hear his still thundering heart. She stroked his chest hair and pressed her mouth to his pecs, clinging to him.

“You sure you’re all right, sugar?” Em asked, her own heart beating like a drum in her chest.

“Em, I think…”

“Yeah, I think so, too.”

Mick’s hand met Em’s on his cock, and they locked eyes.

“Fuck,” was all he could say. “FUCK!”

“Mick, hey, Mick, sweetheart. It’s okay. I can’t get pregnant. It’s not a possibility. Look at me, Mick.” Em put her hand on his face and turned it toward her. “I can’t get pregnant. You don’t have to worry.”

“You’re on the pill? Your tubes tied?”

“Something like that. Don’t worry, sugar.”

Mick sat on the edge of the bed and tore off the broken condom. He rested his head on his hands, elbows on his knees, chest heaving. Em wrapped her arms around his chest and kissed the side of his neck.

“Honey, where are your washrags?”

Mick got up and stalked to a linen closet inside the bathroom. Em shooed him back to bed and took her time running the washcloth under warm water, allowing him a moment to pull himself together.

After she cleaned him and herself up, Em crawled back in bed and wrapped herself around Mick. She kissed his cheek.

“After I found out that Tripp was unfaithful, I got tested, and everything came back fine. There’s been no one else since.”

Mick laughed, somewhat bitterly. “Well, you know my situation.”

“So what do you say that we don’t mess with the condoms, okay? Or at least, until you can get some double extra-large ones. I bet you can find some on the internet. We don’t have to do this again until you find something that you’re comfortable with.”

“Oh, but I want to do ‘this’ again, girlie. I actually kind of want to do ‘this’ again, right now.”

“Really?”

“Really.” He pointed at the tented sheet. “
Really
really.”

“Well, what are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?”

“You sure?”

“Are
you
sure, Mick?” she asked, her brown eyes searching his blue ones.

Mick chuckled. “Yeah, I’m good, Em. Give us a tiss, ducky.”

“I think I’m going to need a dictionary,” she said with a giggle.

“Em, give me your mouth.”

Smiling, she offered Mick her mouth, and he pulled her to him and kissed her sweetly.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face behind his ear as he rolled his body into hers.

The noticeable absence of Em woke Mick mid-morning. After 20 minutes of hopeful lounging in the bed, the smell of coffee and other breakfasty things lured him into the kitchen.

Em was standing at the stove with a mug of coffee, looking very at home in one of his shirts, her hair mussed and her eyes still a bit sleepy behind her glasses. Her face lit up with a smile when she saw Mick emerge from the bedroom, wearing only a pair of gym pants, his hairy chest bare except for the designs inked on it.

Mick stopped in the doorway, just looking at her. It had been 20 years since he’d had a woman in his kitchen, wearing his clothes, making him food. It was nice. It was right.

It scared him to death.

“What?” she asked as he leaned against the door jamb.

“You’re still a bad bit nice, even all mops and brooms,” Mick said as he pulled out a chair from the small kitchen table and sat down.

“Okay, that’s the second time you’ve said ‘bad bit nice’ and I think I know what that means, but I’ve no idea about the mops and brooms thing,” Em said.

“It means you’re beautiful, even with your hair all mussed and untidy.” Mick sighed contentedly and looked her over again, his eyes still heavy with sleep.

“That’s very sweet, Mick,” Em said. “Do you always wear so little around the house when you’re alone?” She waved a spatula at his long body. “You’re very tempting. I might have to have a bite of you.”

“No, I’m usually fully dressed, even with shoes, but this isn’t a typical morning.”

“How so?” Em slid some scrambled eggs onto a plate, along with a piece of toast.

“Because there’s a beautiful woman in my kitchen, cooking me breakfast,” Mick said with a smile, his eyes crinkling at the corners again. God, she loved that.

“You’re so sweet. I’m
definitely
going to have to have a bite of you.”

Em leaned over to kiss him and put the plate down on the table.

“Is bedbeard a thing? Because I totally think you have bedbeard.” Em ran her hand over Mick’s rumpled jaw line.

“I think it’s a sign that I’m due for another trim,” Mick said, trying to smooth his beard.

“I don’t know. I definitely like the shorter haircut,” she said, running her hands over the now close-cropped hair above his ears and the along the back of his head, “but the beard? I like that longer. I also like the way it feels on my...everything.” Em waggled her eyebrows.

Mick pulled her into his lap. They fed each other bites of eggs and toast while Mick nuzzled Em’s neck, one hand resting on her bare thigh.

“This is really nice, you know,” he said, kissing her cheek. “I think I could get used to this.”

Em leaned into him and put her head on his shoulder. She sighed deeply. “I leave tomorrow for business again. I won’t be back for two weeks.”

Mick squeezed her thigh. “I figured you’d be leaving pretty soon. Boston, this time?”

“How’d you know?”

“Remember, Rory’s my best friend. We keep tabs on one another; look after the houses, water plants, et cetera.”

“Rory doesn’t seem like the type to have houseplants.”

“No, even his silk plants are dead. It’s amazing really.”

“And yet you take the time to water dead silk plants? You’re a good friend.” She laughed, and then sighed. “I’m going to miss you, Michael.”

“You’ll be back in two weeks, right? That’s not so long, I guess.”

She kissed his jaw and ran her nose behind his ear. He still smelled like Mick, faintly of tobacco and mint, but now there was an additional musky note of sex.

Em shifted to straddle him in the kitchen chair. Mick’s hands wandered beneath the shirt that she was wearing to discover that she was naked under it. He groaned as his hands roamed over her bare ass, her wet heat that pressed into his groin. He unbuttoned the shirt and slipped a hand inside to stroke her breast. Em practically purred with pleasure as he teased her nipple to tautness.

He kissed her deeply and she wiggled against him. Em pressed her bare body to his chest, her arms thrown around his shoulders, kissing his neck. She lifted up, still straddling him, pulled his now hard cock out of his gym pants, and slowly lowered herself on him, taking him inside her completely. When she engulfed him to his hilt, she rocked gently on his lap, eyes locked on his.

Em loved the intimacy of this position, their torsos pressed against each other with the hair on Mick’s chest providing a delightful friction against her own smooth breasts, his strong arms wrapped around her back and holding her against him, her feet wrapped around the legs of the chair to counterbalance his deep strokes.

Mick rested his forehead against the curve between her neck and shoulder, his teeth biting his soft lower lip in pleasure. Em groaned and her head dropped back, giving Mick access to her soft throat. His soft kisses on the sensitive flesh of her neck soon spawned the beginnings of her orgasm. Mick moved his hands to her hips so he could control her motions, plunging into her with deep, hard thrusts.

They were so consumed with each other and their pleasure that they didn’t hear the front door open.

“Oi, Mick, before you get caught up short here are the…”

Em shrieked and leapt off of Mick’s lap, running into the bedroom.

“Well, I guess you took care of things, right?” Rory smirked.

“Jesus Christ, Rory. You need to knock!”

“Oi, put that thing away. I don’t need to see that cock of yours.”

Mick adjusted himself as he stood and glared at Rory. “Did ya need somethin’, b’y?”

“No, I don’t need anything,” Rory said as he slammed a box of condoms on the countertop. “I saw enough to know you’re riding bareback. I know it’s been a long time, but be smart, Mick.”

Mick was suddenly furious. “Get outta my sight before I give ya a crack, Rory!”

Rory’s jaw worked. He started to say something but thought better of it. He walked to the front door and turned to Mick. “Be. Smart.” he said, and then yelled, “Nice tat, Em. Now I see why you never wear skirts on site,” and went out the door, slamming it behind him.

“You know he means well.” Em leaned against the wall to the kitchen, pulling Mick’s shirt closed around her body.

“Yeah, I know. I’m sure it’s hard for him, too, even though he’s the one that’s been bugging me for years to get back out there.”

Em moved to Mick and put her arms around him, leaning her head against his chest to hear the thump of his heart. She stretched up on her toes and kissed his chin. Mick gazed down at her and stroked her hair. Then he scooped her up and took her back into the bedroom.

*****

Em traced the script lettering over Mick’s heart with her finger. She knew he wasn’t asleep, but when a question rumbled out, it still caught her by surprise, making her startle a bit.

Mick gave out a sleepy chuckle. “You’re a bit jumpy, Em. Didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, giving her a soft kiss on her hair.

Mick felt Em smile against his chest. “I wasn’t expecting you to talk,” she said quietly, and then fell silent again.

“What’re you thinking about?”

Em finished tracing the last name before she spoke. “I was just thinking about this,” she said, running a flat palm over the names she’d just traced and down the portrait that decorated his ribcage. “It’s beautiful, both the work itself and the meaning behind it. I...hope you didn’t mind me touching it.”

“You’ve had your hands all over my body for the past,” Mick checked his watch, “48 hours, Em.”

“You know what I mean, Mick. I had wondered all these months why you pressed your chest or ribcage sometimes. I was dying of curiosity,” Em admitted with a soft laugh.

Mick sighed. “I don’t even realize I’m doing it. Rory has mentioned it before. Whenever I think about them, or something reminds me of them, I guess I touch it.”

Em nodded. “It’s sweet.”

“You don’t mind that my dead wife’s picture is permanently on my body?”

His question made Em sit up in the bed and give him a hard look. “Why on Earth would I mind, Mick?”

He shrugged. “People are funny, you know? I don’t know, I just thought it might make you, or anyone that I was...in this situation with, uncomfortable.”

“’This’ situation? Like naked?” Mick nodded, his face uncertain again. Em bent down and brushed a soft kiss over his lips, her bare breasts barely dusting a touch across his chest. “No, it doesn’t make me uncomfortable. I’m honored that you bared yourself to me.”

Mick stroked the curve of Em’s hip where it sank into the bed, his thumb playing across her tattoo-decorated hip bone.

“Is that why you wouldn’t take your shirt off earlier?” she asked, thinking about that first intimate moment.

Mick thought it about it a moment. “No, not really. More that I didn’t want you to see the scars.”

Em sensed that he wasn’t going to say anything more on that particular subject. She had run her fingers over the scarring when he had been fully asleep, his back riddled and puckered beneath the veil of black ink. He had a few similar scars on his belly and thighs as well, which she’d noticed when she’d had her mouth on him a few hours ago.

Em hoped that someday soon Mick would feel comfortable enough to share all his stories with her, but for now, he had bared and shared enough.

Em stretched out along his body, pressing her own length to him, covering him in a full-body hug that sought to bring her in contact with as much of Mick’s skin as possible. Mick’s arms encircled her, one big hand coming to rest between her shoulders and the other cupping her bottom. Mick squeezed Em, resting his head on hers.

They lay there, not talking, just feeling the warmth of one another’s presence, until each drifted off to sleep.