But when the tears finally eased, and she lifted her upper body and looked at him, he nodded his head. “It’s for the best, babe,” he said to her.
“I know,” Roz said. “But it still hurts.”
Mick kissed her on her forehead and began fondling her breasts. He couldn’t help himself. They were bare and taut and right before his very eyes. And as he and Roz stared into each other’s eyes, and his fondling increased, and their eyes became hooded, she moved up on his body, to give him full access, and he was pleased that she did. He opened his mouth, and took care of her.
Mick sucked her nipples raw. He sucked and squeezed and she loved the feel of his tongue all over her chest. She ran her hands through his thick, silky hair and closed her eyes and let him handle it. He handled it with care and love and that blatant sensuality only he knew how to give her.
And even as she could feel him pulling down her pants and panties, and removing them off of her legs, she still couldn’t shake the sadness. But as Mick continued to suck her breasts, and began to rub her tight ass, and began to move a finger between her legs, it all began to shake away. And when Mick stood up, and laid her on her back, and began to unbuckle his belt and remove his shoes, pants and briefs, and stood before her in all of his muscular manliness, Roz began to throb. She knew his skill level. She knew he was about to make love to her in a way that would knock Betsy Gable and her selfishness completely off of her mind. He knew how to do that. She needed him to do that tonight.
Mick knew she needed it too. That was why he moved her further onto the bed, got on too, and moved his face between her legs. When he started sucking her, she contorted her slender body into a lift that gave him exactly the angle he wanted. And he took full advantage. He ate her until she was wet, but thirty for more.
Mick leaned up and looked at her vagina. It was swollen and ready. He got onto his knees, opened her as wide as she could go, and guided his penis inside of her. Roz was contorting again, and he was letting out a sigh of relief, as he entered her. And when he began to make it count, when he began to move inside of her with a tempo that made her body feel fluid rather than solid, they both knew he had her then. He was fucking her the way she loved to be fucked. He was pushing into her and pushing through the friction of her tightness at just that right ankle. He was making love to her, and she was riding that rod with joy.
Mick leaned down, opened her legs even wider to accommodate his thick body, and pulled her into his arms. And he fucked her. He hit her spot with such accuracy that she couldn’t imagine a better feeling. His cock was wedged so deep inside of her as he fucked her that his balls were slapping against the bottom of her ass. And the bed was shaking. And sweat poured from Mick’s body, as he fucked her.
After nearly fifteen straight minutes of fucking, Mick looked at Roz. Her gorgeous face wasn’t displaying any pain of loss anymore, but appeared to be enjoying the ride. He was pleased to see it. And he wanted to tell her so.
He lifted her chin and looked into her bright, brown eyes. Such gorgeous eyes, he thought. And he talked with her as he continued to fuck her. “You’ve done all you can do for her, darling,” he said with a tenderness no one would believe Mick possessed. “You’ve been a wonderful friend to her. Far better than she deserved. But no more. Her gravy train stopped running tonight.”
Roz was too consumed with his lovemaking to ask questions that required deep thought. She only asked what seemed logical to ask. “Did you give her any money?”
Mick didn’t answer her. He ran his hand along the edges of her soft hair and then kissed her. Roz knew exactly what that meant. He’d paid her off.
She exhaled, and that sincere look Mick loved so much appeared on her face. “It’s just as well,” she said. “Her antics were wearing me out.”
“Now it’s my turn,” Mick said, as his strokes increased, “to wear you out.”
And he did. He pulled her back into his arms and fucked her hard. He fucked her so decisively that she climaxed with a screaming sensation. He fucked her so hard that when he came, every vein in his body felt on the verge of popping. He fucked her that night.
Later that same night, he sat naked in the chair beside their four-poster bed and watched his brand new bride sleep with a peacefulness he’d never had. Covered only by a silk sheet, her small, lithe body lay on its stomach without a hint of movement, and her serene dark face lay atop her two hands as they folded against the pillow in an angel’s pose. Her eyes were the light of her face, but they were closed, as her naturally long eyelashes lay in downward sweeps above the arch of her high cheekbones. He felt proud to have her. He felt special to have her in his life.
But none of his feelings were about her looks. Nor her hot body. She was beautiful, but not the most beautiful woman he’d ever known. She had a smoking body, but he’d fucked thousands of women in his lifetime. He’d been with women that could easily put her body to shame. It wasn’t about that! It was about her. Rosalind. It was about what Rosalind did to his heart that no other woman had been able to do. It was about the way Rosalind made him feel whenever she entered a room. It was about her intelligence, and her deep moral core, and the way she handled herself that turned him on. And this smart, tough, but beautifully fragile lady was now his undisputed woman. His wife. His complete and utter responsibility.
But even with that weight on his shoulders, and because it was Rosalind he now carried, he felt as if he was the most fortunate man in this whole wide world.
CHAPTER FOUR
Mick was sitting at the center island inside their gourmet kitchen the next morning, drinking coffee and reading over his text messages, when Roz finally made it downstairs. He looked up as she walked in. In her conservative gray slacks and yellow cardigan, with her white blouse ruffled at the throat, she reminded him of a prim and proper school teacher rather than the energetic businesswoman she actually was. A gorgeously prim and proper teacher, that is, he inwardly thought. Then he thought again wickedly. She wasn’t prim and proper last night!
She sat on the stool beside him. “Good morning,” he said as he continued to read his texts.
She attempted to smile, but couldn’t pull it off. She wasn’t exactly a morning person to begin with, and last night, with Betsy’s mess, didn’t help. She picked up his coffee cup and took a sip.
“I’m tired,” she said.
Mick looked at her. Concerned. “Take the day off,” he said.
But Roz shook her head and hugged his warm coffee cup with her hands. “Can’t,” she said. “I’ve got too many clients.”
“Your talent agency is taking off in a major way,” Mick said, “and I’m proud of you for that. You took a nonexistent business and made something special out of it. But,” he added, staring at her, “it’s taking its toll.”
Roz nodded. She understood what he meant. She probably looked as bad as she felt. “I’m okay,” she reassured him. “I just had a long day yesterday, and then Bess and her mess.”
“I love your allegiance to your friends and your clients. That is why I did not come down harder on you last night the way I could have. I like that you are a caring, loyal woman. But you are giving too much of yourself to people who, quite frankly, Rosalind, would throw you to the wolves first chance they got. That I do not like.”
Roz considered him. Mick was always a powerful looking man to her. His thick, muscular frame and intense green eyes made him a sight to behold to anybody watching. But it was his heart that captured hers. It was all in the way he treated her. Even when he was angry with her, which was often, she never saw hate through that anger, but love and concern. He cared about her. He wanted the best for her. She would always be in his corner because she believed he was camped out in hers. “I’ll slow down, I promise,” she said.
“Just not today?” he asked.
She smiled a dimpled smile. He loved the deep dimples on either side of her cheeks. “Not today,” she said as she leaned her head on his shoulder. He smelled like a combinati
on of his own cologne scent and, in a twist that was always odd to Roz, her perfumed scent. As if he kissed her and licked her and ate her so much that she was now coming out of his pores. Crazy, she knew. But that was his smell.
“Anyway,” she said, as she took another sip of his coffee and lifted her head back up, “I’ve got to skedaddle.” She got up and headed for the foyer. Mick got up too, and followed her.
After grabbing her briefcase, car keys, and purse, Roz, with Mick behind her, made her way out of their home, down the steps, and up to her waiting Bentley. She smiled. “How did it get here?” she asked.
“It’s magic,” Mick said with a smile of his own. Roz hit him on his thick bicep, causing him to grin. But he knew her question wasn’t worth any serious response. He had one of his men drive her car home last night. That was how he handled his business. He was certain she understood that.
He opened the door of her Bentley. She got inside, cranked up, and when he closed her door she pressed her window down. Mick folded his arms over the top of her downed window and leaned in. Roz looked at him. He looked simply adorable, she thought, with his hair windblown across his forehead and his trademark tailored suit, this one a dark brown Brioni, giving his usually fair skin a boyish, almost airbrushed tanned look.
Mick leaned in further and kissed her on the lips. It was supposed to be a simple goodbye kiss but, as usual when Mick tasted Roz, his kiss lingered. By the time he finished, they were both contemplating going back inside. If they both didn’t have companies to run, they would have. “What’s on tap for you today?” he asked her.
Roz dropped down her overhang mirror and began refreshing her lip gloss. “I have three new clients coming in, and a handful that make it their business, not to mind their own business, but to drive me nuts on a daily basis. So the normal abnormal.” She glanced at him. “What about you?”
“Same. Meetings and more meetings.”
“I hear Joey got a promotion.” Joey was Mick’s youngest son.
“Joey told you that?” he asked her.
“Yeah, he called all excited. He said he’s going from a busboy in the cafeteria to a supervisor in the mailroom. He knows he still has a long way to go to get to the top, as he calls it, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes. I like that about him. I’m so happy for him.”
Mick agreed. “He doing his job. He’s got his act together. He’s keeping his ass out of trouble.”
Roz smiled. “Because he knows his ass is yours if he gets in trouble.”
Mick smiled too. “He’d better know it.” Then he exhaled. “Remember tonight,” he said.
Roz looked at him. “That’s still on?”
“Far as I know, yes.”
A sense of dread occurred within Roz. The kind of feeling she often got when she had a disagreeable task in front of her. “Okay,” she said. “I’m not looking forward to it,” she added, looking away, “but okay.”
Mick could see the anguish in her eyes. “I’ll cancel it,” he said definitively.
But Roz would have none of that. “No, don’t,” she said. “The mothers want this meet and greet so I need to oblige them. We need to come together now that I’m their children’s brand new stepmother. I just pray they don’t try any stupid stuff.”
“They know I don’t play that,” Mick assured her. “They aren’t crazy.”
Roz kissed Mick on the forehead. “I’ll meet you there,” she said.
Mick leaned in and kissed her again, lingering again, and then she drove around the circular driveway, blew her horn with a playful wave, and drove away from him.
Mick watched her leave, waving as she went, and then pulled out his cell phone as he headed inside. He ordered an additional man to tail her.
But as soon as he ended that call, his cell phone rang. It was the man he paid to tail his daughter, and he didn’t like what he had to tell him.
CHAPTER FIVE
Mick drove his bright red Maserati to the condo his daughter had recently purchased. He received a report from one of his men about a situation that concerned him, and he wanted to see what she had to say about it. His relationship with all four of his grown children were still in flux, as he had not been there for them at all when they were younger. He had been their financial backer and nothing more. It was difficult for him to be there emotionally for them even now, but after he met Rosalind and she showed him the error of his ways, he was trying to change.
He parked his car, made his way into the building with the assistance of the Doorman, and then made his way up to her apartment. He didn’t know a lot about Gloria’s habits, or any of his other children’s if he were to be truthful, but he knew she was an early bird. Early to bed, early to rise. She was responsible that way. But if the report he received was accurate, none of his children could be more irresponsible.
She answered after only a few knocks, and although she was still in her bathrobe, she was nonetheless bright-eyed and seemingly ready to go. And, to Mick, the most beautiful young woman in the world. She was biracial (half black/half white), tall, slender, and gorgeous. The spitting image of her mother.
“Dad?” She was unable to suppress her surprise. “Good morning.”
“Good morning. May I come in?”
“Why, yes. Of course,” she said, and stepped aside to allow him passage in.
Gloria Sinatra was still growing accustomed to her father’s presence in her life, when he had shown so little interest up until a year ago, and that awkwardness she felt around him was still there. And the idea that he was at her condo was downright unnerving. He’d never come this far into her world before. She closed the door behind him.
Mick was looking around at the beautifully decorated, but small room. “Very nice,” he said to her.
“Thanks. Have a seat.”
The “seat” was a sofa that wasn’t that far away from the front door. It was one of those condos with the living room/kitchen space, and then a wall that separated the bedroom. It was an expensive condo in a great area, but it was tiny.
Mick sat on the sofa and Gloria sat, with her bare feet tucked beneath her butt, beside him. “I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, still curious as to why he would be there. “I didn’t think you knew where I lived.”
Mick knew more about his children than they would ever imagine. But that still wasn’t nearly enough. “I knew,” was all he would say about it.
“Did Mom tell you?” Gloria asked.
Mick hadn’t spoken to his ex in years. “No,” he said.
Gloria still couldn’t understand how he could know, but she also knew he wasn’t the kind of man who was just going to tell her. They didn’t have that kind of relationship.
Mick crossed his legs and turned toward her. She was already turned toward him. “Do you have class today?”
Gloria hesitated. “No,” she said.
“You aren’t in school any more, are you?”
Gloria continued to stare at him. “No.”
“Why?”
“I’m taking a semester off. I’m taking a break, that’s all.”
“A break that just so happens to coincide with your introduction to Marco Terranz?”
Gloria’s heartbeat quickened. How could he possible know about Marco? “It wasn’t planned, Dad,” she said.
“He’s an ATF agent,” Mick said, and stared at her.
Gloria still didn’t understand where he was going with this, but she was beginning to understand that her relationship with Marco was the reason for this visit. “I’m aware of that,” she said.
“Then I’ll be blunt,” he said. “You are not going to have anything more to do with him.”
Gloria couldn’t believe he just said those words. “Why would you tell me something like that? My relationship with Marco has nothing to do with you.”
Mick didn’t respond to that because he knew her relationship with that pig had everything to do with him. Marco knew it. Mick knew it. She was the only one who did
n’t. “Stop seeing him,” he said. “Or I’ll put a stop to it.”
Gloria used to idolize Mick. When she was a kid she used to dream of the day when they would sit around and shoot the breeze and have a real father and daughter relationship. That day never came. It broke her mother’s heart. It broke Gloria’s heart. Her brothers and their mothers, who had similar hopes and dreams, were heartbroken by this man too. Now he had the nerve to try to control her life? She stood up, her arms folded. “I think you should leave,” she said.
“He’s using you,” Mick said. “He’s using you to get to me.”
“Oh, for crying out loud, Dad, really? He’s using me to get to you? I barely know you, why in the world does he think he can get to you through me? Like you said, he’s a federal agent. He should know these things.”
“He does,” Mick said.
Gloria shook her head. “You watch too many movies, Dad. Better not speak too loudly. He may have bugged the place.”
“He did,” Mick said.
Gloria smiled as if her father was losing his grip on reality. “What?”
“He bugged your condo. My men removed it.”
“Your men what? When?”
“Last night, after he left here. That was when he did it.”
Gloria was concerned about Marco possibly bugging her, but she was even more concerned about her father allowing strange men into her condo. “You had strange men coming into my house?”
Mick didn’t respond to that. He already had.
Gloria shook her head. “This is crazy. I don’t believe this!”
Mick Sinatra 3: His Lady, His Children, and Sal Page 4