Moore than Forever

by Julie Richman

  Mia stood in the elevator, not moving.

  Facing her and taking obvious delight in her confusion, he asked, “Are you going to join us?” Turning around, he walked past the couch and put Nathaniel’s carrier in the middle of the coffee table.

  “I don’t understand.” Mia finally stepped out of the elevator, “Where are we?”

  “We’re home.”

  He could see by her face that it was finally starting to click as she looked around and saw some familiar artwork from her apartment.

  “This is ours?” The grandeur of the real estate was seeping in as she tentatively began to walk around, gently touching the beautiful columns, marveling at the wood burning fireplace and running her hand along the honed Calcutta marble countertop in the open chef’s kitchen. She turned to him again, “This is ours? We live here?”

  Taking Nathaniel out of his carrier, Schooner sat down on the couch with him to remove his snowsuit. Looking up, he nodded, “Yes. We live here.”

  “We moved to SoHo?”

  “We moved to SoHo.”

  “When did this happen?” Mia sat down next to Schooner and Nathaniel.

  “Before I went to California,” he looked pleased with himself.

  “You didn’t tell me.”

  “It was a surprise,” he handed Nathaniel to her.

  “I hate surprises,” Mia announced.

  Shaking his head, “I know.” Smiling, he stood up, “Come, there are more surprises.”

  “Do we have the whole floor of this building?”

  Nodding, “We do. Follow me.”

  The first stop was Seth’s masterpiece. Nathaniel’s jungle room elicited a gasp from Mia.

  “You can thank Uncle Seth for this, Big Guy,” Schooner ran his thumb down the baby’s soft cheek.

  “Seth knew about this?” Mia’s eyes were wide.

  “Yeah. He designed this room.”

  “It’s exquisite. The details.” Mia walked around the room, “Look at the painting on this furniture and the walls and the ceiling.”

  “He had a friend come in to do it. I love the tree branches painted on the ceiling. It really feels like the canopy of a jungle.”

  “Schooner…” Mia was in awe.

  “So, I’m dying here, Mia. Do you like the loft?”

  “Like doesn’t even begin to describe it. This is space you see in design magazines. I’m speechless.”

  Slinging an arm over her shoulder, he pulled her into him, “Come, there’s more.”

  “Does it get better than this?”

  Leading her into the spacious master bedroom, he said, “Let’s focus on two main areas here - the bathroom and your closet.”

  “Oh my God!” Mia exclaimed, as they entered the bathroom with its huge marble walk-in shower and separate garden tub. “It’s heaven in New York City. Seriously, Schooner,” looking up at him, her eyes filled with delight.

  “A few more weeks and I have plans for that shower,” he smiled down at her.

  “Two more weeks and I’m yours.” Walking around the spacious bathroom, she commented, “This is larger than studio apartments I’ve been in.”

  “Are you ready for your closet?”

  “Am I going to want to come out of my closet?”

  He shook his head no and led her in. Mia gasped again, shocked to see all her clothes and shoes neatly arranged in the massive space. One wall was all shoe racks, another contained built-in dressers, double and single rows of bars for hanging clothes and a huge full length freestanding antique mirror.

  “Oh my God,” Mia repeated, “we live here.”

  “Welcome home, Baby Girl.”

  They walked out of the closet and back into the bedroom. An old fashioned bassinet was setup for Nathaniel next to their California king sized bed. Running her hand along the bassinet’s Scottish lace covered edge, Mia shook her head, “You really think of everything, don’t you?”

  “I try,” he hit her with a real smile.

  Mia got into the bed taking Nathaniel with her and Schooner joined them.

  “So, you’re not mad at me for keeping this from you?” he looked up at her with a well contrived sheepish grin.

  Mia shook her head and smiled. “You are a control freak and I just need to get used to that. But no, I’m not mad. You done good, Pretty Boy. Real good. This place is exquisite and we’re living in SoHo, which is uber-cool, and we have space for visitors and Nathaniel has his own room. And I have a huge bathtub. This is just amazing.”

  Nathaniel started to fuss and Mia propped up against the pillows and pulled off her shirt, “Someone’s hungry.”

  Schooner lay back and watched them, a content smile on his face. “I think we’re going to have a great life here. It really has a neighborhood feel to it, doesn’t it?”

  Mia nodded, “I’m just picturing all the shopkeepers knowing Nathaniel and watching him grow up.”

  “This is our life now.”

  “We took a circuitous route, but we got here,” Mia mused, looking lovingly at Nathaniel and then at Schooner.

  “One more hurdle, Baby Girl, and I’ll have everything I want.” He ran a finger softly up and down Nathaniel’s arm.

  “You’re on a mission, huh?” she smiled, looking deep into his pale sapphire eyes.

  “That, I am.”

  Mia nodded and looked back down at Nathaniel who had fallen asleep while nursing. Placing him gently on her shoulder, she rubbed and patted his back until he treated them to a raucous burp.

  Laughing, Mia placed him in the bassinet and got back into bed facing Schooner.

  Reaching out to play with her hair, he asked, “Two weeks more, huh?” and pulled her to his chest. “Oh Baby Girl, you have no idea what I want to do to you.”

  Looking up at him, she smiled, “It’s smoochal.”

  With his arms tightly wrapped around her and their legs tangled together, it was only a few short minutes before they were both fast asleep, catching the first of many much needed, and often elusive naps in their new bed, while Nathaniel slept peacefully in his bassinet next to them.

  Chapter Ten

  As was becoming a morning custom, Schooner rolled over to look at the video baby monitor and watched Nathaniel sleeping peacefully in his nursery. Feeling his movement and sensing he was awake, Mia opened her eyes and watched their son along with him. The security system and cameras that Charles had installed throughout the loft provided not only a sense of security, but assurance that Nathaniel was safe and sound.

  Kissing her shoulder and spooning up against her, Schooner began, “Remember when I promised that I would take you to The Four Seasons or to the beach house when the doctor gave us the go-ahead?”

  Mia nodded.

  “So, where do you want to go?” Schooner’s chin rested on Mia’s shoulder.

  Turning to kiss him, she shook her head. “I don’t want to go anywhere. I don’t want to leave him.”

  Pulling her tightly against him, “I love that and I love you.” He paused, “Do you feel ready? I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”

  Laughing, Mia rested her head back on his shoulder, “Oh, I can think of a few positions that probably won’t stress my incision.”

  Letting his teeth graze her neck and enjoying listening to her moan, he asked, “Oh, what did you have in mind?”

  “Well, in no particular order, I could push you onto your back and straddle you and sit on your cock and ride it.”

  “Yeah, that would work.”

  Feeling him grow stiffer against her lower back at just the suggestion, Mia laughed, “Hold your horses, Pretty Boy, I’m not done yet. Or we could stay in the same position we are in right now with you behind me. Or… I could get on all fours over at the edge of the bed and you could stand on the floor next to the bed right behind me and really ram it into me that way.”

  “Sold,” he whispered in her ear, “but first, I need to spend some time kissing you. Roll over,” he demanded.

  Turning to face him, devi
l grin at full tilt, “Sex as a parent.”

  Tossing his head back with laughter, “Yeah, and this is the easiest we’ll have it. When he starts walking, we’re toast. You’ll roll over and find him in bed.”

  “So, are you telling me we should have lots of sex now?”

  With a real smile lighting up his face, he nodded vigorously, “Absolutely, and we have a lot to make up for. It’s nearly Christmas and we haven’t made love since the summer.”

  “Too long,” Mia reached out to push a dark blonde lock from his forehead.

  Grabbing her hand and kissing her palm and each of her fingers, he pulled her to him. Gently biting her lower lip, his hand slid down her back as she moaned. Pressing her tightly against him, he could feel her molded against his rock hard cock.

  “This is going to be fast,” he laughed, “because I am not going to be able to control myself.”

  “Well, don’t leave me high and dry,” her look was dead serious, but her eyes were dancing with delight.

  Reaching between her legs, he pressed a finger into her, “That train has left the station, babe. You’re dripping.” Adding another finger, he gently massaged her clit and began to kiss her hard, her moans stifled into his mouth. As his tongue slowly explored her mouth, her thighs clenched his hand and he could feel her muscles begin to quake.

  Pulling away from their kiss, he looked at a wild-eyed Mia and laughed, “And I thought I was going to be quick.”

  Pressing her forehead into his chest, “Holy crap, I needed that. Have I ever come that quickly?”

  Shaking his head no, “Think you can handle another?” he challenged, smile firmly in place.

  “Fuck yeah,” Mia looked up into his eyes, meeting the challenge.

  Rolling away, Schooner opened the drawer on the night table and pulled out a condom packet. “Remember these things?” he laughed.

  Playfully pulling it out of his hand, “Vaguely,” she laughed, “we haven’t used these since we were teens.”

  Looking sheepish, “Yeah, well I knocked up my girlfriend, so I think we’d better use them.”

  “Would be a damn good idea, Pretty Boy, but today is your lucky day,” Mia tossed the packet over her shoulder.

  Schooner’s eyes widened with surprise.

  “Breast feeding is a great contraceptive.” Shaking her head and laughing, “You knocked up your girlfriend, eh?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  And they both laughed.

  Getting off the bed and facing her, “Now get on all fours, woman, like you promised, so that I can fuck the living shit out of you.”

  Throwing off the blanket and grabbing a pillow, Mia complied. Backing up to the edge of the bed, her ass in the air, legs spread, she left herself open for him.

  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.”