Roz smiled. “Thanks. Riding around on a private jet helps. Reclining in your luxurious bedroom doesn’t hurt either.”
The idea of her in his bedroom was a turn on to him. “Were you comfortable?”
“Very. I sat on your lounger and nearly fell asleep in a matter of minutes. And I wasn’t even tired.”
“I work very hard. When I come home, I need complete rest. That bedroom, my home, gives me complete rest.”
Roz nodded. “That’s what a home should do. But it’s such a big place for one person. Or is there a family living in there too that you haven’t told me about?”
“A family? No,” Mick said. “I have children, but they do not live with me.”
Roz looked at him. She was genuinely surprised. “You have children?”
“Yes.” He was surprised by her surprise. “Why do you look so shocked?”
“I Googled you. Everything I read, there was never a mention of any child anywhere.”
“It’s not something I speak about. And part of the financial agreement I have with my children, and their mothers, is that they do not speak of it either.”
That sounded strange to Roz. “Why can’t they speak about it? You aren’t ashamed of them, are you?”
“No. I assure you it’s not that. It’s for their own protection. The less association they have with me, the better.”
Roz didn’t understand. “What does that mean?”
“Did Google mention my past?”
“The racketeering trial? Yes. But you were exonerated.”
“But that doesn’t mean I was innocent. I have never been innocent. I have a past. I have enemies.”
“And these enemies might come after your children. Is that what you’re saying?”
“I doubt if it will come to that,” Mick responded. “They know me. But, out of an abundance of caution, I don’t parade my children around. I keep my private life private.”
“How many are we talking about? How many children do you have?”
Mick hesitated before answering. “Five,” he said.
“Five?” Roz was floored. “My goodness. That’s a lot.”
“One is not my biological son, but I promised his father, who died, that I would look out for him. His name is Shane. He’s ten. But my four biological children are all grown.”
“And gone?”
“They have never lived with me, but yes. They’re all living their own lives.”
“Does the ten-year-old live with you?”
“No. Never have. He lives with his mother.”
“What’s your relationship like with your children, Mick?” Roz asked. “They say you can tell a lot about a man by the way he treats his children.”
Mick didn’t want to play it straight. He was afraid it could scare her away. But this was the very reason he asked her to come. He had to let her see exactly what he was about. Not the fairytale Mick. The real Mick. “There is no relationship,” he responded. “I pay for everything. They leave me alone. That’s the extent of it.”
Before Roz could censor herself, she blurted out, “That is so wrong, Mick!”
And as quickly as she blurted those words out, Mick’s temper rose to the occasion and he was blurting out words too. “Nobody tells me what’s right or wrong!” he said authoritatively.
Roz was surprised by his outburst, just as he was surprised by hers, but she did not back down. “Apparently somebody does because I just did,” she shot back. “And I don’t care how you attempt to justify it, but what you just said essentially is that you give your children money to leave you alone. And that’s wrong. It’s wrong on every street corner, in every household, on every continent in this world. It’s wrong on every level.”
Mick stared at her. He’d injured men for saying less.
Roz suspected as much herself. He didn’t have the look of love, he had the look of a man who felt she was out of bounds. But what kind of relationship would they have if they couldn’t be honest with each other? What kind of relationship would they have if she couldn’t speak her mind? “I’m sorry if I sounded didactic,” she said. “But it’s not like I’m lying.”
Mick was struck by her words. He was a bad father. He already knew that. But what he never acknowledged was how such a reality necessitated that he was an immoral one too. He was a man who was willing to pay his own children to stay out of his life. She called it exactly right. And it stunned him. Nobody had ever had the nerve to speak that way to him. It was so unsettling that he wasn’t at all sure if he liked it. Right now, because of the level of discomfort it caused him, he didn’t like it at all. But the truth was always the truth. “No,” he finally responded to her. “You’re not lying.”
“How does your children feel about that relationship? If you don’t mind me asking.”
Mick did mind, but only because it was that unchartered territory in his life that he had never bothered to explore. “I don’t know if I can answer that,” he said. “It never came up.”
Roz pictured a group of spoiled brat kids who just wanted the trust fund, Dad be damned. But it was obvious Mick wasn’t ready to go there with her. So she left it alone too. “I have no children,” she said. “So who am I to judge?”
Mick smiled and she smiled, but their little moment did put a damper on the evening. And it became all about managing expectations after that. They both had been a little too optimistic for a relationship this early in its establishment. Because Roz had serious concerns. She couldn’t walk around with blinders on. The man was telling her that he had issues, major issues, and she had to decide if she wanted to deal with that. And the fact that he could be that cold toward his own children made her wonder just how warm he could ever be toward her. It was bothering her big time.
But then she had to tell herself to get a grip. This was only the feel out period for them. They weren’t even an item yet. If it didn’t work out, it didn’t work out. She would be disappointed if they failed. She really wanted Mick in her life. But it wouldn’t crush her if he wasn’t.
But the stakes were higher for Mick. He wanted more than a woman in his life. He could get a woman any day of the week any time of the day. He wanted Rosalind, this woman, in his life. But she came with her own baggage. She came challenging him and standing her ground. She came refusing to go along with his bullshit to keep him around. It was the right way to be, and probably the main reason he was so attracted to her. But he wasn’t used to this. Women didn’t challenge him. They didn’t make him want to be a better man. They allowed him to sex them whenever he wanted. In exchange, he lavished them with gifts and money. That was how it was done. That was good enough for them. But he knew it was not good enough for Rosalind. No way was that going to cut it with her.
He also knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy relationship. He wasn’t an easy man and she wasn’t an easy woman. But if they played their cards right; if they stayed true to themselves and were able to accept each other just the way they were, it could become something very special.
But everything changed when Mick excused himself to the restroom and Roz watched him leave. Talk about gorgeous. He was so sexy that she would be a fool not to want him in her life just to have him in her bed. But just as she was smiling at the way other women were giving him a quick peep; just as she was about to sip her drink and prepare to go to the ladies room herself, she saw a man suddenly get up and hurry behind Mick. That caught her attention alone. But as he walked around a table and his suit coat flared open, she saw a gun in his belt. A gun! Her heart began to race. Mick already told her he had enemies. He already told her he had a messy past. Was it coming back to haunt him right here and right now? Right before her very eyes?
She could be completely wrong. That guy could be a cop for all she knew. But she wasn’t going to sit back, let him harm Mick, and then deal with it later. She felt she had to deal with it now. She rose quickly, and hurried toward that bathroom too.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Roz
hurried behind him, grabbing one of those reach rods near the restaurants bar counter as she hurried. But her heart hammered when, just before the stranger entered the large restroom, he reached into his suit coat as if he was pulling out his weapon. Then he entered the men’s room.
Roz started running now. She knew if she didn’t get there in time, Mick could be killed. When she ran through the restroom door behind the possible assailant, and saw him walking up behind Mick, who was walking up to the urinal, she yelled Mick’s name, swung that rod, and knocked that man so hard across his back that it caused him to drop to his knees.
“What the fuck?” he cried.
Mick quickly turned around at the sound of his name, and he witnessed the man’s fall. And then he saw Roz, wielding that rod, defending him as if she was defending his honor. He smiled, even as the man was in agony.
But Roz was still in attack mode. “He’s got a gun, Mick,” she said. “Get his gun!”
But Mick laughed instead.
She frowned. “What are you laughing about?” she asked him. “That man was trying to kill you!”
“How was I trying to kill him?” the man asked. “I work for him. I’m his bodyguard!”
Roz was stumped. “His bodyguard?” Then she looked at Mick.
Mick was nodding. “My bodyguard,” he said. “As are they,” he added, looking beyond her.
Roz, confused, turned around. And five men were in that restroom, all with guns trained on her. On her! She dropped the rod.
“Why are they pointing those guns at me, Mick? What are they doing?”
“The same thing you were doing,” Mick said. “They thought you were coming to attack me. They thought you were the real perp.” Mick motioned for them to stand down. They withdrew their weapons.
Roz couldn’t believe it. “Who has this many bodyguards around him?” she asked. “And where did they come from? I didn’t see any of these men in the restaurant.”
“You weren’t supposed to see them,” Mick said. Then he looked at his downed man. “Get up, you’ll live,” he said. Then he ordered them all, including one stunned patron who was just getting out of the stall, to beat it.
When they all left, Mick looked at Roz. She still looked so bewildered that it touched him mightily. And he opened his arms. “Come here,” he said to her.
She came. She was still floored by the entire event, but she came. And he smiled. When she shook her head and smiled back, able to laugh at her own foolishness, he wrapped her in his arms.
“You must think I’m the mother of idiots,” she said.
“Oh, no,” Mick said quickly. And then he lifted her chin and looked at her, all smiles gone. “I think,” he said, his face a mask of seriousness now, “that you are one of the most remarkable ladies I have ever met. You came to my rescue. You didn’t wait for somebody else to do it. You didn’t shit in your pants and cry for help. You became my help. You showed courage when other people would have stayed out of it. So no, Rosalind, no. There’s nothing idiotic about you. In my world, in my heart, nothing is better than to know somebody has your back.”
“But I didn’t even ask questions first,” Roz said.
“You can’t. He might have been a bad man. He might have had a gun. You hit him, but he’ll live. If you would have hesitated, I might not have been so lucky. Don’t you dare think what you did was wrong. You came to my rescue.” He touched the side of her face. “I knew you were somebody special. I knew it all along.”
Then he hugged her again. And his heart was overjoyed. Because Roz had the edge. She could take it. He believed in his soul that she could actually hang with a man like him.
Roz smiled too. She still felt like a fool. Nothing he could say could change that fact. But she felt good too. She felt as if Mick might have had some question about her mettle, and was wary of her strength, but she proved him wrong. Nothing could feel finer than to surpass your man’s expectations.
They both carried that joy with them all the way to Mick’s home, and all the way to his bedroom. As soon as the door closed, he was kissing her. But it wasn’t a desperate kiss. It was a slow and lingering kiss. They stood in the middle of his bedroom and drew circles around each other’s mouths, with their kiss.
But it wasn’t long before he was removing her clothes, and she was removing his. He lifted her naked body into his arms and carried her to his bed, where he pulled back the linen and got in, with her in his arms, beneath the sheets.
They laid there, staring at each other, and he fondled and sucked her breasts. She fondled his cock as it grew in her hand. And then they started kissing again. It was sweet and controlled at first, but it grew heartier. It was in her taste. It was in the way she made him feel when he thought about how wonderful it was that she was in his bed. And he began kissing her with an urgency that left him intoxicated. He hadn’t been with her, or any woman, for weeks. He was not the kind of man who could go dry this long. But when he thought about calling up a warm body, a beautiful woman to give him some, he thought about Rosalind. He thought about how empty and unfulfilling sex with a random would be compared to what it could be with her, and he abstained. Now he had her in his arms. It felt so right, so beautiful to him. He was glad he abstained.
Roz allowed him to lead, and loved the way he had lifted her, and carried her, and took over her. She was accustomed to the two-step with men. She made one move, they made the other. But Mick made all the moves. Roz relaxed as he kissed her, as he fondled her, as he massaged her clit, and then her wet pussy, with his very capable digits.
There was a feeling that she should be helping. Most men wanted pleasuring just as much, if not more so, than what they gave to the woman. But Roz had already figured out that Mick wasn’t most men. He seemed to deride his pleasure, not by her doing him, but by him gratifying her.
And then he moved her naked body on top of his naked body and entered her raw for the very first time. His cock was so hard that it guided itself into her folds. Mick felt a surge in every muscle of his being when his cock touched her pussy. He pushed in slowly, to make that first time feeling last, but it felt too good. The heat shot through his cock and force-fed it with her tightness that, within seconds of entry, he was already in rhythm. He was already fucking.
Roz felt her vagina pulsate like a bass drum as he glided his cock in and almost out of her in a repetitive motion that caused her to wrap her arms around him, open her legs wider, and experience the ride. Mick was moaning as he fucked her, and was looking into her eyes, and kissing her as each glide, each push, each probe had him throbbing with sensations.
Nobody could do him better, he thought, as he fucked her. He was a well experienced man. He knew that all pussy was not the same, and Roz was the prime example why. He didn’t have to fantasize to cum. He didn’t have to conjure up images of great looking women to get him off. All he had to do was look at Roz. All he had to do was look into her soft, brown eyes, and her bobbing breasts, and the intensity grew.
He moved again, on top of her, as his gyrations needed more flexibility. And then he laid down on her, and held her, and made love to her with the full intention of never allowing this feeling to end. They were both riding the wave. They were both feeling the currents.
For Roz it never felt so good.
For Mick, he was determined to make this last forever.
But the forever he wanted came quickly. Because within half an hour they were cumming. He was pouring out and she was capturing the downpour with waves and waves of an orgasm that left her with spasmodic contractions down to the deepest reaches of her vagina. She was dizzy with delight.
Mick’s cum was even stronger. Her passage was so tight, and his cock was so thick that it was taking all he had to push down to her deepest pocket. And when he got there, when he felt the fullness of her womanhood and the spasms around his rod, he could not contain himself a moment longer. And it wasn’t just the feeling of cum. It wasn’t just the climax and the orgasm. They both had the feelin
g that something different was happening here. That this was no ordinary moment. That this was a special day.
They both were lying on their backs when it was all over, but Roz was the only one asleep. She had fallen asleep in his arms. He looked down at her and smiled, thrilled that she could sleep with such an unburdened peace. Just watching her gave him a sense of joy. He could hardly sleep most nights, or only after he’d had his share of nightmares, so it was wonderment to see his lady love sleep so thoroughly.
He grabbed the television remote, as he did most nights, and flipped through channels. He rarely ever stopped very long on any program, but on this night he happened upon an old video. Stevie Wonder was performing, with harmonica in hand, Ron Miller/Orlando Murden’s For Once In My Life. Mick was about to turn. He was never a music man on any given day. He never wanted his MTV even back in the days when everybody else did. But for some reason he stayed on that channel, listened to Stevie, and watched Roz.
For once in my life, I have someone who needs me
Someone I’ve needed for so long
For once, unafraid, I can go where life leads me
And somehow I know I’ll be strong.
Rosalind, he thought, as he held her and watched her sleep. She was his once in a lifetime. He knew it as certainly as he knew his name. He looked at her exposed breasts that remained uncovered. He saw his saliva from all of his sucking still sparkling on her nipples and mounds. He looked at her beautiful lips. Still puckered from his onslaught of kisses. He looked at her neck, her perfectly aligned thin neck. And her chest where the hickies were beginning to show. He kissed her forehead. Everything about her was exactly as it should be. He held her tighter. He never wanted to let go.
For once in my life, I won’t let sorrow hurt me
Not like it’s hurt me before
For once I have something I know won’t desert me
I’m not alone anymore!
For once I can say this is mine, you can’t take it
As long as I know I have love, I can make it
Mick Sinatra: For Once In My Life Page 15