Playing House

Mimi wet her lips. "Mark me."

At her words, his eyes flared with heat, and he sank his teeth into her shoulder, causing her to cry out. The animal nature of the bite surprised her and sent her heart thundering. He slid his hands up her arms and pinned her to the bed. "Don't tempt me." Adam nuzzled into the curve of her neck and bit her there as well. The pain and the pleasure entwined, one tangling into the other, amplifying the sensations. When he pushed one solid thigh between her legs and forced them apart, she trembled. The more he displayed his strength, the wetter her molten body became. Threading his fingers with hers, he came over her. Legs spread wide, she jerked with pleasure and surprise as the hard heat of him came against her.

Restlessly, she shifted her hips until he settled just inside her. Panting, she waited with her body screaming with need. His ribs were bellows, and she felt him quiver with control. Painfully slow, he eased deeper, forcing her wet body open. No matter how she wiggled or moved, he drew back and stroked forward at the pace of his choosing, flooding her with sensation and fullness. Helpless, she arched, pressing the back of her head into the bed. Again and again, he rocked against her in a way that flooded sensation across her clit. All of her skin felt hot as she grew restless with need. Drawing her knees up, she wrapped her legs around the mountain of a man above her. His chest was an unyielding wall.

Voice dark with lust, he purred at her. "So, you want me to mark you?"

Desperately, she cried out, "Yes."

Pushing her deeper into the bed, he growled, "You wear my name." Each stroke emphasized his words. "My ring. You take my cock as if you were made for me. Shaped to perfection." He pushed deep. "For me."

Bending down, her husband bit her shoulder hard enough to make her cry out. He moved one hand down to grip her hip. The pleasure washed through her with the pain, salt and sugar. When he stopped being gentle, and stroked into her with force, she yielded to him, softening under him like molten copper. Carrying the heat, lifted by it, she was pounded soft. An ocean of fluid under him, wet and willing. Her orgasm lifted her chest, pressing her tight to him. Each thrust forced her higher, made her louder. When she came, liquid thunder roared through her body, and she cried out his name into the darkened room. He growled above her as his own pleasure took him.

In the quiet, there was the sound of her heart and both of their breathing. He eased off of her and collapsed onto the bed. Opened and tender, she felt so much joy that a tear rolled down her face.

He reached over and his rough thumb brushed the wetness from her cheek, only to catch another. "Did I hurt you?"

She rolled toward him and came to rest against his side, and pressed her wet face into his arm. "No."

"The tears?"

Looking at him through the starlight of her lashes, she said, "I feel anointed."

His chin lifted, and he pulled her closer. He tugged the tangled covers up over her. "And is that good or bad?" Tenderly, he brushed her hair back from her face.

"I feel clean." A damp lock of her hair curled around his finger. "Not outside. Inside. Like water poured from a bowl."

"That sounds beautiful."

Mimi touched her fingertips to the tears that were still slipping free and sliding across her cheeks in wonder. Showing the wetness to him, she smiled a shy smile. "I guess you make me wet everywhere."

When he wrapped his arms around her, she curled up against the furnace of his body, tucking herself against his chest, within the shelter of his arms. Adam pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

***

Hours later...

Mimi startled awake when her bladder insisted she leave their warm nest. She was naked under the covers, with Adam's solid arm over her, trapping her. Touching his arm, she tried to ease out from under him, but instead of letting her go, he tightened his hold on her and pulled her closer possessively. Giggling, she tried again, working to squeeze under. He made a discontented sound in his sleep and adjusted his hold on her, gripping her more firmly. Amused, she touched his face and gently patted his cheek, until he blearily opened one eye.

"I have to pee. You need to let go of me."

"What?"

With a pat on his arm, she said, "I promise I will come right back." Rubbing his face, still half asleep, he grumbled and let her go. Mimi eased out of the bed and scampered to the bathroom.

When she returned, he had taken up two-thirds of the space, big and snoring. Easing under the covers, she wiggled into place. When he felt her, he rolled toward her. Adam's solid arm came around her, claiming her. On his side, he didn't snore, so that was a plus. Powerful even in his sleep, he tugged her closer, settling her into the little spoon position. When she tucked her chilled feet against the front of his warm calves, he grunted. Mimi didn't mind being his little spoon. She liked it.

***

Adam...

In the morning, they returned to Mimi's trailer, where there was coffee and fresh clothing. Adam shoved toast into his mouth while holding a travel coffee cup in his hand. At the sink, Mimi washed the pan he had made eggs in. The motion her bottom made as she scrubbed was very distracting. At the office, people were waiting.

"I gotta go, cupcake." He brushed the crumbs from his lips and stepped forward to kiss her forehead. "Don't forget to pack a bag for the rest of the week. When we get the farmhouse paid off, Sarah can stay with us there if you'd prefer that over Mom's house."

"Will we be there the whole week?"

"Yes. She is too young to stay alone. Plus, you will get to see the remnants of my childhood room." He faked pitching a baseball. "If you are a good girl, you can see my trophy."

"Is that what we are calling it this morning?"

Flashing her a wink, he said, "Call it whatever you like." In teddy bear earrings and a fawn brown sweater set, she was adorable. "You are going to get too hot today. It's going to be sunny again." She shrugged as if she was indifferent to the forecast. Her red curls danced against the curve of her bare throat, tempting him to drag her into the bedroom so he could toss her onto her little twin bed, but Lee and Arther were waiting for him. Leaving now was the only way to be on time.

He wrinkled his face as he drank the last of his coffee. Mimi was good at a lot of things, but tomorrow he was going to assert himself as the coffee maker in the family. It wasn't as bad as instant, but it was close. Knowing her family, she probably bought organic coffee only stored in socks and kept in basements. He liked her folks. What he and Mimi were doing was going to hurt them. Noah was hard not to love. When it was time to end things, Adam wasn't the only one that was going to grieve. He thought of Sarah and how her eyes had shined at the wedding. Sixteen-year-old girls had an unwavering faith in love.

***

Placing his travel mug on Marge's desk, he said, "I will consider you an angel sent from heaven if you use sandpaper to scrape the remnants of bad coffee out of my cup and replace it with something palatable."

Marge snorted.

"I'll make yours tomorrow. The guys are waiting." The office had a tiny conference room, so small that it could function as a walk-in closet. Inside, there was only room for a card table and a few chairs. Mostly, they just used it for clients. He had a pretty good idea what they wanted to talk about.

As soon as he stepped into the room, Lee started placing resumes down on the table like he was dealing a hand of cards. Seven resumes. "These are all good guys. They are journeymen and everyone has been vetted by someone already on the team."

Adam shook his head. "That is a lot of expansion, and I haven't met any of these people." Picking the resumes up, he started looking through them.

"Lee and I have been with you from the start. Seven years. You can trust us. It's the only way we can have three full working crews and cover the new work we have rolling in.

"How am I going to get to three different work sites every day?"

Arthur placed two more applications on the table. "You aren't. I think these two would make good apprentices." Placing his finger on one of them, he said, "This is Matt's little brother, and he is a hard worker."

Lee sat down in a chair. "I know it's a big step. For the next few weeks, you can lead one of the crews, but if you choose a third lead plumber, then you can transition into working on bringing in more work for all of us."

Arthur picked up his coffee mug. "Adam, I got a fifteen-year-old that wants a car. It would be good for all of us if the business grew. We are ready."

Lee nodded. "Adam, you are ready."

Even knowing they were right, it was hard to let go and trust. This would be a large expansion, and he liked change to happen slowly. It was the only way he knew how to insure quality work.

Arthur smiled and lifted his cup in his direction. "If it doesn't work, we fire the lot and go back to what we are used to."

"I'm not going to just fire these guys if we fail them. If we are going to do this, there needs to be commitment toward getting them up to speed quickly. I don't want our reputation to suffer."

Lee flipped open his notepad. "We've been working on which guys would work best on the same crew. We want to balance our regular guys with the new people."

The door opened and Marge entered, looking a bit sour. She handed him his coffee and nodded to the paperwork on the table. "It's past time we expanded, Adam. We are ready to grow." She turned to go, and paused long enough to add, "I want cream and sugar in my coffee tomorrow."

"Will do boss lady." Cradling his cup in his hand, Adam sat down to look at the configurations. He seemed to be doing a lot of things he never thought he would do lately. Pulling his notebook toward him, he asked, "How soon do you think we can start onboarding these folks?"

"How soon can you have the waiting contracts finalized?" Lee smiled at him.

***

Later than he wanted to be, Adam walked into his mother's house and tossed his keys into the bowl next to the door. Mimi and Sarah were on the couch, playing a card game. Shrugging out of his jacket, he announced, "Well, we've been invited to dinner tomorrow night."

Sarah perked up. "All of us?"

Adam considered how surprised and irritated his father would be if he arrived with Mimi and Sarah when he dropped off the wedding paperwork. He'd already faxed a copy, but the old goat wanted to see the originals. "All of us."