And Heaven Too
Chapter Ten
Dell has never been so antsy about finishing writing before. She is a speed demon, making more mistakes than she’s comfortable with but she doesn’t slow down and when three AM, Tuesday morning arrives she leans back at her desk and stretches. It’s no Geertz, but it’s sensible and she can feel proud of it. She thinks.
She saves it, emails a copy to herself and backs up on a spare jump drive before shutting the system down. Her computer has had lots of late nights lately and so has she.
As she brushes her teeth and preps for the five hours of sleep she’s going to get she finally lets her mind wander back to Mike. She’s spent the last three nights saving him for this time, when the apartment is finally quiet and she can settle her thoughts.
She had been upset, initially, after Mike had walked away from her. She does have feelings, even if they don’t register on many of the same scale as others in her culture. But, Mike had been reactionary and she knew that when she had the time to talk to him, she’d set everything straight.
She lays in bed, staring up at the plain white ceiling and wonders if he’s ready for serious with her. She should warn him; late hours. Random calls. Jetting off to conferences. Her job will keep her around more often than she usually is, but still. There’s a meeting in April, in St. Louis. She just got back from San Francisco. And then summer digs. She’s set up to head back to Maine for two months.
Can he deal with that?
The real question, she reminds herself, is if she can deal with him playing hockey. If the season comes back he’ll be busy all the time too. Like, all the time. What happens if the season is finally put out of its misery? Does he head back up to the Great Frozen North?
She likes uncertainty about as much as she likes snakes; this is the big reason why she’s kept her head out of the dating game for so long. Relationships are messy and it’s fucking tough to find guys that can deal with her life.
She wants to try though, she realizes. The thought of Mike in Canada without her is gut wrenching. She’s invested, now. She’d been shocked to find him in her hallway but overjoyed that he’d taken the first step. He’d brought back all of the desire and the pleasure just by showing up.
She’s in this now, she thinks, whether she wants to be or not. Whether it’ll work out or crash and burn is a conversation for another day. She closes her eyes and blows away everything in her head. First, this chapter.
Anders is suitably pleased when she hands over a copy three full days before her deadline and she tries not to glare at him too much. She waits while he reads it and makes notes on her own version she’d brought along. He likes it more than he dislikes it and he lets her pass on revisions until after the break. He seems to know that there’s only so much she can mentally handle and he asks if she’ll be back to work for the rest of the week now that the chapter is done.
Dell blinks at him. She could . . . she supposes. She’d taken the time off though. For the chapter. But, without that there’s really only one place she wants to be right now. “Is there any way I could gracefully say no? I’ll be on all next week, you know. Letting some of the out of towners go home for the holidays.”
Anders watches her over her paper, his eye brows rising. She never passes up a chance to get some hours. But, he nods and she exhales in relief. “That’s fine, I suppose. Enjoy your week then and we’ll see you bright and early Monday morning.”
Dell runs from his office. And down to the bus stop. It’s after one already. She makes a quick stop back at her place to shower and pull on a clean t-shirt before she’s right back outside. The rain has continued off and on for the last few days but it feels like a cold snap as she waits for the bus. She should have brought a hat and some gloves. Instead she’s got a small bag and herself. These should be the only things she’ll need for a few days.
It takes over an hour and a half to get across the Potomac on public transit and walk the last few blocks to Mike’s. He hasn’t texted her since he left yesterday and she just hopes that he’s home or this is gonna be awkward.
She shoots him a message when she’s clearing the last block. She needs to get in but that’s impossible without a key card so she waits by the parking gate and asks him if she left a hat in his SUV after he’d dropped her off. She doesn’t get a response but not three minutes later Mike walks out of the elevator and makes a bee-line for his row of vehicles.
Fuck he looks good. He hasn’t shaved since last week and he looks like he’s got a dangerous edge when he ruffles around the passenger side of the SUV. He’s frowning when he straightens up and shuts the door. He hasn’t even seen her yet. She sends him another text, something about maybe dropping it somewhere in the parking lot. His phone goes off in the pocket of his sweats and after reading it he looks up. Finally.
She gives him a little wave when his mouth drops open at the sight of her. She hadn’t bothered dressing up. She’s just going to end up naked soon enough. He looks at her like she’s dressed to the nines though instead of a worn pair of jeans and her ultra-comfy cold weather shoes.
“You-“ He stops right in front of her, the gate separating them but not particularly effectively. She could reach through right now and pull him down for a kiss. “You’re done writing?” She nods happily. He punches in a code next to the gate and it slowly slides open. They stare at each other for a long time, so long that the gate starts to close again before she launches herself at him, attacking his mouth.
Her hands end up in his hair, of course, and he wraps both of his arms around her torso. “Come on. Upstairs.” He growls but lets go so they can walk back to the elevator.
Mike keeps a hand on her wrist and she watches his fingers during the ride up. The ink on his skin hits the shadows in the elevators and come alive and she smiles. Dell lets him lead her to his front door and waits patiently for him to open it. As soon as he does, though, she goes on the offensive. She shoves him against the wall inside the door and pushes their mouths together once more. Mike moans underneath her moments later when she grips the tops of his shoulder, pulling at the fabric there. They get into a bit of a shuffle, trying to remove his clothes while they’re still kissing but she gets him naked from the waist up eventually.
Dell is moments away from dropping to her knees in front of him when he stops her and demands that she’s wearing too much clothing now. She shrugs and throws off her coat, going back to town on his neck immediately. She’s swirling her tongue around one of his nipples when she realizes that he’s gone quiet. Okay, maybe not the nipples. She raises her head and she is getting a look made of pure frustration.
Well, for fuck’s sake. What’d she do now? He’s staring at her front and she looks down. Immediately, she starts cackling. She’s wearing one of her assortment of Bruins shirts, this one by far the most beat up. It’d been a Christmas present years ago and she wears it for comfort above all.
She thinks Mike won’t be letting her touch him again until the garment is gone so she pulls it over her head and chucks it in the growing clothes pile at their feet. Then, she goes back to work on his chest with renewed vigor before finally making it to his waist band.
Dell doesn’t have a specific rule against giving head but it’s not her favorite thing in the world. Josh had pretty much guilted her into it every time they’d had sex and she sometimes associates giving head with that dick bag. But Mike, Mike’s eyes go wide and reverent when she starts working on his belt buckle.
She knows that sexual experiences with past partners do not guarantee repeat performances by new partners. She just hopes that he enjoys himself, can take this as a sort of I’m sorry my life is crazy and you’re stuck in it now blow job. Dell isn’t even all that good and Mike is pretty big so it ends up being a lot of spit-slick hands and attention to the head but he’s leaning back against the wall and staring at the ceiling. The sounds he makes are wicked.
She pulls off when he’s getting close enough to be painful and grins up his body at him. He looks down and she sees that grin returned seconds before he hauls her up to her feet and drags her to his bed.
Dell isn’t a pro at blow jobs but apparently she’s pretty good.
The sun is down by the time Dell can build up the motivation to go shower. Mike putters around in the kitchen while she cleans up and she wanders through, wearing just a towel, heading back to her clothes. When he sees the Bruins shirt in her hands he frowns and pulls it away. “No. That is not going back on. I’ve got tons of Caps shirts laying around that you’re welcome to but I cannot allow you to wear the enemy’s colors.” He’s laughing as he says it but Dell knows that it was a pretty grave oversight on her part to wear it in the first place.
“Why do you even have Boston gear?” She drops her clothes on the counter and takes a seat.
“I did my undergrad at Boston U. Between the Bruins and the school team I pretty much fell head first into hockey. Loved it ever since. They’re not my ‘team’ by any means but they’re fun to watch.” She smiles at the memory of her first games and then makes a ridiculous realization. “You were playing my first game, I think. First or second. You guys won by a landslide and all the people I was with were all pissed off but I had a great time.” She would have never imagined six years ago, that she’d be holed up in the apartments of one of the players. Never in a million years.
Mike gets this ridiculously proud look on his face when she says that and he grins at her. “Oh yeah? Did you check out my hot body?” He sounds ridiculous when he asks and the eye brow waggle only makes it more outlandish.
“Hell no. You guys all look like ants from the nosebleed seats I can get at NHL games. Tickets are fucking expensive.”
Sometime flies across his face that she can’t really place. “When the season starts I’ll get you rink side seats for every game.” He can do it too, if he wants. She thinks, off handedly, that their radically different incomes is going to come into play at some point in time but she’s not gonna worry about it now.
“You should put me right behind the opposing team’s bench. I’ll moon ‘em every time they start performing well. Press my ass right on the glass. You can keep me from getting kicked out, right?” She quirks a corner of her mouth devilishly.
Mike just groans. “Uh, no. Not gonna happen.”
“Which part? The mooning part or the getting kicked out part? Honestly, my ass has been described as distracting. I believe, if memory serves me correctly, like an hour ago by . . . who was that again? Oh yeah! You!” He circles the counter and hugs her, laughing all the while. They have a mock tussle in which her towel is lost and she learns that the couch in his living room is just not made for making out. As they're twisted around each other, Mike pokes her in the ribs. “Tell me you’re not a Pens fan, at least. I don’t think my heart could handle that.”
Dell clenches at the jab and folds over but gets out a negative in between the giggles. “Good.”
“That Crosby has an awful nice ass though. And I think Letang’s hair might be nicer than yours.”
Mike gasps and pushes her off the couch. She lands with a thump and another giggle. He doesn’t give her a chance to catch her breath before he’s on her again. This is when he finds out that she is extremely ticklish. She cries uncle by insisting that he’s the hottest and best player with the best hair. She punctuates the statement with a slap to his bare ass for added emphasis.
She takes another shower after that. When she pads back into the bedroom, drying off, she finds at least a dozen shirts laid out on Mike’s bed. They’re all Capitals, all the time, and she laughs out loud. She finds the smallest one and pulls it on, nicking a pair of his sweats too and comes back into the main room.
Mike is on the phone, talking with someone about Christmas plans.
Which reminds her. She checks her phone. Yup, her daily update with Ruth’s plans. Her sister gets in Thursday and will be around until Sunday. Dell groans, loudly. That’s four whole days she has to be the responsible baby sister and not be naked constantly. Mike wraps his arms around her from behind, placing soft kisses on her neck. Four. Whole. Days.
“How does Chinese sound?” Dell leans her head back, giving him access to more skin. He kisses her like he can’t help himself but it doesn’t feel sexual. Affectionate. He nuzzles the skin under her ear, his stubble brushing her shoulder. He might not be thinking sexual but she’s about to be ready for shower number three when he gives her a squeeze and steps away.
She groans in disappointment and turns. He’s holding out a variety of take-out menus. “Chinese, eh? Not the healthiest, I’d imagine.” He’s still got a season to possibly keep in shape for.
Mike just shrugs. “I figure I’ll be able to burn off any calories.” He waggles his eye brows comically.
“How about I cook and you take your clothes off? For inspiration, of course.” She doesn’t even make sense anymore so she turns her back to him and walks to the kitchen to look for supplies. He’s got a lot of liquids in the fridge, like the last time she’d cooked, and not much else. She could do pasta. She finds some still-fresh chicken hiding behind the Gatorade on the bottom shelf and nods to herself, already pulling dinner together in her head.
They eat on the couch, spread out and watching Sports Center. “Isn’t football over yet?” Her sigh is dramatic and she throws a napkin at the TV. Mike frowns at her and she walks over to pick it up, grabbing their dishes on the way and taking them to the kitchen.
“You like hockey but you don’t like football?”
Dell shrugs as she cleans up the kitchen and explains that she’d just never really cared. “Did you know that the games usually consist of only twelve minutes of actual play time or something? Four hours of people walking around and commercials. That’s why hockey is better. And soccer. Never ends.”
Mike changes the channel when she returns and she slides in right next to him. His TV is actually the same size as hers but he’s got, like, twelve of them in his place. She’d laughed the first time she’d used his bathroom and found a TV in there too. Totally unnecessary. Some comedy blares to life on the screen and she rests a hand on his stomach, her head pillowed on his chest.
“This is nice.” He brushes a kiss on the top of her head after he says it and she smiles to herself.
“Yeah.”
Yeah it is.
Wednesday is another late start since Mike doesn’t have practice. They don’t get out of bed until it’s almost noon and they’re right back at it within an hour. Dell loves this part of relationships. Constant exploration. Learning the other’s body and likes. And dislikes. For instance, Mike isn’t particularly fond of a really harsh grip on his dick, not surprising, and Dell makes it abundantly clear that her hair is not a handle when she’s going down on him.
It’s fucking explosive most of the time but when he wakes her up Thursday morning Mike is painfully tender, mapping her skin with his mouth. It makes her want to cry, how gentle he’s being and she sees the soft edges that Mike has. His small insecurities and his uncertainty about them. She watches his face the whole time, biting her lip at the achingly sweet expression he has just for her.
She naps a bit after that and when she wakes up he’s propped on an arm, watching her. He’s frowning. She reaches up and rubs at the lines until his face relaxes. “Nicky is coming into town today.” He says it likes it’s the worst thing ever. “His flight lands at four. I’m supposed to pick him up.”
Recognition pricks at the back of her mind. “That’s when my sister is getting in, too. I told you that, right? That she was going to be here this weekend?” She could have sworn she did. Maybe she hadn’t. Mike nods though so she smiles. “We’ll both be busy. Sadly, in a dressed fashion.” She doesn’t want to ask if he’d be willing to hang out with her and Ruth. She doesn’t think she wants to subject him to that yet.
“Is she flying into Dulles?” She nods. Her sister is flying in from her latest jaunt across Europe. “I can give you a lift then a ride back to the city, if you want.” That would be awesome. Dell was going to borrow Andrew’s car, which would require gas and all that jazz.
She kisses Mike, briefly because morning breath, ew. “You’re pretty awesome, you know?”
He ducks his head with a blush and presses a kiss to her collar bone. “We should get out of bed. Shower. Eat. I need to clean up a bit too. I doubt Nicky’ll want to stay here when he’s got his own place but ya never know.”
Dell groans at the thought of having to leave his bed, knowing that it will be days before she’ll be back but she does it anyway. Mike lets her have the shower first and she vows that as soon as Ruth is gone, she’s going to get him alone in the bathroom. Shower sex fucking rocks.
It takes them an hour in traffic to get to the airport and when they pull up to short term, Dell’s phone is going off. It is, predictably, Ruth. I might not need a ride. I’ll let you know in twenty. “What the fuck?” She stares at her phone like it’s done her wrong, because it has. Her irresponsible sister.
She shows Mike the text and he frowns too but they wait it out, hoping Nicky landed all right.
Surprise of surprises, Dell actually sees Ruth first. Her sister is a pilot for Delta so she looks completely at ease with the suitcase she’s wheeling behind her. Ruth’s hair is short, shorter than Dell’s for the first time in ages, and she looks happy.
Happy isn’t something she sees on Ruth’s face a lot. Not happy like this; this is her ‘I just got laid and you didn’t’ face.
The look probably has a great deal to do with her fingers that are currently got threaded through the hand of a man who walks with her. The guy keeps his head down, hair covered by a toque, but Ruth sees her and waves. Mike shouts out for Nicky. The man next to Ruth jerks his head in their direction and that’s when Dell makes a startling realization.
Her sister is totally holding hands with Nicklas fucking Backstrom and probably hooked up with him on the plane because that’s what big sisters do sometimes. Maybe.
“Oh for fuck’s sake.”
She saves it, emails a copy to herself and backs up on a spare jump drive before shutting the system down. Her computer has had lots of late nights lately and so has she.
As she brushes her teeth and preps for the five hours of sleep she’s going to get she finally lets her mind wander back to Mike. She’s spent the last three nights saving him for this time, when the apartment is finally quiet and she can settle her thoughts.
She had been upset, initially, after Mike had walked away from her. She does have feelings, even if they don’t register on many of the same scale as others in her culture. But, Mike had been reactionary and she knew that when she had the time to talk to him, she’d set everything straight.
She lays in bed, staring up at the plain white ceiling and wonders if he’s ready for serious with her. She should warn him; late hours. Random calls. Jetting off to conferences. Her job will keep her around more often than she usually is, but still. There’s a meeting in April, in St. Louis. She just got back from San Francisco. And then summer digs. She’s set up to head back to Maine for two months.
Can he deal with that?
The real question, she reminds herself, is if she can deal with him playing hockey. If the season comes back he’ll be busy all the time too. Like, all the time. What happens if the season is finally put out of its misery? Does he head back up to the Great Frozen North?
She likes uncertainty about as much as she likes snakes; this is the big reason why she’s kept her head out of the dating game for so long. Relationships are messy and it’s fucking tough to find guys that can deal with her life.
She wants to try though, she realizes. The thought of Mike in Canada without her is gut wrenching. She’s invested, now. She’d been shocked to find him in her hallway but overjoyed that he’d taken the first step. He’d brought back all of the desire and the pleasure just by showing up.
She’s in this now, she thinks, whether she wants to be or not. Whether it’ll work out or crash and burn is a conversation for another day. She closes her eyes and blows away everything in her head. First, this chapter.
Anders is suitably pleased when she hands over a copy three full days before her deadline and she tries not to glare at him too much. She waits while he reads it and makes notes on her own version she’d brought along. He likes it more than he dislikes it and he lets her pass on revisions until after the break. He seems to know that there’s only so much she can mentally handle and he asks if she’ll be back to work for the rest of the week now that the chapter is done.
Dell blinks at him. She could . . . she supposes. She’d taken the time off though. For the chapter. But, without that there’s really only one place she wants to be right now. “Is there any way I could gracefully say no? I’ll be on all next week, you know. Letting some of the out of towners go home for the holidays.”
Anders watches her over her paper, his eye brows rising. She never passes up a chance to get some hours. But, he nods and she exhales in relief. “That’s fine, I suppose. Enjoy your week then and we’ll see you bright and early Monday morning.”
Dell runs from his office. And down to the bus stop. It’s after one already. She makes a quick stop back at her place to shower and pull on a clean t-shirt before she’s right back outside. The rain has continued off and on for the last few days but it feels like a cold snap as she waits for the bus. She should have brought a hat and some gloves. Instead she’s got a small bag and herself. These should be the only things she’ll need for a few days.
It takes over an hour and a half to get across the Potomac on public transit and walk the last few blocks to Mike’s. He hasn’t texted her since he left yesterday and she just hopes that he’s home or this is gonna be awkward.
She shoots him a message when she’s clearing the last block. She needs to get in but that’s impossible without a key card so she waits by the parking gate and asks him if she left a hat in his SUV after he’d dropped her off. She doesn’t get a response but not three minutes later Mike walks out of the elevator and makes a bee-line for his row of vehicles.
Fuck he looks good. He hasn’t shaved since last week and he looks like he’s got a dangerous edge when he ruffles around the passenger side of the SUV. He’s frowning when he straightens up and shuts the door. He hasn’t even seen her yet. She sends him another text, something about maybe dropping it somewhere in the parking lot. His phone goes off in the pocket of his sweats and after reading it he looks up. Finally.
She gives him a little wave when his mouth drops open at the sight of her. She hadn’t bothered dressing up. She’s just going to end up naked soon enough. He looks at her like she’s dressed to the nines though instead of a worn pair of jeans and her ultra-comfy cold weather shoes.
“You-“ He stops right in front of her, the gate separating them but not particularly effectively. She could reach through right now and pull him down for a kiss. “You’re done writing?” She nods happily. He punches in a code next to the gate and it slowly slides open. They stare at each other for a long time, so long that the gate starts to close again before she launches herself at him, attacking his mouth.
Her hands end up in his hair, of course, and he wraps both of his arms around her torso. “Come on. Upstairs.” He growls but lets go so they can walk back to the elevator.
Mike keeps a hand on her wrist and she watches his fingers during the ride up. The ink on his skin hits the shadows in the elevators and come alive and she smiles. Dell lets him lead her to his front door and waits patiently for him to open it. As soon as he does, though, she goes on the offensive. She shoves him against the wall inside the door and pushes their mouths together once more. Mike moans underneath her moments later when she grips the tops of his shoulder, pulling at the fabric there. They get into a bit of a shuffle, trying to remove his clothes while they’re still kissing but she gets him naked from the waist up eventually.
Dell is moments away from dropping to her knees in front of him when he stops her and demands that she’s wearing too much clothing now. She shrugs and throws off her coat, going back to town on his neck immediately. She’s swirling her tongue around one of his nipples when she realizes that he’s gone quiet. Okay, maybe not the nipples. She raises her head and she is getting a look made of pure frustration.
Well, for fuck’s sake. What’d she do now? He’s staring at her front and she looks down. Immediately, she starts cackling. She’s wearing one of her assortment of Bruins shirts, this one by far the most beat up. It’d been a Christmas present years ago and she wears it for comfort above all.
She thinks Mike won’t be letting her touch him again until the garment is gone so she pulls it over her head and chucks it in the growing clothes pile at their feet. Then, she goes back to work on his chest with renewed vigor before finally making it to his waist band.
Dell doesn’t have a specific rule against giving head but it’s not her favorite thing in the world. Josh had pretty much guilted her into it every time they’d had sex and she sometimes associates giving head with that dick bag. But Mike, Mike’s eyes go wide and reverent when she starts working on his belt buckle.
She knows that sexual experiences with past partners do not guarantee repeat performances by new partners. She just hopes that he enjoys himself, can take this as a sort of I’m sorry my life is crazy and you’re stuck in it now blow job. Dell isn’t even all that good and Mike is pretty big so it ends up being a lot of spit-slick hands and attention to the head but he’s leaning back against the wall and staring at the ceiling. The sounds he makes are wicked.
She pulls off when he’s getting close enough to be painful and grins up his body at him. He looks down and she sees that grin returned seconds before he hauls her up to her feet and drags her to his bed.
Dell isn’t a pro at blow jobs but apparently she’s pretty good.
The sun is down by the time Dell can build up the motivation to go shower. Mike putters around in the kitchen while she cleans up and she wanders through, wearing just a towel, heading back to her clothes. When he sees the Bruins shirt in her hands he frowns and pulls it away. “No. That is not going back on. I’ve got tons of Caps shirts laying around that you’re welcome to but I cannot allow you to wear the enemy’s colors.” He’s laughing as he says it but Dell knows that it was a pretty grave oversight on her part to wear it in the first place.
“Why do you even have Boston gear?” She drops her clothes on the counter and takes a seat.
“I did my undergrad at Boston U. Between the Bruins and the school team I pretty much fell head first into hockey. Loved it ever since. They’re not my ‘team’ by any means but they’re fun to watch.” She smiles at the memory of her first games and then makes a ridiculous realization. “You were playing my first game, I think. First or second. You guys won by a landslide and all the people I was with were all pissed off but I had a great time.” She would have never imagined six years ago, that she’d be holed up in the apartments of one of the players. Never in a million years.
Mike gets this ridiculously proud look on his face when she says that and he grins at her. “Oh yeah? Did you check out my hot body?” He sounds ridiculous when he asks and the eye brow waggle only makes it more outlandish.
“Hell no. You guys all look like ants from the nosebleed seats I can get at NHL games. Tickets are fucking expensive.”
Sometime flies across his face that she can’t really place. “When the season starts I’ll get you rink side seats for every game.” He can do it too, if he wants. She thinks, off handedly, that their radically different incomes is going to come into play at some point in time but she’s not gonna worry about it now.
“You should put me right behind the opposing team’s bench. I’ll moon ‘em every time they start performing well. Press my ass right on the glass. You can keep me from getting kicked out, right?” She quirks a corner of her mouth devilishly.
Mike just groans. “Uh, no. Not gonna happen.”
“Which part? The mooning part or the getting kicked out part? Honestly, my ass has been described as distracting. I believe, if memory serves me correctly, like an hour ago by . . . who was that again? Oh yeah! You!” He circles the counter and hugs her, laughing all the while. They have a mock tussle in which her towel is lost and she learns that the couch in his living room is just not made for making out. As they're twisted around each other, Mike pokes her in the ribs. “Tell me you’re not a Pens fan, at least. I don’t think my heart could handle that.”
Dell clenches at the jab and folds over but gets out a negative in between the giggles. “Good.”
“That Crosby has an awful nice ass though. And I think Letang’s hair might be nicer than yours.”
Mike gasps and pushes her off the couch. She lands with a thump and another giggle. He doesn’t give her a chance to catch her breath before he’s on her again. This is when he finds out that she is extremely ticklish. She cries uncle by insisting that he’s the hottest and best player with the best hair. She punctuates the statement with a slap to his bare ass for added emphasis.
She takes another shower after that. When she pads back into the bedroom, drying off, she finds at least a dozen shirts laid out on Mike’s bed. They’re all Capitals, all the time, and she laughs out loud. She finds the smallest one and pulls it on, nicking a pair of his sweats too and comes back into the main room.
Mike is on the phone, talking with someone about Christmas plans.
Which reminds her. She checks her phone. Yup, her daily update with Ruth’s plans. Her sister gets in Thursday and will be around until Sunday. Dell groans, loudly. That’s four whole days she has to be the responsible baby sister and not be naked constantly. Mike wraps his arms around her from behind, placing soft kisses on her neck. Four. Whole. Days.
“How does Chinese sound?” Dell leans her head back, giving him access to more skin. He kisses her like he can’t help himself but it doesn’t feel sexual. Affectionate. He nuzzles the skin under her ear, his stubble brushing her shoulder. He might not be thinking sexual but she’s about to be ready for shower number three when he gives her a squeeze and steps away.
She groans in disappointment and turns. He’s holding out a variety of take-out menus. “Chinese, eh? Not the healthiest, I’d imagine.” He’s still got a season to possibly keep in shape for.
Mike just shrugs. “I figure I’ll be able to burn off any calories.” He waggles his eye brows comically.
“How about I cook and you take your clothes off? For inspiration, of course.” She doesn’t even make sense anymore so she turns her back to him and walks to the kitchen to look for supplies. He’s got a lot of liquids in the fridge, like the last time she’d cooked, and not much else. She could do pasta. She finds some still-fresh chicken hiding behind the Gatorade on the bottom shelf and nods to herself, already pulling dinner together in her head.
They eat on the couch, spread out and watching Sports Center. “Isn’t football over yet?” Her sigh is dramatic and she throws a napkin at the TV. Mike frowns at her and she walks over to pick it up, grabbing their dishes on the way and taking them to the kitchen.
“You like hockey but you don’t like football?”
Dell shrugs as she cleans up the kitchen and explains that she’d just never really cared. “Did you know that the games usually consist of only twelve minutes of actual play time or something? Four hours of people walking around and commercials. That’s why hockey is better. And soccer. Never ends.”
Mike changes the channel when she returns and she slides in right next to him. His TV is actually the same size as hers but he’s got, like, twelve of them in his place. She’d laughed the first time she’d used his bathroom and found a TV in there too. Totally unnecessary. Some comedy blares to life on the screen and she rests a hand on his stomach, her head pillowed on his chest.
“This is nice.” He brushes a kiss on the top of her head after he says it and she smiles to herself.
“Yeah.”
Yeah it is.
Wednesday is another late start since Mike doesn’t have practice. They don’t get out of bed until it’s almost noon and they’re right back at it within an hour. Dell loves this part of relationships. Constant exploration. Learning the other’s body and likes. And dislikes. For instance, Mike isn’t particularly fond of a really harsh grip on his dick, not surprising, and Dell makes it abundantly clear that her hair is not a handle when she’s going down on him.
It’s fucking explosive most of the time but when he wakes her up Thursday morning Mike is painfully tender, mapping her skin with his mouth. It makes her want to cry, how gentle he’s being and she sees the soft edges that Mike has. His small insecurities and his uncertainty about them. She watches his face the whole time, biting her lip at the achingly sweet expression he has just for her.
She naps a bit after that and when she wakes up he’s propped on an arm, watching her. He’s frowning. She reaches up and rubs at the lines until his face relaxes. “Nicky is coming into town today.” He says it likes it’s the worst thing ever. “His flight lands at four. I’m supposed to pick him up.”
Recognition pricks at the back of her mind. “That’s when my sister is getting in, too. I told you that, right? That she was going to be here this weekend?” She could have sworn she did. Maybe she hadn’t. Mike nods though so she smiles. “We’ll both be busy. Sadly, in a dressed fashion.” She doesn’t want to ask if he’d be willing to hang out with her and Ruth. She doesn’t think she wants to subject him to that yet.
“Is she flying into Dulles?” She nods. Her sister is flying in from her latest jaunt across Europe. “I can give you a lift then a ride back to the city, if you want.” That would be awesome. Dell was going to borrow Andrew’s car, which would require gas and all that jazz.
She kisses Mike, briefly because morning breath, ew. “You’re pretty awesome, you know?”
He ducks his head with a blush and presses a kiss to her collar bone. “We should get out of bed. Shower. Eat. I need to clean up a bit too. I doubt Nicky’ll want to stay here when he’s got his own place but ya never know.”
Dell groans at the thought of having to leave his bed, knowing that it will be days before she’ll be back but she does it anyway. Mike lets her have the shower first and she vows that as soon as Ruth is gone, she’s going to get him alone in the bathroom. Shower sex fucking rocks.
It takes them an hour in traffic to get to the airport and when they pull up to short term, Dell’s phone is going off. It is, predictably, Ruth. I might not need a ride. I’ll let you know in twenty. “What the fuck?” She stares at her phone like it’s done her wrong, because it has. Her irresponsible sister.
She shows Mike the text and he frowns too but they wait it out, hoping Nicky landed all right.
Surprise of surprises, Dell actually sees Ruth first. Her sister is a pilot for Delta so she looks completely at ease with the suitcase she’s wheeling behind her. Ruth’s hair is short, shorter than Dell’s for the first time in ages, and she looks happy.
Happy isn’t something she sees on Ruth’s face a lot. Not happy like this; this is her ‘I just got laid and you didn’t’ face.
The look probably has a great deal to do with her fingers that are currently got threaded through the hand of a man who walks with her. The guy keeps his head down, hair covered by a toque, but Ruth sees her and waves. Mike shouts out for Nicky. The man next to Ruth jerks his head in their direction and that’s when Dell makes a startling realization.
Her sister is totally holding hands with Nicklas fucking Backstrom and probably hooked up with him on the plane because that’s what big sisters do sometimes. Maybe.
“Oh for fuck’s sake.”
9/9/13