135 - I'm Going Slightly Mad

He ripped out the headphones and dropped them distastefully to the cracked vinyl taxi seat.  Daniel had heard enough.  That little bitch disgusted him.  What disgusted him even further was that all of the rabid fornication between those two sexual deviants was pushing him to consider seeking a therapeutic ejaculatory release. 

He should have stopped listening as soon as he found out about Angelina’s, but the added bonus of finding out that there would be an entire cast of players at the event had made it worth the nausea.  And the unwanted blood flow to his penis.

 Plebian physical needs be damned.  Angelina’s would give him his satisfaction without the messy release of bodily fluids.

☠ ☢ ☠

[10:33 AM]DENNY: No.  Plz don’t ask again.

Dammit.

Richie had done just what Petey told him, insisting that Denny come to Jersey for the wedding, but she still refused.  Not only that, but she wouldn’t answer the phone.  He’d been forced to ‘insist’ via text message, and that had tanked like lead balloon.

[10:34 AM]RICH: PT wants you here.  Warnin ya she’ll call.

[10:35 AM]DENNY: Will tell her same thing.

Why couldn’t he do anything right?  He’d promised her nothing would change, and here they were barely speaking to one another.  With one greedy kiss, he’d fucked up the most stable relationship he’d ever had, outside of his mother and Ava.

[10:36 AM]RICH: What if I make it a work trip?

Yes, he was being an asshole, but he was on the verge of panicking.   Petey’s commentary had hit home, leaving him a little desperate.  Desperate to connect with the woman who’d stood by his side when nobody else could - or would - take time out of their lives to do it. 

[10:39 AM]DENNY:  Then I quit cuz thats BS & u know it

It was bullshit, but he was getting desperate.  Hell, he’d even dreamed about her last night.  Richie had to find some way to fix this.  He wanted Denny back, along with the easy camaraderie they’d always shared.

[10:41 AM]RICH: I’m sorry Den

[10:44 AM]DENNY: Me 2. C u when u get home.

Tremendous.  Abso-frickin-lutely tremendous. 

Did he push, or did he let it go until he could see her face to face?  For that matter, did he let it go until he knew what he was pushing for?  Women kept him in knots.  If they didn’t have such beautiful bodies and – for the most part – souls, he’d turn into a crazy recluse with nothing but his dog, daughter and music.

The cheery text message alert pulled him back from the brink of self-pity and depression.

[10:48 AM] JON: Join us for dinner with PT’s fam?  Angelina’s on Staten Island @5.  You can ride with us.

Hell, why not?  It wasn’t like he had anything better to do.

Putting on a resolute face, Richie ordered himself to enjoy the evening with his friends.  Later would be soon enough to stress about Denny.

[10:53 AM]RICH: I’m in.

☠ ☢ ☠

“Romeo!  Jake!”  Dorothea bent to snatch up a handful of action figures and toss them toward the sofa.  “Come and put your toys away!  Jesse!  Your shoes are in the floor – again!  Stephanie Rose, if you don’t get in the shower in the next five minutes I’m having your cell phone shut off!”

“Babes…”  Tony dodged the flying ponytail when she spun her head with an unhappy frown.  

“Your shoes are in the floor too,” she noted sourly.  “Put them away please.”

At least he’d gotten a please.

“I will,” he promised, folding his arms with concern.  “First, tell me what’s wrong.  Why are you snapping at everybody?”

“Because nobody can pick up after themselves, that’s why!” 

“No, I don’t think it is.” Resting a heavy palm on her shoulder, he tipped his head curiously.  “You never let this kinda shit get to you, so what’s going on?”

It was true.  The kids could practically set off a bomb in the house and she would do nothing more than tell them not to blow off any important body parts.  What had taken his calm fiancée – he liked the stupid-ass warm, fuzzy feeling that word gave him – and turned her into a frazzled housemom?  They’d only gotten engaged the night before, but was she having a case of buyer’s remorse?  Did she wake up wanting to be someone else this morning?

Her angry glare would’ve dropped a lesser man to his knees.  “Shall I recap for you?  There’s a nutcase on the loose, you’re carrying a gun, a coven of caterers is currently tearing my house apart in preparation for a wedding that’s not mine, I’m going to join my ex-husband’s future wife for an intimate bachelorette party, and now…”  The disbelieving laughter was almost maniacal.  “Now I’m having dinner with both her family and your parents, whom I haven’t spoken to since your mother exercised her bitchdom on me the other day.  Do I need another reason to be edgy, or is that enough?” she challenged him with slitted eyes.

His hand slid down to grab her wrist, tugging gently.  “Come here.”  When she belligerently dug her heels in, he tugged harder, until she tumbled into his arms.  “Now…”  Twitching his nose to work his glasses back into position, he calmly gazed into her dark, tumultuous eyes.  “Caterers aren’t even a blip on your radar.  You like Petey.  You’ve met the Senator before and everybody else will basically be your family.  My mother has never intimidated you a day in your life.  That leaves the nutcase and the gun.  Does the gun really bother you that bad, Babes?”

Her cheek fell to his shoulder with a quiet ’hmpf’.  “I hate you.  You see too much.”

“Now you know how I feel about you and your fucking crystal ball,” he snickered softly, some of the tension easing from his body as she settled against him.  “So it’s the gun?”

“No.”  She was mumbling into his neck.  “I mean, I don’t like it, but it’s not really us that the guy is after, so I can’t get too worked up over it.”

His hand snuck under the back of her sweatshirt, stroking the dip of her spine.  Touching her this way, so intimately yet not sexual, was comfortable.  Natural.  Like she belonged to him.

“Then what?”

Heaving a huge breath, she pushed out of his arms admitting, “Your mother.  This dinner gives her the opportunity to be patronizing about our engagement.  I have no desire to make a scene at Petey’s family event, but I don’t know that Carol shares that same conviction.”

She collapsed onto the arm of the chair, picking up one of the action figures and mindlessly flicking the tip of its sword.  Tony stepped near and took it from her, tossing it back into the pile with its counterparts.

“You’re worrying about nothing.  Pop knew I was going to ask you, and I’m sure he told Mom.  She’s not going to do anything out of line in this type of setting.  And…” He was going to Hell for saying this, but he couldn’t stop the wry grin from wrapping around the words, “…if she does, it will probably be directed at Petey, not us.”

Dorothea’s lips quivered with amusement even as she fought to do the right thing and act appalled.  “Bunny, that’s not very nice.”

He merely shrugged and grasped her shoulders from behind, kneading them with the hard pad of his thumb until she began to purr.  “I like Petey as well as anybody, but if the tables were turned, she’d say the same thing.  You know she would.”

“Probably.  Part of me thinks it would be easier to hate her, but I’m glad I don’t.”

Nosing the ponytail aside, his lips dusted across her nape.  “I’m glad you don’t either.  It would make it uncomfortable to work with her.  So where’s the bachelorette party?”

The brown cascade rippled by his nose as she shook her head.  “A drag club.  I can’t believe I’m taking my teenage daughter to a drag club or that we’re going with a Senator’s wife and daughter.  All these years I just lived a normal life, and now that I’m not married to a rock star look what happens.”

“Yeah.  You found somebody who loves you even more.”

Around whipped the ponytail again, and this time she rolled her eyes.  “That wasn’t what I was talking about.”

“But it’s true, anyway.”

Tipping her mouth invitingly, she waited until he’d kissed her before giving her quiet reply.  “Yes.  It is.”

☠ ☢ ☠

“Sugar?” Jon called as he hit the top of the staircase.  He’d been in the living room watching CNN and apparently fell asleep on the couch. 

Slow news days make for the best naps.

The doorbell had awoken him and, checking the peep hole, he saw that it was Steve the doorman bearing a package.  He assumed it was the delivery of his wedding gift and that suspicion was confirmed when he accepted the black and pink wrapped box.  It screamed Petey, and now so did he.   She’d snuck away somewhere after he’d succumbed to the vicious bout of nap-olepsy.

“Petey?” he tried again, strolling through his office and into the area where bathroom, closet and bedroom met.  “Where are you?”

“Hey.”  Her head peeked around the half-open bathroom door.  She had eyeliner in her hand and a smile on her face.  “I’m right here.  Did you finally wake up?”

Hefting the package, he explained, “Doorbell woke me.  I’m gonna guess this is the delivery you were expecting?”

Her smile didn’t get bigger, but it changed entirely.  Her mouth went soft, eyes following suit as she nodded.  “I would say so.  Give me a minute to finish my makeup and you can open it.  I’ll come find you.”

He nodded and tucked the gift under his arm.  Propping himself in the doorway, he chose to watch her finish her feminine routine rather than going to another room. 

She was surprisingly sedate tonight.  The dress was long, all the way to her ankles, with long sleeves and a deep vee neckline.  The only adornments were the silver studs around the neckline.  Her ears, neck and eyebrow were all devoid of jewelry, and the solid inky curtain of hair had been swept into some kind of hair thingy at the back of her head, leaving her neck abnormally bare.

The makeup she was applying around to the ice blue eye was also oddly tame – just enough to make them ‘pop’, without being dark and heavy. 

This wasn’t his imp.

“You look pretty… Patience.”

Glossy pink lips puckered in annoyance and she scowled at his reflection in the vanity mirror.  “Don’t be that way.  I try and tame down for my parents.  We’re all going to be out in public together, and I don’t want to cause a scene.”

“Fine,” was his deceptively amicable agreement.  “We’ll just have the scene here.  You don’t look like you.  Change your clothes, put on some jewelry or more makeup.  Pink contact lenses.  Something.”

“Not tonight,” she murmured, swiping a fuzzy little wand over her eyelashes. 

“What would you wear if we were just going out with my friends?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’d wear one of your Goth suits of death with the accompanying skull ring and necklace, or your combat boots and cargo pants.”

Cramming the wand back into its tube, she blew an aggravated breath.  “Probably.  So what?”

“So wear what you fucking want to wear.  Your mother loves you.  A black leather choker isn’t going to mortify her, and I know the Senator would rather you be happy than compliant.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.  “I’m already dressed.”

Widening his stance in the doorway, he effectively became a road block, refusing to let her to leave the bathroom.  Jon inclined his head, wanting her to see the hard chips his eyes could be.  “You’ll change clothes or pay the consequences.”

“What? You’re going to spank my ass for not dressing to suit you?  You’re pushing it Jon.”  She shoved small hands into his stomach in an effort to dislodge him from the door.

“No.”  She was making him mad, and he let that translate into a foreboding tone.  “I’ll spank your ass for not dressing to suit you.”

Petey thumped a small fist into his pectoral muscle with a disparaging, “Oh, Jesus, it doesn’t make any difference.”

“It makes a difference to me.  You don’t let me bully you and, with all due respect to your parents, I’m not going to let anybody else do it either.”  Jon tethered his frustration so that he could bring a gentle hand to brush her neck.  “I respect the hell out of you for being who you are.  Have I ever told you that?”

Pastel blue eyes snapped up, their temperature warming from iceberg to mountain lake.  “No.”

“Well, I do.  Sugar, I always think you’re beautiful.  If that dress says what you wanna say, then just tell me and I’ll back off.  But if not…”  God, why was he making such a big deal out of this?  She didn’t need his protection from herself.  Did she?  “…pick out something that does.  Please?”

Two delicate hands slithered up his chest and around his neck.  As she levered up on tiny tip-toes, she dragged his face in for a soft, seeking kiss.  It started with the barest brush of her lips, and then she was nibbling at him with those perfect white teeth.  When he let his mouth fall open under the pressure of a soft groan, she slipped that sweet, hot little tongue inside his mouth.  It rasped against his with a languid sensuality, and then danced through all the dark recesses of his mouth.

Jon went rock hard with the blatant sensuality of it.  They’d had fierce, passionate sex time after time, and the intensity was amazing, but this…  This was the lovemaking he kept promising her and it was every bit as hot – in a different way.  Not spontaneous combustion hot, but the slow, steady burn of a fireplace warming him from the inside out.  Someplace he wanted to curl up and spend a while.

Wet lips clung until Petey allowed her heels to gradually return to the floor and released his mouth with a tender sigh.  She traced his bottom lip almost worshipfully, before murmuring, “I respect the hell out of you, too.  That’s what I was going to tell you last night.  I’m proud of you for accepting Dorothea’s engagement so well.”

He chuckled, tracing an invisible design in the vee of her neckline.  “That’s all you, Baby.  I’m ashamed to say it, but if I didn’t have you, I’d probably be an asshole about the whole thing.”

“No,” she mused with a smile, fingers twirling in his hair.  “You wouldn’t.  You’d see how happy they are and you’d suffer in silence.  Fortunately, you didn’t have to find that out for yourself.”  The smile’s illumination was now directed at him.  “Because you do have me.”