Using Protection

Luckily for them, Danny chose that moment to come pounding downstairs in his jacket, a brightly colored bookbag on his shoulders. She gave him a smile and took his hand, leading him out the door for the drive to school.

Heart pounding with unslaked lust, he turned his head to see the puppy looking at him, head cocked to one side.

"What are you looking at?" he growled, then stomped up to his room to get ready for the day.

*****

The steaks were good, the beer was cold, and the Cardinals were beating the Cubs one-zip in the seventh.

"Oh, come on," he griped, as the Cubs hit into a double play. "This guy isn't that good."

Nicole stuck out her tongue at him playfully. On the couch, Danny looked back and forth between the two of them. Torn between his mother and his brother, he had decided, with impeccable logic, to cheer for both teams. The puppy, who had accurately, if unimaginatively, been named Blackie, napped on his lap.

Pat wandered into the kitchen and opened a bag of chips, and pulled a jar of salsa out of the fridge.

"Didn't you get enough to eat at supper?" Nicole asked.

"I'm a growing boy," he replied easily, and untruthfully.

"Yeah?" she asked, her eyes twinkling wickedly. "Which part?"

He snorted around a mouthful of chips and took another sip of his beer. Somehow they had moved beyond the awkwardness of the past day and reached a new stage in their relationship. As Nicole casually flirted with him, the sexual tension had not disappeared, but had rather become just another facet of their love for each other.

The Cards went down in their half of the seventh, and Pat checked on Danny. He was slumped over on his side, eyes closed.

"He's out," he said softly. "Time for bed?"

Nicole nodded. He picked his brother up, the slack weight draped over his shoulder, Nicole following him up the stairs.

He watched as she dressed him in his pajamas, putting him to bed. In turn, they each hugged and kissed the little boy goodnight.

When they came back downstairs, the Cardinals had scored, making it two-zip in the eighth, and Nicole squealed with glee. With a grimace, Pat muted the TV, then sat down beside her.

"I think we should talk," he said.

"I'd rather not," she said, her eyes promising...what?

"Nicole..." he sighed.

"What?" she asked. "I thought about it all day at work. I'm not going to hide it and I'm not going to fight it any longer, Patrick. I want you. I want you in my bed, as my lover." She placed a hand on her belly. "I want you inside me, as my lover."

"And Danny?" he asked. "Your friends? The firm? What will we do about that? Some people," he said, understating the case tremendously, "might not approve." In St. Louis, the stands erupted as the Cardinals hit another home run.

"If we got married, sure," she said. "I don't think there is any way we could make that work. Not without leaving town and starting over where no one knew us. But there are hundreds, thousands of people in this city who are intimate without being married. There is no reason not to be lovers as long as we keep it quiet. And if things work out between us, one day, when Danny is old enough to understand, we'll tell him.

"But why should we deny ourselves the chance for happiness when it is right here in front of us? Pat, do you love me? Do you want me?"

"Good God, yes," he said hoarsely, his voice strained with emotion.

"And I want you," she replied. She rose up and straddled him. Behind them, her phone buzzed on the counter. They both ignored it. Slowly, she lowered her lips to his.

They made out for what seemed like hours, a slow, gentle series of kisses that brought them to a fevered pitch of excitement. Nicole was in no hurry, savoring the slow rise of desire, and Patrick had no need to push her. He cupped her buttocks in his hands, his fingers teasing at the hem of her shorts, the tips tickling the inside of her thighs. She giggled as her skin quivered, her mouth open wide, her tongue darting into his mouth to wrestle with his. Slow and sensual, she pushed her breasts against his chest, purring deep in her throat as his hands rose up to undo the buttons of her shirt.

Feather-light, his hands brushed across her lace-covered glories and he dropped his face to nuzzle the delicate skin of her chest. Groaning, she rocked against him, grinding her aching sex on his hot shaft.

He winced and pulled away slightly.

"If you keep that up," he warned her, "I am going to be too raw to do you any good."

"Well, we can't have that, can we?" she said. She curled a hand around his length, softly stroking. "Maybe we should get all of these stupid clothes off."

He was just unclasping her bra when there was a tremendous crash at the door. Nicole jerked up, her face draining, staring towards the front hall like a scared rabbit. Holding her shirt across her chest, she ran for her phone. Reading what it said, she whimpered in fear.

I'm coming over, bitch. U better be ready for me if u know whats good for u.

"He's here," she gasped as another blow shook the doorframe.

"Nicole?

"Nicole, look at me!"

Somehow she focused her eyes on Pat. From outside she could hear Evan roaring drunken threats.

Pat pressed the phone into her hands. "Go upstairs. Lock yourself in Danny's room. Call 911. Give them your name, address, and tell them that someone is trying to break in. Make sure they repeat the information back to you. Can you do that?"

She nodded jerkily.

"What are you going to do?"

Reciting the list steadied her voice. "I'm going to go upstairs." The door boomed again and she flinched as she heard a crack, but carried bravely on. "I'm going to lock myself in Danny's room. I'm going to call 911. I'll give them my name, address, and that someone is trying to break in. I'll make them repeat it."

From the doorway came the tinkle of breaking glass, and a confused, frightened cry drifted down from upstairs.

"I love you," he said, kissing her. "Now go!"

*****

Evan Fratelli reached through the broken glass of the front door and undid the deadbolt, cursing as he cut himself on the jagged edge.

Stupid bitch, he thought drunkenly. I'll make her pay for that.

He had been at a sports bar most of the night, sucking down cheap beer and watching the ball game. When the fucking Cardinals took a four-run lead in the eighth, his thoughts had turned to Nicole Adams.

The little faggot had been telling the truth. There had been a restraining order on his desk when he got back to the office that day. He had actually considered leaving the cunt alone, at least until he had a chance to talk to his father about it. But the longer he stayed at the bar, listening to the triumphant hoots of St. Louis fans, the greater his anger at being thwarted boiled up inside him.

She shouldn't have told me no, he thought petulantly, as he wiped blood off on his shirt. He took a step inside the quiet house, the only sound the whir of the refrigerator. No one tells Evan Fratelli no.

"Honey! I'm hoooome!!" he shouted, then giggled.

*****

In the home office off the front hall, Patrick waited, hidden in the shadows, his hands clenched so hard they hurt.

Come on, you fucking nightmare, he whispered to himself. Two more steps.

*****

"I'm down here, Nicole!" Evan roared. "Don't you have a kiss for me?"

He cocked his head. Had that been a frightened cry upstairs? He grinned unpleasantly and moved towards the staircase.

He never saw the small, furious man move out of the doorway.

Screaming in fury, Pat whipped the golf club around in a vicious arc, meeting Evan's exposed knee with a sickening crack. With a squeal of pain he fell to the floor, clutching his leg.

Pat's stomach heaved as he felt the kneecap shatter under his blow. Teeth clenched, he waded back into the fight, striking Evan again and again. With the second savage swing, he broke Evan's forearm.

Finally realizing his danger, Evan covered his face, screaming for mercy. With his chest exposed, Pat struck him over and over, feeling ribs crack under his onslaught. Gasping he pulled back, lips peeled in a snarl over his teeth. He cocked his arms back, thinking about how satisfying it would be to erase this pustule from the face of the earth.

With a wail, two police cars tore around the corner and skidded to a stop at the curb. Dropping the club on the floor and raising his hands, he spared a glance for the sobbing piece of human wreckage on the floor.

"A mountain of pain. I warned you."

*****

They held hands on the couch as they gave their statements to the police, Danny sitting wide-eyed at his mother's side. Nicole produced her copy of the restraining order and showed the police her phone with the last, damning text message on it.

"God damn, boy," said the impressed sergeant as Evan was carted off by the EMTs. "What did you use on him? A baseball bat?"

"Five-wood," he replied. His lips quirked as he glanced at Nicole. "Thanks for the lesson the other day. Would have hated to hook that one.

"So what happens to him?" he asked, with a jerk of his head towards the ambulance.

"Him? Trip to the hospital. Once he gets patched up, he'll go to jail for booking. Sooner or later he'll stand trial. We can get him for ignoring the restraining order and B&E if he doesn't cop a plea."

He stood, nodding to them respectfully. "I'm glad you called us. Things might have gotten messy if we hadn't arrived here when we did." He gave Pat a long, slow look which told him he knew just how tempted he had been to end Evan's life then and there.

"Good night."

*****

He was sweeping up the broken glass, trying to think what he could use to patch the hole in the door, when the shakes hit. Bone deep, they shook him in wracking spasms until he couldn't even hold the broom and dustpan in his hands. Dropping them, he covered his face, curling into a ball at the base of the wall.

He felt her presence as she sat beside him. He unclenched enough to slide an arm around her waist, burying his face in the hollow of her shoulder, desperate for comfort.

"God, Nicole," he choked out at last. "I was so scared."

"It's all right," she replied. "You're fine."

"No! I was scared for you. What would happen to you and Danny if he got past me.

"And then, once I stopped him...

"I could have killed him, Nicole. I wanted to kill him. I had the club in my hands and I was ready to use it."

"But you didn't," she pointed out reasonably. Her hand stroked his hair. "You didn't. Let's get this mess cleaned up," she said, levering herself to her feet. "And go to bed."

*****

He dumped the glass in the recycling bin, and taped up an old piece of cardboard over the broken pane.

"I'll have Sully and Mulder come by tomorrow to replace it," he told Nicole. "And take a look at the frame. I am sure I heard something crack while that scumbag was pounding on it."

"Well, we know one thing for sure," she said with a small laugh. "You guys build good houses."

Now he was in the shower, trying to wrap his mind around the events of the day. He shampooed his hair, then rinsed off, checking his hands for the trembling they had shown earlier.

Steady again. Good.

He dried off and wrapped the towel around his waist. He thought about seeing if Nicole was all right, but abandoned the idea quickly.

There's been too much. Too quick. Let's sort things out tomorrow.

Passing Danny's room, he ducked inside. His little brother was fast asleep, a stuffed bear clutched tight in his arms. A gleam of eyes made him blink, but then he recognized the familiar form of Blackie on the bed and relaxed.

He frowned as he neared his door. A piece of paper was taped to it. On it was written the single word, "No", and an arrow pointing down the hall to the bedroom that had been his parents', and was now Nicole's.

*****

She lay on the bed, watching him as he entered the room. Flickering candles bathed the room in a warm, golden glow, and the scent of vanilla and lavender filled the air. Head propped on her pillow, she wore a towel draped over her slim hips, hiding her groin from his view, but her chest was bare, her white breasts and dark, jutting nipples exposed to his reluctant gaze.

"Come to bed, Pat," she said softly.

Almost stumbling, he dropped the towel and climbed into bed with her. Disbelieving, he ran one hand down her shoulder, and then his arms came tight around her, holding her clasped to his body. She sighed as their bodies melded together. One being. One heart, not two.

She eased back from him a moment, looking into his eyes. "Are you all right?"

He nodded. "I think I am. Now. Earlier?" He shrugged. "Not really. I've never done anything like that before."

"Let's hope you never have to again. But I didn't think it would be a good idea if you slept alone tonight."

His face fell. "So then we aren't..."

"You idiot. Of course we are." She took his face in her hands and pulled him to meet her lips.

Her lips were soft and sweet, and tasted of strawberry lip gloss. He opened his mouth, running his tongue across them, and was immediately rewarded as she responded by opening her mouth wide, inviting him in. Their tongues played together, tasting, stroking, licking, and he groaned as her skill began to assert itself. Raising herself on one elbow, she slowly leaned over his body, rubbing her mouth on his all the while, her lips and tongue making love to his mouth, then falling away to kiss his cheeks, his eyes, breathing hot air into his ear as he moaned and shuddered.

Pat felt like he was drowning in beauty. Every unwilling thought he had about Nicole since the night his father brought her home to meet him was coming true, but even the most lurid dream was falling fall short of her amazing sensuality. The towel fell away from her hips, and for the first time he saw her completely nude. Tearing his eyes away from her body, he saw her regarding him with a smile that could not quite mask the fear on her face.

"Do you like what you see?"

"Good God, yes," he laughed. "You're incredible."

Raising his arms, he ran his hands up her back, gathering the mass of her hair in his fingers, then dropped it, letting it fall around their faces in a mass of chestnut curls. Wiggling slightly, she moved even farther onto his chest, her legs straddling his thigh, and bent her lips to his once more.

"My hero," she whispered, laying a palm against his cheek. He was surprised to see her eyes wet with tears. "Promise me," she continued, "that you will never do anything so stupid again." For a moment, her eyes grew fierce. "Taking on a man who outweighed you by sixty pounds and could have snapped you in half with one hand? Idiot." She kissed him hard, her body pressing into his.

"Well, I had to make sure I impressed you, didn't I?" he smiled, once he could breathe again. She drew an outraged breath, eyes blazing, then calmed as he winked. "I promise. It was a stupid-ass thing to do. But if I had to do it all over," he said, his face grim. "I would. There is no way I wouldn't try to protect you and Danny."

"I know," she said softly. Shaking her head, she kissed her way down his throat to his chest, raising up so that one hand could wrap around his steely length. His breath caught in his throat as she stroked him, her small hand spreading his leaking fluids around his head and shaft. He cleared his throat apologetically.

"I'm not very big, I know."

She shook her head. "Men. What is it about you that makes you think size is so important?" She crawled up the bed and sat on his stomach, her spread legs settling on either side of his chest, her rear pressing against his hardness. She shivered as the heat warmed the crack of her ass. "Listen to me, Pat. You have a beautiful thick cock. I don't need some ten-inch monster like they talk about in the pornos. What I need," she said, raising his hands to her chest, "is you."

She sighed delicately as his hands cradled her breasts, his clever fingers stroking and kneading her sensitive flesh. The fire in her groin was building, and she slowly ground her loins into Pat's hard belly, savoring the feel of his phallus as it slipped up and down the cleft of her buttocks.

His hands came around her back and gently pulled her down to meet him. She saw his mouth open wide, and then his hot lips and tongue were on her breast. First on the slope, then on the aereola, and finally on the straining bud of the nipple itself, his mouth gently suckling, nursing like a child.

Oh!

Her head snapped back, her long hair sweeping off her shoulders and down her back, as his mouth lit a fire in her chest. Arching her back, she pulled his head close to her, forcing more and more of her breast into his mouth. From her lips came a harsh, guttural groan, and she could feel the lips of her sex swelling, parting, preparing to take her husband's child into her body.

His tongue toyed with her nipple, now swirling around, now flicking back and forth, driving her mad with desire. Gasping, she forced his head away from one breast, and gave him the other, while his free hand came up to squeeze the first, his firm fingers twisting the wet nipple in time to the sweet ravages of his mouth.

Oh, it has been so long, she thought, as the yearning in her belly grew. So long. But soon the waiting will be over. She reached behind her back and trailed teasing fingers up the length of his cock, smiling wickedly as he twitched under her touch.

"Christ, Nicole," he gasped as her fingers wound through the thicket of his pubic hair and cupped his balls. She rolled them in her fingers, delighting in their heavy fullness, imagining she could feel the roil of millions of sperm cells under her touch. He jerked again, and she reluctantly released him, not wanting him to spend his pleasure too soon.

Sinking to the bed, she draped her body along his slim length, only pausing to raise up enough so that his cock could escape the loving prison of her butt-cheeks and instead come to rest, rigid and tense, along the curve of his stomach. She dropped back down, catching his manhood between the folds of her sex.

"Oh, sweet Jesus," she moaned. His staff was like a burning spear, thick, hot and heavy. She moved slightly, and whimpered in delight as her sensitive clit dragged along the hot flesh of his shaft. Closing her eyes, she began to rock against him, up and down. At the top of each stroke, where her button met the bulbous flesh of his head, she gave her hips a twist, mashing her clit against his glans, moaning as the friction sent sparkles of erotic delight throughout her being.

Up and down. Up and down. At the top of each stroke, Pat held his breath as Nicole paused, his head at her opening, and then sighed again as she swept back down the pulsing, twitching length of his cock, sliding against him in a sensual display of erotic delight. His mouth still at her breasts, he let his hands settle under the flexing muscles of her buttocks, not forcing, not even trying to guide her, but rather there as a comfort and a support.

She needs to be in control. After a terrible fright, even more so for her then for him, Pat knew instinctively how deeply Nicole had to trust him to allow him into her bed. But even trust had limits. A woman who had only a short time ago had huddled in her son's bedroom, hoping to stave off a brutal would-be rapist, would not surrender control of her body so easily.

Up and down. Up and down. His hair was caught in her hands. She pulled his head back so she could gaze into his eyes. He looked back unblinking, hoping to convince her of his love. With a wordless cry she pressed her lips to his once more, almost bruising in their force. The pace of her strokes quickened, and he could hear the wet noises as their juices mingled.