ROMANCING MO RYAN (17 page)

But as soon as his anger should have been rising, given his state, it began to deflate. Without seemingly any provocation from her, his gorgeous face went from grave agitation to a more subdued, irritated look.
 
It wasn’t a pleasant look either, but it was about as good as it was going to get right now, she figured.
 
He leaned back on the sofa.
 
“Come here, Nikki,” he said to her.
 

There was hesitation in Nikki’s response, but she went to him.
 

He opened his legs and pulled her down onto his lap.
 
He was no longer dressed in a suit, but was now casually dressed in a gray polo shirt that highlighted his muscular biceps, and a pair of well-fitted, khaki pants.
 
He leaned her back against him and wrapped his arms around her waist.

She expected him to give some speech of some kind, given that he had urged her to come to him, but he didn’t say a word.
 
He just held her.
 
She loved the way she felt in his arms, although she also knew there was so much more to this story.
 
But she remained silent too.

Then, when she thought the silence would continue through the night, he spoke softly.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he said.

Nikki hesitated.
 
“Who’s not your girlfriend?”

He didn’t respond.
 
They both knew full well who.

“I didn’t say she was,” Nikki finally said.

“Why didn’t you just phone me?
 
If you had a concern like that, why couldn’t you just pick up a phone and ask me?”

“I did phone you.
 
It went to voice mail.”

Mo closed his eyes.
 
He was so exhausted he could barely think straight.
 
On top of having a packed court docket to preside over, including two capital murder cases, he also had to deal with a girlfriend who had, in the relationship department, so much to learn.
 
And, on top of that, he had to deal with what was certain to be a long, contentious nomination fight that was to drag out for months.
 
And all of it together was wearing him down.
 
But of all of his concerns, Nikki was the most important.
 
He had to take care of her issues first.

“Her name is Myra Braswell,” he said.
 
“Her husband, Jake, is my best friend.
 
I’ve known both of them since college, when Jake and I were on the football team.”

Nikki looked at him.
 
“What position?”

He smiled.
 
“I was the quarterback.
 
Jake was a running back, a very gifted running back who made it all the way to the NFL.”

“Was he successful?”

“Yes, very.
 
Played most of his career with the Jets.
 
Was the MVP one year.”

“Were you drafted?”

Mo wrapped his arms around her tighter.
 
“Oh, no, I wasn’t that caliber quarterback. My job in college was mainly to break huddle and then hand the ball off to Jake.
 
Jake was our star.”

 
“And he’s still your best friend?”

“He will always be my best friend.
 
He’s a successful businessman in town.
 
He lives over in Ponte Vedra.”

“With Myra?”

“Yes, with Myra.”

“She implied that she was more than just a friend to you.”

Mo hesitated, and Nikki could sense that there were some deep feelings there.
 
Feelings he would probably never tell her about.
 
“We’re very close,” Mo admitted, “but she’s not my girlfriend.
 
She’s Jake’s wife and that’s all she’ll ever be in my eyes.”

“What about the naked lady who spent the night with you last week?
 
Is she your girlfriend?”

Mo didn’t seem surprised that Myra would have told her about that.
 
“She’s a friend,” he said.

Nikki looked at him.
 
“With benefits?”

“We slept together, yes,” Mo admitted.

“Have you discontinued this sleeping arrangement?”

“It’s not that kind of relationship, Nikki.
 
There’s no commitment there.”

“On your part, or hers?”

“Both.”

“But any time you need to get some, all you have to do is give her a call?
 
Is that what you’re telling me, Mo?
 
Because if it is it’s not something I can live with.”

Mo moved his hand underneath her halter top and began fondling her bare breast.
 
“You won’t have to live with it.”

“I can’t be one of many.”

Mo leaned his head against her, enjoying the feel of her.
 
“You won’t,” he said.

“I’m serious now.”

Mo stopped and looked at her.
 
“And you think I’m not?
 
I’m serious too, Nikki.
 
I’ve made a commitment to you, and you alone.”

Nikki wanted to celebrate.
 
She wanted to go back to the way they were this morning.
 
But she knew it wouldn’t work.
 
“What about my job?” she asked him, a concerned look in her eyes.
 
“And your job?”

Mo continued fondling her.
 
“I was just stressed out, Nikki.
 
Of course you’ll continue to do your job.”

“But I may have to ask even harder questions than the one I asked today.
 
Can you live with that?”

“Yes, I can.
 
And I may have to issue rulings tougher than any I’ve ever issued before.
 
Can you live with that?”

She thought about it.
 
Mo watched her.
 
He loved her thoughtfulness.
 
“Your judicial philosophy is ass-backwards,” she said, and he smiled, “and I’ll have to criticize it every chance I get.
 
But if you can accept the fact that I can’t sit by and let you sail to that nomination without a fair fight, then, yes, I can accept the fact that you believe what you believe.”

Mo laughed.
 
“You can hold your nose and accept it, in other words,” he said.
 

Nikki smiled.
 
“Right,” she said.

“Oh, Nicole,” he said, moving her butt to the center of his lap and moving his hands underneath her blouse and caressing both of her breasts, “you are one of a kind.”

 
Nikki leaned her head back against him, enjoying his massage.
 
“Anyway,” she said softly, “whether I agree with it or not, you still should be congratulated.”

He paused.
 
“But you don’t agree with my nomination, do you?” he asked her.

“No, I don’t,” Nikki replied honestly.
 
“I think the governor has made a very big mistake.”

Although a part of him was hurt by her brutal honesty, another part of him was reassured by it.
 
“Good for you,” he said.

His response surprised Nikki.
 
“You agree with me?”

“No.
 
But that doesn’t mean you’re wrong.”
 

She smiled.
 
He was smooth when he wanted to be.
 
“You didn’t answer my question,” she said.

“I thought I had.”

“I’m talking about the one I yelled while you were leaving the courthouse.
 
Are you, in fact, an enemy of civil rights?”

Mo snorted.
 
Always the journalist, he thought.
 
“The kind of civil rights you and your paper espouse?
 
Yes, I believe I am.”

Nikki attempted to lean forward, to get a better look at him, but he restrained her movement.
 

“No,” he said.
 
“I like the way your breasts feel in my hands.”
 
He said this and squeezed both breasts so hard that Nikki had no choice but to lean back and enjoy it.
 

“I know it sounds harsh,” he eventually said.
 

“I don’t understand how you can believe that conservative garbage.
 
You’re a wealthy man.
 
You live in a big house and drive a fancy car and wears fancy clothes.
 
But there are people out there who are still very poor, Mo.
 
They haven’t arrived.
 
And it’s those people that me, and the Gazette, have to give voice to.”
 

Mo stopped fondling Nikki and exhaled.
 
He knew she was passionate about her beliefs, but he was passionate about his, too.
 
“Yes,” he said, “we do have very poor people among us, yes, of course we do.
 
The question is how do we help them because those same people will remain poor if all we do is tell them the secret to success is qualifying for this government program or that one, and we don’t even allow them the courtesy of telling us to get the hell away from them.”

“So the class divide that exists in this society is liberals’ fault?”

“It’s not a fault, Nikki, it’s a fact.
 
A fact of life.
 
Just as pollution and traffic jams and bad movies are facts of life.
 
Nobody’s telling you to like the pollution or traffic or movie, but sometimes you just have to endure it.
 
That doesn’t define you and it doesn’t stop you.
 
It’s just one more hurdle to get over.”

Nikki stared at him.
 
“Have you ever been poor a day in your life, Judge Ryan?”

Mo hesitated.
 
“Totally irrelevant,” he said.

“It’s completely relevant!
 
It’s easy to talk about jumping over hurdles, particularly the kind that keeps getting raised higher and higher, when you’ve never been down there to jump.
 
I’ve been poor, Judge.
 
I know what time it is.
 
People need your help.
 
Not your judgment.”

He looked at her, at the tears that began to well up in her eyes, and he didn’t think he could love her more than he did at that moment in time.
 

He pulled her into his arms and smiled at her.
 
“You have a big heart, you know that?” he said, and he stared at her unblinkingly, and for the longest time, until his look went from mildly amused to something far more serious.
 
More passionate.
 
And, ultimately, more sensual. And then he kissed her.
 
Tender at first, and then passionate and long and rough.
 
She held onto him as if she couldn’t let him go.

And this time it happened so fast.
 
He continued to kiss on her as he removed her shorts, lifted off her shirt, and turned her to where she was straddling him.
 
And then he unbuckled and unzipped his pants, pulled them down, and then lifted off his shirt.
 
As he kissed her lips and nibbled on her ears and licked and sucked her breasts, his fingers got her ready for his entry.
 

And when she was sufficiently wet, he guided his penis inside of her, all the way, until it was completely in.
 
And they began the ride.
 
Nikki held onto his shoulders as she rode him. He put her nipple in his mouth and ramrodded her so precisely that she felt every inch of his fullness every time her body lifted up on his penis, and then slid back down. It was in the sliding down that caused her to lean her head back and pump harder.

Mo held onto her hips as he pumped into her just as hard.
 
She was so tight that he wondered if he could be hurting her, but her wonderful reaction to his thrusts made it clear that he was pleasuring, not hurting her.
 
And he thrashed into her womanhood as her womanly juices saturated his manhood, making for an easy, relaxing, highly erotic ride.
   

And when they came, her first and then him, he grabbed onto her small body and leaned it against his, unable to stop thrashing even after his release.
 
Until the intensity became unbearable, and he let out his final, but by far most explosive, push.

Nikki collapsed in his arms after that push.
 
His hands moved from her hips to her buttocks, as he caressed her and kissed her again.
 
This was his baby.
 
This was his woman.
 
And he was going to work his ass off to please her, he thought as he caressed her, even if it killed him.
 
And given the way she made him feel, given her views and passion, he thought more cynically, it possibly could.