Moaning, Mia closed her eyes, losing herself to the sensation. He had just the right spot with the perfect intensity and he was driving her to the edge at warp speed. Feeling a heated burning sensation on the soles of her feet, Mia knew she was close. As she opened her eyes to look at him, she was overwhelmed by the depth of the love she felt for this beautiful man standing over her. This man who made her feel safe and protected, who adored her and turned his whole world upside down to be with her. He literally had moved heaven and Earth to be with her and her heart overflowed just gazing up at him.
“I love you,” and yet her words seemed inadequate even to her own ears.
“I love you, Baby Girl,” and the steel in his eyes melted like glaciers. Dropping onto the bed next to her, he pulled her on top of him. Taking her face in both hands, he kissed her passionately and then flipped her onto her back. Smiling, he took her with a quick, deep thrust, a moan emanating from low in his throat as his lips sought hers again.
Slowly, he moved within her, his pace languorous and deliberate as if he were mimicking the gentle rocking of the boat. It took Mia a moment, but she realized he had tapped into the sea’s motion. Pulling his lips away, he smiled down at her.
“This feels good,” and he closed his eyes as he slowly plowed into her.
The friction and their motion and the gentle rocking of the boat felt exquisite. Focused in on where they coupled, feeling every luxurious inch of him sliding in and out, she was stripped of any and all control, and finally let go, “Oh God, Schooner,” she called into his neck, “oh God.” And to aid in the intensity of her release, her muscles spasmed around his cock, tightening as he took his last deep thrust.
Together they lay tangled on the sweat dampened sheets, skin glistening.
Rubbing the tip of his nose to hers, “You know what, Baby Girl…”
“What?” she smiled at him.
“My True Compass led me back to you,” and he pulled her head down onto his chest, wrapped his arms around her tightly and kissed the top of her head.
Chapter Seventeen
Gavin was sitting up in his chair, reading glasses perched on the end of his nose, as he scanned the financial pages of the Los Angeles Times. Leading the way with Nathaniel in her arms, Dee entered the room, with Schooner and Mia following shortly behind.
“So nice to see you up in your robe and slippers,” Dee greeted him with a kiss and handed him his grandson.
“Very good to be out of that bed,” he responded. “Hello, handsome,” he greeted Nathaniel. “Where’s Zac this morning?”
“He went over to L9 for an early workout. He should be here soon.” Schooner sat on the edge of the bed, “So do the doctors still feel they might be able to let you out in a few days?”
“The cardiologist was by this morning and I think another two days and then I’ll get sprung. They want me to do cardiac rehab.”
“I wonder if we can get them to let you do it L9. Maybe we can have the rehab person meet you there. We’ve certainly got the equipment they need.”
Taking advantage of Zac’s absence, Gavin steered the subject away from himself, “Have you spoken to Aaron about that little bombshell Zac dropped yesterday?”
“I have a call into him. Leslie said he was in court, but she expected him back shortly.”
“That gives you a lot of leverage to get this thing fast tracked, I would think.”
“Absolutely,” Schooner smiled.
“I never liked him,” Dee voiced a sentiment that she had felt for years and kept to herself.
“Ditto,” Mia added her two cents and a look passed between the two women.
“Do you think this has been going on for a while?” Gavin looked up from peering at Nathaniel.
“I think he’s been in love with her right from the start, but I’d venture to say the physical relationship is fairly new,” the wheels in Schooner’s head were turning.
As if on cue, Schooner’s phone rang. Looking at it, he smiled, “It’s Aaron,” and he strolled out of the room into the hallway.
Before he could even greet his lawyer, he nearly ran into two nurses, both smiling at him as if they had already undressed him in that nanosecond. While flattered that he was still turning heads, he yearned for a ring telling the world what he’d known in his heart since he was eighteen years old: Taken. Heart Property of Mia Silver.
“Excuse me,” he brushed past them. “Aaron, thanks for getting back to me so soon.”
“How’s your dad doing, Schooner? Leslie just updated me.”
Strolling down the hall at a fast clip in search of an empty waiting area, Schooner was oddly comforted hearing Aaron’s voice, knowing that his trusted attorney would bring him one step closer to finalizing a situation that had dragged on far too long.
“He’s actually doing fairly well, considering. It was mild, and he’s otherwise in good health, and meeting his newest grandson has gone a long way in keeping his spirits high.”
“Am I going to get to meet the latest Moore and Mia this trip?”
“I think we can make that happen.” Schooner poked his head into the waiting room to find it filled. He continued down another hallway in search of a quiet spot. Lowering his voice and speaking softly into his cell, “So, my son dropped a bombshell on us yesterday afternoon.”
“Oh?”
“It appears my old college roommate, Beau Gordon, known to my kids as ‘Uncle Beau’, has taken up residence in my home with my to-be-ex-not-soon-enough wife and it’s in more than the capacity of a roommate. Zac came home for spring break and felt so uncomfortable that he went and stayed with my parents.” Giving up on finding a quiet spot, Schooner leaned his left shoulder against a wall to talk.
Aaron chuckled, “That’s a beautiful thing.”
Smiling, Schooner was nodding his head, “Game. Set. Match.”
“Exactly. I’ll get her lawyer on the horn today and tell him it’s done.”
With a sixth sense that emanates from somewhere deep within the gut, Schooner felt the summoning call to turn to his right. Following his instinct, he changed directions to face the other end of the corridor. As he began to process the scene down the hall that he was just beginning to witness, he could feel rising bile start to burn his esophagus.
Zac leaned casually with his back up against the wall. She stood before him, gently stroking his arm with the intimacy of a lover. It took Schooner a moment to place the last time he had seen her, and that memory disgusted him nearly as much as the scene he was currently witnessing.
Without another moment’s hesitation, he started down the hall with his long legged stride. He was in protect mode. Protect his young. A part of the animal kingdom, Schooner Moore was the king of his pride and it was his duty to take out this cougar. This was the very same cougar that had intimately stroked his arm at his forty-third birthday party moments before dropping her hand down to his crotch in search of his cock. And now she was standing too close to his son, touching him in a way that only lovers do.
Spying his father approaching, Zac extricated himself from the woman and headed toward Schooner. The woman disappeared into a patient’s room.
“Hi Dad,” Zac was trying to come off cool, but from his darting eyes, his rattled nerves were apparent.
“How long has that been going on?”
Zac hesitated.
“Don’t lie to me, Zac,” Schooner’s demeanor was all business.
“It’s not. I mean, there’s nothing going on,” Zac was clearly agitated. This was a conversation he did not want to be having with his father.
“But there was,” Schooner was not letting him off the hook.
They stood in the middle of the busy hallway, hospital personnel and patients passed them on all sides but neither Moore saw another person nor heard another sound.
“Yes, there was,” Zac looked down at his feet.
“When?” Schooner’s tone was terse, his body language a warrior preparing for battle.
; “When I was home fall semester. Before I went back to Exeter.”
“How many of them were there?” the muscles in Schooner’s jaw were now twitching.
“Three,” Zac’s voice was little more than a whisper.
“Three in addition to her?”
“No. Including her.” Zac still had not looked up at his father.
“Did they know about one another?” Schooner’s arms were now crossed over his chest and if Zac had looked up he would’ve noticed his father’s mind racing a million miles per hour.
“Yeah. They did,” Zac finally looked up.
“Go back to your grandfather’s room. We’ll talk later.”
“Dad, are you mad at me?” Zac’s eyes were pleading.
“I’m not happy with you, Zac, but you’re the minor here. These women are adults who should know better. Go to your grandfather’s room.”
“Dad,” Zac pleaded.
“Now, Zac,” and Schooner turned on his heel and headed down the hall.
When he reached the room the woman had entered, he ducked his head in and beckoned for her to come out into the hallway.
As she emerged from the room, Schooner hit her with his All-American boy smile. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it.”
“Yes, it has,” she was caught off-guard and not quite sure how to react to his friendliness.
“It was my birthday party. That moment we shared,” Schooner was summoning his acting skills.
He had her with her back to the wall and he was standing close, his arm outstretched, his hand flat on the wall over her head. He was smiling down at her, his eyes locked on hers, oozing sexuality. She was melting before his eyes. Schooner was taking all his natural attributes and harnessing them. Not saying a word, but just gazing down at her, smiling, as she was trapped between his body and the wall, he waited for her breathing to escalate, so that he knew he had her in just the condition he wanted her.
Anyone observing them would have seen a man and a woman having a quiet, very intimate conversation.
Leaning down, he whispered in her ear, “So, I know you like to fuck, huh?”
With glazed eyes, she smiled back.
Going along with it, he leveled a glance at her, knowing it would make her squirm. And it did.
“Is that your husband in there?” he gestured toward the room.
“Yes,” her voice was breathy.
Leaning down to her ear so that his cheek grazed hers, he whispered, “So, how do you think he and the rest of Newport Beach are going to react when they find out that you’re a registered sex offender?” Schooner leaned back, All-American boy smile plastered on his face, his pale blue eyes ice, as he watched her first shocked, then panicked, reaction.
“What are you talking about?” she choked.
“You’ve been fucking my son. He’s under eighteen. Statutory rape is a felony. That makes you a sex offender.”
She turned white under her spray tan, her eyes wide, her breathing shallow and barely perceptible.
“As a registered sex offender,” he went on, “well, those databases are all over the internet and I will make sure that all of Newport Beach, heck, all of Orange County, knows about you and your friends,” he let that sink in for a moment. “Yes, I know about all of you.”
Her large blue eyes darted left and right, “He was willing. All too happy…”
Schooner cut her off, his voice soft, deadly calm, “He’s a minor and you are an adult. Are you so depraved and bored that you have to prey on your friend’s children to have someone fuck you? That’s pathetic and sick,” the disgust in his voice was evident, although from a physical posture it still appeared that they were having a pleasant, and possibly intimate, conversation. “You will lose everything, you know that. And you will be a social pariah in this town.”
Closing her eyes, she exhaled all the air from her lungs, “What do you want me to do?”
With an arm now on either side of her head, hands flush against the wall, Schooner leaned into her, “Obviously, stay away from my son. And instead of spreading your legs, spread the word to your friends. If anyone of you even so much as says hello to him again, I will have you arrested on sexual assault charges,” staring deeply into her eyes, “I will ruin you.” And with his panty-wetting smile, one that did not even come close to reaching his eyes, he pushed away from the wall, turned and walked away.
Coming down the hall toward him was Mia, a perplexed look on her face. She had just seen him in what looked like a very intimate moment with a woman. His face was unreadable as he approached her.
“Is everything ok?” her voice was tentative.
“No,” he shook his head and put his arm on her shoulder to indicate that she should turn around and walk with him.
“What’s going on Schooner?” Mia’s eyes searched his face for a clue. Give me something here, she silently screamed inside her head.
He saw a “Family Restroom” and tried the handle. It opened and he ushered Mia inside.
“Not the best place to talk, but it’s private.”
“Please tell me what’s going on. Who was that woman you were talking to, Schooner?”
Walking to the sink, he turned on the cold water faucet and began to splash water on his face. Looking in the mirror, he took a few deep breaths before turning to Mia.
“She is a friend of CJ’s.”
“Ok.”
“And she and two of her other friends have been having sex with my son.”
Mia’s eyes widened, her hand flying to her mouth at the shocking disclosure, “Oh my God.”
“What you just witnessed was me threatening to press charges if she, or the others, ever go near Zac again.”
“Oh my God,” Mia repeated. “Was this all going on under CJ’s nose?”
“Apparently,” he paused. “It seems this was all happening that semester he spent at home.”
“That is disgusting. He’s a child. What is wrong with these women? He’s the son of one of their friends. Don’t they have children of their own? What if it was one of their children?” Mia was ranting. Walking across the small bathroom to close the space between her and Schooner, she wrapped her arms around him tightly, “I know he’s turning eighteen soon, but you need to seek full custody now. This happened under her watch along with that overdose. We need full custody, Schooner. He can’t be left with her and Beau.” Mia looked up at him, her own eyes filled with tears brought on by anger and frustration.
We need full custody, Schooner. We. She had said ‘we’. In this dark moment, Schooner’s heart soared. This woman was bringing so many firsts into his life. Having a partner to share the good, endure the bad and fight the ugly was new and amazing and Schooner could feel the brimming in his heart - the same brimming he’d felt right from the start with Mia, so many years before.
“Under that tough New York girl exterior is the biggest heart ever. For you to even accept Zac into our world after everything that happened,” he just shook his head with disbelief. “You can’t even imagine the burden you relieve from me, Mia.”
Reaching up, Mia put a hand on his cheek, letting her thumb stroke gently, “We’re in this together, Pretty Boy. He’s your son. He’s Nathaniel’s brother. That means it’s my family. She hasn’t protected him, Schooner, and that makes me mad. Really, really mad.”
He nodded, kissing her hand, “Me too, Baby Girl. It took everything I had not to choke that bitch. Instead I threatened to expose and ruin her if she so much as says hello to him.” He ran a hand through his hair, eyebrows drawn together as he thought through his course of action, “I need to call Aaron. I want full custody until his eighteenth birthday and I want this divorce done yesterday. If she balks at all, the judge will be advised of everything.”
“I’m so sorry, Schooner. I really am.”
“We’re going to fix this,” his statement was absolute.
Pulling Mia close for a hug, as he kissed the top of her head, he realized that they shared a fundame
ntal similarity in ensuring that they would do whatever was in their power to protect the ones that they loved, even if it meant putting their own prejudices aside for the greater good.
Schooner didn’t think that he could love Mia anymore than he already did; but in that moment, his love for this woman, his partner, his lover, the mother of his son, his one true love, reached a depth that he never even dreamed existed. And the thought crossed his mind that maybe they were one soul in two separate bodies.
Chapter Eighteen
The drive to Linda Isle was shrouded in a heavy silence. As they pulled through the gates, Schooner looked over at his son. “I’m not happy about your part in this, Zac. Did your mother and I not raise you with any understanding of right or wrong?”
Zac didn’t answer, the muscles in his jaw twitching.
Turning into the white and gray paver driveway of his former residence, Schooner could feel his stomach knot and the bile begin to rise again from his gut, but overwhelming the physical sensations, was anger. Just being at the house set off a whole host of negative visceral reactions.
In the passenger seat, the tension continued to radiate off of Zac like solar waves rippling through the highly charged air. “He’s here,” was all he said.
Beau’s silver BMW sat in the driveway.
“I want you to go straight upstairs to your bedroom, pack your things and just bring them out to the car. No conversations with anyone. Is that understood?”
Zac nodded.
“Is. That. Understood?” Schooner was seething.
“Yes, sir,” Zac’s response was slightly more than a whisper.
Pulling out his keys at the front door, Zac looked at his father and knew they were entering a battlefield. Silently, he prayed he wouldn’t have to face his mother.
Walking into the main foyer, Schooner noticed how sterile it all seemed compared to the loft in SoHo with Nathaniel’s colorful toys and accessories strewn about. All was still, the air oppressive, and both Moores jumped slightly when they heard Beau’s voice call out from Schooner’s home office located just off the Great Room.
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