Mick Sinatra: For Once In My Life (29 page)

“Roz!” he
yelled, grabbed her by the arm, and turned her around.
 
When he saw his maids, he barked.
 
“Get the fuck out of here!” he yelled at
them, and all three, terrified, hurried back into the parlor and slammed the
door.

Mick looked
at Roz.
 
He held her by the chin.
 
“You don’t defy me,” he said between clenched
teeth.
 
“Nobody defies me.”

He grabbed
her so forcefully that she dropped her luggage.
 
He all but dragged her up the stairs.
 
He stopped on the second floor landing, where there was a bench.
 
He sat down, threw her over his knee, lifted
her dress, pulled down her panties, and was about to spank her bare ass.
 
He was going to teach her a lesson about
defying him if it was the last thing he did.

But Roz
wasn’t having it.
 
She wiggled and pushed
and turned to break herself free.
 
Her
ass was like a moving target, because Mick could not get an aim on it.
 
They were so loud on that landing that many
of the downstairs staff, including the chef, had come out into the living room
area.
 
The maids, who had shut themselves
up in the parlor, came out too.
 
They
couldn’t see what was going on upstairs, but they knew it was bad.

Although
Mick was determined to teach Roz a lesson, Roz was even more determined not to
allow Mick to teach her shit.
 
She did
all she could to break free.
 
But Mick
was far too strong.
 
He applied the
pressure he needed to commence his spanking.

Roz braced
herself for the impact as Mick lifted his hand.
 
But as he sat there, with her across his lap, he came to himself and
realized what he was about to do.
 
So he
was going to spank her now?
 
Was this how
he was going to handle all their disagreements?
 
By forcing his will on her?
 
By
hurting her?

And he knew
he couldn’t do it.
 
He could never harm a
hair on her head.
 
He put his hand down,
and released her from his grasp.

Roz hurried
up from his lap, reassembled her clothes, and looked at him with fury in her
eyes.
 
And she left his side and hurried
back downstairs.

Mick
realized his error almost immediately.
 
He realized his strong arm tactics might have just sealed their fate
without realizing he was even damaging it.
 
And he panicked.

“Rosalind!”
he yelled, as he hurried behind her.
 
“Rosalind!”

His staff
was dumbstruck with disbelief when they saw the great Mick Sinatra run down
those stairs chasing after some woman.
 
They knew they could lose their jobs just for standing there, but it was
like rubbernecking at a terrible wreck: they couldn’t take their eyes
away.
  
The idea that their boss, looking
like some bewildered lover, would allow a woman to reduce him to that level,
amazed them.
 
She was in trouble
now.
 
They were certain of it.
 
Mick Sinatra was not going to let a woman
handle him the way she was handling him, and live.

But when
Mick caught up to Roz just as she was about to hurry out of the front door, and
he grabbed her again, Roz saw something different in his eyes.
 
He was not the man who dared to be defied
this time.
 
He was not beating his chest
and ready to spank her ass because she wouldn’t go along with him.
 
All she saw was pain.

“Don’t leave
like this,” he pleaded with her.
 
“Please.
 
I let my fear get the
best of me.
 
I was out of line,
Rosalind.
 
I’m sorry.”

Roz was
stunned as she stood there.

“I thought I
was teaching you a lesson,” he admitted.
 
“But I was wrong.
 
I should have
known you can take care of yourself.
 
You
can make your own decisions.
 
You don’t
need me to teach you shit.”
 
A distressed
look appeared on his face.
 
“I’m the one
who will have to learn.”

But Roz
started shaking her head.
 
She knew he’d
never been in this kind of intense relationship before.
 
She knew they would have growing pains.
 
But she also knew she had to make it clear
that he was not going to disregard her.
 
“You’re learning a lesson about our relationship, Mick,” she said.
 
“But you’re learning the wrong lesson.
 
You can teach me many things.
 
But the one thing you can’t do is treat me as
if I’m one of your men.”

Mick stared
at her.
 
She could tell he was truly
listening to her.
 
So she kept
talking.
 
“You have to respect me enough
to know that I’m not trying to usurp your authority or wear the pants in our
relationship or anything close to that.
 
I know there will be many times when I’m going to have to do what you
tell me to do despite what I want.
 
And I
will do it.
 
But this isn’t about what I
want.
 
This is about other people, and
what I promised to deliver to them.
 
I
thought they would accept Marge.
 
They
always have when she subbed in for me.
 
But they haven’t accepted her as their permanent instructor.
 
And I can’t just say tough and bump it.
 
I’ve got to do something about it.
 
I have to go and finish the term.”

Mick
exhaled.
 
He knew she was being who she
was: a woman of conviction.
 
He didn’t
want her to go, but if staying meant compromising herself, he wouldn’t have it
any other way.
 
But he still worried
about her.

Then Roz did
something she never dreamed she would ever do.
 
She asked for his permission.
 
“Can I go, Mick?” she asked.

Mick stared
into her gorgeous eyes.
 
He stared into
the eyes of the woman who could destroy him, not with weapons, but just by
leaving him.
 
And he was going to do
everything in his power to do right by her.
 
But his number one job was still to protect her, and to keep her
safe.
 
“Only on one condition,” he said
to her.

She stared
at him.
 
“What?”

“You stay at
the Carson.
 
You stay in my penthouse
where I’ll know my men can keep you safe.”

Now Roz
looked distressed.
 
“But my apartment is
paid up for this month,” she said, “and I can easily get a thirty-day extension
for next month, which will be the end of the semester.”

“Either you
stay at the Carson,” Mick said, “or you will get on my plane and fly back here
every night.
 
Pick your choice.”

Roz knew she
wasn’t about to get on anybody’s plane every single night, no matter how
luxurious and comfortable.
 
She wasn’t
big on flying to begin with.
 
That was a
nonstarter.

She also knew
the mere fact that Mick was now agreeing to let her go back to New York was a
huge compromise on his part.
 
She had to
compromise too.
 
“I’ll stay at the
Carson,” she said.

But neither
one of them were celebrating.
 
Because
they knew they had just dodged a bullet.
 
They knew, if their twosome was ever going to work, they were going to
have to make it through a lot more days like this.
 
Mick picked up Roz’s luggage, placed his hand
on the small of her back and escorted her out to the waiting limousine.

After they
walked out, the staff continued to stand where they were.
 
It was as if they were seeing a man they had
never seen before.
 
He not only didn’t
beat her down for defying him, but he actually apologized to her!
 
He apologized!
 
They heard it with their own two ears!
 
Some looked at each other with disbelief in
their eyes.
 
Some scratched their heads
in puzzlement and confusion.
 
But all of
Mick’s workers, from the youngest to the oldest, went back to their duties with
a newfound respect for Rosalind Graham.

Three weeks
later, and Roz was back in town to spend the weekend with Mick.
 
She entered the lobby at Sinatra Industries
ready to head toward the public elevators.
 
But things had changed dramatically.
 
There was a time when she would enter the lobby and be just another face
in the enormous crowd.
 
But not
anymore.
 
Now, as soon as she entered the
building, the lobby manager hurried from his perch near the back and made his
way to her side.
 

“Miss
Graham,” he said jovially as he arrived.
 
“Welcome back to Sinatra Industries, ma’am!”

“Thank you,”
Roz responded.

“Mr. Sinatra
told me to personally escort you to his office.
 
Please follow me to his personal elevator.”

They began
heading toward the elevator.
  
Roz hadn’t
announced she was coming.
 
She didn’t
call for Mick’s plane the way she normally did, or call for his limousine.
 
She rented a car instead and took a slow
drive back.
 
She thought she’d enjoy a
drive alone-and she did enjoy it.
 
But he
apparently had people following her all the way.
 
She never once saw any of them, and was
amazed at how efficient they were, but she was certain they were there.
 
The fact that Mick had his lobby manager meet
her, when she hadn’t even told him she was coming, proved it.
 
It also proved that it was a brave new world
she was living in.
 
Although she loved it
because Mick was in it, she sometimes missed her old life too.

When she and
the manager rode the elevator to the top floor, and the doors opened, she told
him she could take it from there.
  
But
the manager was insistent.
 
“Mr. Sinatra
told me to bring you to him, ma’am,” he said, as he stepped off too.
 
“I’ll have to do my job.”

Roz was not
accustomed to this.
 
Sometimes Mick
treated her like the independent woman she viewed herself as, but then he’d
reverse and treat her like some kid he had to constantly look out for.
 
It was as contradictory as Mick was.

But Deuce
McCurry told her she was looking at it the wrong way.
 
Maybe it was because Mick knew about threats
that not only she didn’t know about, but wouldn’t understand.
 
“He’s not babying you to baby you,” Deuce had
said.
 
“He’s protecting you.
 
He told me that’s his number one job now.”

Roz
remembered appreciating what Deuce had said, but she still wasn’t sure if Mick sometimes
protected her, or
over
protected her.

He was
seated on his office couch, talking with a woman who was seated in the chair
flanking him, when his manager opened the door for Roz.
 
She thanked him, and Mick waved at him from
where he sat.
 
The manager waved back,
thrilled, Roz could tell, that he had done his job according to Mick’s orders.

After he
left, Roz walked toward the couch.
 
She
could tell Mick was a little pissed with her because he didn’t get up and
welcome her back home with open arms. He agreed to let her stay in New York to
finish her teaching gig, and she’d been doing just that these past three weeks.
Although he was busy as hell, and although she was the one who wanted to
complete the term, he was the one who did the lion’s share of visiting.
 
He managed to visit her two, sometimes three
times per week since she’d been gone, but that didn’t mean he liked the
idea.
 
He even told her, during his last
visit earlier in the week, that he wasn’t going to rest until the semester was
over, and she was back in Philly where she belonged.
 
But something else, she could tell, was
bothering him today.

“Hey,” he
said, as she leaned down toward him.
 
Her
plan was to give him a peck of a kiss and sit beside him, since he appeared to
be in the middle of a meeting, but Mick opened his legs and pulled her onto his
lap.
 
He also gave her a considerably
longer kiss than a peck.
 
Then he
introduced her.

“Flo, this
is Rosalind Graham.
 
My lady.”

Flo
smiled.
 
“Hello, Rosalind,” she said, and
extended her hand.

“Nice to
meet you,” Roz responded, as they shook hands.

“Flo and her
husband used to work for me.
 
She owns
her own company now.”

“A company I
can really use his expertise in.”

“She’s also
Shane’s mother.”

Shane, Roz
remembered, was the small boy Mick looked out for.
 
“Oh, how nice,” Roz said.
 
“I hear you have an excellent young son.”

“Oh, I
do.
 
And thank you for saying so.
 
Mick has been a great source of help and
strength too, after my husband died.”

“I hope I’m
not interrupting anything.”
 
Roz looked from
Flo to Mick.

“No, you’re
fine,” Flo said, as she stood up.
 
“He
promised me ten minutes.
 
I’ve already
chewed up thirty.”
 
She grabbed her big
purse as she stood.
 
“Call me, Mick, if
you change your mind,” she said.
 
“And I
hope to see you again, Rosalind.”

“You too,”
Roz said with a smile.

When she
left, Roz looked at Mick.
 
“Change your
mind about what?”

“A
partnership.
 
Investing in her business.”

“Everybody
needs you,” Roz said as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
 
“But I need you more.
 
I missed you terribly, Michello.”

He kissed
her again, and kept his hand around her waist.
 
“Did you have a pleasant trip?”

“I did.”

Mick
continued to look at her.

She
smiled.
 
“What is it?”

“You didn’t
tell me you were coming.”

“Oh
that!
 
Yes, well, I thought I’d surprise
you for a change.
 
You always pop up
without telling me, and I love that feeling of being surprised.
 
I thought I’d return the favor.”

But Mick
didn’t see it that way.
 
“My lady driving
six hours, and driving those hours alone, isn’t a surprise I want.
 
Especially when I’m thinking she’s in New
York teaching her class.”

“I was in
New York teaching my class.
 
But only a
couple students showed up, and they weren’t feeling it either, so I dismissed
class early.
 
I gave them the rest of the
day off.”

“You gave
Deuce the entire weekend off.”

Roz
hesitated.
 
What didn’t this man know
about her life?
 
“I did that too, yes,”
she said.

Mick
continued to stare at her.
 
She was
right.
 
He was royally pissed.
 
“Don’t look at me like that,” she said to
him.
 
“All I did was drive down to see my
boyfriend.
 
What’s the big deal?”
 
Then she smiled.
 
“It’s not as if you didn’t know my every
single solitary move anyway.”

Mick
couldn’t help but smile too.
 
“How would
you know what I know?”

“Oh, I
know,” Roz said.
 
“I don’t see your
little spies, but I’m certain they are everywhere I go.”

Then she
smiled.
 
“I also know, if you didn’t want
me to make that drive, you would have phoned me personally and told me to turn
my ass around now.”

Mick
laughed.

“Am I
right?”

“You’re
wrong.”

Roz was
surprised to hear him say that.
 
“How
so?”

“As soon as
my men would have told me that you were renting that car to make your journey,
I would have phoned and told you to take it back.”

Roz
smiled.
 
“Before I even got on the road,
right?”

“Right,”
Mick said, smiling too.
 
Then he pulled
her closer against him.
 
He missed her
more than she would ever know.
 
He missed
her wonderful scent.
 
He missed her
wonderful smile.
 
He missed the fact that
she wasn’t in his bed each and every night.
 
He missed
her
.
 
Sometimes it astounded him just how much.

“At least
you saved me a trip,” he said, rubbing her neck.

“You were
coming up tonight?”

“Tomorrow,”
he said.
 
“But honestly, I don’t think my
body could take another trip.”

Roz
considered him.
 
“Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m feeling
okay.”

“But still
working yourself to death?”

Mick didn’t
respond to that.

“And I’m not
helping by staying in New York to finish the semester,” Roz added.

But Mick
would have none of that.
 
“You’re doing
the right thing,” he said.
 
“We only have
another month to go.
 
Then you will have
fulfilled all of your obligations and will be mine, all mine, for the rest of
your life.”

“That’s
right,” Roz agreed joyfully, and leaned against him.

And for
several minutes more they just sat there.
 
Mick rubbed her hip as he held her.
 
He wanted to fuck her.
 
He wanted
to lock his office door and take her right where they sat.
 
But he didn’t.
 
He knew he’d have her tonight.
 
Besides, something else was on his mind.

He leaned
his thick head of hair against her thick head of hair.
 
“I’ve been thinking about what you said,” he
said.

Roz tried to
remember what it was she had said.
 
“And
what was that?” she asked.

“You said I
need to treat my children better.”

She said it,
but she said it months ago.
 
“Okay.”

Mick
exhaled.
 
“Up to some company this
evening?” he asked her.

Roz
hesitated.
 
Her heart began to
pound.
 
“What kind of company?”

“I thought
I’d invite my children over for dinner.”

Roz looked
at him.
 
“Really?”

“We’ve been together
for what?
 
Nearly six months now?
 
I think it’s time they meet you.”

Roz felt a
sense of awesome happiness, because it would only help solidify Mick’s
commitment to her, but she felt an awesome burden too.

“Would you
like to meet my children tonight, Rosalind?”

Roz
smiled.
 
“Yes, I would.
 
Absolutely.
 
But are you going to be able to get them all together on such short
notice?”

“What do you
mean?
 
They all live here in Philly.”

Roz was
astounded.
 
“Every one of them?”

Mick
nodded.
 
“Yes.”

Then why didn’t
he introduce them sooner?
 
“I thought
they were scattered across the country.”

“They
were.
 
But as they all became adults,
they decided they wanted to live where I lived.
 
So they all moved here.
 
They all
have different mothers, but they’re very close.”

“You’re the
odd one out?”

Mick hated
to admit it.
 
“Yes,” he said.

“But yes,”
Roz said, “tell them to come over. I would love to meet them tonight.
 
But even though they all live here in Philly,
it’s still very short notice, Mick.
 
You’re certain they’ll all show up?”

Mick knew
they would.
 
They would love nothing
better than to spend time with him.
 
They
weren’t the problem.
 
He was.
 
“Yes,” he said.
 
“I’m certain they all will.”

Roz was in a
battle with her emotions.
 
On the one
hand, she was overjoyed to meet Mick’s children for the first time.
 
That was a positive piece of meat no matter
how she sliced it.
 
But she was worried
too.
 
And it was a worry that cut to the
heart of the matter, and could be devastating if it turned out the way she was
hoping it would not.
 
But worrying that
it could was her greater emotion.
 
She
was sitting in an open bathrobe on the bed, putting lotion on her legs, while
Mick was just getting out of the shower.
 
When he stood in the doorway of the master bathroom, drying off his
gorgeous body, Roz looked at him, and addressed her concern.