This was silly. She was sure this was silly. This could wait until morning, especially since he always got up so early to do chores. Still, she couldn't sleep and she felt bad. He was only trying to be nice to her, with the soup and telling her about his parents. And she had been so mean to him. Her mother always said that she had a sharp tongue. Mimi stopped her creep along the hallway suddenly. Her mother didn't always say anything anymore. Her mother was dead. That was what all this was about – that everyone she knew was dead. And she couldn't do anything about it, just like she couldn't remember everything she needed for the audits. But lying in her bed staring out the window at the full moon she remembered that she could apologize to Stanley for being rude. And maybe the moon was making her crazy, but it had seemed like a good idea. So, here she was sneaking down the hall in a tank top and boy shorts to get to Stanley's room. This was silly, but that didn't seem to be stopping her.
She rapped her knuckles against the door softly, wanting him to open it, but also unsure about her reception. She had gone to bed immediately after her breakdown and hadn't spoken to him since those harsh words outside. Maybe he wouldn't want to talk to her. He certainly wouldn't thank her for waking him up when he only had a few hours of sleep left. Mimi started to turn around just as the door opened.
"Yes?"
His voice sounded low, rough and so unlike his normal tone, that she didn't think she could have recognized it if he wasn't standing in front of her. And was he ever standing in front of her. His hair stuck up at odd angles from his head, reminding her a little of the cornstalks that grew on the farm. But that wasn't the real distraction. The real distraction was what he was wearing – or not wearing more precisely. Stanley Richmond slept in nothing but his boxers. And clearly farming was better exercise than Mimi had ever suspected if his chest was anything to go on. Mimi swallowed hard and managed to drag her eyes up to Stanley's smirking face.
"Did you have a reason for knocking on my door at this hour? Need me to pull out last year's receipts for fertilizer? Want me to trim your beard, Uncle Sam?"
"Well, I was going to apologize for being rude to you earlier, but clearly you weren't as offended as I thought." She snapped. This was silly, Mimi had known it. She turned on her heel to walk back down the hall, but was stopped when Stanley grabbed her upper arm. Turning around again she let him lead her into the room and slowly close the door. He left her there by the door, feeling oddly vulnerable as she watched the moonlight stream over his white sheets.
"You're right. I wasn't very offended by you earlier. A little put off, but not offended. Like I tried to tell you then, I know what this is like. Or wait, you were right that I don't really know," He put up a hand to stop a protest that wasn't coming. "I've never lost everything like you have, but loosing my parents felt like loosing everything. And I did some pretty stupid stuff after they died just to prove to myself that I was going to make it." He looked away after he said it, as if he was afraid to meet her eyes after such a confession. Not that they could see much with the moonlight turning the room into a million shades of grey. It seemed to Mimi like they had stepped into an old movie, one of those 1940s black and white classics that her Aunt Edna used to sigh over. Nothing seemed quite real, not about the conversation, not about the day, not about anything that had happened since she came to Jericho. And that made it easier to talk. She could forget to be the IRS agent with a type A personality and just be Mimi.
"Still, I'm sorry that I didn't accept your help. You were just trying to be nice."
"Well, apology accepted."
"And I'm sorry about your parents. I know it was a while ago, but it must have been tremendously hard, taking over here at 18. You've done a really good job, with the farm – and with Bonnie." Her voice was barely a whisper when she finished and she had managed to move across the room to where he was standing next to the bed.
"Thanks. You'll do well too. After you get over the shock and sadness, you'll do just fine." He reached to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear as he said "You're a strong woman Mimi Clark, you'll do just fine." Rather than releasing her once he was done with her hair Stanley used the hand on her neck to pull her toward him. Mimi's heart sped up as he put his other arm around her and held her in a tight hug. She stood still for a moment, letting her head rest on his shoulder and then slowly moved her arms up to encircle his neck. He leaned his head down so that his mouth just brushed her ear. Mimi was very aware of how small the tank top she slept in felt and of his breath hot on her neck.
"You'll do just fine," he murmured again while his hand rubbed small circles in her lower back. They began swaying back and forth in a gentle rhythm. "You'll do just fine. I promise."
Stanley placed a gentle kiss on her neck and then another. Soon he was kissing from her ear to her collarbone and Mimi had tilted her head to allow him better access. She was breathing hard and couldn't resist the urge to taste his skin, to lick the soft skin behind his ear and see if it drove him as wild as it drove her.
It did, if the small grunt he let out was any indication. Before Mimi had a chance to digest what was happening, Stanley's mouth was slanting across hers in a deep kiss and she didn't really want to think anymore. She wanted to feel – his lips on her hers, his tongue in her mouth, his hands on her back … on her ass … on her side … on her breast. In a world where nothing had seemed real, suddenly Stanley was very real and very solid beneath her fingers. She ran her hands across his back and then around to his chest. Resting one hand over his heart she thought she could feel the rapid beating. A moan escaped her lips as he pinched her nipple lightly. Her tank top, which had felt so tiny just moments before, now felt entirely too large.
As if reading her mind Stanley reached for the hem of her top and stopped kissing her just long enough to get it over her head. His lips came back down on her collarbone, before trailing lower to kiss circles around her nipple. She pressed herself against him wanting to be even closer than they were and felt his erection hard against her stomach. Her hands fisted in his hair as he suckled her breasts. Her heart was already beating a mile a minute and then sped up when his fingers found their way between her legs and began to slowly stroke back and forth. Everything he did felt wonderful and Mimi was sure that it was just too long since she had fucked someone because where would a Kansas farm boy learn to be this good?
He pushed her back towards the bed and managed to slip off her underwear at the same time. Looming over her, he continued to stroke her, sliding his finger deep inside and then bringing it up to rub her clit. Her breath coming in soft short moans, Mimi fisted the sheets beneath her, black hair spread out across the bright white sheets. She bit down on her lip to keep from screaming as Stanley sped up his strokes. Bringing his mouth down to brush a kiss across her lips, he gently whispered "No need to draw blood"
"But Bonnie, she's just down the hall" she gasped.
He smirked before pointing out the flaw in her logic, "There is at least one great thing about having a deaf sister. She can't hear us, no matter how loud I make you scream."
Momentarily out of the sensual haze she had been in, Mimi took up the challenge. "Or how loud I make you scream." She reached down drawing off his boxers and grasping his cock. She ran her fingers up and down, lightly at first causing him to hiss through his teeth and thrust into her palm. Her grip became firmer, less teasing and more satisfying. She formed a fist around his head and then ran it down his length, marveling at how hard he was. Stanley shifted position reaching up and over her to the night table next to the bed. He extracted a condom from the bottom drawer and then tore open the foil and rolled it on himself. Mimi lay back watching the way his muscles rippled as he dealt with the wrapper and then finding herself remarkably turned on by watching him stroke the latex over his cock.
He brought his hands up to cradle her face as he slid into her. Looking in her eyes he just stopped, totally still for a moment. Mimi savored the feel of him hot and hard inside her, filling her up, and craned her neck up to kiss him. As the kiss deepened, he slowly withdrew and then thrust into her setting a steady rhythm that soon had her moaning.
She could feel herself climbing toward a peak that promised incredibly pleasure. She almost wished he would slow down, make it last, prolong that peak just so that she would continue feeling as good as she did now. But he wouldn't do that. Instead, he angled his hips slightly and Mimi let out a scream of completion. Lost in her own climax, she didn't notice Stanley finish and couldn't remember if she had made him scream. She finally came back to reality when he got off the bed to go dispose of the condom.
A moment later he climbed back into bed and drew the covers over them. Mimi turned toward him and he took her into his arms, placing a light kiss on the top of her head. The soft moonlight filtering through the window highlighted the plains and valleys of Stanley's muscular chest. Slowly her eyes drifted down and she fell asleep, lulled by the smell of his skin – some combination of hay, soap and sweat that was incredibly comforting at the moment. Just as she was loosing consciousness she thought she heard him say, "You'll do just fine, Mimi, you'll do just fine."
Her next memory was of waking up in the bed alone. Sunlight shone over the wide plank floors and faded blue walls of Stanley's bedroom. The place looked different without the moonlight. Everything was starker, more in focus, but shabbier and soft around the edges at the same time. She sat up and realized that she was still totally naked. Just as she began to look for her clothes the door opened and Stanley stood there in jeans and a flannel shirt.
"You're up early" was the only greeting she got.
Annoyed, she pursed her lips and looked down "I'm just moving back to my bed, not getting up."
"That's a shame. I was hoping to get back in bed for a while now that the morning chores are done."
Eyes still downcast she could just imagine his leer. He must think that she would be warming his bed every night now. "Stanley, what happened last night … that isn't going to become a regular occurrence." She found her tank top on the floor and reached down for it. Pulling it over her head, she finally met Stanley's gaze.
"Of course not, for starters I only have four condoms left. And since I doubt that …"
"No, this doesn't have to do with condoms or anything else that you were about to say. Last night was a mistake. It was … what did you say last night?" She had found her underwear and was hurriedly putting them on. "Oh yeah, you said when your parents died you did a lot of stupid things just to prove you would make it. Well, this was just a stupid thing that I did to prove I would make it." She couldn't believe that after being so sweet last night he would expect more sex from her in the morning. Stupid, silly, uneducated farm boy! How callous! Mimi couldn't believe that she had actually thought that he might be nice and that she should apologize to him. How silly that she had expected sweet talk and cuddling this morning. How silly that she thought that they might have a real relationship. She stalked out of the room without a backward glance, rushing down the hall and slamming the door to her room.
Stanly stood there almost in shock, all of his good intentions shattered. What had changed between going to sleep with his arms wrapped around her and coming back to find her annoyed at him? He had been surprised she was up, since all through the morning chores he had been looking forward to crawling back into bed with her, waking her with kisses and cuddling up next to her for the rest of the morning. Why had he thought that would happen with Mimi? Clearly that wasn't what she was interested in. He was silly to think that she would be. The whole situation -- thinking he could comfort her, be more than just a release of tension. That was silly. And standing slack jawed in the door of his room when he should be working. This was silly.
