Authors Notes: Thanks for all the reviews so far guys, they're much appreciated. Also, I've just realised that I never put one of those "disclaimer" things. So I'll put one now. I don't own Tony Almeida or Michelle Dessler (really wish I owned Michelle, but sadly it's not the case ;) ) they only belong to 20th Century FOX etc.
So, with all that said here's chapter 4.
CHAPTER 4- This is Love: A Day To Unwind.
The following morning, Tony was awoken to several feather light kisses being placed all over his body by Michelle. "Hey," she smiled at him before saying "Good Morning," lying down next to him, and gazing lovingly into his eyes.
"Morning sweetheart," Tony replied looking over at the alarm clock. "Damn, it's 10:30, we must have been shattered," he observed before returning his attention to the beautiful woman lying next to him. "I'm so glad to have you back in my life 'Chelle," Tony proclaimed happily.
"Me too," she responded. "Last night was wonderful," Michelle sighed, closing her eyes contentedly, and sinking back into the pillow.
"Well thanks very much," Tony replied; his tone mischievous and wiggled his eye-brows cheekily.
Michelle rolled her eyes and playfully slapped his arm. "I meant all of it," she said starting to giggle until catching her breath and adding with a wink, "but now that you mention it, the sex was fantastic."
Michelle turned to face Tony and gave him that smile he was crazy about. "Tea?" she asked in a sweet tone of voice running her fingers through his hair.
"Would love some," Tony replied "I'll just go freshen up whilst you make it," he added.
They both got out of bed and after a quick kiss, Michelle grabbed her robe and threw Tony a pair of his boxers that she had kept for some unknown reason. Then they went their separate ways, Tony to the Bathroom, and Michelle to the kitchenette.
When she got there, Michelle spied the boxes stacked in the centre of the living room, and smiled. She had an idea on how to surprise Tony. Opening one of the boxes she had a quick rummage through until she found what she wanted.
Michelle took out Tony's beloved Cubs mug and placed it on the counter. She then decided to get the second part of the surprise ready.
Opening the cupboard above her microwave, Michelle put her hand towards the back, taking out a box of Tea Bags. These weren't just any ordinary brand; they were specifically made in Wales and called "Glengettie." Michelle's father was half welsh-half Japanese, and when she first took Tony home to meet her parents, her father got Tony, a tea addict as it was, hooked on this particular blend.
Michelle's father gave them the details of how he got it imported and from that point on, Tony and Michelle would order some every so often. She took the box down and opened it.
Making sure the Kettle was filled with water Michelle switched it on and started to work on opening the foil packaging that contained a bunch of tea-bags. She pulled hard on it and as she did so felt her elbow make contact with something at the side of her. She turned just in time to see Tony's Cubs Mug tip over the edge off the counter and hit the tiled floor shattering into a million pieces. She stood there for a moment in disbelief.
The sound of the mug smashing on the floor was quite loud and Tony came rushing out.
"You okay sweetheart?" Tony asked her, genuinely concerned.
"I smashed your Cubs mug," she whispered looking over at him apologetically
Tony seemed oblivious to this and before she could move, he stopped her "Woah! Sweetheart, there are a million little shards all over the place you could cut your feet. Stay there!" he said running over to the door and getting his boots from where he'd hurriedly kicked them off the previous night.
Back over with Michelle, Tony lifted her up and carried her over to one of the stools. Crouching in front and taking her feet in his hands, Tony inspected their soles closely for any possible cuts. Finding none, he lifted her off the stool and into his arms.
"You know, you could have got the vacuum cleaner and a dustpan and brush to clean up the broken shards, and then let me walk by myself," Michelle said with a slight smirk.
"This was more romantic," Tony replied with a sly smile and carrying her over to the living room. He placed her feet on the rug and removed his boots again.
"Thanks Babe," she said sweetly.
Tony stood there smiling at her; he was lost in her intoxicating dark eyes and the wonderful smile that she saved only for him. "You are so beautiful," he said with pure love in his voice. Michelle just smiled and blushed a little at his sweet loving words.
"Thanks," she replied.
Tony walked up to her and untied her robe, removing it from her shoulders and letting it fall to the floor leaving Michelle completely naked. "You have such a perfect sexy body," Tony sighed, his voice and eyes filled with lust and desire.
Tony took Michelle in his arms and planted kisses all over her body, starting with her lips, neck, breasts and stomach. As he gradually worked his way lower, Tony gently lowered Michelle onto the rug.
Michelle closed her eyes as Tony continued lavishing loving pleasurable attention to the most intimate area of her body.
Once he had succeeded in sending Michelle over the edge, Tony began placing more kisses on Michelle's body; working his way back up in the reverse order of several minutes previously.
Michelle was struggling to get her breath back after Tony's loving assault upon her body that had sent her to the very heights of physical pleasure.
"I guess you liked that?" Tony grinned mischievously, stroking her face and gazing into her beautiful dark eyes.
"Damn… That was… that was incredible," Michelle finally managed to get out.
Tony kissed her lightly on the lips, "I love you," he said softly. Michelle smiled at him.
"I love you so much baby," she replied.
"Time for breakfast," Tony said and was just about to stand up when Michelle pulled him back down.
"Let's work up an appetite first," she said with a wink, before taking his face in her hands and kissing him deeply. A very intense make out session followed; when Michelle finally broke it she put her mouth to Tony's ear and whispered in one of the most seductive tones he'd ever heard her use, "I want to feel you inside me."
Tony needed no further bidding, removing his boxers with Michelle's help and pushing gently into her. They proceeded to make intensely passionate, torrid love on the living room floor.
Some time later they were both out of breath and covered in sweat but completely and utterly sated. Michelle was resting her head on Tony's chest and he had his face nuzzled into her hair.
"I missed all this," Michelle sighed stroking his arm lightly with her fingers. "Thanks for coming back to me," she added; gazing lovingly into his eyes.
"If I recall correctly, you were the one who came back to me. I was already at CTU when you walked in," he pointed out teasingly but knowing perfectly well in what context she had meant it.
"I meant emotionally. We both finally found our way back to each other, and I've never been more grateful for anything in my life," Michelle stated closing her eyes contentedly.
"I feel exactly the same way. I love you more than mere words could possibly convey, Michelle," Tony replied; nibbling gently on her ear and then kissing the crook of her neck.
They both lay there for another couple of minutes just holding each other. Finally, Michelle stood and reached down to pull Tony up. "I'm starving how about breakfast sweetheart?" she asked.
"Great idea," Tony responded "Maybe I'll get that cup of tea at last," he grinned at her.
"Hay, you're the one who insisted on stripping me," Michelle teased.
"It's not like I heard any protests, and you're the one who insisted on having sex on the floor," Tony defended.
Michelle just giggled, slipped her robe back on, and handed him his boxers.
Soon they were enjoying their breakfast together, and flirting back and forth. It was a wonderful feeling knowing that they could relax all day and not worry that CTU would call them up and ask them into the office when there was a security scare.
Really, despite all the gruelling long days, the ones that really were unpleasant were those where they'd be called in on a morning off, only for a supposedly impending terrorist attack to turn out to be a false alarm.
At least if there really was a threat, they'd do something productive with their day, when there wasn't they'd have had their plans ruined pretty much for nothing, and that was when they felt really dejected.
But now they were done with that place and never had to go back there. They could relax completely knowing that nothing could disrupt their day together.
"So, what do you want to do today?" Tony asked.
Michelle shrugged "Oh, I don't know. Go to the mall, maybe have lunch out and see a movie," She honestly didn't care. They could go round the neighborhood carol singing despite that it was still only early November, just so long as they were together.
He smiled at her, "Sounds good."
They both cleared their breakfast things away and Michelle headed towards the bathroom.
Tony was just heading to the bedroom when Michelle turned and called to him "Hey you, aren't you going to have a shower?"
"Yeah once you're done," he responded in all honesty.
"So you don't want to share mine and enjoy my perfect sexy body" Michelle smiled mischievously.
"Well, when you put it like that!" he responded spinning on his heel and advancing towards the bathroom with a huge smile on his face.
Several minutes later they were both enjoying the warm water and Tony was occasionally planting feather light kisses on random areas of Michelle's naked body. Michelle suddenly thought about something. She kissed him lightly on the lips and stepped out of the shower. "Stay right there," Michelle instructed as Tony looked on slightly bewildered.
Michelle rummaged around in his wash-bag and found a razor and a can of shaving-foam. She returned to the shower rested the razor in the soap dish and squirted some of the foam into her hand. She worked up lather and then rubbed it onto Tony's chin.
"When you were shaving you missed a bit," Michelle finally spoke.
"Where?" Tony replied.
"On your chin" she answered quickly running the razor over it.
"Oh you mean the soul-patch? I thought that looked cool," Tony chuckled.
"Honey, It makes you look like a Knight Rider villain," Michelle informed him trying desperately to suppress her giggles.
Tony looked at her confused "A what?"
"You know, a Knight Rider villain. Nearly every other week Michael and KITT would be taking on a bunch of Mexican drug dealers, or something along those lines. Those bad guys would often wear ridiculous little goatee beards or soul-patches just like this one" Michelle told him as she finished up removing the offending patch of facial hair and placed the razor back on the soap dish.
"Yeah right, whatever," Tony replied in mock irritation.
Michelle reached up and turned off the shower. They both stepped out and quickly dried off.
Some time later, Tony and Michelle were dressed and ready to head out. They had decided to go do some shopping at the mall.
Michelle was wearing a maroon sweater that was cut well enough to show off her perfect cleavage. She was also wearing tight-fitting blue jeans. She had her hair down falling over either shoulder, it still wasn't fully curly yet, but she planned on remedying that today.
Tony was wearing, a black button up shirt and black Jeans.
"Damn 'Chelle. You are so sexy," Tony said in a throaty lustful tone checking out her appearance as he opened the car door for her. Michelle just gave him a wink and climbed in.
Soon they were at the mall looking through various shop windows. Tony had his arm around Michelle's waist and she was resting her head on his shoulder. Every so often he'd plant a kiss on the top of her head, and she'd kiss the crook of neck. They probably looked like a pair of love-sick teenagers, but they didn't care, after the hell they'd been through in the past two years they were making the most of this time together.
"Honey I'm just going to go and look for some shoes, you can go do whatever you want for a while," Michelle said with a big smile.
"I'd rather stay with you," Tony replied nuzzling her ear.
Michelle just smiled at that before replying "Okay, let me put it another way, I want you busy whilst I go get some things to surprise you."
Tony gave her a big smile and responded "Well then, I won't keep you. Shall I meet you in the food court?"
"Okay," Michelle replied and gave him a wink.
Tony was just turning to walk off in the opposite direction when Michelle grabbed him and spun him around. She kissed him deeply pushing her tongue into his mouth, almost forcefully, catching Tony completely off-guard. However, it didn't take him long to react, deepening the kiss even further and kneading Michelle's backside with his free-hand.
A couple in their fifties walked past and the woman tutted "Well I never, I'd expect people of that age to show some decorum. Excuse me you two..." She was just about to rebuke Tony and Michelle when her husband stopped her, "Peggy, let's just leave it and go home."
"No Ken they have to be told," Peggy insisted.
"Come on, we have to get back so I can go on night shift," Ken told her pulling her away from Tony and Michelle and giving them an embarrassed, apologetic look.
Tony and Michelle had by now broken their kiss and were trying not to laugh at the fussy woman as Ken and Peggy walked off.
"Have a good day now" Tony called after them, causing Michelle to double over from laughing and lean against the shop window for support.
Once she'd caught her breath back Michelle gave Tony a quick kiss on the lips and squeezed his hand "So I'll see you in the food court?" she said.
"Sure, when?" Tony asked
"I'll text you when I'm done," Michelle said. They parted company, Michelle throwing Tony a wink over her shoulder as he walked off, then she walked in the opposite direction.
Much later Tony heard his cell-phone bleep and checked the text message.
"Hey Sweetheart, I'm all done for now. Head over to the food court and I'll see you there. Love, 'Chelle."
Tony put the phone back in his pocket and headed in the direction of the food-court.
He had been waiting there for several minutes, when he felt her arms snake around his waist and several light kisses being placed all over the crook of his neck.
"Hey sweetheart," Michelle whispered nibbling slightly on his earlobe.
Tony turned around to face her, and stopped dead. His jaw fell open and he stood staring. Her curls were back "Oh wow!" Tony gasped. She had her hair down, and her beautiful, luscious, reddish-brown curls were back in all their glory.
"So do you like my surprise?" Michelle said smiling sweetly.
"Oh Yes" Tony replied almost dancing on the spot with delight before leaning in and whispering, "Welcome back Curly-Head!"
Michelle sighed contentedly; she loved it when Tony called her that. It was his favorite nick-name for her; something that had always been very special for them.
"So you went to a Salon huh?" he inquired.
"Yeah, it would have taken a while for me to get them to come back in by myself so I got a little help," Michelle replied smiling happily as they walked along the various food outlets. In the end they decided to quickly grab some KFC and took a seat to enjoy their meal.
As they sat quietly eating away, Tony noticed that a lot of the guys who would walk past would ogle Michelle. He felt really proud that this stunningly beautiful, incredibly ravishing and sexy woman was all his.
Once they had finished their meal they resumed their shopping. Tony went and picked out some DVDs, which Michelle paid for.
Whilst they were browsing round an electronics store, Tony spied a Surround Sound system. He went over and Michelle followed him. Tony was busy reading the specifications, wondering how powerful it was. He decided that 80 watts RMS output was significantly powerful.
Michelle came up behind him kissed the back of his neck. Resting her chin on his shoulder, and wrapping her arms around his waist, she peered over at the box he had just set down.
"Will it work on our system?" Michelle asked, taking the opportunity to place a feather light kiss at the corner of his mouth.
"Yeah. But it's $125! That's too much," Tony replied.
"Don't worry about the price sweetheart, let's get it," Michelle whispered.
"No 'Chelle. Really, it's not that important."
"Tony, seriously, it's okay. I want to get you a gift."
"Baby, you took me back into your life, that's a good enough gift for me," Tony said with nothing but sheer sincerity.
"That's really sweet," Michelle replied with a huge smile, "but Tony, I want to get you this, I had nobody to spoil whilst you were in prison and during our time apart after that. I just want to do this to make myself feel good as well as you," she explained, whilst tickling the back of Tony's neck.
"Okay then," Tony smiled. He picked it up and they went to pay.
Soon they were ready to head home, both weighed down with loads of bags of purchases. They walked out into the parking lot and Tony helped Michelle load everything into the back of her Mercedes M Class, before getting into the passenger seat.
They decided to stop off at Blockbuster and rent a movie. They both went their separate ways, Tony to look at the action movies and Michelle headed to the romance aisle. Tony picked out a movie he figured would be pretty good and went to find Michelle.
Tony was just about to approach her when another man walked up to Michelle and started speaking to her.
"Michelle," the new guy called to her.
Michelle cringed upon hearing the voice. "Hello Tom," she said in as polite a tone as she could muster
"Yeah… Hi," Tom said disinterested in such politeness. "I hear you left CTU and Division"
Michelle turned away and rolled her eyes "Yes. I decided I'd had enough of that world."
"That's great. I always maintained that a woman shouldn't be in that kind of job, it's a man's world. I still firmly believe a woman's place is in the home."
Michelle just scoffed at him in disgust "Jesus, do you ever listen to yourself? You're such a chauvinistic bigoted pig." Michelle was now annoyed, giving Tom a look of death.
"Yeah, whatever," He replied ignoring her insult "Anyway, now that you're not my boss, how about we go back to my place and have a quick causal romp. You know, no strings attached," Tom grinned putting his hand on Michelle's butt.
Tony had been watching this entire scene take place from the next aisle. He was thinking about going to help Michelle but knew that she could handle herself. He also knew that having a guy rush over to 'save her' was the last thing Michelle wanted when she was trying to prove that such a sexist individual had an unacceptably prejudicial attitude.
Sure enough he was proven right. Michelle grabbed Tom's hand and twisted his wrist around, causing the slimy young man to yelp in pain. Michelle then twisted his arm further, forcing him to lean in to try and relieve the tension on his limb. As he did so Michelle brought her knee up and struck him in the groin. She let go her hold on him, and he collapsed to the floor in agony.
"Don't ever touch me like that again!" Michelle said sternly, before turning and walking over to join Tony, leaving behind a crowd of stunned onlookers.
"Damn Girl! How hot do you look when kicking ass!" Tony exclaimed "You sure showed him," he added beaming with pride and laughing, as he watched Tom scuttle away as fast his he could, totally humiliated, with everyone laughing after him as he went.
"I know. He just had it coming" Michelle replied "He was a low level systems tech at Division; everyone hated him he's complete prick. Seriously, the guy is such a misogynist pig! He really has a backwards view of women. Claims we should all be at home, and it's wrong we have so many rights. He also sleeps around, he just sees girls as conquests, and doesn't care about commitment," Michelle continued ranting furiously.
Tony could tell how mad she was getting, just listening to the tone of her voice and seeing the look in her eyes. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in, taking a moment to breath in the wonderful scent of her aromatic curls. He pushed her hair aside and kissed her neck. "I love you Curly-Head," he whispered softly into her ear.
Michelle immediately stopped thinking about Tom the Division-Misogynist, smiled, and turned in to kiss Tony back.
Soon afterwards they started driving back to Michelle's apartment. They made small talk and flirted back and forth all the way. Tony couldn't help but be deliriously happy that her curls were back, he couldn't wait to be able to hold her in his arms, run his fingers through them, and feel their soft silky texture like he always used to do.
They picked up a pizza on the way back and sat down to eat as soon as they got through the door. Once their meal was finished Tony and Michelle migrated to the couch and snuggled up under a blanket. Michelle rested her head against Tony's chest, knowing full well that he'd want to play with her curls. Tony didn't waste anytime at all and immediately stated running his fingers through her luscious reddish-brown locks.
"I love you so much Curly-Head," he whispered softly into her ear, nuzzling his face into her curls and sighing deeply.
"I love you too Tony," Michelle softly replied looking up at him with her big dark eyes.
Soon, after such a long but incredibly happy day, tiredness caught up with them and they went to bed.
Tony smiled when Michelle said that she was too worn out now, but promised to ravish him the next day. In spite of all the teasing they gave each other, sex really was an important part of their relationship. Much of the strength and passion of their bond was drawn from the fact that they tried to make love as often as possible. That intensely physical part of their relationship only served to strengthen their emotional connection. Now they were together again, this was becoming no less true that it had been during the time before Tony went to prison and everything went wrong for them.
Holding Michelle tightly in his arms, Tony kissed her in the crook of her neck.
"Goodnight Sweetheart," he whispered taking one final look at her newly restored curls through heavy eyes.
"Night Babe," Michelle softly replied, settling further in against him, and allowing sleep to take her.
Authors Note: I hope everyone enjoyed all that fluff. There'll be a bit more angst a few chapters down the line, however, it's necessary for the story, as you'll probably see when you read it. Until then however, there'll be a lot of fluff and hotness.
