Two
Rollins leaned up against the counter, watching him throw yet another amazing dinner together with ease. She'd never tire of watching Sonny in the kitchen. He was really in his element. Of course, when wasn't he? She loved watching him be 'daddy' for their girls. He was born to play that part. Sitting in the courtroom over the past several years, she'd had the immense pleasure of watching him go from a nervous novice to the confident counselor he was now. Amanda's own experience watching him in that realm had changed too. At first, she was as nervous for him as he was. She knew how hard he'd worked to get there, and it was certainly no small feat to switch careers after forty. The way she felt watching him now was...anything but. The look he got on his face when he knew he'd gotten someone right where he wanted them on the stand...she often wondered if she were the only person in the courtroom that turned on by him in those moments. Speaking of, that was the final place when Sonny Carisi was deep in his element. No one else got to see that part of him. The way he loved her. Sure, many people had mentioned they could see how much he loved her...but it was only Amanda who got to experience every way he loved her.
She pushed those thoughts aside, for the moment. They still had hours before the girls would be tucked away and she'd have him all to herself, and besides, she loved this part of their life. Watching him cook, eventually she'd call the girls in to set the table and she'd get to hear all about their day too.
Amanda walked up behind him at the sink. She maneuvered so he had no choice but to put one arm around her, and they both looked out the window. The girls were giggling and running around the yard. Frannie had a ball in her mouth and was making them chase her all around. Each time they got close, she bowed down, then popped up and trotted across the yard. Her tail was wagging non-stop. Frannie seemed just as happy as the rest of them with the new living arrangements. She hadn't had her own yard since Atlanta. Amanda found her when she was investigating an assault case. Someone had dumped her on the side of the road. She was skinny, covered in fleas and mange. All it took was a few weeks in Amanda's care, and that dog had flourished. She'd also saved Amanda's life, at a time when she was not doing so well. She often wondered how her own life would've turned out if she didn't have Frannie to take care of, after everything that happened with Chief Patton.
Amanda laughed at Frannie now, zooming around, then in and out of the pink tent Sonny had put up smack dab in the middle of the yard, the weekend after they moved in. Right behind that, the hammock they'd talked him into buying a few weeks later. Anything for his girls. He also had a hole dug where he was already planning to install a DIY fire pit, so they could roast marshmallows this fall. In the garage, a giant box sat unpacked. It was the new outdoor sofa and chairs he bought, so they could spend even more time out there, as a family.
Sonny kissed the top of her head and gave her shoulders a squeeze. The timer on the oven went off, and he left her to open it, checking on the 'one pan' dish he'd found with chicken and vegetables. All the veggies the girls had already learned to love, with him cooking them. Amanda had thought her girls were picky eaters…but not when 'daddy' made dinner. There were very few times they refused to eat something Chef Carisi made.
As he was pulling off the oven mitts, he turned to her and grinned.
"By the way, Jesse volunteered us to be 'Halloween Parents' at the school's Halloween party this year." He set the mitts on the counter, and Amanda could see the pride in his expression as he talked about himself, as a parent. She couldn't help but grin back at him. She took a sip of her beer.
"What does that mean? Oh wait, does that mean we need to dress up? Like a costume?"
He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair.
"Yeah. Yeah, it does. And she's already decided what we're gonna be."
Right on cue, the back door opened, and Frannie herded Jesse and Billie into the kitchen, panting behind them.
"Momma!" Billie ran straight to Amanda, who set her beer down on the counter quickly, so she could bend down to catch her.
"Oof!" Billie jumped into her arms, and Amanda picked her up, covering her face with kisses while Sonny placed a hand on her back. Then he turned, and held one arm out for Jesse, who beamed up at him. Jesse was still enamored of the fact that she finally had a dad, well, not just a dad. The dad. The one she'd wished for, ever since she could remember. Frannie loudly plopped onto the cool tile floor, immediately flopping onto her side and panting. It made all four of them laugh.
"You girls have to tell me! How was the first day?"
"Jesse", Sonny started, as he pushed the step stool in front of the kitchen sink, "tell mom about the costume idea you had for the Halloween party at school while you girls wash up for dinner." He crossed his arms over his chest, and looked over to Amanda, smiling from ear to ear.
Amanda let Billie down, to join her sister at the sink, where Sonny pumped liquid soap onto both of their hands.
"Momma! We're gonna be The Addams Family!" Jesse took her eyes off the soapy bubbles she was creating with her hands, long enough to look over so she could see her mom's expression. Amanda raised her eyebrows and looked over at Sonny.
"You know who The Addams Family is?" Amanda tried to recall characters from a TV show that was in reruns she'd watched after school when she was a kid...and then wasn't there a movie at some point?
Jesse rolled her eyes, in a way that gave Amanda a little glimpse of the teenager this sweet little girl would turn into one day.
"Of course, Momma, everyone knows The Addams Family." Then she turned back to Sonny, holding her hands up to show she was ready for water.
"Today, Daddy let us watch the one from the olden days, it was even in black and white!"
"Why The Addams Family?" Amanda asked, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sonny cover his smile with one hand, the other stayed crossed in front of him.
Jesse rinsed her hands off, then brought Billie's hands under the stream as well.
"I get to be Wednesday, obvi." Amanda's eyes immediately snapped back to Sonny's and she mouthed the word to him. Obvi? God, she was growing up so fast.
"Obviously." Sonny responded to Jesse, while smirking at Amanda. Still waiting for her to finish.
"And you and Daddy are gonna be Morticia and Gomez…" She paused, and Amanda's memory came back, to an image of a well-dressed mustached man pressing kisses up the arm of a dark-haired gothic beauty dressed all in black, discarding roses as she snipped them off stems she'd arranged in a vase.
Jesse went on. "Because you already kiss like they do, Daddy dips you!"
Now Amanda knew why he was smiling so much. She couldn't help but smile with him. So that's how Jesse saw them. It filled her heart to know that their girls were growing up knowing their parents were deeply in love with each other...soulmates. They'd never have to know what it was like to worry their dad might hurt their mom, or them. It was her turn to cover her mouth, hiding the way that hit her, emotionally.
"You mean like this?" Sonny handed them both towels to dry off, turned off the faucet, and they started to giggle as they watched him cross over to Amanda.
Sonny pulled her hand away from her mouth, to bring it to his. He stretched her arm out and kissed her hand. He looked over at the girls, wiggling his eyebrows, before he spoke, in an overly dramatic loud voice.
"You know it drives me wild when you smile like that, Querida!" He placed loud kisses up Amanda's arm, as the girls continued giggling. Then he dramatically took her in his arms, dipped her backwards and started kissing up her neck, until he reached her lips. Amanda was giggling with the girls, but once his lips were on hers, she stopped. Kissed him back in a deep, but PG way, her arms snaking around his neck. Finally, he let her back up. He broke the kiss and placed one more to her knuckles.
Jesse and Billie clapped, watching their parents adoring each other, pretty much just like Morticia and Gomez. Jesse wasn't wrong.
"And Billie can be Pugsly!" Jesse had been trying to convince her little sister for the last few hours to agree to be Pugsley, but she wasn't buying it.
"No. I wanna be Kitty Cat." Billie held her arms out to Sonny. He picked her up off the stool, and Jesse jumped off, walking to her mother.
"Mommmaaaa, she has to be Pugsley," Jesse spoke softly.
"What if we got grandma to bring Mason down for Halloween? He could be Pugsley." Amanda whispered back to her daughter, looking over at Sonny, who gave her a nod. Good idea. Jesse nodded enthusiastically.
"Okay girls, set the table, dinners just about ready." Sonny let Billie down so he could take it out of the oven.
~oOo~
Dinner was spent with both girls recounting their first day of school. Afterwards, Amanda got the girls bathed, while Sonny cleaned up the kitchen and got things ready for the morning. They all sat together on the sofa watching several episodes of The Addams Family original TV show, and then Amanda went to shower while Sonny tucked the girls in and told them two bedtime stories. They'd settled into a comfortable routine since moving in. Sometimes switching roles, though his, as the chef of the house was very rarely challenged by her.
Sonny pulled the girls' door partially closed and padded down the hall to their bedroom. He'd noticed Amanda turned out all the lights downstairs, a signal that she wasn't interested in watching television for a few hours before bed. Their room had its own bathroom, a luxury neither of them had in the five different apartments they'd had between them. Another check in the column for moving to suburbia. Two and a half bathrooms. The girls had their own down the hall, and they even had a small half bath off of the living room. Amanda was still in that bathroom, her hair up in a ponytail, wearing a nightgown she bought for a trip they'd taken to Niagara Falls...it was a dark green color that at once looked comfortable, and sexy as hell. With a band of see-through lace all the way around the form fitting top with plunging V, it cascaded out into a cotton skirt that stopped halfway down her thighs. She had one leg on the lip of the jacuzzi tub massaging lotion on.
Sonny leaned against the doorway. "God, you are beautiful...Querida." He marveled at her. She straightened up, grinning as she rubbed the remaining lotion between her hands while he turned the shower back on. He peeled off his work clothes, and Amanda sat on the edge of the tub, admiring the view.
"Do you ever feel guilty about how much water we use now?" He smirked, knowing as he stepped into the shower, that the two of them would end up right back here in a few hours...
Amanda smiled. "No. You wanna know why?"
From behind the frosted glass door he answered, "Lay it on me Rollins."
She opened the door, letting her eyes roam over his soaped-up form.
"Because I spent 42 years NOT using this much water."
She waited till his eyes were on her and let him see her rub the last of her lotion up one thigh to the dark green matching lace thong.
He groaned in protest when she closed the door.
Amanda walked out to their bed, taking the ponytail holder out of her hair. She specifically didn't wash it, looking forward to him taking care of that...after...
He continued talking to her from behind the closed shower door.
"You know, I think my costume's gonna be easy. I have that dark blue pinstripe suit? That's kind of perfect for Gomez Addams. All I need is a pocket watch and a mustache. Maybe something to make my hair darker."
Amanda nodded; she loved him in that suit. Yea, his would be easy. She'd need to find a black dress, and a wig of black hair, but hers wouldn't be that hard either. Amanda unplugged her phone, kneeled on the bed before laying on her stomach across the mattress. She started scrolling Amazon, finding a costume jewelry pocket watch, fake mustache, and a fake cigar for Sonny. Dress and black tights for Jesse, then an adorable lion costume for Billie. She'd wait to text her mother and see if Mason could join them before she'd start searching for him. Her own mother wasn't much help, but she also thought Serafina might have some ideas for making their costumes stand out. Finally, she started searching for her own. She searched 'sexy black dress', hoping she could find something that would work, without being too revealing.
Amanda was so distracted, she didn't notice the water shutting off, or hear Sonny walk up behind her. Then she felt the weight of him sitting on the bed next to her.
"Mmmmmmmm." She closed her eyes as his hands skimmed up the backs of her legs, followed by the brush of his lips. He lifted the gown, exposing her thong, his teeth playfully biting one cheek, then kissing up her back, to her neck, and he looked over her shoulder at the dress on her screen.
She could feel the rumble of his words against the sensitive skin.
"Please tell me you're gonna wear that dress after the Halloween party." His mouth went back to her neck, his tongue licked against her skin as his lips created light suction. Amanda dropped the phone to the bed, one hand reaching behind her to tangle in his hair, as she leaned her head away, giving him more access. His weight shifted when he settled against her. She could feel his obvious arousal against the back of her thigh. Before she could do anything about it, he turned her over onto her back.
His eyes flitted back to her phone before the screen went dark.
"You can't possibly wear that to the school." She closed her eyes, both hands running through his hair as he placed kisses down her neck.
"Too much?" she teased him.
"Mmmm, too little," he teased back.
She was about to say something clever when his hands roaming over her nightgown distracted her. She arched her back, sighing instead. His mouth continued kissing a path down her body until he reached the lacy thong.
Rather than pull it down, Sonny settled between her thighs and kissed into the lace. Amanda gasped when his teeth grazed against the soft fabric.
"Always so ready for me," he growled.
In no time, he had her breathless, as she came undone, the first of several times. They made love and as always, he brought her over the edge with him.
"I keep waiting for...this to feel more...routine?" She nuzzled against his chest afterwards. "But I swear, Dominick Carisi...I've never been so…" she thinks for a few seconds, "satisfied."
His deep laugh rumbled under her. "That's funny."
"Why is that funny?" She finally lifted herself up off of him, pressing against his side, her chin on his chest.
"I was just thinking." He continued playing with her hair. "How can I be this...satisfied, but still...somehow...never get enough of you."
Amanda nodded, kissing his chest.
"Okay, come on." She sat up and tried to pull him up with her.
"Oh no, I'm done, I can't move." He chuckled.
"Come on." She drags him off the bed. "I need you to wash my hair, and I wanna clean up before we fall asleep."
The two of them spend the next thirty minutes in the shower. As always, it started out so innocent. Amanda is sure since they are both truly satisfied, this time it'll just be a shower. Clean themselves up, so they can get into bed. But then his hands are sliding sensually across her skin, soaping her up. Slowly bringing that ache back. Sometimes she even thinks, no, she can keep herself under control...But then every caress of her hands over his body gets him ready again too. Then it's all kissing, tongues touching, and pretty soon he's got her up against the slick tile. It's been like that since the beginning. But hey, in the end, they are clean, (wasn't that the point?) and she thinks maybe all this satisfying sex with Sonny Carisi is part of why she's slept better in the past two years than she has her entire life.
Finally satiated, lying in bed, they faced each other for a while. Soft voices slowly turn into whispers, until both their eyes are closed. She slowly turned over, backing up against him so he would wrap his arms around her. They both fall into a deep, restful sleep.