Chapter Text
“So, why did you think she was a lesbian?” Gemma asked, handing Mark a clean dish for him to dry and put away.
“I guess I just assumed,” Mark answered. “She’s pretty butch.”
“Not really. She wears a padded bra.”
Mark leaned against the counter and glared at his wife. “Now, why is that something you noticed, hm?”
Gemma rolled her eyes. “Are you sure you didn’t think she was a lesbian because you couldn’t deal with her little crush on you?”
Mark’s heart dropped. “What?”
Gemma laughed and handed him another dish. “You can’t tell me you don’t know. It’s obvious.”
“And that doesn’t…bother you?”
She handed over the last dish and pushed closer to him, into his personal space with a wet plate held between their chests. “I don’t know. You’re not planning on sleeping with her, are you?”
Mark blinked and swallowed. “No.”
Mark groans into Helly’s mouth and scoops her up behind her legs, carefully setting her on the kitchen counter. He moves his mouth harder against hers, pushing his tongue through her lips and sucking a moan out of her. He moves one hand to her belly, spanning his fingers across the expanse of her bump and rubbing reverently over it. There’s a kick, prominent and demanding, against his palm, and Mark bites Helly’s lip and moves his mouth to her cheek.
“Fuck,” he breathes out before kissing the bolt of her jaw. “I know you’re not supposed to say this, but I always wanted a girl.”
She laughs lightly and tilts her head back, opening her neck up to him, her hand tangled in his hair. “Happy birthday, Dad.”
"Fuck,” Mark says again, desperate. He latches his lips to Helly’s neck and sucks a hickey into her skin, unable to help himself.
“I missed you so fucking much,” Helly says through gritted teeth, her hand fisted so hard in Mark’s hair that it aches. “Take me to bed. Now.”
Mark grunts and picks her back up, lips still fumbling against her neck as he carries her toward the stairs. She’s heavier, of course, but Mark is full of adrenaline and easily carries her up to his room, her legs and arms wrapped around him tightly.
They stop at the top of the landing, Mark gently shoving Helly back against the wall and saying into her mouth, “I love you.” He kisses her, bites her, kisses her some more. “Fuck, Helly. I love you.”
“Mark, take me to bed, for fuck’s sake.”
“Sorry,” Mark mutters. “Sorry,” he repeats, hiking her up above his hips and finally carrying her into his room.
He deposits her on the bed and leans half-on top of her, one hand on her belly. He looks down at her face for a long time, studying it, remembering. She looks up at him, too, a soft smile pulling at her lips.
“You look so beautiful,” he whispers.
She pets his face. “You kind of look like shit.”
He laughs and leans down to kiss her, slow and sure. After a minute, he pulls back and looks at her some more.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Mark asks.
Helly shrugs against the sheets. “I wanted to be far enough along…you know, to know the gender.”
Mark smiles gently at her and kisses her again; he can’t help himself. He laid himself bare to her when he told her about Gemma’s miscarriages, and she protected him from potential pain.
“And I had to put some things in place to be able to step down as CEO,” she continues. “Cut ties with Lumon entirely.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“You going to change your name, then?”
Helly purses her lips and looks up at the ceiling in thought. “Helena Scout sounds pretty good.”
Mark’s heart hammers in his chest; he can’t stop the smile from taking over his face. “Did you just propose to me?”
“I’m having your baby, and you’re surprised I’ve thought about marrying you?”
“Hey, how’d that happen anyway?” Mark lies down next to her, resting his head on a pillow, his arm still draped over her swollen stomach. “Weren’t you on birth control?”
“Yes. Imagine my surprise when I was three days late and puking my guts up during a board meeting.”
Mark leans over to kiss her jaw, then he rests his head on her chest, pushing closer to her. “You know, I was probably puking my guts up then, too, but from alcohol poisoning.”
Helly turns onto her side, forcing Mark to shift so they’re facing each other on the bed, both of them with their hands tucked under their cheeks. She puts one leg over top of Mark’s and runs her toes against his calf. “You didn’t kill yourself, though. You did that one favor for me.”
“It was touch-and-go for a while. Every time I got blackout drunk, I’d draft a text to you and then debate if I should send it or kill myself. Then I’d feel guilty, delete the text, cry about my wife, and pass out.”
Helly huffs a laugh. “Gemma would fucking hate you for that.”
“Yes, and I’d also consider that, and then go back to wanting to kill myself.”
“Did you keep smoking?”
“No.” Mark’s eyes widen. “Oh my god, we smoked, like, an entire pack of cigarettes while you were pregnant.”
She looks at him like he’s stupid. “I think that’s low on our list of crimes.”
Mark puts his hand on her hip and rubs his thumb in slow circles against her dress.
“What made you decide to get sober?” Helly asks softly.
“Uh, my sister. The second time I ended up in the hospital, she dragged me back to her house and wouldn’t let me leave. I had to wean off it, which she allowed, but really, it was…it was being around my niece all the time that made me want to change. Eleanor kind of saved my life.” Mark lifts his arm back up and holds his palm as steady as he can, showing Helly how he shakes. “The doctor says I may have the DTs for a while, but it’s gotten better.”
Helly looks at his shaking hand then takes it between her fingers, brings it to her mouth, and kisses his palm. She then keeps hold of his hand and sets it against the sheets between them. “You need to put on some weight. You look so old.”
“I’m 50, Helly.”
She studies his face and bites her lower lip.
“You like that I’m old,” Mark says.
“You say that like you’ve just now realized it.”
“Is it because of your daddy issues? Does the idea of calling me ‘Daddy’ turn you on?”
She swallows then smiles coyly. “No.”
Mark smiles back at her and adjusts their positions again, rolling on top of her and leaning down to kiss her. He’s careful not to put pressure on her stomach, holding himself over top of her and slotting his leg between hers. She moans into his mouth and draws him down closer, taking him deeper into her mouth with a deliberate suck.
“Try it out,” Mark says, his voice low and hoarse. “See if you like it.”
Helly surges up to kiss him again, pressing her tongue between his teeth and tasting him in a steady rhythm. With a hard breath, she pulls back and says, “Fuck me, Daddy.”
Mark barks out a laugh and falls to her side. She hits him playfully against his chest, also laughing.
“Sorry. Can’t do it,” Mark says, burying his face in her neck and planting several kisses against her skin.
“I think if we really put our minds to it, we could make it work.”
“The night you come back to me is not the time to try out new kinks, I don’t think,” he mumbles.
“I wanted to come back sooner. God, I did. I thought about you all the time.”
“And you stalked me, too, right?”
“Of course. You’re very unobservant, I was not subtle.”
Mark laughs at her. “You’re so weird.”
“How dare you say that about the mother of your child,” Helly quips.
Mark blinks. “You as a mom…Did you think about not keeping it? Her?”
“No. I knew I’d come back into your life, and if I had…if I had done that, I wouldn’t be able to look you in the eye.”
“So, you kept it because of me and my hang-ups?”
“No, I also want her. We’re for sure going to fuck her up, but I’d like to think we’ll try our best with her and love her more than anything.”
Mark strokes his thumb against her cheek. “How grownup of you.”
Helly narrows her eyes at him. “If I like that you’re old, you like that I’m young.”
“Sure, but you’ve, uh, matured a lot in the time I’ve known you.”
“Ugh, gross, get away from me,” she says, shoving at his face and then turning away from him.
Mark curls up behind her and wraps his arm around her stomach and buries his face against the side of her neck again. “You have. I stalked you doing your CEO stuff. I’d google you every day like a lunatic. I was so awed by your poise, your grace. God, I missed you.”
As Mark’s erection presses against Helly’s ass, she says, “You jerked off to videos of me being a cunt for Lumon?”
“Yes.”
“Now who’s the weirdo?”
Mark plants more kisses on her and moves his hand down between her legs, rubbing his fingers over her dress, trying to see if he can feel her wetness through the fabric.
Helly lets out a soft moan and pushes back against him and then forward into his hand. She says, “Did you see me as a child? Like, when you first met me?”
“Hm. Kind of.”
“Fuck, I hate that.”
“I know.”
Helly doesn’t say anything else, but she makes soft little noises as she ruts forward and back into Mark’s hand.
After a minute, she asks, “Did you and Gemma think I had a stupid little crush?”
Mark stops his hand. His boner flags at the name of his wife. “Uh, maybe a little.”
Helly groans and turns her head into the sheets, farther away from Mark. “That was my biggest fear.”
“Well, I had to think of you that way or else I would’ve cheated on my wife.”
“Do you think you would have, eventually? Cheated on her, I mean.”
“I mean, didn’t I? I was so in love with you, I couldn’t look her in the eye whenever she asked me about you.”
Helly turns back over and gives Mark a shit-eating grin. “That’s so romantic.”
“Me being unfaithful to my wife does it for you?”
“Yes.”
Mark rolls his eyes and goes in for another kiss. They take it slow, relearning each other’s mouths. After a few minutes, Mark reaches behind Helly and blindly unzips her dress, and she responds by unfastening his fly. They break apart for a second and clumsily get their clothes off, down to their underwear.
“Oh, you wear boxer briefs now, huh? How very adult of you,” Helly teases, snapping the waistband of Mark’s black boxer briefs.
Mark retaliates by grabbing Helly’s boob over her red bra. “And you’ve gone up two cup sizes, Mom.”
They laugh and kiss, and Helly rolls on top of Mark and her hair falls around them and they kiss languidly, assuredly.
They kiss and they talk, and Mark manages to get Helly’s bra off and spends some quality time with her nipples, and then they fall asleep in a pile together on top of the duvet.
In the morning, Mark wakes up to the sound of the sink in the bathroom. He rolls over and squints to see Helly wearing one of his robes and brushing her teeth with his toothbrush.
“I didn’t even get any birthday sex, did I?” he calls from the bed.
Helly spits into the sink and says, “We had a lot to talk about. We can spend today in bed.”
Mark gets up at that, following her into the bathroom and taking his toothbrush from her. “I need some coffee if we’re going to do that,” he says before putting his toothbrush in his mouth.
“Do you have any food here?” She turns to him and puts a hand on his flat stomach and pats it a few times. “You’re going to need some fuel in here for what I have planned.”
She doesn’t wait for him to finish brushing his teeth to answer. She pecks him on the cheek and pinches his butt before heading out of the bathroom.
Mark watches her go and then spits into the sink. He wipes his mouth and then looks at himself in the mirror, something he hasn’t really done in a while. Helly’s right; he looks old. His face is gaunt, his five o’clock shadow graying at the edges. His hair has gotten way too long, flipping out in the back where it hangs to his shoulders. He’s a bit on the emaciated side, his hipbones jutting out over the waistband of his boxer briefs. He sighs and combs his hair, then shaves his face. Before he leaves the room, he throws on a soft long-sleeved t-shirt and pair of loose gym shorts and grabs wool socks for both him and Helly.
Helly is cooking eggs on the stove when Mark comes into the kitchen. She’s humming a song under her breath. He sneaks up behind her and puts his arms around her middle and presses a kiss into her hair.
“What are you holding?” she asks, keeping her eyes focused on her task.
“Socks. Thought your feet might be cold.”
“Oh, thanks, Dad.”
“As if your dad ever offered you warm socks.”
“Whoa, low blow.”
Mark sits on a barstool and puts on his own socks. “Are you making coffee?”
“Brewing in the French press.”
Mark’s heart drops to his stomach. “Where’d you find the French press?”
Helly turns to him and raises a quizzical eyebrow at him. “In the cabinet. Was I not supposed to use it?”
“Uh, no, no, it’s fine,” Mark says, convincing himself. “I just usually use the pot. It’s just…Gemma preferred the French press.”
“As she should. It’s better,” Helly says as she plates scrambled eggs. She goes to the toaster oven and pulls out slices of toast and sets them on the plates next to the eggs. “You shouldn’t deprive yourself of good coffee just because it makes you sad about your dead wife.”
“Wow, you’ve been here less than 12 hours and already you’re being an asshole to me.”
Helly sets a plate in front of Mark and slides a jar of fig jam over to him. She then goes to the French press and pours two mugs of coffee for them, filling her own only halfway. Instead of sitting next to him at the counter, she stands across from him and eats her food.
“She was really great,” Helly says seriously. “I mean, I know I didn’t know her all that well, but I still sometimes can’t believe she’s just gone.”
“Oh yeah right, like you’re upset about it,” Mark says meanly. “What would you be doing if she hadn’t died? Marrying Jayce right now?”
“You know, I can be upset that she died while also being happy that I have you. I felt really guilty for a few months. Sometimes I still wonder if…” Helly scrubs a hand down her face and shakes her head.
“What? Tell me.”
She makes eye contact with him, looking at him from under her brow. “I wonder if I caused her to die by wanting you too much. I fantasized about her dying before it happened.”
Mark nods. “Great foreplay we’re having here.”
Helly points her fork at his plate. “You haven’t taken a bite. Eat your fucking food, Mark.”
Mark rolls his eyes and forces himself to take a bite of eggs. They’re good, actually.
“I thought about it, too,” Mark admits. “When she had cancer, I don’t know. It was really hard. I kept thinking, like, what if she dies from this? What the hell will I do? I was so scared and I didn’t, uh, handle it well.”
“You mean you were texting me nonstop every day and flirting with me at work.”
“I’m sorry. I should’ve been better to you. To both of you.” Mark takes another bite and stares down at his food.
Helly comes around the counter and stands next to him, sliding an arm across his shoulders and pressing her face to his collarbone. She squeezes him.
“I bear some responsibility, too. I could’ve, you know, not texted you back,” Helly says.
Mark bumps his head against hers affectionately. “Impossible. I’m irresistible.”
Helly laughs and turns his barstool so she can climb onto his lap. She kisses him soundly, coffee on her breath.
“I think I would’ve had to cut off contact with you,” Helly says between kisses. “I mean, once my time in MDR was done, it would’ve been hard to make excuses to see you anyway.”
“That would’ve devastated me.”
“More than your wife dying?”
Mark gives her an annoyed look. “No, Helly, not more than my wife dying.”
He buries his face in her neck, ending the conversation. The truth is, part of him is glad. Now that she’s in his arms, his baby in her belly, Mark can’t help but feel like he’s probably happier than he would’ve been if Gemma was still alive. He would’ve always wondered what it would be like to be with Helly, always felt like he was missing out on something. Now he has that something, and he wants for nothing.
“It’s so easy to talk to you,” Mark admits, face between Helly’s breasts. “It’s annoying.”
Helly holds the back of his head so he can’t move away from her chest. “It always did seem like you told me things you definitely didn’t tell your wife.”
“All the time. I’m an idiot.”
“I think we might be soulmates.”
“OK, I take back my previous comment about you being more grownup now.”
Helly flicks the top of his ear. “You said it once. In front of Gemma, need I remind you.”
Mark pulls his head back and looks up at her. “Oh my god, I did, didn’t I?”
It had been stupid, really. At a work event, Helly had made a comment about the options of hors d’oeuvres, and Mark had agreed with her so vehemently he had said, “It’s like we’re soulmates,” and Gemma had given him a withering look.
“I think we are,” Mark says seriously. “Soulmates.”
Helly smiles into a kiss then pulls back and says, “Dork.”
They don’t make it to the bedroom. After a few minutes of making out, Mark tugs at Helly’s robe, and she adjusts on his lap so she can get it off, their teeth and lips knocking against each other clumsily as she moves.
Mark slips a hand between her legs, down the front of her panties, his fingers searching for her clit. She yanks at his back, bunching up the fabric of his shirt, so Mark gives up the task at hand in favor of pulling his shirt off over his head and tossing it on the floor.
“Get up,” Mark commands, tapping Helly’s hip to get her to move.
She hops off his lap and shoves her panties off and tosses them off one foot, then she reaches hungrily for Mark’s waist, helping him push down his pants and underwear.
Mark’s dick bobs free, already at full mast. He squeezes the base in his hand and says, “Turn around. Hands on the counter.”
“Oh my, yes sir,” Helly teases as she obeys.
Mark grips her hip hard and lines his dick up between her asscheeks, dragging it across her skin. He moves a hand between her legs and teases at her entrance, pushing a finger in to open her up.
“I’m wet enough, go ahead,” she says between gritted teeth.
“You’re not,” Mark says, crooking his finger inside her.
Helly grunts in frustration. “Fuck you and your six inches.”
“It’s seven and a half, actually.”
“‘It’s seven and a half, actually,’” Helly mocks in an annoyingly accurate impression of Mark. “Fuck you.”
Mark slides a second finger in and pumps in and out, pulling beautiful noises out of Helly. She pushes back against him, sliding her ass against his cock, and he gasps and leaks precome onto her skin.
“Please, Mark,” Helly begs. “Fuck. Fuck.”
Mark slips his fingers out of her and fists his dick, lining himself up behind her and saying, “Spread your legs,” while pushing the inside of one of her thighs out.
Helly steps apart and shoves her hips back, and Mark pushes in one slow inch at a time.
“Now you’re just showing off,” Helly says, her voice strangled. “I can take it. Go all the way in.”
Mark holds her by the crease of her hips, folding her body in half and angling himself to push deeper. He can’t quite bottom out yet, and he bites his tongue to stop himself from saying “I told you so.”
“Harder,” Helly says, gripping the counter so hard her knuckles are white. “Fucking harder.”
“Bossy,” Mark complains as he pulls Helly harder back against him and thrusts his hips forward.
Helly lets out a cry and tries to move one hand off the counter, but she almost loses her balance. She says, “Can you get a hand on my clit?”
“No,” Mark says firmly. Gripping her hips hard enough to leave a mark, he thrusts forward and finally bottoms out, his balls hitting her ass.
He’s not going to last very long, but he doesn’t want her to know that. She’s a mess beneath him, and he desperately wants her to come first, untouched.
“C’mon, baby, come for me,” Mark says incoherently as he gets a cramp in his thigh from pushing so hard.
“No,” Helly says, sounding wrecked. “No, you first.”
Mark growls and moves faster. It’s a competition, obviously, and he’s not going to lose.
“What, can’t take the heat, big boy?”
On instinct, Mark slaps her ass with the palm of his hand. She cries out and stutters her hips, losing rhythm.
“Again. Harder,” she says.
Mark does it, right over the first red mark. He then gently rubs over the abused skin, soothing her.
He lasts at least twice as long as he thought he would, his body drenched in sweat and his dick begging for relief when Helly finally, blessedly comes with a bite to her bicep and his name muffled against her own skin.
Mark follows behind moments later, his orgasm forced out of him on an exhale. He pumps in a slow rhythm as he fills Helly up.
Then, he collapses against her back and they both breathe raggedly as he softens and slips out of her.
“I win,” he says.
“And your prize for winning is to eat me out.”
Mark puts his arms around her, rubbing his palms down her belly. “That got a little out of hand. I should be gentler with you.”
“First fuck in five months, I think we’re allowed.”
Mark peels himself off of her back and tugs at her to get her to spin around and face him. He puts his hands low on her waist and says, “You haven’t slept with anybody else?”
She shakes her head. “No, have you?”
“No.”
“Huh.” She steps into his hold and puts her arms around his neck. “Well, if that’s something you want to do before we go monogamous for the rest of our lives, let me know.”
Mark smirks at her. “Oh, is that what we’re doing?”
She smiles and nods into a gentle kiss. “Yeah, it is.”
“Hey, Helly.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t call me ‘big boy.’”
She pouts at him. “But what if I want another spanking?”
“I’m sure you can find another way to piss me off.”
Helly tastes different, sweeter, and Mark shows his appreciation by flattening his tongue against her cunt and pressing in agonizingly slow circles. He sneaks his middle finger in, crooking into her wetness and teasing her.
Before Mark can get a second finger in, Helly grabs him by the hair and shouts his name as she comes.
“Fuck. Oh my god, fuck,” Helly says on an exhale.
Mark lifts his head but keeps his finger inside her. “That’s got to be a record.”
“Girls are allowed to come early,” Helly argues.
“I was down there, like, a minute and a half.”
Helly pops her head up from the bed and glares at him. “Are you complaining?”
He shrugs. “Maybe.”
“For fuck’s sake, get back in there, then.”
Mark smirks at her and adds a second finger, pumping in and out of her in a steady pattern. She puts on a show for him, throwing her head back against the pillow and arching her back. Mark uses his free hand to grab one of her tits, rolling her nipple between his fingers.
“Ah, fuck, they’re sensitive,” Helly says, covering his hand with her own to make him stop.
He laughs and squeezes her tit affectionately and then slips his hand out from under hers, moving it to her thigh instead. After another minute of pumping his fingers in and out of her, he slips his arm under her to lift her hips and then dives his face back down between her legs.
When it seems like she’s getting close, Mark lifts his head and pulls his fingers halfway out.
“What the fuck are you doing? Keep going,” she says angrily.
“Patience, sweetheart,” Mark says, then he goes back in.
“Oh, fuck you,” Helly says through gritted teeth.
Another six or seven minutes pass. Helly clenches, writhes, and Mark slows and pulls his head up. Helly slams her hands against the bed and squeezes around his fingers in frustration.
“Oh, somebody’s been doing their kegels,” Mark teases before flattening his tongue back down against her.
The next time she’s close, she tries to pretend like she’s not. Mark can tell, though, because she makes this involuntary keening noise every time she’s close to coming, and it slips out even if she’s biting her tongue to stay silent.
Mark flicks her clit with the tip of his tongue and then sits up.
She shouts so loud that Mark flinches.
“Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you,” she chants.
Despite the fact that he’s the one torturing her, Mark feels a desperate need to console her. On instinct, he says, “Hang in there, Mama.”
Helly lets out a whining moan in response and fists her hands into the sheets.
Another 10 minutes pass. Mark feels himself getting hard again as Helly rides his face, her hips bucking up against him for more friction. Mark can’t take it anymore, a base desire coming over him as he moves his mouth against her. He suctions his lips around her cunt and shoves his tongue harder, tasting her. He moans against her, and her hand finds his hair, and when she crests over the edge, her thighs squeeze the sides of his head, boxing his ears so it feels like he’s underwater. Her cunt holds his fingers in a vice grip as she comes, his name reluctantly on her lips.
While he waits for her to release his head and fingers, Mark moves his other arm out from under her and tries to get between his legs. His dick is in agony, half-hard but making no effort to go any further.
It’s been years since Mark has had marathon sex, and it’s only been about an hour since he fucked Helly in the kitchen.
“Forty-seven minutes,” Helly says as she releases Mark’s head from between her legs. “You ate me out for 47 minutes.”
“Does that include the two minutes it took you to come earlier?”
Helly flips him the bird.
Mark sits back and takes his dick in his hand, looking for relief.
“Did you call me ‘Mama’ during that?” Helly asks.
“Yeah, I think I did.”
“I didn’t hate it.”
Mark tries to hum his affirmation but it comes out more like a moan. Helly notices and lifts her head from the bed, her eyebrows furrowed.
“Are you jerking off right now?” she asks.
“Trying to get hard,” Mark admits.
“Oh my god, old man.” Helly scoots over and pats the empty space next to her. “Lie next to me and do that. Let me see.”
As Mark immediately complies to do something he has never done with any other partner, he realizes how much he wants to please Helly, how easily he will obey her.
She turns on her side and tucks her hands under her cheeks to watch him. It’s nerve-wracking, being so open and bare in front of another person, but Helly looks at him with adoration in her eyes, and Mark’s dick finally comes to full attention.
“Close your eyes,” Helly says quietly.
Mark obeys. He applies more pressure around his shaft and jerks his wrist in a steady rhythm.
“What are you thinking about?” Helly again, in that same, low tone.
“You,” Mark spits out.
“Be specific.”
“Fucking you like I did earlier, in the kitchen.”
“Liar. Boring.”
Mark arches his back and bites his bottom lip. He feels a hot wash of shame try to bubble up to the surface, but he pushes it down in favor of being incredibly turned on. He rubs his thumb over the tip, smearing precome, and says, “Same as we did in the kitchen, but we’re in the office. In the break room. It’s not even the end of the day. We could get caught.”
Helly makes a soft, pleading noise but then composes her low voice to ask, “What else?”
“You’re wearing one of your long-sleeve shirts. God, I fucking—I loved when you wore those—”
“Focus, Mark.”
“Your skirt’s bunched up around your hips, and you’re telling me we have to go fast because we could get caught, and I go so hard and fast that you accidentally knock a mug off the counter.”
Helly’s hand finds his hair. She rakes her fingers through it delicately. “Give me one more detail.”
Mark whimpers and moves faster against his length, his toes curling. “My wedding ring leaves an indentation in your hip. When I get home later, I can’t get it up for Gemma, and she—she suspects—” He comes with a pained cry and pumps himself through the aftershocks.
Helly gives him no time to process. She straddles him, pressing her ass down against his softening dick, and runs her hands along his chest before bending down for a bruising kiss.
“Are you seriously still wet?” Mark mumbles between kisses, his hand snaking between her legs to press at her entrance.
“Are you seriously complaining that I’m horny for you?”
“Hmm, good point.”
Mark fingers her while she writhes in his lap, and by the time he’s considering if she can handle a fourth, she comes with a shudder and collapses against his side.
They shower together afterward. Helly lets Mark wash her, and he runs his soapy hands over her belly and kisses it gently, and she laughs and scratches him behind the ear like a dog.
They kiss under the spray, Helly’s back against the tile and Mark’s hand on her waist, until the water runs cold. Helly drapes herself in a towel and then walks back into the bedroom and drops it unceremoniously to the floor before crawling back into bed, Mark following her lead.
The second Mark joins her under the covers, Helly entangles herself with him, hooking a leg around his, an arm over his waist, and her face in his chest. She presses butterfly kisses to his sternum and mutters something about him being too bony. Mark wraps his arms and legs around her, too, and kisses the top of her head.
After several long, comfortable minutes of holding each other, Helly sighs.
“What?” Mark asks softly.
“Would you really marry me?”
“Oh. Um, yeah.”
“If I wasn’t pregnant, would you?”
Mark rubs her back with the tips of his fingers. “Sure, eventually. I don’t want you disappearing on me again.”
Helly lifts her head and kisses Mark’s jaw then finds his lips. They kiss for a long time, enjoying each other.
Then, Helly pulls back and continues, “What if I had never come back to you?”
Mark shrugs. “Now that you’re here, I realize I always expected that you’d come back. I knew I wouldn’t have to chase you down.”
“And do you think—has it been long enough? For your, um, grief?”
“So if you weren’t pregnant, you would’ve waited longer, made sure I wasn’t falling apart when you came back?”
Helly rolls her eyes. “I think we would’ve killed each other if I hadn’t left. I felt so guilty about…doing all that right after Gemma died.”
“Yeah, it felt like I was cheating on her. But, like, worse.”
“Yeah.”
A beat of silence, then Mark says, “But I don’t regret it.”
Helly smiles at him and kisses the corner of his mouth. “Me neither.”
Mark doesn’t know, actually, if fucking Helly after his wife died helped him at all. He can’t justify it for anything other than wanting to do it, for being obsessed with her, for having no self-control and giving into his base desires for her. Did it help him grieve his wife? He doesn’t know. Was it really fun and satisfying? Yes.
“You’re not, like, against the idea of marriage because you’re a widower?” Helly asks.
“As long as you promise to outlive me.”
“Oh come on, I’ll be well on my way to finding a second husband by the time I’m 60.”
Mark rolls her over, going on top of her and attacking her neck with kisses while she laughs.
“We’re not even married, and you’re already talking about a second husband,” Mark says, jealous.
Helly laughs and runs her hands up and down his back. Mark stays at her neck, licking and sucking at her skin until she moans. He can’t help himself and ends up sucking hard enough to leave a bruise, and she writhes beneath him and makes the most beautiful noises, and then she says, “C’mere,” and pulls his face up to hers to kiss him soundly.
Time feels meaningless with her. Mark thinks he could kiss her forever and die happy. He pulls her up, both of them chasing each other’s lips as they reposition. They sit up facing each other and tangle their legs and arms together, sitting entwined in the middle of the bed as they keep making out. She feels so good like this, chest-to-chest, as much of her skin in contact with his as possible. He wraps his arms around her back and squeezes her tight and kisses a line down one shoulder then the other. He bends his elbows up and splays his fingers wide, covering as much of her back as possible.
“Mark,” Helly says softly, and her hands are tight around his back just as his are around hers, and she digs her fingers into his skin and kisses his shoulders, too.
They stay like that for an eternity, kissing and touching on and on and on. Mark can’t remember ever having a day like this in his life, ever feeling content to just be with another person viscerally and not want for anything else.
He thinks, maybe, he and Gemma did this every once in a while, in the beginning. But it always felt like foreplay. It was never just its own kind of intimacy, its own thing. They cuddled on the couch. They danced in the living room. But they didn’t kiss and touch for hours just for the sake of kissing and touching for hours.
He’s glad, actually, that it’s different with Helly. It should be different.
“Mark,” Helly says after minutes or hours, he’s not sure. She holds his face in her hands and looks at him. She’s so close that she’s blurry to him. “I have to pee.”
Mark huffs a laugh and kisses her jaw before untangling himself from her hold so she can get up. He pinches her butt as she gets up from the bed, and she yelps and flips him off.
He arches his back and runs a hand through his hair, straightening it out after Helly’s ministrations all morning. Then, he says loudly, “I’m kind of hungry. Should we get takeout?”
The toilet flushes, then Helly opens the door to the bathroom and says, “Yeah, good idea.”
As they sit together on the couch in nothing but their underwear and blankets, Chinese takeout containers in their laps and chopsticks in hand, Mark realizes it’s the first time in months he’s accepted that his body is hungry and decided to feed it without argument. He smiles down at his food and takes another bite.
“What are you smiling about?” Helly asks.
“Nothing. The food’s good.”
She flicks her big toe against his leg. “Liar.”
He glares at her. “Fine. It’s the first time I’ve enjoyed food in months. Fuck off.”
Helly smiles softly at him then focuses back on her food. “You’re a good cook, aren’t you? You made most of the food at that dinner party you and Gemma had.”
“Yeah,” Mark says. “But I haven’t eaten anything but frozen meals and cereal since…I guess since I moved here.”
“We should go to the store so you can cook for me.”
“Oh yeah, should we?”
“Yeah, maybe tomorrow.”
Mark hums and nods, thinking. After a few more bites, he says, “What’s our long-term plan here?”
Helly shifts her feet so they’re tucked under Mark’s folded legs. “Well, I was thinking we finish up this food, put the leftovers in the fridge, then go back to bed and hope your cock is ready for round two.”
“Round two? Don’t you mean, like, round seven?”
She raises a skeptical eyebrow at him. “It’s only been in me once.”
“OK, but that didn’t answer my question.”
“Right, um. Well, I moved out of the Eagan Estate and packed all my shit into a storage unit and then immediately showed up at your place, so. I guess we could get my stuff soon.”
Mark blinks at her. “Really?”
“Really.”
“What would you have done if I had rejected you?”
Helly barks a laugh, throwing her head back dramatically.
“OK, good point,” Mark concedes. He looks around his condo, at the fish in the corner. “We should find a place to live.”
“No, no, this depressing shithole is great.”
“Excellent place to raise a child.”
Helly sets her food on the coffee table and goes on her hands to close the distance between her and Mark. She pecks him on the cheek and then the jaw; he keeps eating.
“Are you almost done?” she asks coyly.
Mark doesn’t resist her advances; he kisses her lips in between chewing, then says against her mouth, “Shouldn’t you be encouraging me to eat?”
She kisses him again. Again. “Me being horny outweighs your need to put on weight.”
Mark kisses her twice more and then breaks away enough to shove several bites of food into his mouth quickly, then he unfolds himself from the couch and grabs their takeout containers and heads to the kitchen, still chewing and swallowing. He grabs a bottled water from the fridge and downs half of it while watching Helly scurry up the stairs, blanket wrapped around her mostly-naked body.
Mark follows, slowly, his body sluggish with a full belly. He finds Helly on her back in bed, hand between her legs. He looks at her for a bit, swallows. He then sneaks into the bathroom and digs in the cabinet for his Cialis, grateful that Gemma made him get it a couple years ago. He pops a pill, cups some water from the sink in his hand to wash it down, then wraps his hand around his dick as he walks to the bed.
Helly has her eyes closed, mouth half-open in pleasure as she works her hand against herself. She turns her head in Mark’s direction and says in a whisper, “Mark.”
He eagerly crawls on the bed next to her, his dick hardening in his hand. “Yeah, baby,” he says softly.
“Did you just take Viagra?”
“No.”
Helly opens her eyes to give him a skeptical look.
“It was Cialis,” he says.
The corners of her mouth pull up as she closes her eyes again. “Old man.”
Mark runs his free hand over her belly and leans over to kiss the slope of it. He then slides his hand down to cover hers, moving in rhythm with her over her cunt. He bends forward and kisses her neck, licking at her skin.
“Need you to fuck me,” Helly says. “Need that geriatric dick.”
Mark growls and straddles her, locking her body between his legs and arms so he can brutally kiss her. She laughs into it, reaching up to grab his face and hold him in place. As they kiss, Mark repositions them, hiking Helly’s leg up over his hip and lining himself up with her. He pushes a finger up into her and finds her wet enough to handle his girth, so he replaces his finger with his dick and carefully pushes into her.
“Fucking shit, Mark,” Helly says on an exhale, her eyes squeezed shut. “Make me come.”
He pumps slowly in and out of her, taking his time to make sure he can bottom out. Once he’s most of the way in, she clenches and moans and claws at his shoulders, drawing him closer to her.
“I’m going to come,” she says, her voice strained, eyes squeezed shut.
“Already?” Mark asks, fumbling to get his hand on her clit to help.
“I’ve never had breast cancer, Mark. I’m young and virile and I can come whenever I want.”
“Oh, fuck you.”
Mark presses his thumb hard against her clit and Helly gasps and comes, scratching his shoulders.
She relaxes all around him, and he changes the angle, pushing himself deeper into her heat. He thrusts so hard that her head hits the headboard, and he wraps his arm awkwardly around the top of her hair and apologizes while maintaining a breakneck rhythm.
Helly keeps her eyes closed, making breathy little noises and clinging to Mark’s arms for support.
“Come for me again, Helly,” he says once his legs feel like they’re going to give out. “Come on, baby.”
She reaches up blindly for him, yanking on his hair to pull him down for a kiss. She shoves her tongue into his mouth and licks inside, then she lets out a cry and bites his lower lip, her body shuddering with her second orgasm, their lips ghosting over each other.
“That’s it,” Mark encourages. “I’m close. Hang on.”
“Harder,” she says firmly.
Mark kisses her and thrusts deeper, the bed squeaking. Sweat drips down his chest, down his arms. Helly’s hands move across his skin, smearing the sweat.
“Fuck, Helly,” he says, then he pushes one last time into her and comes with a groan.
His arms give out first, and he just manages to avoid collapsing on top of her pregnant belly and instead falls to her side, breathing heavily against her neck, one arm draped over her, dick softening against her thigh.
“Sorry,” he says.
“For what?” she asks.
“Being a sweaty mess.”
“You lasted way longer than I expected, though.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, you’re really out of shape, and that was a lot of hard work.”
Mark laughs and attacks her neck in kisses, making her squirm.
Helly stops him by grabbing his face, holding it between her hands and looking at him like he’s something precious.
“Hey,” she says.
“Hey.”
“I love you.”
He kisses the tip of her nose. “I love you, too.”