Tenants and Tyrants (Book 5 of The Warden series) (9 page)

Ethan was about to object that Cori was tough and could handle her nightmares, but he changed tactics. “I don’t think she’ll ever be able to completely block out her dreams there.” He glanced back to his cards.

“Maybe someone should check on her,” Danato suggested as if the thought had just occurred to him. “Although I’m not sure I want to leave this hand behind.” Danato looked through his stack of chips like he was preparing for a big win.

“This isn’t much. I’ll check on her.” Ethan folded his hand and gave Danato a small smile as he left the table. There was a little grumbling from Daniel, but for the most part his escape seemed spontaneously necessary.

He ran up to his apartment and slipped into the bathroom. They still didn’t have a tub, but their stand up shower was roomy enough for two. He slipped out of his clothes with his natural stealth and slipped through the curtain.

Cori, in her gloriously naked state, was letting the water pound on her head to rinse out her conditioner. It was probably long since out, but she was letting the water cascade over her head, neck, and back.

He reached around her and slipped his hands between her legs. She bucked back with a gasp, and he caught her neck before she could head butt him. He could feel her pulse speed up, and her breathing hastened. “Ethan?” She questioned not able to open her eyes through the torrent of water on her face.

She knew it was him. The house would not possibly allow anyone in this room apart from them, unless by invitation. He pushed his body closer to hers which was as rigid as a board. He massaged his finger over her, sending her heart rate up even further. “Ethan?” she asked again quieter.

It was probably wrong to let her fear be their foreplay, but he knew the difference between her fear, and her irrational fear. He would never taunt her when she was actually afraid. He knew she knew it was him, because she was not fighting against him. She could at any point turn her head to check for sure if it was him, but she didn’t. She was letting the fear skirt the edge of arousal until one or the other demanded to be answered for.

He whispered in her ear from behind, “Do you want my kiss now?”

Her body instantly relaxed against him and he was reminded of why he liked to press the fear button. He loved feeling her body relax for him. He liked to think of it as: she was his, and her body would only yield to him.

Cori nodded, but didn’t speak. He resisted the urge to give her that kiss right away, and guided her to brace against the wall, while he continued tending to her needs. When she begged for more than his dexterity her turned her around and lifted her up to him. He gave her a deep kiss that matched the intensity of their desires. She latched onto him and found as much relief with him, as he found with her.

After they released each other, Cori stepped out and he finished showering since he was already there anyway. Outside of the shower she dried off. “I’m surprised you managed to escape your poker game. Didn’t Daniel have a hissy fit?”

“Not really,” Ethan said scrubbing out his shampoo. “Danato kind of asked me to check on you. If I didn’t know any better I’d say he was trying to support our sex life.”

“He might be,” she said muffled like her towel was over her head. “I think he wants us to have a baby.”

Ethan froze waiting for a scoff or sarcastic statement to follow that. “Really?” He shut the water off. “Why do you say that?” He pulled the curtain aside and saw her robed with a towel twisted around her head. She was applying a moisturizer to her face.

“I didn’t feel good the other morning. He asked if it was morning sickness, but he asked it like he was asking if I had bought him a Christmas present. You know?”

Ethan slipped a towel around his waist and watched her a moment. He wasn’t sure about kids, but a pregnant belly and a cute little baby was starting to appeal to him. At first, he thought it might just be a desire to see Cori plump and glowing with hormones, but he liked the idea of Cori and Ethan creating a life. He liked the idea of papa Danato, the ogre, cooing over an itty-bitty baby. As long as the baby was safe, and Cori was safe, he was all for it.

Cori must have seen the admiring expression he was giving her in the mirror. She turned around, and raised an eyebrow at him. “What?”

“How do you feel about that?”

“What? Danato’s interest in our sex life?”

“No,” he stepped closer and crossed his arms. All he was missing was his uniform and he could have been speaking to one of his men. “A baby, Cori, how do you feel about babies?”

Her eyes glazed and she was lost in thought. This was apparently the first time she had actually examined the question. “I…” She turned around. “I don’t know. Things are just so busy right now. I don’t even want to know what precautions I would have to take as a pregnant woman. I’ll probably have special restrictions to keep demons and sprites away. I’ll have to have protection for the baby, because more than likely some creature out there will be able to do something to hurt it.”

She sounded nervous, like he had just asked her to perform a one man play a week from today. He stepped in close behind her and gripped her shoulders a little tighter than he needed to. “Cori, I didn’t ask you to figure out the implications. I’m just asking you if you like babies.” He moved his hands under her arms and pulled her robe open. He caressed her stomach and whispered in her ear. “Would you like me to give you a child?”

She looked down at her stomach as if she were picturing the same big round bulbous almost freakish belly. She smiled and looked back at his reflection. “I’ll see what Belus thinks.”

Ethan coughed and sputtered as he pulled away from her. “What did you just say?”

Her face shrank like she just realized what she said as well. “No, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Good cause it just sounded like you were going to ask Belus’s permission for us to have a child.”

“Well, I just need to understand the implications before…”

“I think you need to understand that we are the only two contributing to this creation. Belus needs to stay the fuck out of it.”

Her guilt for her statement vanished and she tied her robe. “It’s my body, I just need to get a little advice from someone who might be able to warn me about the dangers.”

“Great, why don’t you talk to Belus? We’ve got my vote and Danato’s, if you and Belus stalemate us, then we’ll let Cleos be the tie breaker!” Ethan couldn’t believe he said it, but he also couldn’t believe she had played the “my body” card. Like he wasn’t as equally concerned for her body as she was.

He expected a raging fit over the statement, but it must have cut her pretty deep. “I’d like to stop talking about this for now. I need some sleep.” He moved forward slightly in and attempt to embrace her and apologize. “Please go back down and join your friends,” she said quietly and waited for him to leave, which he did.

13

Daniel was surprised to see Ethan back for the game. He dropped into his chair like it was a recliner and waved to be dealt in. He looked annoyed and the fact that his eyes never met anyone’s was a sure sign that he wasn’t sharing why.

“Everything go alright?” Danato asked in a low tone to make it sound like a private question even though everyone was listening for the answer.

“Yeah, she’s just tired,” Ethan said handing back two cards to Duke to exchange.

Daniel wasn’t always the best observer, but he could see Ethan’s hair was wet. He had been gone long enough to give his wife that welcome back kiss, but what happened after that was the question.

He glanced over to Nevia who had taken to reading a magazine she had had the forethought to pack. Her eyes were fixed on Ethan. She turned her attention to him, and she gave him a taut frown before disappearing into her magazine again.

The game played on until the house started to get cold. Nevia started a fire without being asked, but the warmth and gentle cracking, only made everyone start to yawn. Duke and Chuck were the first to bail. Belus seemed determined to play until his chips were out, but after Danato announced his desire to head to bed, he seemed to snap out of his obsession and make the same claim. Heaton made the excuse of heading out for a cigarette which Ethan glared at him for, but didn’t actually reprimand him for.

When it was finally just the two of them, plus one innocuous bloodhound on the couch, Daniel threw a chip into Ethan’s face. He looked up at him with the same level of annoyance he had been holding for whatever happened between him and Cori. “Talk,” he demanded.

“None of your business.”

“You’re my business.”

“My marriage isn’t.” Daniel leaned back to swig his beer. He waited for his friend to do the same. Ethan rested back and guzzled down the remainder of his beer. He glanced over at Nevia as if debating if she should be included in this conversation. He spoke low, but he had to know she would hear him. “What do you think about kids?”

“Me?” Daniel poked his chest. “Love ‘em,” he answered honestly without thinking of what Ethan’s stance might have been on it. “I love the cuteness, and the loud screaming for no reason. I think I’d go insane if I had one, but oh yeah, love the little buggers. I used to be one you know,” he added which made Ethan smile.

“Yeah, I’d heard that.”

“So, what are your thoughts on the little ones?” Daniel asked wondering if Ethan was being pressured into fatherhood earlier than he planned.

“I think I’d like to have a family,” he said as if the idea was sound, but hadn’t yet solidified as a full on statement.

“Sounds good to me, I would love to corrupt your little snappers,” he said.When Ethan didn’t smile he added, “How does Cori feel about that?”

“She feels she needs to consult, with Belus.” Daniel nodded not sure what to say about that. “I’m thinking that was just her way of saying no. We never discussed children before we got together. I guess I had never thought of it one way another until…recently.”

Daniel was curious about what had made him suddenly think about children, but he wasn’t good at multitasking so he let it go. “So, when did you bring babies up to Cori?”

“Tonight.”

Daniel laughed. He let the full extent of his laughter balloon too far, but he knew exactly what had happened upstairs. “Oh, my stupid young friend,” he wiped away a tear. “I do recall telling you that I am the last person to give you relationship advice, but please allow my years of experience guide you on your path to potential conception,” Daniel raised a finger while he took a drink of his beer, which turned out to be his last.

“Damn.” Ethan rolled his eyes and headed to the fridge for a fresh one, which he even popped the top off of. “Bless you, lad.”

“Seriously, lad? Are you in father mode?”

“Hell yes, I am old enough to be your father. Granted I would have had to have started very early, but…” he took another drink. “Before my father passed,” although he recalled telling Ethan how his father
passed
he didn’t want to relive it. “He was considered a priest slash doctor slash therapist. As you well know, we are none of those things, but it’s not like anyone really understands what I am now, so I can imagine what people thought of him then.

“My father was often invited to home births. The midwives did their thing, but my father was there as kind of a good luck charm. People believed if he was present there was less of a chance that a child would be born with a demon on its back.

“There was some folklore for this back in the day, and where I grew up people still believed in the superstitious mumbo jumbo. Granted my mother believes in it whole heartedly and would slap my face for calling it mumbo jumbo, but that’s just my mother.

“Once I hit the age where dear old dad thought I should learn about the birds and bees, instead of sitting me down for a talk, he took me with him to a birth—first of many to come.” Daniel made the sign of the cross even though he wasn’t necessarily a church goer anymore. “I would love to tell you that its beautiful and magnanimous, but frankly at the age of fourteen, it was the scariest fecking thing I had ever seen. The image of what that poor woman went through to release that child, kept me a virgin until I was twenty.” Daniel took a swig of his beer.

“Was there some advice in there?” Ethan asked.

Daniel grimaced. “You damn plonker! You get a girl up a pole and she has no choice. You ask her to choose to have her body ripped apart in childbirth, you got to let her stew it over.” Daniel watched Ethan slowly come to terms with his words, but he didn’t like the wait. “Ethan, you just brought up the idea of babies, tonight. Let her think about it. If she needs to talk to Belus, let her talk to Belus. If she needs to consult with a Wiji board, a magic eight ball, and a fortune cookie, let her do that. It’s the biggest decision of both your lives, and she’s the one to make all the physical sacrifices, so, let her think. Let her decide and thank your lucky stars if she lets you do it to her, cause the only reason she’ll thank you for putting her through so much pain, is because she’ll fall madly in love with that baby, the instant she sees it.”

Ethan leaned forward, like the words had doubled him over. He looked up at Daniel, and suddenly took off to his room for the night. Daniel smiled glad to have provided him with a little sage advice.