Chapter 15 Champion #3
“The extra blanket is on the bench.”
I reached over and snagged it without opening my eyes or moving the rest of my body. I shook it over me and then went still. I was so busy smelling her, feeling her, being close to her, I forgot all about Flowers and that sadist who ran her treatment.
“Are you comfortable, Sunshine?” Flowers asked, sounding like some kind of doctor.
“Mm. He made me laugh so now I’m going to nap. He’s going to sleep here for a minute.”
“If that’s what you want.”
“I think he’s already asleep. Do you really think he didn’t sleep all week?”
Roger’s voice was cheerful. “Are you worrying about him? Because if having him here negatively affects your health, I’ll personally throw him out the window. From what I heard about him, he’ll be fine.”
She gasped. “You wouldn’t dare!”
“No? You’re having a nasty treatment in the morning. Sleep. If you can’t sleep with him, I’ll personally…”
“I know, I know. I’m sleeping already. Sheesh.” She curled up around me, held my hand and then slowly, her breathing steadied and she went still.
“She’s sleeping,” Roger whispered in my ear, freaking me right out.
I didn’t move.
“I’ll let you stay here as long as her vitals look good. You might as well actually sleep. Wouldn’t want to base your relationship on lies, would we?”
He left whistling. Could I sleep with her? The room was dark with only a distant glow of machines, and Kitten was practically in my arms. Her legs were over mine, anyway. I inhaled her scent, soaking in it, bathing in it until eventually, I drifted off.
I woke up to Roger sticking a pin into my forearm. I woke up immediately, but didn’t move, flinch, or disrupt Kitten in any way. It felt so good to wake up to her, even if the doctor had stuck me at least an inch deep.
“It’s time for your treatment, Sunshine,” he said cheerfully.
She mumbled and rubbed her face against my hand. I opened my eyes and looked at her soft, sleeping face in the morning light. Then she opened her eyes, looked up at me and smiled. The world was born again while songbirds frolicked around the room. Home. Everything was going to be okay.
“Nix,” she whispered.
“Kitten,” I whispered back feeling happiness all the way to my toes.
“You weren’t supposed to stay overnight.”
“New plan,” Roger said, frowning at his tablet. “Sleeping with your husband is good for your vitals. That means he’s going to be sleeping with you every night.”
She got all shocked and horrified. “That’s not going to work for me.”
Roger bared his teeth in a smile before pouting.
“Aw, poor little invalid doesn’t get her way?
Guess you shouldn’t have put the sadist in charge.
After a night with your Prince Charming, I can skip several preliminary rounds of building you up so I can knock you back down.
That’s what we call efficiency. As fun as it is to torture you, I have other things to do with my life.
Such as laze around disreputably. So that’s the plan.
Our champion is going to work, then he’s going to eat and come back here to sleep with you.
You’re going to be a mess tonight. Here’s a choice for you, Sunshine.
You can choose to have the lights on or off so he doesn’t see how bad you look.
You’re going to look so bad.” He grinned and then grabbed my ear, and hauled me off the bed with it.
I didn’t protest, because being told that I could come back tonight was the kind of thing I’d die for.
“Kitten, I…” I stared into her beautiful, pain-filled eyes while Roger dragged me out of the room.
Once we were out in the hall, he relaxed his grasp. “I’ll walk you out.”
I glanced over at him. “You do that. You seem to be completely insane. And you’re in charge?”
He snorted. “No, I’m too pretty to be in charge. Flowers is in charge. I’m just the scalpel in his hand. He sees patterns no one else can see. He’s the one who told me that you were coming back as long as you were good for her health. So be good for her health if you want to see her regularly.”
“Sure thing.” I rolled my neck as we walked. It hadn’t been the most comfortable position, but I hadn’t moved a centimeter, not even in my sleep, not when it could jeopardize my wife’s rest. And I’d get to do it all over again tonight.
I actually looked at the house on the way out in the glowing sunny morning. Everything was alive, clean, well-loved. And there were fresh flowers in the foyer again.
When we got to the door he nodded at it. “See you tonight.”
I paused and held out my hand.
He cocked his head and took it, then started squeezing.
He had a good grip. I kept my own grasp comfortably solid and after a second he stopped trying to torture me and scowled instead.
“What?” he finally demanded.
“Thank you. For helping my wife when you have other things you could be doing.”
He flashed an enchanting smile at me, showing his perfect teeth. “Don’t thank me. You’re paying for it.”
“Am I?”
His grin became even more intense. “Beastie hasn’t told you what the deal is?
One favor. If I drop my BIC pen in a volcano and need you to go after it for me, that’s what you do.
Or if I need an army, I have yours at my disposal.
One favor from the King of Beasts, in the future, any whim that someone as crazy as me can come up with. Spoiler: You won’t like it.”
I nodded, squeezed his hand and released him. “People call you crazy a lot. You’re just bored. People with brains like yours have a hard time filling up the spaces between thoughts. That’s a perfectly reasonable request.”
He shrugged. “That’s what you say now. It’ll come when it’s least convenient for you. It always does. Also, it’s not the space between thoughts, but the space between actions. And the thoughts that…” He shook his head, turning to go back to torturing my wife.
I left before the urge to go back to Sunshine and beg her to let me stay won over.
She was being coerced into having me more than she wanted already.
Not that she didn’t want me, but that she didn’t want me to suffer with her.
Happily, she had a sadistic doctor who didn’t mind my suffering nearly so much.