Work Text:
Early one morning, while it’s still a tolerable temperature if not humidity, I step out of the conservatory and follow the lone path through the woods away from the Manse, on my way to a meeting I had set the night before. I walk briskly, hoping to get to the clearing with the big live oak tree first, so I have a few minutes to wait and go over the thoughts I have to properly express in words.
All I hear is the usual morning gossip of songbirds all around, right up until I reach the edge of the clearing, when suddenly I notice the footsteps behind me a second too late. With a little yelp, I am deftly scooped up in two big, strong arms and whirled around with a familiar baritone laugh filling my ears.
“Buenos días, Madam!” Javier says with a grin as he carries me across the clearing. With a twinkle in his eye, he ventures a kiss on each of my cheeks and smiles with an effortless level of seduction. “I will not lie and say I was not excited to get your invitation last night.”
I shake my head even as I grin right back, return one of his kisses on his bearded cheek. “I can see that,” I say, gripping him by the neck. “Now put me down over there so we can talk.”
He chuckles warmly, gently sets me down on the low-hanging oak branch, then stands to face me, his hands resting on my knees. “I am all ears, hermosa.”
I place my hands over his, ostensibly to keep them from traveling up any further. I sigh, catch my breath, then gaze into his big, mischievous eyes. “First, I want you to know that I’ve thought about how things might progress between us in the future, especially considering how you couched it as something less than serious—”
Javier gives me a deep nod, his face ironically turning more serious. “And I mean that with all my heart, Madam. I care about you and your feelings, and your husbands’ feelings, because I respect you all very much.”
I nod. “Thank you. I appreciate that. I expect you’ll comport yourself in no less than a gentlemanly fashion should the time come that I act on my special feelings towards you.” I pick up one of his hands and hold it against my chest.
He slides the hand up my neck until his wide, hot palm cups my cheek, then gives me a half grimace. “But that is not today, I gather?”
I smile sympathetically, trying not to show how much I savor his tender touch. But then I take a chance, quickly close the gap between us and steal a kiss. It’s a surface kiss, lasting only a full three seconds, but it’s enough for me to smell him, to feel the bristle of his beard, the heat of his skin. He breathes me in, closes his eyes, but then I pull away, biting my lower lip as I hold his half-lidded gaze.
I swallow, shut my eyes. “I’m pregnant, as you might know.”
He blinks, his mouth falls open, and he steps closer to give me a tight hug. “No, this is the first I am hearing of it,” he says, then pulls back to kiss my hand, his grin returning. “Congratulations!”
I blush a bit, squeezing his hand in my lap. “Thank you… we know it’s a girl. Denis’s girl.”
His smile softens, but still manages to spread as wide as his face. “That’s wonderful. I will have to congratulate him as well. My dear friend… a father once again!”
“And that is why I had to talk to you… you see, I cannot possibly run off and have a fling while I am carrying my husband’s child. This time period leading up to her birth… it’s… it’s sacred.”
“Por supuesto que sí, Madam. I understand completely.”
“But I have a request of you. A very important job I hope you are willing to take on.”
“Anything, please ask away.”
“I want you to be her godfather.”
A whole new emotion dawns on his face, brightening it like a sunbeam spilling over a cloud-shadowed hillside. “Madam, that would be a supreme honor… are you sure you want me and not someone else? Someone closer to you—”
“Javier, I am asking you because this is one way to make you closer to me. Closer to the family. In fact, I want you to be godfather to all my kiddos. And perhaps you could see if your wife would be godmother as well?”
He smiles as tears fall from his eyes, which he doesn’t even wipe away. “I don’t know what to say,” he replies, almost giggling. “This is so lovely of you to suggest. I’m overwhelmed. And I’m sure Penélope would love—” He pauses a moment, thinking. “But you’re not Catholic, are you?”
“Oh no, this is not a denominational role, really. Nothing against that or anything. I just feel like it would be nice if the kids had a kind of… spiritual guide. You’re a great humanitarian soul, and so generous and wise. I wouldn’t mind those virtues being imparted to the kids through you both.”
He grins, pulls me into another hug. “Thank you. Thank you for sharing your family with me, Madam. In such a beautiful way.”
******************
That evening, I find Denis in the loft bedroom of the cabin, sitting on the edge of the bed facing away from me as I climb up the stairs. He is still as I approach, doesn’t acknowledge if he notices my presence. He’s not one to sit and get lost scrolling on his phone, so as I climb across the bed toward him, I see he’s simply sitting, his hands fidgeting with themselves between his knees. I kneel behind him, rub my hands over his shoulders, feeling a familiar tension there.
“Amoureux,” I whisper, hugging him from behind. “Are you woolgathering?”
He lifts his hands, rubs my arms, tilts his head against mine, letting out a deep sigh.
I try pressing my mind into his, but he doesn’t let me read him even then, and my heart sinks. “Quoi de neuf?”
He next breath is shallow. “Désolé, my love, I don’t want to feel this way, but… non, de rien—”
“No, it’s clearly not nothing, cher, please… dis moi.”
“I… saw Javier follow you into the woods this morning.”
I hold my breath, then nuzzle his neck. “It’s not what you think, rêveur.”
“I have no right to even feel this way, I am deeply sorry—”
“No, listen…I only met with him to ask him to be godfather to our daughter, nothing more.”
He turns his head toward me, and though he smiles, the cold hurt in his eyes slices through me. “That is…” He chokes up a bit, then continues. “That is so beautiful, Madam… I am sorry for suspecting… but I still shouldn’t worry even if you… did more with him.”
“No, you really shouldn’t, not at all,” I insist, kissing his cheek. “Besides, despite the many opportunities, I cannot allow myself to be with anyone new while I am carrying our child. I could never do that.”
The coldness thaws so quickly, his kiss is so sudden, that it literally knocks me flat on my back. I’m breathless on the bed as Denis captures me in his arms, deepens the kiss beyond anything he’s ever done before, and we writhe in a fiery embrace. For a few seconds, his thoughts pour out and I tingle with his deepest admission in this moment of pure vulnerability.
“—I am yours, my love, if you are mine…please tell me I may possess you, even for a short time—”
I feel myself flatten out before him, utterly open, supine and supple under his every touch. “—You have me now—”
After a minute of heart-pounding caresses, he abruptly breaks our bruising kiss, muttering, “Est-ce que c'est bon? Should I stop?”
“Please, Denis, don’t—”
“It is too much—”
“No, please,” I say into his ear, “I want you this way, any way you’ll have me, rêveur.”
“Vous êtes sûr—” he says, even as he starts kissing my neck again, slowly thrusts his heavy hips against mine.
“Yes, Denis,” I rasp. “I can take you. All of you.”
*************
“You know, for someone so concerned about keeping up with me,” I say, splaying my hand over his bare chest, feeling his heart begin to calm against my palm, “you sure have a way of keeping me on my toes.”
He rests his hand over mine, presses it against his skin, then turns his head to smile softly. “I am also trying to keep up with the competition.”
“Pfft, you have no competition, are you kidding?”
“Mais non, I know you believe it when you say that, my love, but I have known you long enough now to recognize little moments when your mind wanders, carrying your heart along with it.”
“But Denis—”
“C’est beau, c’est beau… Because I always feel your heart return. Somehow, you still return to me.”
“Bien sûr, mon mari,” I whisper, then kiss his lips hungrily, uuntil my chest swells with heat again. When he hums into my mouth, it ignites against the inside of my ribs. And I have to admit to myself that I must simply be addicted to that sense of his passion, the way it flares and flames without being consumed. I could never resist it.
“Amoureuse,” he whispers back to me. “If I can learn not to be jealous of Ryan, I think I can learn not to be jealous of anyone.”
A tiny giggle releases my heart from its burning cage and I press my forehead to his, caress his hair. “—That is a very hard lesson, indeed, but probably the best one—”
His dark eyes twinkle. “—It was a lesson you had to learn as well—”
“—Yes, you’re right. I’ve been jealous about both of you at some point. You have a very different relationship with each other than you have with me, and I think that turned out to be the foundation of subduing the jealousy. Because we don’t have the same things. There’s some overlap, of course, but for the most part, we each possess a separate part of each other—”
He smiles, closes his eyes. “—You captured it beautifully—”
I keep my eyes open, watch him quickly doze off, slipping into dreamland like a warm bath. It’s one of his little superpowers, and I envy him, but I’m so relieved that he’s sloughed off his tension that I feel myself sinking away from consciousness. Near the very soft, rounded edge of my own sleep, his inner voice holds me back.
“—What is the key, my love?—”
Too tired to even feign an amused hesitation, I immediately think “—Sing for me, Denis. You know the one—”
His chuckle inside my mind tickles like champagne bubbles, and a restful warmth wraps my entire body. And I know in that moment that our daughter is as imminent as the dawn.