More than a woman
Chapter 14: Words – Part 2
Niles opened the door as silently as he could, and entered the barely illuminated room with his eyes already searching the bed.
He smiled as soon as he detected the lump of covers, recognizing CC's habit of sleeping surrounded by a myriad of things.
The remaining of his worries melted immediately into a silly smile.
The butler in him had got intrigued by her peculiar sleeping preferences since the first time she stayed the night in the mansion, after a backers' party, more than a decade ago: he found the guest room bed in such a turmoil, in the morning after, he asked her which hurricane-like entity she had summoned to leave things in such a way.
She just rolled her eyes and said something about making a mess on purpose, for him to have something to do, and Niles decided he had to find out what really happened.
So, next time she decided to sleepover he entered the guestroom very early in the morning, in his way to preparing breakfast, and was kind of startled at the mountain of covers and pillows and not visible Babcock in bed.
He got closer, tilting his head to observe better and try to understand the inner logic of such a seemingly cold and aloof person who enjoyed to submerse herself in fluffy things to fall asleep.
Niles was taken then by his fascination for Babcock, and not for the first time: rationally, he knew he should scoff, call her sleeping choices childish and spoiled, and formulate a good zinger over the beast who slumbers under a mountain and is going to wake up to devour humanity at the dawn of Armaggedon. However, he stayed there, by the side of the bed, waiting for his impressions to settle in and trying to deal with the surprising amount of endearment the scene before him elicited.
They had been spending too much time together, if he was assaulted by that kind of feelings at the sight of her (or lack of sight, in this case). Maybe he should get a hobby that didn't involve paying attention to and thinking of her so much – once his current one demanded planning pranks and saving material for zingers at every opportunity that presented itself.
(And it seemed the opportunities presented themselves more and more often.)
Specially, he shouldn't spend so much time pondering if it was a good idea to get closer and poke the beast, in order to satisfy his curios- to make sure she was alive and breathing.
He amused himself with the notion that, if this was a horror flick, the blonde would not be there under the covers, but hiding in a dark corner of the room, just waiting for the right moment to approach and get her unsuspectful victim.
Niles' imagination provided a vivid scene with vampire Babcock, in her black silk pajamas, grabbing him from behind, her arms keeping him still while her long fangs penetrated the flesh on his neck.
He shivered.
Shivered in desire.
Startled by such a preposterous reaction, he turned away from the bed, went to the curtains and opened them in a swift movement.
The creature under the covers heard the loud noise and manifested her discontentment through a long groan.
Niles observed the lump moving and suppressed a chuckle.
'I'm so sorry!', he inclined over the moving lump and said loudly, to make sure he was heard.
She answered with a long string of colorful curses.
He had witnessed Babcock cursing before, but nothing so heartfelt.
Her dirty mouth was one other item to add to the long list of things he should find a bad trait, but kept him hooked to her.
Niles filled his voice with surprise, 'I thought you would be gone already'.
'You know very well it's too damn early', she growled from somewhere in the middle of the covers.
'But the sun is almost rising', he answered in a fake concerned tone, 'If you want to avoid it you must start moving, sweetie'.
He immediately regretted calling her that. He had no real excuse but the frisson he felt at doing so.
She lifted the covers enough to peep through them.
Seeing her observing him like that made Niles think of a predator, and for some bizarre reason it joined witch and vampire in his enticing Babcock mind entry.
To hide how it disconcerted him, he shrugged and turned away, 'Stay at your own risk', he went back to the curtains and pulled them close again, 'You're surely old enough to take care of yourself'.
Niles spoke and got out of the room quickly – she had thrown the covers aside enough for being able to sit and he didn't want to face whatever she intended to do.
He already had mixed feelings towards Babcock at that point in their relationship, and the occasion added a new opportunity for him to be confused: he still guarded some distance from her, in order to keep some of his sanity; however, he didn't consider seriously the possibility of not providing the things he knew she enjoyed.
The result was that, from that day on, he prepared the guestroom for her exactly as she liked it, with lots of pillows and comforters.
And sometimes he would add a fluffy stuffed animal – like a cow, a pig or a dog, when he was feeling tradicional, a polar bear, a chicken or a snake, when he was feeling creative –, even if it put him at risk of being called on it if she realized what he was doing and why.
So, it was not surprising to the butler that, since the beginning of their relationship, CC included him in the things she wanted to entwine herself when settling for sleep. Their nightcaps involved a ritual with some complicated arrangement that ended up with them tangled, it didn't matter if they just had had sex or were just relaxing for the time being.
Not that Niles minded it. Not at all – he was totally into cuddling.
(Even if cuddling, in her case, was often more similar to a wrestling maneuver than peaceful nestling.)
He hadn't even made a dog joke on CC acting as if she was circling herself some times before lying down, or a sumo wrestler one. She enjoyed so much that he was there for her, instead of piles of comforters and pillows, that he didn't have the heart to mock it in any way.
However, he didn't resist bringing up the subject of her sleeping habits one specific night, and it brought him some answers.
He was laying naked, on his stomach, on his bed in the mansion, after a specially intense love-making session, and CC had gone to his bathroom to prepare for sleeping.
When she joined him in the bed, she did so by throwing her body over his and planting a loud kiss on his cheek.
Then, she settled down with an arm circling his waist, a leg between his and her cheek on his back, sighing deeply in contentment.
The surprising amount of energy changing quickly into that peaceful position reminded Niles too much of that episode when they got stranded in the Fine's, and he murmured, 'I never thought I would enjoy a boa constrictor maneuver'.
She chuckled, snuggling even closer and using her left leg to caress his, 'Yeah, I have this controlling personality that may cause some pressure, now and then'.
'Now and then?', Niles humpfed, 'You forget I'm just a regular human, Babcock'.
'Don't underestimate yourself', she said, patting his ass, 'You're dealing very well with my taste for grabbing and squeezing'.
'At least now I get why you tried to lay on Mister Sheffield on Sylvia's sofa that way'.
She was silent for a moment, her hand caressing his side.
Niles thought she would not answer him.
But then he felt her moving to lay on him again.
Her breasts pressed on his back, and her lips nuzzled his nape.
He closed his eyes and shivered, still sensitive from all they had just done.
'Don't even mention it', she whispered, nibbling at his ear, 'I was shocked when I heard your voice'.
He sighed, 'Don't you mean repulsed?'
'Oh, please, no'.
She answered and kept on the delicate teasing, her lips and tongue now tasting his jaw, her hands on his sides, as if the explanation was obvious and there was nothing left to say.
Niles insisted, 'No?'
'I was convinced it was Maxwell and I had finally got lucky with him. Then you spoke, and I was confused that I had felt so comfortable with the kinds of you', CC stopped to yawn, '...and frustrated because I surely couldn't stay'.
'You could have stayed'.
'Don't even start with me, Niles', she brought a hand to caress his hair, 'We both know at that point in time we would end up killing each other'.
'I'm not so sure'.
'Well, I am, Mister This-is-not-the-hot-water-bottle', her voice sounded definitive, and to stress her point she took his ear in her mouth and bit it until he yelped, 'Now shut up and go to sleep, baby'.
Now that they were together, CC felt free to manhandle Niles until she found out how she wanted to fall sleep, knowing he would never send her away, once the process brought up one more situation in which she managed to be tender and rough at the same time, to his utter delight.
The blonde would mold against him and relax as soon as they had full body contact, no matter what she had gone through in the day, and Niles loved being a source of happiness and relaxation for her.
Yes, he felt aroused at the notion he was being somewhat used. He had already been kind of a playground to her, for years, when trading zingers and plotting pranks had been a hobby for both.
However, this thing they had now added a new layer to their relationship.
Now they could feel really fulfilled, because they had the evil games and the loving gestures.
This was what Niles wanted most, after years of being around CC to have glimpses of her intriguing personality. She had opened the door for him to enter her life and be intimate with her, and he hoped he had made clear, even without saying it, how much he loved her for the whole experience – dark and light side, tender and rough gestures, generous and cruel streaks.
Being included in her habits and routines was part of the delicious thing that was being with CC Babcock, and it made Niles believe in the possibility of them staying together for the rest of their lives. He had been a man of habits his whole life, struggling to break free from his comfort zone and not succeeding most of the times. He relied strongly in repetition and known safe paths, after a lifetime of being the head of a household with much less staff than needed. He had to do it, in order to keep some order in the chaos that was to administrate the Sheffields.
(And, recently, the Fines.)
The fact CC didn't give him any clear statement on her feelings for him through the years just reinforced his reliance in visual hints and revealing gestures: she would never say she appreciated that he had left a stuffed animal in the guestroom, for instance, but he would know she had slept well by her spirits when she came down for breakfast. Most of times, his only way to know if he had hit the target was detecting a slightly nicer tone towards him when he teased her, a more lighthearted roll of eyes when he joked or even a nod that passed as thankfulness when he served her.
And that was why it disconcerted him so much when she broke the routines herself stablished.
For example: he quickly got used to the entangled routine because they always went to bed together, in the first weeks of their relationship.
Of course it helped that they had so much sex there was no way bed time would not start with sex time. However, there were occasions when the sex had already happened – specially in the penthouse, where they had more freedom of choice for time and place – and still when one of them showed any signs of tiredness (usually Niles, who was used to sleep earlier), the other would follow suit.
However, one night things were different.
Niles finished washing the dishes after dinner in the penthouse (and sex in the kitchen table) and went to the living room to see what his witch had been doing since they parted, some minutes earlier.
She was installing herself in the sofa, her feet under her, a pile of contracts on her lap.
Niles frowned at how comfortable she was getting – as if she intended on staying there for a long time –, stretched his back, yawned and commented he was going to bed.
It was clearly an invitation, and she answered by informing him she was not.
He stayed looking at her while she put on her glasses, took a pen and started reading.
It was disconcerting how easy to her it was to break a well stablished routine, while to him it was enough to shake his fragile confidence on her desire to spend time with him.
Niles didn't want CC to look at him and see the annoying figure he had been to her for years (he considered himself lucky that he probably was not labeled pestering prankster, disrespectful servant or something like that in her mind, anymore), but he couldn't stop himself and, before he knew what he was doing, he was moping around her, saying how late it already was and how unhealthy it was not to go to sleep right now.
She answered him by raising her head and plucking her lips, offering him a good night kiss.
Niles knew CC enough to have expected that, sooner or later, she would choose business over him, and still it saddened him a bit.
Respectful of her, he resigned himself to approach, peck her lips and be, so it seemed, dismissed.
He went to the bedroom making an effort to not drag his feet or do any other gesture that could show he had felt the blow so strongly.
He was a grown-up man, after all. It was his time to go to bed, so he could wake up well next morning and go to the mansion for his butlering duties. He would prepare himself for sleeping. End of story.
And he tried.
He sincerely tried.
But all he managed was to roll from a side to the other, revisiting events of the day, wondering if Chester had got used to sleep alone easily, imagining himself as a zombie in the next morning, counting sheep, hugging her pillow, chastising himself for wishing that CC realized she should not be working until that late, gave up reading boring contracts and decided to bring that hot body to lay down with him.
Accepting defeat and admitting even Chester must be more skillful than him if the subject was sleeping apart from Miss Babcock, Niles rubbed on his tired eyes, got up from the bed, threw a comforter over his shoulders and went to the main room.
CC was so immersed in carefully treading through legal clauses that she just realized he was in front of her when he spoke in what he hoped was a menacing voice, 'Do you know what time is it?'
She raised her eyes, blinking to get out of her focused reading.
And immediately pressed her lips to contain a grin, once Niles was disheveled, clad in his pajamas, with a comforter thrown on his shoulders like a cape and sporting a deep offended frown.
(He supposed he must have been quite a sight.)
She raised a brow, 'What an honor to have you here, King Lear'.
(Yes, he surely was quite a sight.)
He repeated, glowering, 'Do you know what time is it?'
She moved her wrist to look at her watch, amused, 'Well, Niles, you must learn how to see the time for yourself instead of coming to me when you need to... Damn! It's past midnight!'
'Exactly', he answered dryly, 'You missed your changing time'.
'Why, thank you', she baited her eyes at him coquettishly, 'It means I'm still beautiful'.
He pouted at her high spirits, 'You're taking advantage of my weakened state'.
'Weakened?', she raised both brows, 'You were in bed while I was working'.
'I was in bed, alone, while you were here in the sofa', he pointed out.
CC sighed, 'I thought the tantrum was over when you stopped hinting at my workaholic habits and how they disrupt your precious sleeping cycle'.
'It was not a tantrum', he corrected, 'I just expressed vehemently my disagreement over your decision to not going to bed with me'.
'You say potato, Word Master'.
His pouting just got more pronounced, and he grabbed the sides of the comforter more tightly, as if adjusting his cape.
CC smiled, 'You know, you're lucky I find your grumpy self so endearing. I should have just hit you with something when you started whimpering about how hard it was going to be to get up in the morning'.
'You speak as if I didn't have a slavery-inspired schedule'.
'Your internal clock will wake us up at six and a half every damn morning, Niles, no matter which time you go to bed'.
'And that is why I shouldn't be awake at this unholy hour'.
'So, don't be', she said with a no-nonsense tone, 'I'm the dark half of the couple, anyway. It's expected I stay up late while my decent housewife go to sleep with the chicken'.
Niles stomped his feet lightly, disturbed that she would call them a couple so naturally, what made his 'cape' bounce quite ridiculously.
CC tilted her head, 'I just said you go to sleep with chicken and you won't zinger me about bedding one?', she squinted at him playfully, 'Who are you and what did you do with my Niles?'
Her good mood made him crave even more of her, and he resumed stubbornly, 'Are you coming?'
She looked down and shuffled through the papers on her lap, 'I don't feel like sleeping, now. I'm too engrossed in this'.
'You can read in bed'.
'There's no need to keep the lights on while you're sleeping'.
'At least I'll be sleeping'.
CC raised her eyes to his face to assess what he wanted.
Niles schooled his features to hide the begging she surely had detected in his voice.
'Whatever', she said after a beat, changing the order of some papers and realigning them, 'I'll stay here for a bit more, so I won't disturb you'.
'I don't mind the lights'.
She didn't raise her eyes, this time, even if the insistence in his voice was obvious, now, 'It won't take much longer'.
She went back to her reading, surely expecting him to accept her promise.
But he knew that was not the sensible thing to do. If he got back to the bedroom alone, he wouldn't be able to sleep.
So, he ordered, 'Scoot over'.
That called her attention, and she looked up again, 'What?'
He huffed in impatience and took the contracts roughly from her hands.
Taking advantage of her outraged expression, Niles sat by her side, raised his feet to the sofa and maneuvered CC until she was lying between his legs, her back supported on his chest, the comforter over them.
Then he handled her the contracts back, pecked her cheek and settled for the night.
After being frozen for some moments, she turned her head and whispered, confused, 'Is this you punishing me for not going to bed with you?'
He sounded impossibly grumpier, 'This is me taking desperate measures'.
'About what?'
'About not being able to sleep without your body next to mine'.
She took the briefest of times to react with a smirk, 'How needy'.
He rolled his eyes, 'Go back to your precious work, wench'.
'Aw, Bell Boy', she grinned, relaxing her body against his and turning her head, 'You know you are the light of my life'.
He grumbled, 'As if'.
'Of course you are', her grin turned wider because he rolled his eyes at her patronizing tone, 'Come here for a good night kiss'.
He tried not to smile and failed, defeated by the warmth spreading in him at her words, 'We have already done it'.
'What if I can't get enough?'
He kissed her, caving in.
She turned her body to be able to reach out a hand and caress the side of his neck, deepening the contact.
And she ended up putting the contracts aside and nestling on him to sleep, as he had wished since the beginning.
(Next morning she announced she was going to research couch models for one that was larger and more comfortable for both of them. He almost won the argument against it when he reminded her they were probably moving to California in a few weeks.
However, she had money enough to not mind if the penthouse would not be their main living place in a while, and the next night they were experimenting a brand new model that, indeed, was more fitting to the things they liked to do in couches.
No, not just sleeping.)
Anyway, Niles knew very well her sleep preferences, and that was why he was not surprised to find CC invisible under a mountain of covers in the hotel bed in Beverly Hills.
He took off his shoes and tiptoed towards the lateral sofa where Chester was settled, greeting the dog cheerfully.
The Pom's vigilant presence made Niles feel like they were at home.
(Maybe CC had brought Chester because it made her feel like at home, too.
Maybe Niles had been really stupid about everything, after all.)
The butler climbed the bed and went between the covers carefully.
He reached out a hand to rest it on the hip of his lover, while his left foot found its way between her calves. The gesture of spooning her like that, initiating the entwining process and showing he liked it, was so familiar he was sure she would not get too startled by a sudden presence in her bed, and would immediately know it was him.
He had been so troubled by his fears of loosing her he had not focused on how great it would be to be together. Now it hit him full force, and he barely could wait for her to wake up, so he would see her confusion turning into delight at the sight of him.
She probably would not even mind that his motivation to be there had been jealousy.
He adjusted his body to hers full length.
And quickly realized something was wrong.
He knew CC's body – the curves, the heat, the feeling, the thrilling her skin causes in his fingertips.
It was not her.
His mind was quick in making the calculations: the only possibility, if CC was not in that bed, was that it was Maxwell; they must have exchanged rooms – Niles knew the blonde was not an easy person to travel with, demanding the most bizarre things, as his own experiences with her through the years taught him. And, knowing Maxwell, he had covered his head to avoid the feeling of being observed by Chester.
All the evidences pointed out that, in an absurd turn of events, Niles had ended up in bed with his boss.
That was not good.
And it meant Fran was now with CC.
Few things could be worse.
Niles was immediately assaulted by a mental image of Fran having the same idea he did, climbing the bed to paw the person there, but deciding to be straightforward and reaching out for something more intimate than a hand on the hip.
At any moment the brunette would barge in yelling about what she had just discovered.
Terrified at the thought that their stupid idea of coming after their significant others could have the nightmarish outcome of CC being exposed, Niles looked for a way out of the room the quickest he could. His mind reeled, searching for a reasonable excuse to go to his witch and make sure Fran was not getting close enough to see by accident something only CC had the right to reveal.
He slid his hand just the tiniest bit down under the pajama pants of his partner in bed, finding a hairy thigh and delivering that outrageous line of someone needing a waxing.
(Dear God, he would never say it to CC, if there was the slightest possibility of it being taken seriously. What kind of man says something like that as a greeting line, anyway?!)
He managed an expression of surprise convincing enough when Maxwell ordered him to let go, and was already planning to jump off the bed saying a hurried apology when, to his utter relief, Fran turned the lights on and the first thing she had to say was not Oh my Gosh, I just felt something on Miss Babcock!
(Her zinger over them being for some minutes in Hollywood and already together in bed was very good. He had to praise her for it when he had the peaceful mind needed to appreciate the humor.)
Niles was so relieved by Fran's presence and attitude he relaxed enough to enjoy the realization that the leggy blond of the prediction was himself. It was always great to be complimented, and in this case it put some sense in such a bizarre sequence of events.
(The fact Maxwell was not able to hide his disgust at the situation was just the icing on the cake, and Niles couldn't resist the jab on the need of clipping his toe nails.
Mister I-can't-deal-with-surprises deserved it.)
The butler got out of bed and exited the room quickly. No sense in staying there when his woman was waiting for him.
(And no sense in witnessing some serious trouble between an impulsive pregnant wife and her square-minded husband.)
Niles went to the already open door where Fran had disappeared before and stopped at the threshold, his heart beating madly in anticipation.
His blonde was waiting in the middle of the room, standing with her arms crossed and her lips pressed together.
She was trying to suppress a grin.
He loved the resulting mischievous face.
The butler knocked at the door quickly twice, and asked with a cheeky smile, 'May I enter?'
'I don't know if it is safe for me', CC answered, 'Nanny Fine mentioned something about you being insanely jealous, when she was finally getting out of here'.
She spoke, uncrossed her arms and gave a step forward, and Niles stepped inside the room as if pulled to her by an invisible rope.
He made an innocent face, 'If you mean Mrs. Sheffield, she got it all wrong. I just missed you insanely'.
'I see', she gave another step, 'Just missed me so much you had to cross the country to make sure I was not sharing a bed with Mister Sheffield?'
He closed the door behind him, 'Preventing messes is part of my job'.
'You do so little in said job it's hard to figure out what's part of it'.
He smirked, inclining nonchalantly to put his shoes and coat aside, 'Maybe things are different for me, witch, when you are concerned'.
She didn't hesitate in giving the next step to stand right in front of him, her hands going to her hips, 'How do you dare blaming me, servant?'
Niles straightened up slowly, realizing what she was doing.
She had the same provocative stance and was using the same nickname that started things in the night of their first real kiss, in the mansion's living room.
He bailed his fists to get some control and stay in character, 'You should be used to being the bad guy…', he waited a moment before saying with gusto, 'Trollop'.
The fire in her eyes was obvious now, and she moved her shoulders in that maddening way that put her breasts in evidence, 'I'll make you take it back, bell boy'.
He shivered at the way she pronounced bell boy as if it had a delicious exotic taste, 'Then come and get me, brunette'.
They met halfway, as they did that night three years ago.
The kiss was not the same desperate clinch of a time when they had to win over years of pretense and fear to reach out for the other, but still it had a strong trace of longing and relief at finally being together.
When the intense lip-lock made them breathless, CC broke the kiss, and her nose went predictably to Niles' neck to nuzzle it.
He adored when she clang to him like that.
He pressed against her, his hands traveling by her back, feeling her through the silk pajamas...
'What is this smell?'
She asked and separated from him to see his face.
Niles had the deer in the headlights look, not sure of what to say.
CC frowned, 'Is it…', she tilted her head and approached a bit to feel it again, '… Maxwell's cologne?'
He opened his mouth, took some moments to formulate an answer, and spoke carefully, 'It may be, once I was in bed with him'.
She stayed silent, her eyes not wavering from his face.
She was waiting.
He resumed speaking hurriedly, 'Did you know that a psych told Mrs Sheffield her husband would end up in bed with a leggy blonde in Beverly Hills?'
She nodded slowly, 'Yes, it was one of the nonsensical things she mentioned'.
He gulped down, 'We both thought it was you. I mean, my first thought was of you, because I think your legs are beautiful; I don't really know why she agreed with me, once…'
'Niles…', she cut him off warningly.
'I know, I'm babbling', he scrunched his nose in apology, 'The point is the psych was right about a leggy blond, but it ended up being me. We got the rooms from the hotel personal and when I entered there I saw Chester and thought it was you in the bed. I just climbed on and spooned the person there, but of course I immediately realized it was not you and it had to be my boss, and I got kinda nervous because it meant his wife was the one with you...'
He stopped talking at her squinting at him.
He turned even more defensive, 'What?'
She was serious, 'Thank you for worrying about me in bed with Nanny Fine. I managed to keep her at a distance', he nodded and she frowned again, 'However, you had to be rubbing yourself in Maxwell for more than some moments to get his scent like this'.
'I didn't rub in him', Niles contradicted, then realized where this path was leading and flinched, 'Is it that strong?'
She breathed deeply in annoyance at him trying to deflect her questions, and it was her time to scrunch her nose, once the scent really bothered her, 'Niles...'
Seeing no way out, his shoulders slumped, 'I may have used some of his cologne before exiting the mansion'.
'What?'
He joined his fingertips in a nervous gesture, 'I thought you preferred him and I had to do something and I figured out if I had his scent...'
He stopped his tirade when her eyes widened and she looked him from head to toe.
She was obviously realizing not just why he had Maxwell's scent, but why he had chosen those clothes.
And probably asking herself why she even spent her time with someone stupid like him.
Niles' heart went small at the idea that he had ruined everything, 'Please, don't be mad. I just wanted to...'
She raised her arm so quickly he recoiled to escape a possible hit.
(Not that she used to hit him. At least not after they got together. Before, it had happened just in situations when he really deserved it.)
She had raised her arm to point at some place behind him.
He followed the imaginary line of her pointing finger, afraid she was indicating the door that led to the corridor and kicking him out of her room, but he saw she meant another door.
He looked back at her, confused.
Her hand was trembling, and for a moment he pondered on reaching out to touch her and try to sooth some of her troubled feelings.
He gave up when she spoke through clenched teeth, in a furious tone he knew very well, 'Go. Shower. Now'.
Niles had every intention of being forgiven the quickest possible, but surely he would not manage it while sporting that offending scent.
So, he nodded and went to the bathroom almost running.