Tenants and Tyrants (Book 5 of The Warden series) (8 page)

At first no one heard her come in. The boisterous conversation and smack talk left the room feeling crowded and smoky, even though no one was actually smoking. She hung up her coat silently wishing there was a back door to the house, so could have slipped upstairs to freshen up before facing guests.

“Hi sweetheart,” Danato said first giving her a sympathetic smile. He must was noticed the wreck her hair and face were.

“Cori!” Several voices chimed in, along with one “Ma’am” from Duke and an uninterested glance from Belus, who gave her an additional short cursory check from the feet up, as if he was checking for injuries.

“Hi, everybody,” she said in what she hoped was a friendly tone.

Danato held out his hand to her to come to him, and she moved away from the coat rack happy to let him embrace her so she didn’t feel like she was intruding. He caught sight of the pistol on her hip and his warmth faded. “Why do you have that?”

Cori paused in her step to look at the gun. For a half a second she panicked trying to remember why she did have it. “I told her to take it with her,” Belus spoke up as he put a few chips in the pot. “For protection,” he added in case he needed to rationalize his orders.

“I see,” Danato said looking a little put out by the first impact of his dethronement.

Cori moved forward and touched his shoulder hoping to snap him out of his irritation, and to remind him, as Belus suggested, that he was still important to her. He smiled up at her again and hugged her body to him. He always squeezed a little too hard, but he wasn’t the best at expressing himself. So the more uncomfortable it was, it just meant he cared that much more.

When he released her she kissed his cheek. “How did it go?” He asked.

“Fine, most everything survived. We should have another month’s worth. Although I think everyone is going to get tired of sauerkraut. I think I’ll have to see if I can put together a rotation for spinach. I think that will go over well.” Cori scanned the table, which was full of empty chip bags, and remnant plates with yellow dried cheese. “Speaking of vegetables…” She looked between Ethan and Danato. Ethan wasn’t paying much attention to her, but the smirk he was wearing was probably at her expense. He was probably resisting the urge to comment on her appearance. “Did you guys actually eat supper, or did you just nuke up nacho dip?”

“Nachos!” Daniel and Heaton bellowed in sync and tapped their beers together. She imagined she could have said burritos or chili and gotten the same response.

“It’s alright sweetheart. The boys are filling up on beer.” Cori perked an eyebrow to him. “I’m fine,” he defended. She knew very well snack foods would do little to please Danato’s palate let alone fill up his cavernous belly. Not to mention salty chips and fatty cheese were not on his diet plan as far as she was concerned.

“Mmm-hmm,” she said and started to move away from him.

Ethan practically spit his beer out to catch her before she left the table. “Cori, I want you to meet Nevia Jordan. We call her Jordan.”

Ethan put his hand on Nevia’s back as if the only other woman in the room would be hard to identify. Cori tried not to find fault in that. She also tried not to be jealous that the cute, petite brunette that he had regaled about was sitting next to him. It shouldn’t have made any difference since she was going to be in reach or eye shot no matter where she sat.

“Nice to meet you.” Cori leaned across the table in front of Belus to shake her hand. Belus leaned back to cover his cards, in case this move was a plot to look at his cards. She should have known he would take his card playing seriously. “And I guess thank you.”

“I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to meet last time. Duty called.”

“I understand.” Cori released her hand and looked down at Daniel. He wasn’t particularly paying attention to anything but his cards, but his eyes fluttered up to her as if he felt her looking. She gave him a smile and a nod. She wasn’t sure what else to do, but she did feel a man that had saved her life deserved a little more acknowledgement.

He must have felt the same tenuous obligation, because he gave her the same nod with an added wink for flirtation. She expected no less. She found it amusing that because of conversations with Ethan, they each probably knew more about each other than they realized, but until they spent more time together they would still feel like strangers.

She headed into the kitchen to wash her hands and put together a proper supper for Danato and the others. She should have resented having to do the duty even after just getting back from two days of manual labor, but she was happy to have an excuse to not stand around like an intruder. She could have just gone straight upstairs, but she didn’t want to seem unsocial. Plus she was starving and wanted her own supper.

“Hey, where’s my kiss?” Ethan whined looking back at her.

She smiled as she pulled lunch meat and tomatoes from the fridge. “You want a kiss, you can come get it.”

Heaton and Daniel groaned at the biting remark. “What?” Ethan whined, though he was smiling still. “Danato got a kiss first thing, brought right to him. I’m your damned husband woman, bring me my kiss.” Ethan slammed his fist into the table theatrically.

Cori tried to keep her smile under control. “When you have a bum leg and walk with a cane, I’ll bring you kisses, until then, you can come around this island, and
try
to get a kiss from me.” She emphasized the try more for entertainment, which worked, since Heaton and Daniel were roiling with laughter. Even guardsman Chuck and Duke were not immune, despite their loyalty to Ethan.

“Oh, sweetness,” Ethan shook his head at her. He licked his lips. “I bet I could…” He paused not wanting to finish whatever vulgar line of thought he had in front of everyone.

“Does the kiss offer, apply to everyone, or just Ethan?” Daniel asked.

Ethan whipped his attention back to Daniel. “That’s where the try part comes into play.” Ethan waggled his finger at him.

“Danato, what did you do to get your bum leg anyway?” Heaton asked.

Danato looked over to him. Cori continued to spread mayo on her bread slices, but she glanced up to see his reaction to the question. She had never asked him about his leg, but she had just assumed it was a sore subject, like the rest of his past. He glanced around before answering as if he wasn’t sure if he wanted to share his story in this crowd. “I disrespected my wife one to many times.” He gave Ethan a stern look and everyone laughed.

Daniel started to deal, and Nevia stood up. “Deal me out this time.”

“What?” Daniel objected. “No way, I only have half your money. There’s room for at least three more rounds of humiliation for you.” Heaton and Ethan started laughing tucking their faces into their hands. At this angle Cori could see a slight prideful smirk on Nevia’s face. “What? What’s so funny you plonkers?”

“Dude,” Heaton drawled, “When are you going to get this?” Ethan started laughing again as Daniel’s face befuddled. “She’s a bloodhound on steroids. She knows when we are bluffing.”

“Bollocks, I’ve beaten her like four times.” Daniel looked at Nevia who was smiling a little broader.

“She let you win,” Ethan explained.

“What?” Nevia turned away from him and joined Cori in the kitchen. “That’s fecked up woman!” Daniel called after her.

“Can I help you with this?” Nevia asked starting to place meat on the dressed bread before Cori gave her an answer. She was glad she did, since she would have instinctively said no, even though she wanted to be done with the task.

“Thank you.” Cori felt a little uneasy about speaking to a woman who had probably spent a good amount of time with Ethan in this house without her. She knew it was irrational, but the fact that Nevia and Ethan were closer in age made her feel like she was an outsider to them. Like when best friends from high school take on a college friend. They are all friends, but you still can’t compete with history. “My husband has said a lot of good things about you.” Cori regretted saying “my husband.” She may as well have pissed on the furniture while she was at it.

“He’s said better things about you.” Nevia touched her hand, just for a moment to make her catch her meaning.

Cori chuckled as she started to understand how intuitive this woman could be. “I’m sorry I must seem like such a bitch.”

“You seem like a hard working woman, who has just come home to a bunch of rowdy men and one strange woman in her house.” Nevia placed one finished sandwich on a napkin and presented it to Cori. “Why don’t you get started on this one, and I’ll hand the rest of them out as I finish them.”

“Oh…I…” Cori started to object, but she wasn’t exactly sure why she wanted to. She was hungry enough to eat three sandwiches. Postponing out of some hostess code didn’t sound appealing.

“You’d be doing me a favor.” Nevia leaned in a little to whisper. “I hate poker.”

Cori laughed. “Alright,” she took the sandwich and slipped around to sit by Ethan. He looked over probably expecting to see Nevia. He did a double take and glanced in the kitchen to see what Nevia was up to. He smiled approving of the changing of the cooks.

Ethan leaned over for a kiss and she took that opportunity to take a big bite of her sandwich. His eyes gleamed with silent reproach, and his smile stopped being about amusement. He turned and wrapped his feet around her chair legs and scooted her chair closer to him.

“Ethan? You in?” Heaton elbowed him from the side.

“I’m out.” Ethan set his cards down without even looking at them.

“Well, Ethan’s off the radar. Belus?” Heaton said keeping the game moving.

Cori took another bite of her sandwich even though she hadn’t technically swallowed the first. Ethan reached to pinch her leg in just the right spot to make her squirm. She held back the girlish squeal she wanted to give out of respect for the disgust of their neighboring card players.

Ethan leaned into her ear and whispered. “I will make you beg for my lips,” he threatened. She chuckled and pulled away from him, not wanting to put anything else on display for the poker night. “Don’t forget whose ring that it is,” he grumbled with a smile that was still more guile than delight. As a general rule a woman being treated like a man’s property was intolerant to her, but somehow Ethan managed to find that playful line, where submitting to his dominance implied unending ecstasy for her.

“Where did you get those rings, Ethan?” Danato asked. Cori froze in mid chew. Apparently tonight was the night for bringing up awkward questions.

“I got them at a jeweler,” Ethan said perhaps a little too quickly. “Where else?”

Danato wasn’t stupid. He caught the subtle undertone of fear between the two of them. Cori continued to chew hoping that she didn’t have to answer for stealing property from wizards. The gold medallions Ethan had used to melt into her rings were once the property of an unconscious wizard. If Danato knew about that little detail, he might have objected to them, which is why they never brought it up.

“Why, did you want some?” Ethan asked trying to be casually funny. Danato didn’t fall for it, but he did return his attention to his cards.

Cori felt Belus’s eyes on her, and she looked at him. She furrowed her brow at him, but he just looked over her rings inquisitively like he was putting together puzzle pieces. Unlike Danato he seemed to be on the verge of understanding, when Nevia stuck a sandwich right in his face. “Sandwich Mr. Belus.” She presented him with the platter of sandwiches in her left hand like a woman familiar with waitressing.

Belus was startled and baffled by the sudden appearance of the food. “No, thank you, Miss Jordan.”

“Just Jordan, please.”

“Just Belus, please.”

“Sure thing.” She turned to Danato. “Mr.—”

“Danato,” he corrected before she could finish.

“Sandwich?” she asked.

“Yes, two if Belus’s isn’t spoken for.”

“You betcha.” Nevia smiled and gave him both.

Cori glanced at Ethan giving him a questioning look. She wondered if Nevia had prompted her sandwich distribution just in time to diffuse any arguments about her rings. Ethan smiled and gave her the slightest nod. She could see now why Ethan had given Nevia such high marks. She was a handy friend to have.

With food as the distraction, Cori slipped upstairs to better acquaint herself with a bar of soap.

12

Ethan watched Cori head upstairs rather mournfully. He knew she wanted to get cleaned up, and he knew it might be better to get her out of there so no more questions were brought up about his ill-gotten gold, but he really wanted to get that kiss from her.

He had not had more than a half dozen nights with Cori since Belus had taken over as her superior, and he had started to resent him for it. He knew Belus wasn’t trying to wreck his sex life, but he also knew he wouldn’t have any sympathy for it.

“Did Cori seem a little upset to you?” Danato asked.

Ethan looked up from his freshly dealt cards. “What’s that?”

Danato shrugged. “She seemed a little off to me,” Danato commented scratching his scruff as he put his attention back to his cards. “I wonder if she had a lot of troublesome nightmares while she was in the time bubble over night?”