The First Lock - 18. Chapter 18

- XVIII -

A couple of hours later, Jean finally came out of the room, and she looked like she’d been to hell and back without any breaks between the rides.

“Good Lord,” she muttered. “That woman can put sailors to shame... I have never heard anyone swear that much before... And she has a hell of imagination too,” she added thoughtfully. Mandy nodded, fully agreeing with her. Jean shook her head and looked up. “It’s a boy,” she said. “She doesn’t mind seeing you,” she looked at Mandy. “But she doesn’t want to see you,” she glanced at Paul.

“Why?” he asked, clearly bewildered and hurt. Jean shrugged.

“Beats the hell out of me,” she said and blinked. “Man, it rubbed off on me, huh...”

“Yeah,” Mandy nodded. “Rubbed off on me as well... Well,” she looked at Paul. “I am going to see her, okay?”

“Yeah,” he muttered.

Mandy walked into the room and carefully made her way to the bed. Katrena looked beyond exhausted. Mandy blinked when she saw a bundled up package lying next to her. The package had a pink, wrinkly face and was asleep, it seemed.

“Hey,” Mandy called softly, and Katrena looked at her. “It’s a boy...” Mandy smiled.

“Uh huh,” was Katrena’s reply.

“Do you know what you gonna name him yet?”

Katrena looked thoughtful for several seconds.

“Damien,” she said finally.

“That’s a good name,” Mandy nodded. “How you feeling?”

“Like I could sleep for a decade,” Katrena said honestly. Mandy laughed softly.

“Why didn’t you want to see Paul?” she asked. “He is right outside the door... He was upset when Jean said you didn’t want him to come in...”

“Because I look like hell,” Katrena mumbled, her eyes half-closed. “I don’t want him to see me when I look like this...”

“Don’t be silly,” Mandy rolled her eyes. “You don’t look too bad... Well,” she shrugged when Katrena shot her a very dark look from underneath her eyelashes. “You are very pale, there are dark circles under your eyes, and you look exhausted... But you don’t look like hell. Just let him come in... Believe me, he won’t think that you look dreadful!”

“Fine,” Katrena muttered. “Let him... I don’t care...”

Mandy went to the door and gestured for Paul to come in, aware of the fact that Katrena was half-asleep already.

“She is about to pass out,” she said quickly. He nodded and made his way towards the bed.

“Hey,” he said and grabbed Katrena’s fingers. “How are you?”

“Never been better...” she muttered, and Mandy wasn’t sure whether she was sarcastic or sincere.

“You look great,” he said, and she managed to open one eye and give him one of her looks.

“Flattery will get you...” she yawned. “...everywhere,” she finished, and he grinned at that.

****

It was three weeks later, and Mandy was amazed and dumbfounded. She prepared herself for the familiar newborn baby hassle – crying, fussing, middle-of-the-night awakening, etc., etc. There was nothing like that. The kid barely cried. At first, Mandy was afraid that there was something wrong with his vocal cords. She was proven wrong a couple of days after Katrena came back from the hospital. They were having lunch – Katrena was wolfing down an enormous size hamburger – and all of a sudden, she winced and muttered, “Hold on a little... Let me finish this...”

Mandy blinked at that.

“Who are you talking to?” she asked, and Katrena just muttered something unintelligible.

Well, five minutes later, Damien started to wail so loudly that Mandy almost choked on her egg roll.

“Oh my God...” she said slowly, thinking that there was absolutely nothing wrong with that kid’s vocal cords.

“Son of a...” Katrena hissed and put her hamburger down. “Fine, fine... Shut up already!”

She grabbed a bottle out of the warmer that was sitting on the counter and marched to the living room where Damien’s cradle took residence. Mandy just blinked when a few seconds later, the wailing stopped, and she could hear small, satisfied, smacking noises from the living room.

“How did you know that he was hungry?” she asked when Katrena came back into the kitchen ten minutes later, the bottle completely empty. “I mean, he could’ve been wet or something else...”

Katrena gave her a strange look and dumped the bottle into the sink.

“I guessed,” she said finally and returned to her hamburger.

Mandy decided to leave it at that. It seemed to her that Katrena was on some weird mind wave with the kid. It was as if she knew exactly when to change his diaper; when to feed him; when to entertain him with toys and such. She also knew exactly what the kid wanted at the particular moment; it was as if she could read his mind or something. Another weird thing was the fact that Katrena managed to lose all her pregnancy weight in less than a month, and she came back to work two days after Damien was born. Mandy remembered that she had to stay in bed for almost ten days after the twins were born – she could barely walk to the bathroom on her own, for crying out loud! As for her weight-loss – it took her almost a year before she was finally back to her pre-pregnant size. She asked Katrena about that too, and the girl just shrugged and said that she always healed fast.

Today was a Saturday, and Katrena bundled Damien up before loading him into the car. It was the middle of November, and the weather was beyond chilly. Mandy suspected that it would start snowing rather soon.

“So you are staying at Paul’s tonight?” Mandy asked and put her crossword puzzle aside.

“Yup,” Katrena nodded.

“How are the things between you two?” Mandy was genuinely curious.

“Good,” Katrena nodded again and looked inside the diaper bag, making sure she had everything she might need. “It’s the first night Damien is staying at his place, so we’ll see how everything goes.”

“Should be fine,” Mandy shrugged. “I mean, that kid is like a gift from God...” Here Katrena gave her a very strange look. “What I mean is that he barely cries, he sleeps throughout the entire night, give or take, he doesn’t fuss...” Mandy shrugged again. “In my book, it’s a gift,” she finished.

“You have no idea...” Katrena muttered under her breath.

“What...?” Mandy failed to hear her.

“Nothing,” Katrena smiled and zipped up the diaper bag. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Mandy! Sleep tight!”

“Ditto,” Mandy said and returned to her crossword puzzle.

****

It was almost eight in the evening when Katrena realized to her own horror that she managed to leave Damien’s (“monkey’s”) favorite binky back at Mandy’s house. She concentrated on what she was feeling right now. Everything seemed to be just fine; every single thought appeared to be her own. She didn’t experience a sudden desire to feed the kid or to change him. He would always project on her like there was no tomorrow the minute he felt even a slightest pang of hunger or discomfort.

“Okay,” she thought feverishly. “Okay... If I run to Mandy’s right now, I should be back right before he wants the damn binky... Crap, I have to bundle him up again...!” She gritted her teeth helplessly. She knew, however, that she had to go and get that stupid pacifier – the monkey would turn into devil incarnate if he didn’t have the bloody thing in his mouth by nine in the evening.

“Paul, I have to run to Mandy’s house,” she said miserably. “I forgot his binky... Yes, it’s a disaster,” she nodded quickly when she saw the look on his face. “Believe me, you do not want to have that particular experience... Help me to bundle him up, would you?”

“Why do you need to bundle him up?” he frowned. “Just leave him here. It’ll take you, what... Twenty minutes at the most? Do you seriously believe I am that bad of a babysitter?”

She blinked. It never even occurred to her to leave the monkey with Paul. She couldn’t imagine why someone would volunteer to babysit the kid.

“Ummm,” she said carefully. “You sure you’ll be all right?”

“I can handle twenty minutes alone with the kid,” he nodded very seriously. “Believe it or not, but it’s not the worst thing that could happen to me.”

“Huh,” she said very thoughtfully. “Okay, I’ll be right back!”

“You might wanna put a jacket on or something,” he frowned. “It’s freezing out there... Are you trying to get pneumonia?”

“I’ll be fine,” she smiled with the corners of her mouth. “Believe me, I won’t get sick.”

“If you will, I’ll just say ‘I told you so,’ ” he shrugged.

“Deal!” she nodded and grabbed her (well, technically, Mandy’s, since Katrena was driving her old Ford) car keys.

...Paul was right – it took her twenty minutes give or take, to get to Mandy’s house, run frantically upstairs, snatch the binky out of the crib where it was resting under the blanket, and get back to Paul’s place.

“Okay,” she said when she walked through the front door. “I hope he didn’t start bitching about the damn thing while I was...” She stopped talking when she saw Paul and the monkey lying on the carpet, Paul making strange faces at the kid, the monkey cooing happily. Paul looked up when she remained stunned-silent and grinned at her.

“Told you,” he said. “I am not completely hopeless when it comes to kids. I even changed him, believe it or not.”

“How did you even know he needed to be changed?” she frowned.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “All of a sudden I thought that I should check him. I was right,” he grinned again, and Katrena shifted her gaze to the kid.

“Smart little monkey, aren’t you?” she thought with amusement. “You knew I wasn’t around so you projected on the only person in your vicinity... Oh, bloody hell... I am going to have fun when you are older, huh...? You’ll get anything you want... And when you are old enough to start getting interested in sex...” She squeezed her eyes shut for a second and pushed those thoughts out of her head. She’ll worry about it when the time comes, no need to start freaking out about it now. She opened her eyes when suddenly, all she wanted to do was to go into the kitchen and warm up a bottle.

“I need to feed him,” she sighed and went into the kitchen.

...Twenty minutes later, the kid was satisfied, dry, and binky-protected. His eyes were almost closed, so Katrena put him into the nest-looking bundle of blankets that Paul set up on the couch. She stuck several couch cushions around the nest of blankets, making sure there was no way for the monkey to roll off the couch. She knew that he was too young to be able to move on his own, but when it came to this particular kid, one couldn’t be sure of anything. Hell, the damn monkey wasn’t even supposed to exist! Finally, she was satisfied with the sleeping by now kid’s position, and straightened up.

“Wanna watch a movie or something?” Paul asked, and she shook her head ‘no.’ “Okay... What do you wanna...”

She didn’t let him to finish the phrase and shut him up with her mouth. She couldn't care less about kissing him slowly right now; in fact, ‘slowly’ was out of the question. She latched onto his mouth as if her life depended on how hard she could smash her lips against his. His arms wrapped around her immediately, and he kissed her back with the same hunger as she was pouring down his throat right now.

“Wait...” he muttered and slightly pulled away. “I thought you were supposed to heal...”

“I am fine,” she said in a low voice. “I heal fast, believe me...”

“What if he wakes up?” Paul glanced at the kid who was snoring lightly.

“He won’t,” she muttered. “He’ll be out until at least six in the morning...”

That was good enough for Paul; he pulled her closer, and this time, he was the one who tried to drain every single breath out of her. They stumbled into his bedroom, pausing by the light switch, so Paul could dim the lights in the living room. When they finally made it to his bedroom, Katrena kicked the door shut and tried to unbutton Paul’s shirt. It wouldn’t cooperate, so she gave up and simply pulled it over his head and threw it on the floor. His fingers were much more successful, and he pulled all those buttons on her shirt apart, one by one, without ripping off any of them.

He growled something unintelligible when she nipped his neck rather hard, and she sank her teeth into his collarbone as an answer to that growl. He muttered something under his breath and pushed her onto the bed. She slightly lifted her hips when he started to tug down her tight pants. He impatiently pulled off his own pants, and pushed her down on the bed once more after she attempted to help him with the task.

“Pants...” he panted. “...I can handle...” he finished, and then his hands and mouth were all over her. She was hissing something obscene again, and she didn’t even notice that. His face traveled over every single inch of her skin, and when his mouth ended up on her big toe, she just yelped something and her back lifted off the bed, causing her head to fall back. Paul started slowly moving towards her face, nipping, licking, and sucking on random regions of her skin, taking his sweet time when his tongue got all the way to her navel, his fingers doing their own thing, making her hips jerk uncontrollably.

Finally, he was looking into her eyes again, and then he was assaulting her mouth without even bothering to pull away for air. She dug her fingernails into his back hard enough to leave scratches, and his entire body shuddered at that. She arched against him, pressing hard against his stomach, feeling his pulsating weeping length rubbing against her hip, and he moaned into her mouth. She swallowed that moan greedily, wishing for more, and started to rock her hips slowly, making sure she got just the right angle. She did, and then he mumbled something that she failed to understand, and suddenly, he rolled onto his back, making her to straddle his hips.

They both let out identical growling moans at the same time when they finally merged together. Paul threw his head back, digging his fingers into her slender hips, and Katrena started to move slowly, riding him with her hands on his stomach, fingers caressing, scratching, not always gentle, her movements slow and hasty at the same time. She shifted slightly and that caused a live-wire-euphoria to run through her body in a shuddering wave when he hit that sweet spot inside her. The combination of both bundles of nerves being stimulated simultaneously, drove her over the edge, and her head flew back when her entire body shuddered uncontrollably, forcing her throat into producing sounds she didn’t think were even possible.

“Fuckfuckfuckfuck...” Now it was Paul’s turn to start spitting out profanity. His eyes flew wide open and he made an effort to slow down, but it didn’t work. “Oh-oh-oh... Oh, Jesus Christ...! Son of a... Oh, hell!” He threw his head sideways and bit into the pillow, as his body stiffened for a second, and then Katrena could feel his wild spasms inside her. “Oh...” he breathed several minutes later. “Oh... Je...sus...”

She shivered when the echo of the powerful sensation rang through her body one last time, and then she collapsed on top of him, her breathing shallow, eyes closed.

“Shit...” Paul muttered weakly. “That was... Ugh, I don’t come so quickly usually, just so you know...”

“Mmm,” was all she said, and he wrapped his arms around her, after managing to pull up the blanket.

She rested her face in the crook of his neck, enjoying his scent, and right before she gave into sleep that was enveloping her with cozy darkness, she realized that she never even thought of Jett while she was riding the hell out of Paul. Not even once. She felt a slight pang of amusement and guilt, and then sleep tugged her down thus shutting down every single thought that was trying to resurface in her mind.