Informed Consent (6 page)

The kid was with a posse, all sagging and hoodie-ed, ear
buds stuffed in their heads.
 
They
were laughing so hard some of them were doubled over. Yep, that was William,
and he’d bet his best set of speakers that crew of his had been up to no good.

Andrew’s foot almost hit the break.
 
He changed his mind and found the gas
again.
 
He wanted to go home and
see
her,
read her face for clues, not
dick around with a bunch of rowdy teens.

***

Once he managed to make it through the freaking, malfunctioning
gates and park in the garage, Andrew grabbed his case from the back seat,
opened the door that led into the kitchen and winced.
 
Rap blared from somewhere deep within the recesses of the
house.
 
The walls were vibrating,
for god’s sake.
 
The kitchen
resembled New Orleans after the hurricane. Smoke wafted around near the
ceiling.

Andrew
looked around and clamped down hard on his temper.
 
He liked to think he wasn’t a ridiculously fussy guy, but ok
he enjoyed a clean house, and found it more than a little tough to relax amid
squalor.
 
But he got it too:
 
Three boys, two of them full blown
teenagers, lived here.
 
They’d come
home from school and done what adolescent boys do -- seek food.
 

Clearly,
no one ever taught them how to clean up after themselves, and to be fair, what
teenager did clean up their own mess? It would take an iron hand to bring about
that kind of result and his wife was as far from an iron hand as you could
get.
 
If she even noticed the mess
she probably thought the housekeeper would take care of it in the morning.He
headed up stairs.
 

This was
the kind of thing a man and his wife needed to discuss.
 
She had the money to pay a housekeeper,
so why not?
 
He’d been raised with
household help, but his parents never would have stood for this level of
thoughtlessness.
 
The issue was a
value judgment and they’d have to discuss it and decide what they wanted to, well,
value.
 

A small
pit opened in his stomach. He was damn sure the issue had never caused even a
minute blip in one neuron anywhere in her brain.
 
He would have to bring it up.
 
They would never agree.
 
As Head of Household he’d have to make a decision.
 
There’d be a brawl.
 
He’d end up spanking her. Which, come
to think of it--

No. He
wasn’t going there.
 

Apparently
another hurricane had blown through their bedroom.
 
Clothes were strewn everywhere.
 
The bed not only hadn’t been made but mud and debris
decorated the linens.

A large
head poked from under a mound of duvet.

Andrew
stared.

It was a
very large head, and a very ugly one.
 
What else remained hidden from view?

He
dropped his satchel in a chair and wandered around the room, assessing.

Most of
the clothes had been left there by his errant wife.

The
shredded items could likely be attributed to the dog.
 
The majority of the destroyed crap was hers, thereby serving
as a good object lesson. Maybe.

 
Great. What wife wouldn’t love a man who
thinks about giving her object lessons?
 
He was a dick.

The duvet
surged from the bed and a dog the size of a small horse landed in the middle of
the room. The beast shook vigorously, before stretching, front feet and chest
lowered to the floor.
 
His hips
stayed in the air. The thick tail wagged slowly.
 

The dog
trotted back over to the bed. Rooting around, he found something and brought it
over to drop in a sodden ball at Andrew’s feet.

“Shit!”

He’d worn
those pigskin boots since he was 16.
 
After he’d found them in a pawn shop in Arizona and emptied his pockets
to buy them.
 
One of them was never
going to be worn again.
 

He jerked
the door open and stuck his head into the hall. “Denise!”

He left
the door open and circled the room, furiously grabbing up clothes, tossing
items that appeared unscathed into a chair, and throwing the remnants into a
corner.

“Denise!”

The Beast
lowered its haunches to the floor and watched with interest.
 
Which pissed Andrew off even more.

“Get out
of my room!”

The dog
curled back its lip.

“Did you
freaking growl at me?”

Lucas
sauntered into the room.
 
“Tiny!”
 
He took in the mess
of sheets and shredded clothes and hurriedly grabbed “Tiny” by the collar,
ready to rush out into the hall.

“Denise!”
Lucas yelled. Obviously the kid thought it was time to disappear, leaving the
job of calming his brother in law to someone else.

Andrew
stepped in the kid’s path, arms crossed over his chest.
 
“Freeze!”

Lucas
froze.

His wife
stormed through the door. She barged past him, rushing to her brother’s rescue
within nano seconds of the kid’s call.

Andrew
was annoyed.
 
His call hadn’t
produced results like that.
 
Finding her brother in one piece, Denise calmed down and took note. She
let her gaze briefly inventory the room, and finally, finally, come to rest on
him, her husband. Pardon him for thinking she damn well should have looked at
him first.

“What are
you doing with my bra?”

In spite
of himself, Andrew grinned.
 
His
wife believed the best defense was a good offense.

“Picking
it up off the floor.”
 
He waved a
hand around the room.
 
“I’ve got
two piles here, Denise.
 
This pile
is for clothes the dog didn’t eat.
 
I think you can maybe
put them in
the laundry and then put them away.
 
This pile belongs to the dog.
They
can’t be saved
.”
 
He pointed at
the filthy brute who leered back at him.

Lucas
moved directly in front of the dog and looked at his sister before sidling
toward an escape.

Andrew’s
arm shot out and braced itself against the door.

“Lucas.
 
My man.
 
We talked about the dogs in the house.”

Lucas
nodded.
 
He kept his spot in front
of the dog.

Andrew
gestured towards his destroyed bed.
 
“This is why I want you to keep any dog you let in the house with you at
all times.
 
Until they’re trained.”

Lucas’s
mouth opened and closed.
 
He shot a
glance at his sister.
 
Finally he
shrugged.

“Sorry,
dude.”

Andrew
quirked a brow.

“Sir.
Sorry, Sir.”

“Take the
mutt out then get your butt back in here.
 
You can strip this bed and remake it.”

Lucas
gaped.
 
“Ah…well. Sure. Ok. Strip
the bed and remake it.”
 
He bent
down to grab the dog by the collar.

Andrew
stared at the kid. He laughed.
 
“You have no idea how to make a bed, do you?”

Lucas grinned.

Andrew
sighed.
 
“Hurry up!”
 
He reached for another chewed article
of clothing.
 
“If your sister will
tell me where the linens are we’ll do it together.”

Lucas and
Denise both stared at him.
 

“What?”

Denise
stuttered.
 
“N-nothing.
 
I’ll find the sheets. But wait a
minute.”

Andrew
waited.
 
Lucas looked at her.

“I. .
.
 
It was me.
 
The dog came in with me.

“But he’s
my responsibility, not Denise’s.”

“Take him
out, Lucas,” Andrew said.
 
“Your
sister and I have this one.”

Lucas
left.
 

Denise
stood frozen.

Andrew
kept his mouth shut for a minute, occupying himself by grabbing shreds of
clothing.
 
He could give her hell
for the state of the entire house.
 
But he’d never actually said ‘Keep the damn place in order.’
 
He’d have to eventually.
 

Everything
about their life was new and strange and he didn’t want to overload her.
 
He had made it clear though, to anyone
who was listening, that he didn’t want all the dogs running loose.
 
She’d heard that message.

He
straightened and looked at his wife. Any irritation he felt fled immediately.
Her face belonged at a gallows.

He
swallowed his annoyance. Patience was key.
 
“Thank you for telling me the truth about the dog, Denise.”

 
Denise scrunched her face. “
Thank you for telling me the truth!
 
I
hate
hearing you say that! I feel six!”

Heroically,
he let the mocking voice and comment slide.
 
“Honesty is
the
most important thing between us, Denise.”
 
He moved toward her, arms reaching for her.

Denise
squared her shoulders.

“I didn’t
think you were the kind of woman who would throw her brother under the
bus.
 
I’m glad I was right.”

She
flushed, looked away.
 

Andrew
pressed his lips to her ear.
 
He
wrapped one arm across the front of her shoulders, moving slightly to the side
and drawing her hair back with his other hand.
 
He pressed his lips to the column of her neck, kissing a
path to its base. He bit down gently but firmly. At the same time he swatted
her rear, hard, twice in rapid succession.
 

Denise
gasped.

Andrew
released the hold he had on his wife’s neck and then licked.
 
He brought his mouth to her ear.

“You
heard me say I didn’t want the dogs in the house.”
 
Soft. Lethal.

She
shivered.

His hand
met her ass again, harder, several times.

Denise
danced, squirmed.

“I wasn’t
wild about that tone either.
 
I’m
not finished here.” Andrew turned her gently and kissed her softly on her
mouth.
 
“Go find those sheets.”

Chapter 7

Denise
sat, numb, slumped deep in a couch in the main living area of her parent’s
house.
This may be the worst day of my
life. Up till now. It’s bound to get worse.
 
She was brooding but who could blame her.
 

Andrew’s
feet sounded on the stairs and every muscle in her body tightened.

“Anyone
have plans for dinner?”

Rude
thoughts rolled around in her mind.
 
She bit her tongue because even though it hadn’t worked out too well up
to this point, her plan was still to lie low.
 
So far she’d failed miserably even if Andrew wasn’t aware of
most of it.
 
But she had to keep
trying.
 
Her stomach plunged and
then did several double flips.

Crap.
 
He didn’t even
begin
to know the worst and now he was roaming around talking about
dinner.

Hearing
Andrew head for the den where the boys were hanging, Denise got up from her
chair and stood listening, poised for disaster.
 
She glided across the floor then, heading for the stairs.

“Denise!”

She swore
under her breath but kept moving.
 

“Denise!”
 
He stuck his head out of the butler’s
pantry.
 
“Come on in here!
 
I’m going to scrounge us up something
to eat.
 
Or did you have plans?”

“Yeah.
 
I thought I’d take a hot bath.”
 
Her foot stretched out to take another
step.