Chapter 7

The sound of booming male laughter and the innocent giggling of a baby made my eyes peel themselves open. For a moment I was confused as to what I was really seeing but after a few more blinks I realised that it was in fact real and not some apparition. Lucius was sat on the floor with his legs stretched out in front of him as he was pulling faces at Danny, sticking his tongue out at him and doing some other stuff before laughing when Danny started copying him. I smiled at the little intimate moment they were having. Then I heard that baby's laughter coming from Danny and instantly I was off the sofa and over to Danny and Lucius, staring in wide eyed awe.

"How did you do that?" I whispered watching Danny's smiling face as he giggled slightly before sticking out his tongue. Smiling I poked my tongue out too and watched as he frowned before smiling. "You made him laugh his first laugh." The last part was awed as I reached over Lucius' shoulder and allowed Danny to grasp my finger. When decided that my finger wasn't interesting enough he let go of it and instead reached for Lucius' face with wide eyed fascination. Not even thinking about it, I wrapped my arms around his waist so that I was hugging him from behind and gave him a whispered thank you as tears started to leak from my eyes.

I remained like that just hugging Lucius whilst I stared at my little boy in admiration, it was surprising how much he had grown and changed in such a small amount of time and I kind of liked this, having a male presence in the house who didn't shy away from Danny, for just a moment it felt like a real new family should. All of a sudden though, my attention was brought fully to the situation as Danny's little face got all scrunched up and bright red before a loud rumble came from his direction. 

"Danny!" I gasped playfully letting go of Lucius who had started to laugh silently, his whole body shaking with the action. I tried not to think of how the vibrations his laughter made sent a thrill through my body. Shifting around him I grabbed onto the baby that was sitting in happily in his grasp, smiling whilst his face faded back to its normal colour. I lifted him up and sniffed his butt. "Lil man you smell." My tone was babyish as I pulled him in to my chest and coddled him for a moment. "You're a stinky boy, yes you are." Feeling eyes on me I looked up to see Lucius dark brows furrowed together as he looked at me oddly. Laughing at him as I pushed myself off of the floor, I took the smelly baby over to where the changing mat was laid out ready.

"Uh, where's your bathroom?" Lucius asked awkwardly from behind me. Glancing over my shoulder I smiled before pointing to the hall.

"Second door on the left." I replied before a thought struck me. "Oh and next to the bath there is a red flat pack baby bath, can you bring that in with you when you come back?" I questioned which earned me a nod before he retreated from my vision. I had just unstrapped the nappy from the baby and was cringing away from the lovely yellowish poop when I remembered why I didn't want him to go into the bathroom in the first place. "Ah crap." I cussed remembering the lingerie hanging up in there. I was just glad it wasn't my crappy grannie panties that I wore when I was due to do some laundry and they were the only clean ones left.

Blushing at the thought of my boss, who minutes before I had been hugging like we were an actual family, was going to walk into a room that had my underwear strung up before his eyes. I'm never going to live down this moment because this man is most definitely not a saint, if anything he will tease me mercilessly and the innuendo is bound to start tenfold because my lingerie is pretty fancy for a single mother. It's what I treat myself with though, most people it would be a new pair of shoes, me its underwear. I just think that if I was to get sent to a hospital for some reason I would like to be comfortable in the fact that I am in pretty matching underwear rather than manky mismatched ones.

Shaking off all thoughts of Lucius and underwear, I finished changing Danny's nappy and then proceeded to undress him ready for his bath, leaving him in a baby grow until the bath was ready. I was right about Lucius ripping the hell out of me because he walked back into the room with a smirk on his face but thankfully he had the baby bath within his grasp.

"Well I never would have pegged you as someone with a thing for lace and satin, just proves how wrong a person can be." He shook his head in mock disappointment before he started waggling his eyebrows. "I'd love to see what they look like...on." He paused before saying the last word, running his eyes appraisingly over me in a way that made me feel like he was a predator and I was his unwitting prey. I don't think I have ever met anyone who pisses me off as much as I want to hug. He's helped me so much today but at the same time he is a jerk and in the back of my mind there is a niggling voice that there is something I am missing, something that should terrify me about him but being me, I just ignored the niggling voice and instead faced off the man-whore before me. Standing from the floor, I snatched the flat packed bath from his hand and with practiced movement I pulled the edges of the bath away from each other so that it folded out into a reasonable sized baby bath that, give it another week or two, Danny would no longer fit in it.

"Shut up; just watch Danny whilst I fill up the bath." With that I stormed towards the kitchen and grasped the little bathing box I kept readily in the kitchen for such an occasion. Putting the little ducky thermometer in the water I waited until the bath was the right temperature before carrying it into the living room where Lucius was sat with a bare bottomed Danny.  Typical, if I was to do that, Danny would pee all over me.

Placing the bath carefully onto the floor I looked over to the two boys and raised my eye brows. "Do you want to bath him or are you gonna pass him over to me?" Lucius looked uncertain for a moment looking between me and Danny before he passed him over. Laughing I took the baby in my hands and removed the baby grow before putting him in the water. He started smiling and kicking around in the water whilst I got on with washing him and making sure he was all clean.

It took me an hour to get Danny washed dried and fed. By that time I could feel my own eyes start to droop as I carried him into the bedrooms and put him in his cot. I looked at the clock in passing and sighed, no wonder I was feeling so exhausted, it was half eleven, well past my bedtime. When I returned to the living room Lucius was sat in the armchair looking as tired as I felt. I smiled before taking a seat on the sofa.

"How are you so good with babies? Do you have siblings or your own kids?" I questioned as I relaxed back into the cushions, languishing in the fact that the sofa was cradling my tired body.

Lucius laughed a deep booming laugh and I swore I heard him snort too. "No, no kids or siblings, I just have cousins. And this was my first time handling a baby, I just wanted to see what it was like being a family man, I hear people rave about it but never understood the fuss of looking after something that eats, cries and sleeps." He had managed to gain some composure but I just laughed even more.

"So, how did you find it?" I questioned between giggles, he pretty much summed up what my attitude was before having Danny. Lucius chose that moment to push his body up out of the armchair and then his hand reached back and grabbed his coat along with the stack of contracts from the arm.

"It was okay but I still prefer my way of life." He grinned at me with obvious mischief. "Though today has some of its perks, such as when I picture you in your underwear, I now know what to picture you in. The purple silk, I have to say it was incredible and I can picture the way it would hug your...curves." Not even thinking about it, I reached forwards and slapped him around the back of the head earning me a scowl but I just scowled right back.

"You WILL forget you ever saw my underwear and you WILL NOT picture me in it or picture me naked, got it?" My tone was unrelenting as I jabbed him in his hard pecks for emphasis. He just smiled at me like he was completely innocent.

"Whatever do you mean Miss Holmes?"

"And to think I was going to thank you for all your help today. Well, you just screwed yourself out of any form of gratitude; you can get your sorry arse out of my home right now." I pointed to the door and looked at him sternly, my brows knotted together and my mouth set in a hard line to show that I was serious. To be honest I was pleased to have him out of my house, the longer he was here the less sleep I would get. Danny sleeps to no one's pattern but his own.

Lucius laughed harder and louder so I slapped him around the head afraid that he would wake Danny. I then wrapped my hand around his arm and started dragging him towards the front door which he allowed me to do as he showed little resistance.

 At the front door I let him go as I pulled open the door and then swept my arm in front of me gesturing him to leave. He obliged but put a hand over his heart when he was standing on the threshold.

"What no goodbye kiss?" He fluttered his eye lashes at me and pouted his lip out trying to look cute but it only made me remember my Exes.  Some of the not so nice exes used the exact same look when they wanted something; it only proved to excite my need to punch something really hard.

"No. No kiss, so goodnight and I'll see you on Monday." I started to close the door before I remembered. "Oh and thank you." The last bit was gentler than the rest of my speech but I gave him no chance to respond as I shut the door in his face and pulled the locks into place.

Not bothering to wait and see if he left knowing her would find his own way out; I headed down the hall turning lights off as I went before I wandered into my bedroom and collapsed on my bed. I only just had enough energy to force myself up again so that I could brush my teeth before changing into my pyjamas. By some miracle by ten past midnight, I was tucked snugly into my bed inhaling the scent of the laundry powder as I feel into sleep with none other than Lucius Satani on my mind.  

My apologies, it's not hte best chapter but I have been a bit distracted so I've been writing every here and now whenever I can get myself time to write. Hopefully the next few chapters will be a little bit more interesting but I don't know when I will upload next. thanks for reading :D