"You're too valuable to have your balls blown off by a nervous sentry " "I don't want that kid to get in trouble because of me," Fulmar said.
"I'm going to let him worry a little for the rest of the night about your getting away from him," Canidy said.
"But I'm not going to squeal on him." Then he did something which surprised Ann and brought tears to her eyes. He put his arms around Eric Fulmar and hugged him.
"Besides, asshole, if the sentry blew you away, I would miss you.
You're the only thing close to a little brother I have. They went out of sight, and Canidy called for the sentry and asked him to "escort Mr. Fulmar back to the house. When Canidy walked into the bedroom end of the room, she was leaning on the wall beside the closet. "Oh, Jesus H.
Christ! he groaned. 4(Hi!
"What the fuck are you doing here?" he asked, "That's my intention," Ann heard herself say, "but I'm not sure I like the tone of voice."
"How much did you hear?" he asked.
"I got here a couple of minutes before Eric did," Ann said.
"I hid in there. I heard everything."
"Wonderful!" he said.
"I'm not going to tell anybody," she said.
"I'll have to tell Donovan," he said.
"You understand what that means? You'll be hauled away for psychiatric examination. It will take years.
"Not necessarily," she said.
He turned away from her and headed for the whiskey on the sink. She took a couple of steps after him. Now he spun around and angrily demanded, "What do you mean, not necessarily?"
"Bill Donovan called me in this morning and asked how he could be sure I wouldn't write anything I shouldn't. I gave him an answer that satisfied him. And it covers this situation, too." He opened his mouth to say something, stopped as if something shocked him, then moved his eyes to hers. His face was flushed. What did he see that caused that? And then in her reflected image in a dresser mirror, she saw what had shocked him. What he was looking at again now. Her leg, all the way up to her crotch, had escaped her bathrobe. That happened when he startled me by spinning around like that. She covered herself in a reflex action, then looked at his face. It was now red, and she saw him swallow. "I'd love to hear what you told him,' Canidy said, his voice strained. In for a penny, in for a pound, Ann decided. She took a step toward him. In the process, her leg 'escaped" her bathrobe again. Is that what you want to see? Have a good look! He looked, then looked quickly away. "I told him that I love you," Ann said softly, "and that I was consequently incapable of doing anything that would hurt you," Now his eyes met hers.
"What's the matter with you?" he flared. "Are you crazy? Saying something like that? And what you said before-" "That's a distinct possibility,' she said.
"Because the facts seem to be that I do love you, and I came here to-" "Shut up!" Canidy interrupted furiously.
"Just shut up!"
"-see if I could get you to-" she went on relentlessly. "Shut up!" he screamed again.
"Goddamn you, shut your mouth! You don't know what you're saying! She met his eyes and saw determination in them, and knew that she had failed. Her own eyes teared, and she felt a sob rising. There were the sounds of footsteps on the stairs. "Major Canidy? Everything all right in there, Major?" It was the sentry. He pushed her against the wall, "Ssh!" he cautioned. "Major Canidy?" the sentry asked.
"Everything's just fine," Canidy said. "You're sure, Sir? I thought I heard shouting."
"I didn't hear any shouting," Canidy said innocently.
Ann started to giggle. Canidy quickly clapped his hand over her mouth.
"Well, someone was shouting," the sentry said firmly. "Not me," Canidy said.
"Everything's perfectly normal in here." Something was pressed painfully against Ann's abdomen. She put her hand down to push it away, but when she realized what it was, she put her hand around it and held it tightly. She felt her heart pound. For a moment, she thought she might faint. "Well, good night, Sir," the sentry said. "Sorry to disturb you, Major."
"Perfectly all right," Canidy said.
"Keep up the good work." When the sentry had gone down the stairs, he took his hand from her mouth. She did not remove her hand from where she was holding him. She heard him exhale deeply, almost as if it hurt him, and then he picked her up and carried her to the bed. She was glad that she had taken off the cutesy-poo pants, because all he had to do was push the cotton robe out of the way. it didn't take long to become a woman, Ann thought, and I never believed those horror stories about the pain anyway. And when it was over, when he said, "You goddamn fool!" she heard tenderness in his voice, and was sure she had done the right thing even before he reached for her, and pulled her to him, and held her tightly against him, and said all the things she was so afraid she would never hear him say.
The second time was longer, and better, and so was the third.