There are good early morning surprises...
The mid-morning sunshine flitted through the window of Neil’s flat, illuminating the trail of clothes from the front door to his bedroom; a high heel in the kitchen, its mate next to the sofa. A man’s jacket draped over a chair next to a rumpled button-down shirt. A sequin top lying on the coffee table. A bra tossed haphazardly over the flitterbloom bush in the corner of the living room.
Inside the bedroom, Gabrielle’s blue eyes blinked open, and a lazy smile of contentment crossed her face. It wasn’t that early by her standards, but she’d only returned to England the day before. And save the hour she’d spent at her own flat, changing clothes and emptying her suitcase, she’d spent the rest of her time with Neil.
Humming softly, Gabrielle rolled over to curl against her still-sleeping boyfriend, slipping one leg over his. The sheets were tangled about their lower bodies, and her hand slid across his bare stomach.
The warm touch broke through the farthest edge of his consciousness, and Neil muttered something unintelligible before shifting slightly and trying to find that dark, quiet place he’d been resting in moments before.
Gabrielle giggled and wiggled closer. “Neil,” she murmured softly, dusting kisses over the underside of his chin, “réveillez, chérie.” Her hand slipped lower, and her lips tilted upwards when her fingers circled around his arousal.
The slow curl of his lips was present, though he did not open his eyes. “Oh, I’m up,” Neil murmured, his voice gruff with sleep. Humming in appreciation, he was content to enjoy the feeling of his girlfriend’s hand moving over him as he drifted toward full consciousness and a new day. “You just feel free to keep doing that; you’ll see just how ‘up’ I am.”
“Mmmm, that ees what I am ‘oping,” she whispered. Her hand continued to move over him as the trail of kisses moved away from his jaw and down to his chest. Her blue eyes sparkled with glee as she moved lower and lower, head ducking beneath the sheet to take him into her mouth.
A deep breath accompanied the very satisfied grin that grew as Gabrielle reacquainted him with her oral skills - in case he’d forgotten since the previous night. “I really like it when you do that.”
Apparating into her brother’s living room, Rowan set down the toddler in her arms. It wasn’t often she popped in on family unannounced, but Nicholas was sick and she wanted to keep Paige away from his germs as much as was possible. It seemed like a good time to call on the services of Uncle Neil.
The four year old had already toddled off by the time Rowan stood, and it was a bit of a shock to see the little girl holding a bright blue bra when she spotted her.
“Mama, look, pretty!”
Bloody hell. It must be a Gabrielle weekend.
“Yes, lovey, very pretty,” the heavily pregnant woman said, taking the garment from her daughter and setting atop a nearby table. “You wait here a moment while Mama finds Uncle Neil.”
“Unca Neil!”
For the first time that morning, Neil’s eyes opened, wide, at the sound of his niece’s voice calling for him. “Shit. Shit shit shit shit,” he said, even as he felt the lovely warmth of Gabrielle’s mouth disappear. “I’m sorry, love. It seems we’ll have to continue this a bit later.” Already he was rolling out of the bed and tugging on his pants. “I’m coming. Just wait out there.”
Gabrielle’s head popped out from beneath the sheets, a muttered, “C’est quoi ce bordel?,” passing from her lips, but Neil was already half-dressed and out the door. Crinkling her nose, she sat up and let the sheet fall to her waist. From the sounds of it, there was a small child in the living room. As most of her own clothes were also in the living room, she’d have to be creative on what to wear.
A pair of Neil’s boxer shorts were summoned and tugged on, a spare hair tie fastened to secure them tight around her slim waist. Grabbing a white button down from the closet, Gabrielle shrugged it on and did up the buttons, rolling up the sleeves to keep it from falling over her hands.
Glancing at herself in the mirror, she shrugged. It would have to do.
She paused at the door for a moment, waiting. The low murmur of voices was punctuated by the giggles and high-pitched comments of a small girl. It was likely Paige, Neil’s niece, and his older sister. Rowan, she thought.
A smile tugged at her lips as she cracked the door open and slipped out into the living room.
Neil had managed to retrieve Gabrielle’s bra from his niece by distracting her with the pretty blue stiletto heels his girlfriend had worn out the previous evening. As she toddled around, her little feet only filling the toe area of each shoe, he slipped around the flat, gathering the other remnants of their impulsive first shag. Catching movement from the corner of his eye, he smiled to see his hastily-dressed girlfriend trying to join them unobtrusively.
“Gabrielle,” he called, nodding at the shorter woman herding a four year old, “this is my sister, Rowan, and my niece, Paige. Rowan, Paige, this is my girlfriend, Gabrielle.”
Rowan straightened, a knowing grin on her face. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Gabrielle.”
Eyes still cast down at her feet, Paige shuffled in Gabrielle’s general direction. When she judged herself close enough, she turned dark eyes to the very tall woman. “You loves my Unca Neil?”
Gabrielle smiled at the other woman. “Eet ees nice to be meeting you as well, Rowan. Neil ‘as been telling me much about you.” Her blue gaze flickered down to the tiny girl wobbling in her shoes. It reminded her so much of Claire that she couldn’t help but giggle as she kneeled so she was on eye level with Paige. “And ‘e ‘as been telling me about ‘ow beautiful you are, Paige.”
“Thank you,” the little girl replied with a broad smile. “You’re berry pretty, too, and I like your shoes. They make me tall!”
“Merci,” Gabrielle replied with a smile to match Paige’s. “You are as tall as your Maman in zem, I think. You are being... six? No, seven years old, non?”
“I’m four,” Paige corrected, reaffirming the correct number with a show of fingers. “What’s a maman?”
“She means your Mama, dumpling,” Neil said, settling onto the sofa with an amused air. “Gabrielle is from France, and in France they say ‘Maman’.”
Turning his attention to his sister, he queried, “I’m always glad to see you ladies, of course, Rowan,” he ignored the raised brow his comment earned, “but you haven’t said why you’ve afforded me the pleasure today.”
“A favor, though I understand if it’s ill-timed,” Rowan answered with a glance at the pretty blonde her daughter was still jabbering away to. “Nicky’s under the weather and I was hoping you might enjoy a little time with your niece to keep her safe from contamination.”
Ordinarily he wouldn’t have minded a bit, but Neil’s plans for the weekend had largely consisted of a very different sort of play with a very different young lady. “Ah, well...”
The blonde glanced up from Paige, concern etched on her face. “Oh no, ‘e ees sick?” She crinkled her nose in consolation. “My nephew, ‘e is ‘aving ze flu as well. My sister is ‘oping le bébé ees not getting sick, too.”
“Mama’s baby is still in her tummy. She can’t gets sick,” Paige announced with authority. “But I can. I don’t like bein’ sick; it makes my tummy feel yucky.”
With an indulgent smile at her firstborn, Rowan nodded. “Nicky has the flu, too. The poor little man is miserable. My husband’s watching him at the moment, but Virgil has to go into work this afternoon.”
Sighing quietly, Neil looked at his girlfriend in question. They hadn’t spent much time together lately, so if she wasn’t happy with the idea of a toddler tag-a-long, he’d redirect Rowan to the next sibling in line.
Paige’s hands still in Gabrielle’s, the blonde worried her lip and lifted her shoulder in a small shrug at her boyfriend’s questioning look. Did she particularly want to spend the day -- or the rest of the weekend -- with a four year-old? Not really, no. They didn’t often have long periods of uninterrupted time to spend with one another, and this weekend was one of the rare spans where she wasn’t due at a photoshoot or go-see until Wednesday.
But on the other hand, she wanted to make a good impression on Rowan. She had feelings for Neil -- strong feelings -- and she wanted his family to like her. Telling the pregnant sister to take her child and leave so she and Neil could have hours of uninterrupted sex seemed selfish.
“I suppose we can look after Paige for awhile,” the barrister said, his lips twisting wryly. “Wouldn’t want her tummy to feel yucky.”
“Yay!” the little girl cried, hopping wobbly in Gabrielle’s heels.
“Oh, fais attention,” Gabrielle said, tightening her grip on Paige’s hands ever so slightly. “Be careful, ma petite. We do not want you to fall and ‘urt yourself.” She flashed a small smile at Neil and Rowan. If they were lucky, it would only be for the day.
“I won’t get hurted. I’m a princess,” Paige replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Shaking her head, Rowan crossed to where her daughter and Gabrielle stood. “Don’t be sassy, Paige. I don’t want to come back and hear that Uncle Neil had to put you in the corner.” When she received an appropriately sheepish nod in response, Rowan kissed Paige on the forehead before addressing the other two adults. “Thank you for letting us interrupt your visit. I’ll be in touch later and let you know how things are going with Nicky.”
“No problem, Row,” Neil returned, ignoring the - correct - insinuation that she was keeping him from sex. “Give Nicholas a kiss for me.”
“Will do. Nice to meet you, Gabrielle.” With that, she disapparated.
“Eet was nice to meet you also,” the blonde said to the empty space where Rowan had just stood. Glancing down at Paige, she gave a quick squeeze of the little girl’s hands and released them, crossing to sit next to Neil on the sofa.
“Donc,” she said softly, “this ees not quite ‘ow we were planning to spend the weekend, non?”
“Much as I love my niece, I’ll admit I’d rather we were continuing what we’d started in the bedroom,” he answered, voice low so Paige wouldn’t hear. “Tonight,” Neil promised, lifting the back of Gabrielle’s hand to his lips.
Watching the pretty shoes on her feet as she crossed to the sofa, Paige called, “Do you want to play make-up, Gabby-elle?”
Gabrielle smiled and whispered, “I will be looking forward to eet, chérie.” She turned her attention to the four year-old in front of her and said, “Bien sûr, I love playing with makeup. Ees that something you like to do?”
Nodding, dark eyes turned up to Gabrielle’s blues. “Uh-huh. I like to make my eyes have shadows and my lips shiny. Sometimes Mummy puts pretty sparkles on my nails, too,” she shared, her little finger pointing to each body part as she spoke of it.
“Maybe you ladies should go and make yourselves beautiful while I fix us some brekkie, hmm?” Neil offered, not at all interested in giving Paige an opportunity to decide he’d look pretty with eye ‘shadows’ and lipstick.
“Mmm, I am feeling ‘ungry,” Gabrielle concurred, shooting Neil a look out of the corner of her eye -- a look that clearly said her hunger was not entirely related to food. “Per’aps Neil can be making us some breakfast, Paige? What would you like for food?”
“Waffles! And sywwup!”
Neil sent his girlfriend a wink. “Waffles and sywwup it is,” he agreed, tweaking Paigey’s nose and laughing when it crinkled at him. It wasn’t sex, but add a little bacon and he might survive the day.
“And le café,” Gabrielle reminded him with a mischievous smile, leaning over to brush her lips against his. “We are to be needing ze energy today, I am thinking.”
Humming his agreement, Neil nodded. “Sadly, not for the activities we’d anticipated,” he added, nipping her full lower lip as he pulled away. “Later, though. I’ll make it up to you.”
With a little huff, Paige tugged on Gabrielle’s hand. “C’mon, Gabby-elle. Time for pretties.”
“D’ac, d’ac, I am coming.” Gabrielle winked at Neil as she let the little girl pull her to a standing position. “Eef you would like, Paige, you may call me Gabby. Zat ees what my niece and nephew call me.”
The four year old took in this information without comment, though it was clear from the way she turned to look at her uncle, who was pulling food from the cupboards, and back to the tall blonde woman beside her that the wheels in her mind were turning. “If you and Unca Neil got mah-weed, I’d be your niece. What’s your niece’s name?”
Gabrielle’s blue eyes widened, and she chanced a glance at Neil. Her boyfriend was mercifully absorbed in something in the icebox. They had never talked about the future of their relationship -- Neil was the first man she’d been with for longer than a year. But marriage was another question entirely. “I ‘ave two nieces,” she said lightly. “Claire and Marianne.”
“I has a baby brother and a baby sister who’s still in Mummy’s tummy. I don’t has any cousins yet, though. Unca Graham and Auntie Lola aren’t having any fucking babies until she says so.” The rude phrase rolled off the child’s tongue without ceremony, and a moment later she turned wide eyes to Gabrielle. “Do you has purpuh shadows? I like purpuh.”
From across the flat, Neil’s voice called, “Don’t repeat what your Auntie Lola says, dumpling. You’ll get Uncle Neil in trouble.”
“And we are not wanting to get Uncle Neil in trouble, are we?” Gabrielle asked, crinkling her nose at the mention of Neil’s sister-in-law.
Tipping her head to one side, Paige looked at her uncle and then back at his girlfriend. Paige didn’t really understand what the big deal was; Auntie Lola said ‘fucking’ all the time. Grown-ups got upset about the strangest things. With a sigh, she shook her head. “No, I guess not.”
“Bien.” Gabrielle leaned down for Paige’s little hand. “I am theenking we can find ze purple eyeshadows, per’aps even ze purple nail polish. Would you like that?”
“Yes!” Paige exclaimed. “All the purpuh things!”
Neil snickered as he mixed the batter, reaching over to start the waffle iron heating. He knew he’d pay for it later, but he couldn’t help suggesting, “Maybe you can do Gabrielle’s make-up once she finishes yours, Paigey.”
The look Gabrielle shot him was sharp, but her lips curled in mischief -- a challenge. “Per’aps. And when Paige does my make-up, I am theenking that Uncle Neil would look parfait in blue eyeshadow. What do you theenk, Paige?”
The little girl looked thoughtfully at her uncle, then nodded. “Blue like his eyes, and mascawa for his eyelashes.”
As he poured the mix onto the waffle iron, Neil just sighed. He wouldn’t volunteer that this was not the first time he’d been made up. Brynny had used him as a life-sized doll many times when she was little.
Gabrielle smirked and blew her boyfriend a kiss. “Donc, let us go to le salle des bains, Paige. We can per’aps finish your manicure before Neil ‘as ze breakfast ready.”
“Go where? My mummy just puts on her make-ups in the loo.”
Neil returned the gesture, sending an air kiss back to his very indulgent girlfriend. He loved his niece, but she was a precocious little thing. He was glad Gabrielle didn’t seem to mind Paige’s... Paige-ness.
“Mmmm, ze French word for ‘loo’ is les salle des bains,” the tall blonde replied with a smile. “And now, you ‘ave learned a little bit of French.”
Dark eyes twinkled up at the much, much taller woman, and Paige smiled back at her quickly before shuffling ahead as fast as she was able. As she pushed open the door to the loo, she hollered back, “I can say bonjour, too!”
“Très bien, Paige. We will ‘ave you fluent in no time, je pense.” Following the little girl to the loo, she turned and smiled over her shoulder at her boyfriend. “Do be giving us a speak when ze waffles are ready, chérie.”
“Of course, love. Should be just a few minutes.” A mischievous grin stole over his face, and Neil added, “Would you like some links, too? I believe you were in the mood for breakfast sausage earlier.”
She made a little hissing noise and waved her hand at him. “Shut your mouth, monsieur, and see eef you ‘ave any of ze fruits for your petite ami.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied with a smirk and a half bow before turning back to the cooking food.
Summary: Neil and Gabrielle's intimate morning is interrupted.
Inside the bedroom, Gabrielle’s blue eyes blinked open, and a lazy smile of contentment crossed her face. It wasn’t that early by her standards, but she’d only returned to England the day before. And save the hour she’d spent at her own flat, changing clothes and emptying her suitcase, she’d spent the rest of her time with Neil.
Humming softly, Gabrielle rolled over to curl against her still-sleeping boyfriend, slipping one leg over his. The sheets were tangled about their lower bodies, and her hand slid across his bare stomach.
The warm touch broke through the farthest edge of his consciousness, and Neil muttered something unintelligible before shifting slightly and trying to find that dark, quiet place he’d been resting in moments before.
Gabrielle giggled and wiggled closer. “Neil,” she murmured softly, dusting kisses over the underside of his chin, “réveillez, chérie.” Her hand slipped lower, and her lips tilted upwards when her fingers circled around his arousal.
The slow curl of his lips was present, though he did not open his eyes. “Oh, I’m up,” Neil murmured, his voice gruff with sleep. Humming in appreciation, he was content to enjoy the feeling of his girlfriend’s hand moving over him as he drifted toward full consciousness and a new day. “You just feel free to keep doing that; you’ll see just how ‘up’ I am.”
“Mmmm, that ees what I am ‘oping,” she whispered. Her hand continued to move over him as the trail of kisses moved away from his jaw and down to his chest. Her blue eyes sparkled with glee as she moved lower and lower, head ducking beneath the sheet to take him into her mouth.
A deep breath accompanied the very satisfied grin that grew as Gabrielle reacquainted him with her oral skills - in case he’d forgotten since the previous night. “I really like it when you do that.”
Apparating into her brother’s living room, Rowan set down the toddler in her arms. It wasn’t often she popped in on family unannounced, but Nicholas was sick and she wanted to keep Paige away from his germs as much as was possible. It seemed like a good time to call on the services of Uncle Neil.
The four year old had already toddled off by the time Rowan stood, and it was a bit of a shock to see the little girl holding a bright blue bra when she spotted her.
“Mama, look, pretty!”
Bloody hell. It must be a Gabrielle weekend.
“Yes, lovey, very pretty,” the heavily pregnant woman said, taking the garment from her daughter and setting atop a nearby table. “You wait here a moment while Mama finds Uncle Neil.”
“Unca Neil!”
For the first time that morning, Neil’s eyes opened, wide, at the sound of his niece’s voice calling for him. “Shit. Shit shit shit shit,” he said, even as he felt the lovely warmth of Gabrielle’s mouth disappear. “I’m sorry, love. It seems we’ll have to continue this a bit later.” Already he was rolling out of the bed and tugging on his pants. “I’m coming. Just wait out there.”
Gabrielle’s head popped out from beneath the sheets, a muttered, “C’est quoi ce bordel?,” passing from her lips, but Neil was already half-dressed and out the door. Crinkling her nose, she sat up and let the sheet fall to her waist. From the sounds of it, there was a small child in the living room. As most of her own clothes were also in the living room, she’d have to be creative on what to wear.
A pair of Neil’s boxer shorts were summoned and tugged on, a spare hair tie fastened to secure them tight around her slim waist. Grabbing a white button down from the closet, Gabrielle shrugged it on and did up the buttons, rolling up the sleeves to keep it from falling over her hands.
Glancing at herself in the mirror, she shrugged. It would have to do.
She paused at the door for a moment, waiting. The low murmur of voices was punctuated by the giggles and high-pitched comments of a small girl. It was likely Paige, Neil’s niece, and his older sister. Rowan, she thought.
A smile tugged at her lips as she cracked the door open and slipped out into the living room.
Neil had managed to retrieve Gabrielle’s bra from his niece by distracting her with the pretty blue stiletto heels his girlfriend had worn out the previous evening. As she toddled around, her little feet only filling the toe area of each shoe, he slipped around the flat, gathering the other remnants of their impulsive first shag. Catching movement from the corner of his eye, he smiled to see his hastily-dressed girlfriend trying to join them unobtrusively.
“Gabrielle,” he called, nodding at the shorter woman herding a four year old, “this is my sister, Rowan, and my niece, Paige. Rowan, Paige, this is my girlfriend, Gabrielle.”
Rowan straightened, a knowing grin on her face. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Gabrielle.”
Eyes still cast down at her feet, Paige shuffled in Gabrielle’s general direction. When she judged herself close enough, she turned dark eyes to the very tall woman. “You loves my Unca Neil?”
Gabrielle smiled at the other woman. “Eet ees nice to be meeting you as well, Rowan. Neil ‘as been telling me much about you.” Her blue gaze flickered down to the tiny girl wobbling in her shoes. It reminded her so much of Claire that she couldn’t help but giggle as she kneeled so she was on eye level with Paige. “And ‘e ‘as been telling me about ‘ow beautiful you are, Paige.”
“Thank you,” the little girl replied with a broad smile. “You’re berry pretty, too, and I like your shoes. They make me tall!”
“Merci,” Gabrielle replied with a smile to match Paige’s. “You are as tall as your Maman in zem, I think. You are being... six? No, seven years old, non?”
“I’m four,” Paige corrected, reaffirming the correct number with a show of fingers. “What’s a maman?”
“She means your Mama, dumpling,” Neil said, settling onto the sofa with an amused air. “Gabrielle is from France, and in France they say ‘Maman’.”
Turning his attention to his sister, he queried, “I’m always glad to see you ladies, of course, Rowan,” he ignored the raised brow his comment earned, “but you haven’t said why you’ve afforded me the pleasure today.”
“A favor, though I understand if it’s ill-timed,” Rowan answered with a glance at the pretty blonde her daughter was still jabbering away to. “Nicky’s under the weather and I was hoping you might enjoy a little time with your niece to keep her safe from contamination.”
Ordinarily he wouldn’t have minded a bit, but Neil’s plans for the weekend had largely consisted of a very different sort of play with a very different young lady. “Ah, well...”
The blonde glanced up from Paige, concern etched on her face. “Oh no, ‘e ees sick?” She crinkled her nose in consolation. “My nephew, ‘e is ‘aving ze flu as well. My sister is ‘oping le bébé ees not getting sick, too.”
“Mama’s baby is still in her tummy. She can’t gets sick,” Paige announced with authority. “But I can. I don’t like bein’ sick; it makes my tummy feel yucky.”
With an indulgent smile at her firstborn, Rowan nodded. “Nicky has the flu, too. The poor little man is miserable. My husband’s watching him at the moment, but Virgil has to go into work this afternoon.”
Sighing quietly, Neil looked at his girlfriend in question. They hadn’t spent much time together lately, so if she wasn’t happy with the idea of a toddler tag-a-long, he’d redirect Rowan to the next sibling in line.
Paige’s hands still in Gabrielle’s, the blonde worried her lip and lifted her shoulder in a small shrug at her boyfriend’s questioning look. Did she particularly want to spend the day -- or the rest of the weekend -- with a four year-old? Not really, no. They didn’t often have long periods of uninterrupted time to spend with one another, and this weekend was one of the rare spans where she wasn’t due at a photoshoot or go-see until Wednesday.
But on the other hand, she wanted to make a good impression on Rowan. She had feelings for Neil -- strong feelings -- and she wanted his family to like her. Telling the pregnant sister to take her child and leave so she and Neil could have hours of uninterrupted sex seemed selfish.
“I suppose we can look after Paige for awhile,” the barrister said, his lips twisting wryly. “Wouldn’t want her tummy to feel yucky.”
“Yay!” the little girl cried, hopping wobbly in Gabrielle’s heels.
“Oh, fais attention,” Gabrielle said, tightening her grip on Paige’s hands ever so slightly. “Be careful, ma petite. We do not want you to fall and ‘urt yourself.” She flashed a small smile at Neil and Rowan. If they were lucky, it would only be for the day.
“I won’t get hurted. I’m a princess,” Paige replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Shaking her head, Rowan crossed to where her daughter and Gabrielle stood. “Don’t be sassy, Paige. I don’t want to come back and hear that Uncle Neil had to put you in the corner.” When she received an appropriately sheepish nod in response, Rowan kissed Paige on the forehead before addressing the other two adults. “Thank you for letting us interrupt your visit. I’ll be in touch later and let you know how things are going with Nicky.”
“No problem, Row,” Neil returned, ignoring the - correct - insinuation that she was keeping him from sex. “Give Nicholas a kiss for me.”
“Will do. Nice to meet you, Gabrielle.” With that, she disapparated.
“Eet was nice to meet you also,” the blonde said to the empty space where Rowan had just stood. Glancing down at Paige, she gave a quick squeeze of the little girl’s hands and released them, crossing to sit next to Neil on the sofa.
“Donc,” she said softly, “this ees not quite ‘ow we were planning to spend the weekend, non?”
“Much as I love my niece, I’ll admit I’d rather we were continuing what we’d started in the bedroom,” he answered, voice low so Paige wouldn’t hear. “Tonight,” Neil promised, lifting the back of Gabrielle’s hand to his lips.
Watching the pretty shoes on her feet as she crossed to the sofa, Paige called, “Do you want to play make-up, Gabby-elle?”
Gabrielle smiled and whispered, “I will be looking forward to eet, chérie.” She turned her attention to the four year-old in front of her and said, “Bien sûr, I love playing with makeup. Ees that something you like to do?”
Nodding, dark eyes turned up to Gabrielle’s blues. “Uh-huh. I like to make my eyes have shadows and my lips shiny. Sometimes Mummy puts pretty sparkles on my nails, too,” she shared, her little finger pointing to each body part as she spoke of it.
“Maybe you ladies should go and make yourselves beautiful while I fix us some brekkie, hmm?” Neil offered, not at all interested in giving Paige an opportunity to decide he’d look pretty with eye ‘shadows’ and lipstick.
“Mmm, I am feeling ‘ungry,” Gabrielle concurred, shooting Neil a look out of the corner of her eye -- a look that clearly said her hunger was not entirely related to food. “Per’aps Neil can be making us some breakfast, Paige? What would you like for food?”
“Waffles! And sywwup!”
Neil sent his girlfriend a wink. “Waffles and sywwup it is,” he agreed, tweaking Paigey’s nose and laughing when it crinkled at him. It wasn’t sex, but add a little bacon and he might survive the day.
“And le café,” Gabrielle reminded him with a mischievous smile, leaning over to brush her lips against his. “We are to be needing ze energy today, I am thinking.”
Humming his agreement, Neil nodded. “Sadly, not for the activities we’d anticipated,” he added, nipping her full lower lip as he pulled away. “Later, though. I’ll make it up to you.”
With a little huff, Paige tugged on Gabrielle’s hand. “C’mon, Gabby-elle. Time for pretties.”
“D’ac, d’ac, I am coming.” Gabrielle winked at Neil as she let the little girl pull her to a standing position. “Eef you would like, Paige, you may call me Gabby. Zat ees what my niece and nephew call me.”
The four year old took in this information without comment, though it was clear from the way she turned to look at her uncle, who was pulling food from the cupboards, and back to the tall blonde woman beside her that the wheels in her mind were turning. “If you and Unca Neil got mah-weed, I’d be your niece. What’s your niece’s name?”
Gabrielle’s blue eyes widened, and she chanced a glance at Neil. Her boyfriend was mercifully absorbed in something in the icebox. They had never talked about the future of their relationship -- Neil was the first man she’d been with for longer than a year. But marriage was another question entirely. “I ‘ave two nieces,” she said lightly. “Claire and Marianne.”
“I has a baby brother and a baby sister who’s still in Mummy’s tummy. I don’t has any cousins yet, though. Unca Graham and Auntie Lola aren’t having any fucking babies until she says so.” The rude phrase rolled off the child’s tongue without ceremony, and a moment later she turned wide eyes to Gabrielle. “Do you has purpuh shadows? I like purpuh.”
From across the flat, Neil’s voice called, “Don’t repeat what your Auntie Lola says, dumpling. You’ll get Uncle Neil in trouble.”
“And we are not wanting to get Uncle Neil in trouble, are we?” Gabrielle asked, crinkling her nose at the mention of Neil’s sister-in-law.
Tipping her head to one side, Paige looked at her uncle and then back at his girlfriend. Paige didn’t really understand what the big deal was; Auntie Lola said ‘fucking’ all the time. Grown-ups got upset about the strangest things. With a sigh, she shook her head. “No, I guess not.”
“Bien.” Gabrielle leaned down for Paige’s little hand. “I am theenking we can find ze purple eyeshadows, per’aps even ze purple nail polish. Would you like that?”
“Yes!” Paige exclaimed. “All the purpuh things!”
Neil snickered as he mixed the batter, reaching over to start the waffle iron heating. He knew he’d pay for it later, but he couldn’t help suggesting, “Maybe you can do Gabrielle’s make-up once she finishes yours, Paigey.”
The look Gabrielle shot him was sharp, but her lips curled in mischief -- a challenge. “Per’aps. And when Paige does my make-up, I am theenking that Uncle Neil would look parfait in blue eyeshadow. What do you theenk, Paige?”
The little girl looked thoughtfully at her uncle, then nodded. “Blue like his eyes, and mascawa for his eyelashes.”
As he poured the mix onto the waffle iron, Neil just sighed. He wouldn’t volunteer that this was not the first time he’d been made up. Brynny had used him as a life-sized doll many times when she was little.
Gabrielle smirked and blew her boyfriend a kiss. “Donc, let us go to le salle des bains, Paige. We can per’aps finish your manicure before Neil ‘as ze breakfast ready.”
“Go where? My mummy just puts on her make-ups in the loo.”
Neil returned the gesture, sending an air kiss back to his very indulgent girlfriend. He loved his niece, but she was a precocious little thing. He was glad Gabrielle didn’t seem to mind Paige’s... Paige-ness.
“Mmmm, ze French word for ‘loo’ is les salle des bains,” the tall blonde replied with a smile. “And now, you ‘ave learned a little bit of French.”
Dark eyes twinkled up at the much, much taller woman, and Paige smiled back at her quickly before shuffling ahead as fast as she was able. As she pushed open the door to the loo, she hollered back, “I can say bonjour, too!”
“Très bien, Paige. We will ‘ave you fluent in no time, je pense.” Following the little girl to the loo, she turned and smiled over her shoulder at her boyfriend. “Do be giving us a speak when ze waffles are ready, chérie.”
“Of course, love. Should be just a few minutes.” A mischievous grin stole over his face, and Neil added, “Would you like some links, too? I believe you were in the mood for breakfast sausage earlier.”
She made a little hissing noise and waved her hand at him. “Shut your mouth, monsieur, and see eef you ‘ave any of ze fruits for your petite ami.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied with a smirk and a half bow before turning back to the cooking food.
Summary: Neil and Gabrielle's intimate morning is interrupted.