by Roxie Ray
He nodded as he pulled out food to make my breakfast. He always brought a bunch of meals with him but cooked one fresh when he came, twice a week. “Sure.”
“Do you consider what I do a job?” Well, that was a more vulnerable question than I’d expected it to be. If he answered harshly, it would hurt. Even though I didn’t care what other people thought, not really, sometimes I got a little sensitive.
He hummed low in his throat. “Do you work at it every day?”
I nodded.
Grabbing one of my knives, he began to chop an onion. “Are you fulfilling a need, and is someone paying for the service of that need?”
I snorted as he arched an eyebrow at me. “Pun intended?”
He shook his head and laughed, holding the knife up while he wasn’t focusing on the cutting. “Oh, man. No, totally innocent on that one.”
Suppressing my giggles, I adjusted my robe and tightened it. As hot as Wayne was, he and I didn’t vibe that way. He was my friend, sure. But I wasn’t trying to flash him or use my feminine wiles to get him interested.
“If their needs are met and they are—” He cleared his throat. “—satisfied, then that’s the definition of a job. Is that what you do?”
“I guess, yeah,” I said, still uncertain.
“Then what you do is a job. It gives someone what they need when they need it. You’re no different than a server or chef.” He waggled his eyebrows in comical suggestion. “A sexy chef.”
I sighed in relief. His opinion had meant more to me than I’d realized. “Thanks, Wayne. You’ve got a nice way of phrasing things.” I stood and pursed my lips at him, dropping my voice. “It’s nice to know you’re more than a pretty face.”
He chortled as he went back to chopping.
“Let yourself out,” I said as I walked toward my bureau. “I’ve got to work all day, so I’m going to take a long bath.”
“Have fun,” he called as I locked myself in my large bathroom-closet combo. I had a washer and dryer in there, too. It had been a modification I’d made to the studio apartment, taking up a good fourth of the floor space for my big bath-closet. But it brought me joy, so I didn’t mind that I’d spent the money for the owners of the building to take advantage of later. They’d put up with my unique lifestyle without much complaint, so it was worth it.
After a long bath and pampering session, I walked out and ate the breakfast Wayne had left. He’d cleaned up after himself and left a note saying he’d see me later in the week. I made a note to text him any meals that sounded good.
The rest of my day was spent paying the auction winners back for their money. I wore the outfit that had won the poll I’d done, then did three separate live sessions one-on-one, using the client’s suggestions to pleasure myself.
And when I’d finished, I was over halfway to my goal. One more weekend like this, and I’d have more than enough to outbid Porter. I just had to hope the owner of the house didn’t accept his bid before that.
6
Porter
My skin tingled with the need to shift. I’d been going to the gym every day since I moved here, but I hadn’t shifted in over two weeks. I hadn’t taken the steps to make myself a permanent part of the clan yet, so asking to shift on clan land felt like an intrusion.
It was considered rude in our circles, which was stupid because we all needed to shift. But we were supposed to be a part of the clan unless invited first.
Anthony had invited me to shift when he’d thought I was just visiting. Now that I intended to move here, the ball was solidly in my court.
Before I contacted Anthony, though, I wanted to make sure I’d be here on a more permanent basis, and that meant a job and home. Once they were nailed down, I’d be able to go to the clan alpha with everything in hand. He’d have an easy time processing my transfer.
Too bad the house was a major holdup. I’d gone in to Gilbert, Gilbert and Fell and signed the paperwork for tax purposes, and everything was lining up for me to join the team.
Gazelle was almost certainly stalling on behalf of Kaylee. That was the nature of these things, friends scratched their friends’ backs. It happened in all industries. But it had been going on for a solid week now. It was time to stop the messing around.
As I tapped the screen of my phone, I leaned back in my kitchen chair and sighed, hoping Jace would be up for a flight.
He answered on the first ring. “Hello, brother. What are you up to this evening?”
“Hey,” I said. My voice came out happy because I was glad to hear his voice. He was my family now, and I was overjoyed to have him. “I don’t suppose you’re up for a flight. It’s been a while and I’m going a little stir crazy.”
“That sounds great. I was thinking about going out after dark anyway. Want to meet me up near my mother’s house?” That was where we’d flown from before. It was solidly in the middle of clan lands, which were unlikely to have any strangers nearby.
“That sounds great. When? I’m available whenever you are.” I scratched my legs, trying to appease the itch of my dragon. Now that I was on the cusp of a flight, the intensity climbed.
“Come on up. I’m at Mom’s now, so we’ll go as soon as you get here.” Jace said something to his mother. “She said she’ll even make us sandwiches while we’re flying.”
I chuckled and said goodbye. As I grabbed my keys, a wave of sadness hit me. For my mother, mostly. She would’ve made sandwiches, too. In fact, Jace’s mom reminded me of mine often.
My mother had been gone over a year now, but a day never passed that I didn’t miss her. I was long past the crying daily stage, but the grief wasn’t necessarily less intense.
I’d learned how to manage it.
But Mariah was a nice lady, and I knew she felt bad about how life had ended up for me and Jace, even though it wasn’t remotely her fault. Our father had screwed her and my mom equally, trying to have a family with both of them until they figured it out. Then he disappeared for good.
More than the grief, as I drove up into the hills of the clan land, missing my old clan and home hit me. I’d really loved it there. And as much as I missed them, I still wanted to be here in Bluewater.
But more and more, especially lately, the urge to be able to call up my many friends in my clan and go for a flight nagged at me. That wasn’t possible here. Not yet.
I kept reminding myself it would happen soon enough if I was patient.
When I pulled my truck in front of Mariah’s house, she stood on the front porch with Jace and Sammy, the clan witch.
There was something about the little witch that made all the hair on my body stand on end. She was different from any clan witch I’d ever been around, and I’d known several.
Jace hadn’t told me much about her, only that she was strong.
Based on the vibes I got off of her, that was likely an enormous understatement.
As I got out of my truck, Sammy eyed me for a long while. I walked up the porch steps to find them talking about a clan flight that she was going to be present for. Clan witches often came to large flights to cloak the clan from prying eyes. One dragon could easily slip around unnoticed, but twenty or thirty? Not so much. That was visible from a long distance.
When they finally worked out the details of the date and time, she turned her attention back to me. I suppressed a shudder as her gaze landed on me.
Seriously. Powerful.
“You’re not a very nice guy,” Sammy said in a quiet but firm voice.
I stepped back once, shocked at such a bold statement. “Excuse me?”
“Sammy,” Jace said in a disapproving voice while Mariah stared with her eyebrows up. “Why would you say that after the way he helped Bri?”
Sammy’s eyes never left my face, but she did narrow them a bit at the corners. “I’m not saying he’s evil. But he isn’t nice, and I’ll admit I don’t like him much.”
I opened my mouth to tell her she could speak directly to me since I was standing righ
t beside her, but she kept talking.
“It isn’t nice to pass judgment when you don’t know someone’s full story.”
Shit. She had to have been talking about Kaylee.
She sucked in a deep breath and narrowed her eyes further. “Maybe you should get to know someone before being a judgmental prick.”
Yep. She had to be friends with Kaylee. “So, I’m guessing you’re defending your friend?” She still intimidated me, but I wasn’t going to just roll over and take it.
She smiled in a creepy and self-satisfied way, with her lips somehow still pursed in the middle while the edges drew upward. “Kaylee doesn’t even know I exist. But you have to understand that I see everything.” She turned fully to face me and put her finger on my chest with a soft touch. “You are blocking your own blessings, child.”
I blinked when she said that, and when I opened my eyes, she was gone.
Just… gone. “How?” I breathed as I looked all around. “I only had my eyes closed long enough to blink.”
Mariah cackled. “That’s Sammy. She’s special.”
“The thing is...” Jace put his hand on my shoulder. “Sammy doesn’t say anything without meaning. Whatever she was talking about, whatever the hell it was, you’re going to want to give it some weight.”
Blinking rapidly, I processed his words and Sammy’s. She knew something about Kaylee that I didn’t, something that made her a deeper person than just being a porn star. I was sure it was some damaged past, a shattered history that once I learned it, I’d be so in love with what a strong person she’d learned to be.
Yawn.
“Let’s shift,” I said and pushed Sammy’s warnings away. I wouldn’t ignore her advice, but right now the only thing pressing on my mind was getting out of my skin and into my scales.
Several minutes later, Jace and I flew out over the open ocean, the dark sky hiding us from any possible peepers. After a few minutes of sheer exaltation for finally being back under my wings, my mind drifted as the air raced past my face.
Kaylee. She was the only person I’d been a jackass to here in Bluewater. Hell, I hadn’t been as abrasive with just about anyone in my life, ever. Certainly not any women I could recall.
Men always found reasons to be occasionally abrasive with each other, but I’d never had any reason to be that way with a woman.
What was it about her that made me so crazy? So rude.
If Sammy was right, and there was a lot more to Kaylee than a spoiled porn star, then I’d have to give her a chance. Hell, maybe Sammy’d had a vision that Kaylee would need my help. Everyone needed the occasional legal help. If that were the case, I wouldn’t refuse to help just because I didn’t agree with her job.
I’d do my best to keep an open mind and try to start things fresh with Kaylee. The next time I saw her, I’d be nice, even if it hurt. That way, I’d be keeping in with Sammy’s advice. I’d give Kaylee another shot.
After a nice long flight, Jace finally landed and said he had to get home to Bri. Since he lived on clan lands now, too, he shifted and flew home. I thanked Mariah for the brown bag full of sandwiches, then thanked her another two or three times before getting in my truck and driving home a much more settled and carefree man.
It wasn’t until I got home and was ready for bed that Kaylee overtook my thoughts again. I’d had a nice dinner out of the sandwiches from Mariah. She’d also included chips and a little wrapped cake. Not store-bought. Oh, no. Homemade.
In that, she differed from my mother. Mom had hated to cook, especially baking.
I needed to get some rest. First thing in the morning, I was due to go to the office for a final briefing. They’d given me an office and assigned me my first case, though I wasn’t due to start officially for another week. Something about processing paperwork on their end and starting me with a new pay period.
My comfortable mattress wasn’t doing it for me tonight. Shifting restlessly, I changed positions over and over before I finally gave in to what was really bothering me.
Kaylee. I couldn’t stop picturing what she might have been doing right then. It was nine o’clock. That had to be prime time for a porn star, right?
I knew she lived somewhere near the bar, so I couldn’t help but imagine her apartment. It was probably just one big studio. Her bed in one corner and cameras everywhere.
And her, in the middle of the bed. In my mind, she had one of those plug-in vibrators with the big bulbous end. The ones that vibrated really hard.
Shit, what was I doing imagining this? I could see exactly what her setup looked like for myself.
As I rolled over and grabbed my phone, I groaned. This was a really bad idea. Was it like being a stalker to go online and find her website? She didn’t hide what she did for a living. If she’d wanted to, she could’ve done it under a pseudonym and told everyone she did freelance writing.
My fingers flew over the screen, searching her name to see how hard it would be to find her.
Turned out pretty easy. Adding the word porn to her name brought her right up. Kaylee Price. She even had her own direct website, though it seemed another company handled the money. I wondered how it all worked.
Clicking through her website, I found dozens of free videos. All supported by ads, of course. No wonder she made so much money at this.
As I clicked on video after video, I was surprised to see that I’d pictured her background pretty well. She had videos in different parts of her apartment, and it looked just like I’d imagined it. A big studio. Most of the videos were done on a large, plush bed, though.
My arousal grew until I couldn’t stand it as I watched a video of Kaylee in a bubble bath. I reached into my bedside table and pulled out a bottle of lube. Slipping my hard dick from my undies, which was all I usually wore to bed, I continued scrolling through video after video of Kaylee.
I got lost in her as my hand slid up and down my shaft, stroking enough to take the edge off, but not enough to come on myself. Not yet.
Kaylee’s videos were about more than just sex, which made her all that much more attractive. She had a whole series for women who had never had an orgasm, showing them exactly how to use their toys to achieve the most pleasure.
Then there was one in that series talking about shame and sexuality. It was such an uplifting video, I no longer felt guilty for the long, slow strokes I’d been making on my dick while watching.
I kept going through her videos until my orgasm tingled deep in my balls. Watching one of the videos I’d come across where Kaylee was using the exact type of vibrator I’d imagined, I made sure to pause it as she looked directly into the camera. I stroked harder and faster, thinking about what her dusky brown nipples tasted like.
I finished, spilling myself into a napkin I kept near the bed for moments such as this. As a single man, Kaylee would’ve said it was healthy for me to maintain a regular masturbation schedule.
My muscles didn’t want to work, so I lay back with my phone resting on my chest and thought about what Kaylee truly did for a living. She didn’t have to have sex with other men to make her money. That was a big plus for me.
Trying to live up to the sexual expectations of a movie-porn star might’ve been more than I ever could’ve attempted.
Not that I’d ever be living up to any sexual expectations with Kaylee.
But I did feel like a dick. She wasn’t just fucking herself for money. Some of those videos had been informative for men, too, showing them the different parts of the female anatomy and naming them properly. I’d judged her prematurely, and she obviously really cared about sexual health.
And even if she didn't, who was I to judge someone for using their body in a sexual way to get ahead in this world? Sex work was the oldest profession, after all, and those people in that trade damn well earned their money.
Maybe I was a terrible person. I still didn’t love her profession, but I had a bad feeling that the ache in my chest wasn’t going to go away until I apologized t
o her.
7
Kaylee
“Hey, Gramps,” I said fondly when my grandfather answered the phone. “How’s my favorite grandfather?”
“I’m your only grandfather, Kaylee. But this old man sure is glad to hear your voice. To what do I owe the pleasure?” I normally called him every Sunday morning, but I’d missed this week.
This was the first chance I’d had since I’d been spending all week working on my website and doing extra lives.
“Gramps, I need advice about a house.” Might as well lay it out there.
“Want me to buy you one?” He was joking, but he’d pony up if I’d let him. No doubt about that.
I sighed. “Of course not. You know I wouldn’t. But I’m in a bidding war with someone, and I’m a little bit shy of enough of a down payment to top him. Is there anything I can do to delay things?”
“Let me give you the difference, Kay-kay. Let an old man help out his progeny.” His voice pleaded, and I seriously considered taking him up on it, but in the end, I stuck to my guns.
“No. I just can’t do that. If I can’t buy it myself, I don’t want it. Somehow, as much as I love you, that would taint the purchase.” I hoped he heard the love and respect in my voice and knew it wasn’t him at all keeping me from accepting.
He sighed. “You wouldn’t be just like me if you took the money. I never took a dime off of anyone either.”
“See? I’m just strong.”
“Little girl, that you are. As far as delaying, I’m not sure there’s much you could do. Have you asked to see the appraisal and inspection?”
“No, but I will. The realtor is a friend, but tomorrow makes a full week since she started trying to stall for me. I should have enough money by Monday, but I don't think she’ll be able to wait that long.”
“Well, you know I don’t approve of your chosen line of work,” Gramps said.
That had been a mortifying day when he’d found out what I did for a living. He’d ended up being far more supportive than I ever could have hoped for, though. For that, I was infinitely thankful.