by Aya DeAniege
“I’m usually quite good at figuring out where a man wants to be,” she said.
“Just because I’m submissive, doesn’t mean I like taking it.”
“No, but all your videos, you were. Are you telling me that’s not preference?”
“More masturbatory, than anything.”
“That does explain why your eyes were closed during,” Sera said. “Tell me, who were you picturing behind you? Or. Over you, under you, pinning you against the wall?”
“I like women,” I insisted.
“I don’t doubt it. I just think you have a crush and an itch that needs to be scratched. If I thought you didn’t like women, I would have stolen your clothing and left you out here for wasting my time.”
I glanced at my clothing, then back to her, concerned that it might come to that. She wiped at her lips in response.
“Besides, I’d like it to be Mike. I’d like to see how he handles someone before I let him handle me. It’d be a win-win.”
“He wouldn’t agree to it.”
“Then, it’d just be me handling you. I don’t understand why you’re arguing against it so much.”
“Trust is a big part of what I do.”
“Trust is absolutely important in these things, which is why, if you find a man to join us, it will be in a room. Where you can lock the door, or there are no windows, wherever you like.”
“You might have a camera on you,” I said.
“Where?” she asked.
“In your bra, plenty of women have—”
As I had spoken, Sera reached into her dress. Off came the bra, and she held it out with two fingers, before dropping it at my feet. She gave me a look, then held up a finger as if I had protested, and slipped a hand up her skirt.
Off came the underwear, also dropped at my feet.
“You really want this, don’t you?” I asked.
“I like control,” she said. “Being at a wedding for someone else’s brother? I don’t feel like I’m in control. I made you the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“Strange way to elicit control over me.”
“It is, but then… you’re a strange man, aren’t you Ralph? What’s that short for, anyhow? Ralph. I always wondered. Who would name their child Ralph?”
“For me, it’s short for Raphael.”
“Like the angel?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Why would you keep going by Ralph?”
“My brothers introduce me as Ralph,” I said. “Or, if they are feeling particularly annoying, as Ralphie.”
“You’re the youngest, aren’t you?”
“How did you know?”
Sera gave a little shrug. “You four have been together a long time, too, I’m guessing.”
“It feels like since the beginning of time.”
“And for all that time…” Sera said, trailing off with a finger motion.
I stared at the hand motion, not understanding what she meant. For a few seconds, I thought she was asking about my name. Then I realized she couldn’t have been, she was asking about Michael, which likely meant she was wondering when I had first started paying too much attention to Mike.
“Yes,” I said. “Since we were introduced.”
“You’ve never told him? Why?”
“He’s not like that. He’s not like… me. I don’t expect that of him.”
“Has it caused bad blood? Trouble, fighting and the like?”
“Maybe.”
“Your little hobby a few years back, that wasn’t just a hobby, was it? It was a cry for attention.”
“Maybe.”
Sera was quiet a moment, seemingly considering everything I had said, and the night in general.
“What about the bride, uh, bridesman?” she asked finally.
“Toby?” I asked.
Oh, there’s an idea.
I’d only do it if I could return the favour, so to speak. Toby was a little lippy, and I knew he was on Sam’s bad list for some reason. As a host of Heaven, he was also a great deal more open-minded than most of the guests at the party. He’d probably be pretty excited at the chance to tangle with an arc.
“Yes, Toby. He seems more open-minded than the rest of the guests.”
Is she reading my mind, or just that observant?
I gave myself a shake as Sera walked out of the little area and disappeared around a hedge. Looking at the clothing strewn about, I wondered what I was getting into.
And why I was so turned on by the woman.
“Michael,” Lilly squawked as I almost ran into her.
Her drink sloshed dangerously close to the lip of the glass, despite how little was in the glass, she had jumped so far into the air. I could see how my sudden appearance, moving at that speed, might upset her. Lilly knew we didn’t move fast for no reason, so at least, even as she scowled at me, I knew I would be forgiven.
As soon as she checked that it didn’t spill all over her, she dropped her hands and huffed out a breath at me.
“Have you seen Sera?” I asked. “Toby said she went off with Raphael.”
Toby had explicitly said Raphael, not Ralph. That had me worried because it meant that one of us was seeing to Sera in a way that I should have been seeing to her. He hadn’t done it for any petty sort of reason. Ralph had a date of his own to entertain. Raphael going off with Sera meant that something was wrong.
“No, Michael, don’t start that tonight, okay? It’s their night, not your night, and you can’t go back in time. If you do something stupid, we’re stuck. That means you can’t do what you’re thinking of doing right now.”
She was so vague about it that it even took me a minute to figure out what she meant by that. When it finally occurred to me, I gave my head a shake.
“Toby thinks she’s possessed,” I said, looking around us for the woman. “If Raphael is seeing to her, it’s a good thing. I don’t want to do that tonight.”
“There she is,” Lilly said, pointing over my shoulder.
I turned immediately and walked toward the garden doors as Sera stepped through them. She didn’t look ruffled in the least, there was the barest hint of a smile on her lips, and a self-assured look on her face. As she met my eyes, she changed her direction and headed straight for me.
I hadn’t given her any rules but to not do things in front of Sam and Grace, so I immediately dismissed my questions. Sera could come and go as she pleased, do who and what she wanted.
It was Raphael I was going to question, just after the reception was complete and the guests had all gone home.
Sera and I met on the dance floor, and I slipped my hand into hers, the other around her shoulder to pull her close. That smile grew a little wider as we moved together on the dance floor. It was a slow song that many other dancers were swaying to.
I think the art of dancing has been pushed to the wayside and that it is something that should come back in fashion. I had once been able to lead a woman through a dance and force the demon out of her during the dance. No sex, but it had still been effective. With the fall of interest in dancing, so had the effectiveness of my methods.
The bumping and grinding on the dancefloor could work, but I couldn’t make it work. Ralph had done it more than once, as had Gabe, but it was barely a step above sex. It took no skill to hump a woman on the dance floor.
And, frankly, if that was how the men of the current generation were having sex, it was no wonder the world was declining yet again.
As the song came to an end, we stopped together. The MC stepped up with a microphone and began directing everyone towards the dessert table where the newly married couple were about to cut the cake.
The cake was pure white, with little purple flowers cascading down the side of it. That was my handy work. I had taken classes on baking years ago as one of my hobbies. When Sam and Grace got engaged, I had taken a few refresher courses.
I had threatened to gut any guest who ruined the cake before they could cut into it, and
I meant it.
I watched the pair approach the cake, then scanned the crowd.
We fully expected to be attacked or cursed during the wedding. It would have been the perfect time launch an offensive attack. The demons had been quiet for almost a year. They may have left the area, as they often did when we settled in, but they could have also been planning something. The witches, in the absence of the demons, were making a bit more noise, but we always expected that to happen.
Still, we had been settled in and semi-retired in the past when one or the other would attack us when they thought we least expected it. We were on guard and trying our best to make that night the magical night that Sam wanted for Grace.
All across the room, the guests were standing and watching. Even Gabe was watching Sam instead of scanning the gathered guests, as he should have been. Back by the garden doors, Ralph was standing guard. The two of us made eye contact, and he flushed, turning to the other side of the room as I pulled my gaze away from his and turned away.
A murmur of displeasure seemed to roll through the crowd.
I refocused, looking for the cause of the change, and found nothing amiss. Those who were murmuring to their companions were doing so because Grace and Sam were feeding each other cake with silver forks. Rather than mashing the cake in the face of their new spouse, they were both being respectful. For some reason that rubbed some of their guests the wrong way.
That was not a tradition, it was something that had become a fashion. It was a waste of food, and I think Grace said that she didn’t like having anything on her face. Then I know she gave Sam a look that made him give the rest of us a nasty look, though I have no idea what either of their looks was about.
The newlyweds didn’t seem to notice, or to care, about the mutterings. She was focused on him, and the one look away from her that he ventured was to me.
I gave a small nod and turned to the MC of the evening, who was flirting instead of doing his job.
Except suddenly Gabe was there, hands in his pockets, looming over the man and talking at him. There was a look to Gabe that spoke of his annoyance, but he was otherwise relaxed and ready for anything.
If he could have had his way, Gabe would have been doing that work himself. He had a love of all things musical, and Sam had been willing to give that to him. Grace, however, had said no because Gabe was part of the wedding party and if he was doing the music and introductions, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the party.
Which meant that Gabe was especially annoyed anytime a mistake was made, and was there instantly to make corrections.
The MC moved immediately for his microphone.
Gabe wandered off, and I turned to offer my arm to Sera.
“So… you guys aren’t brothers,” Sera said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
We told all the mortals that we were brothers. There had been a few awkward conversations, but no one had pushed it beyond that first question. I turned slowly to Sera as she continued to look out over the guests. She ignored me for a moment before she turned and smiled just slightly.
“My ability to read people has paid for my flat, my bills, and all the rest,” she said. “None of you are brothers in a biblical sense.”
“Biblical?” I asked.
Because I knew it was going somewhere, that Sera had a point to make. I also had an idea as to what she wanted to suggest given the ‘biblical’ choice of words. In the same moment, I was hoping to talk her out of it. Women saw us together and got dirty ideas. I got that, I understood where they might be coming from.
Woman-on-woman pornography was the closest thing to get a stir out of me on Earth. I had been told that there was something about a suggested and strong connection that could get a motor running for a woman.
“You might have been raised by the same man, but you aren’t related, and none of you sees each other as a brother,” Sera added. “There’s a great deal of respect, but there’s not that something that siblings have. You’re more like the army guys from the same platoon.”
She was definitely coming off as a woman who appreciated a deep connection.
I’d like to give her a deep connection.
The thought startled me out of all other thought. I found myself staring at Sera, fighting the urge to run away screaming because that idea had never entered my head before. I struggled to come up with something to say.
“Why are you explaining my relationship to my brothers to me?” I asked.
Sera reached out with two hands and plucked up a glass of wine in both as a server walked by with his tray. She turned and handed one to me with a smile.
White wine because something about that was linked to weddings in Lilly’s mind. She insisted on white wine and no red whatsoever. I knew it was what Grace drank, only very occasionally dabbling with red.
I preferred red wine, having a strong dislike for white, but I still sipped from the glass and refused to grimace as Sera’s smile grew wider.
“So, brothers who aren’t brothers,” she said. “That sounds complicated.”
“Sounds like you have a point to make,” I said.
We had accidentally circled back to the topic I had been hoping to avoid. At least if I could get her to admit it out loud, I might have a better chance of talking her out of it.
“Just checking, really,” she said.
With a shrug and a slight eyebrow raise as she sipped her wine and looked away. Barely hiding the way her lips somehow curled ever higher in that growing smile.
“Oh?” I asked.
I, in response, slipped a hand into my pocket as I raised my glass and sipped the wine once more. It might be difficult to stomach white wine, but I would put up with it if only to get some alcohol into me. To pretend that we were both enjoying the wedding because it was a nice party and that I wasn’t anxious about what she might be about to suggest.
“I like threesomes where I’m the center of attention,” Sera said.
I made a sound and sipped my wine without a comment. I knew that she was watching me, but I chose to keep my eyes roving over the floor.
There it was, the magnanimous craving finally spilled out into the world. She expected me to be judgemental, or to leap at the chance. I kept myself quiet, without letting on the fact that I was silently screaming inside because that was not what I was capable of doing.
I was having strange flashes and cravings for this woman. I did not want to share her with another man. All I wanted was to hide in a closet somewhere and figure out what I was really feeling, and why I was feeling that way.
“I wouldn’t charge extra,” she said.
“I would hope you didn’t charge others for extras you tossed in,” I murmured. “Shall we mingle?”
“Is that the mayor?” Sera asked. “Oh, please, can we not go over there?”
“Why?” I asked.
“I turned down escorting her a couple of months ago. Now she’s basically on a rampage when it comes to anything about me.”
I slipped my hand down Sera’s back, settling on the small of it just above her hips. Then I propelled her forward as she attempted to hiss at me. But I kept my hand firm like stone as I pushed her right into the path of the mayor.
Whose eyes went wide at Sera, before she turned on me as if to accuse me of something, and then spotted who was pushing Sera forward. The mayor’s features fell, and her eyes went to the floor, but only for a moment.
She knew me, she knew who I was and my reputation. Hell, she had tried to bed me on more than one occasion.
I saw that little twitch. Almost hopeful in nature, until she glanced back up at me and realized which of the Angelicas was standing before her.
“I hear you know my date,” I said.
“Mike,” Sera hissed at me.
“What?” I asked her, then turned to the mayor. “Sera here has spoken highly of your support of education.”
“That’s a senator who controls that,” Sera hissed at me.
&nbs
p; “No, open libraries, reading initiatives… as puny as a mayor may seem, they have a great deal of control over education,” I said to Sera before I turned to the mayor. “Don’t you?”
“I am in the midst of voting on the location for a new library,” she said with a fractured smile.
“I know you are,” I said. “And a park, aren’t you? Going to introduce a centralized, large park over that lot, instead of turning it into a parking lot?”
I could say a lot of things about the mayor, but a complete idiot wasn’t one of them. Sera might not have quite understood what I was doing as it was happening, but if she did know, she played along nicely. If the mayor didn’t play along, I’d make it known that she had attempted to purchase the services of a female stripper, and then had acted like a catty little bitch when she had been turned down.
Knowing the mayor, I could guess at what else Sera wasn’t mentioning. Stalking, creepy bodyguard behaviour and the like.
“I believe that is on my desk at the moment, yes,” she said, that smile showing off her teeth in a threatening manner.
“Good to hear,” I said.
Then I turned, pulling Sera with me. I said absolutely nothing as she continued to hiss at me, that wine glass rising to cover her lips as she said something very untoward about my mother. We were on the dance floor before I pulled my hand away from her and raised my wine glass as she turned on me and, while maintaining a relaxed form, looked me up and down.
“Are you mad?” she asked.
“No, just fed up with her half promises, and wanted a library and a park.”
“Why both of those things?”
“I like parks.”
“And the library?”
I shrugged. “I like parks, they seem to go well with libraries, so why not?”
“You’re so strange,” Sera muttered, her eyes narrowing as she looked me up and down.
I made a little sound at the back of my throat and turned her towards the dessert tables. With a motion to the table, I pulled her toward the table.
We feasted in honour of my brother. We drank the wine and took advantage of his hospitality. We conversed, laughed, rubbed elbows as it were, with the rich and famous of the city. Not a few of who recognized Sera.