She was right. She had caused a traffic backup bad enough the cops showed up to make her take the stupid thing down. But I didn’t want any more attention. It was bad enough I was out in the world without hiding my true nature behind glamor. Orson refused to let me use my glamor at work, on threat of termination. He loved the way humans responded to my ‘cute’ pointed ears and canines, garnering him an increase in business from the human sector.
“Hey, Morgan.”
I glanced up at her from my lunch. “Sorry, were you talking to me?”
“No, but I know where your head just went." I believed her. Pen was my best friend for a reason. "You can always come stay with me. Glamor it all up, so you look like a tall blonde and stay over until you figure out what to do about getting some and forgetting whatever that last guy’s name was.”
“I’m fine, Pen.”
“Oh, you’re fine. Good. It’s ladies’ night at Lush, and Gamble’s getting his bad boys out of county right now. We’re going to the strip club, and you’re not saying no.”
“No.”
“Or you can go home and feel sorry for yourself and cry about what’s his stupid fuckface.” One of my favorite things about Penelope is her eloquence, and she did not let me down.
“Strip club it is.” I agreed.
Zenith. Zenith Coldheart (my name for him, he went by Zenith Greenman). He was a literal green man, a fae with powers of growing things kind of like me. But as good as the sex had been, he’d been increasingly irritated by the fact that my magic was stronger than his. Chauvinism won. He decided that my ‘mixed blood’ was weakening him and left for a human, who would never be able to show him up.
It was utter bullshit, and he and I both knew it. Therefore, I also knew better than to tell Penelope about the sterling silver money clip I’d bought on impulse. It was in the shape of a leaf, with jade dew drops near the pointed end. I should’ve thrown it away, or at least sold it. But, it would probably stay at the bottom of the drawer with the birthday card I’d been saving since it caught my eye, and the pictures we’d taken together at Knott's Berry Farm. Sometimes, it’s the little things that hang you up, I guess.
Chapter 2
Puck called out a greeting to someone entering the lobby and Gamble, local club mogul and snake-charmer called out a reply. Shit. I rinsed my lunch bowl and set it in the rack to dry as Penelope headed out to greet the Fae. I checked my watch, hoping that Orson hadn’t noticed I wasn’t returning.
Puck ducked his head in and shot me a goofy grin. “The boss wants you to work up some files on Mr. Gamble. I guess there was a sting at his new club last night.”
Great. “Puck, if he gets within arm’s reach, I’m gonna punch him in the throat. Ever since he won an award for his economic contributions to the Fae and shifter cooperative, he’d gone from irritating to fucking unlivable.”
Puck snickered and shrugged. “Boss says, Mo. Shake the lead out.”
“I hate you.”
“No, you don’t. You love me. Thanks for the sugar cookies by the way. They made me homesick.”
Puck was at least a decade older than me but looked like he was on the tail end of puberty. When he said “homesick,” I could easily believe him. Especially since I’d met his mom a few months before. I’d be homesick for her and her cookies too.
He disappeared, the door swinging gently behind him. I tidied the breakroom for a minute, hoping when I got to my desk, Penelope would be helping Gamble, and I'd be off the hook.
I stuck my head out into the small hall between the break room and glanced out toward my desk. Damnit. Gamble was perched on the corner of my desk, talking to Orson. One brown leather designer loafer swung slowly as he laughed with my boss. Heart sinking, I plodded toward them, shooting Orson dirty looks behind Gamble’s back.
"Morgan, SFPD is making life difficult for Gamble. File these three bonds, and we'll get his dancers back on the stage."
Gamble turned to face me, sliding off the desk in a smooth, graceful motion I could never have managed. The corners of his mouth turned up in a sexy smirk that made me want to slap his face, mostly because of the heat he stirred low in my body.
“Can’t you stay out of trouble, Powers?” I used the last name he’d chosen for himself to put distance between us, but also because his sneer brightened into a real smile at hearing it. I’d helped him get the power back that brought him out of the shadows and back into the world, and I was glad to have done it. But he’d been a serious temptation without his seduction magic. With it, he was just plain dangerous.
“Normally I tell my boys and girls to follow the rules, but the way you’ve been avoiding me, how else am I going to see you?”
I brought up the charges and the required bail and scoffed. “Hope it was worth it to you. Here’s your bill.” I slid the printout across the desk to him without calling out the number out of habit.
“Gods. I’m afraid to look now. You can’t even say it, huh?”
I snorted and coughed out a laugh. "I never say them aloud. Geez. Not everyone has your money, Gamble." He kept staring at me, and I sighed and glanced at my computer. "Five-thousand-four-hundred-eighty, or broken down, about thirteen hundred for each of the four."
“Oh. That’s not so bad. I'll have enough left to take you to dinner." He pulled a slender checkbook out of his inside jacket pocket. "Orson is willing to take a business check, right?"
“Keep your money, I’ve given up dinner for Lent. And yes, Orson will take checks from you, as long as this one doesn’t bounce. He doesn’t give second chances, not even to you.”
He sighed and filled out the check, leaning over the desk, so I could see a long line of pale chest down the font of his navy silk shirt.
Stop fucking looking at him. He’s going to notice and then you’ll never live it down.
“You all right, Morgan?” Flustered, I made the mistake of looking up at his lascivious grin.
“Shut up, Gamble.” Almost an afterthought, I grabbed a four-inch chocolate Santa out of my basket of goodies and thrust it at him. “Give me the check, take your chocolate, and go.”
He accepted the chocolate much more graciously than I’d offered it. “You give out chocolate with each bond?”
“No, I was getting in the Solstice, er Christmas spirit. I’m sure you haven’t noticed, but I’ve felt a little down lately.”
He scoffed and came around the desk. I pushed back with my chair and stood to put more distance between us, but he closed that in two long-legged steps and tucked his fingers under my chin, bringing him within reach of a kiss. It wouldn't have been our first, but my pulse hammered away, and I prayed Orson interrupted
“You’re right, of course. The daffodils that I had sent to you months out of season, the birthday stripper,”
“It wasn’t even close to my birthday.”
“The non-birthday stripper I sent just to make you laugh…” He stroked my cheek and sighed, then moved back before I could argue. “I’m sorry you’re sad, Princess.” He was the only one who got away with calling me that in unofficial conversations, frankly because I was concerned about what else he’d come up with if I forbade him from using it.
“Thank you for your concern, Gamble. Your efforts did not go unnoticed. But I do have to get back to work, even if only to file these for you and get your guys out of county.”
He gave a small bow, managing to look every bit an exotic dancer, even in Armani. I tucked his check into the deposit bag and locked it in the small safe in my drawer. It took all my effort to keep my eyes averted as he left. It was worrisome not to know if it was just his amazing body that made it hard not to watch him, or his seductive powers are overwhelming me. If it was the latter, he was even more dangerous than we knew, and something would have to be done to prevent him from harming the humans he chose to live among.
“You did right, sending him packing, Mo.”
I glanced up at Orson. “Well, I’m at work, and I’m not in the market for what he�
��s selling.”
He nodded and rubbed his jaw as he thought. “He brings in good money, but you’re better for business than he is. If he won’t leave you alone, just tell him to fuck off for good. We’ll still get customers. Hell, everyone wants to say they did business with the estranged Fae princess.
Good old Orson. His avarice was actually one of his better qualities. I could only imagine what his advice would have been if I didn’t have the possibility of a future Fairy crown to leverage.
“Thanks, Boss. That said, I’m over this day. I looked over my shoulder at Penelope. “Meet you here with a trench coat to cover up whatever mesh getup I know you’ll be wearing? Please, just put a bra on this time, I don’t want to have to shoot anyone tonight.”
She stuck her tongue out at me, and I laughed aloud, grabbing my purse and walking past my still gaping boss. Pen was my best friend and greatest advocate. She knew the truth. If anyone messed with her, ever, I’d be only too happy to shoot a kneecap or two.
Chapter 3
Penelope’s idea of a lady’s night was a hell of a lot more exciting than mine. For one, it damn near required leather clothing of some kind, and if not leather, mesh. She usually went with leather and mesh. Being a little more conservative, I stuck with the safe bet. A leather mini-skirt Pen had bought me for my birthday, and a loose, silky halter top that hugged my hips, no bra needed.
Knee-high gogo boots completed my outfit, and since I was off the clock, I used glamor to instantly tint my hair a deep royal purple, the color favored by the Seelie court for the season.
It was nine o’clock, early by clubbing standards when we found ourselves in the impossibly long line of women and men waiting to get into ‘Lush’ Gamble’s strip club. “Are all strip clubs this popular?”
Pen shook her head and curled her lip in irritation. “Word is Gamble leveraged all his power into this. Mass seduction, who would’ve thought it would be profitable?”
“Gamble would. I wouldn’t be surprised if Orson was a silent partner, either, with how much time they’ve been spending together.”
Penelope laughed. “Let’s just hope it’s a silent partner because if I wait this long to get in, and the first thing I see is my boss in a thong, I'm done."
Brandt, one of Gamble's longtime guards, was handling the door. On a hunch, I waved him down, calling out a hello. As soon as he saw us, his severe demeanor changed. He pulled us out of line and gave me a bear hug before ushering us through the door.
“Were we expected?” Pen asked as we made our way past the coat check.
“Brandt knows we work for Orson. His name was on the list I processed a couple of days ago. He knows who got him out of lockup.” Penelope had the cool bounty hunter title, but from behind my desk, I got to know everybody’s secrets, not just the skips’.
She patted my ass in an ‘atta-girl’ and pointed at an empty table toward the front. “If we wait here, maybe Gamble will come say hi.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” I pointed toward the stage. “He’s a little busy right now. Gamble was dancing in a silver thong, gyrating on the stage as men and women alike watched, mesmerized.
He climbed the pole next to him and slowly lifted himself horizontal to it, the muscles of his arms and stomach taught, straining to hold him. He lowered himself just as slowly, with outrageous control, and Pen muttered something like a prayer next to me.
I felt his eyes on me as the music changed and he dropped to all fours, crawling towards the edge of the stage, my pulse quickening and my mouth sandy as he dipped his head, then threw it back and tore the thong off. He stayed on his knees, hands thrown up to the ceiling as bills showered the stage.
I saw his lips move, and cries of ecstasy sounded through the club as women and men alike succumbed to his power. I clutched Penelope’s hand, casting a warding spell to protect her, but she just raised an eyebrow at me and patted my hand like she was comforting me.
The music pounded through my chest as he continued to dance. “This was a bad idea,” I began to say, but at that moment, his eyes met mine again, and my throat closed over.
Pen dragged me to a seat, and I buried my face in my arms, horrified that he’d seen me staring at him like every other human in the club had. Like he was a god. But then, I knew something they didn’t. Once Gamble had been worshipped by humans seeking fertility, in their fields and in their beds. He knew the power that came from that kind of belief, and he was exploiting it in every human who passed through his doors.
It was a very dark grey area ethically, too close to mind control for comfort. And it was probably something the police at least suspected, prompting their frequent undercover visits to his show.
“We have to go. He saw me staring. He’ll come over, and say something terrible and inappropriate,” I muttered to her. “Come on.”
But before I could stand, a silver thong stretched tight across narrow hips appeared in my line of sight. “You finally came to see me at work, Beautiful. I’m flattered.”
I glared at him, but his grin only widened. “Fancy a dance?”
“Yes,” Penelope blurted before I could cut him down. “Here’s a fifty. You two go get it the hell out of your systems. I’ll get myself a beer.”
Gamble tucked the bill into a small pouch on his hip, the same silver as the thong, but an addition added after his set. He took my hand and led me to a private booth, straddling me as I sat and shrank back against the wall behind me.
“We don’t have to do this, I just came to have a drink and hang out with a friend.”
“We’re friends, aren’t we?” He rocked his hips an inch from my legs, and heat exploded in my face.
“You being the guy who hires criminals he’s constantly having to bail out of jail does not make us friends,” I retorted.
He dipped back, so I was looking up the long line of defined muscles, then he dropped between my knees and slid up my body without a word, his eyes never leaving mine. His fingers skimmed my hips, never touching my skin, but making me feel for all the world like I was naked under him, just the same.
I muttered a spell, strengthening my wavering wards against incubus magic. But he just dipped lower, his body sliding over mine, my nipples tightening and pressing against the fabric until even in the dark he couldn’t miss the hard points directed at him. All thought disappeared from my head, the careful wards I kept between me and everyone else shook and faltered.
“It’s too much. I can’t think.” His chest was so close to my lips if I stuck my tongue out, I’d touch it. I had no sooner thought it than he was pressed to my mouth and I reacted, kissing his bare nipple, and pulling it between my lips.
The skin to skin contact broke what remained of my concentration, and my skin began to glow in response to him. He gasped and started to pull away, but I clutched at him and tangled his legs with mine, grinding on him as he pulled my hair back, forcing my mouth to his.
I felt the glow brighten, bright even behind my closed eyelids then out, like a shock wave, through the booth and the club. “Gods, I’m sorry,” I panted, pulling away. But the magic was already released. The glow brightened between us, and he pulled me against him again, his erection so hard between my legs I thought he’d push through the thin layers of cloth between us like they were nothing.
My climax was magical, not physical, but it rocked us both and rippled through the club in a second, stronger wave. Gamble stared at me in shock, then pulled back the privacy curtain slowly. “Oh shit. What the hell did we just do?”
Women clambered onto the stage as bouncers tried to keep the dancers and the audience separate, men and women made out indiscriminately, and Penelope sat in the middle of it, drinking her beer, calmly.
“They’re all human. Shit.” The workers were immune to the magic we’d released, but the humans were under its thrall until they climaxed, or it wore off. “I am so sorry, Gamble.”
“Get out. Use the back door. If the cops arrive, which they probably will, you cann
ot be here. I’ll meet you in an hour.”
“If you don’t get arrested.”
He laughed. “I won’t. I never do.”
I couldn’t make myself think of how he managed that. Because if I admitted it to myself, I’d have to consider that what just happened, was a seduction Fae breaking down my defenses like they were made of paper. Nope, I wasn’t going to think it. At least not until my knees stopped quivering and my blood resumed its normal pace through my body.
Chapter 4
I paced the walkway outside my apartment, waiting. The larger part of me knew he wouldn’t come, that he couldn’t possibly have my phone number, let alone my address. But just enough of me was afraid that I was wrong, that I couldn’t make myself go up to my apartment.
Because if I let him in there, I might not be able to make him leave. Once he was inside my strongest wards, what would be left to protect me from him? Still, it was hard to ignore my disappointment when after an hour, there was no text or call.
The building was quiet, my neighbors either in for the night or not yet home. I snuck past old Mrs. McMurphy, grateful her cadre of Pomeranians didn’t hear me and wake the building. We’d been neighbors on different floors until I started dating my next-door neighbor, Zenith Greenman.
After he’d decided I wasn’t a good fit for his image, I'd realized living next to him wasn't an option. But serendipity was in my favor, and I moved up one floor to a larger, renovated unit, available at the same low price due to a death.
I’d cleansed the space of spirits and moved in the day it was emptied by the poor old man’s children. Now I lived on a floor inhabited almost entirely by the post-retirement set, who used the original elevator that didn’t stop on any other floor.
It was quiet and private, and for the most part, my neighbors didn’t want to have anything to do with the young girl on the floor. All except Mrs. McMurphy, who loved to knock on my door with store bought cookies in hand and invite herself to tea.
Such Violent Delights: A Holiday Paranormal Romance Anthology Page 32