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Camila leaned back in her chair with a small smile on her lips. She was watching the smug expression on his face. “You certainly have a surplus of self-confidence. It’s too bad that’s not all that’s required. You have to be able to play well with others.” She sighed because Carl’s smile was being replaced with a look of annoyance. “This is what I’m talking about. When people tell you the truth, you’ll need to be able to recognize it and appreciate it. We’re all at risk at the moment with the strange events occurring all over the globe. Now, more than at any other time in history, we need to be treading lightly and cooperating with each other. Have you watched the news recently? Attention is being focused on things that should not be seen. And you want to start a turf war in one of Earth’s most populous cities?” She threw him a disappointed look.
He hit the tabletop with a big fist, and conversation died off around them.
He kept his voice low, but there was a definite edge of suppressed rage. “I give you the courtesy of assuring you that your business will not only be protected against disruptions in your security arrangements but will be enhanced by the services of our law office, and you treat me like some country bumpkin? The arrogance–”
Camila leaned forward and held his eyes as she spoke calmly. “You’re busy empire building during a global security crisis, and you say I’m arrogant? I’m just giving you the courtesy of advising you how badly timed this initiative is and how poorly viewed it will be with the Hidden Races Council.”
Before he could explode, she hit him with another verbal jab. “As for the services of your law office, here’s a hypothetical question for you. Let’s imagine that we did take on your law firm for VRL’s external legal counsel. Then one of our employees is cheated on a deal he made with, let’s say, Queen Mab. How would you proceed with getting compensation for this employee?
Carl snorted at her outrageous hypothetical scenario. “You have your company compensate the employee if you believe the idiot deserved it, warn them never to deal with the Fae again, and they get to live. You don’t sue Queen Mab.”
Camila smiled. “The counsel we hired, Mahati Chandra, filed against Queen Mab in the Fae Court… and won. Mab is no longer Queen of the Fae.”
Carl stared at her, then burst into laughter. When he finally recovered, he smiled indulgently at her. “You really blew your credibility with that last statement.”
Camila simply waited with a slight smile on her lips. She saw Carl’s grin slowly fade as his mind sifted through her words. Finally, he had a question. “Chandra? As in Indrani Chandra?”
“Mahati is her daughter. She’s a very gifted litigator,” Camila explained with a proud smile.
Carl’s expression quickly returned to a scowl. “I still don’t buy for a second–”
“Speak to any Fae. Ask them who their Queen is. None will speak Mab’s name. She no longer exists for them.” She gave his belligerent expression another look of disappointment.
“I suspected this meeting would be about a territory grab, and I’d hoped to convince you of its bad timing, but I can see your mind is set on this reckless course.” She held his eyes. “None of it matters. You won’t take Manhattan. Roy Duncan controls that territory, and you’re not strong enough to take him.” With that, Camila stood and moved to leave.
Carl quickly reached out and grabbed her wrist in a bruising grip with a snarl on his lips. He’d teach this insignificant bitch how strong-
Fire ripped through his cheek, and he reeled back in agony. The next slash struck his arm, and his grip on Camila went loose as she’d cut the tendons in his forearm. She yanked her wrist free and jabbed him in the chest with her other hand, her claws stabbing deep into his lung. Her strike was faster than his eyes could track.
Carl saw one of his crew racing up behind Camila, claws, and fangs extended as he pounced. He knew the woman was dead.
Except she wasn’t there.
Carl’s man hit the table and crumpled to the floor with a spray of blood.
Carl jumped to his feet, staggered back, and knocked his chair over. He looked across the large room and saw three more of his men, prone or struggling to sit up, each bleeding badly from a vicious wound. With a Were’s healing abilities, none of the injuries inflicted were life-threatening, but the fact that someone as low on the food chain as a Succubus took out his men with ease gave him pause. It wasn’t possible for a Succubus to move so quickly, and their claws weren’t capable of inflicting such damage. Something wasn’t right.
Across the restaurant, standing in the doorway, Camila flicked the blood from her claws then returned her fingers to their normal shape. She looked at her bruised wrist then locked eyes with Carl. She shook her head slowly.
Turning, she calmly walked out the door without another glance in his direction.
He looked closer at how she moved, and he finally saw it. She had the confident body language of an apex predator. What was going on at VRL?
Suddenly, the story of Roy becoming an Uber Were no longer seemed ridiculous.
Tish slipped into bed and snuggled up against Henry as the first rays of the sun peeked over the horizon. She was in her faun form, and Henry had dropped his glamor before he’d gone to sleep the night before.
She touched the thick slabs of his chest muscles, then ran her fingers across the firm cage of his stomach. A thrill rushed through her as this gorgeous hunk was sharing her bed almost every night! She wasn’t the least bit jealous of the time he spent with the other women in his life. Some were her friends, and some were his coworkers. She liked all of them.
This morning, he was in bed with her, and though she was tired, she had tingles that needed relief. She needed some Satyr lovin’. She slipped the blankets down and exposed the beast. She was still learning how to make love to Henry in his natural form. He was big down there, and while she was much tougher as a faun, it could still be a struggle.
This morning she was determined! Besides, her doctor said it was still safe.
She’d brought along a tube of lube, and she squeezed out a generous amount, then a little more for good measure. She gently slid her hand up the shaft, leaving a layer of the lube behind. She moved her hand down the other side and then used both hands to massage it over the surface. It was so hot in her hands as blood flowed into his cock. She glanced up and saw his eyes were open, and one eyebrow was lifted as he watched her. She grinned up at him, and he crooked a finger at her to get her to move up the bed.
Tish swung her leg over him and straddled his body, rubbing her wet pussy against his now stiff and well-lubed shaft.
Henry pulled her down so he could kiss her. She did her best not to be distracted by his dreamy kissing, but he still managed to line himself up with her pussy. His hands massaged her ass muscles deliciously until her head was spinning. When he pushed inside, she moaned into the kiss and went limp. This relaxed her muscles, which meant Henry was able to slip more of himself inside. The lube was helping, but the feeling of being full was intense. Thankfully, his big, strong hands on her ass kept her muscles from tensing up. Then she had it all.
“Oh my God, Henry! This is a first!” she chuckled.
“Feels too good!” he moaned, and her eyes went to his face in surprise. She thought she was too close.
“I’m right there too!” she said between her teeth.
“That’s good cuz I don’t think I’m going to last this morning! Nope! Nope, it’s too much!”
Tish clung to him as her body began to shake, crashing her through a beautiful release as she felt Henry’s heat surge into her. Her body felt like it might burst into sparks and tingles as his Wild Magic interacted with her own.
They kissed and rocked against each other slowly as the bliss settled into a delicious buzz in their nerves.
Once Henry had relaxed enough to withdraw easily, Tish slid off his body to cuddle against his side. Now, she felt she could sleep, tingles satisfied.
“Before you fade, we should talk,” he said quietly as he pushed himself up on one elbow. Tish snuggled closer.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.
She groaned. “Tonight?” she begged in a tiny girl’s voice.
He chuckled. “I’ll be out tonight with Sigrid. Going to the Met.”
“Mmmm–okay. Fine. What is it?” she sighed, rolling onto her back.
He looked down at her lovely face. He dipped his face down and kissed her tenderly. She purred, then her eyes opened to look at his sad expression. She was immediately alert. “What is it? What happened?”
“Dayshia and I met, or I should say, saw Roger last night.”
Tish sat up and locked her eyes on him. “Saw? What happened?”
“We were just outside the building. Dayshia said she felt someone watching us. She looked at the bushes across the street, and he jumped up with a scream. Dayshia kept her eyes on him as he ran away, screaming in pain.”
“Pain?”
“I couldn’t see what she was doing, but Dayshia chased him off… with her eyes. Afterward, she said she felt him watching us with malicious intent. She felt him about to attack us.” He shook his head. “I don’t know how her abilities work, but she was intensely serious last night.”
“How did he look?” she asked, but Henry just shook his head.
“My vision isn’t as good as yours. I couldn’t see in the shadows. When he ran away, I thought I saw what looked like long claws on his fingers, which seems more likely than he was carrying a bunch of knives.”
“So, he really was going to attack.”
Henry nodded. “That’s how it felt. Dayshia seemed to be acting on instinct. She grabbed my hand and pulled on my magic when she… was doing whatever it was she was doing to Roger. He certainly didn’t like it.”
Tish gave Henry a bright smile and chuckled. “Dayshia used magic?”
He nodded with a smile of his own, then he looked apologetic. “Sorry to drop this news on you as you’re about to go to sleep.”
Tish shook her head. “No, I’m glad you told me. Besides, it’s no worse than my waking you early for a tumble in the sheets.”
Henry’s mind flashed back to the previous time he heard that phrase. Siobhan said it… just last night. He pulled himself back from his memories. He hoped she was okay today.
“No, being woken up early is much, much worse,” he said.
Tish glanced at him in surprise as he’d said it so seriously. He cracked a little smile.
“You’re so mean!” she growled as she pushed at his big body. She glanced at the clock and saw it was time for him to get up anyway. “Time for you to go to work!” she said with a pout.
He kissed her resisting lips until she was kissing him eagerly. Then he pulled back and rolled out of bed. He switched to his glamor, so she got an eyeful of his naked ass as he walked over to the bathroom to take a shower.
Tish watched him hungrily, her tingles back from his kissing. Throwing the sheets aside, she hustled over to the bathroom and switched to her own Human glamor to share the shower with him.
He had to take responsibility for these new tingles too.