Natural Consequences (17 page)

“
Oh, shut up, we’re not any better.”

“It wasn’t about
the time,” Alex shook his head.

“
I’d like to talk directly to Lorelei and Rachel about it eventually, just for the sake of open communication and peace of mind,” Onyx said. “But as it stands, they’ve already given their blessing, right?”

“
Yes,” Alex nodded. “They both take for granted that a closed relationship isn’t really in the cards. I’m the one looking for a way to keep myself in check.”

Onyx gave a little sidelong nod. “Here to help you, buddy.” Then she gave him a warning look. “But not tonight, so don’t get any ideas.”

He couldn’t help but grin. “You’re sure?”

“You’ve still got time to serve out in the penalty box. I’ll take my arousal out on her when we get home, thank you very much,” she said, jerking her thumb at Molly, who smiled eagerly. Finally her expressi
on softened. “We missed you. It’s not just the flirting or whatever. We don’t
have
other friends who know the truth about us. We even missed just having you in photography class. Molly and I talked this out a lot. We want a good guy we can get crazy with once in a while, and we like you. Can we not do this again?”

“I can’t promise I won’t try to seduce you both all the time
,” Alex warned with a grin. “In fact I can promise pretty much the opposite.”

“Oh no. Not that.”

Alex moved closer then, slipping his arms around her and holding her close. “No ideas tonight,” she said into his shoulder, sniffling a bit. “Penalty box.”

“Okay,” Alex agreed, releasing her. “What about Molly? Can we—?”

“Yes!” Molly burst, playfully jumping onto his lap.

“No!” Onyx snapped, smacking her on the shoulder.

“Dammit!” Molly grumbled.

“Bad lesbian!” accused her girlfriend.

“We’re not
entirely
lesbians,” Molly grumbled further. She released her hold on him, but pointed to him, then to herself, and gave an openly lecherous “aw yeah” nod before she sat down beside her lover opposite Alex.

“So Lorelei said she didn’t call you over to make this happen?”
he asked.

“
She seems like the type to have a layered agenda,” Onyx mused.

“She is,” Alex nodded. “It’s true.”

“She wanted to hire us for a job,” Molly explained. “Security stuff. She told us about your stalker problem and how she wants to make sure this place safe for the two of you. Three of you. Whatever,” she smirked. “I still wanna hang out with your angel sometime, if she’s not pissed at us.”

“I’m a little
scared of how well you two might hit it off,” Alex said. “What are you gonna do to the apartment?”

“Defenses and wards and stuff,” Onyx asked. “
We’ve done the same for our home, but we couldn’t afford to do it all at once. Lorelei wants the whole nine yards.”

“Well, thank you both,” said Alex. “I wouldn’t have thought of this.”

“You’re not a demon,” shrugged Molly. “If we’d known you had trouble, we’d have come over to do it for free. Except for the materials, anyway.”

“No, if this is work, it’s work,” Alex shook his head. The thought made him curious. “Um. What’s the rate for magic, anyway? You guys have a union
wage or something?”

“We sorta
destroyed most of what amounted to a sorcerers’ union around here, remember?” Onyx smirked. “Anyway, no. Your girlfriend suggested it was at least as valuable as hiring a good lawyer and offered comparable rates,” she explained, and more or less gritted her teeth while glancing at Molly as she added, “and we’re gonna shut up and take the money and say thank you.”

“Is that a fair rate? I mean I can’t imagine there are anywhere near as many, uh, sorcerers as there are lawyers.”

“Witches, Alex,” Molly corrected. “We’re witches. And yeah, maybe we’re not so common, but you know how when you close your eyes you see a whole big black nothing? That’s about as much money as we’ve ever made on our magic. Lawyer money sounds pretty good to us.”

“Especially as she’s talking about keeping us on retainer.”

“So… that’s not gonna be weird, what with us--?”

“Alex, do you want your home
security set up by two skilled witches?”

“Yes.”

“You still hoping to sleep with them?”

“Yes.”

“Then shut up,” Onyx told him, and reached up to give him a brief, soft kiss on the lips. “Now. Full disclosure, okay?”

“Okay…?”

“Tell us about the dreams.”

*   *   *

“Yup. Seventeenth floor. Not the penthouse, but close. I don’t know what the market’s like in this town, but no way did that go for less than three mil. Whoever decorated it has nice taste, too.”

“Colleen, where the hell did you even go?”

She chuckled at the perfectly clear tone of exasperation over her earpiece. “I’m in the tower across the street,” she said, keeping her camera up to her eyes. She stood at the window of a completely dark office, watching her subject with interest.

“Wait, most of those floors are dark!” Doug burst. “How did you get in there?”

“Stick with me, kid,” Colleen said. “I’ll teach you all you need to know.”

“I’ve been
trying
to stick with you,” he grumbled.

“Keep trying. I have faith.”

“How’d you find which floor they’re on? The resident entrance is locked up from the outside. We can’t even get to a directory or the mailboxes.”

“I just started looking and ignored the windows with the drapes pulled. I got lucky and found one with two brand new bouquets of roses on the kitchen counter.”

“Anything interesting going on there?”

“Yeah,” Colleen murmured. “He’s got some very friendly female company, but neither of them are that Lorelei woman. I think they’re about to leave, actually. I’m gonna stay up here for now and keep watch. You get ready to follow. We’ve got two girls
: one redheaded punk-type, the other’s some Goth princess. Can you tail them?”

“Uh. I don’t think so, no.”

“Why not?” Colleen asked urgently. “What’s wrong?”

“I think I’m being towed.”

She sighed. “Better handle it quick.” She kept her eyes on the apartment through the camera lens, watching the two young women collect coats and shuffle through a lingering farewell. Carlisle and his guests were plainly fond of one another and flirty—and then joined by a third woman.

“Huh,” Colleen murmured. She knew now what Amber had meant about Lorelei’s physical appearance. A woman with that face, that body and even a shred of acting talent could make a fortune in Hollywood.

Carlisle seemed too young for her. That much was obvious. He was good looking, sure. In decent shape. But her posture, her elegant stride, that sleek blue dress just didn’t match with the community college kid in jeans by her side.

The other two women accepted her chaste kisses on the cheek as they left. Colleen’s eyebrow
went up, though, as the redhead kissed Carlisle full on the mouth, and then her brow rose as far as it could when the other girl followed suit. He seemed only a little surprised. Were they the recipients of the roses?

No. No, they’re leaving
, she thought
. Nobody’s even giving the roses a glance. He’s holding the door for them, nice guy, we’re all friends or maybe a little more than just friends here. Goodbye, goodbye, okay, now we’re all alone and—wow.

Colleen all but froze as she watched Carlisle and Lorelei slip together, wrap their arms around one another, and kiss like they’d been waiting for it for weeks. She watched them grow fiercer and hungrier. Lorelei took hold of his t-shirt at the neck and tore it right down the middle.

He wasn’t brawny, but he was clearly fit and had great definition in those muscles. Though he didn’t do any tearing, Carlisle wrenched Lorelei’s dress off as if greedily unwrapping a present. He got just rough enough with her that an onlooker might grow concerned, but for the way Lorelei initiated this and the smile that grew under the locks of her hair as he shoved her against the wall, groping her freely and burying his face in her neck.

For all the strength she’d just shown, Lorelei all but hung from his shoulders. Colleen watched as Carlisle manhandled her against the door. One hand pushed her dress down over her shapely hips. The other seemed to claim one of her breasts, causing her to tilt her head back and breathe heavily. Colleen saw hints of a garter and stockings as the dress fell away, but her view wasn’t perfect.

The phone vibrated. Colleen all but jumped. She blinked away her reverie and keyed the earpiece again. “I’m here,” she said, and had to repeat it again because her voice shook.

“It’s Hauser. What’ve we got?”

“I’ve got Carlisle and I’m pretty sure Lorelei. Long as they stay in the living room, anyway.”

“Got some pictures?”

Pictures! Right! “Yeah, we’re good,” Colleen said. She captured a few more images of the two kissing, then remembered she needed facial shots. She waited for them to part and was soon rewarded.

She remembered the first time her husband looked at her like that.

“…gonna have a briefing as soon as we hear back from Maddox,” Hauser said, or at least that’s what she thought he said. Colleen remained somewhat distracted. Lorelei stepped back from Alex, gave Colleen a couple of good shots of her face… and then unfastened Carlisle’s pants. Somewhere in the mix, he’d already lost his shoes.

“Boss, I gotta go,” Colleen said, entirely because his voice was ruining the moment.

Carlisle’s hands fell to Lorelei’s hips. He pulled the drawstrings on her panties and let them fall at their feet. Lorelei said something flirtatious and taunting that Colleen couldn’t read on her lips. They stared at one another for a heartbeat, and then Alex swept her around him to bend her over the couch. Once more, Lorelei grinned eagerly through what might otherwise have been much too rough. Colleen had just a brief full view of Alex from the front before he pressed in behind Lorelei. He claimed a fistful of her hair, drawing her back toward him.

Colleen couldn’t see the moment of penetration from this angle, of course, but she could read it in the ecstasy on Lorelei’s face. He had Lorelei wildly turned on.

She wasn’t the only one.

Colleen pulled her cell phone from her pocket, keyed two buttons, and waited.

“Hello?”

“Don?” she asked.

“Hey, Colleen, how are you? I didn’t expect to hear from you after it got past—“

“Don, I need you to do something for me. It’s important. You love me, Don?”

“I—you know I do, Colleen. What’s wrong?”

Colleen’s mouth quivered as the couple across the street picked up the pace of their rutting. She couldn’t hear anything, but she saw Lorelei cry out under the power of her possessive lover. Carlisle clearly had some technique. Hearing her husband’s strong, confident voice only heightened Colleen’s arousal. “I need you to get yourself up to Seattle for the weekend and get a hotel room.”

“Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m fine, Don, but I need you to do this for me.”

“Okay, okay,” her husband assured her, “I will, but what’s wrong? I mean I guess the kids—“

“—are both out of middle school now and they can throw a party and burn the house to the ground for all I care right now, I need you up here,” Colleen said breathlessly.

“Honey, what’s wrong?”

“…I need a man, Don,” she grinned. “I need one real bad.”

*   *   *

Dinner provided only the briefest of interruptions. It led to a cooling off period of coy smiles and good-natured frustration, but not a single spoken acknowledgement of what had preceded it. They came up with side dishes quickly. Sorted out their meals. Discussed the relative merits of
different Starfleet captains. Cleaned up. Shared a questioning look.

And then found themselves intertwined on the futon again.

His hands drifted across her shoulders, her back and her sides. His fingers slipped under her shirt occasionally, or across her bared waist, but never more than that. Amber remained slightly more chaste, satisfied with this much and unwilling to encourage more for many reasons.

Jason’s fingers eventually began to run through her hair, trailing gently across her scalp. She let out an approving purr.

“You have no idea how many points you’ve racked up today,” she smiled. “Tonight. Whichever.”

“What’d I do?” he asked innocently.

“It’s what you haven’t done.”

“Oh. Huh. Y’know, I actually thought about goin’ for your bra before, but I don’t think I can manage that one-handed. My arm fell asleep about twenty minutes ago,” he joked.

She let out a snicker. “Can’t have that,” she said, nudging him around until she lay on her back and he mostly on his side. “Problem with cuddling on a couch is there’s usually only room for three arms at the most. Someone’s always got the superfluous limb with nowhere to go.”