“I can tell,” she grinned. “I like you, too.” They were silent, looking at one another for a long moment before she finally said, “What I’m saying is sitting here in my car is going to get old, but we can’t go back to my place.”
“We could go to mine. I’m one of those dorks who lives at home with his mom, though.”
“Whatever. You’re a year out of high school. I’m only living away from home by virtue of luck and having someone else to lean on.”
“Point being, we could have my place to ourselves for at least a few hours.”
Her bright blue eyes drifted away from him. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and heavily, and then turned the car on.
* * *
“Yes, we’ll be happy to make an appraisal,” said the older gentleman. He pulled out measuring tools and placed them on the counter. A dozen diamonds sat on the small felt bag in front of him, professionally cut and gleaming under the shop’s lights.
“Ah,” he stopped, wanting to head off any disappointments, “you understand that as a reseller, what we would provide as an appraisal isn’t necessarily what we offer in exchange? I can tell you a reasonable fair market value, but we can only buy at rates below that.”
Lorelei smiled and nodded patiently. “I understand. I’ll have to hear out your estimate, but I believe cash in hand will likely win out over a long search for a buyer.”
The old jeweler smiled. “Understood. Is there, ahem, documentation with these pieces?”
The succubus leaned in a bit closer, looking at him with the earnest, innocent eyes of several millennia of manipulation and deceit. “Would that be absolutely required? We found these in storage. I’ve simply no idea where the paperwork might be found.”
His cheeks and bald forehead reddened. “Oh, no, Miss, not a requirement. Not necessarily. I’m sure we could, ah, work around that.” He pushed a finger under his collar to give his neck a bit of room. “It just might, as you say, affect the… ah… total appraisal a bit is all.”
Lorelei nodded. She felt a building desire and clear sense of anticipation. Wherever Alex was, it was only getting better. “I understand,” she said, deliberately keeping the tremble from her voice. It was difficult not to ask the man to hurry.
* * *
Fifteen minutes and a few miles later, Alex showed Onyx into his home. She looked around curiously. “Nice place,” she observed.
“Wasn’t always like this,” he said. “I can remember thinking food stamps were pretty neat. Mom’s come a long way.”
“You and your mom are close?”
“Yeah. She doesn’t treat me like a kid much. Unless she’s freaked out, I guess.”
“Must be nice to have a cool parent,” Onyx mused, but plainly wasn’t thinking much on it.
For once, Alex felt confident in his interpretation of body language. He leaned in and kissed her. She kissed back, pulling him toward her until he pushed her back up against the door. Onyx tugged at his shirt, her face turned up into his while his hands softly trailed down her curly black hair to the small of her back.
Instinct warned him to be gentle with her. Her kiss and her body felt delicate and needful yet with an innocence that seemed completely out of place with everything he’d learned of her.
Onyx had a girlfriend. Lived with her. Things were serious. She was a little older at a time in life when even a little could mean a lot. Her image was a carefully constructed blend of dark, foreboding colors and mysterious allure. She had to know how pretty and sexy she was. Had to be much more worldly than him, even after this last crazy week.
Yet if she had told him as they kissed that she had never been with anyone else before this, he’d have believed her.
That kiss lasted a long time. They embraced closely but softly up against the door, cuddling as much as anything. Both of them released a breath pregnant with tension and excitement.
“I’ve wanted to do that since the first time I saw you,” Alex murmured.
Onyx’s eyes glittered up at him. “This is special.”
“Yeah.”
She inhaled, being bold once again. Onyx said, ever so quietly, “Don’t take me to a couch if we’re just going to wind up moving to your bed.”
* * *
Tremors weakened her legs as she walked with all possible speed to her car. She didn’t have to hide anything this time. Lorelei was in public, but only walking through a parking lot to her Lexus. Passing no one and with no need to shield her pleasure, there was no reason not to let her breath come out in soft, expectant moans.
This had been coming on for the last few minutes. The first kiss came while she waited in the appraiser’s office. Despite the rush of power she felt as Alex indulged his desires, it was momentarily all Lorelei could do to conceal her reactions. It felt like he was kissing her. He could have been there, right up against her, lips and tongues intertwined as if the last few nights had never happened. She could feel everything with even greater clarity than she had enjoyed in his adventures at the mall.
Lorelei pushed the appraiser harder than she’d intended. Even with her unrestrained use of manipulative power, she consented to a lower exchange rate than she probably could have worked out with more effort. The diamonds were just pricey baubles. There was always more money out there to be had. What was happening to her master and prey, and therefore to her, was exquisite and fleeting.
She slipped inside her car as she felt the sensations of her legs being spread apart by friendly, gentle hands. Those hands caressed her stocking-clad legs before moving down to pull off her tall boots… except Lorelei wasn’t wearing stockings or boots at all.
Lorelei’s eyes hardly tracked her surroundings. She locked the doors and hid from mortal eyes before giving in. She felt herself lying back onto a bed with Alex’s hands roaming up her sides, still fully clothed, all as if for the first time. His face rose up to hers, kissing her for only the fourth time ever now.
Her heart beat faster. The trembling in her legs now rippled deliciously through her whole being. She needed him so badly, wanted what would inevitably be hers, yet also needed him to take this slowly and carefully.
In the car, Lorelei dropped her seat backward. She shifted, enabling herself to unzip and loosen her skirt. Her hands moved inexorably to answer the heat between her legs.
She saw Alex smiling at her, soothing her with words about not rushing things and wanting her to be comfortable. She laughed, nervously and innocently.
Innocence.
Lorelei’s eyes flared. “She’s a virgin,” the succubus gasped.
* * *
“Well, I’ve never been with a guy before, anyway,” Onyx confessed. They lay intertwined, shoes kicked off and their most restrictive clothes loosened, but still basically dressed.
Alex showed only a little surprise. “That’s okay. I don’t want to pressure you. I like you.”
“This is really fast for me, though.”
“Yeah,” Alex said. He shifted to sit up. “Maybe we should cool-“
Onyx tugged him back down. “I want this,” she nodded.
“I do, too,” he grinned. “But why me?”
“I don’t meet a lot of nice guys,” she said softly. “Not nice guys who are cute and trustworthy and understanding.”
He was more than flattered. He was blown away. “How are you so sure about all that?”
“Any girl with taste can see you’re cute,” she smiled. “As for the rest…trade secret. But I can tell.” She pulled him closer to kiss him again, then tentatively slipped her hands up under his shirt to pull it off.
Onyx’s hands trailed back down again. Her eyes went wide as she found the fresh scar under the left side of his chest. “Oh my God,” she murmured, “what happened here?”
“Oh. It’s okay now, but can I tell you later?” His lips found their way to the side of her neck, which she offered up without resistance. “If I tell you now I can’t use my mouth for this.”
“Deal,” she giggled.
Hands slipped under her back, working to free her from her complicated top. Again she laughed softly, helping him with that, revealing a black lace bra that contrasted with alabaster skin and a figure that her outfit didn’t do justice. Alex marveled at her until she tugged him closer, kissing him to escape her self-consciousness.