Good Intentions (14 page)

“I am,” she said cool y. “You are a brave man, Alex. My feelings for you may be conflicted in many ways, but that is something about you that I adore without reservation.” He blushed uncontrol ably, but resisted the urge to hide or turn away. It wasn’t like she wouldn’t guess how he felt, anyway. “Stil ,” he frowned, “I should have thought of you before putting you in the middle of it if there is a problem.” “I would have done as you wished regardless.” “Lorelei. You’re my friend. I don’t want to do anything to hurt you or put you at risk. If I’m about to, you need to tel me. Okay?” “As you wish,” she smiled quietly. “Master.” He grinned back at her, blushing again and unable to help it. Alex looked her up and down. “You look really good in that outfit,” he said. “I am glad that it pleases you. There were clothes of a different sort in the house that may have also pleased you greatly, but I would just as soon burn everything that I wore for that man.” “Well , as long as we can replace it. You, um…appear to have a lot of money.” He glanced at the hardtop Lexus convertible behind them. “Enough. What is mine is quite literally yours. If you are my friend, you will not be shy about that,” she grinned. “I suggest that we take the car to go shopping rather than your motorcycle. There are side streets where we can park it where it will not be bothered.” “It’s too bad it isn’t warmer. Putting the top down might be fun.” Lorelei’s grin shifted as she stepped in closer to Alex and put a hand on his groin. “I can keep you warm easily enough,” she smiled.

She’s Trouble

As it happened, Lorelei was correct. Even in the cool September evening, wind blowing under an overcast sky as they drove toward downtown, Alex felt completely warm. It was an easy thing for Lorelei to accomplish exactly in the manner she’d hinted at. The succubus simply lounged in the front passenger seat, looking hot and occasionally stroking her fingers down his neck, or sometimes across his lap. Were Alex a cooler, more confident guy, he might have had his right arm outstretched around her shoulders or perhaps draped over the back of her seat. He might have let the stereo blast something upbeat. Instead, he was a very self-conscious nineteen-year-old driving a car worth more than he could make in two or even three years at his part-time job. He kept both hands on the wheel and his eyes on the road. Despite his trepidation about the car, he was feeling good about the relationship that had put him into it. Very good. The longer he was with Lorelei, the more he dared to consider that he might actual y, in some small way, measure up to her feelings for him. Perhaps that didn’t compare to his awe of her, but for once he began to feel that perhaps he was at least a little worthy of her interest. Maybe, something said in his mind, he wasn’t entirely a goon who’d simply gotten lucky. Maybe he had more to work with than just Lorelei’s magic in dealing with women. It wasn’t like he’d never gotten a date in his life. Much of his loneliness could fairly be chalked up to bad luck. And for al the lusty stares and flirtation he’d received lately, it wasn’t like Rachel seemed affected by Lorelei’s influence. She seemed to like Alex for himself…

…which brought to mind the things she’d said that morning. He wondered how good he’d feel about his relationship with Lorelei if he addressed that. “Something’s on your mind,” Lorelei observed. Her tone and her smile were sultry, but almost everything with her was at least a little sultry. Alex somehow knew she didn’t suspect he was thinking about anything sexy. “I kind of wonder if we should be explicit about what’s okay with me and what’s not,” he said. Rachel was right. He had to get this done, for peace of mind if nothing else. If it displeased Lorelei, he’d have to live with that. Too much was at stake. “There will be no more Raymond Cordinglys,” Lorelei assured him smoothly. “It’s not just that, it’s…” Alex fought for the words. He wasn’t even sure how to begin. “I don’t want high school girls throwing themselves at me, or being thrown at me,” he finally said. “Ever. Off limits. No matter what it might seem like I desire, nineteen and relative emotional stability are bare minimums.” “Ah,” the succubus smiled, “the rules. The Laws of Alex.” She had been leaning somewhat against the door, but now she shifted in her seat to lean lightly against his right shoulder. She didn’t sound bothered at al , but rather very interested. “I hear and obey. What is thy bidding, master?” “Okay, now you sound way too close to Darth Vader and that shit’s freakin’ me out.” Lorelei laughed, very much with him rather than at him. He felt a bit better. She was good at making him feel better. “I mean it, though. I know age is arbitrary, but it’s good enough. No jailbait for me.” “Oh, I cannot help it if you earn such attention al on your own,” Lorelei said, “but I swear that I shall do nothing to encourage it.” “So that effect that I’ve been having on women since we met won’t hit them?” “That can’t be so narrowly defined. It’s derived from our base desires, and those do not check anyone’s driver’s license. However, it is partly directed by the depth of your attraction. As you are less interested in younger women,

they will be less affected.” She chuckled a bit, adding, “Given our earlier activities, you may find that ‘effect’ especially potent tonight.” He smirked a bit. “I’l try to be careful, then.” “You might consider having some fun with it,” Lorelei shrugged. “It would make me happy. That ‘effect’ isn’t mind control. It’s just an enhancement of sex appeal. No one would do anything that would put themselves in danger or that they could not be persuaded to do otherwise. Consider it an advantage. A cheat, perhaps, but it’s not brainwashing.” “You’re assuming that these women would be interested if I didn’t have this going for me.” “You give yourself far too little credit, Alex. And yet you do have this going for you. More to the point, ladies won’t be disappointed when they learn some of the things that I know about you.” Her hand stroked along his groin. “But back to your commands, master,” she whispered hotly into his ear. “No married women, either.” “Aw,” Lorelei pouted, lightly but somewhat genuinely. “Not even unhappily married women who deserve a little il icit fun?” “Look, on the off chance that ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife’ is for real, I’m will ing to forego the women with rings on their fingers in favor of the ones who haven’t made vows. Unless there’s a cheat sheet on what is and isn’t a mitigating circumstance?” She shrugged. “Not that I can recite to you, no.” “Well , really the primary interest I have here is in not hurting anyone, emotionally or otherwise.” “You have made that clear already. I have kept that in mind al along in everything I’ve done.” “Speaking of,” Alex said, and then swal owed. This one worried him. “My mom.”

“Hm,” Lorelei intoned tauntingly. “Before you speak on that, master, may I ask something of you?” He gave a grumbling sigh, but she was hard to resist. “Can’t guarantee I’l be okay with it.” “I have broken none of these restrictions thus far, and I shall not. You have voiced that you wish to trust me, and I long for your trust. May I keep a few secrets to myself?” Her tone was as dripping with teasing sexuality as it had been at any other time since they’d met. Alex stiffened in his seat, trembling from something other than the cold. “Now I know something’s going on.” “No, you strongly suspect,” Lorelei corrected with a grin, “and the unknown is almost always more disturbing than the truth. Almost. Master, as I said this morning, your mother is harmed in no way. The only changes that have occurred since you and I bonded are that she has become happier and more confident. She is every bit as safe from me as you are—moreso, in fact. So, the question becomes: if there is…something going on…do you really mind?” Again, he gulped. “Okay, look. She looks great and if that makes her happy then I’m happy for her, I just don’t want her to…um…” Alex was soon at a loss for words. “You don’t want her to change as a person.” “Yeah. Um. Has she?” “No,” Lorelei answered. “I cannot guarantee that she won’t flirt or get attention. She certainly will , especially the latter. But no, Michel e is still entirely the mother you have always known. Just much sexier.” Her hand slid down between his legs again as if to relieve his shivering, yet neither had any doubt that her touch would end his trembling. “You can’t blame a girl for enjoying herself when a man thinks she’s sexy.” “Stil . Maybe we’d better just…move on.” “Oh, I can dance around this particular pole al night if you wish.”

“Puns. You’re making puns. That’s awesome.” “What else did you want to talk about?” she asked sweetly. “So, your money. I don’t want to go spending your money, but…” “Your money now, master.” “No, real y. I don’t want to take things from you.” “Alex,” she said, a bit more seriously. “Imagine that my life could be dramatically improved if I only had more dried leaves. Suppose that for whatever reason, I cannot collect many myself. You could, however. They’re often al around you. Would you not share whatever leaves you found? Given your affection for me, wouldn’t you gather them in great bundles, well beyond my actual need, simply because you know that as a gift they would be appreciated and provide me with comfort?” He soon realized he couldn’t argue that. “That’s really what it’s worth to you? I would’ve thought demons might be a bit more materialistic.” “It’s a fair comparison. I enjoy a bit of luxury, but I can do without it freely. As I said, not every one of my victims has been someone of wealth and power. I have taken many a turn in the guise of a poor peasant. Money is merely a means to an end, and I have power, age and experience that mortals do not. I can always acquire more.” “I just don’t want it to go to my head. I’m already being spoiled beyond anything rational as it is just with sex. You want to add money to that, too? I’l go nuts.” “If greed was one of your driving motivations, I think we would be having a very different conversation, Alex. Perhaps over a dead man’s bank accounts.” “Who says I won’t become greedy over time?”

“Anything’s possible, but again, I rather doubt it. You do not strike me as the materialistic type. Many people want only enough money to provide general security and some small measure of amusement, and are satisfied with that. They simply don’t get talked about. You in fact live in a city wherein the wealthy are generally careful about flaunting their fortune. Seattle has more than its share of mil ionaires, yet this is not a city of ostentation.” Alex thought about it and shrugged. “So you said I wouldn’t object to your money. Is it legal?” “More or less,” Lorelei nodded. “I don’t exactly have a birth certificate or social security number. A government accountant might find some discrepancies in my taxes. The actual money comes from legitimate business…more or less. Again, nothing you would object to, or I would confess it right now. Leave this matter to me as another secret?” she asked, again very sweetly. She kissed his neck. He swal owed. “How many secrets do you want to keep?” He felt her smile against his neck. “Only matters I might engineer to eventually provide entertainment for us both, master.” Alex couldn’t object to that. He didn’t want to, real y, mainly because he didn’t want to disappoint her. He frowned. “Alright. But where are we going, anyway? You said downtown, but not where.” Lorelei leaned back thoughtful y. “I would suggest a few boutiques, but they may take more time than we want to spend. We also haven’t decided how to present our relationship to others. Pacific Place should be fine for now.” * “Oooooh, shit, man! Look! Shit!”

“Fuck—what? What?” J’Von grimaced. The jostling hand on his shoulder made him squeeze his Big Mac too hard, spurting goop out one side. He worried that it had gotten onto his saggy pants or his Air Jordans. He looked his clothes over, hoping not to see special sauce on anything but the sidewalk. “That bitch right there!” Tony continued, urging and pointing out at the convertible waiting at the light. J’Von and Mike both looked over across the street and the car. “Damn, now that’s a piece of ass,” Mike observed sagely. “Yeah, but you gotta go grabbin’ me like that?” J’Von said, his expression still pointedly disapproving. The last thing he wanted was a stain running down his pants al night. It annoyed J’Von that Tony wasn’t looking at the plainly very intimidating stare he was giving. “That’s the bitch who fucked Damon to death last year!” Tony said. J’Von’s scowl only deepened. “What?” he said in a high-pitched, skeptical tone. But Tony was running off already, headed up the block to watch the car as it made a left turn and headed around the block. “Crazy fuckin’ cracker,” he muttered. J’Von sometimes took a lot of heat from other friends for keeping a white boy like Tony around, but he stood his ground on the issue. He and Tony had been tight since they’d been thrown out of middle school together, and J’Von was bigger than al that racial bul shit. Only sometimes his friend would go acting like a crazy white boy in front of other people. J’Von knew it wasn’t because Tony was white; he knew crazy black folks, too. But that didn’t make it any easier to defend Tony when he went running off after cars in the middle of downtown claiming that one of the occupants had kil ed a homey with her snatch. “Your boy’s trippin’, man,” Mike chuckled, shaking his head. The two watched as Tony stood at the corner looking on at the convertible. “Yeah, don’t I know,” J’Von muttered, and then cal ed out, “Tony! Man, get back here!” He got a good bite out of his Big Mac as Tony jogged back to the other two men. Settling whatever was up Tony’s ass might take until his burger

cooled, and that would make J’Von even more irritated. “They just went into the mal . That’s her, I’m sure of it.” “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” Mike asked. “Last year? Like, at that New Year’s party, right? It was just after Tyrel got popped by the cops for bustin’ a cap in—” “We know,” J’Von said firmly. He also knew it was really Damon who’d been the shooter. Tyrel was nowhere near it and would never have shot anyone in his life. But there was no tel ing the cops that without ratting out Damon, and nobody wanted to be a snitch—even if it meant Tyrel would go to prison. Everyone had pressured Damon to come clean, al to no avail. Then Damon turned up dead a few days later. “What about it?” “Look, I know you was in lock-up at the time, but at the party there was this fine ass white girl. She hooked up with Damon—told his girl, Kimesha to sit down and shut up and she did, man, his girl shut right the fuck up–and then she just went upstairs to Damon’s apartment and they started goin’ at it, man. Fuckin’ screamin’, bed makin’ al kinda noise, like, ‘Oh! Oh! Fuck me, Damon! Oh shit!’” “Tony!” J’Von frowned, “Don’t make me slap you.” Tony waved it off, but pointedly he calmed down. “Right, so they were up there the rest of the night, right? Only I had left my phone up in Damon’s apartment before the party, ‘cause we were al playin’ on his X-Box. So I had to go back there. I hear ‘em still bangin’ away the next damn day, man. Only I didn’t wanna interrupt, ‘cuz that’s not cool, so I left. “But Kimesha? She inter rupted, man. Like a lot. Or tried to, anyway. She went shoutin’ and knockin’ at that door like three different times that day and the next, she said, and she kept hearing the same shit, too. More poundin’, more fuckin’. She’s al yel in’ at them through the door an’ neither one of ‘em stop for nothin’.” Mike seemed to think it was amusing, and it would’ve been to J’Von as well , had it not been for his poor, neglected Big Mac. Instead, he just stared at Tony. He’d heard something of this story before, but not in such detail. Al he knew was that Damon hooked up with some porn star-looking bitch at New Year’s and then was found dead in his