“She
knew you would’ve worn a stuffy business suit if she didn’t.”
I
cocked my hip. “And what’s wrong with that?” I was more than annoyed by the fact that I had to go braless to wear the body-hugging, black silk gown with a wide-set neckline that reached my belly button. Thank goodness it had a sheer mesh overlay to prevent an embarrassing incident.
Light
snorted as she bounced around to a music video. As fate would have it, Knox's video. What the hell was going on? Did the goddess of fate hate me so much that she had to throw his existence in my face like a slap? “If you haven’t figured it out yet, we sell sensual indulgence, pleasure, and damn near kink.” Her smile disappeared when she noticed my frown. “Hello? Where’s the sexy, fun Storm who would hang out with me all night in the club?”
I
was close to screaming that she vanished somewhere between graduating from college and starting this job from hell. “She finally grew up and started taking life seriously.” I tapped my bottom lip mockingly. “Years of working overtime to keep up with all the work that my mother, aunt, and cousin…”—I looked at her pointedly—“refuse to touch.”
Light’s
lips pursed with disproval. “No, years of stifling who you are did that. Embrace your hotness, Storm. Loosen up. You’re so uptight you make a nun look like a stripper. We just want you to have fun. Don’t take shit so seriously. Live a little.”
My
eye twitched as I stifled the need to shut off the damn television. “Well, one of us has to take shit seriously around here.”
Light
wrinkled her nose. “Another dig at me? It doesn't matter because I'm comfortable with what I am.”
I
smiled mockingly. “A wild party girl who loves to prank call me at three in the morning, singing horribly off-key?”
Light
held up her hand. “That was once. Okay, twice. Anyway, that’s off topic. I’m a Fae-witch who lives life to the fullest. Face it. I'm the fun to your repressed seriousness and we are a team. Just embrace it.” She sighed. “I just wish you would just loosen up. Work those curves. Sway that hot ass. And for goodness sake, have some rough sex like real soon because you’re getting fucking cranky from penis withdrawal.”
I
plopped down on the sofa with a tired sigh. “I have sex. Every night—lots of it.” And it was very good… not great, but I'd learned to pick my battles.
Light
snickered. “Umm, sex toys don’t count.”
I
had no shame about sex or my toys. I winked at her. “It’s the best kind of sex baby—safe. Besides, penis withdrawal is not a medical condition. It's a state of knowing when to stop trying to attain something that doesn't exist… a real man who gets me.” I plopped my feet onto her lap. “And I'm a hard woman to get. I'm like an onion… way too many layers.”
Light
pushed my legs off her lap. “It might help if you actually get out of the office. You know, actually go out and get back on the dating stroll. This time, aim for someone not so boring. Tom screamed vanilla.”
I
arched a brow. “Really?”
Light
smirked. “What?”
“What?”
I mocked her. “Tom wasn't a relationship.” I snorted loudly. “He was my fuck buddy. You know, the type of buddy you call in a pinch.”
Light
rolled her eyes. “In other words, you only called him when your toys were on the disabled list.”
I
pointed at her. “Exactly! And I've yet to meet a man good enough to put them into retirement.” I paused. “Shit, find me a man who could do that and I'd have a toy-burning party wearing nothing but stilettos. I’ll give you one better. Find me that man and I'd strut around Mom's BDSM club butt-ass naked in those stilettos. Either way, I'd be smiling like I won a beauty pageant.” I did an exaggerated beauty contestant wave.
Light
laughed huskily. “As much as I love you, if that man actually exists, I'd kick your ass to get at him first.”
I
shook my head. “Proving the fact that a good lay is hard to find.”
Light
scrunched her nose. “Shit, there's no disputing that fact. I just want you to acknowledge that Tom's fucking boring.”
I
shrugged my shoulders. “That's what I liked about him. No chance in hell of me falling for him. Something you should take heed to.”
“Oh
, hell no! The Credence rule says no relationships or bonding. It says nothing about picking absolute snoozers in bed. Shit! If I can't have a decent fucking relationship, then at least I can have hot sex. Lots of it.”
I
fluffed my hair. “He's not that bad in bed…”
Light's
brow hit her hairline.
“Okay,
yes his tongue game was horrible…” I shuddered with distaste because it was so bad that I told him to cease any further attempts.
Light
gestured for me to continue.
I
held my hands out in defeat. “Okay, he's bad in bed.”
“Exactly.
It's time to rotate back on the dating market.” She looked at me matter-of-factly.
“So
says the woman whose longest relationship is with that champagne glass in her hand,” I responded coolly. Relationship conversations were not one of my favorite topics. It rated as high as the topic of ex-boyfriends. Once I was done with them, I erased them from my memory bank like yesterday’s trash. It was easier that way. “Let’s move on.”
Light
pursed her lips. “It’s the Credence Curse. You're scared of it striking again.”
“Oh
, fuck the Credence Curse. Everything from the inception of time has been blamed on the curse.” I snarled. This was another one of my hated topics. “Mom trips on the curb… It’s the Credence Curse. A boyfriend’s penis ‘accidentally’ slips into another woman’s mouth… It’s the Credence Curse. Enough already! Off with their heads, literally.” I made a chopping motion.
Light
sat up quickly, spilling her drink. “Off with their heads? Oh, sweetie, you better get some sex like real soon because you’re getting bitter and crazy.”
My
eyes narrowed. “I’m not bitter or crazy. I’m just keeping it one hundred percent real.” I drained my glass, looking at her with satisfaction as I filled it up again, giving an air toast. “Any man who wants me is going to have to work real hard to get me. Jumping through hoops to make me remotely interested.”
“Storm,
you’re not the only one who’s almost got caught by the curse. Just let it go,” she stated flatly.
I
gritted my teeth. “I have.”
“You
haven’t. Zero worthwhile boyfriends are a testament to that fact.” Light sighed. “You dated Tom because he was consumed with his career. You need someone who will let you put your guard down. Encourage you to make some dirty little mistakes.”
“Oh,
hell to the no! That's a deal breaker.” I took a huge swallow of champagne, letting the bubbles roll over my tongue.
“Okay
, but can we agree with my original assessment that you’re a sexual submissive? Then all will be right in my fantasy world.”
I
snorted. “I can't be sexually submissive to any man. I love control too much.” In fact, I craved and demanded it.
“You
just haven’t met the right man to earn your submission.” Light scowled. “I just can't believe that Tom left you for that submissive whore.”
“
I was done with him way before he left.” This was the truth. So it didn’t hurt that he left me for a woman that was everything that I wasn’t: blond, thin, and submissive.
“That
goes to my original statement about you needing a good lay,” Light responded.
“I'm
not the only one that needs one.”
She
shrugged her shoulders. “I'm on a penis hiatus. Pacing myself.”
I
was so tired of the same lecture. “Can you tell me how we moved from our mothers ditching us for a witch retreat to my lack of a good lay?”
Her
eyes widened. “It’s all related. And please don’t act like they haven’t done crazier things. Our whole life is filled with years of therapy sessions all due to those two crazy hags,” she grumbled. “Can you believe they’re sending me of all people to some stuffy charity ball to meet some heavy hitter tiger-shifter who's in town?” She crossed her arms. “I don't do stuffy.”
I
choked on my drink. “Wait, you get a tiger-shifter and I get stuck with a wolf-shifter? How is that fair? We've got three tiger-shifters on our roster and only one wolf-shifter. A missing one at that.”
“Don't
ask me. They passed out the assignment and now I have to spend a perfectly good Friday night completing it. Thank goodness Rhia and Bethany are available to come with me tonight.”
I
responded with annoyance. “Am I the only one that realizes that shit is falling apart? This is critical meltdown time. I feel it and it’s making me fucking nervous.”
Light
brushed her hair from her brow. “Do tell, wise one.”
My
eyes opened with shock. “Celina is missing. And Jack is calling me like a jilted lover. I can't hold everything together on my own.”
“Uh
, alone?” She raised her hand. “I'm your partner. Stop panicking. Celina is not missing. You know how flighty she is. She's probably on some fabulous vacation with one of her many wealthy lovers. And your father…”
I
gave her an evil stare.
Light
held up her hands defensively. “I mean Jack—he’s probably looking to get some money from you.”
Yes,
that's definitely what it was. Jack always popped back into my life at the most inopportune times just like a pimple on prom day. He must have either spent all of his gambling winnings, or one of his many women must have thrown him out after discovering what a big asshat he is.
For
the life of me, I just didn't understand why he called me after the last time we spoke. I made it clear he needed to lose my number. It’s pretty pathetic when a man makes a point of telling everyone who’s listening that he doesn’t want anything to do with his child, but then makes no bones about the fact that he would try to use me as his own private bank when his funds become low. No, I knew the real Jack, the despicable, evil man who hid in the shell of a well-groomed, very handsome man. The Jack who wished I was never born and the Jack I wished would wither away and die like the piece of trash I knew him to be.
He
was the first man in my life to hurt and disappointment me. I was the child he didn't want. A hurt I locked away, but every time he resurfaced, it was like a Band-Aid being ripped from unhealed flesh. It left lasting scars on my soul. Lasting childhood memories seared into my brain of the last time I saw him.
I was ten, scared, and hiding behind a weeping willow tree, watching one of many heated arguments between my parents.
Mom
was yelling. Her porcelain skin flushed as she waved her hands in his face. Her fingers twitching as if she was one step away from doing something really bad—like casting a wicked spell to render him speechless. It would have been like community service because everything that came out of his mouth was vile. Jack was the name I knew my father by since birth. As usual, he was drunk, angry, and harassing Mom for money. He was, in essence, worthless.
Mom's
fiery-red mane flew around like a cloud of embers as she paced back and forth, waving the piece of paper in her hand like a fan. “Look what I got in the mail this week. It was sent special delivery to my office.” She sneered, crumpled the letter, and tossed it in his face. “You're sleeping with Selma Gilden?”
He
took a big swallow of scotch, eyeing her with barely veiled hate. “Ava, why does it matter? I was just your sperm donor. You made it very clear that you wanted nothing more from me.”
She
laughed. “It's so convenient that you remember that fact when one of your little tarts flaunts that you’re sleeping with them. And when it’s time to beg for money, you’re more than happy to remind me of my stupid mistake of choosing you.”
He
sneered, barely standing, mumbling incoherently under his breath. I never understood how such a beautiful man on the outside could be so ugly on the inside.
She
looked at him with disgust. “Selma is my biggest nemesis. She’s crowing over the fact that she's banging the father of my child, and you have the nerve to ask why it matters?” Her face was furious. She poked him in the chest before responding. “Her family is our business competitors, have been for centuries. They’ve done everything in their power to destroy us.”
He
poured more scotch into his glass and drank it down like it was a glassful of water. “Ava, I don’t give a shit about Other business. Never did, never will.”
She
quirked a red eyebrow. “Why are you here? I locked up the valuables so there’s nothing to steal.”
His
fists clinched. “I need money. I’ve worked hard for it.”