“Yes, well. I have found a good deal of low-hanging fruit with the Christians. The Pope has provided me with a veritable orchard.” Her grin turned sly. “A few more decades of this and perhaps my name will be spoken in the same breath as yours.”
“Belial favors quality over quantity,” Lorelei replied indifferently. “I imagine it is a different game for the most favored of Baal.”
“It is,” Lydia grinned. “Baal doesn’t have me out among the mortals endlessly trying to make up for lost ground.” She paused before saying, “He still misses you, you know.”
Lorelei didn’t bother to hide the sneer. “You say that as if it should mean something to me.”
“Doesn’t it?” Lydia asked. “Baal remains ascendant. Belial remains dimmed. Your name has not lost its luster, though. If I brought you back into the fold, we would both be rewarded. He would enjoy spending time with you again.”
“I wonder if you understand what the word ‘reward’ means,” Lorelei said.
The cheerful smile faded. “Don’t be cross. We have so much in common.”
“Yes,” Lorelei nodded. “We both wish to use the well.”
Lydia glanced down at her bucket, then back at Lorelei. She stepped back and gestured for the other succubus to help herself.
Lorelei stepped forward. She paused to look into the bucket, finding the water reddened with blood. At the bottom lay a gold ring. It was simple, undecorated and thin. It had the look of a common man’s wedding band. “Why do you seek baubles and trophies?” Lorelei asked.
“Because it amuses me. I like my trophies. Don’t you keep any? I would think one as celebrated as you might take more joy in her work.”
“It means little to me.” Lorelei looked her peer up and down. She gestured to the blood on Lydia’s sleeve. “I will leave you to the well. You have more need to wash than I.”
She turned to leave without another word. Lorelei felt the angry, hateful eyes of the other succubus looking on, but it meant little. Very little here meant much at all.
* * *
Lorelei was definitely the best thing to wake up to. Ever. It was the first coherent thought Alex had that morning. The welcoming, affectionate mouth and smooth, stroking hand that roused him from slumber convinced him beyond any doubt. He lay on his back, overwhelmed once more by the affections Lorelei lavished on his erection.
“I’m starting to believe you really do like doing this,” he groaned. Alex tilted his head just enough to look at his gorgeous wake-up call, who simply winked at him and continued. She lay along his legs, favoring him with plenty of bare skin upon skin. He had always doubted the notion that women could genuinely enjoy going down on men. The look in Lorelei’s eyes and the way she seemed to savor every inch of his flesh made a believer out of him at least as far as she was concerned. “My life is awesome.”
Lorelei paused long enough to say, “Wait for it,” then went back to her work.
“…tellin’ ya, the women in my life are absolutely no fun anymore,” whined the morning DJ from Alex’s clock radio. “All my ex wants is alimony and all my wife wants out of me is to listen to her bitch and moan about her feelings and her social life, and-”
Alex laughed a bit. If this guy only knew, he thought. “Jackass,” he muttered. The feeling of Lorelei chuckling softly added a nice dimension to the sensations her mouth provided. Alex groaned again. His left hand reached down to stroke her hair. His right fumbled for the power cord of the clock radio until he had it unplugged.
“Bet he’d have a happier marriage if he wasn’t such a whiner,” Alex mused.
“Clearly,” Lorelei broke off to say. “Why do you listen to him, then?”
“He wasn’t always there. I keep forgetting to change the station. God, I hate guys like him. And I don’t want to think about anything else right now but you and what you’re doing.”
She spoiled him for awhile, working slowly enough that he didn’t near orgasm right away. The longer she went on, the more it seemed she, too, derived physical pleasure from the act. In his blissful haze, Alex remembered something about magical bonds and shared pleasures, but by then his body tensed with excitement and anticipation. Lorelei relentlessly brought him to a long, luxurious finish and stayed on task throughout his satisfaction. She seemed to shake with pleasure just as much as he did.
Eventually the moment passed. Lorelei’s mouth lingered for a while before she slipped away from his groin to crawl into a warm, mutually grateful embrace. “Good morning,” she murmured, kissing him lightly.
“Good morning to you. Did you get any sleep?”
“A little. I need far less than you. It’s more of an indulgence than a need.”
“I feel like I slept.” He was now wide-awake as his eyes fluttered open. “I feel like I slept all night. After having sex all night. Like I had two nights there. Wow, when did I go to sleep?”
“I brought you to sleep at a bit past four, I believe.”
“Two hours?”
“It was all you needed. As I explained last night, my prey undergoes certain changes. I would happily have kept you awake longer. I’m trying to control myself, master,” Lorelei conceded dryly.
Alex laughed, then glanced at the now blank clock radio. “Well, now I don’t know what time it is. Time to get up and get going, at any rate. Um, you…?”
“I would follow you and bathe you if you like, but it sounds as if you would prefer not to be too distracted this morning.”
“No. But are you going to be okay with staying today? I’m not telling you not to go anywhere. I would just like it if you were here when I come home.” He opened his mouth to speak again, but Lorelei promptly closed it for him.
“If you stammer out an apology for such a simple request, you’ll be back to waking up to that insipid disc jockey every morning.”
Instinctively, Alex wanted to apologize for making so many apologies, but abandoned the notion with a laugh. Lorelei smiled back at him and let him up. “Go,” she said with a shooing motion. “Shower. You smell like you’ve been having sex all night.”
“That’s crazy talk,” Alex chuckled as he grabbed some clean clothes. “Ask anyone. I don’t know what to do with girls. I’m still a pure, innocent virgin.”
“You’ll make a good sacrifice for some terrible demon princess, then.”
At the door, Alex turned back to her. “Are you really a prin-”
“No!” she laughed. “Go get cleaned up!”
He was showered, shaved and ready to go within fifteen minutes. Alex felt more energized than he had in a long time. Lorelei wasn’t in the bedroom when he came in to get dressed, but he paid that no mind. He simply threw on a shirt and some cargo pants, then headed downstairs to grab something to eat.
Outside his bedroom he was stopped in his tracks. Michelle’s door was ajar, which in itself wouldn’t have been interesting, but his mother stood directly in view. She had her back turned toward the door as she played with her hair… in a black and white skirt suit that did a lot to tastefully show off her figure. He wasn’t mesmerized like he seemed to be by every other attractive woman. That was a relief, given the way she was dressed.
He was surprised at how good she looked, though. She appeared fit and trim, arguably ready for modeling. He could already hear all his friends telling him with renewed joy how hot his mom was as he headed down the stairs. Rummaging through the refrigerator, Alex wondered what might explain her glow. Maybe she’d just been working out more than he thought? Maybe she met someone at the office and didn’t want to say anything yet?
Cereal implements in hand, Alex settled down at the dining room table. He considered as he began to eat that the table was just big enough to throw a woman on it and have his way with her. He chuckled, thinking it was silly to still obsess about sex after the night he’d just had, but then maybe that’s how things would be from now on. It didn’t seem so bad.