“No. Just by cooling it.”
“Ah,” Onyx nodded, “so what I’m hearing here is that you can control yourself. What was it you told me? ‘I’d rather be your friend than your bed buddy. But I’d much rather be both.’ I seem to recall doing everything I could to show I was down with all that.” She paused to let that sink in. “Who else?”
He swallowed. “The, uh, real estate agent who sold Lorelei the condo. That actually went all the way.”
“How’d that end up?” Onyx asked, and when he hesitated, she reminded him, “Full disclosure.”
“Kind of ended up right where Molly’s sitting now, actually,” Alex blushed. Molly couldn’t help but snicker at that. “It was practically a ridiculous scenario out of a porno movie. Cliché dialogue and everything. I think she’s jumped clients before me, though.”
Onyx smothered a laugh. The confession threatened her composure, but in the end her willpower triumphed. “So in the four weeks since you first agreed to keep seeing me, and Molly, and with all of us acknowledging and accepting that you had this…” she twirled her pinky at his groin, “little problem, you’ve had sex with one other woman, and one last fling with Taylor. I imagine your sex life here with Lorelei and Rachel is gonzo insane every night, right?”
He felt like he should qualify that somehow, but instead he just nodded. “Rachel doesn’t come home every night,” he elaborated, “but… yeah.”
“Alex, without all this-if your life hadn’t become an endless letter to Penthouse-would you want to date either of us?”
“Yes,” he answered honestly. “You’re amazing. Both of you. I just… like I said, sometimes women just get irrational with me. I didn’t want that to happen to you.”
“What, you don’t know any guys who get irrational about attractive women?” Onyx frowned. “Alex, right now I would absolutely not fuck you, no matter what, and I’m not the least bit protected.”
He blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I thought you might still be worried about that, so I wanted to test it out. You said it’s not mind control, and you know what? You’re right. It’s nowhere near it. I’m not happy with you and it doesn’t matter how sexy you might seem or how long you spent in bed with Lorelei last night or this morning.”
“She mentioned you’d had the day off and we did the math,” Molly put in, making a lewd gesture with her fingers.
“Hell, this is my third glass of wine and I’m not any nearer to jumping you. And so if that’s the case,” Onyx said, her head tilting somewhat, “I think the reverse must be true, too. Lorelei might make it easier, but you weren’t a leper before she came along. You’ve doubtlessly learned a lot from her and your other flings that has nothing to do with curses. I think Dumbo can probably fly just fine without his magic feather.”
She let that sink in, turning to refill her wineglass before she looked at him again. “You need to stop second-guessing Molly and I. We told you before. It’s not about your cologne.”
“So… you really want to give this another chance?”
“Were you really avoiding us just so you wouldn’t cause us problems?” Molly countered. “Not because you were trying to make time for seeing any other floosies?”
Onyx blinked. “Did you just say ‘floosies?’”
“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 expression 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.