“I do what I can in these restricted circumstances,” Lorelei smiled.
Onyx laughed, looking from Molly to Lorelei, and then her eyes widened and her laughter died as she saw the succubus move over, just a couple of feet, bringing her head and those glorious lips toward her center.
Molly just watched and grinned as Lorelei planted her first, gentle lick across the intimacy that Molly had tasted so many times. Then she felt Lorelei’s fingers slip between her legs, and knew she wouldn’t be a mere spectator.
* * *
Alex emerged from the men’s room-and the line outside it-to find Jason and Amber there waiting for him. Amber looked perfectly pleasant; Jason looked a little annoyed.
Holy shit, Alex thought. He’d deliberately taken longer than Jason to give the pair a chance to break away. Alex held out his hands in apology and mouthed, “I tried, dude,” before Amber spotted him.
Jason simply rolled his eyes. “There he is,” he nudged Amber.
“Hey,” Amber smiled as Alex rejoined them. “Haven’t seen your date at all. Or your other date,” she teased.
“I’m sure they’ll turn up,” he shrugged. “They’ll find me when they want to. I’ve got my cell phone. You two should go out and have a good time. You don’t need to keep me company.”
“Aw, we’ve got all night,” Amber replied. “Look, I know what it’s like to be left all alone at a big party. We don’t want to do that to you. Right, Jason?”
Her date immediately smothered his “fuck off, bro” glare before she looked back at him. Whatever Jason was about to say, Alex saw it die as soon as Amber’s eyes were on him. “Yeah, it’s cool,” Jason agreed, sounding entirely sympathetic and masking all of his annoyance. “Let’s just roll back to the main rooms. We’ll run into one or another of them sooner or later.”
Amber put herself between them, linking up arm-in-arm with her date and his friend as they walked. “So you’ve gotta tell me how you swung that,” she said.
“Swung which?” Alex asked.
“C’mon, now,” she smirked. “I know Seattle’s full of ‘alternative lifestyles,’ but two hot girlfriends? Seriously? You know that’s not normal.”
Alex half-smirked, half-frowned, and shot a look at Jason. “Oh, it’s not?”
“Hey, my shit lasted like ten minutes,” Jason objected. “They may as well have been sharing ownership of a pair of pants.”
“Yeah, I already know about Jason and his blondies,” Amber chuckled. “That’s just what I mean, though. That was a fling. You think this is gonna last?”
“We’re pretty committed,” Alex said-and then he saw her. Tight white jeans, a black leather jacket over a black top showing off just enough cleavage to make a statement, and smooth, beautiful Latina looks on exactly half her face. It was the face that caught his eye, and the sultry, flirtatious grin as she crossed their path. That half of her face was lovely. The left half was chalk white, with swirling black lines coming off the corner of her red lips and a starburst pattern centered on her left eye.
Alex turned as she passed, his eyes on hers until she turned her head again. His arm slipped out of Amber’s as his gaze trailed down to the Latina’s backside. It was every bit as appealing as the rest of her. She looked over her shoulder once, turning the sugar skull side of her face to him and making eye contact again before she faded into a crowd of people at the other end of the hall.
He turned to find Amber and Jason waiting. Jason looked entirely oblivious. Amber watched him with a skeptical twitch in her lips. “Committed, huh?”
“Did you see the sugar skull? That was so tight!”
“Oh, so you were just appreciating her costume?” came Amber’s cynical, mildly accusatory reply.
“Wha-well,” Alex shrugged, “she’s hot, obviously.” He nearly complimented Amber on her looks, too, just to make plain that he didn’t think she was chopped liver, and then stopped. No. Jason’s date, he reminded himself. Do nothing even close to flirting with her.
“Did I miss something?” asked Jason.
“Nothing big. So, Alex, you were saying before? About your girlfriends?” Amber jerked her thumb over her shoulder toward the main ballroom.
He sighed. Sooner or later, he’d have to get used to this sort of thing. It wasn’t like the subject was unreasonable. “What do you want to know?”
“How did this all happen? Where do you meet women like that? I know you swept in to rescue Lorelei somehow, but what about Rachel? C’mon, I want all the sordid details.”
With most of the party guests still on the dance floor or at the bar, it wasn’t too hard to find a table where they could all sit. “You really want to hear me talk about myself all night? I don’t.”
“Thank God for that,” Jason quipped.
“Right?” Alex agreed.
Amber rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. But does it ever get awkward?”
“Sometimes. It’s work, just like any relationship, right? At this point we’re all comfortable with each other. The biggest stress is me just trying to make all this fit in my head when the whole world says everyone’s gotta be couples and anything else is icky and perverted. So there’s that, and there’s Rachel having to work crazy hours so she’s never around at any consistent time. Plus I may never get used to living at Lorelei’s financial level. It feels weird.”
“Hey,” Jason piped up, “how’s your mom handling all this now? She cooler about Lorelei?”
Alex fidgeted in his seat under Amber’s interested gaze and Jason’s question. “That’s not such a thing anymore,” he explained. “She’s not a hundred percent on us staying together, but that’s because of the age and income gaps. At least she doesn’t have anything against Lorelei at this point, y’know?”
“But…?”
“…but Rachel wants to meet her.” He paused. “Mom still doesn’t know.”
Jason’s eyes widened. So did his grin. Laughter quickly followed. “Oh wow, seriously? She wants to… oh man, can I be there for that?”
“What, would your mom not approve?” Amber asked. “Rachel seems more your age than Lorelei, at any rate. I mean I can see anyone being thrown off by the three-way thing. Or would your mom freak out by the girl-girl thing?”
“No, it’s not that,” Alex shook his head. “It’s just me being involved with more than one person would be weird to… um… her.” He saw the sugar skull pass by, moving through the room only a couple of tables away. Once again, they made eye contact until her path interrupted the connection.
He blinked it away. “Yeah. Mom had a tough enough time just adjusting to me being with an older woman like Lorelei, but explaining Rachel on top of that… I don’t know if I could handle that conversation with my mom.”
“I don’t think many guys could,” Jason laughed.
“What do you think you’re gonna do?” asked Amber.
“I dunno,” Alex sighed, “but I gotta figure out something by Thanksgiving, ‘cause Rachel wants to be part of that. Ugh. Did I say ugh already? Ugh.”
“What’s this job that Rachel has?” asked Amber.
“She, uh… kinda works for the city? It’s hard to explain. She supervises a whole bunch of people and so she’s always on call.” Alex looked away again as he spoke. Being this evasive was tough. Part of him wondered how Jason held up to Amber’s curiosity, but the fact that she had so many questions indicated that he hadn’t told her much. Alex felt the conversation getting away from him, though, and wished someone would come to his rescue.
Failing that, he needed to change the subject. “What’s up with you and your family, though?” he asked Jason. “Anything getting better there, or are your parents still pissed?”
Then it was Jason’s turn to sigh. He looked up at Amber. “So I haven’t actually asked, but I don’t suppose that you’re a nice Jewish girl and it just hasn’t come up?”
“Atheist parents, sorry,” Amber shook her head. “Turned out the same way.”
He nodded. “Figured.” Jason’s eyes turned back to Alex. “Yeah, they’re still gonna be pissed at me.“