Page 24 of A Little Red
“Yes! Yes!” Her cries synchronized with his thrusts. “Yes! Yes!” She gave a wordless cry as she came, squeezing her legs around him, her toes curling in tight. He gave three more quick thrusts and finished inside her with a deep groan.
Scarlet buried her face into his neck and tried to catch her breath. After a long moment she let her legs unlock and her feet dropped to the floor. The water was pummeling the shampoo bottle with an annoying din, but she didn’t want to leave his arms to move it. After a minute, Liam kicked it out of the path of the spray.
“Thanks,” she said.
She realized then that she probably ought to say something about the lack of condom. But on the other hand, she didn’t really want to discuss the fact that her birth control method was a super reliable spell taught to her by her grandmother. She decided not to say anything and hope that he let it go.
He hugged her tighter, snuggling her with a warm murmur that she could feel in his chest rather than hear and she sighed her contentment. It felt so good to be right where she was.
Liam
Liam listened from his office as Scarlet struggled to explain an advanced data search and cross-reference to one of the other secretaries for the fifth time. He couldn’t believe he’d ever bought theI’m just a community college graduateline for a minute. He shook his head and tried not to smile. This morning’s run had been exactly what he needed. Well, that and the glorious fuck in the shower. But running with Scarlet had been wonderful. She hadn’t wanted to talk or time herself or do any of the annoying fitness things. She just ran. And that was sooooo wolf. He didn’t know why he hadn’t been running on his own, but clearly it was good for him. He’d returned home feeling better about everything. And not at war with himself for once.
Which was probably what had led to unprotected shower sex. He knew he should have addressed that afterwards, but she hadn’t seemed concerned. And what kind of conversation was that going to be anyway?Don’t worry about getting pregnant, because I can’t get any human pregnant. Did I mention I’m not entirely human? Well, ha ha, surprise!
His cell phone rang, and Liam flipped it over and saw the unidentified number that meant it was Ferris. As always, he picked it up with a familiar thrill, as if he had just sighted prey on the horizon-line. Ferris was a down-market trader who specialized in buying and re-packaging debt. Liam used Ferris to buy the debt held by very specific individuals.
“Liam Grayson,” he said, hitting green.
“Hey, it’s Ferris. I’ve got a fresh batch for you. They hit all the markers and they’re all card carrying members of the Temple of the Unified Vision.”
Liam’s lip curled in a silent snarl. The Temple of the Unified Vision. It sounded so noble until it was revealed to be a fancy new name for warlocks and the only vision they believed in was one of an earth with humans and noothers. Death to the shifters and the witches and the Fae. Death to anything that wasn’t a boring meatbag human. They wanted to be the only ones with magic.
It was a constant amazement to Liam that warlocks had managed to decimate the magical population in just a few centuries. In retrospect, the disappearance of the Fae was not a battle lost, but a death blow to every Supernatural specieson the planet. No one knew where they had gone, but their absence revealed that they had been the ones to forge connections between the Supernaturals and without them theothersseparated themselves, isolating from humans and from each other. And the more they isolated, the worse their problems became. Supernaturals didn’t breed as fast as humans and, due to their long lifespans, they always seemed to think that there would be more time.
There was no need to start wars or come out of the shadows, either. There was always another corner of the planet they could go to. Only that wasn’t true any longer. Humans were everywhere and with the warlocks pushing them on, they had left their blackened footprint on every corner of the globe. The Supernaturals had been pushed to the rapidly diminishing margins.
Liam’s father had often talked about fighting the warlocks on their own ground, as if there was a country where warlocks all lived and they could be fought there. But after Callum’s death, Liam had realized that human territory was no longer little plots of land. All humans, including the warlocks, now existed in plastic and electricity and paper. But that was also their weakness. If Liam could stop them in the virtual world, then stopping them in person was barely even necessary.
“The weird thing is,” continued Ferris. “Several of them have recently moved to New York.”
“That seems suspicious,” said Liam. “I would have thought they’d have gotten the message by now.”
“Agreed. But…” Ferris’s tone was a vocal shrug. “Anyway, what do you want to do?”
“The same as always,” said Liam. “Burn their houses to the ground.”
“Metaphorically, of course,” said Ferris, who always believed someone was listening.
“Well, yes,” said Liam easily because that actually had been what he meant. That didn’t mean it was going to stay metaphorical, but at the moment everything he was intending to do was strictly legal. “Send me the reports once you’ve made the buy.”
Perhaps the warlocks in their upper echelons were brilliant masterminds with fat bank-accounts, but at the street level they were the same as any other person in America—swimming in debt. Credit cards, medical debt, school loans, and mortgages, the warlocks weren’t any better with money than anyone else. They were just nasty little humans trying to get a leg up by standing on the necks of others. Ferris brought him their debt and Liam drowned them in it.
“I’ll have a courier drop off the paperwork,” said Ferris who also hated email. Ferris was paranoid, and rightfully so. The warlocks and the SEC were both dangerous to mess with.
“Thanks,” said Liam.
“Whatever,” said Ferris and hung up without saying goodbye.
Liam looked up as Scarlet walked by his doorway, pen stuck in her hair, iPad in one hand, coffee in the other. She didn’t try to be sexy—she just was. He wondered what she would say if he told her that a fascist cult was trying to kill him and everyone like him. She’d probably think he was insane.
His world was never going to sound sane to a normal person. And it was never going to be truly safe for a human. And yet, he still wanted her like he wanted water and air. Being with her was amazing and perfect and made him feel happier than he’d felt in a long time. But being with Scarlet was… wrong. It was wrong for him and it was unfair to her because the relationship was never going to be anything that a normal human had the right to expect. He should never have gone over to her place. He should never have touched her after the first weekend. He should never have touched her to begin with.
Scarlet walked by his office, took a quick glance around and then pulled her top down, flashing her hot pink bra at him. Then she made a pretend shocked face and blew him a kiss before disappearing again.
Scarlet might be wrong for him, but there wasn’t a chance in hell that he was going to break up with her because he couldn’t imagine anyone feeling more right.
Episode 13
