Page 16 of The Paranormal Investigation Bureau
“Neither did Beyla, Nyx. The only way she’ll be on stage is if Bellatrix doesn’t go on. She’s not even going to be in the corps with you. Bellatrix will go out there, even if she’s injured, so that Beyla doesn’t get her role. It’s different with Ivory. You know they are going to destroy her, right? You could at least give her the benefit of the doubt.”
Now, I’d gone and done it. Nyx had to know I was always on her side when it counted. So many things weren’t like they usually were. Beyla could very well be innocent. Nyx cut me off, threw back her head and shrieked. The ugly mirror on the wall shattered, and I clamped my hands over my ears. Luckily, she didn’t let totally loose, or she could have killed me.
“What happened to your no ballerina policy, Arden? You barely know her. She’s cute, but she’s not cute enough to understudy the lead and deny Marsden. She’s surely not cute enough for you to break your no ballerina rule.”
“I’m not, Nyx. I’m supposed to be punishing a really hot succubus banker right now, but I’m here with you because you’re upset. You know how you get when you’re pissed… I can see you killing the little witch, despite the fact she might be totally innocent. Shit has been weird since we signed those NDAs in blood. Marsden is doing weird fairy shit with the company again, too… remember that gala?”
Nyx finally relaxed and stopped plotting how she was going to end Beyla when she got home. Honestly, I didn’t know if she did or didn’t go there with Marsden or why it bothered me that she might have. I mean, I had a succubus banker waiting for me, I should have been excited about that, but I wasn’t.
“Marsden takes it pretty far when he wants to be eccentric. When he wants to get weird, he usually talks for hours. He knew what would happen when he announced the cast, and he didn’t say a damn thing. Poor Bevan… he’s the nicest guy here, and Julian is going to destroy him.”
“I thought I was the nicest guy here?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be beating the ass of a succubus banker right now, Arden?”
“Because shewantsme to, and she likes it. I’m nice like that… I’m happy to stop and untie her if she uses her safe word.”
“You’re a totally kinky saint, asshole. If Beyla really didn’t fuck Marsden for a role, then she’s probably not into your whole spanky thing, ya know?”
“Who said anything about me spanking the new girl?”
“If you weren’t thinking about it, you’d be bad-mouthing her right along with me.”
Yeah, I totally would.
We heard the key in the lock, and Beyla walked in. She was still in her tights and leotard from class, but she had pulled on a pair of tattered shorts and a cut-up t-shirt. Her hair was still up in a tight bun, so she hadn’t been fucking anyone. Her cheeks were this adorable shade of pink from stomping up the stairs, because, half the time, the elevator wasn’t working.
“Hey,” I said.
Nyx said nothing. It was pretty obvious we were talking about her. Beyla said nothing. Fuckingawkward.
“Where have you been?” Nyx finally said, breaking the agonizing silence.
“Lunch, with Bevan.”
Nyx visibly relaxed, though probably only because Bevan was involved. Any sane person in the company had a soft spot for him. Nyx wouldn’t hurt Beyla, because it would hurt Bevan if they were friends.
“Okay, I don’t know what the shit was up with that casting, but Idid notfuck Marsden,” Beyla exploded. “I want to rip his balls off and shove them up his asshole, so hard that he barfs them out of his nose. I just spent an hour trying to come up with a battle plan with Bevan, Nicolai, and Merlin.”
Hold up. She ate lunch with Nicolai and Merlin? I mean, I believed her that she didn’t fuck Marsden, but why the fuck was she hanging out with those two?! I had a massive problem with that, but I didn’t even get a chance to process why I had a fucking problem with that… I just saw red.
Merlin and Nicolaineverhad lunch with anything with a vagina unless they were plotting how to plow it. They’d probably already made a bet about it.
“I warned you to stay away from those two,” I growled.
“Relax. Bevan invited me to lunch, and they crashed. Merlin tried his incubus thing with me, and I made him stop. Madame Lucinda wants me to try partnering with Bevan. He asked them to lay off and not ruin it by pulling their usual shit with me. I could have handled it on my own just fine, but they laid off when he asked them to. I’m not here to date anyone.”
Why did that bother me? I’d sworn off prissy ballerinas once I found out how into kink I was. There was always so much drama in the ballet world. Idid notneed to read someone wrong and try to bring them into my world. Kink shaming wasn’t remotely cool, so the last thing I needed was Julian getting wind of what I liked in the bedroom because he’d twist it into something ugly when it was really a beautiful thing.
He’d convince people I was this depraved psycho who enjoyed hurting women… I didn’t need the press getting ahold of that. They loved spinning the bad boy angle, and they’d eat it up if they found out about the dungeon I frequented. Julian would make sure what they printed was that I was abusive towards women, and it would end my career.
Beyla would lookspectaculartotally nude, and draped over my knee while I reddened that perky ass of hers. I could picture it in my head, and I wanted it. She didn’t strike me as a gossip that would tell everyone if I propositioned her with that.
I also got the feeling that, if she wasn’t into a little spanky spank, she’d kick my ass for asking, no matter how tactful I was when I brought it up. Yeah, I definitely needed to stick to my no ballerina rule and reschedule with that succubus banker.
So, why was I about to piss on her leg to mark her as mine… because she’d had lunch with Merlin and Nicolai?
“Partnering with Bevan?” Nyx said. “That’s interesting. Madame Lucinda usually pretends like new people don’t exist until their second class, but she’s always had a soft spot for him.”
