Page 7 of Moonlit Alexandrite

She reared back, confusion clear on her face. “Just then. I got a good meal out of that guy.”

She was serious, and I wasn’t sure whether to wrap her in cotton wool or be done with her.

“No, Red. When was the last time you were fucked? Hard and dirty, screaming orgasms that make you blackout so your succubus sleeps for days. You’ve been coming in here regularly over the past week, so that tells me you haven’t been... coming. Your alter-ego is living on fumes.”

She was panting heavily, her body pressed to my side and a light in her eyes that told me her succubus was listening carefully.

“Are you offering?” Her voice was deep with arousal, and it was this realization, as much as the question, that shook me out of the moment.

“No.” My voice was sharp as I stepped back, re-establishing some distance between our bodies. I cleared my throat and waved to Dash as he landed lightly beside us, having slid down a supporting beam from the top floor. The cat shifter was always up to something, but he had been distracted lately, and I had a hunch it was over a female. Good. Meant he wouldn’t get any ideas about this girl.

“Can you escort Red up for some air?”

Dash nodded, and placed a hand on her back to steer her away. Next thing I knew, I had his hand in a vice-like grip. Maybe he did need a little warning. “Only air, Dash. Understood?”

His brows hiked to his hairline, and I released my grip as quickly as I had grabbed him. The assessing glance he sent Red’s way implied Dash was making connections he had no right to.

“Yeah, no problem. Come on, girlie. Hey, you live with Colbie, right?”

They wandered away, chatting amicably, as I stood rooted to the spot. I would not follow. I would not make any territorial claims.

What the hell?

Thoroughly in a mood, I stomped over to the bar and waved at Dion to bring me some water. As he slid the glass toward me, he took a deep inhale and narrowed his eyes.

“Ren, is there any reason you are wandering around in a cloud of pheromones?”

I scowled harder.

“No.”

Chapter Four

Lex

Rusty, my wonderful capybara, met me at the door as I let myself into the apartment Colbie and I shared. The fact he was outside the apartment and chewing on the plastic decorative potted plant was neither here nor there.

I read somewhere once that capybaras were supposed to be smart. They were the largest members of the rodent family and looked like overgrown guinea pigs, but Rusty seemed to have missed the memo. He ate anything he could get his jaw around, and many things he couldn’t, which had led to awkward questions and property damage bills on more than one occasion.

Although he was quite the escape artist, so maybe he was smarter than we gave him credit for.

I waved him in after me and put more pellets in his feeder before flopping on the sofa in a heap. Tonight had not gone as expected. It had started off well; I had danced and felt the interest of several males. My succubus had fed and was feeling quite smug about pulling the attention of the dark god of a bouncer, when he turned the tables.

When was the last time you were fucked?

I shivered at the memory of his voice, a deep dark purr. The promise of so much more... until there wasn’t. He had back-flipped and palmed me off to his friend before I could register what was happening, and then he was gone. Don’t get me wrong, I mean, the other guy was pretty but... eh. Girl wanted the bouncer, and my succubus was still pouting that it hadn’t gone according to plan. The sound of my purse spilling over beside me brought me out of my funk, and I stared in shock at a small, oddly familiar black and yellow lizard... no... a salamander.

“Newt?” I asked cautiously, bending closer to look the amphibian in the eye. It blinked, it winked, and then I was staring at a naked five-year-old boy sitting beside me. I jerked backward to avoid being so close to his… let’s just say, I jerked back quickly.

“Hi.” He smiled shyly and waved.

“Uhhh....” I wasn’t sure what the etiquette was for inadvertently kidnapping the treasured son of a man my succubus wanted to bone. A man who had thoroughly rejected me only hours before. I supposed I could start by offering him some form of clothing. Maybe encourage him to remove his naked ass from my favorite lip-gloss, which was in my purse at the time of his shift.

“Can I... get you chocolate milk?” I offered. I had kept my voice low, but not quite enough, it seemed, as Rusty came barreling into the room. My boy had a weakness for chocolate and, much as I tried to convince him that it probably wasn’t good for capybaras, he wasn’t the easiest animal to get through to. Part of his charm, I guess.

I set both boys up, one with a glass, the other a bowl, and pondered my next move. The t-shirt I pulled over Newt’s head was a no-brainer, but how to get him back? After several hopeful ideas of mailing him, or hiring a delivery service, I resigned myself to walking him back to the club and hand-delivering the child to his father.

The street lights beat back the dark of the summer night as we walked the couple of blocks to Flare. In amicable silence, we passed through each pool of luminescence, Newt trotting happily along, while I tried to give myself a pep talk. My succubus, fickle bitch that she is, was salivating at the thought of getting close to that delicious hunk of man meat. The more sane part of my psyche was still smarting from his earlier rejection. Why couldn’t I have been an irresponsible adult and dumped the kid at the front door? We made our way past the shocked-looking blond, who was now watching the door, and descended into the darkness below. Anxiety and anticipation wriggled through my gut, as Newt led me through the dwindling crowd and brought me face-to-face with him. Ren. At least, that was the name the pirate guy had called him the other night.

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