“Have you exhausted all other options save the truth?” I wondered.
“Oh, I’m just getting started…” The bravado only lasted a moment before he sighed. “Fine, the real truth? I’m just doing a favor for a friend. This is a noble quest… or at least it’s as close as I come to noble. I came here on a fact-finding mission and maybe it sorta morphed into a search and seizure kinda deal, but that was just a moment of weakness! I got carried away.” He finally took a breath. “I have a tendency to do that.”
“I noticed.” So, I went with the direct approach. “Are you here to hurt anyone?”
"No,” he said. “Sometimes I end up hurting people when I don’t mean to, but I’m really trying my damndest not to screw anybody over these days. Not anymore."
Huh. He’d seemingly run out of excuses and deflections and something honest slipped out. Neither of us expected that painful truth to fall from his lips. His arousal dimmed with it, and I had trouble sensing more. Where was the familiar energy I’d been tracking? Dammit. Had I hit a dead end?
Oh, there! Right there. Wisps of the energy I looked for.
Our influence usually fell over a person like a fog, but this appeared differently, somewhere totally unexpected. The energy was… tied to his pulse?
My confusion gave the amateur mage enough time to rebound. He settled on a truly desperate, last-ditch approach: accusing me instead.
"Hey, who the hell are you anyway? How do I knowyouaren’t the one up to no good?" He strutted over with false bravado, almost poking his thumb into my chest before wisely thinking better of it at the last second.
“My name is Orion Lennox. Turning this around on me won’t work.”
"No?” Rob took that as a challenge. “I’m not totally convinced you’re even an incubus. Are you an incubus?"
"Yes."
Maybe eventheincubus. I ran the most successful club and led the most prominent den in the area. That gave me the power to request an audience with this supposed thief and his prize, and I convinced the club to let me handle him.
"Sorry, not buying it.” He looked me over once, then twice, like he had trouble tearing his eyes away. “Sure, you’re so hot you should come with a warning label so you don’t melt people’s eyes off. You still look more like the bouncer, not the main event. The other guy I get, but you? Where’s all the sex and seduction?”
“Is that what you want?” I murmured. “For me to seduce you?”
His mouth dropped for a second at the question. Then he backed up against the desk, shaking his head. "Nah, don’t bother with the sweet talk. I ain’t falling for that again and you’d look ridiculous batting your bedroom eyes and swaying your hips. You’re too dangerous.”
"Sometimes the things we know are bad for us are the most tempting."
"Preaching to the choir there,” Rob huffed, then gulped when he saw me watching him intently. “But you, how do you…"
"What, make people want me?” I smiled when delivering the simple answer. “I don’t.”
All I did was loosen my posture a tad and lower my voice. He leaned towards me even as his hands clenched against the desk to ground him there.
“The slightest bit of attention from me, or a moment of purposeful inattention, is all it takes, but even that is a bit too much effort. People are so willing to do anything they think will please me before even a drop of my energy enters a room. Understand yet?”
“Yeah, you’re hot shit.” His voice sounded rougher. “Your milkshake brings all the boys to the sex demon’s yard, they all come when you call.”
“No, not when I call,” I corrected. “They just come to me, so why bother calling?”
Rob might be stubborn enough to deny it, but I’d already hooked him too. All without using a hint of my power. If I reached out with my senses, his lust would be right there, just as ready to fall into my lap as him.
Even this little game between us was more work than I’d had to do in a long time to attract someone, which must be why it felt oddly rewarding. I had to forcibly stop myself from reaching out to him, physically or magically.
“Some people even enjoy begging for a taste of my energy.” My whisper traveled over him like a caress and he shivered. “You don’t strike me as someone who says no to all the vices this world has to offer. Would you be any different?”
This was the real trick of seduction. Our past ancestors were too desperate and starved to fully recognize this, and any sorely misguided fool who thought seducing involved tricks or convincing couldn’t be more wrong.
The easiest people to attract were always those whowantedto be seduced.
“Fuck it,” he breathed. He looked about ready to throw himself at me.
I wasn’t quite sure whether I’d pull him closer or push him away when I heard a noise from outside the room.
