Crazy Seduction(erotica)

Henry was mentally absorbed by a code trace when he heard someone calling his name. He looked towards the closed door and heard it again with a knock this time. He got up and opened the door to see Marisa giving him an exasperated glare.

“You called?” he asked hesitantly.

She pushed past him and marched over to his desk to look at his phone. With a frustrated snort, she poked a button to disable it.

“Don’t press this button! It prevents me from reaching you on the intercom!” she growled softly.

He moved closer to see which button she was pointing at. “I thought that was the Forward to Voicemail button.”

“No, that’s the next one down. This one is the Do Not Disturb button! How can someone so brilliant with computers get so confused with the phone system?” she insisted.

He couldn’t help but stare in awe as her beauty shone through her ire.

Seeing the adoration on his face, she sighed and shook her finger at him. “Push that button again without telling me first, and I’ll have it disabled!”

“Yes, Marisa,” he said meekly but with a little smile on his lips.

“You have a visitor. I’m sending him in.”

“Oh!” Henry looked at the clock. The day was getting away from him again.

A moment later Henry was looking at a vaguely familiar face which was smiling cautiously at him. The man walked in and closed the door behind himself.

“Oh! It’s you!” Henry gasped.

“Nate Walker. Henry Gable, yes?” Nate said holding his hand out to shake.

Henry shook it then gestured for him to sit. He took his chair and paused for a second. “Hang on.” He pressed the intercom button. “Marisa?”

“Yes?”

“How am I going to have a private conversation with Nate?” he asked, holding the eyes of the other man who looked back curiously at him.

Henry heard a click, then his door opened. Marisa looked him in the eye then touched his door jamb then tapped it. Then she closed the door once more. His phone beeped, and he activated the speaker. “Yes.”

“Privacy has been activated. Until the door opens again,” Marisa said.

“Ah! Thank you!”

After the click, Henry looked across at a man who’d shared the most profound, life-altering experience with him.

“How did those condoms work out for you?” Nate asked with a grin.

Stanley snorted in surprise at the question and smiled back at him. “Not the first thing I expected you to ask.”

“Yeah, well… not sure where to begin.” He gestured over his shoulder at the door. “Isn’t closing the door enough to have a private conversation?”

Henry sighed. “My office… ensures I don’t say anything about the…” He lifted his eyes to the ceiling speaker. “… Hidden Races.” When the speaker remained quiet, he relaxed. At Nate’s confused look, he explained as he pointed to the ceiling. “The speaker emits a sharp tone any time I say something I shouldn’t. It’s a training aid since I grew up oblivious to the existence of the Hidden Races and the reality of magic.”

“Yeah, it’s so hard not to say the wrong thing!” Nate gushed.

“The trick is to ignore it. I never wanted anything to do with any of this. Still don’t, to be honest. It’s easier to keep being human,” Henry sighed.

“But… you’re not,” Nate clarified.

“Right, but it’s ok to act as if you were because that’s what protects everyone,” Henry said.

Nate nodded. “You were at the marina. Part of the team who rescued me. I was on the ship with Sigrid, and we saw someone big crash through the gatehouse and charge down the pier right at Oletha. Sigrid said it was you. You looked totally badass!”

Henry squirmed. “I have no memory of that. I can’t remember anything from a few minutes before that happened to when I woke up in Sigrid’s guest room.”

“The lights went out, so I don’t know how you got past Oletha. When I got down to the dock the big redhead dude, uh… Roy, he was fishing you out of the water with Siobhan’s help.” Nate said with a grin.

Henry shrugged and changed the subject. “I was told that you’re from the past as well. Did you grow up with human parents?”

“Yeah, they’re amazing! They told me I was adopted, but I had no real interest in finding my birth parents. I call them every once in a while, but I haven’t visited my folks in months. Guess I’m a bad son,” he said with a guilty smile. “How about you?”

“I grew up with Baba Yaga.”

Nate’s eyebrows rose. “Isn’t she supposed to be some kind of Uber Witch or something?”

“To me, she was just my baba… grandmother. I only found out a short time ago that she’d collected me from my parents… an extremely long time ago. I grew up here, in the present. She’s since… disconnected herself from my life now, too.”

Nate saw the sadness in Henry’s eyes and realized he’d definitely gotten the better deal, parent-wise at least. He wasn’t sure what to say about that. He looked around the office. “I hear you’re good with computers.”

Henry gave him a small smile and shrugged. “I’m a tech nerd. Except for office telephones apparently. I completely lucked out to get a job with Camila’s company. Landing the CIO role right out of college was a fantasy come true!”

“Speaking of fantasies, how did you end up with Marisa as your assistant?” Nate asked with a broad smile.

Henry nodded. “Luck beyond anything I have ever experienced before. She was the executive assistant to the previous CIO, and she’s as brilliant as she is lovely. She gets tech. After we replaced all the servers and workstations, I asked her why she didn’t take the job for herself, but she said that while she understands much of it, she doesn’t have the desire to create and manage a network. She is a savant at organizing, so she helped me bring VRL from severe technical debt to cutting edge in a very brief period of time.” He realized he’d been gushing and Nate was grinning at him.

“Me thinks you like your executive assistant!” Nate chuckled.

Henry squirmed some more. “Of course, I do! What’s not to like!”

Nate leaned back in this chair and locked eyes with Henry who watched him cautiously.

“What do you like to do for fun, Henry? Dance clubs? Base jumping? Running naked through Central Park at night?”

Henry laughed as he recalled Queen Mab’s insistence that he refrain from doing dangerous things. “I’m just learning to dance. I’ve been to a dance club once. Someone spiked my drink and the evening went downhill from that point. Mostly, I’m pretty sedentary. Most of my hobbies revolve around computers.”

“You’re a gamer?” Nate asked with raised brows.”

“No, I’m more into researching the latest trends and coding.”

Nate grinned. “A serious young man! But you like dancing?”

“Learning to,” Henry nodded.

Nate smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Would you be resistant to the idea of enjoying another night out at a dance club?”

“No, I intend to give it another try. Did you and your friends end up going out that night we met in the drug store?” Henry asked curiously.

Nate barked a laugh. “You mean the night you had two tigresses fighting each other for the chance to party with you?”

Henry blushed and nodded.

“Naw, once the police got the ladies sorted out and took our statements none of us felt like hitting the club,” Nate said with a shrug.

“Sorry,” Henry said, knowing he’d been the cause for the ladies losing their cool.

“It’s fine. Not your fault! Anyway, it worked out for the best as we decided to go to more upscale clubs. That’s where I met Marisa and Siobhan. My life is looking better already! I had a job interview, and next week I start my new job. This is thanks to a reference Sigrid gave me. Everyone at VRL has been so amazing!”

Henry fondly smiled as he thought of his new family. “Yes, they are the best! It’s great to have such good friends!” Henry thought he should ask Nate a question, so he fumbled through one of his own. “What, ah, how do you relax and recharge?”

Nate smiled. “I visit art galleries and just soak in the talent.”

Henry’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Museums too?”This belongs to NôvelDrama.Org - ©.

“Yeah, originally I went to them to meet women and learn how to talk about art intelligently as the ladies like that. I frequently went until one day I discovered I truly enjoyed appreciating art! I fell in love with the work of the masters, and I became a bit of an expert on them if I do say so myself.” He gave Henry a grin which faded as he continued. “Unfortunately, I can’t visit them anymore.” At Henry’s curious look he explained. “I dated some of the ladies who work at the larger museums and… it didn’t end well. Now, they can be a little… resentful when I show up.”

Nate didn’t want to talk about that, so he thought of his friends instead and recalled the conversation he’d had with Camila about them. “You’ve met my crew, well… some of them. They’re lots of fun. I think you’d have a great time with them too. You should join us when we hit the clubs.” Henry smiled and nodded, so he continued his thought. “Do you hang out with anyone?”

Henry’s smile widened. “Yes! I met a neighbor in the building I live in, and she invited me to hang out with her friends. They all work together in a hospital.”

“Maybe we could all go to a club and get to know each other?” Nate suggested.

Henry nodded. “I’ll see if they’re up for that.”

“Great! Just to let you know, all my old friends are human,” he said.

“My friends are human too,” Henry stated.

Nate nodded. “So… Camila dropped a bomb on me recently. She told me my lifespan as an Incubus could run into multiple centuries. All of my friends are going to grow old and die while it will seem like I don’t age at all. She told me that before the age disparity becomes evident to them, I’ll have to move on.”

Henry’s smile slipped away. “Did she say how long Satyr’s live?”

Nate shook his head. “She didn’t know. I guess it’s going to be a wait and see thing. If you age at the same rate as them or close to it, then you get to keep your friends for that lifespan.” Now it was Nate’s turn to look a little sad.

“Shit,” Henry sighed. “It’s cool to think about getting to see the future but without my friends?”