Crazy Seduction(erotica)

Camila changed her glamor into her workout clothes before walking out of her washroom. She saw Henry had tidied himself up and was snoring softly. She paused to watch him for a moment and felt that odd tugging in her heart again. She gave her head a shake and went to her desk to call Sigrid.

“Hey, are you available now to join me in the gym?” she asked when Sigrid picked up.

“Now? Let me check,” the Head of HR said as she checked her calendar. “Yeah, I can spare an hour. I’ll meet you down there.”

Down there meant the basement where Roy’s security personnel had a gym. Once they built the boardroom, they realized they had sufficient space for this additional purpose. The team and a few executives were given access to it. No Humans were allowed inside. They’d be able to push themselves beyond Human capabilities, and she had energy to burn! It felt like she was walking an inch above the floor.

Camila gave Henry another fond look and added a trench coat over her skin tight workout clothes. She might meet some staff members on her way down in the elevator. No sense in driving them to distraction.

The security team in the gym was another thing. A little teasing was good for the soul.

Lorelei opened her eyes and stared at her living room ceiling, convinced she had somehow slipped into purgatory.

Her life felt empty and stagnant. Even painting was bringing her no joy.

When she thought back to when this began, she had to accept it was just before she sent Emily away. Her manipulation of people around her was like a slow-acting poison on her soul. She just felt more and more isolated.

She knew the cause. Her fear of this Hidden Races Council kept her from connecting with others, and she was sick of living in fear!

Finding the Council was proving to be almost impossible. Stumbling across non-humans was too infrequent, and the risk was too high. The Vampire couple seemed friendly, but they had no involvement with the people she needed to talk to. She didn’t know who she could trust.

She sat up on her couch and looked at her favorite painting. Today, even it brought her no peace.

With a sigh, she turned her thoughts to more mundane things like day to day living.

Her paintings brought in good money, but that might not last, so she needed to ensure the money she had was working for her. She started up her laptop and logged into her bank’s website to check her accounts and investments. Her accounts had the expected amounts, but she froze when she saw her investments. They weren’t growing! She was losing money! What the hell?!?

She grabbed her cell, called the branch she dealt with, and made her way through the phone maze to speak with her investment manager.

“Mike Collins speaking.” He sounded happy, at least.

“Mike, this is Lorelei Reichenbach. There seems to be some problems with my investment account. Its value dropped, and significantly.”

“Heh! Well, that doesn’t sound good! What’s your account ID? I’ll take a look.” The man’s bubbly attitude was starting to get on her nerves.

She read off the ID, and he mumbled to himself as she heard his hunting and pecking on his keyboard. Then a sigh.

“I see the issue. Those investment packages were reclassified by the US Treasury department. We had to reprocess them, and they incurred fees during that process. As this reduced their value below the new minimum levels, the accounts were downgraded, requiring additional fees. All of this was explained in the letter HQ sent out to all affected investors. You would have received it last week– I see the flag on your account indicating you did,” he explained.

Lorelei knew she hadn’t received any such notice. “I didn’t receive it.”

“Yet our records indicate we sent it,” Mike immediately replied. She knew he’d played this game with all of his affected clients.

Suddenly it was all too much. As much as she wanted to sing a song to Mike to help him discover the joy of forcing his bank forms up his ass, she kept her lips closed as she took deep breaths.

“Mike. Move the funds from my investments into my savings account.”

There was a pause as he would lose a commission if she dropped his investments. She hummed a little obedience tune. “I-I can do that. There’s a fee–”

“Waive the fee, Mike.”

His voice took on a whining tone. “I’ll have to pay the fee personally.”

“Mike, you’re the one who sold me the bad investment package. Don’t you feel any responsibility at all?”

“Nnnooo,” he sniveled.

“Waive the fee.”

More silence then a sullen response. “Okay, your money is in your savings account.”

“Thank you, Mike.” She hummed her forget-me refrain and hung up.

It was only then that she remembered the call was recorded. She shook her head as there was nothing she could do about it now.

What she needed to do was find a better place to manage her investments. She went online and did some searches for reliable, secure, conscientious investment management. There was so much out there. She added criteria for a local office as she wanted to speak face to face with someone. That didn’t really narrow her options too much. She knew she didn’t want some mainstream corporate giant as she was tired of being a number.

She sat pondering the sheer number of options she had and felt the weight of the decision weighing on her. She had to push forward, or nothing would happen.

Doing a search on where the investment houses were clustered in Lower Manhattan, she spotted one on the edge of a neighborhood she enjoyed spending time in. Good shops, good restaurants, and lovely streets for wandering in. It seemed like a dumb reason for picking an investment house, but it cost her nothing to click on the red pin.

VRL. She’d never heard of it. She opened the link to the website in a new browser tab so she wouldn’t lose her search results if this turned out to be a dud.

She was pleased by the clean, simple design of the website. There was a natural flow to the navigation of the pages, and that resonated with her. Someone working on this design was a kindred spirit. She smiled to herself then she tried to push the warm fuzzies aside. She read through the firm’s offerings, and they seemed open to dealing with individuals and businesses. They even had a section describing their recent investment in state-of-the-art security. That appealed to her.

Lorelei wrote down the name, number, and address as VRL was definitely a contender.

She went back to her search results page and checked out six more websites.

When she was done, she’d narrowed it down to three contenders. While VRL was sticking in her mind as her first choice, she wanted alternatives. She picked up her cell and started making calls. She wanted to set up appointments to speak to them.

Once more, the contact at VRL’s made her feel comfortable with their friendly, easy-going attitude. On her second call, her list’s newest investment house came across as a little more mercenary. The final call was to the most well-known investment house, but they had difficulty granting her an appointment the following day. They finally told her they would squeeze her in. This didn’t leave her with a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Now she had a plan to visit all three tomorrow and had appointments at all three. VRL would be last.

She understood getting control over her financial future wasn’t the answer to her issues… but it was a start.

Henry actually felt a lot better as he sat in the back of the black SUV Camila had arranged for him. She’d woken him, and they shared a shower together. Apparently, she’d gone for a workout to burn off the excess energy after their little playtime. She’d overdone it, and he massaged the knots from her muscles as best he could in the shower. As she purred about her, once again, loose muscles, she told him he had a career as a masseuse if the whole computer thing didn’t pan out.

More impressive to him was the fact that he’d actually managed to take a shower with a gorgeous, naked Succubus and not have sex! That was quite the achievement! He was very proud of his improved self-control.

Henry had to glamor some clothes for himself as the ones he’d worn to work had gotten a little sticky from their earlier fun. Not that he had any grounds to complain.

As they pulled up to her building, he saw it was an older, three-story structure but well maintained. It had character and was surrounded by similar apartments. He’d noted a subway entrance just up the street, so that was convenient. He didn’t know how long he’d be, so once they stopped, he let the driver know he’d find his own way home. The artificial man just nodded and headed back to VRL.

He’d stopped along the route to pick up a bottle of wine. The shop owner had suggested a crisp white like a Pinot Grigio to pair with the seafood pasta, so that’s what he had. He hoped Siobhan liked it. He’d be restricting himself to one glass.

She buzzed him into her building, and he took the stairs just inside the door to reach the top floor.

She opened the door before he knocked and dazzled him with a happy smile when she spotted the wine in his hands.

“Henry! How thoughtful!” she said as she accepted the bottle.

He smiled and leaned forward to give her a kiss on the cheek, but she managed to turn to catch his lips with hers for a brief kiss.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

Smiling mischievously, she ushered him inside. He slipped his shoes off and glanced around. It wasn’t a large space, but it was tastefully decorated, warm, and welcoming. He could see Siobhan’s affinity with nature in her choices of colors and textures throughout the apartment. Rich earth tones, fresh green, and deep blues were found in the comfortable-looking wood furniture, the cushions, and the window treatments. Small, flickering digital candles were placed randomly all around the combined dining and living room.