Crazy Seduction(erotica)

Soft music was playing, and the artist was singing in a language that teased his brain.

A small kitchen was tucked into the corner, and heavenly scents were floating out its door.

“Something smells wonderful!” Henry said with a wide smile.

“Thank you, Henry!” Siobhan said, preening as if he’d just complimented her. Henry glanced at her in surprise, then gave her a raised brow as she giggled.

“How went your big meeting today?” she asked over her shoulder as she went to the kitchen to chill the wine.

Henry nodded to himself. “Camila said it was a success, so that’s good enough for me.”

“That’s wonderful! Give me a sec and make yourself comfortable.”

Henry sat on the sofa and took in the art around the room. Beautiful seashells, surf-polished glass, some rough but interesting stones, and photos of wild coastlines with rustic cottages on hillsides. And sheep. He spotted several small plush sheep dolls scattered throughout the apartment.

Siobhan returned from the kitchen, and Henry turned his face to her. “Sheep?”Material © of NôvelDrama.Org.

She blushed as her eyes darted around to touch on the members of her flock. “Yes, they remind me of my childhood.”

“Ireland?” he asked, nodding towards the picture of the hillside cottage.

Her smile softened as she nodded.

“Do you go back?” he asked.

She shook her head, and her smile became a little sad. “Nothing to go back to. My parents have passed on, and I’ve no other family left in Ireland. After I left, I lived with relatives in a small village on Canada’s east coast for a few years. Then I set off on my own to go to University in Montreal for three years. Finally, I moved here and got a job at VRL. The rest is history.” Henry grinned at her. “Dinner’s ready. Come on.”

She led him over to the small table and got him seated. Then she went back into the kitchen. She returned moments later with the bottle of wine and a corkscrew, setting both down before him.

“Uh, I’ve never uncorked a wine bottle before,” Henry admitted sheepishly.

“You bring them but don’t open them? For shame! I’ll teach you in a moment,” she said with a cheeky smile as she headed back to the kitchen.

Henry examined the bottle and the tools while he waited. Soon enough, she arrived with their dinner plates. The scent instantly made Henry’s mouth water.

“Oh, man! I must be hungrier than I thought as I’m about to drool over the place settings. That smells incredibly good!” he exclaimed.

She curtsied while holding a plate in each hand, then set them down on the table.

Henry smiled as he admired the plate of delicious-looking angel hair pasta with the pan-seared scallops and shrimp. He spotted button mushrooms and peas, maybe some chopped shallots and diced garlic as well. He had to swallow again as his fingers itched to pick up the fork and dig in.

Instead, as promised, Siobhan took her seat and directed Henry on the art of opening a corked wine bottle.

She sighed as he poured a little wine into a glass for her to taste. “It’s a shame, really, but this skill may soon no longer be needed. Screw top bottles are taking over. The tradition of uncorking will be lost.”

Henry just gave her a sympathetic look, though the screw top idea sounded acceptable to him.

She smiled as she swallowed the wine. “Excellent choice, Henry!” He poured more into her glass and some into his.

He chuckled. “I’ll be sure to tell the salesman in the wine shop he has good taste.” He lifted his glass and smiled at the beauty. “To good friends, a great meal, and success in your future!”

She smiled and nodded to him as she touched his glass with hers. They sipped as they smiled at each other.

“I never got a chance to ask you how you like your new job in the Marketing department,” Henry said as he lifted his fork.

“Oh, I love it! It’s so much more fulfilling than working in the assistant pool. I really get to flex my creative side,” she said with a happy sigh.

Henry took a bite, and his taste buds cried out in ecstasy. He savored the first bite until he was forced to swallow. “This is delicious!!!” he exclaimed, and Siobhan grinned happily as she enjoyed a forkful herself.

When Henry recovered from his first bite, he caught Siobhan’s eye.

“It was your idea to update our marketing materials with information about our improved security, wasn’t it,” he said with a grin.

She put an innocent expression on her face. “Not if you’re speaking to Mr. Duncan, it wasn’t. I heard he was less than pleased with the idea.”

Henry chuckled. “Yeah, when I backed Rosalind’s request, he wasn’t too happy with me either. I’ve been keeping an eye on the traffic, and while there has been an uptick in suspect connections, no real threats have emerged yet. I assume this message was also added to our website?”

Siobhan’s look of pride was unmistakable. “Yes, and they’ve even let me assist with designing the website’s look and feel. That’s what I love the most in my new job!”

“The truly fortunate are those who work at what they love,” he said with a sigh, then caught Siobhan grinning at him. He smiled self-consciously. “I-I think I read that on a greeting card once.”

They enjoyed their meal and the wine, but Henry refused a top-up on his glass as they finished up. “I can only have one a day.”

“You’re a cheap drunk?” she grinned.

“The cheapest!” he blurted, and she giggled. “I don’t understand why my tolerance for alcohol is so minimal.”

“There’s nothing wrong with getting a little relaxed, Henry,” the brunette gently teased.

“I agree, but when I get really drunk, which doesn’t seem to take too much, my mind gets tugged out of my body, and it goes on a walkabout. That’s what Tish calls it.”

Siobhan’s eyes widened. “You have an out of body experience? Where does it take you?” She pictured floating above the city and maybe circling the Statue of Liberty, which was pretty close to his condo.

Henry sighed. “Well, I’ve orbited the planet… uh, I lost track of how many times. I visited Kansas once, a mountaintop somewhere in China, and most recently, I was in Kuwait City.” His smile became a little brittle. He had to pull his thoughts away from that. Far away.

Siobhan was stunned. That was… much too far to be separated from your body. Her mouth opened and closed. She wasn’t sure what to say.

“Actually, the farthest I’ve been was to the world of Wild Magic… though I’m not sure if you can measure the distance as I’m told it’s just another dimension overlaying our own. An alternate Earth, I suppose,” he pondered on that, oblivious to the shock on his dinner companion’s face.

“Henry, it shouldn’t be possible for you to be that far away from your body,” Siobhan said quietly.

He looked at her and saw she seemed upset. He reached out and placed his hand over hers. “There is so much happening to me and around me that I can’t explain and can’t control. It’s the damn magic. I don’t want it, but I don’t have any choice about that either. I really don’t like leaving my body behind when I go flitting around the sky. I feel even less in control than I usually do.

“Can you feel the magic?” she asked with a strange enthusiasm.

He watched her as he shook his head and saw she seemed to be coming to a decision about something.

“Selkies can,” she almost blurted.

He realized this was the thing she hadn’t wanted to say in his office. He wondered why she had now.

She pushed on. “We’re connected to its flow. Just as we can feel the currents of the oceans we swim in, the currents in the magic that touches… everything around us, speak to us. We can pick up on the location of Humans moving through it untouched. We feel conduits like us absorbing it, slowing the current by the smallest increments. I’m always amazed no one else can feel wielders bending the flow to their will and altering its course.” She saw Henry was listening with interest and flashed a quick smile at him. “Since my change, I can’t feel that sensation anymore. I miss it. I didn’t realize how much I’d come to depend on it. I’m hoping the loss is due to my transformation being incomplete.” She caught Henry’s look of worry and raised a hand. “I know. Its loss may be permanent. The Wild Magic changed me in incredible ways, and my new state is such an improvement over how it used to be, but if there’s any chance that I might be able to get that ability back, I’d like to try.”

He still has a look of concern on his face. “What is it, Henry?”

“This current of magic, now that I think about it, I have felt it.”

Siobhan’s eyes widened excitedly. “When?”

He nodded as his mind went back to his most recent experience. “It was when I was out of body. My mind floated up into the sky, and the magic was drawing me around the world.” He looked into her eyes. “How strong was the current you felt?”

Her eyes took on a dreamy quality. “The pace of the current changes. It rushes then ebbs. It’s mostly a gentle flow.”

He shrugged as there was no way to compare their experiences with exact accuracy as it was subjective. “When I was up in the sky, the Wild Magic felt more like a raging river. I couldn’t fight it. I just let it take me where it wanted to go. Maybe down here, it will be calmer.”

Siobhan’s expression told him she was not in the slightest deterred by his words.

Henry nodded. “Anything you need– I’ll do– uh, sure.” His face felt hot, and Siobhan giggled at his flustered state. “How-how should we begin?” he asked.

She stood and held out a hand to him. He took it as he stood and let her draw him into the small living room. As he watched her curiously, she had him help her move the coffee table to open the space, and then she put on some slow music. “How about we start off with a dance?” she said softly.

He grinned self-consciously and nodded. “That sounds great.”

He took her in his arms, and they began to sway gently. “You and Marisa seem to enjoy going to dance clubs.”

She glanced up with a crooked smile and saw he was just curious. “Yes, it’s fun to dance, and teasing the Romeos is even more fun. Marisa does it to feed, as well, but I’m just looking for a quick tumble in the sheets. A lady needs a little stress relief once in a while.”