“My God! You look like Lucifer himself took you home and chained you to a wall, with tentacles entering every orifice!” shouts an accented voice.
I look at Amanda, whose face is surprisingly angelic, ethereal and captive, as she searches the room for the source of that statement.
“Lüq?” she whispers, enraptured. I straighten.
She’s never said my name with that kind of reverence. She’s come damn close a few times in bed, but I think calling me God was justified then.
I have zero desire to see Lüq again, and the idea of a conversation with hu and Marie at the same time makes me want to rip my hair out, strand by strand.
Which would reduce the need for any grooming treatments for a while, but leave me looking like The Rock, muscles and all.
“Entheogenic Twins! How are you, Le Hawk?”
My fingers curl into fists as Amanda embraces Lüq, hu’s face calm and appreciative as hu’s hands sink into Amanda’s body, caressing and touching her like hu has a right to do so. Lüq’s got to be my dad’s age, right? Hu isn’t my competition.
“You are the most beautiful creature in this resort,” Lüq says to her, pulling back and stroking her hair.
“That’s my line,” I say. I’m not joking.
“You are orange,” hu declares, examining my face under the bright lights next to a fountain that has a strange, salty musk scent. “Evangi! Gagai!” Snap snap. “Get Mr. McCormick in the hot seat immediately!”
Hot seat?
A tiny little pixie of a girl with enormous eyes brings me a latte and we follow Amanda and Lüq. I take a sip. Not bad. a little watery, and the milk tastes sweet. Must be skim. I take a bigger gulp and wonder if Declan and Shannon are right.
Is the coffee next door better?
I hold out my palms in protest. “I’m not here for a treatment. We’re looking for Marie.”
“Marie?” Hu shudders. “That vile woman who is poor Mr. Declan McCormick’s mother-in-law? She is not here, but let us delight you with a surprise of self-care and compassion for your poor little pores!” Hu’s fingers flutter to my jaw. I stiffen, but let hu, wanting to gauge how far hu will go.
Studying people is a crucial part of being a CEO. In fact, it’s quality #1. You have to be able to map out people and understand their motivations and needs in any given situation so that you can exert authority.
“What did you do to them? They cry out in pain, my ears hearing them, the torture too much.” Hu’s voice goes falsetto. “Help us, Lüq! We are so dry and cramped, we need to be scratched smooth!”
He’s talking about my pores like they’re balls.
If he’s hearing my pores screaming in agony, then the entheogenic wine makes more sense. I look around for an empty bottle.
“Just go with it. Trust me. But don’t drink the hot spring water,” Amanda whispers in my ear, right before a tall, lithe woman wearing eye jewelry yanks me into another room.
“What?” I look through the threshold between the rooms.
Amanda gives me a little wave as Lüq undresses her.
Undresses.
“Hold on!” Definitely time to exert authority. Maybe I’ve underestimated hu. Lüq’s hands are on Amanda’s creamy, bare shoulders, and as her shirt slides down around her waist, she stands in the doorway wearing only a bra, the mist from what looks like a pool behind her curling around her, making her look like a Siren from Greek mythology.
I’ve got a siren going off in my own body all right. In my pants.
Which are being stripped off me by a woman who is wearing eye jewelry.
“Whoa, there! That’s my girlfriend’s job!” I choke out.
“Americans,” she mutters.
As I bat at her hands and try to maintain some sense of control and dignity, Amanda’s bra comes off. She’s half naked, twenty feet from me, and Lüq is helping her finish.
The same woman whose worst fear was being naked in public is undressing willingly in front of my spa manager.
Did we just have an entheogenic latte? Because this cannot be happening.
Pushing the Blade Runner chick’s hands aside, I march over to Amanda, my pants undone and belt clicking as it hits my fly. My hands are on her shoulders, brushing Lüq’s aside, as I turn my head and look at her.
She is enchanted by the pool before us, a hot spring designed to look like a rainforest.
And I am enchanted.
By her.
“Get out,” I say through gritted teeth. Lüq leaves instantly, abandoning Amanda to me.
As it should be.
“Marie’s not here, Amanda. Let’s go.” My mouth says let’s get out of here, but my hands say breasts.
Just...breasts.
Beautiful, slightly orange breasts that are bare in front of me, the hot spring mist wafting into the space between us, which I remove the second my hands find the soft, slight weight of her deliciously bare skin. They rest in my palms, a little larger than the span of my fingers, abundant and ripe.
Her sigh makes me glad my belt is undone, my zipper lowered, because I have room for the growing need that blooms when she sighs like that.
“Isn’t it beautiful here?” she asks, looking out at the lagoon-like pool. We’ve designed this part of Litraeon to be an oasis, a hothouse for orchids and stress relief, a place where women can hide from the cares of the world.
I stare at her chest, the rosy nipples tightening under my touch. “Yes.”
“I meant the hot spring.”
“I’ve got something hot that’s about to spring on you.”