Looking at this setting, and these people, I wondered how the hell she had found Magick. Because at this point, I had to admit that she was capable - a fucking pain in my ass, but at least she knew what she was doing. How Arlo knew to call in a Witch was a conversation for another day. It seemed the old man still had some tricks up his sleeve when it came to running our family. It grated me in every direction to admit that I would never have thought to bring someone like her in.
I sipped my drink, swirling the whiskey around a bit before finally swallowing. I still wasn’t sure she could help us, but I was sure that she knew her way around Magick. I fidgeted with my bracelet. The stones felt foreign to me, pressing against my skin. No one had ever made me anything before, and I wondered if there was a type of Magick in actually physically making something for someone and gifting it to them. Or maybe this place, these people, and her were making me fucking soft.
I pulled out my phone, messaging Ravi to check in on things. He was yet to meet the Vedman, and voiced this in continuation. I would have to take her to the club - there was no getting around that. I heard the low rumble of greetings as someone new joined the table.
“Who did you bring with you, Corinne?”
I snapped my head up to gaze at a bronze haired man in a navy suit. He was not like the rest of the bland men at this godforsaken function, and the way he was looking at Corinne annoyed the fuck out of me.
“I’m her plus one,” I spoke to no one in particular, gliding my hand above her dress and onto her thigh. I felt her breath hitch at the contact, but she merely smiled at the newcomer.
“Dimitri,” I stretched out my hand in greeting.
“Mark,” he squeezed in response.
Corinne, thankfully, didn’t object or challenge me this time.
“Your mother didn’t mention that you would be bringing a date,” Mark’s gaze lingered on mine and I smiled in challenge.
“Change of plans,” she shrugged nonchalantly.
It irked me that she didn’t expand further on who I was - even if she had to fabricate some story, because now I was sitting at the table in silence like some fucker who was just her sidekick.
For the next few weeks that she was contracted to us, she would not be dating or seeing anyone - I would make sure of that. I demanded excellence in all aspects of my life, and if I now had to include Magick in that, then the same measures would apply to her.
“What do you do, Mark?” I put on my best private school boy tone that I could muster, dusting it off and fitting it on for precisely this moment.
“I’m in property - development specifically,” he replied with a knowing smirk. Mark waited a beat before asking, “How about you?”
The fucker was expecting me to say some bullshit about the stock market or some other shit.
Keeping up pretenses, I glided my fingers along her thigh, stroking her skin through the thin fabric of her dress.
I placed my glass of bourbon on the table and smiled, “Property you say? We just upgraded our grain silos, modernizing them.”
Corinne stiffened at the mention of the silos, but it was Mark’s narrowing gaze that I was watching for. Did he know who I was? Had he heard the myths and stories associated with the silos? I fucking hoped so.
“I see,” his voice was much more subdued this time, “so you are into the grain production business?”
I smiled, fucker was trying to fish - trying to place me. Maybe it was to get to Corinne or perhaps it would be so that he could scuttle off and call up her family, only to inform them that she was hanging out with the big bad wolf. Either way, I didn’t give a fuck.
“It’s one of my investments.”
Mark glared at me, and it was the moment where everything shifted. He knew who I was, what threat I posed. Now, let’s see what he did with that information. How a man acted under pressure was more telling than any stock market stats they could dish out in polite company.
Corinne reached over, her hand gliding against my thigh as she squeezed down hard. It was probably in warning - an effort to shut me up, but it didn’t have that effect at all. If anything it sent sparks shooting straight to my dick. I needed to get this shit under control.
Finally, Mark excused himself, and I made a mental note to track him down and see what he did with the information he now had.
I continued to run my hand along Corinne’s thigh and occasionally her voice wobbled or she became slightly breathy, but she still managed to maintain conversation with these bores. Although most of her answers were strained smiles of acknowledgement, ‘hmmms’ and ‘yes’, and the occasional, ‘is that so’ - and the fact that she was so damn affected by me made some small part of me ease in the knowledge that none of the men in this room did anything for her.
The rest of the evening ticked by both deathly slowly, and simultaneously too fast - it was a blur of business conversations and how-do-you-dos. It was the subtle shift of Corinne’s body, the way that at one point in the evening she found herself leaning into me, only to catch herself, a frown marring her lovely face. It was the tray of shots that had been ordered, the slight hesitation on her face before she wrapped her lips around the tall shot glass, swallowing down that liquid fire. It was the passionate discussion she engaged in about the necessity of education.
Corinne had not been what I had expected - not at all, and I still didn’t understand why she was still here - why she hadn’t fled.
By the time the evening came to an end, and we were forced to sit through the auction - which was really more of a platform for these men to show off their wealth in what they were offering up in lieu of ‘the children’, Corinne played the part, resting her head against my shoulder.
Some man offered up one of Napoleon's tea-sets in the auction, being sure to highlight the papers of authenticity on hand, and I watched Corinne’s eyes light up at that little piece of history. Without thinking about it, I raised my hand and placed a bid. She jolted against me, her shock mirroring exactly how I felt. I had no idea why I had done what I had - maybe it was the fact that my mother had a china tea set that she would pull out for special occasions and holidays, or maybe it was the fact that Corinne had looked at it with such longing - and I knew what it felt like to want something so badly that it hurt to breathe and not be able to have it. Instead, I simply shrugged by way of reply, and when the next man raised the bid, I stayed my hand, refusing to participate any further in the auction, even if I wanted to.
My control had slipped, and that was unacceptable.