"Was adding Kayla to the mix too much? That was honestly mostly for Leigh's benefit--she's been lusting after Kayla since you told her about what happened with your first rule--but I figured you wouldn't mind watching her play with your toy."
"It's about the whole--everything!"
Dan did his best to keep from exploding. Not only did it not strike him as a productive way to hold this conversation, he was also trying to avoid waking up the three women in the next room. Once Song had recovered, he'd managed to convince her to extract Jennifer from the undulating mass on the patio and the two had headed back to his neighbor's apartment. He had then been able to collect Ashley and Leigh with a quick command, and the two women had half-carried Kayla into his bedroom.
From the sounds that had emerged, they hadn't gone directly to sleep, but once things got quiet he had poked his head through the door to discover Ashley on her back with Leigh and Kayla snuggled up to her sides. They'd looked unexpectedly cozy, given what they had been up to half an hour before, and he'd closed the door quietly to leave them to it.
"Women aren't toys, for one thing, they're people. Ashley and Leigh can't just- just belong to me. They're thinking, feeling beings. You can't just take their ability to choose away from them!"
"I mean, I definitely can, that one was actually way easier to do than the
Bakes and Beans
rule. The only hard part was limiting it to just your work. Now, once upon a time I would've let that net cast as far and wide as it wanted to, but the results of that kind of thing aren't actually as fun as you'd expect. I mean, it's hilarious at first as one woman after another starts showing up at some unbelieving dude's door, but sooner or later it turns into a logistics problem instead of anything sexy. I try to find a balance, you know?"
"Balance?" Dan was unable to hold back the note of disbelief that crept into his voice. "Kayla is naked and asleep in my bed, even though as far as I know she's still on the clock at
Bakes and Beans
."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that. As far as they're concerned, you're still topping her. She'll need to clock out at eight, but she's all yours until then."
"That doesn't make it better! Fuck, even leaving Kayla aside, Lindsey and Prita are small business owners. How are they meant to stay in business if their employees just wander off with their customers?" Dan had interviewed the owners of
Bakes and Beans
a couple of years ago as part of a series of articles, it was how he had found the cafe in the first place.
"They'll be fine. Better than, in fact--I'm sure you noticed that mornings there are busier than usual. It helps that every time one of their customers thinks back to their last cup of coffee they get a little tingle running down their spine. They might not understand why, but it keeps them coming back." The semi-translucent form of Faem swam slowly through the air as she responded to Dan without looking. She'd been hovering around his apartment since her emergence from Song an hour ago, and as the conversation had dragged on, the spectral woman had been growing visibly bored.
"They don't know why it's normal, but you weren't the only one who enjoyed watching Kayden getting turned from a high and mighty business man into Tessa's little cuntlicker. People like knowing that karma is real, and you injected a little extra into the world with your first rule. I just don't get what you're complaining about."
Faem was face up, only a few feet away from the ceiling of Dan's small apartment. Her long, unbound silver hair floated loosely around her as though suspended in slow-moving water, and her long legs kicked occasionally to propel her through the air as she scooted around his living room.
Dan was doing his best to ignore her appearance. Since her proportions were wildly improbable and covered in little more than a few strategically placed ribbons and scraps of black lace that was a little challenging, and the way that she kept positioning herself directly in his field of view had long since moved past the realm of coincidence.
"Because they didn't get a choice about it. Did Tessa want to expose herself to a packed cafe? Did she want some stranger's tongue in her privates when she got up and went to work that morning?"
"Yes, and yes. I mean, not that morning, in particular, but it wasn't the first time she thought about it. Is that what you think is going on? That I'm just forcing my whims on people?"
Dan paused. He had, actually, assumed that everyone he had inadvertently impacted with his rules had been an unwilling participant, so Faem's instant rejoinder brought him up short. "I mean... yes?"
The spectral woman floated around in front of him. Long white legs glided down in front of his face, followed by a close personal encounter with the tiny triangle of black silk that did more to reveal the shape of her sex than to hide it. The only reason her breasts' path didn't intersect with Dan's head was that as the Faem rotated herself upright, she also pulled back enough to make sure he got a good look at her face.
"Mister Taylor, I'm disappointed in you. Leigh has been fantasizing about some of the things she's done since--well, let's say there were some confusing urges dating back to just before puberty, and you haven't taken the time to find out why? That is not the behavior of a responsible pet owner."