Hi, all! Annabelle Hawthorne back again with yet another chapter of "Mike Radley let a nymph blow him in the tub and now all hell has broken loose somehow in Hawaii!"
New Reader? Hello and greetings! This is a weird place to start, but I'm not your mother. Mike is the good guy, we want him to get laid and win. If you would like to know more, please read the other hundred-plus chapters.
Note: For those of you who would like a chronological reading order for the full story, here you go!
Last of Her Kind (Prequel story)
Home for Horny Monsters Chapters 1-42
Dead and Horny Chapters 1-12
Home for Horny Monsters Book 43-78
Dead and Horny Chapters 13-24
Home for Horny Monsters 79-current
Returning Reader? Welcome back, I missed you! I've been so busy this summer that these Literotica posts are my only temporal checkpoint for the passage of time. I walked outside the other day and it was actually chilly with the scent of pumpkin spice lingering in the air. Naturally, it must be fall!
I want to thank my readers here for supporting me with so many lovely comments, stars, and emails. Hopefully the reading order above helps some of you out, that's been a big request.
I would also like to personally thank people who continue to share their stories with me in regards to the events of Ch. 93. One of my favorite parts about writing Last of Her Kind was getting to read letters from veterans who shared their own service stories, and Ch. 93 has yielded similar, bittersweet letters. I'm glad I could touch so many of you emotionally and that you were comfortable sharing your own stories with me.
Don't forget to check my bio for release dates, I may be a bit of an airhead at times, but I do try hard to stick to those! Without further adieu, let's get this party started and head straight for the
Heart of the Mountain
Beth stepped out of the elevator and was greeted by the sight of Aurora. The woman had dark patches under her eyes that concealer had failed to hide, her disheveled hair piled on top of her head and held in place by a hairpin with a tropical flower on the end.
"Good morning," she said, her smile not quite reaching her eyes. "The Director has arranged breakfast for you in a special location. If you would follow me."
The woman turned away before Beth could respond. From behind, she could actually see that Aurora was clutching her clipboard so hard that her fingertips had turned white.
Beth was led past the dining room and the exit to the pool deck, then up a short flight of stairs to an outdoor patio she had never seen before. Pausing to take in the view, she realized that the patio itself should have been visible from her own balcony. With very little effort, she was able to see the edges of the illusionary spell that shimmered just beyond the patio's boundary.
"Well done." The words came from an Indian man sitting at an ornate dining table. His skin was the color of topaz, and smooth as if he had been carved directly from the earth. Though his eyes were brown, they had an intensity that pulled her in, set beneath a pair of well trimmed eyebrows. The left one had a tiny scar where the hair didn't grow. His nose was wide with a waxed handlebar mustache beneath. He rose, revealing that he was wearing a full suit despite the warm weather. "Most people aren't able to see the illusion from the inside."
"Is this you?" she asked. "Or just an enchanted array of some sort."
"Come," the Director said, gesturing at the seat opposite him. "Sit."
Beth moved to join him, fully aware that he had ignored her question.
"You stood me up last night," she said.
The Director nodded. "You have my full apologies," he said. "Though my physical presence is here, I was caught up in an operation in another time zone. Things did not go as expected, so I had to sit down with some of my people afterward to come up with a different approach."
Beth wondered if he was referring to the house or the attempt on Mike's life. There wasn't a way to ask without letting on how much she knew, and she got the feeling that this man was as slippery as he looked. So she looked down at the table setting before her and cleared her throat. "I don't have a menu," she said.
"I ordered for both of us." He smiled, and she felt a brief pulse of magic wash over her. It tried to cling to her body, but slipped across her skin and then dissipated in the air. Uncertain what had just happened, she gave the man a smile as if she hadn't noticed.
"What are we having?"
He grinned and sat forward in his chair. "We're going to start with a light fruit salad, followed by a croque madame with some toast. I assume you like mimosas?" Another pulse of magic came off of him. This time, it clung to Beth's skin like spidersilk, and it took some effort to push it away with her magic. The Director studied her intently, as if waiting for a reaction.
"Who doesn't like mimosas?" The moment she spoke, a crystalline glass was set down next to her by a member of the wait staff. She looked up to see a man with tousled brown hair and scars along one cheek. The moment they made eye contact, the man's eyes flashed red and he winked, unseen by the Director.
Lily. If the succubus was there, at least Beth didn't have to worry about something being slipped into her food. Beth watched as Lily served the Director his own mimosa and then walked back to the kitchen.
"Cheers." The Director held his glass up, and Beth joined him. They clinked glasses and then sipped at their drinks. They were cool and refreshing. Beth noticed right away that hers didn't seem to have any alcohol.
"So do you have a name?" Beth asked, setting her drink down. "Or do I just call you Director?"
The Director smirked. "Names are power, so I would prefer that you just use my title."
"Well, okay then." She set her drink down and crossed her arms, leaning forward to reveal more cleavage. "I guess that puts us normal people at a disadvantage. Just a quick internet search and you have all our information at your fingertips."
The man laughed, his demeanor suddenly friendly. "It almost seems intentional, doesn't it? The amount of information available at one's fingertips. In my day, you often had to resort to subterfuge to acquire a person's full name, especially if they were wary of enemy spellcasters."
"In your day? You look like you couldn't be a day older than forty."
The Director ignored her question, his attention shifting to the ocean. She followed his gaze, but couldn't figure out what he was looking at. He drank some more mimosa, so Beth copied him and pretended she didn't notice the odd silence. His eyes flicked toward her when she did this, so she went ahead and drank the rest of her glass. The man smiled, his mustache twitching in response.
"These are really good," she said. The Director snapped his fingers, and Lily reappeared with a decanter. The succubus refilled Beth's drink, then vanished from sight once again.
"Speaking of information, it's rather remarkable how little we know about Mike Radley." The Director leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. Another pulse of magic came off of him, but Beth was expecting it. The moment it touched her skin, her own magic churned and shoved it away. Instead of calling him out for his behavior, she smiled and allowed one of her straps to slide down her arm. If she had to guess, he was attempting to charm her or gain her trust, but it was clear he was unaware if the spell worked or not.
She made sure to drink some more of her fake mimosa before answering. This seemed to please the Director, too.
"Well," she began, taking a moment to examine the rim of her glass. "Part of that is because he was a web developer. I bet he scrubbed his own data from the internet out of habit."
"I see. If I remember correctly, it was you that found him, yes?" The Director placed his elbows on the table and leaned forward, the fingers of both hands now intertwined to make a single fist.
"It was." She thought back to that day when she had been at her desk, idly working on something else, and an email had come through from a genealogy service she didn't remember hiring. She would later check her records and discover that she had, in fact, paid them some months prior to do a search on Emily's family. They had given her Mike's phone number and email. She had called him right away, and their conversation had been relatively brief. He had questioned her intensely, immediately suspicious that the whole thing was a scam. Once she provided her credentials, he had sounded intrigued. She promptly sent a copy of the legal documents to his email address, but she wouldn't forget how the conversation had ended.
"By the way," Mike had asked. "How did you get this phone number? It shouldn't be listed anywhere."
"It's my job," she replied, trying not to smirk. Discovering Mike had been nothing but sheer luck, but she wasn't about to give that away. "And I'm very good at it. I'll see you soon."
"So you knew him before he became the Caretaker?"