Chapter 51: Kiss From Both Sugar Mommy?
The lights in the foyer were on when I walked in, which ant Mira had not, in fact, gone ho. The kitchen lights were on too, and the small lamp in the living room, and the whole house slled faintly of sothing herbal that she had brewed in the ti I had been gone.
’My ho now slls like Mira. I should be more freaked out by that than I am.’
She was on the couch with her feet tucked under her, holding a steaming mug, scrolling on her phone in nothing but one of my t-shirts that ca down to mid-thigh, and damn near nothing else.
She looked up the mont the door clicked, smiled the small private Mira-smile, and didn’t move. "Sweetheart."
"Aunt." I dropped the keys in the bowl by the door. "You waited up."
"I told you I would. The bed’s better with you in it." She tilted her head. "Have a good night?"
"Have you been wearing my shirt this whole ti?" I asked in return.
"Mm. Stole it from the dryer. I look better in it than you do."
"Statistically yes." I walked over, leaned down, kissed the top of her head before she could turn her face up to be kissed properly.
She caught my chin and made
co back for it. The kiss was warm and slow and tasted like the herbal thing she’d been drinking, and her free hand slid up the back of my shirt with the sa unbothered confidence she did everything with.
She pulled back first. "You sll like another woman."
"Yeah."
"Sit down. Tell
everything please, I’m very curious."
I sat. She tucked herself against my side, mug balanced on one knee, the t-shirt riding up an inch in a way I refused to believe was unintentional.
I told her about the dinner, Tarek, Sienna, Lia in the car with the polished smile that didn’t match her eyes, the financial-first offer, her refusing to take it and run, the hotel.
I left out the parts that were Lia’s to tell.
She listened the whole way through, sipping her tea, mouth doing small expressive things at all the right monts. When I got to the part about the financial-first offer, the take the money, leave, never see
again version, she set the mug down.
"Sweetheart."
"Mm."
She grinned and said, "That is, possibly, the hottest thing you have ever told ."
"...What."
"Most rich n your age would have used the gap as leverage. You took it off the board before she could get to the negotiation. That girl is going to rember tonight forever, do you understand that? You ruined every other rich man who ever tries to put a price on her."
I scratched the back of my head, "I just... it seed like the right thing."
"Mm. Don’t get humble. Take the complint. It was the right thing AND it was strategic AND it was hot." She picked up the mug again and gave
a slow, considering look over the rim. "And then she agreed to the arrangent anyway."
"She wanted
as well as the help."
"Of course she did. You’d just made yourself the only safe rich man she’d ever t."
"...Damnation."
"Mm." Mira’s smile got a fraction wider. "So you’re a sugar daddy now."
I chuckled, "Apparently."
"My twenty-four-year-old sugar baby has beco soone else’s sugar daddy. The cycle of life. The food chain of late capitalism. I am so proud of you."
I rolled my eyes, "Stop."
"Never."
"I will move out of my own house."
"You can’t, sweetheart, you bought it." She kissed my jaw, light, mocking. "Was she good?"
"That’s hers, Aunt. I’m not putting her in your hands like that."
She paused. Then her smile did sothing soft I had only seen her do twice before in my life. "...Mm. That’s actually the right answer."
"Thank you."
"I was testing you."
"I know."
"Did you pass?"
"You’ll never tell ." I leaned in and kissed her again, slower, the kind of kiss that was a goodbye-for-now rather than a hello.
When she let
up, her hand stayed on the back of my neck. "I want you to do sothing for ."
"Anything."
"When you’re with another woman, sweetheart. Anyone. Lia, anyone after Lia. Co ho to
the sa night, if you can. Or first thing in the morning. Don’t make
wait for you. I can share you. I cannot wait around wondering."
I cupped her cheek. "Aunt. I’m here. Sa night."
"Good boy."
My lips twitched, "Don’t good boy
right after a ’don’t make
wait’ speech."
"Why not."
"Because I’m trying to leave for the apocalypse."
She laughed, properly laughed, and then she leaned back, eyes fond, hair a ss, my t-shirt riding up another inch. "Go see your other girlfriend, sweetheart. Tell her hi for . We need to et, eventually."
"You want to et her?" I asked. Now that was surprising.
"I want to vet her, technically. But yes."
"That sounds like a war cri in waiting."
"Mm. Possibly. Run along."
I ran along.
...
The jump took, as always, the half-second of pressure-shift that didn’t quite feel real, and then I was standing in the small open courtyard of the safehouse on the other side, blinking at the watery morning sun on a planet that should not have a morning sun.
I had about one second to register the ti before sothing hit
at chest height and pinned
to the wall of the safehouse.
"Lukas."
"Oh, hi—"
She kissed
hard enough that the back of my head t the wall behind , hands fisted in my collar, body pressed full-length against mine. The kiss had teeth and tongue and a feral quality I had co to associate with Zero having missed
longer than her dignity was prepared to admit.
When she pulled back, she didn’t let go of my collar. She leaned in close, eyes half-lidded, and sniffed .
Her face did several things in sequence — curiosity, surprise, recognition, a small unhappy twitch.
"...You sll like two won."
"I...yes."
"Two, sugar boy."
"...Yes. Confird. Two."
She pulled back another half-inch and looked at
with the exact tilt of head she got when she was processing whether to be entertained or whether to break sothing.
I went for the deflection. "Are you a dog?"
She blinked.
"This is the second ti you’ve sniffed
to gather intelligence and I just want you to know that’s a very dog thing to do. I love you. I support you. But it’s worth flagging."
She stared at . Then she laughed properly, head thrown back, the dangerous version of her face dissolving into the warm version in a single exhale.
"I can be your pet if you want, sugar boy. Bark. Roll over. Sit at your feet during etings."
"That is escalating the joke, not deflating it."
"I escalate everything." She caught my collar again, gentler this ti, and pressed her forehead against mine. "Tell ."
"Tell you what."
"You know what."
"...Right." I took a breath. "So. I had a long day."
"Mm."
"There were two."
"I noticed."
"Mira and a girl nad Lia."
"Lia."
"Lia. Twenty, university, Tarek’s friend’s friend, ca to dinner planning to make
her sugar daddy, ended up with a sugar daddy on her own terms instead of the bad version. We..yes. We slept together."
Zero’s face went carefully still. Not the I’m about to break a wall still. The I am processing and I would like a mont still.
"And Mira."
"And Mira. Yes. Today. Earth-ti. We talked, we made the relationship official, and we...yeah. We did."
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