Picking up on her mood, I gave her a little truth too as I smirked and whispered back loudly. “Well, I totally get that. Truth be told, the documents from your lawyer to get this meeting made my eyes cross in frustration, and I cursed him to Hell and back.” Her eyes got wide as she looked at him and giggled.
I straightened up and saw Balizar smirk while her lawyer’s eyes slightly narrowed at that Hell remark. Interesting. I needed to keep an eye out for him. He might be a human who knew about the demon world. I pushed out my magic, trying to see if I could feel a seal, but I was blocked. Even more interesting.
I moved my hand to her back, guiding her into the room with my killer panty melting smile, and she giggled again, telling Balizar that she liked me a lot with a flushed face. He mumbled that he’d known she would and guided her to the chair as he got her some water and a pastry. I looked back over at the lawyer. He was just staring at me with a blank face. It was different from how most people looked at me. It was either anger or lust or some form of jealousy, but with him, it was like he was a robot, cataloging everything he observed for later evaluation.
“Mr. North.” I lifted my hand, intending to shake. He looked at my hand for a few moments before he lifted his.
“Miss. Darkstar.” His formal deep voice reverberated over my skin as goosebumps followed in its wake.
I gave him a wide smile that showed my pearly whites. “Are you coming in or are you staying out? I think I would prefer if you would stay out, for my own selfishness, but I’m sure your client won’t appreciate that in the slightest.”
His eyes bore into mine, measuring my words and watching my face so that he could tell if the barest of tremble or movement happened before he tucked his head and walked past me into the room.
Well, this was either going to be very fun or very boring. Let’s hope for the former.
Ittookaboutfourhours of back and forth with this judgy, nitpicky, indelibly, insufferable lawyer, but we were at the last few pages of the contract. I could tell that both Balizar and Delany were getting tired. I caught Balizar dozing off a few times, and Delany kicked him under the table, but that was all I saw because my attention was solely on this man who aggravated me so much that my body temperature was feverish. It didn’t help that I also found this human arguer to be distractingly handsome.
I watched as his mouth moved, firm and precise. His carefully crafted facial hair only gave an edge to his look as it surrounded his lips and went up the sides of his gorgeous jawline. Several times, I caught myself envisioning a million different ways I could put a mouth like that to good work.
A few times, he’d caught me watching his long, artisan fingers flip through the pages. When I licked my lips, he stuttered and lost his place. I smiled that I had been able to throw him off his game. Later when I’d caught a mistake, his hand had tightened just the slightest as his jaw ticked. It excited me when I frustrated him. It felt like I was getting even when he did that. I felt like I needed him to pay in a way, as revenge for how much I was dripping between my legs.
I haven’t been with a human in so long. The pay out of power was usually not worth the trouble, but for this human, I might make an exception. It was like he was the original model for that stern, stoic type who was always in their heads, thinking instead of living. Bringing a human like that over to sin and relish in debauchery was its own kind of pleasure.
I didn’t do any of the mean things I was planning on doing: forgetting to order his lunch, putting salt in his coffee, interrupting him whenever he was talking a lot. No, I didn’t do any of that, because I was too caught up in trying to focus on the deal and not thinking about ripping his shirt off and fucking him right here. Balizar wouldn't have cared, but I definitely didn’t want to do that in front of Delany. I wanted to make sure she thought of me as a professional and didn’t regret giving me all the money she was.
His staunch and clipped voice came out. “So in this addendum, we wanted to make sure that Miss. Showstoff had a bowl of gummy bears, only the white ones, and at least ten Monster energy drinks—the zero carb ones—”
“Ya, I need to keep up with my figure, but I also need the energy since I’m up at all hours doing shows and interviews around the world,” Delany explained as she winced at the request.
I looked over at Balizar, silently asking him if she was for real because she was way too nice to be in entertainment. He nodded and shrugged, but I could see a twinkle of protectiveness in his eyes. He may have worked a deal with her for her soul or something to make her famous, but from just that look I could tell he also believed in her. It almost made me glad that a demon was in her corner, safeguarding her, even if he was also taking advantage.
“I saw the requests and they are hardly out of the realm of our scope.” I winked at her, letting her know that she would get the few small things she wanted. By how she blushed, I would say that she either had a crush on me or she was embarrassed by the request, which meant that Balizar had told her she needed some ridiculous demands to be thought of as important. It was a good move, but also one that was unnecessary for me.
“If you are up to suggestions, I would say that UpTime is a better drink for energy and taste. It uses natural sugar substitutes versus the other chemicals they put in Monsters.”
She looked surprised as she slowly nodded, smiling, liking my suggestions. This was how you kept clients loyal. You needed to be the expert for them.
“We will draw up another contract to amend for the changes,” Mr. North clipped out as he scribbled the notes on his notepad.
Delany rolled her eyes and looked at Balizar, who just nodded, signaling her to just keep with it for a little longer.
Mr. North apparently didn’t miss a thing. As he was writing, he said, “All of the major things that needed your input, Miss. Showstroff, has been taken care of. I only have a few things that I need to clear up with Miss. Darkstar, so you and your manager can go.” He paused for a second. “I think I remember you had dinner plans with a producer in about”—he looked at his watch, still not looking at them—“nineteen minutes. I would suggest you get a cab.”
Balizar popped up from his chair. “Shit! He’s right. We need to go, hun.”
Delany and I got up at the same time, and I hurried over to the conference door.
“It was so nice to get to meet you, Delany, and I would like to assure you that we will do our very best for you. And if for some reason we can’t, we will find someone who will. Here is my number.” I handed her my card. “You can call me whenever you want, and if I’m not able to answer, Cassandra, my assistant, will be able to take care of your needs. She’s even better than me.”
I raised my hand to shake goodbye, but Delany jumped into my arms and hugged me with a big squeeze.
“It was so nice to meet you, and I’m so excited. I look forward to working with you and your team!” She squeezed me again at the end and then let go as Balizar put a hand on her shoulder to get moving.
Yep, that girl needed a guiding hand to be able to survive in this cut-throat world. I looked at Balizar and he nodded seriously to me, both of us on the same page. Even though we were demons, even if we did bad things, when someone was ours, we protected them with our lives. Delany was now under my protection too as an asset, investment, and, secretly, because I just liked the damn girl. She was cute as a button.
“We’ll talk soon, Lil,” Balizar said as they left in a hurry.
As soon as I shut the door, I heard the man behind me still scribbling away with his fancy pen, and I turned around to look at him. I didn’t know what came over me. It might have been because I had been locked in a room with him all day, staring and fantasizing about him. It might’ve been the way he sat there looking so fucking perfect and put together that pushed me over the edge. Or maybe I was just a fucking demon and I wanted to, damn it! But I decided right then and there that I was going to have this safe human. I was going to fuck this human until all his perfectly laid strands of hair were in a disarray. I was going to savor making this man break for me.
