“Do you mind sticking around for a bit, just until Sable is settled,” Flea said to me as he went to close the blinds at the front of the shop.
“What?”
“She’s going to have to take her top and bra off for this and y’know, after Me Too, I like to make sure everyone’s comfortable,” he said.
I looked over at Sable, who didn’t seem uncomfortable at all. I was forced to look away as she took clothes off without compunction.
“Where do you want me?” she said.
She was standing facing away from the front door so no one could see anything other than her bare back. Flea, on the other hand, would get an unobscured view of her very fit body as soon as he turned around from tracing her design onto transfer paper.
“You sure?” I said. I watched the girl’s eyes rake over his arm muscles as they flexed and shifted. I was feeling really uncomfortable like I was in the middle of something.
“Yeah, why?” he shifted and then stopped, eyes widening when he saw the topless Sable. “Just lie down on the bench, love. There’s a cloth there to cover yourself with.” She did as she was told, moving with cat-like grace. The curse of the McKinnon sisters was such that we would have fallen on the floor if we tried something similar.
Can I go now? I thought, looking at Flea and then his client. Is everyone comfortable? I really need to talk to Ash about this meeting with the Mirenese clients. What did we agree to again? I grabbed out my phone, flicking through the many notes I’d taken lately. It had got out that Nan’s shop was back open and the portal side of the business was really picking up. I wonder if there’s an inter-galactic Yellow Pages we could list with?
Flea shifted on his wheelie stool, skating over to where Sable lay on the bench. “Just applying the stencil and then you can take a look.” He glanced up at me as he smoothed the paper over her back. “You going to the party at Gabe’s tonight?”
“A party at Gabe Browning’s?” the girl said, her voice partially muffled by her arms. “I’d love to! They’re mental.”
His hands stopped, and he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Yeah, she was plenty comfortable, and she was getting my dragon rider tattooed on her back. “I’ve got to go,” I said. “We have a business meeting in two minutes.”
“Tess…”
4
“So how’d that go?” Ash said as I strode back in.
“Is there a party tonight at Gabe’s?”
“Party?” Jez clambered out from under the pile of guys. She still had clothes on, that was a plus.
“Oh shit, there is too. I think it’s Macca’s birthday. I better get him something and remind Gabe. Shane tends to organise the social side of things, Gabe’s hopeless. He just bankrolls them and turns up.”
“Shane?” Jez said. She turned to the fellas with a smile. “Tess, you want your harem to come to this party tonight, don’t you?”
Five sets of eyes swivelled around to look at me, which was kind of unnerving. “Yes, yes I do,” I said.
“Well, alright then! Let’s do some work first. Tess wants us to count all the items on this whole wall. It makes her super horny to see you working,” Jez said. She corralled them like a group of really big kids, setting each one a task with an unnaturally upbeat tone. Talon, (or was it Braden?) ambled over anyway.
“Babe, you sure this is what you want us doing? Seems like we could be spending our time a lot more productively.” Hands snaked around my waist and I was pulled against his body so I could feel very clearly just what he was thinking.
“Gotta do a business…thing,” I said, prying mine away from his. “You stay here, help Jez with the stocktake. Stocktake = sexy. So, so sexy.” This prompted the rest of them to start pulling out items and counting it in as smouldering a manner as they could manage. It was no mean feat. Both Ash and I looking on with horrified fascination as crystal wands were stroked and jewellery was burnished against their bare flesh.
“Wow, I actually feel sorry for you right now,” Ash said. “C’mon, let’s do this meeting.”
“With all due respect, I’m not paying that,” Ash said.
“Ah…” I said, watching the two little men’s faces start to go red. These were representatives from the largest supplier of cockatrice feet in the whole of Mireen. Masters Lanwin and Horni had deigned to take this meeting after a lot of overtures, offers and downright pleading on my part. Oh God, now she’s standing again. The men, not even five foot tall each, were forced to peer up at her as she towered over them. And she was raising her bloody voice. She’d sound like a foghorn to the sensitive ears of the gnomes.
“Ash…” I said.
“What?”
Fuck, she’s frowning. She’s got that flushed, flashy eye thing going on that Gabe seems to think is super-hot and pisses off just about everyone else.
“How about we take a break for a minute?” And by we, I mean you. “I’ve got some lovely king prawns I picked up fresh from the markets. I was told the Earthen seafood is a delicacy in Mireen?”