9. She’s With Me

CLOVER

“This beast clearly sent us to the wrong place, Clo. You shouldn’t trust him.” Mip grumbles as we wait in a luxurious lobby.

Golden marble floors with coliseum type pillars at each corner of the room give way to golden crystal chandeliers, and servers carrying trays that only hold one drink to people at tables. Everyone is dressed in fine dresses and suits. The women are all stunning. They look like a fashion show. I stand out in my patchy jeans and off-the-shoulder top I made myself.

“Do you think I should have worn a dress? Maybe he won’t be interested if I’m not dressed to match all this.” I twist my hands together.

“He will find you stunning, love. You have nothing to fret over,” Aldrich whispers over my shoulder, his lips ghosting across my cheek in a kiss.

He keeps finding ways to kiss me, and I adore it. This mate thing might work out all right.

I blush and giggle, which turns into a full laugh when Mip demands, “Stop doing that to Clover!” and charges at Aldrich, pulling his little toothpick sword, Needlestrike, from its tiny scabbard and falling to the floor when Aldrich deftly dodges his strike while keeping a hand on my shoulder.

“You missed,” Aldrich says.

“I—YOU!” Mip huffs, and I quickly pick him up.

“Mip, you know you’re supposed to be a doll in front of others. You can’t move around too much,” I say, lifting him up to my shoulder.

Mip grumbles and takes a seat while glaring at Aldrich, and I shake my head. “Remember the last time that kid tried to kidnap you so he could make himself internet famous?”

“He started it, and I don’t think that woman is going to send down who you’re hoping for.”

I sigh. I do hope Mip will come around to like my mates. It has been just us two for years now. Maybe he just needs more time to adjust.

“Hmmm, but I did ask her for the man upstairs, and Aldrich said he was upstairs.”

“Excuse me, can I help you?” a very big, very bald man dressed in an all-black suit asks as he walks up to me.

I bend my head back a bit to look up at him. “Oh, no, thank you, unless those drinks are free!” I say, pointing at a waitress who goes by with a sparkly yellow drink that looks fizzy and sweet. “Then I’ll take two of those, please. One for me and my boyfriend? Well, I think he qualifies as a boyfriend.” I tilt my head sideways to look at Aldrich.

Aldrich stands a bit straighter and smiles at me. “If boyfriend means mate, then yes, I most certainly am. And I don’t think I can drink anything.”

I nod, looking back at the man. “Oh right, never mind. Just one drink, please.” I give the man a big smile.

He, however, does not smile back; he stays very grouchy with his arms crossed.

“Very serious man, I getcha,” I say, patting his overly muscled arm. “Sometimes it’s good to be a serious person. Though I try not to be. I enjoy the whimsy of it all.” I gesture around me, spinning in place.

He looks me up and down slowly. “Did you pay the entrance fee?”

“Entrance fee?” I repeat, then whisper to Mip, “There was an entrance fee?”

“Yes, the entrance fee,” he says slowly. “The host at the front would have collected the two grand to enter.”

“Host at the front? I didn’t see a host. When I was walking up the stairs out front, a guy with dark, curly hair and hawk-like eyes near the cars pointed me to the side of the building and told me to enter there.”

His brows crinkle. “You work here?”

“Uhm… no?”

“Then I will need you to leave, ma’am.”

“Oh, I can’t do that. I’m here to find my mate,” I inform him.

“Clover, why don’t we—” Aldrich gets cut off by the man who clearly doesn’t see or hear him.

“I’m sure you are. Let’s go, turn your tricks somewhere else,” he announces louder than necessary.

“I swear I’m not tricking anyone,” I tell the clearly confused man.

He grabs me by the arm a bit too tightly, and I let out a cry of pain, tears welling in my eyes, because ouch, dammit.

“Excuse me, but that hurts,” I say, really not wanting to try to fight the big man. I am not the fighter type, and he’s like… five of me.

Aldrich’s hand snaps out to hit the man in the face, but nothing happens. It’s like an invisible wall sits between the man and him.

“I can’t even touch a human man? A bloody human?!” He tries to grab the man and pry his hand off me. When that fails, he breaks out into a slew of outrageous statements that make no sense to me, but I can only assume are explicit. “Ye hollow-mouthed, lily-livered, fen-sucked nut-hook. By oddsfish, thy vile canker-blossom’d countenance shall be met with my fist!”

The man leans in a bit too close. “Listen, if you wait out back behind the casino at six, my shift ends. You can cry those pretty tears while you choke on my—” The man yelps very unmanly like, and I gasp. Mip’s little toothpick sword is jutting out of the man’s hand.

“Oh, fuzzballs. Not good.”

“Finally,” Aldrich says as an insanely handsome Middle Eastern man steps up behind mister baldy guy.

This man is put together. Like… every little thing on him sits just right. He has ebony-black hair shorter on the sides and longer up top, perfect for running my fingers through. A short, trimmed beard and mustache. His chin has all the right angles, and it’s paired with a straight nose, perfect brows, and bright red eyes that seem to lock onto mine. My heart starts going crazy in my chest.

“Wow.”

Golden rings glitter in the light as he places his hand on the bald man’s shoulder, and a loud pop fills the air. Baldy screams, and his hand releases me immediately.

Aldrich gently rubs it. “Are you all right, Clover? I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything I tried, but—” He looks down at my arm, his shoulders slump as his eyebrows draw together in worry. He looks crestfallen and worried and I don’t want him to feel either of those things, ever.

“I’m okay. I’ll probably have a bruise, but I bruise easily.”

However, it’s not Aldrich but the new man who responds. “Bruised?” His hand snaps out, and he has the big guy who has to weigh three hundred plus pounds off the ground with one hand.

The man’s feet kick, and he gasps. “Please, Sir.”

“This mate of yours seems mildly unhinged. Perhaps we should go find the other,” Mip squeaks out as Aldrich says, “Show off.”

“Uhm, hello. I’m Clover!”

The new man snaps his head back to me. His dark brows draw down over his red eyes as he frowns. He looks back at the man he’s holding, then drops him, glancing at his own hand and opening and closing it a few times before adjusting a ring and looking confused by his own actions. Baldy lies crumpled on the floor, taking deep breaths and trying, and failing, to be inconspicuous about it.

“Explain,” the man demands in a very sexy, demand-y sort of way that has me shivering.

I kinda want him to demand more. I open my mouth to explain just as the man crumpled at the feet of Mr. Handsome stutters out, “She’s an escort, sir. I was just taking her out.” He cradles his shoulder, his arm dangling awkwardly by his side.

“I am not an escort,” I say, incredulous. I’ve been with some people on my travels. Sex is fun, but I’ve certainly never been paid for my time, nor have I offered services to anyone.

“Go get your arm fixed. She’s with me.”

“Sir, this establishment doesn’t allow for?—”

“I did not ask what it allowed. You—” He points at another man dressed like Mr. Baldy, who was standing wide-eyed to the side along with two dozen or so others. All of whom are staring at us. “Take him up to the main office. Tell Amias I sent him.”

The man adjusts the sleeves of his suit and moves closer to me. He looks expensive. And very kissable. Damn, my mate is hot.

He looks at the crowd of onlookers. “Show is over. Everyone, enjoy your evening.”

They all quickly shuffle away as if the hounds of hell are nipping at their heels.

Mip leaves the doll body for a moment and jumps onto Aldrich’s shoulder. Aldrich lets go of my arm, and they both slowly circle my new mate. Once back by my side, Mip climbs into my hair, and Aldrich huffs.

Mip says, “I like the new guy,” at the same time Aldrich mutters, “Freaking demons. Of course, he’s a demon. It just had to be one of them.” I barely hear him over Mip, who’s next to my ear.

This guy’s a deacon? Or did he say demon? No, he seems nice. He did just help me, and he’s my mate.

“You’re a deacon?!” I gasp, looking at his collar but not seeing the white square thing they always have. Just smooth, dark skin that looks lickable. Deacons do have the squares right? Or was it priests? Either way, this man is far too sinful-looking for that; his black-and-red suit, his red eyes, his black hair… all of it.

“I said demon, Clover, not deacon,” Aldrich says, palming his face.

The man laughs. “Certainly not. As far from that as one can be. I am Kushim. Pleasure to meet you, Miss Clover.”

“Oh, a demon. And very nice to meet you,” I say, giving him an air curtsy, since I don’t have a dress on.

He smirks and smiles. “A witch, I presume?” He watches me carefully, and I feel like he is logging every detail of my face into a mental catalog. It’s intense.

“I think so.” I nod, smiling.

“Could I convince you to join me for dinner?”

“Oh yes, I would love that,” I glance at everyone else around, then back at my outfit. “I don’t think I am dressed for this place, though.”

“Nonsense, you are lovely.” When I worry my lip, he leans closer to me. “But if you wish for something else, I can arrange that.”

“Really?” I blink up at him.

“Yes, I know just the place to go.” He holds out his hand.

I take it and smile. He gives me the most devilish grin I’ve ever seen on a man.

“When you smile like that, it feels like the devil is luring me into the dark. But is it strange that I think I like it?” Mip chirps a “Yes, yes, it is,” as Aldrich simply shakes his head.

Kushim chuckles. “Not at all, my dear, not at all.”