Chapter 8
Sitting in my office one floor above the casino level, I drummed my fingers across the glossy black desk.
My eyes remained on the two wide set monitors before me displaying a grid of camera feeds.
The black and white images showed me the inside of my living room and outside the front door of my penthouse.
I watched Eve wander around, scoping out our place. Intentionally, I had left the door unlocked to see if she would immediately flee. There was no reason for my Little Spade to run from me, but I needed to know how much of an eye I needed to keep on her—a test of trust, if you would.
My phone, currently on speaker, rested on my desk as I waited patiently for my best friend to pick up my call.
“Caz, you lazy fuck,” I muttered right before his voice greeted me.
“You have reached His Royal Highness, Casimir. Speak,” he stated with a lofty and absurdly regal tone.
He should have added ‘Ultimate Lord of Laziness’ to his title. Rolling my eyes at his pomp and circumstance, I leaned back in my chair. “I’m impressed you answered the call yourself. It must have taken such a great effort on your part. You didn’t pull a muscle, did you?”
He sighed with an overdramatic flair. “You have no idea. Lily keeps insisting I do things myself.”
Good for her. She’s been the best thing for Caz since…well, ever. I’ve never seen the man work so hard in his life, which wasn’t saying much if you had ever met the bastard.
“Glad it’s not just me harping on you anymore.” I shifted in my seat to lean forward. “Look, I have a few things I want to run by you.”
I tapped a few keys on my keyboard and brought up the video feed of the vampire from the tournament earlier tonight. He currently paced within a cell located in Sevenfold’s basement. Supernatural warding prevented him from getting too close to the bars without extreme and debilitating pain.
“Mmm, hit me,” Caz purred into the phone, actually purring like a house cat.
I groaned. “Jesus fuck, Caz. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Oh, sorry. Lily was doing this thing where she—”
“Focus! Damn, dude.” I shook my head and continued on my original train of thought. “You ever have a vamp in your club by the name of Percy Corliss? He came rolling in here tonight, causing trouble with my Little Spade. I’m looking to figure out how much punishment he deserves.”
“Wait,” Caz’s voice perked up with interest as he interrupted me from speaking further. “Your Little Spade? You finally fucking found her, man? Halle-fucking-lujah! I hope you fucked her on the spot so I can stop hearing about how much your balls hurt all the time.”
Grunting at the reminder of how they still ached, my hand fell to the front of my pants and adjusted myself again. My eyes fell on the video where Eve admired the room I had put together just for her, and my hand squeezed the semi-hard outline of my cock before I forced myself to withdraw.
“You did fuck her, right?” He cut right to the chase.
“Not yet.” Not for lack of desire, that was for damn sure.
“What the hell, Ace! Are you just trying to see if your dick is going to fall off? What’s the damn problem? It turn out she’s ugly or some shit? Ow!”
I heard Lily in the background scolding him. He was getting off easy; I would have thrown a punch straight to his pretty boy face.
Sighing tiredly, I responded, “Not remotely, Caz. She’s everything I envisioned and more. A pain in my fucking ass, but perfect.”
He groaned. “Then what’s the damn problem? Performance anxiety? Look, I got solutions for that. Just a snap of my fingers, and both of you can have your orgasms. Instant happy endings all around.”
I tensed. Nobody was giving Eve her release but me. Caz may have been blessed with the ability to instantly give people orgasms with a literal snap of his fingers, but I preferred more traditional methods.
Knowing that I was going to regret divulging my predicament, Caz would behave like a dog with a bone once he latched onto something that intrigued him.
“She’s a virgin,” I murmured before sitting back in my plush leather chair. My hand drifted back down to my dick. Resting my hand there as a pitiful means of easing the strain of my erection against my pants did little to satisfy the downright fucking tortuous ache.
Immediately, I was greeted with laughter on the other end of the line that bordered on psychotic.
Fuckhead.
I didn’t find the situation humorous at all.
“Hahaha! W-w-wait. Hold up. She’s a virgin? Oh man, that’s too rich. That poor girl is going to have her world rocked. Some of the girls here at Acedia still talk about how much their pussies haven’t recovered from the way you pounded them straight into next century.”
My jaw clenched as he continued to find amusement in my suffering. “Can we get back to the reason I called, jackass?”
Still struggling to contain his chuckles, Caz audibly drew in a deep breath. “Fine, but you should bring her to the club sometime soon.”
“Sure,” I agreed, just wanting to move on to the matter at hand. “Like I was saying, this bloodsucker caused some trouble in my casino. He looked a little too eager to get a taste of my girl.”
“What did you say his name is? Percy?” He engaged in some muffled discussions, presumably with Lily, before he spoke back into the phone. “He’s been forever blacklisted from Acedia.”
It took a lot to get permanently banned from Caz’s sex club, so this was great news as far as I was concerned.
Even though I had been on a temporary suspension from Acedia, it was only because the girl I had been with couldn’t keep up with my cock.
That would no longer be a concern now that Eve had finally arrived.
“Great. Then, I can go ahead and punish him as I see fit?” There was a hum of excitement building in my muscles at the thought of giving this undead motherfucker exactly what he deserved.
“Ace, are you asking for my princely approval to end this piece of shit? Because…granted.” There was no mistaking the pleasure in his voice as he gave me explicit permission to wipe this asshole from existence.
It was a bunch of bureaucratic red tape, but being a Knight of Hell didn’t allow me to be the judge, jury, and executioner.
Not without express approval from a Prince of Hell, and fortunately Caz often saw eye-to-eye with me on these matters.
If he didn’t? Usually, the threat of a grueling workout with me at the gym was enough to sway him.
“Consider it a done deal,” I said as my eyes flicked back to the video of my Little Spade. It seemed she was testing her limits and making her way out of the penthouse.
Sitting upright with a grunt, I snatched up my phone from my desk. “Caz, I gotta go.”
Not waiting for a response, I hung up on him, sliding my phone back into my pocket as I stood.
I closely watched her every move from the moment she got into the elevator. There wasn’t any part of my casino that didn’t have cameras, making it easy to track her throughout the building and around the perimeter of it.
The screen showed her heading straight for the front doors. Oh no, this definitely would not do.
With confidence in her stride, it was clear she was dead set on leaving me. However, she would be sorely mistaken if she thought I was going to release her from her obligations and allow her to flee into the night.
I abandoned my suit jacket on the back of my chair before briskly exiting my office.
I had hoped Eve would pass my little test for her.
Now knowing that she was so willing to go back on her word, I had no other choice but to teach her a very valuable lesson.
Nobody welched on their debts to me, and my Little Spade would be no exception.
Sprinting down the service stairwell to the casino floor, I darted through the rows of slot machines until I pushed through the main doors onto the sidewalk out front.
Could I have called security to stop her from leaving?
Sure, but there was no sense in making a scene in front of all the clientele who were busy forking their money over to me on lost gambles.
Even under the most challenging of circumstances, I prided myself on playing the role of an owner who kept his cool in any situation.
However, Eve was proving to test my self-control in that regard.
I doubted that she was going to come back with me quietly, forcing me to follow her outside into the open.
It was primetime on the main drag of Superbia.
Neon signs lit up the strip with enough luminosity to chase back the dark of the night.
Peoples of all breeds crowded the walkway, coming and going to their chosen vice.
Some sought pleasures of the skin, others collected debts, but all of them indulged in deadly sins that were ingrained in all of us.
Eyes locked on her diluted red strands of hair that called out to me like a lighthouse calls to the ships at sea.
Trailing behind her, I maintained enough distance to try and determine her grand plans.
Did she truly expect to just walk out of Sevenfold and go back to her life like I didn’t exist? Like there was nothing between us?
I didn’t need a vision to tell me that wasn’t going to happen. Not now, not ever.
For just a moment, I lost sight of her around a corner, but her perfume still lingered in the air. The intoxicating scent of black currants blended with irises let me know that she wasn’t too far away.
My mind raced with all the things I wanted to do to her once I caught up to my naughty obsession.
Picturing the surprise on her face, and perhaps even the tiniest of gasps, already had my dick springing back to life.
Fuck, maybe I’d drag her to Caz’s club after all and show her my favorite private suite there.