Love, Laugh, Lich (Claws & Cubicles Book 1)

When I came in to work the next day, my desk was decorated with confetti. My old, cleaned out cubicle, that is.

The rest of the office apparently knew it was my five-year anniversary, and Janice had even taken the opportunity to bring in sugarless cupcakes. I honestly still can’t tell if that was a kind gesture or not.

At least they didn’t know I’d already moved desks, and my actual working desk in the Dark Sanctum’s waiting room is still perfectly clean. Still, I linger out at the emptied cubicle with my planner, figuring out my day’s to-do list while accepting various good wishes from the accounting department. Randall even gives me a card, which is unexpectedly sweet of him.

I duck into the washroom after someone releases a handful of confetti over my head alongside their happy-five-years proclamations and as I’m picking the pieces out of my hair, my eyes fall on the necklace chain that leads under my dress, the pendant hidden under my collar.

I’d spent every spare moment I had before work trying to decide whether or not to wear it at all. It was a little cheesy, wearing a necklace with the Evil Regime’s symbol on it to the office. It’s not like I need to advertise to everyone.

But Soven had looked so proud of himself after giving it to me, I felt guilty leaving it at home. It wasn’t that it wasn’t lovely; it was what it meant. Or all the things it didn’t mean that I had hoped it would, like some silly, stupid mortal would. Eventually I had compromised and worn it, but tucked it under my top.

I fidget with the chain a moment, before eventually deciding to pull it out, and let it sit on display over my breast. If there would be one day to wear it, I guess it would have to be my five-year anniversary at this job.

I wear it out to the office, returning to my desk in the waiting room.

It’s oddly quiet here, and I don’t know if I like that. I’ve been craving this quiet, this privacy, all week while waiting to have my desk back, but now I don’t have anything to distract me from eyeing the small space between my desk and the doors of the Dark Sanctum.

It’s as I glance the other direction, that it hits me. The ceiling to floor long window is gone. I used to be able to look out of it across the office, wave at people sitting in the cubicles. Now there’s just a wall there.

It’s isolating. Why on earth would Soven get rid of the window?

I jump as I hear Soven call my name from the other side of those doors.

“Lily?”

I sit still and stare for a moment. Of course he’d know I’d be here, this is where I usually am. I don’t know if I’m dreading or hoping to cross that threshold between us. I know I can’t stop thinking about him, but I also know how easily he could break my heart.

I stand, and take a moment to smooth out my skirt, like it will make any difference. He’s seen me beyond disheveled before. I’m delaying.

I open the Sanctum doors, peering inside. As my eyes adjust to the light, I see that his desk is empty. My brows furrow, as my gaze drifts over the built in bookshelves and cases of ingredients, and the small library of alchemical texts.

“You called, Soven?” I call out, looking around in all the usual spots. While it’s still at the forefront of my mind, I ask, “And what’s with the uh, whole thing about my window being gone?”

Then I spot Soven, in the middle of the ritual floor.

The altar is different than usual. Today it’s a seat large enough to accommodate Soven, and he leans back comfortably in it, naked, three dicks draped artfully over his thigh. 

I am a little flustered to see him like this, after all, it is first thing in the morning.

The sight of him, the knowledge of the passion and exhilaration that he can provoke in my body during these rituals, instantly ignites a warmth low in my stomach and kindles a wetness between my legs.

“Oh,” I say, shutting the door behind me and crossing to stand before him.  I feel a little silly, having brought in my planner and itinerary for the day, as well as a freshly inked quill. I doubt very much he wants to hear if he has any messages or appointments right now.

Soven nods, gesturing me to come closer with his claw. I quickly abandon my planner and quill to the nearest table, step up onto the platform, sidling into his lap, as has become somewhat normal for us in the last week.

“I have something new for you today,” he purrs, tracing his claw down the cleft of my cheeks through my skirt.

My body responds with a wave of heat and a flutter of excitement. “What is it?”

He opens a glass bottle full of a dark blue liquid that shimmers in the candlelight. I watch as he reaches over to a table, picking up something small.

Soven catches my eye, the curiosity plain on my face. “Lift your skirt,” he nods to me.

I lean back in his lap, pulling my skirt up to my stomach, spreading my legs wide.

“This is the surprise?” I ask, my eyes on the little thing in his hand. It’s metallic, sort of egg shaped, until it flares out at the bottom. It takes me a moment before I realize where I’ve seen one of those before. Oh.

“This is for preparation,” he says, dipping it in the bottle of shimmery liquid.

“You have… another ritual in mind?” I ask, glancing around where we stand. The runes are dim, the candles burn a normal color.

Soven holds my gaze and after a moment, nods. “One I think you’ll enjoy.”

My faces heats up as I think about it. I’m excited by the idea of him exploring me fully, pushing me to my limits, but something snags in my mind. What if I’m getting too tangled up in him and these rituals and my feelings?

I must get a little too lost in my thoughts, because he pulls me from them, brushing my hair back from my face with a gentle stroke of his claw.

“Ready?” he rumbles, grazing that precise, careful touch down my cheek.

I could say no, and push away from him. Push away from all these feelings clouding my heart, distracting me from my job. It’s not in me to break my own heart though. I don’t think I could give up all these moments with him just to protect my heart.

I nod, and he turns me over to lay on my back, dragging his long, hot tongue through the cleft of my ass cheeks. The feeling almost like when he fucked me from behind on his largest dick, the way the little sucker on his top cock would graze and tease my asshole. After a few licks, I can feel him press the toy at my entrance.

“Do it,” I say, firmer in my resolve. I meant it that first day that I wanted him to need me.

He pushes the toy a little harder, I gasp aloud as it penetrates my ass, slick and easy, sliding inside me and staying there. The pressure of it is new and I want more of it.

And then, that’s it.

I wait for more for a few seconds, wondering if he’s giving me a moment to adjust. A few too many moments go by with no new sensations, no new experimentation. I sit up and look at Soven.

“That will be all,” he says, bottling the liquid up again.

I frown, perplexed. That’s really it?

When it appears that is indeed everything, I hop off his lap and brush down my skirt into place. I’ll have his little toy in me all day long, and the thought of that secret between us makes me smile.

I start to cross the Sanctum back to my desk, when the toy gives a little pulse of pleasure, stopping me in my tracks.

I stop and look back at Soven, the lazy way he strokes a large hand up and down his third, bottom cock. That one has yet to be in me, or really take part in our activities. I’d been beginning to wonder if it had any use at all.

My face lights up as I put the pieces together, and Soven chuckles at my eagerness.

I slip outside the Dark Sanctum, leaving the door open a sliver. When I sit down at my desk, I can still smell the freshness of the paint from time to time, but that’s hardly at the forefront of my mind as I sit down and feel the way the toy stretches my hole, the press of it inside me.

Preparation, right.