Naughty Karma

Chapter Thirteen Negotiations and Other Foreplay

“I need your help.”

A tactful man would nod graciously, acknowledging how difficult it was for Karma to say those words to him. A wise man would keep his mouth shut, being smart enough to quit while he was ahead. But fuck it, wisdom and tact had never been part of his playbook. Prometheus flashed his teeth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that. Give it to me one more time. Nice and slow.”

Finely drawn brows lowered sharply. “May I remind you that you still need my goodwill, Prometheus?”

“You may, but you can’t blame me for enjoying the fact that now you need something from me too.”

“Need might be putting it a little strongly. Let’s just say I would appreciate your assistance.”

He rocked back in his chair, tipping it onto two legs. “Far be it from me to interfere with your appreciation of me.”

“Can we have a serious conversation about this or are you going to be picking apart every word I say?”

“Can’t we do both?” When she glowered, he held up his hands in defense. “Fine. Have it your way. We’ll be serious. So what is it you seriously need my help with?”

Karma took a breath and a moment to collect her thoughts. She sat regally behind her desk, perfectly manicured hands laced on its surface, every hair in place. She was Ms. Poise again, a far cry from the frantic desperation of yesterday. He liked her like this. She was so much more fun to push when she had the presence of mind to push back.

“Yesterday,” she said, as if the word left a questionable aftertaste on her tongue, “you helped me access my abilities and unblock one of my consultants, possibly saving her life.”

“And I enjoyed every second of it. Let me know if I can help you unblock any other inhibitions you might be harboring.”

“That’s what I’d like to talk to you about, actually. I’ve come to the conclusion that my unwillingness to use my abilities to their fullest potential might be negatively impacting my employees. Therefore I would like to take you up on your offer to assist me in accessing them.”

Prometheus felt himself smiling and had to stop himself from rubbing his hands together like Dr. Evil. He was finally going to get his hands on Karma—metaphorically speaking—and all that delicious, repressed power. Not only was the idea beyond tantalizing, it also meant she would be able to control her abilities when the time came to free him from Deuma. And if he could ingratiate himself to her in the process… “When do we start?”

“As soon as we’ve established a few ground rules.”

He should’ve known she’d try to suck the fun out of it with rules and regulations. “That isn’t how this is going to work. If I’m the teacher, that means I get to set the rules and I say no rules.”

“Then we won’t call them rules.”

“This isn’t a semantic issue. Magic doesn’t fall into neat little categories. If you want to learn how to play with this toy of yours, we need some room to maneuver. I can’t constantly be worrying about not stepping over some invisible line. It’s more an art than a science.”

“Even artists obey the laws of physics.”

“To Dali, gravity was nothing more than an idea to play with. We don’t do laws.”

“Then how about boundaries? Such as I won’t be asked to do anything illegal or unethical.”

“Ethics are so subjective. One woman’s unethical is another man’s entertainment.”

She ignored his editorializing, pressing on as if he hadn’t spoken. “And I think we should establish up front that there won’t be any more physical contact.”

“Not even a high five?”

“Prometheus.”

“Oh. You mean no sex. What if it was just casual sex?”

Her lips pursed repressively. “I only do serious sex.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” He swept a look from her tidy bun to the polish on her shoes. She probably had very dignified orgasms. “No wonder you’re so tense.”

“Trust a man to think all a woman’s problems can be solved with his penis.”

“Not all your problems, maybe, but I’m willing to give it a try if you are.”

“No. Thank you.”

She didn’t move a muscle. There was no hint of a blush. If he hadn’t been able to see the agitation of her aura, the tinges of lustful reds, he never would have known that he got under Karma’s skin. But luckily aura reading was one of his many skills and Karma was much more interested than she cared to let on. He wanted to touch that aura, to wrap it around him until they bled into each other. There was such power in her and she didn’t even know it. Or if she knew it, she wished she didn’t. This was a woman with incredible powers of self-denial. But she was polite. No, thank you.

Prometheus had never seen the point of politeness.

“I won’t agree to no sex or no unethical behavior, but I’ll try to keep things legal. Good enough?”

She tapped one blood-red nail, ignoring his question. “How long will this training take?”

“Don’t rush a miracle man. You get lousy miracles.”

“I need to know how much time to allot to this in my schedule.”

“Why don’t we do it after hours? I can get back to my shop; you can do your consultant thing.” And he got her alone at night. “Everybody wins.”

“I still need to know how much time.”

“Please tell me you don’t schedule every waking minute of your day.”

She simply looked at him. Of course she did.

“Fine, you want an answer? Honestly, I have no idea how long it’s going to take. It’s not like I make a habit of un-repressing people with stopped-up psychic gifts. And even if I did, for all I know you might be the most repressed case yet, or some kind of psychic prodigy who gets it on the first try. You’re just going to have to go with it and see what happens.”

“I don’t like playing things by ear.”

“That doesn’t surprise me, but I don’t see any other way to play it. If you want to play with me.”

“I’ll work with you. Can you start tonight? Seven?”

“It’s a date.”

She nodded and picked up a pen, making a note—probably writing him into her agenda. “I’ll see you tonight.”

He let her dismiss him, straightening out of his chair and offering her a bow, before turning and strolling toward the door, tossing one last dig over his shoulder as he went. “By the way, sweetheart, I can see your energy change every time we talk about sex. We both know you wouldn’t be so reluctant to talk about it if you weren’t so interested.”

He didn’t wait to see her blush.