Chapter 99: Preparing to Face the Music...

"Sun's about to come up," Alex mused. He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling.

"You should have at least a little sleep, master," Lorelei told him. Her head rested against his chest just below his right shoulder. One hand indulgently but more or less aimlessly stroked his cock. He was erect as usual, but overall he felt very much sated by the night's antics. "We will not leave you. I am weary enough myself to sleep."

Rachel rested against his left shoulder. Like both of her bedmates, she had for a long while been the center of attention until she had begged and pleaded for a chance to reciprocate. She felt very well loved. "I'll have to leave a couple hours after the sun comes up," she said.

"You never told us what happened with Lydia," Lorelei noted.

"Hell, we hardly even talked about the three of us like we were supposed to," Alex smirked.

"No," Rachel said. A hand slid forward to Lorelei's, luring it from her grip on Alex so that the two held hands together fondly. The angel and demon shared a quiet, serene look. "I think we settled most everything between us anyway."

"You have two lovers," Lorelei told him simply. "One is your slave. The other is not. Enjoy us, master. Love us. We will work things out over time, and we will all be very happy together."

The angel smiled and squeezed the hand of the succubus. "Very happy," she reiterated sweetly.

"Well, so what happens when you go?" Alex asked.

"Lydia gets judged. And so do I."

"I still don't see how you can be in trouble for falling in love with me. Like you can just decide who you will and won't fall in love with?" Alex scowled. "How are you supposed to control that?"

"One can certainly exert more control over one's feelings than romantics and idealists would willingly admit," Lorelei countered. "Regardless, though, there is what happens in one's heart, and then there is the question of what one does about it."

Rachel nodded a bit. "I wasn't supposed to fall for you," she said, "and I damn sure wasn't supposed to go to bed with you."

"What about Lorelei?"

"Oh, there'll be scandal and some of my peers will be just fucking aghast," the angel sighed, "but there's no precedent for someone like her." Rachel's words were matter-of-fact, but her gaze was both loving and reverent. "I can defend my actions. I'm comfortable with what I've done with you both. I'm in love. That's not going to change. And they won't take me away from you, Alex. Don't worry about that."

"But?"

"But there are things that wouldn't be a big deal to a mortal that mean a lot to an angel," Rachel frowned again. "Censure by my peers. Looking like a jackass in front of everyone. Ostracism. I'm not so hung up on the opinions of others that I'd do things differently to win approval, but it's not like you just pissing off co-workers or classmates over a debatable matter of principal. These are angels, y'know?"

"What really scares me is that I could also be removed from my post altogether. I'll still protect you because I love you. But being named as a guardian angel has meant a lot to me. It's a real honor. There are a bunch of posts that are ranked higher in the hierarchy, but guardian angels do real work. It's the real thing. If they take that away... I'll be crushed. I'm gonna know forever that I was a guardian angel for a whole week and I blew it, and everyone else will know it, too."

"Even after all you have done?" Lorelei asked. "They would remove you after all that has changed as a result of your actions?"

"Like I said, this is all unprecedented." Rachel sniffed and cuddled up to Alex more. "I gave up worrying about pleasing everyone with how I acted a long time ago, but this... hell, after the way I made such a fool of myself over Vincent for so long and then all the dead-end stuff I've had to do ever since because of those choices, I've felt like a complete loser. It's been nice to feel like a winner for once. And I have because of you two."

"Your own involvement has been pivotal," Lorelei said. "We would be dead now without you. We would never have fallen in love. I might still rank among the servants of the Pit. Who knows how this would have turned out had you acted differently?"

"God knows I'm grateful," Alex huffed. "I know you're not a loser. Not at all."

Rachel smiled a bit. "There's what God knows and then there's what others decide to see and what not to see." She kissed his chest, then settled back against it. "Anyway. I'll have to go back to face the music."

"Do you have to go alone?" Alex asked.

She glanced at Lorelei, who looked at her with much the same question. "You wouldn't be able to see anything but me," Rachel told him. "Lorelei might be able to see, or might not. It would all depend. They might gather at a church, and it may be inhospitable to her."

"Have you any say in the location?" Lorelei wondered.

"I dunno. I might." She fell silent for a moment. "You really want to come with me?"

"I love you," Alex said simply. "You wouldn't let me face something like this alone."

"You braved Hell itself for Alex and for me," Lorelei agreed. "What sort of lover would I be if I did less for you?"

Rachel's eyes stayed on Lorelei's for a long moment. She asked quietly, "Is that what we are? Are we lovers?"

"I see no reason to drag out what is plainly inevitable. I am admittedly new to the concept," Lorelei smiled fondly, "but I have had an excellent teacher, and what I have learned from him would certainly seem to apply." Lorelei glanced downward along the body of the man underneath and between them. "It seems that all this makes him very happy, too."

"Hey, I don't wanna push anyone toward anyth—oh, wow," Alex groaned. The hand was back on his cock, joined by another, and the heads against his shoulders slowly rose and began trailing kisses down his chest and stomach.

"Hush, master," Lorelei said before licking the length of his cock. Rachel's tongue followed a moment later. They paused to kiss, and then began alternating attention upon his flesh. As Rachel's mouth sank down on his cock, Lorelei looked to him with eyes fluttering in sympathetic pleasure. "We're having a bonding moment."

************

"I'm totally gonna lose my job."

"Huh. You and me both," Rachel agreed dryly.

"You will not lose your job, master," Lorelei said. "For all anyone at your office knows, you are still recovering from being shot last week. It's entirely understandable. Additionally, you have me to help you straighten things out."

The three sat on a simple bench in the courtyard of St. Mark's Cathedral with Rachel in the middle. Each of the others held one of the angel's hands. The angel wore the simple white dress that had been left behind in the hotel room when Molly and Onyx summoned her.

Alex turned to look at Lorelei, who watched her surroundings passively through sleek, stylish sunglasses. She wore her stylish pantsuit once again. "I thought you didn't want me to have a job anyway?" Alex asked. "Doesn't it get in the way of my constantly getting laid?"

A quiet smile spread under Lorelei's sunglasses. "I have seen your office in your dreams, master. It's like a law firm on a television show. So many lovely ladies. I would hate to take you away from such a playground before you've had a chance to truly enjoy it."

"Susan has a huge crush on you," Rachel declared simply.

"Huh?" Alex blinked.

"She thinks you're adorable and sweet, and that you've got a great ass. She's right, by the way. Anyway, you remind her of a guy she had it pretty bad for in college. She loves the way you look at her, mostly because you always smile without leering at her and you look her in the eye rather than staring at her tits or her legs. She's casually seeing someone, but it's not a committed thing. She dump him in a heartbeat for you."

"How do you--?"

"I'm an angel. I see things. I know things. I watched you at work."

Lorelei's smile was a bit more interested now. "Which one is Susan?"

"The skinny attorney with the wavy dirty blonde hair," Rachel said quite matter-of-factly. "The really pretty one. Kind of tall. Angular features. Shy smile."

"Oh. Alex is rather fond of that one."

"I know."

"I'm right here you know," Alex put in.

"I know, lover. That's why I'm saying. You could make that happen, y'know." His jaw hung open.

"What would she want with a guy like me?"

The angel and the succubus who were head over heels in love with him turned to stare at him like he'd spontaneously grown a cat out of the side of his head. "Well, I mean... just... she doesn't know about... um."

"She hasn't asked you out because obviously there's all that workplace relationship bullshit," Rachel told him, "and more importantly, she's almost eight years older than you. You might be really mature, but that's still significant. Naturally she figures that'd be pretty awkward. She feels a little dirty even fantasizing about it. Can't really say Lorelei or I have any right to pass judgment on anyone for cradle-robbing, though. After all, we are several millenia older than you."

"Oh, I could certainly get her past all those hang-ups," Lorelei said dismissively.

"Can I watch?" Rachel asked Alex. "I've been accused of being a voyeur. I'm starting to think it's true. But, y'know, fuck it, right?"

"You're both talking about hooking me up with another woman?"

"It is a new week after all," Lorelei shrugged. She glanced at Rachel. "I was worried that you would not be open to this."

Rachel snorted. "What, me object to him spreading some affection and joy? Are you kidding? It's not like he won't be a gentleman about it. No, seriously, Alex is my personal porn star. I can't watch him enough. And now it'll be a million times better than just watching. Obviously I like having him myself better than watching, but still. I can't be completely selfish. Plus there's us. If we're gonna get any alone time together, we've gotta make sure he's happily well-distracted, right?"

Lorelei responded with a cool, controlled smile. It gave the angel a shiver. "How is it that we're not both crawling all over you right now?" Rachel asked in a small voice.

"We are in public, love. I must be gentle with you here."

Alex hadn't lost his self-conscious frown. "You two both realize that I've already got three other women I'm involved with, right? I mean is that not enough? Shouldn't we maybe cool it for awhile?"

"You'll hold that thought for about two days, master," Lorelei remarked dryly.

"Right about time for him to go back to work," Rachel grinned. After a pause, she said, "Plus that hot office manager of his has a very clear and comfortable understanding with her husband."

"Oh, really?" Lorelei asked with new interest.

"Hey, now wait a minute," Alex protested, though he was now fighting off a sheepish grin. "We said no married women."

"Master, I distinctly recall that you were ambiguous regarding wives who had a clear arrangement with their husbands," Lorelei pointed out. Her tone was cool and collected, with a layer of mild reassurance that only barely covered how amusing she found all of this. "The only clear response you had on that point was that you did not want to cause any harm. I will also point out that on the very night we openly professed our love to one another, you conceded that you do in fact want my assistance in securing trysts with other women. Commanded it, in fact. This can't possibly exclude Rachel's involvement. You'll simply have to accept our interest as yet another aspect of our love."

Alex opened his mouth to say something but shut it again instead. He was at a loss for words for the moment. It was maddening to hear them talk about setting him up like this when he was still coming to grips with his rapidly expanding love life. At the same time, though, he couldn't deny to himself or to them -- were they to press him on it -- that the conversation both thrilled him and deepened his feelings for Lorelei and Rachel alike.

Virtually everything the pair did seemed to do that to him. He sat watching them both as they looked on toward the cathedral. Even now he felt like his love continued to grow. He wondered if it would always be this way.

Then he wondered what in particular the two were looking at. Rachel's face seemed a bit grave. Lorelei maintained her poker face, yet even with her sunglasses on Alex could tell that she was tracking something with her eyes. "What is it?" Alex asked. "Are they here?"

"They have been here for some time," Lorelei answered. "We are only now being approached."