Page 94 of Wrapped in Their Arms

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BRIGHT

The office was even bigger thanBrightremembered.

The ceiling soared high above his head, easily forty feet at the apex, with hanging alien light fixtures shaped like glowing fungus pods.Theycast a greenish-yellow illumination that gave the whole space a sickly hue, like a bruise left too long to heal.Oneentire wall was covered with heavy bookcases built for a creature twice his height—packed with warped, oversized ledgers and strange bone-colored data cylinders.

The desk at the center of the room was massive, its glistening, opalescent surface marbled with veins of gold and black.Fourlong tusks—possibly decorative, possibly functional—protruded from the corners and the chair behind it was big enough to seat aTrollox… or maybe two.

Bright stepped in and let the door swing closed behind him.

Focus,he told himself.Don’tthink about last night.

Which, of course, made him think about last night.

About how softNoellehad felt under his hands and mouth…how her curves molded so perfectly to his touch.Howshe’d gasped when he kissed her and how she’d cried out whenBurnlicked her just the way she liked it.Howshe’d opened for them, trusting and unashamed, giving them everything…

Gods,he thought, rubbing a hand down his face.I’venever wanted anything more thanIwant her.

And it wasn’t just the tasting—though that had been mind-melting.Itwas the way she looked at him andBurn, like she saw straight to the heart of them both.Theway she touched so gently but with complete confidence.Theway she called both their names in the dark…

Bright took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.

You can’t help her if you’re thinking with your cock.Youneed to find that key!

Time to work—or at least make it look like he was working.

He crossed to the desk and examined the ledgers.AsCookiehad warned, they were laid out neatly—three of them, all open and lined up in a row like little coffins.Theentries were hand-written in blocky alien script, which he could read easily enough, but the numbers… the numbers made his head hurt.

“What in theSevenHellsis going on here?”he muttered, flipping a few pages.“IsThuneembezzling from himself?Whereis all this money coming from?”

The credits moved in wild, illogical patterns—massive deposits followed by equally massive withdrawals, without any indication of where the funds were coming from or going to or why.Noinvoice records…no client names…no transactionIDs.

It was chaos.

This’ll take days to unravel,he thought, thumbing through another ledger with mounting frustration.IfIhad a full console and some software, maybe.Butthis?Fuck.

He needed a break.

He pushed back from the desk and started opening drawers.Mostwere stuffed with more account books—some dating back a decade or more.Onewas filled with what looked like bottles of industrial strength lube, all of them half-empty and sticky.Anothercontained a bundle of what he suspected were preserved animal testicles, tied together with a red ribbon.

“Lovely,” he muttered, letting that one fall closed.

It wasn’t until he stood and moved behind the desk that he spotted the cabinet inset into the wall—a shallow recess with no handle—just a small raised sensor.Hepressed it and the panel clicked open silently.

Inside was a private viewing system.Asleek, dark-gray screen with a row of old-fashioned physical slots beneath it.Astack of thin entertainment disks—none labeled—sat beside it like an ominous little monolith.

Bright glanced at the door.

Don’t be an idiot,he told himself.Justlook for the key.Notime to be curious.

But curiosity had always been his worst vice—he just couldn’t help himself.

He grabbed the top disk and slid it into the reader.Thescreen flared to life with a faint buzz of static, and then…

The moans started.

Loud and enthusiastic, they echoed from the small speakers like a chorus of sweaty desperation.Thecamera angle swung wide, revealing two green-scaledSaurianson what looked like a fur-covered floor.Onewas on all fours, tail lifted, and the other—a male—was thrusting into her from behind, his long reptilian tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.