Courts and Cabals by G.S. D'Moore (best e reader for academics txt) 📕

pinstripes fit perfectly. It came complete with a white undershirt, matching tie, a pair of dress socks, and shoes. I almost didn’t want to put it on it looked so slick.

“I look good,” I looked myself over in the mirror ten minutes before I was supposed to meet everyone to head to the third-party location. I gave it a brush to remove the few pieces of lint that had settled on it, and felt something hard in the chest pocket. It was the price tag, and it had my head spinning so fast I needed to sit down.

“Are you decent?” Dani asked. Not that she waited for an answer.

“Wow,” my breath caught in my throat as the dwarf entered the room.

I’d only ever seen her naked or in workout gear. For a time, I was sure she was allergic to formalwear. Her entrance shattered that perception. She was in a cream-colored dress that paired well with her coloring. Her hair was done in an updo that probably took a salon to accomplish. She’d either just seen Aden, or she’d applied a little blush for her cheeks to glow like that. Her eyelashes were a little darker, her lips a little redder. She didn’t overdo it, and she looked great.

“You look fantastic,” I couldn’t stop staring at her. Partly because she wasn’t wearing a bra, and her nips were practically pointing at me. Her natural perkiness was holding everything up better than the undergarment ever could.

“Thanks,” she smiled at me, and then glanced to the price tag in my hand. “Lilith is just going to deduct the price from your payday tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Next time someone can just run to J.C. Penny and grab something off the rack. I don’t need Hugo Boss’s latest and greatest.”

My comment just made Dani laugh. “We’re about to walk into your trial where a crazy Fae bitch has accused you of murdering her vassal. You need to look like a boss, no pun intended. We’re all representing the cabal in this, and we need to project power.”

I nodded. That made sense. “Where are you hiding your sword?” Her dress was pretty tight and I didn’t see many places to conceal a blade.

“No weapons at the trial,” she shook her head.

“What?” she asked when she saw the look of outrage on my face. “Do you think you’re allowed to walk into a human courtroom with an Uzi?”

She made a good point, and I was happy to hear the arbiter of the issue would be the only one armed to deter conflict. “Someone is going to need to stop Aveena going for my throat . . . or Lilith’s.” Her half-sister was probably the only person Aveena hated as much as me.

A courtesy knock by Xamira showed her in the same Men-in-Black suit as last week. She motioned that it was time to go, and led us down to the lobby. It didn’t escape my attention that the two women took up positions to guard me from the front and back.

My eyes swept the space when we arrived, and I nearly tripped over my own feet. Aden and Xander were there in matching suits, but at the center of them was Lilith. She was clad in a floor length black dress that matched her hair. It was cinched tight around her breasts, with fabric strategically cut away to show off a patch of diamond-shaped cleavage. A thin band of golden rope was tied as a belt high on her waist to complete the ensemble. She didn’t need a hint of makeup. Other than the cleavage, it was a fairly conservative look for the succubus.

The she moved, and I swore my heart stopped for a good five seconds. You couldn’t tell when she was just standing there, but the dress was slit up both sides to the hip. Every step she took exposed her long, toned legs. It was tantalizing to watch as the simple act of walking almost showed the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I snapped my mouth shut to avoid embarrassing myself.

“That’s more like it,” I coughed and tried to work saliva into my dry throat to compliment her.

“You look gorgeous,” I rasped.

She smiled at me, and I was glad her mark muted her natural effect on people. My pants were already a little snug. “Thank you,” she stepped into my comfort zone and adjusted my tie.

Maybe it was my imagination, but I could smell the power coming off her. “Did you have a good meal?” I couldn’t help but flirt a little. The smile she gave me was all the answer I needed.

“We should get going,” Aden tapped a watch on his wrist that easily looked like it cost five figures.

“Lead the way,” Lilith commanded, and Aden obeyed.

I wasn’t sure how the cabal was organized, but I knew Aden was older, which usually meant more powerful. Despite that, he followed the orders of his eighteen-year-old sister like she was the boss. That was something to digest as she grabbed my arm, and everyone formed up around us.

***

“Anything?” Becky walked through the door of the rental apartment with sandwiches and coffee. She might be the sheriff, but in her quiet county, she’d only been on one stakeout in her entire career. It had lasted two hours before they caught the perp.

“Nothing,” the gruff UN surveillance tech leaned back and rubbed his eyes. The balding, silver-haired veteran didn’t leave the giant camera they’d mounted on a tripod, and trained on the entrance to Dupree’s dorm, unattended for more than a few seconds.

They’d originally rented another apartment in town with a line of sight on his old room. Then they saw the movers taking all his shit to another dorm, and they lost their deposit on top of having to pay a