Morgana’s Gift
by Corrupting Power
Chapter Five — Friday I’m In Love
For the next few weeks, Kevin simply went about his new life as best he could, trying to think of everything as normal when it was anything but. It hadn’t been all that long ago that he’d been two bad weeks away from his life imploding. But since Morgana’s gift had fallen into his lap, his life was a polar reversal of what he’d felt like it was before. He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and yet it seemed more and more likely it wasn’t going to.
He’d split his time between making sure the studio was in working condition and getting the score done for Emily Rouchard’s upcoming film, although Elizabeth informed him that he was going to need to attend some of the reshoots in a week’s time. After that, he would give Emily a show of what he’d been working on overlaid on her footage, so she could get a feeling of how all the scenes were coming together. She’d loved the “Mind Heist” track and told him that not only was she going to insist it be the end crawl for the film, she wanted to put it out as a single as well, and do the full promotion behind it. She even wanted him to use the Truth Knife name for the track itself, something he was still giving serious consideration to. He did own the name, and Kerry had played on the track, so it wasn’t truly a complete solo piece, but he wondered if the members of the band he’d kicked out would come crawling for a piece of the action. Elizabeth assured him it wouldn’t be a problem, but he still wanted to take some time to think about it, something Emily told him he could naturally have.
Kevin was proud of his work, more confident now more than ever that the path of movie composer was a great fit for him, something that certainly made Elizabeth more at ease, as she was already starting to book him for more projects. In addition to the movie stuff, she also had a stack of twelve demo CDs he needed to listen to, a chance for him to decide which band he was going to be producing first, in between composing gigs. He’d asked her why it was so many options, and Elizabeth reiterated, as she often did, that he needed to make his own decisions in these matters, and where he saw potential, she might have accidentally overlooked it. She’d done an initial screening and thrown out all the duds and bad style matches, and had whittled it down to those twelve.
Ashley was getting more involved in her classes, something that Kevin actually found relaxing, and it made their encounters more intense, more meaningful, the distance acting as a bonding agent rather than pushing them apart.
Insisting that Natalie continue teaching her classes had also helped with that, as absence was indeed making the heart grow fonder.
Elizabeth always seemed to be around when he realized he needed something, but busy when he was just spinning his wheels, so he couldn’t use her as a distraction for when he should be working.
And Miriam, it turned out, had two modes—working in public and relaxing in private. The two couldn’t be much further apart than they already were. Whenever they were out in public, she was all business, no sign of their personal and sexual relationship, but when they were back in the relative security of the house, she opened up and warmed up significantly.
The press had tried on the idea that he was screwing Alice Karteaux, claiming it was how he had landed the gig, but Emily herself had gone on record saying that Hans Zimmer simply was taking the project in a different direction than what she wanted, and cited that old Hollywood chestnut—creative differences, although it was clear she meant it. Once the director had made it repeatedly clear that the decision was hers and hers alone, the story had almost died overnight.
He’d also gone and had his first couple of preliminary meetings with Robert Rodriguez about the “One Desperate Man” project he was lined up for next, and the conversations had gone remarkably well, with the two of them even spending some time jamming out together on a pair of acoustic guitars, something Rodriguez’s assistant had filmed for eventual inclusion in the behind the scenes for the movie later on. They were talking about Pedro Pascal for the lead, and while the deal wasn’t set in stone yet, Rob seemed to think it was only a day or two before the ink was drying on the contracts.
It had been rather a remarkable couple of weeks, and his second meeting with Rodriguez had ended at 6:30 on a Friday night, something that Kevin groaned about, as it meant Miriam would be driving him back to the house through LA’s legendarily horrible Friday night traffic, but instead of heading up to the house in the hills, he noticed Miriam had taken the car southward.
“Aren’t we heading back to the house?” he asked her.
“Negative, sir,” Miriam said to him, her tone professional and in control. “You have a dinner appointment tonight that Miss Elizabeth told me about, so I’m making sure you get to that.”
Kevin’s face scrunched up in confusion. “I don’t remember her telling me anything about it.”
“I’m sure it just slipped her mind, sir.”
“Do you know what it’s about or who it’s with?”
“I’m sure I don’t know, sir.”
Kevin harumphed, even if he was a little amused by the whole thing. “Some help you are. How the hell am I even going to know who I’m meeting?”
“You have a table reserved for you at Moonshadows, sir, so I supposed you’ll find out when you sit down to eat,” Miriam said. Kevin thought he saw a flicker of a smile on her face, but decided he must have been imagining it, because Miriam wasn’t one for letting her guard down. “It’s a 7:30 dinner, sir, and by the time it’s done, I’m certain we’ll have a much easier time coming back up the house, as traffic will have died down.”
“Traffic doesn’t die down until Saturday morning, Miriam,” he grumbled. “You’ve been in Los Angeles long enough now that you should know that.”
“Yes sir, sorry sir.”
She certainly didn’t sound sorry.
As the call pulled up to the parking lot of Moonshadows, Kevin was surprised to see it nearly empty, an impossibility on a Friday night. The place was one of the most popular restaurants in Malibu, and was always packed with customers. Miriam pulled the car up to the front of the place, as a doorman moved to open Kevin’s door for him.
“Don’t worry, Kev. You can go in safely. I’ll just park the car and meet you inside in a little bit. The person you’re meeting with, her security’s already swept the place.”
“Her?” Kevin said, starting to get out of the car. “I thought you said you didn’t know who I was meeting with...”
“Mmm. I did say that. Be in in a few, sir.”
The valet closed the car door, and Kevin could swear he heard Miriam laughing inside as she drove the car over to the parking lot herself. “This way, sir?”
Kevin followed the man up the stairs and to the front doors of the building, as the valet held them open for him, the maitre dee waiting inside for him with a giant smile on his face. “Ah, Mister Bishop. Perfectly on time, as expected. Your companion is waiting for you at your table out on the terrace, where you will have the best possible view of the ocean while you dine.”
He chuckled, feeling more than a little under dressed for the fancy restaurant, wearing a Cure t-shirt and long black jeans, but if the staff wasn’t going to say anything about it, he wasn’t either. “Did you happen to catch her name?”
The man laughed a little nervously. “Mister Bishop, you truly are as funny as they said you would be. This way, please.” Inside of the restaurant, there was only one table with place settings, a small circular table with two plates, apparently for whenever it got too cold outside to continue eating. He tapped the man, making him stop walking. “Yes sir?”
“Please set up another table so that my bodyguard and my companion’s security detail can also have dinner. Whatever they want to eat, you can add to my tab.”
He looked a little caught off guard and then shrugged. “Your companion is picking up the tab for dinner tonight, but if you wish us to cater to your staff, it would of course be a great honor for us. Once you’re seated, I’ll see to it.”
They moved across the unnaturally empty room and over to the balcony terrace along the side of the building facing the ocean, where he could see a single woman seated at a table. As he approached her, he felt like he was expected to recognize her, but truth be told, he truly didn’t.
She was dressed in a very expensive looking dress that was high cut at the top and low cut at the bottom, but with a long daring slit from the collarbone down to her naval, and matching daring slits from the ankles up almost to her hips. She was of Indian heritage, if he had to hazard a guess, her hair onyx black and her skin a coffee brown. Her brown eyes were covered by large octagonal shaped glasses that looked both trendy and still somehow perfectly matched her face. She was unlike anyone Kevin had ever had in his life before, and she was stunningly beautiful.
“So are you this mysterious appointment I have that somehow made its way onto my calendar without me knowing about it?” she said to him, her voice utterly dripping with a London accent. “They said I was likely to recognize you on sight, but I am afraid I simply don’t.”
“They told me the same thing, but I’m afraid I don’t recognize you either,” he said to her as she stood up, offering her hand for him to shake. He brought it to his lips to kiss instead. It was an utter cheeseball move, but he just couldn’t help himself. “Kevin Bishop, musician, composer and general gentleman rogue, I suppose.”
“Fatima Davies,” she said, a tiny whisper of a smile crossing her lips when he kissed her hand. “But I’m sure you knew that already, and were just being courteous.”
“Nope,” he laughed, moving to sit down in the chair opposite her. “I honestly, genuinely have no idea who you are.”
Fatima openly grinned at that, craning her head to one side, as if she didn’t believe him. “No! Really?”
“Really,” he said, grabbing the water glass, taking a sip from it. “Should I?”
“I was on Fortune’s Thirty Under Thirty list for the last two years straight.”
“Oh!” he said, nodding like it meant something to him. “Well done? I guess?”
She relaxed a little, as if suddenly she felt like she didn’t have to put on an act any more. “You truly haven’t the foggiest who I am?”
“You know what could fix that,” he said with a laugh. “You could tell me who you are, and then I might know what the Fortune Thirty Under Thirty even is.”
She began to laugh, shaking her head wildly. “Fuck no! We are going to have dinner like two regular normal people on a blind date, and we are not going to talk about my work until the very end of the evening, if at all. You hear me?”
He winked a little bit. “You’re tempting me with a mystery you’re dangling before me, and challenging me to be patient and allow things to unfold? Very well, Miss Davies, I can play your cunning game and allow you to work your feminine wiles upon my unwitting innocence.”
“If you’re innocent, I’m a slaggy wag from Cheshire,” she cackled.
“I’m going to assume those words mean something to someone from the UK, but it’s all just strange sounds to me,” he said. “So, we’re thinking our assistants set this up as a blind date, are we?”
“It’s certainly well in line with the kinds of things my assistant might do,” she said with a nod. “Yours? Sound like it’s in her wheelhouse?”
“Sounds like it’s the sort of thing she’d build a summer cottage around. But she’s got my best interests at heart, so I shouldn’t be too harsh.”
For the next few hours, Kevin had what could only be described as his first real date in half a decade, as he spent time learning as much as could about Fatima without brushing her career. Her mother was from India, her father from London. She had a home there as well as one in LA, and claimed dual citizenship about five years back. And whatever it was she did for a living, it kept her mercilessly busy.
Fatima spent as much time as she could changing the subject from herself to him. She’d never heard of Truth Knife, and while she’d heard of Alice Karteaux, she seemed a bit unimpressed by Kevin’s reveal that he was scoring her next movie, although the more they talked, he decided it wasn’t that she was being dismissive, but more that she was interested in him without his career coming into it, as if it was a safety valve to prevent her from talking about her own.
There was an immediate spark of attraction, at least on his part, and he found that within the span of a couple of hours, they were already comfortable enough with each other to finish each other’s sentences every now and then.
While she didn’t seem to care all that much about his more recent time composing, after his first story about some of the nightmares of touring, it was practically all she wanted him to talk about, as if the life of a C-list rock star was the most fascinating thing she could hear about.
She confessed that ever since she had arrived in the States, first to attend university then later to live, she’d wanted to simply rent a car and drive from one ocean to the other, seeing as much of the country in the middle as she could. He told her that he’d done that drive, and while there were so many parts of it that were majestic and should not be missed, there was often a whole lot of dull nothing in between them. She said to him that if he went with her, she thought it wouldn’t dare be a boring trip.
They’d gone through an appetizer and the main course before Kevin even noticed that Miriam was sitting at a table inside across from a rather large muscular black man dressed in a very expensive suit, while a white guy in a matching suit stood by the main door of the restaurant. Miriam raised a glass of red wine in salute to him, smiling his way, so he raised a glass of water back at her.
The waiter told them that they were working on the dessert, if they wanted to move their meal inside, at which point Kevin noticed the time, and that it was nearly ten o’clock. He and Fatima had been talking and laughing for hours, and the time had just blinked away.
When the two of them walked inside, the speakers inside the restaurant played a familiar little drum fill before a bouncy guitar riff cut through the tension of the air. “Would you like to dance?” he asked her, as she seemed to recognize the sound of The Cure’s “Inbetween Days,” an uptempo number far too fast to slow dance to, and yet not so fast enough to lose yourself in it.
She giggled, and the two of them started to wiggle their bodies and throw their arms around in shapes as the song’s delightful chugging rhythm carried them along, moving together and apart again and again, as he clearly mouthed the lyrics and she started to doing the same.
“Come back come back come back to me...”
It was only a three minute song, so before they knew it, the song had climaxed and faded, as Miriam and the two other security guards clapped at them. Fatima blew a raspberry at them before she started laughing all over again, heading over to their table inside the restaurant, where two decadent chocolate lava cakes awaited them.
“God, this was so much fun,” Fatima told him, digging into the lava cake. “I think my assistant’s always been trying to set me up with real estate moguls and tech bros and movie stars, like I’m going to be fucking impressed by any of that lot, you know?” The more the evening had gone on, the more the ice queen demeanor had melted away to be replaced by the kind of girl he’d always expected to run into in any old London pub on a Friday night. “I could tell you who I am, and I bet you couldn’t be bothered to give a damn.”
“You could tell me and find out, I suppose,” Kevin told her in between bites of the decadent chocolate. “I mean, I’ve been patient and haven’t asked. The mystery is intriguing, but so many times when you know the magician’s tricks, it loses some of the luster.”
“Oh dear,” she said in mock distress. “I certainly hope that won’t happen to me. But I can’t dance around it all night, I suppose. My father is Glenn Davies.”
“Ah, I see, that explains everything,” he lied. “The infamous Glenn Davies.” He nodded. “Shipping magnate?” he guessed.
“Prick!” she cackled in amusement before she paused, looked at him again, as he shrugged at her, and she only laughed harder. “Omigawd, babes, you really don’t know who he is, do you?”
He nodded with a smile. “I’m afraid I really don’t know who Glenn Davies is.”
“English footballer? Helped them win the World Cup back in 1966? I’m his youngest daughter.”
“I don’t really follow sports, I’m afraid,” he told her with a sort of embarrassed smile. “I’m guessing by the name ‘World Cup’ it’s a big tournament?”
She rolled her eyes, almost mind blown by his lack of knowledge regarding football. “Yes, dear, the biggest one in the world. That’s why they call it the World Cup.”
He shrugged a little bit, a wry smile on his face. “I know that baseball has the World Series, but you know which country’s won that every year since it started? Shocking. So sometimes names aren’t something events live up to.”
“Yes, well, people seem to think that since I’m the daughter of football royalty that I’m going to have a deep interest in the game, when I really couldn’t care less. He founded an athletic apparel company after he retired from football, and I think he always intended one of my older brothers or sisters to inherit it, but none of them seemed to make any good business decisions in their test runs at the company, whereas my first idea expanded our market nearly 50%.”
“Oh yeah?” Kevin asked. “What was your idea?”
“I convinced Father to add sports bras to the company’s lineup,” she said confidently. “There’d been a sort of ingrained sexism in the company since it was founded, that only boys needed athletic gear, and when I told him that we should at least try testing the waters with gear for girls, I think everyone expected me to fall flat on my arse, but it was an overnight success, and now I’m in line to eventually take over the company. GDGear is one of the top five companies making athletic wear these days, and Dad’s already turned down at least a couple of offers from UnderArmor to merge, so that should tell you something.”
“It tells me that you’re willing to stand up to your father and all the rest of the idiots at the company, and that’s a very admirable and sexy trait,” he told her. “I have to admit, though, I’m surprised a former footballer is that well known here in the States, even with having won the World Cup. ‘66 was quite a long time ago.”
She reached across the table and playfully slapped him on the arm. “Yes, well, like I said, I’m the youngest of nine children, born in 1989, and Dad was 45 when I was born. Besides, most people know him these days from the telly rather than his footie days.”
“Your dad’s on television?” Kevin asked, finishing up the last of his lava cake. He hadn’t meant it to be a gotcha question—he was just making conversation, but it seemed like the very tone of it confused her.
She looked at him in a combination of delight, surprise and awe. “You genuinely don’t know, do you? How is it possible you live in Hollywood and have literally no idea about me or my family?”
Kevin shrugged a little. “One thing I’ve noticed having lived out here for a while—everyone always seems to think their reach is much bigger and broader than it is, because we all sort of live in an echo chamber. For a while, everyone I met was talking about how much they loved my old band, but at the end of the day, I know what the record sales were like. I remember what the turnouts for the shows were like. I have a much better idea of what the band’s actual reach was, and barring some lucky breaks here and there, we were never even close to successful. We were a critic’s darling band at best. But if I believed the hype of everyone around me, you’d think we were the next Rolling Stones, cut off before being allowed to mature to our prime. So I try not to buy into the bullshit people are selling. When someone says they’re a fan of my music, I always just ask them which song is their favorite. If they can’t list the title of even a single song, I know it’s all for show. So I don’t try and feed anyone’s ego, and I never lie and say I’m familiar with shit that I’m not. The whole city could use with a bit of ego deflation if you ask me.”
She reached across the table and grabbed his hand in hers, a soft and kind gesture that caught him a little by surprise, and he felt his heart skip just a beat or two in excitement. It was a sort of kind and intimate moment. “I couldn’t agree more, Kevin,” she said to him, smiling at him, unable to look away from his eyes. “Anyway, he’s on a show called ‘Sugar Daddies’ which is, c’mon, a cheeky ripoff of ‘Shark Tank,’ but it’s done well enough to run eight series back in London, and the US version launched last year and seems to be doing quite alright here. He’s one of the three silverbacks who people pitch their business to in exchange for a chance of seed money. The network has those bloody billboards all over town, so I can’t even go five miles without seeing Daddy’s smug mug grinning down at me from above. It’s horrid, but it’s part of the price I pay, I suppose.”
That did sort of ring a vague bell in the back of Kevin’s mind. “Wait, the three broad shouldered old guys in black suits and black shades with red ties?”
“You have seen the billboards then.”
“I have, but I think I always assumed from the billboards the show was some sort of Sopranos parody or something, so I never really had any interest,” he said. The waiter had quietly moved up to them and laid a leather billfold with a piece of paper sticking out of it in front of him.
“No no,” Fatima said. “I’m paying for the meal.”
“Yes madam, but Mister Bishop insisted we feed both your and his security, and that he pick it up, so I am bringing him that bill.”
Kevin reached into his wallet and pulled out one of his new platinum credit cards, sliding it into the billfold before handing it back to the waiter. “They enjoyed their meals, I hope?”
“Oh very much, sir,” the man said. “In fact, one of them left you a little thank you note inside.” He gestured to the billfold with a demure smile. “May I take a photo of the two of you, to commemorate the evening?”
“Of course,” Fatima said, unlocking her phone, handing it to him as she stood and moved around the table, sliding her arm around his waist as he stood up, resting her head on his shoulder, smiling at the waiter took several photos before handing it back to her as Kevin reached down, grabbed the billfold, opened it and found there was the bill—which was more than sizable—and a folded cocktail napkin, which he took out and read to himself.
“He shoots, he scores! Good luck, mate! -Jax”
“You really didn’t have to do that, Kevin,” Fatima said to him.
“Most people tend to overlook the importance of taking care of the folks who work for them in this town,” he said. “When I sort of stumbled into money earlier this year, I promised myself I wasn’t ever going to be one of them. And when they told me you’d already picked up the bill for the night, I couldn’t get away without looking like a tight-ass without paying for something, now could I?” He tucked the folded napkin into his pocket. “I’m guessing Jax is one of your security detail?”
“Jackson, yes,” she said. “He’s my lead bodyman, making sure I don’t walk into any room I can’t walk out of. I probably would’ve thought all the security was nonsense, except that my oldest brother was killed in an abduction attempt in Mexico City back in ‘94.”
“Oh my god, Fatima, I’m so sorry,” he said, taking her hand this time, squeezing it. “That’s terrible. Tell me they at least found who did it.”
She nodded. “They did. I was only five at the time, so I don’t even really remember him all that well, but I remember the house getting very sad for the next year or so, and the security becoming massively important to all of us. I’ve had a bodyguard service basically all my life. Makes dating sort of complicated, I’m sure you can imagine.” She interlaced her fingers with his, clenching his hand firmly, refusing to let it go. “I got a message from my assistant during dinner telling me that she hoped my date was going well, but that I should ask you about your complication, and to believe you, no matter what you said. So let’s have it then. It can’t be all that unusual.”
“Let’s go have a walk on the beach, and then we’ll put your resolution to believing whatever I tell you to the test, shall we?” The waiter brought back Kevin’s card, and he assigned a 100% tip to the staff on top of the bill. He was certain Fatima had done something similar, considering she’d bought out the restaurant for the night, but he liked to make sure he was contributing his own portion to it.
They walked down to the beach and started strolling along the water line beneath the moonlight as she hooked her arm into his, nudging him in the side. “Well then, let’s have it, shall we? No need to beat around the bush. Hit me with both barrels.”
He laughed and shrugged a little. “Okay then, you asked for it. I saved the life of legendary enchantress Morgana LaFey and in exchange for that, she gifted me magical powers, including what she calls an ‘ethical harem,’ which will eventually consist of seven women all co-existing in a house with me.”
“Oh, obviously,” she said, clearly not believing a single word he was saying, but being amused by the story of it all. “Like one does. And I take it your security guard is one of your seven?”
“Well, I don’t have all seven yet,” Kevin said sheepishly. “I’m only at four, and so far they’ve all been arranged by Elizabeth, my... well, to call her my assistant would be doing her a major disservice, so she’s my Majordomo.”
“And she’s also a member of your little ethical harem.”
“She is,” Kevin said. “I would’ve made her the first member of it, but she wanted to prove herself to me, so she wouldn’t let me make it official until after she’d given me the first two members.”
“And these members of your harem,” Fatima said, obviously going with the flow now, “you make them wear belly dancing girl costumes around the house and such, as one does?”
“God no,” he laughed. “In fact, I’ve sort of gone out of my way to ensure they aren’t giving up their normal lives for whatever this gift Morgana is giving me is. Natalie, the second member of the family, she’s a fitness instructor when she isn’t being my personal chef and trainer. Ashley, she’s a full-time student. And Miriam, well, she’s my bodyguard, but we’re entirely different at home than we are when we’re out and about.”
“And you’re still going to get three more people in the house?”
“That’s what the message from Morgana LaFey said, and what Elizabeth seems to believe. I know, it all seems too fantastical to be true. I thought so myself, until I started living this life. I suppose any doubts about the magical aspects of it all were put to bed pretty definitively by my encounters with Merlin, and his damned Midas Day.”
“Merlin,” she said, incredulously. “As in King Arthur and the Knights Of The Round Table? That Merlin?”
“The very same.”
“It’s impossible to believe any of this, you know,” she said with a laugh.
“If I can change your mind, you promise not to scream?” he asked her.
“If you can change my mind, I promise to give you something remarkable in return,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to believe magic was real.”
He stopped in his walking and looked back over his shoulder. “Hey Miriam, c’mere a sec,” he said to her.
Of their security details, one of Fatima’s men had been walking ahead of them, the other walking behind them alongside Miriam. Miriam shrugged and walked over towards them, standing in close. “What’s up, boss?”
“Introduce Fatima to Strazo.”
Miriam arched a refined eyebrow at him. “Are... are you sure? He’s keeping tabs from up on high right now.”
“Fatima’s security is doing more than enough, and I need to prove a point.”
“But... are you certain it’s a good idea, boss?”
“No, but sometimes in life, you just have to take a leap of faith, Miriam, so I’m taking one here. If you would?”
Miriam looked up to the sky and gave a little nod, and there was a distant buzzing sound that grew louder, almost like a tiny drone, before it slowed and stopped. Then on Miriam’s shoulder, Strazo appeared, dropping his camouflage. As it turned out, the tiny dragon had an ability like a chameleon to change his pigmentation to give him almost a level of invisibility, allowing him to move unnoticed throughout the modern world. It was so effective that Strazo seemed to basically not exist if he didn’t want to be seen, immune to being captured by any camera or visible to the naked eye.
Fatima gasped a little bit in shock and surprise, then giggled, the twenty-something businesswoman replaced by a child lost in awe and wonder at the sight before her. “Is... is that a dragon? An honest to god dragon?”
“Strazo, don’t be an ass,” Miriam playfully chided. “Give the lady a proper hello.”
Strazo whipped his tail to one side and extended it towards her, as Fatima reached forward and gave it a little shake. The dragon almost seemed to be smiling.
“And, forgive me Strazo, but you aren’t just a trained iguana or something, are you?”
Strazo’s tail flicked in annoyance to one side before a tiny jet of fire belched from his mouth, just for a moment, then stopped, as he looked back over his shoulder at Fatima again, checking to see if she was satisfied.
“You mean, all of what you told me, it’s all real?” she said, looking back at Kevin again. “Morgana, Merlin, the harem, the sudden influx of money, all of it?”
“Haven’t told a single lie tonight,” he admitted, as Miriam and Strazo both moved back to their position with Fatima’s security.
“So your family, it has the cook, the bodyguard, the assistant and the student? What... what was all this about then?”
“You tell me,” he said with a soft smile. “I didn’t know a thing about you or this meeting until almost right before I walked in the door. And from that point on, I guess I sort of assumed it was a blind date or something set up by our two assistants, without our knowledge of the matter.”
“And what the hell do you think I would do in your household?” she said, a touch of anger undercutting her voice. “Be your accountant? Your business adviser?”
“God, Fatima, I’d never ask anything like that of you,” he said, feeling her tense up and slip away from him. “If anything, I would want you as a partner, an equal, if not my superior even.”
“Oh you say that now, but you’ve got magic on your side,” she said warily. “You could make me think whatever you want.”
He sighed, shrugging defeatedly. “I don’t have any control over the magic,” he admitted. “I just have whatever gifts Morgana gave me. And despite the fact that I think I fell in love with you at first sight, if you don’t want to be part of this, I completely get that. It’s a weird situation, the absolute weirdest, and it’s definitely not for everyone. Morgana told me all the women I would have in my life would be bisexual, her little cherry on top, but I don’t know if that’s really true or not. I didn’t even get to tell Morgana what I wanted as my wish for saving her life, because she said I would only ask for something less than what I deserved, and that nobody ever really admits what they want, not to anyone and certainly not to themselves.”
“No responsibility for your actions?” she said coldly. “That’s quite convenient.”
“I take as much responsibility as anyone will let me, Fatima. Part of the deal that my assistant told me about is that nobody has to remain in the household if they don’t want to. They’re free to come and go as they please, and if they ever decide it’s not working for them and they don’t think it can be fixed, they have to tell me, and we part ways as friends. That hasn’t happened yet, but Elizabeth seems to think Ashley and I will drift apart at some point as she gets older, and then she’ll simply leave the family, with my blessing.” He threw up his hands as Fatima continued to back away from him. “Whether or not I want to admit it to myself, this gift from Morgana, it’s apparently what I’ve always wanted, deep down, and just couldn’t get myself to say out loud. A bunch of women who get along with me and each other. I didn’t have to take the gift, I suppose, but my mom always told me when someone does you a kindness, you should be thankful and appreciate the gesture, so that’s what I’m doing.”
“And you... you expect me... to join in this... this thing?”
Kevin laughed again, turning to look at the water. “I just went out on the best date of my life, Fatima, one that I didn’t even know I was walking into, otherwise I probably would’ve shown up looking a little less like a musician bum, not that you seemed to mind. I didn’t expect anything when I showed up tonight—I just went with the flow and had the time of my life. It’s like I wrote in one of my songs. ‘I’m never looking which way the wind is blowing; I just let it take me and I keep on going.’ I don’t expect anything of you now. I just know that I enjoyed myself tonight, more than I think I ever have, and I wish this conversation didn’t have to end, but I can see you’re not comfortable with it, and what kind of man would I be if I was making you uncomfortable? So I’m going to go. I’d love to see you again, to have another date, but if that’s not possible, if that’s not something you want, well, I get that, and I wish you all the best of luck in your life moving forward, and let me just say it was one of the greatest pleasures of my life simply meeting you. Obviously, our assistants know how to get a hold of one another, so if you decide you want to give it another go, all you have to do is reach out.” He offered her a little bow, as she seemed to be dumbstruck, standing there staring at him. “May the fates bring our paths together again, you magnificent woman. Good night and good luck.”
With that, he turned and walked away from her, heading straight up the beach towards the car, as Miriam quickly sprinted up to walk alongside him. “Didn’t go well?” she asked.
“I had to tell her about Morgana’s gift, and I think that put her off.”
“Did you try kissing her?”
“It seemed like it would’ve been an imposition,” he told her.
“Mmm. Because to me, it seemed like she really wanted you to kiss her.”
Kevin let out a deep sigh, rolling his eyes as he got into the back of the vehicle. “Now you tell me. Anyway, it’s late. Let’s get back to the house. Traffic should be at least manageable now.”
About half way back to the house, his phone beeped at him, a text message from Elizabeth. —How’d the date go?—
-With the exception of the last bit, great. I told her about Morgana, and I think it freaked her out. Even more than seeing Strazo did.—
-Give her time. It’s a lot to process.—
-Oh, I know. I just think it’s too much. Time’s not going to change that for her, I’m guessing.—
-What’s that line you wrote? ‘Time favors no one’ or something?—
-That’s it, exactly.—
-So take your own advice, dummy. Be patient. Let the wind take you.—
He ended the conversation by sending her back the emoji with the tongue sticking out, and just as they started to head up the hill towards his house, he saw one of the billboards they’d been talking about earlier, with the three men in black suits beneath the logo that said in large letters ‘SUGAR DADDIES’ and in the bottom right corner was the channel and the time slot. Kevin considered it a bad omen as he leaned his head back against the seat.
As the car pulled past the gate and onto his property, he looked at his phone to check the time, seeing there was a message waiting for him, sighing as he opened it, knowing exactly what it was. Fatima had sent him a copy of the picture taken after dinner, her body up against his, with a million dollar smile plastered across her face, looking like she didn’t have a care in the world. The text message was sent at 10:45 pm, and it was nearly approaching midnight.
After putting the car into the garage, he headed into the house, seeing both Miriam and Elizabeth frantically typing into their phones, about what, he truly had no idea. Maybe trying to salvage the disaster he’d made of the end of the date, trying to convince Fatima that he was a great guy deep down and that maybe she should give him a second chance.
He wasn’t even entirely sure he’d blown it, but the look on her face, the sheer scale of astonishment and incredulity writ large there... he’d had to get out of there before he settled into the funk of it, needed to get away before he heard something that broke his heart, and he wasn’t quite sure he was up to that.
About ten minutes later, there was a sound of a knock at the door, something that made Kevin jump about five feet in the air. People buzzed at the gate before they got to the door, so the sound of a knock was completely unexpected and unnerving. “Miriam, door!” he called out, not because he expected her to get it, but because he felt absolutely certain she’d be angry with him if he did.
“It’s for you. Fatima sent something over,” Miriam hollered back from down the hall. “It’s been cleared for you to go and get.”
“Well,” Kevin said, standing up, “if I’m allowed to answer my own front door, I think I’ll enjoy that privilege.” He wondered what she would’ve sent over this time of night. A note from one of her assistants telling him never to contact her again? An invitation to meet up again on another night, and try to have another normal date? Whatever he expected, he would’ve been wrong.
Once the door was open, he saw Fatima standing there, having changed from the expensive dress into a very heavily washed-out UCLA t-shirt and a pair of yoga shorts, and just as it was dawning on him that she was standing there, she rushed him, tackling him and knocking him off his feet and onto his back in the entryway, as she started kissing him feverishly.
The intensity with which she locked lips with him caught him entirely by surprise, but the kiss was such a unique and intense delicacy that he couldn’t think to turn away. They made out like it was the first time either of them had ever tried kissing before for what felt like an hour, but couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes, the door still wide open behind them.
When the kiss finally broke, he looked at her in surprise. “I thought you didn’t want anything to do with me or this life.”
“You didn’t let me tell you what I was thinking, you git,” she giggled. “You just dumped all this on me and then disappeared before I had my wits about me. I promised to give you something magical in return for you proving magic was real to me, and you left before I could do that.”
“Oh,” Kevin said, feeling a little ashamed and embarrassed. “Sorry?”
“I want in,” she told him, tapping his chest with a fingertip on each word. “With one condition that is absolutely, positively, unquestionably set in stone.”
“Tell me, and if it’s within my power, I’ll agree to it.”
“You and I, Mister Bishop, we’re equals. That means my opinion matters, in all things. You’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met, and I’m pretty sure you’re going to be my husband, sooner rather than later, but I don’t want you thinking you can order me around when that happens.”
“I wouldn’t dream of—”
“I’m not finished,” she said, pushing him back down onto the floor. “That also means you aren’t to let me push you around. I don’t want a whimpering sycophant or a spineless worm. I want someone by my side, not in front of or behind me. You can’t let me push you around, and that’s sometimes harder than it should be, because I like getting my way. So I may pout or whine or shout in anger, but I promise you I will work through it with you, and that no matter what I say in the moment, I want you as an equal and not just arm candy, okay?”
Kevin laughed a little bit, nodding. “I mean, yeah, I can agree to that.”
“Great,” Fatima said, pulling her shirt up and over her head, revealing her bare brown tits, supple and firm but also petite and matching her frame. “Bring it here, Elizabeth!” she called down the hallway, and his Majordomo strode down the passage with long, almost leaping steps, a wide grin on her face.
“Nice to finally meet you, ma’am,” Elizabeth said, offering her hand down to shake, which Fatima did, but then yanked Elizabeth in close, pressing her lips against the brunette’s with a soft yelp of surprise on Elizabeth’s part before she giggled into the kiss.
“Likewise,” Fatima said as their lips parted, a coy smile widening on her lips. “Are all the members of our harem as pretty as you are?”
“Our harem?” Kevin asked, more than a little surprised.
“Oh come off it, love,” Fatima said to him. “You told me that Morgana said she was only going to let bisexual women into your life. I am, and I assume the others are as well, so I’m going to want to savor their delights from time to time. Would you deny your partner such a pleasure?”
Kevin laughed, shaking his head. “Not at all. I’m just surprised at how fast you’re taking to all this, now that you’re here.”
“There are two things a woman cannot do ‘just a little,’ Kevin—fall in love and get pregnant. My pendant?”
Elizabeth moved to slide a long double braided silver cord around Fatima’s neck, a little hourglass shaped pendant hanging from it, the bottom half of it empty, the top half filled with black smoky onyx, a gem to match all the others. As soon as it was clasped shut, Fatima’s eyes rolled up and back into her skull as her whole body began to shake, a velvety moan pouring from her lips as she fell forward, clinging to him.
When she started to breathe again, she laughed, wheezing for breath, nuzzling her face against his cheek. “Do you believe in magic? I hope that you do...” she quietly sung to him. “Now, to give you something truly magical.”
“What’s that?”
“Me.”
She stood up, her stance a little wobbly, as she gestured for Elizabeth to pull off his pants as she moved to shuck her shorts from her body, along with a pair of violet cotton panties she had on underneath, leaving her completely nude before him, a healthy block of hair just above her shaven snatch. Elizabeth yanked off his jeans and boxers, as Kevin laughed a little bit. “We can go to the bedroom, you know. We’ve got lots of bedrooms here.”
Fatima shook her head, a sultry smile on her lips. “Oh no,” she said. “I want it here and now, so whenever you’re meeting someone in this entryway, you’ve always got the memory of our first fuck lingering in the back of your mind. Now, let me give myself to you.”
Elizabeth moved down to fold her legs, sliding Kevin’s head up to rest along her calves, as Fatima moved to lower herself down onto his cock, a brief shudder of delight bolting up her body, making it wobble and wiggle. Above him, he heard a click-click-click and realized that Elizabeth had taken a picture of Fatima’s face in that moment with his cell phone. “I thought that was for when I made them cum the first time,” he asked Elizabeth before feeling Fatima’s hand turning his face back to her as she leaned down, bringing her lips almost atop of his.
“Silly boy,” she whispered to him. “You just did.”
Her hips began to post on him like he was a horse she was riding, and while he could feel the cool stone of the floor against his ass, she was keeping his attention focused elsewhere, the tempo and speed just the perfect rhythm, their lips spending more time together than apart.
He wasn’t fucking her and she wasn’t fucking him—they were fucking each other, and they were both moaning into each the other’s mouth as his cock felt like her cunt was clinging to him as she continued their lusty tempo.
Kevin wanted the moment to last forever, but Fatima’s hands were clenching at his t-shirt and her thighs were spreading just that tiny bit wider, getting him even deeper inside of her twat, as the melody changed from verse-chorus-verse to moan-shudder-moan, and the climax, their climax, was inevitable and inescapable. As soon as he felt his balls starting to draw up, that familiar surge at the base of his cock, he felt her clench down and begin to tremble, and they orgasmed simultaneously, in a release that took them both by storm.
Fatima had given him a very magical gift indeed—her heart.