"Oh?" the vampire repeated, "is that all you have to say?"

As she said this, she shifted position to fold her arms while pinning him with a glare. The action emphasized her chest, showing off her cleavage.

‘...were the top buttons always undone?’

Because Madelyn did indeed have the top buttons of her blouse undone, showing off an impressive amount of cleavage enabling him to make out the color of her bra,

‘Red,’ the thought came to him, ‘just like her eyes.’

Shaking his head of those thoughts before his mind could sink further into the gutter, he managed to stutter out, “what, uh, what do you mean?"

"I gave you my number, yet you didn’t call."

"I was…busy?" He said it slowly and with some confusion before continuing on, "looking for a job actually," he added.

Her red eyes narrowed, and Roland felt himself wither under her scrutiny.

Finally, she said, "I believe you."

‘Phew’

"But that’s not the whole truth, is it?"

‘Dammit.’

Roland was starting to become weary of this topic right now, but he knew better than to say something like, "does it really matter?” but that would be a stupid thing to say, however, because clearly it matters to her; otherwise, she wouldn’t have brought it up in the first place.

So what does he do now?

The only thing he can do.

"The truth is, I don’t want to be like your ‘boy toy’ or something like that."

Madelyn blinked and tilted her head. "Boy toy?"

"You know ‘friends with benefits’?

Madelyn’s brows furrowed this time. "What?"

‘Guess those education programs didn’t teach her those idioms.’

"Basically sex friends or...” he trailed off, not willing to say fuck buddies.

Following that answer, Madelyn held up a finger forestalling anymore words “one moment” before reaching for her phone.

‘What is she…?’

A few seconds later, her scowl intensified for a brief flash before she closed her eyes.

“You thought I gave you my contact information as a means of making it easier to solicit you for sexual favors?"

It took a moment for him to realize what just happened.

‘She just Googled the definition of ‘boy toy, didn’t she?’

He mentally cursed at this hypothesis.

Madelyn opened her eyes as she put away her phone. "I’ll overlook that insult only because you clearly don’t have any experience with Mamono beyond what you’ve seen on the internet."

He won’t argue with that.

"To dispel any misgivings, I want to make my intentions very clear, Roland," and once again he found himself being pinned by her gaze. "I like you; I enjoyed our time together both at the nightclub and especially at the hotel." She smirked a bit, and Roland felt his cheeks heat up a bit until she continued, "I would like to continue this relationship in a more official capacity."

During her speech, Roland’s jaw dropped, and he was having trouble picking it off the floor. When he eventually did accomplish this somehow herculean feat, he asked a single question.

“Are you asking me out?”

For a long, unerring moment, Madelyn stared at him with a decidedly neutral expression before replying, "Sure, let’s go with that. What say you?"

What say him?

WHAT SAY HIM!?

“I... don't know what to say." He really didn't, which says a lot about how tumultuous his emotions and thoughts are.

Madelyn pursed her lips. "Be honest, Roland, did you enjoy our time together?"

Roland swallowed, and after catching her expectant expression, he decided to play it safe and answer truthfully. "I did; the conversation we had at Elysium was-"

"Come now, we both know I’m not referring to that." Her expression turned a bit flirtatious, which was in direct contrast to Roland’s discomfort. "But just so that there are no more misunderstandings, I will ask plainly: did you enjoy fucking me?"

‘What the hell is even happening right now?" Roland internally screamed.

Without any recourse to fall back on, he answered with a simple "yes."

"Would you like to do it again?"

‘Holy shit’

“Is that a joke?”

She shook her head with a smile of amusement and said, "no joke."

Roland massaged his brows for a bit. They both knew the answer to that, but Roland refused to admit it out loud.

Feeling sympathetic, Madelyn said, "I understand this comes as a surprise."

"You don’t say?” He glared only to realize he said that out loud to his new boss and adopted a panicked expression as he attempted to backtrack. "I mean-”

"No-no, it is fine," she interrupted. "After all, you came here for a job interview, and here you are being propositioned by your superior." She paused. "Now that I’ve said it out loud like this, it is rather inappropriate, isn’t it?"

“Yeah," he answered with a slow nod.

In response, she shrugged, "Oh well, in for a penny and all that."

Roland’s mouth dropped. "Are you being serious?" he asked slowly.

His disbelief only grew when, in response to his question, she hiked up her skirt a bit and spread her legs.

"Does this answer your question?"

"Holy shit," Roland muttered in disbelief as he stared wide-eyed at the valley between her thighs.

‘Red, he thought, which was quickly becoming her signature color, seeing how it matched her eyes, her heels, and her bra, which she also took the liberty of exposing by undoing more buttons from her blouse.

Roland’s tongue licked at his suddenly dry lips, and in an impressive feat of self-control, he dragged his eyes away from her exposed crotch and chest to look her in the eye.

"Why?" he asked in disbelief, "why are you doing this? Why me?"

Madelyn regarded him for a while with a look of contemplation, seemingly surprised by his question. After a long moment, she fixed her position a bit, closing her legs so she was no longer exposing herself to him.

"I have several reasons for doing this, Roland," she began counting on her fingers. “First, regardless of how I present myself, I am still a mamono, for better or worse," she added with a mutter. “Second, this job is very stressful, and I too need release on occasion. Third, you are an exceptional lover; and lastly, well," she paused, and for the first time, he saw her hesitate with a brief look of uncertainty before regaining her confidence and finishing, "I like you."

"You…like me?"

"Why are you so surprised? I don’t think I’ve ever shown displeasure towards you."

She’s not wrong but…

"I mean, it’s just... why?" he once again reiterated.

Maddie pursed her lips with a considerate expression for a moment before she cleared her throat.

“Roland, I have been alive for... a very long time, centuries," she added, causing his eyes to widen. "And after so long, I’ve realized that there is a shortage of good men to be found... or perhaps I was just looking in the wrong places." She hummed before shaking her head. "In any case, you are not the first man I have had dalliances with. Most of them weren’t even memorable enough to survive a day or two in my memories. After our shared night together, I found myself coming back to it, and no, I am not just referring to the sex. Though if that were the case, it is more than I can say for any other man I’ve been with in recent or even distant memory."

Roland would be lying if he said her words weren’t a boost to his ego, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit put off by the implication that she’d done this many times before. Now he couldn’t get the image of her trolling clubs at night in a sleazy dress for easy pickups. At least he couldn’t until he saw her direct a smile filled with fondness at him, and suddenly he was struck yet again by her beauty and expression.

"I’m not some hopeless romantic, but I cannot deny I felt there to be some, how do you humans put it, chemistry between us. Beyond the sex, I genuinely enjoyed our time together, and I hope I’m not the only one."

It was easy to say that he felt the same way, but the look in her eye made him pause. Despite how she started, what she was doing right now wasn’t some kind of attempt at seduction, at least not entirely. It felt like she was actually giving him an honest-to-God love confession, which seemed so out of character from what he knew of her. Although with that recognition, he knew he couldn’t just give a half-assed answer. He has to really think about this clearly because he owes her at least that much.

So what did he think of Madelyn beyond her beauty, poise, and sex?

"I’m not going to lie here, Miss Valentina.”

"Just call me Maddie Roland," she interrupted. "I think we’re past professionalism at this point."

It felt weird calling her that even when they first met, "you can probably tell I’m really out of my depth here.” She nodded, biting her lip with an almost imperceptible look of concern. "I don’t really have any personal problems with pursuing a relationship with you.” He really didn't, but at the same time, "but I don’t know if this can work out with you being my boss.” And that’s the crux: he didn’t have any personal misgivings about a relationship with her, but professionally, "I don’t want our relationship to undermine your authority and tarnish your reputation in the company."

There is, after all, a reason why relationships between employees, specifically between a superior and a subordinate, are frowned upon. He was being incredibly serious here, which is why he was more than a bit put off by the rather airy laughter she let out.

"I understand your misgivings, but believe me, Roland, the others won’t bat an eye at our relationship." The smile of mirth on her face grew wider and more seductive as she added, "You’ll come to find that here at Valentina Inc. we treat such things a bit differently than other companies when it comes to office relationships."

‘Because Mamono, right?’

As sarcastic as that thought sounded, there might very well be ‘loopholes’ available for Mamono when it came to office relationships given their culture.

"So interoffice relationships are allowed then?"

"Among other things,” she teased.

‘What does that mean!?’

He opened his mouth to ask that same question but thought better of it and instead brought up another point.

"I don’t want my professional career to be determined by our relationship."

It goes without saying that even if he could get that free ride to success of the back of his sexual prowess frankly Roland has worked too long and too hard in academia for all his efforts to be undermined just because he slept with the ‘right woman at the right time.’

At that, Madelyn straightened, the teasing expression gone from her face as she pinned him with a stern stare that was not quite a glare but made him anxious.

"That was never in question," Madelyn said. "I may play fast and loose with traditional office policy, but I will not, nor will I ever, compromise the integrity of my business or my employees for pleasure. Do not expect special privileges just because we’re sleeping together," her eyes narrowed dangerously, "in fact, expect even more scrutiny because of it."

This time she was outright glaring at him, and Roland felt a bead of cold sweat run down the side of his face.

"I have standards both in my work and in my partners, and should you fall short of those standards. I will not hesitate to cut you loose. Am I understood?"

Roland swallowed “yes, ma’am.”

Madelyn’s expression softened. “I like to think I am an excellent judge of character and a reasonable woman. I wouldn’t have made this offer if I didn’t think you could handle it, but since I’ve thoroughly frightened you with the stick, I believe it’s time to introduce the carrot.”

As she said this, she reached behind her back and smoothly unhooked her bra before pulling the undergarment off, revealing her d-cup breasts to him.

"Should we really be doing this now?” Roland questioned while looking over his shoulder at the door behind him.

"No one is going to disturb us," she assured.

Roland turned back to the woman, only to reflexively catch something she casually tossed at him. He held up the piece of fabric to reveal a pair of red lacy pants, the sight of which caused him to suck in a breath through his nose. Looking up, he saw Madelyn with her legs spread and her pussycat visible for him to see.

"Now I shouldn’t be the one to tell you how impolite it is to keep a lady waiting,” she paused with a tilt of her head, "or would you rather not take up my offer? Because if so, then the door is right behind you," she said, pointing at the door.

Roland stared at her, but only for a moment.

‘You know what? Screw it.’

Roland won’t pretend he’s some paragon of virtue or whatever. He’s a red-blooded male, straight as an arrow and horny as fuck, thanks to the temptress before him. So it was with that thought that Roland surged to his feet, pants gripped in one fist, erection straining painfully against his pants, teeth gritted, and eyes laser-focused as he closed in.