My Taboo Harem!

Chapter 967: A Bored Assassin With Too Much Budget

Emily, meanwhile, wanted nothing more than to shower and collapse into bed like a cat that had fulfilled its contractual obligations to society and now wished to be worshipped horizontally.

She looked composed, as always, but the faint tiredness around her eyes told Phei that his hyper-efficient manager had reached the edge of her tolerance for the day. She had guided him through the interview, relayed Ashworth’s angles, managed the fallout, absorbed too much stress and probably already drafted six contingency plans in her head while everyone else flirted, joked or emotionally collapsed in luxury vehicles.

If Emily did not sleep soon, she might begin managing people in their dreams, and nobody wanted that kind of administrative haunting.

So, when Phei caught her hand briefly on her way past, he did not tease her. He simply lifted it, pressed a soft kiss to her knuckles, and said, low enough that only she heard it, "You carried tonight, Emily. All of it. Go rest before I start working you into a ghost."

She blinked at him, the careful brave face faltering for half a second into something younger and warmer, and the faint pink that climbed her neck told him the gratitude had landed somewhere her efficiency could not file away.

She muttered something professional and fled, which he counted as a victory.

Victoria, however, was staying with him.

Phei smiled at that, though the smile carried a private edge beneath it.

’It’s time, perhaps, I start and confront the issue with Victoria properly.’

She had hovered around him with increasing devotion, giving her all in that desperate, beautiful attempt to earn his approval, his attention, his acceptance. He could not keep allowing that to continue without answering the need behind it.

The thought made Phei uncomfortable, not because he disliked her, but because he understood that her longing was not casual. It was tender, aching and dangerously sincere, the kind of affection that could not be left starving beside him while he pretended not to notice.

Phei did not know how he would reach the top of the particular mountain about their past.

He only knew he could not keep circling its base forever like a coward with good cheekbones.

Soon he would have her trembling beneath him, whispering his name like a prayer and a surrender, and the thought sent a slow, dark heat curling through his veins.

’I’ll see when I get there,’ he thought.

A deeply responsible plan, obviously.

As for Sierra and Maddie, there was no world in which they were going back to the hotel.

Even if they had wanted to rest, Phei would have asked them to stay, likely they wanted to stay too. He liked his two princesses far too much, liked the bright wickedness Maddie carried and the softer sweetness Sierra hid beneath her elegance.

They were part of the night he wanted now, part of the laughter, warmth and scheming energy surrounding the next step.

From the other cars, Catrina was too tired to continue too. She had kickstarted the day in a way that no virgin with reasonable stamina should have been expected to survive for several more hours without dozing off into someone’s shoulder.

Lydia was going with her, along with the boys and their women. That group had already given enough energy to the day, and Phei could not blame them. Even chaos needed shifts.

Otherwise, one ended up like David, and nobody should use David as a standard for healthy endurance.

That way lay streaming crimes and public embarrassment.

This was becoming, in a strange way, a more private time for Phei.

Not alone exactly, because solitude around him had become a mythical creature last seen fleeing into the mountains, but closer. Smaller. A time he wanted to spend with the women who were staying, even as some of his beloved chaos went to sleep and new presences stepped into the night:

Nastya and Victoria among them.

He could already picture the way Victoria’s devotion would taste when he finally claimed it, the way Nastya’s quiet sharpness would melt into something far more interesting under his hands.

The night was young enough, and he was hungry enough, to make good use of every remaining hour.

He also wanted to find a way to give something useful to the boys.

That thought remained careful and serious beneath the excitement.

Hopefully Maddie would help him in that area, because what he needed to discuss was sensitive. Extremely sensitive.

It had to do with something he had received from the Super Abilities Mystery Box, something that could change more than just his own path if handled well. He would have to ask Maddie and Melissa when Melissa called him to pick her up.

The matter was too important to treat casually, and too strange to explain while half the group was teasing him about car virginity like deranged poets of automotive purity.

And beneath the practical weight of it sat a quieter thing he did not voice.

He wanted to give that something the boy:

Landon, Brian, David — they had stood beside him when he was still the charity case about to go against Legacy boys when they didn’t have to, back when standing beside Phei offered no profit and considerable social risk.

Now he had power enough to reshape bloodlines and a mystery box coughing up gifts that bent the rules of the world, and the first instinct it woke in him was not to hoard. It was to share it with the three idiots who had laughed with him before there was anything to gain.

That instinct, he suspected, was the most dangerous thing he owned.

Loyalty had a way of becoming leverage in worlds like this.

He intended to make sure his never became a blade someone else could hold.

Yuki was part of the staying group as well, quiet and observant, her presence calm enough that one might forget how sharp her attention could become.

After dropping the staying tired ones off at their rooms and kissing them goodnight one by one, Phei walked Amber, the Goddess and Patricia toward the room where Amber’s father waited.

The hallway felt softer than the night outside, golden lighting stretching over polished floors, the hotel’s luxury doing what wealth always did best: pretending no one inside it had problems expensive enough to become news.

Amber’s nervousness grew quieter with each step, and Phei noticed.

He always noticed.

At the door, he turned first to the Goddess and kissed her softly, a warm, lingering touch that made her eyes soften even as Patricia watched them with fond amusement. Then he kissed Patricia too, gentle and grateful, before finally turning to Amber. She looked up at him, trying to remain composed and failing beautifully.

When he kissed her, her blush rose at once, delicate and bright, and Phei smiled against her lips before pulling back.

"You’ll be fine," he said softly.

Amber nodded, still pink. "I know."

Patricia’s gaze softened. "We will make sure your father understands."

The Goddess added, with calm authority, "He will see that you are protected."

Amber exhaled, and some of the tightness in her shoulders loosened. "Thank you."

Phei brushed his thumb lightly over her hand before letting go. "Go on."

He watched them enter, watched the door close, and then turned away, leaving Amber in the hands of two women who could reassure a father far better than he could.

Phei was many things but explaining to a legacy patriarch why taking his daughter under one’s protection, affection and possibly future family structure was not a threat required a certain delicate maturity.

The Goddess and Patricia had that.

Phei had charm, power and a growing habit of making fathers nervous for deeply understandable reasons.

The jet bringing Brian’s two women, Mother and Diana was still three hours from landing.

Three hours.

’Plenty of time.’

Too much time, perhaps, which was exactly the kind of thought that preceded terrible decisions wrapped in excitement and wealth.

In that time, Phei intended to go car shopping and possibly, actually definitely, conquer yet another princess.

After all, there were three presences waiting around the next bend of the night: Nastya, Victoria and a certain beauty whose existence already made the future feel less stable. At the same time, he needed to discuss that Super Abilities Mystery Box gift with Maddie, plan for the boys, think about Melissa’s call, and prepare for whatever else fate had hidden beneath the moonlight like a bored assassin with too much budget.

The night could not possibly become any better.

Or more dangerous.

Or more future-shaping.

Which, given Phei’s life, meant it absolutely would.