I AM A MAGE BUT WITH MILF SYSTEM

Almost exactly five minutes had passed when the passage door opened again and Mara reappeared.

She moved between the two sofas, positioning herself naturally in the space between them.

“My lords,” she said, addressing both of them with a slight bow of her head. “The performers are ready. They will be with you in just a few moments.”

She paused then added:

“In the meantime—do either of you have any particular requests? Anything you would like to be involved into the evening’s arrangements?”

Julian glanced up at her, then shook his head once. “No.”

Mara nodded and turned to Kraven. He set his wine glass on the table and joined his hands together as if thinking something.

“Positions,” he began. “I want variety. Not just the obvious. I want to see the boy take the mother from behind while the girl watches. Then the girl and Helena together—facing each other. Close.”

He tilted his head slightly, thinking more.

“And the language. That’s important. I want them using the words: Mother. Son. Daughter. Not names—the words. Every time.” He paused, reconsidering. “No, not every time. At the moments that matter. You’ll know which ones.”

Mara was nodding along, noting everything to memory.

“Anything else, my lord?”

“Helena’s hair down,” he added. “I want to be able to see her face clearly. No hiding.”

“Of course.”

Kraven leaned back, satisfied with himself, and picked up his wine again. Then he looked at Julian with an expression that was almost amused.

“Boring, Lord Julian.”

Julian laughed. “You have covered everything perfectly enough. I would only be repeating you.” He tilted his glass slightly in Kraven’s direction. “So I must thank you instead. You’ve made it considerably more interesting.”

Kraven looked at him for a moment, then nodded and raised his own glass in return.

“At least you’re honest about it.”

The moment settled comfortably between them.

Then Kraven’s hand moved.

It dropped from his glass to Mara’s side, sliding possessively behind her. His fingers found the curve of her ass and closed around it.

Mara’s breath froze.

“My lord—” she said, soft and startled, barely above a whisper.

Kraven wasn’t listening. He kept his hand where it was and turned his head to look at her with a slightly puzzled expression.

“Mara,” he said. “Have you been working out?”

She blinked. “My lord?”

“Your ass.” He said it plainly, without embarrassment. “It seems larger than I remember.”

A flush climbed Mara’s neck immediately. “No, my lord, I—this is how I have always been. It hasn’t changed.”

Kraven stared at her for another moment, genuinely surprised. He looked at Julian with an expression that said, am I wrong about this?

Sensing his gaze, Julian looked at Mara for a moment, then reached out and grabbed her on the other side.

Mara went absolutely rigid.

“Lo—” She stopped. Swallowed. Started again. “Lord Julian—”

Julian tilted his head slightly, as if genuinely considering something. He could feel the tension in her body and also that fury of not being able to push his hands away in front of Kraven. She couldn’t afford to create a scene.

“Hm,” he said thoughtfully.

He gave it another moment, then looked at Kraven.

“You’re not wrong,” he said.

Kraven pointed at him. “See—”

“Though I suspect,” Julian continued, releasing her with the same casual ease with which he had grabbed her, “that it has always been this way and we simply failed to notice until now.”

He looked up at Mara with a pleasant smile.

“You are quite gifted, Miss Mara,” he said warmly.

Mara’s face had gone pale. Her composure was intact, but her eyes held a very specific message that Julian immediately understood. He met it with a look of complete innocence and took a sip of his wine.

Kraven, entirely unbothered, finally withdrew his own hand and settled back into his sofa.

“Well,” he said, reaching for a piece of dried fruit from the small plate on the table. “However it came to be, it’s not a complaint.”

“Certainly not,” Julian agreed pleasantly.

Mara straightened. She smoothed the front of her gown with both hands and lifted her chin back to its professional angle. When she spoke again, her voice had returned to its usual composed tone.

“I’ll go check on the performers,” she said.

“Do,” said Kraven.

Julian simply nodded.

After about ten minutes, the curtain shifted again.

A silence fell over the chamber.

Mara came through first, stepping into the chamber with her composure fully reassembled. She moved to the side of the archway and gestured something behind her.

Immediately, Thomas entered next.

He was dressed simply in a white shirt and dark trouser. His eyes moved across the chamber quickly, taking in the pool, the sofas and most importantly the men sitting on top of them.

Sarah followed behind him.

Her fingers found Thomas’s the moment she was through the curtain. His hand closed around hers immediately, calming her down.

They stood together near the edge of the archway and waited.

Then Helena came through.

The chamber changed when she entered.

She was beautiful. More so than the kitchen had allowed Julian to fully appreciate. Auburn hair, loose as Kraven had requested, falling past her shoulders in waves. She was dressed in something simple but perfectly fitted enough to show what was beneath.

But her eyes.

Her eyes were doing something entirely different from the rest of her.

They moved constantly, restlessly, over everything in the chamber—the pool, the lamps, the walls, the ceiling.

And then they found the sofas.

They landed on Kraven first. Stayed there for two seconds, three—long enough to take him in—and then slid sideways.

To Julian.

Something shifted in her expression when she looked at him. Not relief exactly—nothing in this room warranted relief—but something more complicated. The unease of seeing a familiar face in an unfamiliar context and not knowing what it means.

Julian met her gaze and said nothing.

Helena looked away.

Kraven sat forward on his sofa.

“Here they are,” he said. It came out almost jovial. He reached for his wine with one hand and gestured with the other. “Here they finally are.”