Chained in the Lab

Poker Night Part One

Henry

About five days into Henry's first week on the job, a woman in a security jumpsuit open to reveal a remarkable amount of cleavage leaned over the security desk.

"You Henry?" she asked.

"Uh. Yes. Why?" he made a concentrated effort to meet her eyes, which were glittering bright green with mirth. It took him a full ten seconds to even notice the rest of her face, those eyes were so arresting.

"I was just gonna go hang out with Zar. Thought maybe we could get a game of poker going. Want in?" she asked.

"Doesn't he always win?"

She laughed. "Oh, we all win. I'm Annabeth."

He shook her hand. "Zauriel speaks really highly of you."

"I'm sure you can guess why." She gave a subtle bounce that did fascinating things to her chest and Henry's self-control.

"Oh, not just because of those. Although. Is it s****l harassment if I just pause here to say, wow?"

"No, I'm displaying them specifically to entice you into s****l acts. So it's a consenting adults kind of thing. And thank you, I do a lot of deltoid lifts to keep 'em perky."

"It certainly pays off. We should hit the gym together sometime." Henry let his eyes wander to see that the rest of her matched the eyes and the breasts. Every inch of that body was finely tuned, sleek muscle and a carefully tailored uniform worn exactly right. This was a woman who knew what she wanted and how to get it. Henry found himself curious. And he did need a new workout buddy.

"Sounds fun." Annabeth stood up and tilted her head. "What do you lift?"

Fair enough, he'd made the offer. "About two hundred on a good day. Bench, I mean. My deadlift is less. You?"

"I bench around one fifty, little more on deadlift. But I spent my whole college career training. Was on the school bodybuilding team and everything."

"I have got to see you in action," Henry declared. "But later. It's rude to interrupt a lady's plans."

"That it is. So. Poker?"

"Sure. Who else is going?"

"Oh, just you and me tonight. Probably. Michael from the labs might drop by. He's a sweet young man. Visits my dungeon occasionally."

"Dungeon?"

"I moonlight as a dominatrix."

"Cool." He paused. "I'm just gonna enjoy picturing that for a second."

She laughed. "Come along, pretty boy, and you can do more than imagine."

"I am hereby talked into whatever hijinks are about to ensue."

A card table and folding chairs had magicked their way into Zauriel's room, along with several bowls of chips and pretzels, some beers, and cans of soda. If not for the manacles around Zauriel's wrists, ankles and neck, and of course his somewhat inhuman features, they could be meeting for any normal after-hours game night.

"Hey, Zar," Henry said, settling into a chair next to the incubus' stool. "Where do you keep your stuff, anyway?"

The room appeared utterly featureless, and yet any time he dropped by the incubus had a new outfit, or a book, or a chess set. He had to be keeping them somewhere. Zauriel had dressed for the occasion; changing his scrub pants for painted on tight dark jeans and a vest fastened over his chest with fine golden chains. His wrists were wrapped in long fingerless gloves decorated with matching chains. Oddly, seeing him in more clothing somehow made him more distracting and alluring even though Henry by this point had seen every inch of him unclothed.

Zar grinned at Henry's curiosity. "Press that bit of wood paneling behind you," Zar said.

Henry turned and pressed where Zar pointed. The wall segment sank in, and then sprang open to reveal a small cabinet containing several more outfits and some jewelry.

"Neat," Henry said. He'd have to ask to get a closer look at the mechanism later. It was fascinating. And it might be a good idea to add something similar to his own tiny apartment.

"By the way, there's a door on that wall that operates the same way. It's the bathroom if you need it," Zar added, pointing.

"Huh. I'd wondered." He frowned at the manacles. "How do you, um, reach your bathroom with those?" While the chains were long enough to allow Zar to wander the room freely, they wouldn't extend any further. He couldn't, for instance, step out into the hallway.

"Oh, I don't always wear them. They unlatch if the door's locked. I'm on the honor system for putting them back on when the light goes red to show it's unlatched."

"Huh. Why? I mean, doc's got to know you're not a flight risk by now."

Zauriel sighed. "I'm honestly not sure. But, oh well. It's a small enough requirement. And honestly?" He winked. "I like them."

"They are... convenient," Annabeth added. She leaned over and tugged on the chain connected to the collar. Zauriel leaned into her side and purred.

"If I need them off in an emergency, say a fire, they release automatically," Zar added. "So it's fine, really. You don't have to worry about me so much."

"It's my nature," Henry said with a shrug.

"Makes sense," Annabeth said. "You strike me as the protective sort."

"I guess it runs in the family," Henry answered, reaching for a handful of pretzels.

Zauriel stretched luxuriously and then proved his earlier words true by slipping the manacles around his wrists open and placing them next to his stool. "Hard to navigate cards with these on," he explained.

Annabeth reached for the well-worn deck of cards and started to shuffle. "So, what game shall we play?"

"I like Blackjack. Rounds are fast, so you get naked faster," Zar grinned.

"What about you?" Henry said.

"Oh, I'll probably end up naked," Zar agreed, "but not because I lost at cards!"

Henry leaned forward. "We'll see about that."

"A challenge, hm?" Annabeth dealt the cards. "Let's see if we finally have someone capable of beating our infernal card shark."