I was planning to drive alone, but as I walked, I noticed a pair of cheerleaders walking toward me, the sway of their hips — excessive and exaggerated — which, combined with their clothing choice — one wearing a skirt, the other wearing shorts, each small enough to be used as belts in an emergency — left no doubt about their intention.

Maybe Thad's warning about cheerleaders being in a hunting mood was less of an exaggeration, and more of a warning.

Yet, before they could cover the distance halfway, I had been tackled by a familiar form. Megan again. "Congratulations, honey," she exclaimed after a spectacular kiss, though her gaze was not on me as she said so, but somewhere behind me.

Roughly the direction the enthusiastic cheerleaders were, marking her territory.

"What a nice greeting," I said as I chuckled as I wrapped my arm around her waist and continued to walk toward the parking lot. "So, are you here with your car?"

"No, Kim dropped me here," she answered. "And, I assumed you wouldn't mind driving me to the party. I hope you don't promise those seats to anyone else."

"Don't worry, the seats are empty, so there's no problem," I said, then let my smirk widen. "As long as you have the necessary payment to get an exclusive trip, of course," I said, enjoying the flicker of fury she threw to my side.

"You're pushing your luck," she growled.

"Well, we can always turn it into an open bidding system, and I have a feeling I can easily find other applicants for the position," I said.

"Not for at least another week," Megan warned, her voice more threatening than any attempt of poor little Kevin despite his best efforts. Yet, the tenseness of her face suggested she got the message, and she added. "But since you're making such a big sacrifice, I'll make sure to keep the trip satisfactory," she whispered.

"Excellent," I said as I opened the passenger side door, showing a small flicker of gentlemanly behavior before I took my seat and started driving.

Despite her earlier promise, she did nothing during the trip other than examine me carefully, and I let that slide. Her aim was clear, she was trying to get a new measure of me since her earlier calculations had been turned inaccurate.

I stayed silent deliberately, not feeding her with information, not giving her a clue on how to handle me. Not that it was necessary, but watching her growing frustration as she struggled to keep it hidden was certainly fun.

Then, we arrived at the den, only to be greeted by a shocking show. Loud music exploded followed by another set of champagne — once again showing the excessive budget of the football team — as we walked in, everyone cheering around us.

And just like that, people gathered around me and started throwing me in the air repeatedly, a move I accepted since it gave me a lot of Intent.

Nothing could be compared to the game itself, of course, but it was not my habit to turn my nose to smaller sources of income just because I earned a surprise windfall.

I had always been financially astute, and I had no reason not to apply that to more magical aspects of my assets.

Then, when they finally allowed me to land back, Thad walked toward me. "So, are you ready to receive your reward from our loyal cheerleaders," Thad said.

Megan was close enough to intervene. "Wait," she said to Thad. "What reward."

"It's just a small show of their appreciation," Thad said, smirking as he ignored Megan's tense gaze completely.

I caught her gaze and looked at her sharply. Her tenseness intensified, catching my message easily. Meaning, that if she wanted to continue playing my girlfriend, she needed to act a little more open-minded, especially right after my victory.

After a staring contest that barely lasted five seconds, she declared her surrender. "Well, since you guys went all the trouble for the hero of the game, it would be a bitch move on my part to stop it," she started.

She let her sentence fade, clearly building up to a condition, but that was the wrong strategy against Thad's enthusiasm. "Come on, girls," he shouted, and six girls walked into the view. "Do you like it?" he asked.

"So, what do you think?" he asked as the girls formed a line.

"How could I not like it?" I said with a snicker that matched Thad's enthusiasm. Indeed, how could I not, when there were six girls, across six different body types and colors?

And more interestingly, cosplaying as chess pieces.

Admittedly, they were not the most clever or authentic cosplay I had ever seen in my life, but since I was not only decidedly straight but also going through a long dry streak — albeit with some interruptions that went a long way to take the edge — I didn't feel like I was in a place to nitpick.

The one that was closest to us was clearly the king, carrying a glowing scepter and wrapped in a velvety red cape, one that hardly helped to cover even a single bit of her beautiful shapely body, almost certainly belonging to a cheerleader. She didn't have a crown though, her blonde hair flowing freely. Other than those, she was just wearing a skimpy set of lingerie, red to match her velvet cape.

The reason that she wasn't wearing a crown was clear, because the girl behind her was wearing it, a redhead this time, though it was difficult to differentiate them by a body type, equally delicious. Unlike the king, she had no cape and wore nothing but a set of black lacy lingerie, complete with a garter belt.

After that, came the bishop, or more accurately, a delicious black girl wearing a sexy nun outfit, her tits barely staying stuffed in the costume and her hips trying to burst out with every step doing wonders to compensate for the lack of her thematic inaccuracy. She was considerably thicker than the other two girls, making her a fine addition to the mix.

Following her came a Latino beauty, wearing sexy bikini chainmail, her curves more than enough to rival her bishop counterpart. Her ass failed the comparison, but her amazing boobs, straining her chainmail top, were more than enough to compensate for it.

The rook costume would have been comical, just two pieces of paper with boxes drawn on, trying to render the bricks of a castle wall, if it wasn't the absolute killer body of the girl. A brunette with olive skin, beautiful enough for a heart attack, and unlike the others who were wearing lingerie, she was wearing just panties, using those comically-drawn papers to cover her breasts instead.

A deficient solution at best. Luckily, the faults of the costume were much more interesting than the solution itself.

And the last girl, who was supposed to be a pawn — mostly through a process of elimination, as her costume was impossible to get otherwise. She was a cute half-Asian, compensating for her lithe body by wearing lingerie that might snap off at a wrong move.

Altogether, exactly the sexist, tone-deaf display a football team might use to greet a new member that was also a chess player.

Still excellent, admittedly.

But as the man in the center, as the girls gathered around me in a circle, swaying to a song that would have fitted a seedy strip club perfectly, I was hardly in a position to reject the fruits of their display.

"I was saying," I heard Megan cut in, poking me. "While you certainly earned his reward, maybe it's for the best if you limit yourself to watching." Yet, she managed to deliver that in a playful manner, which earned chuckles from the crowd rather than booing.

"It's cruel to present such beautiful gifts, yet ask me not to unwrap them," I said mockingly.

Megan smiled, in a way, a less observant man might have mistaken for good-humored fun, but her eyes got even icier. "But since they went into such big trouble, they could still give a reward. A lap dance each, maybe?" she asked.

"Ouch," I said even as the crowd laughed. It was certainly a nice compromise, and I had a feeling that, if I tried to push my luck more, she would retaliate. "Whatever you wish, sweetheart."

She clearly didn't intend on loosening her control, as she stayed next to me even as the first girl stood next to me. "We can't do it here, it's too cold," the first girl, the one that was dressed as the king, grabbed me and started dragging me inside.

Soon, the other girls grabbed me as well, dragging me inside. Pity Megan followed as well, clearly intending to intervene. Even that would have been enough to make me break up our fake relationship, but ironically, it was the great performance she displayed as she managed the fakeness that stopped me.

Her great ability to manage the public perception was too useful with the nature of my power, and more importantly, I was dealing with too many secrets to let her poke around to turn the tables in another breakup.

And, Megan didn't waste any time by showing her presence was worthwhile. When the chess cosplayers tried to drag me into a room without a window, Megan intervened, and chose another room.

One with large windows that were facing inside, yet dark enough to hide the details, turning it into a public yet mysterious show.

Perfect for generating even more Intent.