The situation became a tad too spicy for my little tiger cat, so while my lips were interlocked with Ria’s, Shima took the opportunity to leave and move over to the next sofa. For me, it proved to be a blessing. With my other hand, now free of cat, I took Ria by the waste and goaded her into getting out of the sofa and climbing on top of my lap, without us losing contact for even a second. When she was well and truly straddling my lap, I wrapped my arms around her waist to pull her close to me.

Ria paused our kiss for a second, as her sparkly eyes looked into mine. “Rora… are you a bit thirsty… perhaps?” She brushed her hair away from the right side of her neck. A clear invitation.

“Maybe a tad, but what kind of girlfriend would I be if I drank or ate before you?” I teased.

“Rora…” She pouted.

“Well, because you are offering…” I grinned, completely exposing my teeth. Biting Ria now would presumably shoot her appetite through the roof. But a kebab or two extra is definitely worth the price for what I’m about to receive now.

Ria gave me one more kiss before I sank my teeth into her soft neck. Ria’s moaning started to fill the room, making me quite happy that these walls were thick and very sound-proof. I wouldn’t want the lady who gave us the dinner idea to hear what we were up to, and neither did I want the friendly grandma to know.

Some alone time with Ria was much appreciated because I did realize I generally spent more of my spicey alone time with Em, and I definitely didn’t want Ria to feel left-out or under-appreciated.

“You tell me when to stop, okay?” I took a very small break from satisfying us both to make that clear. “I don’t want you to push yourself too much.”

“No…” She whispered into my ear. “You can go on…”

“Alright.” I smiled and continued my little food tour. This time, I chose to bite a little higher on her neck, just below her ear.

Ria gasped for air as I did, digging her nails into my clothes on my back. “G-Goddess…” She moaned. Apparently I had hit a bit of a vulnerability. With renewed zeal, I kept on nibbling on my girlfriend for a couple more minutes, not really drinking that much more, but just purely giving her literal love-bites. She squirmed in my arms with every bit of pressure I added or lowered. It was incredibly fun and satisfying.

When Ria finally tapped out, she just sank into my arms with barely any tension in her muscles left.

“Are you alright?” I whispered.

“Mhmm.” She hummed back, bringing her around me with little strength. “I-I think I need a minute to recover… Can we stay like this for a bit?”

“Of course we can.” I rubbed her back up and down. “As long as you like. And after that we can order some food.”

“Okay.” She leant the side of her head against mine. “I love you, Rora.”

“I love you too, Ria.”

Ria rested on top of me for a while until Shima came back over to rub up against her thigh. Cats being as irresistible as always, Ria couldn’t just not pet our little cat.

“You can sit in the sofa for a bit while I go and search for that flyer.” I softly slapped her thigh twice. “Sounds like an idea?”

“Mhmm.” Ria nodded, after which I helped her get off from my lap and back in the sofa. Shima then quickly walked over the top of me to go and sit in Ria’s lap again.

“Alright, I’ll be right back.” I smiled and got up, moving over to the kitchen to look for our elusive kebab shop flyer. It didn’t take me long to find, as I generally kept all the food delivery flyers and menus in the leftmost drawer. As I didn’t move cities, I kept most of the ones around from my previous home. Not that I needed them myself anymore, but when Em and Ria were here it was always useful. Plus, just for the taste, I did order something from time to time. As much as I had grown to love my new dietary needs, good old human food was a blessing for the palette.

When I got back into the living room, Shima had just climbed up against Ria’s chest and was licking her cheek.

“What’s up with Shima, she doesn’t do that very often.” I chuckled.

“I don’t know. The moment you left the room, she started doing it.” Ria was laughing herself, petting Shima on her back. “Maybe she wants to claim me for herself again by leaving her scent.”

“Ah, so you are cheating on me with my cat, I see.” I laughed and got into the sofa next to her. When I did so, Shima moved over to me and started doing the exact same thing she’d been doing to Ria. I quickly handed over the flyer to my girlfriend so I could take my cat in my hands. I proceeded to lift her a bit away from me, to which she meowed a little. “Aint you a little bit too affectionate today?”

She just meowed innocently in return.

I smiled and pulled Shima in close to my chest for a big hug. “Well, not that we mind. We love you too, Shima.”

She purred along and I continued petting her while Ria looked through the flyer.

“What would you pick, Rora?” She asked, flipping the flyer over to look at the back side.

“I think I’ll just pick a medium chicken doner kebab with mayo.”

“Is it okay if I take a big one and then some fries as well?”

“Of course.” I chuckled. “Is the hunger kicking in already?”

“A bit.” She nodded.

“Then let’s order quickly before you start devouring all the snacks I have stocked up.” I bumped my shoulder into hers to tease her a little. Her pouty reaction to it was the best.

One quick order through their website later and we were soon to have our food.

“I hope they won’t take very long.” Ria said as she put her hand on her stomach, a loud growl ensued which made her blush quite a bit.

“I think it’s going to be fine.” I looked at my phone at the email I had just received. It mentioned that the shop had already started on our order. So it probably wouldn’t take longer than twenty minutes. I just needed to go and get some cash to tip the delivery person with. A five euro tip would be plenty enough without being too suspicious.

“Have you heard from Pres or Claire lately?” Ria asked while I quickly got up to go and get the tip ready.

“I’m pretty sure Pres is celebrating the holidays with her family in some fancy ski resort. She sent a photoshopped Christmas card of her and her family. Didn’t you receive that too?”

“I did, but I meant apart from just Christmas wishes.”

“Ah, in that case, not from Pres at least. It’s a busy period for everyone, so she can’t really be blamed.”

“And Claire?”

“She’s spending time with Anya. But we mostly send memes to each other anyway. I’ll show you one she sent me two days ago. I spent quite a while laughing about that one.” I dug through one of the cabinets and fished out a five euro bill. “I really really should open that bank account, shouldn’t I….”

“It surprises me that you didn’t do that already.” Ria giggled.

“Look, Alessia wanted to take me to get that fixed, but we just didn’t have enough time yet, with the move and then the Christmas stuff and the other stuff that also happened on Christmas. Not to mention that that bank is apparently a rather distant drive as it’s a small chain of banks. And I don’t really like banks to begin with so I’m not looking forward to that.”

“But at least you won’t have to worry about keeping your money yourself anymore.”

“That’s true, but still.” When I imagined the meeting with the banker I already got cold chills running over my body.

Ria shook her head with a smile and signaled for me to come and sit next to her again. An invitation I gladly took over thinking about financial bureaucracy. That was definitely the thing I was looking up against most when it came to managing the Conclave. Well, at least there’s that woman Erica who had something for financial things. Hopefully she would be open to supporting me as much as she did with Alessia.

Now that I think about it, I should probably try to connect with more people of the Conclave rather than just hanging out with Viktor, Alessia and Aileen. Heck, I didn’t even know Alex that well… Or Epiphania who was technically the first vampiress I’d met after Viktor…

Well… at least there’s still quite a bit of time before I take over and I doubt that Alessia didn’t take that into account for her planning either.

Anyway, for now I could just cuddle up with my girlfriend. Those were all issues and things to think about for later down the road.