My Taboo Harem! Chapter 495: Valentina: Questions and Summons

The elevator humd its way down from the ninety-eighth floor with the patient, expensive silence of machinery that cost more than most people’s houses and probably had better sex than most people too.

Valentina stood to Phei’s left, arms folded loosely, dark hair still slightly mussed from the morning like soone had tried to finger-comb it into submission and lost the fight.

She wore an expression she got sotis—her mouth still but her brain was doing laps around a racetrack made of pure "what the actual fuck." with her yes narrowed slightly and head tilted a fraction.

The particular focus of a woman who’d been turning sothing over in her mind for a while and had just decided the turning was done and the asking was starting.

Maya stood to his right, silver hair freshly combed and gleaming like moonlight had learned how to dress itself and decided to show off. She wore an ivory blouse so soft it looked like it had been woven from actual clouds.

She was humming sothing quiet.

Content. Exactly like a girl who’d woken up in the right arms and hadn’t stopped glowing since—like she’d been personally blessed by every horny deity in the pantheon.

The floor numbers ticked down in silence.

Seventy-two. Seventy-one. Seventy.

Valentina turned to face him.

"How do you do that?"

Phei blinked. "Do what?"

Maya chuckled—soft, barely audible, one small hand rising to cover her mouth like she already knew where this was going and was settling in to enjoy the roast.

"The sex," Valentina said flatly. No preamble or cushioning it. "How many tis this week? lissa.Sierra. Maddie. Patricia. Now Cassiopeia—this morning, for what, two hours? Three? And you walk out looking like you just had a nap and a protein shake while the rest of us are limping like we’ve been hit by a truck full of orgasms."

The elevator humd.

Fifty-nine. Fifty-eight.

"You never get tired," she continued, ticking points off on her fingers like she was presenting quarterly results to a boardroom full of horny accountants and the boss was this lustful dragon. "Never slow down. Never seem to need recovery ti. So many won and you just—keep going. Like a machine. A very attractive, very annoying machine that should’ve overheated and exploded by now but instead just keeps fucking harder."

Phei opened his mouth to.

"I’m not finished."

He closed it.

"And then—your family too?" She said it with the particular emphasis of a woman who found the situation fascinating and appalling in equal asure—like she was simultaneously taking notes and writing a strongly worded letter to God.

"Don’t get wrong. I enjoy the taboopart of it. I do. That’s not what I’m asking."

She paused and gathered the thought like she was loading a crossbow.

"What I’m asking is—how do you convince them? It’s not easy to convince a family mber to sleep with you. I don’t care how good-looking you are. I don’t care how good the sex is. Getting a woman to cross that line—the family line, the blood line, the this-is-insane-and-we-both-know-it line—that takes sothing beyond charm and a big cock. That takes black magic or mind control or so unholy combinationof both."

Maya’s hand was still over her mouth. Her shoulders were shaking so hard the elevator probably registered it as seismic activity.

"And it’s not just them," Valentina continued, voice rising like she was building to a crescendo. "It’s us too. All of us. Won who should hate each other. Won who should be tearing each other apart over you. And instead we’re—what? Making breakfast together? Buying each other clothes? Sharing a closet? Planning group dates like it’s a fucking book club?"

Forty-four. Forty-three.

"Even the ones you’re tense with. That aunt—Cassiopeia—when she walked in last night you two were circling each other like wolves who’d just realized they both wanted the sa bone. The whole room was cold with it. And this morning she’s moaning on your cockloud enough to wake the building and calling you ’dragon’ like it’s a pet na."

She shook her head—half exasperation, half awe.

"How? How do you do that?"

Phei put on a thoughtful expression. Furrowed his brow and stroked his chin. The full performance of a man giving a question the serious intellectual consideration it deserved—right before he decided to be an absolute nace about it.

"Weird, isn’t it?"

Valentina stared at him.

He smiled. That smile. The one that said I know exactly what you’re asking and I’m choosing to be insufferable about it because watching you short-circuit is my new favorite hobby.

"That’s it?" she said. "That’s your answer? Weird, isn’t it?"

He kept smiling. Mysterious. Infuriating like he had decided the secret was more fun as a secret.

Valentina’s pout was imdiate.

"You’re not going to tell ."

"I’m smiling mysteriously.That should be enough."

"No it’s—It’s not."

"It’s going to have to be." He laughed—warm, easy—and ruffled her hair.

Actually, ruffled it, the way you’d ruffle a kid sister’s, fingers ssing up the dark strands she’d only half-fixed this morning.

Before she could swat his hand away he pulled her close—arm around her shoulders, tucking her against his side.

She resisted for exactly one second and a half—pride, dignity, the fundantal Valentina principle of not being ruffled—then gave up.

Hugged his arm.

Pressed her cheek against his shoulder.

So battles weren’t worth fighting.

This one especially.

He reached for Maya on the other side—pulled her in too, arm around her waist, hand resting warm on her hip.

She leaned into him imdiately, naturally, like her body had a standing agreent with his that proximity was non-negotiable.

"So," Maya said, voice light, silver head tilted up to look at him. "Where are we going?"

"Well," Phei said, "first we’re eting up with lissa and everyone else. Getting the whole group together."

Maya nodded.

"And since the Academy’s given us a free week and there’s nothing really happening—I was thinking of doing sothing. For all of us. Together."

Her eyes brightened. "Like what?"

"Surprise."

"Phei."

"Not telling you."

Her pout was different from Valentina’s—smaller, softer, more weaponised in its sweetness.

"It’s a surprise, Maya. That’s the whole point. If I tell you it stops being a surprise and becos an itinerary."

The pout intensified.

He held firm. Barely.

"Anyway," he continued, steering past the danger, "I’ve also got a eting later with the Academy’s finances committee. Then a sit-down with Emily and Simp’s finance team. And there’s one more thing I need to handle today."

He said the last part lighter. Casual.

Maya nodded. "I want to co with you."

He thought about it.

There was sothing else he wanted to do today.

Sothing very private.

Sothing he’d been carrying quietly for a while now—a personal errand, his own business.

But this was Maya.

The girl he trusted more than he wanted to admit.

His own secret. But this was Maya, right?

He kissed her hair. Soft. Lingering. The silver strands cool against his lips.

"Okay," he said.

She smiled—small, radiant, the sunrise kind.

The elevator slowed.

Valentina’s phone rang.

She pulled it from her pocket, glanced at the caller ID, and her face shifted—that instant transition from relaxed to professional that she could execute faster than most people could blink. She answered. Listened. Sothing tightened around her mouth.

"Understood," she said, and hung up.

Three. Two.

She turned to Phei, and her expression was full of the kind of regret that looked wrong on a face that usually wore only confidence and calm.

"I’m afraid I can’t co with you." Full of regret. Every word heavy with it. "There’s complaints—they need in the tower’s managent office."

She said need the way a soldier says deploynt—not a request but an obligation. Valentina’s position at the Sovereign Tower wasn’t just a job. It was the scaffolding of her life in Paradise, the thing that kept her housed and fed and close to the people she’d chosen.

When the building called, she answered.

Phei nodded. He understood the chanics of a life that ran on obligations—he’d lived inside one for ten years.

"Go," he said. "Handle it."

She rose on her toes—kissed him once, quick, firm, the kind of kiss that said I’ll be back without needing the words—then pulled away.

The elevator doors opened.

Valentina stepped out first—and ran. Already transitioning from his woman to the professional the building needed.

She threw one last look over her shoulder—half smile, half apology—then turned the corner and was gone.

Phei watched her go.

Maya squeezed his hand.

They stepped out into the lobby together—silver hair and purple eyes, the boy who broke Legacy princes and the girl who saw things that shouldn’t be seen—and walked through the front doors into the Paradise morning.

A car was waiting.

Black. Tinted windows reflecting the sunlight in dark, liquid mirrors. The driver stood beside the rear door—suited, silent, professional—and opened it the mont they approached.

Phei guided Maya in first. Hand on the small of her back. Gentle. The touch of a man who’d been escorting won through doors all week and still treated each one like it mattered.

She slid inside. He followed.

The door closed.

The car pulled away from the Sovereign Tower and into the glittering, dangerous, impossibly beautiful streets of Paradise.