Greed God chapter 40

January 10th 2016 Gotham City 5:00 PM EDT

The  next day wasn't a busy one. I sent Waylon out to be fitted at my tailor  for a suit as was proper for a bodyguard. I had him pick up a bunch of  really nice ones that were the wrong size and find any that fit him  cheap or not, then I dropped two grand outfitting him with a series of H  rank duds. I mixed in a few bulletproof vests from the stash Whisper  had brought over so we ended up with twenty suits that fit him properly  that could take a bullet and looked like they were professionally made.

The  combinations took a few hundred getting enough I rank materials  together, so I wound up with a hundred and one thousand left give or  take. I debated trying to come up with something new gear wise, but I  decided to at. I was going to be spending time with Zatanna soon  hopefully, and I was betting introducing some magic into my artifacts  would have some interesting effects.

So  there I was, sitting in the audience at Zatanna's magic show, my  bodyguard hulking in the back row in his new bulletproof suit. I was in  one of my own best suits, and holding a bouquet of flowers. My dinner  with dad was in three hours, so I had time to make a show of being here,  introduce myself, and then extricate. I wasn't stupid enough to try my  usual desire manipulation on someone who used magic for a living.  Zatanna probably had a dozen ways of telling when someone was messing  with her, so it was senses and cold reading, and a bit of that old  fashioned Lord charm.

First  step in my seduction, grab attention. I was sitting front and center,  holding a bunch of black and white roses. The guy behind me was  grumbling about not being able to see, which was what happens when a six  foot three inch man sits in the front row. Just being there had already  caught her eye, and she looked slightly worried seeing me, but did her  best to focus on the show.

She  stood on the stage in front of a cabinet, in her normal fishnet tuxedo  costume, but during her act she wore a top hat as an homage to her  father. It looked cute on her. She was confident and poised, aside from  not looking in my direction, and her voice carried through the  sporadically populated theater as she spoke. "Now! This next trick is  something of a personal favorite of mine." She walked over to the  cabinet. "I'm going to transport this cabinet to the other side of the  stage with magic!"

She  walked over and stepped into the cabinet, leaving the top half open so  we could see her lovely face. The mischievous smile on her pouty lips  made my heart pound. She really was an absolutely breathtaking woman.  She tapped on the box with a wand she pulled from nowhere and it started  to sink. The bottom half of the box sank into the stage, even as the  same wooden cabinet rose on the other side, but halfway down, it  stopped. Zatanna gave a pretty frown. "Ah. Hold on, I can fix that."

She  rapped her fist on the side, giving an embarrassed smile, but the box  stayed halfway down. She looked annoyed. "Hold on. Maybe it's because  it's half open. Let me try this." There was a thud on the upside down  section rising from the other side of the stage, also stuck halfway, and  then another, and the cabinet bottom popped open, revealing a set of  very shapely legs standing upside down in the other half of the box.

Shapely,  but I could see with my own enhanced senses that they weren't  Zatanna's. Still, it was a wonderful trick. Creative and well executed.  The heel of one of the legs hooked the cabinet and closed it, and then  she rose back up, the second box half receding as she did. "Now, this  time I'll try to go a bit faster-ah!" The box plummeted completely out  of sight, the other one popping up only a second later moving at the  same speeds. Zatanna was visible through the open top half of the box in  a handstand. "I did not think this through."

There  was a wave of applause as she kicked the closed half of the box open  and did a back bend to come back to he feet, gesturing grandly and then  taking a bow. The really impressive part was the knowledge that she  probably hadn't used real magic to do that. Which meant that she needed  to cross the area under the stage in a split second and wind up in a  handstand in the second cabinet before it popped back up from the other  side. Probably a back handspring or two. It was no wonder she had such  fantastic legs with that kind of bounce.

She  finished up the rest of the show with some basic card tricks, rabbits  from hats and so on, but that had been the big climax so to speak. After  the show ended, I waited until everyone left and walked up to the stage  with a smile. "That was impressive. You're an excellent performer." She  took of the top hat and tied her hair up in a ponytail after she made  sure the audience had left, accepting my hand to help her off the stage.  Despite the contact she tried to avoid looking at me as she got down,  walking over to one of front row seats and pulling a bag out from under  it.

She kept  her back to me as she took off her jacked and bow tie, putting on a  hoodie and slipping her button up out from under it. "Thanks. It was  nice of you to come and watch. Maybe not a great idea though. I don't  think Barbara would want you here." She kept her voice civil, but I saw  her body was tense. She genuinely wasn't comfortable having me around,  probably worried Barbie would bite her head off if she found out.

I  made sure to keep my own tone even. "That's why I'm here. I...wasn't  comfortable with how Barbie treated you at the club. If it was because  of me, I wanted to apologize. The flowers are just a peace offering.  Having to put up with her being bitchy all night wasn't cool, and if I'd  known she was going to treat you like that I wouldn't have come. I  don't know what's up with you two, but I think I was the reason you had a  bad night, and that didn't sit right with me." I made sure to sound  apologetic as I spoke, really making it clear I felt bad.

Zatanna  stopped putting away her clothes in the bag she'd set on the chair,  turning around to frown at me. "That's...sweet of you, I think. But it  isn't about you, not really. Barbara had a relationship with a mutual  friend of ours that I used to date. They eventually broke up because she  believes he still has feelings for me. I think she's wrong, but our  friendship has been...strained, since then." She sighed sadly. "I really  did like her too. She's a total badass. But she hates me now and it's  not even my fault."

I  held out the flowers with a winning smile. "Well then, that's her loss.  I personally think anyone would be lucky to be friends with someone  like you." I was able to get a minor sense of her desires, but there was  nothing really there to work with. She wanted to be friends with me,  she was slightly starved for companionship, but aside from a basic  appreciation for my looks (she did think I was attractive) she wasn't  secretly creaming her panties over me or anything. This was going to be  harder than Dinah, since she didn't have an obvious weak point.

But  only being able to fuck girls with inherent vulnerabilities wasn't  game, it was just psychology. I HAD game. I could get her interested,  I'd just need to slow play her. She accepted the flowers with a wry  smile. "Somehow I doubt she's going to like me any better if she finds  out I'm spending time with her new boyfriend after she dumped her old  one for being around me too much."

I  shrugged. "It's not her call. She doesn't decide who I'm friends with  Zatanna, and honestly, she doesn't have the right to decide for you  either. If I'm bothering you and you'd rather just say goodbye that's  fine, but don't worry about Barbie's reaction to use being friends. She  doesn't tell me who to spend time with, and if she breaks up with me  because she can't control who I associate with then we weren't going to  work out anyway." I set my jaw, every inch the stubborn, prideful man of  principle.

Her  cheeks heated slightly, which I took as a win. "You know, that's a  pretty good point. I could really use more friends." She gave me a warm  smile. "Speaking of which there's one condition if you want to be  friends with me." I raised an eyebrow questioningly. "You have to call  me Zee, my name is kind of a mouthful." She held out a hand for an  official shake to seal the deal and I laughed, taking it and giving one  casual pump before I let go.

She  smelled the flowers, smiling slightly. "I love the smell of roses.  Thank you, by the way. Most people don't bother with flowers anymore,  but it was always my favorite part of shows when I was little." She  smiled softly. "Daddy would tuck a rose behind my ear after the show  before we went out for ice cream." Her tone was a little wistful. She  snapped out of it pretty quick though. "Anyway, what did you think of  the show? No real magic was used of course, but I'm pretty proud of the  new trick with the cabinet."

I  nodded. "You should be. I could see how you did it, but being able to  cross...what? Ten feet? Within a second or two and get into position  upside down? That's impressive as hell. Do you do gymnastics or  something?" Weirdly, I felt a slight hum from her desires when I  mentioned her skills. Huh, she liked being praised. I could work with  that. It wasn't like a fetish or anything but positive feedback was  positive feedback.

She  giggled at the question. "I used to." She looked sheepishly down at her  generous chest which was obvious even through the hoodie. "When these  came in I had to quit sadly. Girls with double D's don't do well in  gymnastics. A bit of bouncing around isn't too bad for something like a  show, if I have a good bra, but still, I pretty much lost any shot at  competitive gymnastics once I passed a C cup."

I  blinked. That...was a bit more honest than I had expected. She saw my  surprise and shrugged. "I've never seen the point in pretending I'm not  curvy. Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable though, I know I can come  off a bit blunt. Anyway yeah, a double back handspring got me into  position for the trick. The hardest part was the timing really. Natasha,  my leg double, had to get out and get the door open before I got there.  I busted my ass A LOT during practice."

I  snorted at that. Zee was...funny. I liked her. I didn't really like  many people. Even independent of wanting to fuck her I felt like she  would be fun to grab a beer with. Which explained a lot about why Barbie  hated her. I'd met girls like Zee before. Sexy, confident, and  friendly. She was the kind of girl that usually had a lot of male  friends and who their girlfriends detested. I checked my watch. "Well, I  have dinner with my dad in a few hours but I can spare a bit of time,  how about we grab a cup of coffee, my treat?" The plan remained the  same, I would slow play things with Zee. Sadly I'd need to get her  actually romantically interested since she wouldn't be down for anything  casual when I was "dating" Barbie, but I could manage. I just needed to  get to know her better.

She smiled  brightly. "I never say no to a cup of coffee. That sounds like a lot of  fun. There's a great place down the street that isn't too pricy. I'll  show you where it is." Then she turned and headed for the front door of  the theater. I signaled Waylon to follow at a distance. She would  probably notice him, but if she did I'd just tell her the truth.  Whatever happened, I was looking forward to spending some time with her.  Plus watching that fat ass bounce didn't hurt either.