Ruby: A Reverse Harem Romance (Jewels Cafe Book 6), page 7
And she went running for the door. She had it unlocked and yanked open before I could stop her. She was booking it down the sidewalk when her ankle suddenly twisted. Her shoe went flying off and she fell with a huff to the sidewalk, her skirt flying up so I could see just a hint of lacy white panties.
Bar beat me to the door, running down the street and scooping Ruby up to coo over her. Fuckwad.
Parker went and scooped up the lost shoe. He slid it onto Ruby’s foot as she sat suspended in Bar’s arms. “Look, perfect fit. My princess.” His hand traveled up her leg.
She winced and I yanked his hand away. “Don’t hurt her!”
“I wasn’t hurting her!” Parker argued.
Bar rolled his eyes.
Ruby interrupted what was sure to be a fight. “I’m so sorry. I have to get back to my store and clean it up. I have a … mentor,” she spat out that word like it was a fly that had flown into her mouth, “and he’s going to arrive today.”
Parker shook his head sympathetically. “Mentor? That’s rough. I can give him a hard time if you want.”
Ruby gave a little tinkling laugh that made me want to punch Parker in the chest. Instead, I yanked on his arm and pulled him toward the front door of our shop. I shoved him in front of me and muttered, “Find your keys. Mine are inside.”
“Geez. What’s your problem?”
I couldn’t tell him that I fucking wanted to rip his arm off for touching Ruby when she was hurt—because that was goddamned insane. He wasn’t trying to hurt her. But she was mine. Possessiveness threatened to make me blind with rage. I had to look away and recite my latest video game stats to make it recede. I ended up grunting, “Just do it.”
Parker grumbled as he messed with his keys. “Woulda’ thought seeing the light would make you nicer.”
“Maybe I belong in hell,” I shrugged. I had been a non-believer after all. Wasn’t that where non-believers went?
Parker grinned as he locked up Computer and Phone Repair. He slung an arm around my shoulders. “Nah, man. If you belonged there, I’d have sent you off long ago.”
The dark undertone, and the reality that he might, actually, possibly, be able to do that, sent a shiver down my spine.
Parker just laughed. “Dude, relax. I’m just a lowly tech demon. I fry electronic shit to piss people off and make them chip at each other. It’s why Bar gave me a piece of that sugar a long time ago.”
My entire world flipped for a second time in a single morning. “You mean that’s how we’ve been getting customers!” Cheating. With a demon. I had to admit—it was fucking brilliant of Bar. Asshole.
Parker pointed up at Ruby, whose legs had parted a little as Bar held her, creating an inviting shadow underneath her skirt. I could almost see—or imagine I saw—those pretty lace panties again. The spot held me mesmerized.
Parker leaned over and whispered in my ear. “Now, do you want to talk about me, or do you want to help me figure out how to get our pure-as-light soulmate to agree to an orgy?”
Since logic was a falsehood and had no part in this world of angels and demons, I tossed it aside. Why use my brain when everything I’d ever thought was obviously a lie? I let my dick think for me.
And his thoughts were clear.
Corrupting my soulmate was his number one priority.
Chapter 7
Ruby
Barrister’s deep gaze almost made me forget what I was supposed to do. But the sun flashed through some trees behind him and the bright, obnoxious light reminded me of Gunther. “I have to get back to my shop,” I said, my voice catching and going breathy.
He nodded. “I remember where it is. Do you think you can walk, or do you want me to carry you?”
Strange flutters started in my stomach. Was I going to be sick? Dammit! He was being so sweet! My stupid human body was ruining the moment. Dumb balance. His fingers grazed my back and a shiver went down my spine. Shivers? Yup. My body was definitely acting weird. And Harmony’s Guide did state that puking was not used as a form of greeting on this planet. I wiggled down from Bar’s arms and said, “I think I can walk,” though I really didn’t want to. I wanted to snuggle against the hard planes of his chest a bit longer and put off this horrid mentor business altogether.
But angels don’t get what they want. That’s reality. What we want isn’t important.
The fact that I wanted to find a way to make our skin liquid and melt into Barrister, Parker, and Migs (the way that Crocozoan aliens did when they mated) was unimportant.
My miracle was important.
Holly was important.
Humans were important.
Not angels.
“Stupid-ass rules,” I muttered as I started limping toward my store.
“I agree,” Parker glided up to take my arm and help me. “Rules are stupid. But what rule are we talking about exactly?”
“Where humans have it better than angels.”
“Completely agree,” Parker said as he tugged me closer so that my side brushed his as we walked. “Demons get the shaft too. It’s why I’ve got a strict ‘revel-in-obscurity’ policy. I do just enough to not be noticed.”
My eyebrows shot up and a giggle escaped me. “That’s so smart!” I’d only ever competed against my stupid brother, who seemed to excel at everything angelic. The only assignment I’d ever excelled at was the warrior angel bit because those rules were easy. “I wish I’d thought of it before I got two strikes.”
Migs hurried up and snatched me away from Parker’s side. He lifted me in his arms and wrapped my legs around his back. “I’m out of the loop here. Explain what that means.”
I started to explain. I really did. But with my legs wrapped around Migs, my thighs and other areas rubbed against him and a strange warmth spread through my stomach. This body of mine was just out of control. Maybe it was broken. Because it was overheating down there. “My tinder box is getting hot,” I said, warning him.
Parker laughed. Bar blushed. But Migs looked confused.
“That was what they called it in the Guide to Humans,” I said, struggling to remember the bit on human anatomy. “But they had a few different names for it. Because—English.” I rolled my eyes. “Maybe you’ll know one of the others. My lady’s toupee? Petticoat lane? Mount Pleasant?” I cocked my head to see if any of the words registered.
Migs stopped dead. He swallowed a few times before whispering, “Are you saying … your pussy is hot?”
“Pussy!” I cried. “Oh, yes! That was one of the words.”
Strangers turned to look at us, including a pretty fae girl with curly hair and shiny wings. Her jaw dropped open.
Was she scared of something?
Parker’s horns came out and he growled at everyone around us, before hustling us into the alley that went behind Main Street, behind my store. That answered the scared question. He really needed to hide his horns if they scared people that badly. I almost turned to scold Parker, but Migs shoved me up against the brick wall of the alleyway. His hands cushioned my back, so I didn’t really slam into the wall, except for my hips. His pelvis pressed into mine hard.
It felt … good.
Somehow, the burning, the intensity, didn’t make me want to run screaming that I was on fire, though I was. My nipples tightened and as Migs ground into me, a prickling sensation started up in my pussy. Migs leaned forward and his lips gently brushed over mine. My mind got as bleary and misty as fog.
“Mi amor,” he breathed, before he moved to brush his lips along my chin. My head fell back against the wall and that tiny bit of pain was swept away in a sea of pleasure as Migs kissed the rapid pulse in my neck. My eyes lost focus as two more figures moved close.
“What is this?” I whimpered, as the two of them leaned in.
Bar pressed a gentle kiss to my cheek, but Parker reached over and pinched a nipple. A bolt of pleasure shot through me and my pelvis arched up into Migs. “What?” Is that what nipples do? No wonder Maddie pinched them—
I couldn’t think any more before Parker roughly turned my face to his and plunged his tongue into my mouth. And what started out as a strange sensation turned wonderful as his tongue taught mine what to do. It made me think of things plunging in and out, which reminded me of the vampire in the graveyard, which made me think of mating.
Was this the start of human mating? It was fucking fantastic.
In an ironic twist, it got even more enticing when Barrister growled angrily, “She’s my fucking soulmate.” And then he grabbed me away from the other two and tried to pin me in by a fire escape.
“Do not—” Migs threat got cut off by Parker’s.
“I will fucking ensure your TV only ever plays fucking Barbie cartoons for the rest of your life!” Parker threatened. “We share a soul. She’s mine too, dammit.”
Bar ignored Parker as his hand reached down and stroked my pussy through my dress and I lost complete track of their argument. Everything in my world became focused on his fingers. They were hard and thick and warm as he stroked up and down the length of my slit. My panties grew soaked at his touch and my hips started to thrust. Yes! I remembered this from the manual. Definitely the start of human mating.
Bar’s mouth whispered gruffly in my ear, “You are so fucking precious.”
I could only moan in response, my hands flying to his arm and urging him to move his hand faster. My eyelids closed. His fingers lit up pink lights in my brain just like the first time I’d tasted ice cream. His fingers were magic.
Until they were roughly snatched away.
“Wait!” I protested, my eyes fluttering open.
But I didn’t see Migs or Parker in front of me.
Instead I saw my brother, John.
He had brown curls, a traditional white choir robe with a gold rope belt, super-sized wings, and a huge frown on his face.
“What are you doing Ruby?”
I’d been sucked through a black hole and spit out the other side. I’d been chained to a dying star and it was exploding all around me. I blinked. English completely left my brain. My mouth opened and closed. But nothing came out.
I’d been worried this body was breaking. Now it was definitely broken.
Because it burned in a way that made me wish it would disintegrate.
Shit. I think they called this embarsement. Embarkment? Em-something. It’s awful.
“Who the hell are you?” Migs demanded from behind my brother’s spread wings.
“He’s a giant feathered cock-block,” Parker sneered.
Bar growled, “He’s—”
“My brother,” I finally found my voice.
John’s eyebrows rose. “Not just your brother. Your mentor.”
Chapter 8
Barrister
It felt like the Texas Chain Saw Massacre was happening inside my chest. Well fuck me in the ass with a feather. Feeling up Ruby when her brother popped into the alley—it was not the best way to meet my soulmate’s family for the first time. Shit. One look at poor Ruby’s flaming face and I was certain she was about to faint from humiliation. Better for me to take the brunt of her brother’s anger than her. I stepped forward and held out my hand. “John. It’s good to meet you.”
The angel turned. As expected, he did not touch my hand. He glowered, the glow around him turning a dark gold instead of a bright, sunshiney yellow. He smiled, but it wasn’t in an angelic way. It was in a way that sent chills down my spine. If he’d been wearing a cowboy hat instead of a halo, I was pretty sure he’d draw and shoot me. He was the spitting image of a young John Wayne. “Is it?” he asked.
No. No it isn’t. Fuck. My eyes darted to Parker and Migs. Migs looked as shell-shocked as when Ruby had hovered in our shop. Dammit. He wasn’t gonna be any help.
Parker cleaned his glasses casually on the corner of his shirt, smirking like I was the only one in trouble here. I was the only one with his hands on Ruby’s pussy …Through clothing! My brain weakly protested, trying to find an out, any out that wasn’t going to get me sent straight to the most torturous pit of hell. Parker had told me about it once when we were drunk. It was a combination of the smell of puke, eye surgery performed by possessed puppets, and constant elevator music. He said people broke in less than four hours when they got sent there. I was a sympathy vomiter. One whiff and—no way my eyes would last five minutes in there.
I tried to hide the shudder than went through me when John finally lifted his hand. I’d never tell a soul, but I totally channeled Vol’jin from World of Warcraft in that moment. Utter badass calm with a fucking intimidating goat-skull face. It might have worked because John didn’t blast me with lightning. But he also didn’t shake my outstretched hand. He left it hanging in midair, making me feel like an idiot as he waited until Ruby took the hand he extended toward her. “Come on, Ruby. You have work to do.”
Ruby gave me a weak, half-hearted smile as she slipped her hand into her brother’s. My eyes traced the lines of her body, the tiny swelling on her cheek where a bruise formed from one of her falls. She needed ice. I so badly wanted to hold ice over that spot for her. She licked her lips, the lips that were swollen from all our kisses. From her lips my eyes fell to her plump—
Ruby spoke, drawing my gaze back to her eyes. “Sorry. I don’t know what happened with my body back there. I’ve put in a request to the Mortal Bodies Commission about the boobs, but I’m wondering if my heat sensors have an issue.”
Boobs? What issue with the boobs? Her boobs were perfect. My eyes drifted back to them naturally and I had to yank my gaze back up. Heat sensors? Was she talking about her pussy? I clenched my fists to tamp down on the yearning that rose up inside of me at the idea that she might have meant I made her hot. Her eyes were bright, her cheeks still flushed. I wanted to ask what she meant, but I was certain John Wayne would challenge me to a fast draw if I did.
Ruby kept talking. “Anyway, I’ll get that fixed. Thanks so much for helping me get back here.”
And with that utter nonsense, the girl of my dreams unlocked the back door of her shop and disappeared through it. Her brother stopped in the doorway and turned to face all of us. “You three better run along now. Ruby’s on her last strike. She has to get this miracle right or she won’t be an angel anymore.” He ducked through the door and it started to swing shut.
I ran forward and caught the door before it could fully close. I hadn’t fully decided if I was going to give them space or try to follow. But the bomb John had dropped was too much. Ruby? Not be an angel? I gulped and turned to stare at Parker. “What would that mean?”
He pressed his lips together before he spoke in a soft, scared voice. “She’d get booted down to hell. But former angels … ones that don’t intend to go there,” he shook his head, his hand coming to his mouth. He pulled off his glasses and pinched the top of his nose. I could see how disturbed he looked and that made fear slice open my spine.
Images flashed through my head, horrific images of Ruby being hurt, mocked, tortured. My breath quickened. No. No fucking way. I didn’t even know if what I was imagining was possible. Or if it would be worse. But no fucking way was I letting my soulmate go there. It didn’t matter that we’d just met. Didn’t matter that I was some mortal fucking idiot whose only tie to the immortal world was a minor demon who zapped phones for a living. Didn’t matter that her brother was probably gonna kick my ass for interfering. I couldn’t stand by and let it happen.
I stepped forward, pushing the door farther open. I exchanged an incredulous look with Migs and Parker at my own audacity. I was the fucking friendly dude. The nobody-remembers-him-tomorrow nice guy. The cheat-on-him-and-he’ll-take-you-back kinda guy. I wasn’t the swashbuckling hero. Fuck. But I threw all that shit aside. Who I was didn’t matter. Because that was yesterday. Before I met Ruby. Before she needed my help. I took another step inside.
Migs was right on my heels. Parker grabbed the door from my hand and swung it open further, gesturing for me to go down the hall. Of course, he would let me go first, that demon fucker. If I got fried, there’d just be more Ruby left for him.
I glared for a second but then squared up and nutted up. I was gonna challenge a celestial being. Fuck me. Better to get this over with fast. Like ripping off a band-aid or using a guillotine—whichever it ended up being. I raced into the backroom of Ruby’s shoe store. It was a disaster. One set of shelves had been knocked over completely and shoe boxes were scattered randomly across the floor, split open, heels and toes sticking out of crumpled brown paper like bones protruding from dismembered bodies. It looked like a scene out of some warped version of Call of Duty. Like if that game were designed for women, with shoes instead of—fuck—I was seeing carnage everywhere. I was totally expecting to be blasted to smithereens. I overcompensated by bursting into the front room, which was pure white. White walls, white shelves, white register—everything was white except for the pile of boxes that spilled across the floor.
Ruby and John turned, surprised looks on their faces when I said, “We want to help.”
John’s eyes just narrowed. But Ruby popped around him and said, “Oh, that might be good! Right John? I mean, didn’t your humanity rotation end like seventy years ago?”
John rolled his eyes. “Things haven’t changed that much.”
Migs interjected. “Were you even around for the race to the moon? A ton has happened since then. The invention of the internet. Globalization. Cell phones.”
“Trifles,” John was dismissive.
Migs’s eyes widened in a way that told me he was about to go on a tirade. I took a step toward him and did a low hand gesture, trying to signal him to shut the fuck up. We’d made it in here. We hadn’t been murderized. Yet. I wanted to keep it that way. We needed to keep things low key. I needed to atone for groping Ruby in an alley. And we needed to fucking help her out.
Parker didn’t help the situation, of course. He made it worse when he added, “Hey, not all trifles. People have invented sex dolls who can take a dick—”
