The Arrangement - A Reverse Harem Romance, page 7
“C’mon you little piss-happy maniac,” I yawned, nudging Beast with my foot. Spinning on one heel, I started in the direction of my new room.
“Let’s go see what that four-poster bed is all about.”
Seventeen
KAYLEEN
Burke was still asleep when I slipped into his room the next morning. It was well after ten o’clock. The others had told me he was a late sleeper, but to me, this was ridiculous.
“Morning, big guy.”
He stirred from his slumber and twisted in my direction. One hand flew immediately over his eyes to shield them from the sun.
“What the—”
“Breakfast time,” I said, plopping a tray on the bed. “Five egg whites scrambled — barbaric, if you ask me — dry wheat toast and coffee. Oh yeah, and some hot sauce. Not sure which kind you wanted, so I brought the four different brands that we had.”
Burke sat up and rubbed at the back of his neck. He was shirtless, and that was nice. Very nice, actually. Possibly even pantsless beneath his sheets, but that was something I’d have to find out for myself.
“H—How’d you even get in here?”
I held up a very ornate, very cool piece of iron. “Skeleton key.”
“Skeleton key…” His eyes were just starting to open. “Where the hell’d you get a—”
“It’s been hanging from a peg in the kitchen,” I said, “the whole time I’ve worked here. I always wanted to know what it did.”
He took it from me with a grunt, turning it over and over in his hand a few times. When he handed it back, I swapped it for his coffee.
“Drink up,” I said. “And you might want to eat your eggs before they get cold.”
Burke exhaled mightily and dug in. He ate hungrily, shoving fluffy white forkfuls into his mouth while I watched every muscle of his body work.
Damn he’s big.
He really was. Bigger than any guy I’d ever dated. Burke had shoulders that went on for days, and two massive arms that rippled with muscle. But his chest and back… well, that’s where the real fun began. His pectorals were like two big mountains I could spend all night climbing up and down. Shit, his whole body looked like one big playground.
“You know, for authors and writers you guys are in some damned fine shape.”
He chewed through his first bite of toast and nodded. “We have a good home gym.”
I reached out and squeezed one of his arms. It was like grabbing a flagpole.
“Does it come with gamma radiation?”
“Maybe.”
“I might have to hit it, then. I could use some super-powers.”
Burke pointed at his eggs with his fork, appreciatively. “Your superpower is your cooking.”
“One of them maybe,” I winked.
Burke swallowed and turned to face me. He looked me up and down for a moment, as if I’d just gotten there and he was seeing me for the first time.
“So you’re my girlfriend today?”
“I’m your girlfriend every day,” I shrugged. “Today just happens to be your day off.”
He grunted again. “So I suppose you’re gonna wanna do something?”
“Well yeah,” I smirked, tapping him in the chest with the back of my hand. I really didn’t have to, I just wanted to.
“But first I’ve got clients,” I said. “Weekly meal preps and a luncheon to prepare. I should be done by mid-afternoon, though. In time for dinner for sure.”
He swung his legs over the edge of his bed and stood up. I was a little disappointed to learn he was wearing boxers, but they were tight boxers, so I really couldn’t complain.
“So what are we doing for dinner?” he asked.
“I don’t know, you tell me. I’m the girlfriend, remember?”
“Yeah, but you’re also our cook.”
I smirked up at him. “I’ll cook if you want. Or… you could ask me on a date.”
Burke yawned and started scanning the room — presumably for his shirt. I knew exactly where it was, but I’d be damned if I was going to tell him.
“What do you usually do on your days off?” I asked.
“Wake up later than this,” he smirked.
“And what else?”
“I work out first. Then I shower. Shit. Shave.”
“Ah, the holy Trinity of manliness.”
“Maybe I run some errands. Come back, grab lunch, do a little work.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You work on your day off?”
“Sometimes, yeah.”
“That kinda sucks, doesn’t it?”
He didn’t answer. Instead he opened a drawer and pulled a fresh T-shirt over his head, flexing his beautiful V-shaped lats in the process.
“I like to stay in usually,” he said. “But if you really want to go out—”
“There’s no need to go out,” I jumped in. “You just relax, enjoy your day off. I’ll make us something here when I get back. Then… you and I can hang.”
“Hang?”
“Yeah,” I said, holding up the skeleton key. “Maybe even go exploring.”
At that he laughed. “Exploring, huh?”
“Do you know every room and closet in this place?” I asked him.
Burke paused for a moment, then shook his head.
“I walked the house last night. There are a thousand fucking doors here. There’s also a cellar that Chase and Nathan claim to know nothing about, and there has to be a way to access the roof.”
“Exploring,” he said again flatly. The word came out like he’d never used it before. “Tonight.”
I smiled merrily. “Yes.”
“In this old rented house.”
“Sure, why not? It’ll be fun.” I grinned slyly. “Unless there’s something else you’d rather do together?”
I watched his eyes crawl slowly over my body, the way they had in the kitchen that night. The night I’d kissed him. The night he’d kissed me back, and sent my whole world spinning.
“If you’re stumped for ideas on what to do later,” I said, my voice going lower, “you could always ask Chase or Nathan.”
I crossed the bedroom and stepped into him, bringing our bodies close. Very leisurely, I ran one finger down the center of his chest.
“They knew what to do with me,” I smiled wickedly.
Eighteen
BURKE
“Look at this place, it’s amazing!”
I couldn’t help but smile, just watching her. She was like a kid in a candy store. A very old, very dusty and dirty candy store, all covered in spiderwebs.
I guess it was a testament to her courage that the spiders didn’t even bother her.
“I don’t know about amazing,” I shrugged. “But it’s a basement for sure.” I took a few more steps, still bent at the waist. “Almost a crawlspace, actually.”
We’d spent an hour exploring the house, way after dinner, well after everyone else had gone to bed. Kayleen had insisted on that part. That our adventure would be more fun by moonlight and flashlights, even if it slowed us down.
Maybe even especially because it slowed us down.
At first I thought the whole thing was stupid. The idea of exploring a house I’d been living in for more than a year already. Yet the more we walked the grounds, inside and out, the more we found things that her skeleton key would open.
And most times, they were interesting.
For example, there was an overgrown shed way out in the garden. After unlocking it and clearing away the vines, we found a whole bunch of antiquated tools and cutting equipment. There were scythes and pruning shears. Hand-forged pitchforks and multi-tine cultivators. But right there, in the center of the shed, were also a collection of beautiful jeweled eggs. The set belonged to a burnished copper birdbath, which was buried in one corner.
A birdbath which we set up in the atrium, on a whim.
Somehow Kayleen had me dragging it out and polishing it off, with her little dog watching the whole way. When we were done it looked absolutely gorgeous: 5 faceted eggs sitting in a pool of reflected stars, twinkling by the light of the moon.
“Alright, that’s pretty kickass,” I had to eventually admit.
Kayleen had only smiled sweetly. “Told ya.”
We found closets and cabinets, some empty, some full. A door in the back of the house even led to a whole extra bedroom, all decked out in turn-of-last century furnishings.
But the basement was by far the biggest find.
We’d seen it from outside of course, through ground-level windows all stained by time. Kayleen located the doorway by figuring out where the stairs ought to be and then moving an empty bookcase aside. Her skeleton key clicked in the lock, and one very risky stair-climb later, we ended up here.
“No one’s been down in this place for years,” Kayleen said, picking her way along rows of decrepit boxes and old wooden trunks. “Maybe decades.”
She was already wearing two pieces of costume jewelry she’d found: a pendant and a bracelet. I wasn’t going to tell her she couldn’t have them. I wasn’t even sure the owner knew about this place anymore, based on the half-inch thick layers of dust. It was everywhere, on everything, dancing through our flashlight beams, all thick and swirling. The more we moved, the worse it got.
“So tell me… why do you work so much?”
She asked the question abruptly, while examining the brass top to some old oil lamp. I could tell by the tone in her voice she was trying to make it sound casual.
“Because I can,” I shrugged.
“Yes, but the others take days off to relax,” she said. “Recharge their creative batteries. You on the other hand, never seem to stop.”
I wanted to tell her the truth. That writing was harder for me than it was for them. That I had to work at it, a lot more than they did, to make stories that flowed.
That maybe, just maybe, they were better at it than I was.
“I like to plan,” I said instead. “I outline a lot. I take notes.”
“That’s good,” said Kayleen.
“Yes, but the others don’t always do that. Chase sometimes scribbles things down — ideas, dialogue, whatever comes to mind. It’s not much though. And Nathan pretty much writes straight out of his head.”
Kayleen was in front of an old credenza now, rifling through drawers. Stirring up more and more dust.
“They write twice as fast as I do,” I explained. “So I write longer hours to make up for it.”
She nodded as if accepting the answer. But I wasn’t so sure.
“You ever think that stepping away from your keyboard more often might help you write faster?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Because I’ve tried it, I wanted to say. Because I’ve tried it, and all I get is writer’s block.
How could I tell her the truth? That I hadn’t written more than five pages in the last two days? That I’d gone back and rewritten those same pages, over and over again, and I still hated them?
That sometimes I wondered if I should be writing at all?
“I don’t know…” Kayleen said, picking up the conversation where I’d let it die. She was tracing things in the dust now. Drawing elaborate designs. “It just seems to me you need some time off, Burke. Some fun. Some—”
“Adventure?”
“Yes,” she smiled up at me. “Exactly.”
She looked so beautiful, even in the shadows. The flashlight’s beam lit up her hair like spun platinum. Kayleen was extremely pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way… if the girl that lived next to you had a sassy, sardonic edge.
“I suppose this is where I come in,” she said, drawing closer. “The whole having-a-girlfriend thing could be inspiring for you. Break up the monotony. Help… keep your juices flowing?”
She put down her flashlight. In the dusty, semi-darkness, I felt her arms slide around my waist.
“Are you talking about my creative juices?”
Kayleen chuckled. “Maybe.”
She pushed forward, slithering her body against mine. Everything about her was soft and feminine. She was so warm, so wonderful. And she smelled fucking fantastic.
“Maybe I’m talking about all your juices…”
Her face was absolutely perfect — high cheekbones and smooth, porcelain skin trailing to her sexy, pouty mouth. Even in the darkness her eyes shone. I could seem them glimmering up at me now, expectantly.
“Or would you rather—”
I bent and silenced her with a kiss, dropping my own flashlight to the floor. Electricity leapt between us again, like sparks arcing between two live contacts.
Holy shit.
It was like the kitchen all over again: all heat and fire and passion. Kayleen’s tongue slipped against mine, swirling with arousal. Her hands slid upward along my back, pulling me even tighter as I inhaled her deeply, relishing in the sweet, citrusy scent of her.
The cellar was dead silent. Everything around us seemed designed to absorb sound. Standing there, shrouded in darkness, every sigh and whimper was magnified tenfold. Every sound she made was turning me on more and more.
We kissed for what seemed like forever, content to just hold each other close. Then, gradually, our hands began to explore…
Suddenly Kayleen pulled away. She looked at me with a strange expression for a moment, then sneezed violently.
“Back upstairs?” I asked.
She nodded and giggled.
We gathered the flashlights quickly and fled to the first floor. We were almost to the bedrooms — without even bothering to slide the bookcase back — when Kayleen suddenly pulled me in another direction.
Any direction other than my bed was the last thing I wanted.
“What?”
“The roof,” she said simply. “We were supposed to check it out, remember?”
Nineteen
KAYLEEN
The villa’s traditional Spanish roof consisted of overlapping clay shingles, except for the flat part that wasn’t pitched. That area had poured cement railings that curved around the front of the house. Near the back, it even overlooked the atrium.
High above us, the clear desert sky was a bowl of a million shining stars.
“My God, this is so beautiful!”
I was almost in awe of how pretty it looked, the scattered lights of the valley stretching all the way down to the mountains. The rooftop was smooth and unblemished. A stone bench stood near the front, all lonely and unused.
“How the hell is it none of you have ever come up here?”
Burke was shaking his head and glancing around in every direction. By the look of wonderment on his face, I already had my answer.
“We didn’t even realize you could.”
I barked a laugh. “You didn’t see the upper landing from the atrium?”
He made a face. “Hey. We’re writing books, remember?”
“Yeah, from your boring little bedrooms.”
Burke reached out and pulled me against his body with two powerful arms. The move left me breathless… and staring into his chocolate brown eyes.
“That’s not all we do in our bedrooms,” he growled, nuzzling in close. “As I was about to show you.”
His hands slid to my ass, and a new wave of goosebumps stippled my skin. They were strong hands. Insistent hands.
“What I meant by that was, why don’t you write up here?”
He hesitated for only a second, his lips halfway to my shoulder. Then he was kissing me there, squeezing my ass in two big palms.
“I suppose I could,” he murmured into my neck.
“Maybe a change of scenery…” I threw my head back and sighed, losing my train of thought. His goatee was tickling my skin. God he felt so good!
“Maybe it would…”
“Inspire me?”
“Yes.”
His hands did something magical, and in one smooth motion he’d spun me completely around. Burke was behind me now, kissing my neck. Sliding his hands down my chest, my belly, down past my skirt…
“Maybe you’ll inspire me,” he growled into my ear.
His palms slid lower, until they were touching the bare skin of my inner thighs. He squeezed and I jumped, falling further backward, into his embrace.
“I’m just saying this place… could maybe… help you…”
I was rapidly losing all coherent thought. My body was taking over now, flashing every delicious alarm as my latest date kissed his way along the nape of my neck. Burke’s hands pulled my skirt higher, exposing my naked thighs. His fingers found the silken fabric of my already-drenched thong…
“You wanted it here, didn’t you?” It was more a statement than an actual question. “Up on the roof, beneath the stars.”
I inhaled with a shuddering gasp, leaving the question hanging unanswered on the nighttime silence. With one hand he pinned me tightly against him, his middle finger gliding hard against my swollen button.
God…
With the other, he began fumbling with his belt.
I was finding it strangely easy, being in this kind of relationship. Being almost possessed by these three men, as both a girlfriend and a lover. The physical aspect was simple — the attraction and chemistry I felt for them was already there. But the truth was, I was about to fuck three different people in just as many days.
And that was definitely unorthodox, to put it mildly.
Hell, it was more than unorthodox. It was borderline filthy dirty. Yet instead of making me hesitant, it twisted a sharp knife of excitement somewhere deep in the pit of my stomach.
Mostly, because I knew it had to be this way.
It was something I’d decided over the weekend: that if I was really going to do this, I’d have to give one-hundred percent of myself. No holding back. No half-measures. And that meant once I’d had sex with one of them?
I was going to screw them all.
Oddly enough, that part made perfect sense to me. And besides, the truth was I wanted them. Each of them.
