Harem for the Holidays

by Tammi Lynn

  I get up and my head pounds. I shouldn’t have drank so much last night, I never did end up getting anything to eat after bailing before the pizza was delivered. Sam had sent me a few texts until I replied, sorry, I’m just not interested, and blocked him. I’m really not looking forward to my date with Stanley tonight but I promised Jade I’d at least go on four dates. Two down, two to go.

  Calling a Lyft, I quickly got dressed and downed some Tylenol and a couple pieces of toast. The day already doesn’t look good while starting it out with a hangover. At least the sun is shining on my way to work, there has to be another half foot of snow on the ground but the clouds have cleared.

  When I get to my office it’s nice and toasty so I take off my jacket. I’m wearing a long sleeved off the shoulders black peasant blouse with a knee length dark purple skirt. Expecting it to be a long day and having to meet up for tonights date right after work, I decided to wear a pair of flat black knee high boots. It’s a little dressy but I should be stuck in my office most of the day anyway.

  “Sydney can you come into the light room please.” Bose’s voice startles me as it comes through the intercom on my desk phone. By light room he means the room we go over photos, articles, and ads. There’s lightboards around the whole room and on tables in the center of the room, covered in a myriad of upcoming articles.

  He obviously somehow already knows I’m here and he knows I’d never tell him no, so I head in that direction. I kind of feel a little exposed with my shoulders bare but it’s too late to have a wardrobe change now so I drape my waist long brown hair over each one. When I walk in he’s standing with his back to me, arms crossed in front of his chest on the other side of the room. My eyes immediately draw down to the dark grey slacks, tight over his round ass. I want to grab it. Yep. I am going to get my ass fired one of these days.

  “Sydney, come here and look at these.” Does he have eyes in the back of his head or something? I didn’t even make a sound coming in. Walking around the tables in the middle of the room I stand beside him and look at the boards. “These are for tomorrow’s paper, do you see anything wrong with any of them?”

  I look at each of them closely until my eyes focus in on one in particular. Don’t ask me how I can tell but for me it stands out. “This one, Sir.” I point to the page above my head and the hair over my shoulder falls back. “The title is off center by one space.”

  “That’s why I promoted you Sydney, you have an eye for this kind of stuff.” Praise from the boss? That might be a first.

  “Thank you, Sir.” I keep looking at the articles when I feel a hot breath against my shoulder. A shiver runs through me and I pinch my arm, making sure I haven’t gone delusional again. Ouch! Nope this is really happening.

  “So how is your search for a harem going?” His deep voice has my nipples going hard under my blouse and when his lips brush just a whisper over my skin I shit you not I almost come. The things I want this man to do to my body.

  “Not well at all actually, the two dates I went on so far were nightmares.” At the mention of dates he growled against my neck and I almost slapped my hands against the lightboards, bending over, and begged him to take me here and now.

  “You had me thinking about what I said the other day.”

  “What you said, Sir?” The tip of his nose skims lightly under my ear and my knees start to shake.

  “About sharing you.” He kisses my neck and my eyes roll back into my head before I fully close them. Is he seriously suggesting what I think he is? How about we first fucking establish… Does Bose like me? I mean hell, sure as fuck feels like it.

  When I open my eyes he’s no longer beside me so I turn to find him at the door.

  “Make sure that error gets corrected before going to print.” And with that he leaves. I lean on one of the tables and catch my breath. Did that really just happen?

  ∞∞∞

  Date 3: Stanley

  After this mornings scene with Bose, it was hard as fuck to concentrate on work. The hours seemed to drag and my head didn’t stop pounding until after lunch. I’m already exhausted and I really wish I could back out of this date. Might as well get it over with though.

  Driving to the new chinese food place he suggested, like I’d let myself be picked up again, I’m actually at least excited for the food. I love food, and every kind. It’s been awhile since I’ve had chinese and I’m always down to try new places. I get out of my vehicle and walk up to the front door to find a very attractive man waiting for me. Yes, man, not a boy this time. Thank fuck. Brown hair styled in a messy but sexy way, with brown eyes and a trim beard, he stands at about six foot and has a nice smile.

  “Sydney?” He holds his hand out for me to shake.

  “Yes, Stanley right?” I shake his hand and his smile gets wider. Maybe I finally have a good one here.

  “You can call me Stan. Shall we?” Opening the restaurant door, he motions me inside ahead of him. Ladies first, Nice. My body relaxes a little, no longer as stressed about this date.

  The restaurant is buffet style so we each grab a tray and start loading up our plates with food. I get the sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, and an eggroll. I really wanted the beef broccoli, but it just didn’t look right for some reason so I passed. We find a table and sit across from each other, starting with idle chit chat as we begin to eat. You know, the basics, where do you work? What do you like to do for fun? Score another point for Stan, he is also an outdoors lover. I can’t help the smile on my face, finally a normal date. Scenery isn’t too bad either, it’s not imaginary top four harem status, but I like what I see.

  We’ve each eaten about half of our plates when he starts to fidget in his seat and squirm around a little. Am I boring him? Oh shit, I have something stuck in my teeth and he doesn’t want to tell me I bet. Being an overthinker I start going through every possible reason he is starting to look like he’ll bolt. I couldn’t just have one good date? One?

  “So you work at the Herald? Have you written anything I might have read?” Stan covers his mouth with a fist as if to cover a cough or a belch. Is he gonna be sick?

  “I actually do more editing than actual writing.” His hand at his mouth goes to his stomach and a pained look goes across his face. “Um, are you okay?”

  “I’m fine I-” His face turns horrified as a loud bout of flatulence comes from behind him. “I got to go, I’m so sorry Sydney.” He’s off in a flash and I can only keep staring at where he was moments before.

  Did that seriously just happen? I can’t help it I start laughing out loud causing other patrons to stare over at me. Glancing down I see a small portion left of beef broccoli on Stan’s plate. I knew that stuff looked bad, so glad I didn’t take the chance on it. Poor Stan will be in the bathroom till tomorrow. To add insult to injury the waitress chooses that moment to place the bill in front of me. No problem, I got it. Once again it was a short date, at least I wasn’t the one who bailed this time. Oh my God, it stinks.

  Paying the bill I head home, with the long and interesting night last night, to being plagued with a hangover for half the day to good date gone bad, I just want to get in some warm pj’s and snuggle under my covers.

  When I get home I turn the heat up a little and run straight upstairs to my room to take my now wasted outfit off and get comfortable. Well the outfit wasn’t a total waste thanks to Bose. That’ll give me some good dreaming material for the night. Panda’s sleeping at the end of the bed and I take my phone with me into bed.

  I haven’t spoken to Knox in a few days and want to hear his voice so I call him. He answers after the third ring. “Hey, Princess, did you miss me?”

  “Always, Knox.” I sigh. His voice just isn’t the same when it isn’t in person. My bottom lip pops out into pout.

  “What’s wrong? Why are you pouting?” My lip pops back in my mouth and I look around. I know he’s not here.

  “I’m not pouting.”

  “You’re pouting, Princess. I know you an
d I bet that plump bottom lip of yours was just out.” Fuck, he knows me, too, well.

  “Okay, maybe I was, but after this week and three failed dates so far, you’d be dramatic too.” The line goes quiet on the other end. “Knox? You still there?”

  “You’ve already been on three?”

  “Yeah, why? Oh fuck, I didn’t tell you about last night either. I finally got to meet my hottie stalker, his name is Gage. He actually quit working for the Bitch two months ago and has just been trying to find a way to approach me. Apparently I’m intimidating.” I snort. “Anyways may have gotten to know him a little better with a game of answer or drink.”

  “What the fuck, Princess?”

  “What? I told you I’m working on my harem and I think he just filled spot numero uno.” He mumbled something in response but I couldn’t make out all of what he said, only the words my and spot. “What was that?”

  “Nothing.” He grunts. “Is anyone over there now?”

  “Just me and my pussy.” I hear a cough from the otherside of the line. Haha! He told me soon after I got Panda that I was not allowed to refer to her as ‘my pussy,’ so of course I do every chance I get.

  “I’m coming over, tell your pussy to make room in that bed.” Whoa! Well that’s new, first time he actually played along. If only we could get a bit more literal with it.

  Worn out from the day I fall asleep before he gets to my house, but I am briefly woken to a warm chest at my back and arms going around my waist. This is another reason I don’t want to be with just one guy, I’ll never want to have to give this up, and refuse to unless it’s on Knox’s terms.

  Chapter Ten

  The best part of waking up, is not, Folgers in your cup, at least not when your me and you get to wake up to Knoxley wrapped around you from behind. I. Do. Not. Want. To. Get. Up. Unfortunately my alarm is going off and there is still two more days of work to get through before the weekend and our annual Christmas cabin trip. We go every year, me, Knox, and Jade. It’s only for two nights but I need this trip, a few days away.

  Groaning I unwrap myself from my gorgeous wrappings of arms and legs and grab an outfit before going into the bathroom to shower and change. I decided to wear a one piece black spaghetti strap jumper with a matching black suit jacket. Black flats for my feet I kiss Knox’s forehead before grabbing my phone and tiptoeing out of my room. He has keys so he’ll be able to lock up when he leaves.

  I make it to work fifteen minutes early and go through my phone before the day starts. I started blocking all the ad responders texts and they’ve been coming in fewer and fewer. I’m only going to go on one more date tomorrow and that’s it. One more try at having at least one guy to take home for Christmas dinner. There’s a text from Lance and I open it up, I feel bad for canceling sessions all week.

  Ooh La Lance: Hey Wade. I need to know if you’re going to cancel again tonight. I can fill someone else in.

  Damn. I hate the pang of guilt I feel. I already hate missing going to the gym as it is but letting down Lance sucks. In part its how I know I might feel a little bit more for him than I would like to admit.

  Me: I’ll be there.

  Placing my phone in my desk I start up my computer to go through this mornings emails.

  “Sydney, come into my office.” I’m glad he started using the dang intercom instead of yelling out to me, but he keeps scaring me using it out of nowhere.

  “I’ll be right there, Sir.” I send back to him and get up to comply. I’m tempted to leave my jacket in my office and go in there with bare shoulders again but decide to leave it on. Gotta play a little hard to get sometimes. He sure has been needing me a lot more than usual.

  Nine hours later, I’m headed to the gym after working side by side next to Bose all day with only a short lunch break in between. A lunch break I spent with Jade, filling her in on all my failed dates and having her laugh so hard she fell out of her chair. Bose wanted to go over the plans and layout for this next Sunday’s paper before Christmas. Needless to say that jacket came off at some point during the day because things got way too hot for me being that close to him for so long.

  I get to the gym and get dressed in a similar work outfit as last week but in navy blue with fifteen minutes to spare so I decide to put in my earbuds attached to an ipod on my arm and get started on stretching. Stretching for awhile I get lost in the music and close my eyes. I’m sitting on the mat with my legs together and I’ve been reaching and holding onto my toes, and when I come back up I fall back to the mat. When I open my eyes I stare up into Lance’s face looking down at me and.. Oh shit! He’s wearing basketball shorts again and I can see right up the leg. Fuck! I look again and Holy fuck, how does he even work out in loose boxers with that thing?

  “Wade, you okay?”

  “Um.” Don’t look again, don’t look again. I close my eyes and sit up before opening them again to resist the temptation and pull my earbuds from my ears. “I’m good. You ready to get started?” I jump to my feet and probably look a little extra excited. Has it really been a week since I last saw him? I swear he gets better looking every time I see him. His beard looks in need of a trim but all it does is give off a more rugged vibe, making me fantasize about rolling in the dirt with him. Damnit! My eyes wandered down again and he laughed, catching the direction of my gaze.

  “Why don’t you get started out on the bikes while I finish setting up an obstacle course for you.” I love doing obstacle courses, testing my limits and trying to get faster each time I go through it.

  “Okay, sounds good.” Putting my earbuds back in I get on a bike and cruise at a steady pace Thoughts of the cabin trip takeover and a half hour passes before Lance comes and gets me. I’m not sure how this weekend is going to go with how the heats been turning up between Knox and I lately. I don’t know how much more I can take before I jump his sexy ass. I could deal with my repressed emotions when he wasn’t acting on whatever this was between us, but the minute he started acting dominating? Even just a bit. Game over.

  Lance leads me over to the obstacle course he’s set up. Tires, swings with rings, monkey bars, platforms you jump back and forth on, and many more strenuous obstacles when added together.

  I just want you to do the monkey bars and platforms first to warm up your arms and legs, then we’ll have you do it all and time you.” I do as he says, and begin to work up a sweat.

  After I do my first round on the full course I stop to find the bimbo from last week trying to put her hands all over Lance again. A bit of jealousy waves its ugly head and I imagine smacking her off of him. He keeps taking her hands off his arms and although I don’t pass by them for long before starting my next round I do hear him say. “Not tonight, you’ll have to reschedule for tomorrow. I’m only working with Wade tonight.” My face widens in a smile and I push harder, beating my first runs time.

  I don’t even stop when I come around again breezing through the course again. I start to slow down to come to a stop when I trip over the toe of my own foot and crash into Lance. He falls backward onto the mat he was standing on and I land on top of him. I seem to be getting myself in this position a lot lately, at least two more times than normal. My hair comes out of my ponytail and drapes over my face, and onto his chest. He’s wearing a tight gray T and I can feel his hard abs beneath my forehead. I’m too embarrassed to lift my head.

  “Angel?” There’s that word again. Lance sweeps my hair off my face and over my shoulder. “You okay?”

  “Yup, I’m great, Super duper.” Super duper? Really? Real smooth Sydney.

  His chest rumbles in laughter beneath me, and instead of making me get up he wraps his arms around me. Another man I feel completely and totally comfortable with for no reason at all. He’s probably just trying to console me in my time of embarrassment.

  “Hey can I ask you something?” He tilts my chin up so he can look me in the eye. “Where have you been all week? Ever since you’ve started coming here you’ve never missed so many day
s.” Did he miss me?

  Might as well tell him. “You remember my crazy friend Jade? The loud one that only lasted here a week? She submitted a wanted ad in the Herald that I had jokingly written up for a harem of men. I kind of got a lot of responses and have gone on a few really terrible dates.” His eyes widen a little but there’s no judgement in them.

  “I didn’t know you were applying for positions, you already have my resume, Angel.” Is he serious?

  “Why do you call me, Angel?” He stopped calling me Wade.

  “Because there’s just a light about you, I can see a halo of it around you everywhere you go.” I choke on my breath my heart thudding in my chest. Did he actually just say that? That was… Wow. Lance has a bit of a romantic side to him.

  Seeing the time on his watch I get up and offer a hand down to help him up. He laughs taking my hand even though he obviously is not someone who needs little ole me’s help. Our sessions over and with the holidays coming up I’m not sure when I’ll be able to see him again.

  “So how come you want a harem anyway?” Lance asks, still holding onto my hand and not letting go.

  “I don’t know, I guess I’m looking for so much and have only found each thing or a mixture of what I’m looking for, but not all, in certain men.”

  A smirk forms on his handsome face and I know what he’s thinking. “Any chance I might be one of these men you speak of that have some of those traits?” He raises an eyebrow in a smolder and my panties may as well have melt off me, I’m now equally as wet anyway.

  “Maybe.” Playing coy I give him a smile and turn my direction towards the locker rooms. “I should probably get going.”

  “Angel?” He’s still holding my hand and prevents me from leaving. “I want a date of my own, I’ve been meaning to ask you anyway. Monday night at nine, here.”