Theirs to Keep - A Reverse Harem Romance

by Krista Wolf

  His bare chest.

  “I… thought we were doing T-shirts?” I murmured.

  Even after the thunder subsided, I didn’t pull away. He didn’t remove his arms, either.

  “You are, I’m not,” he said gently. “I never sleep in a shirt.”

  His touch was hard and strong, and so very, very warm. I felt my body relaxing against his. The built-up tension of the thunderstorm, melting away.

  “Want me to put one on?” he asked.

  “Fuck no,” I murmured into his chest.

  Roderick chuckled and my whole body shook. “See? Filthy mouth.”

  I rubbed my cheek lightly against one of his hard, unblemished pectorals. “May as well own up to it.”

  For a minute or two we just lay there, listening to the storm. The rain was hypnotic, the wind like the droning of some familiar yet forgotten song.

  Karissa, don’t even think about it.

  Beneath the blankets, our bodies were growing closer. Inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter, our arms and legs slid together.

  “We’re just going to sleep,” Roderick murmured abruptly. “Right?”

  His skin smelled like soap, mixed with all things manly. It was the best kind of smell.

  “Uh, sure.”

  One of my hands found the flat of his stomach. I allowed my palm to glide over it, not even sure what the fuck I was doing.

  What the fuck are you doing?

  “You did win the bet though,” I reasoned carefully. “That’s got to be worth something.”

  “It was,” said Roderick. “I got to take you to bed.”

  “You were taking me to bed anyway.”

  He made a face, and I laughed. Tilting my chin, I looked up at him.

  “I could let you have something else,” I said. “Sort of a…”

  “Consolation prize?”

  I nuzzled him some more. God it felt good.

  “I was going to say bonus prize. But yeah.”

  My host hesitated, but only for a moment. I could almost see the internal struggle. The battle for good and evil, taking place within his brain.

  “What exactly did you have in mind?”

  Without thinking — and before I could stop myself — I took his hand and slid it straight up my shirt. It settled heavily over one warm, full breast.

  “Something like this.”

  There was alarm in his expression, like he’d suddenly done something he shouldn’t. I was trying to decide if it was cute. If it was maybe his way of being respectful, rather than coy. After all, one of his employees was about to—

  “Karissa…” he said hesitantly.

  “Or maybe this.”

  I took his other hand and settled it over my ass. My sleep shorts rode high, leaving half the cheek exposed. His palm — rough and rugged from manual labor — felt abrasively wonderful.

  We were face to face again now. Nose to nose.

  “Really you could have whatever you wanted,” I breathed softly. “A bet’s a bet.”

  I reached downward, between our bodies, and a wrist closed firmly over mine. Our eyes locked. My fingers were just inches away from the prize.

  “Or… we could just sleep,” I shrugged. “Like you said.”

  I took my hand away. I saw his eyes soften.

  “Karissa it’s not like that.”

  “Apparently not,” I said, pulling back.

  “It’s just… it’s…”

  The struggle was deep-seeded. Rational and real. Roderick’s expression was filled with sorrow and regret, but also a thousand other emotions as well. I saw longing in his eyes too. Desire. Need.

  “I can’t just—”

  Lust.

  I dipped my chin, and suddenly he had my face in his hands. Roderick’s lips crashed against mine, his mouth moving with a hunger and passion that sent waves of heat crashing over me. His body surged forward, enveloping mine, as his tongue slipped into my mouth and made me his.

  Holy fuck.

  His kisses were fierce and fiery. Full of passionate promise. I felt almost consumed by him, engulfed in the burning heat of his suddenly insatiable appetite. His hands were back on my body. Squeezing me. Possessing me…

  There was zero resistance as he rolled me onto my back. Straddling my body, his two big arms on either side of my head, Roderick stopped kissing me just long enough to look deep into my eyes.

  “Say you want me,” he breathed. “It’s all I need.”

  His words knocked the air from my lungs. I took only a second to recover, though.

  “I want you.”

  Nudging my thighs apart, he crushed me into the bed.

  Eighteen

  RODERICK

  There weren’t words, really. None that came close to describing the violent storm of conflicting emotions, raging through my head.

  But my body…

  My body was full-blown lost. Corrupted by feelings so base, so primal, I couldn’t stop myself from being overwhelmed by them. Not tonight. Not in a million years.

  No, not ‘corrupted.’ That’s just wrong.

  She wasn’t just gorgeous, this creature writhing beneath me in my bed. That would’ve been easier. She was smart, capable, intelligent. Raw and unapologetic in her approach to life, which mirrored the approach to my own life, my old life.

  And yes, she was beyond gorgeous to boot. Beautiful and stunning in all the ways that pushed every one of my buttons, in ways that dropped my walls and shattered my defenses and made me finally assailable. At least physically.

  Emotionally, too.

  Fuck. I was lying to myself. Deceiving my own self-imposed standards to maintain my restrictions and restraint. There was nothing stopping me from doing what I was about to do. No one to shove me aside, to preserve the unblemished memory of the last time I did this, and who it was with, and what it ultimately had meant to me.

  It’s been two. Whole. Years.

  “I want you.”

  Her mouth, her lips, those three little words… I allowed them to be the tipping point. I let them erode away my last ounce of resolve, and free me to do what I truly wanted.

  And what I wanted, was to fuck her gorgeous little brains out.

  “I need you.”

  The words were short. Staccato. Brutally honest. She smiled as I said them, and then I drank that smile with my own hungry mouth.

  Oh my God.

  Her lips were wet and full, her mouth wholly delicious. I explored it again with my tongue, even as I reached down one arm and yanked her shorts — and panties — roughly down her smooth, flawless thighs.

  Karissa gasped as I shoved myself between her legs, pushing her bottoms completely off. Her legs spread wide for me. The hand that had been reaching between us found its mark, and I saw her eyes flare with arousal and surprise as she already found me diamond-hard.

  “Roderick…”

  She breathed the word into my ear as I shoved myself home, spearing her all the way to the core in a single glorious stroke. She was impossibly wet. So warm and eager to receive me. The perverse pleasure of taking her so abruptly and completely wracked my body, causing me to shove my face into her neck and grind as hard as I could, screwing the breath from her lungs as I moaned, uncontrollably, into the tender flesh of her shoulder.

  It’s okay…

  I pulled back and pierced her again, plunging the entire length of myself inside her. I did it over and over again, as her hands clawed my back. My lips planting dozens of frantic kisses along her hot skin as I whimpered and moaned through the forgotten pleasure of being this close and intimate with a woman again.

  It’s more than okay.

  Lightning flashed outside as Karissa began bucking into me, meeting my every thrust with the roll of her sexy hips. One of her hands found its way into my hair. She dragged her fingernails gently along my scalp, clutching me in ways that were more tender than possessive. She pulled my face back as the thunder struck, and placed her forehead against mine.

  She u
nderstands.

  All at once, she had full control. Guiding our movements, she blinked those long lashes against my cheek and looked deep into my eyes.

  “It’s okay…”

  They were her words now, not mine. Somehow plucked from the recesses of my own mind.

  She smiled, and her face lit up with tranquility and enjoyment. The calm I saw there slowed me down. It brought me back from that frantic place, where any enjoyment on my part could only be brief and fleeting.

  “Let me hold you.”

  Her fingers slid down along my face. They scratched through my beard, and brushed lightly over my lips. Then they stopped to cradle both sides of my chin.

  Oh…

  It felt amazing, sharing this moment. Being so deep inside her, my cock all snug and warm and beautifully buried, while our souls reached out to each other on a much different level.

  Oh wow.

  Her body was so smooth, so strong, so curvaceous and supple. And I fit so perfectly between her legs.

  Like I was meant to be there.

  “God, I love the way you fill me up.”

  Her words were followed by the hottest, sexiest open-mouthed kiss of my life. It rocked my entire world. Left me shivering with a thousand open-ended possibilities, as her smooth, feminine jaw churned silently, sensuously against mine. She didn’t stop until she’d drank her fill. Then she pulled back, just enough so that I was still breathing her sweet, heated breath.

  “You good?”

  I nodded shyly, our lips still brushing. With a slow, deep roll, she began grinding beneath me again. The connection between us was electric. Every movement was incredible.

  “Now…” Karissa smiled demurely, twirling a lock of my hair with one lazy finger.

  “Make me come.”

  Nineteen

  KARISSA

  Roderick had always been something of an enigma to me. He was sullen and serious, but he could also be funny at the same time. His humor was bitingly sarcastic, and his poker face was the best around. As a result, you never knew where you stood with him. He could love you or hate you, the expression was always the same.

  But now…

  Now I was starting to figure him out.

  Of course, it only took screwing him. Or to be more accurate, not just screwing him but actually making love to him in some deep, obscure way. The third of my three bosses was definitely the most complicated, and I’d always found guys to be very simple creatures. Sure they were needy sometimes, but their needs were unsurprisingly direct. Easy to figure out.

  Roderick however, wasn’t like that at all. There was a lot more to him than simple guy stuff. His story — whatever it was — ran deeper than any other guy I’d ever slept with or dated.

  And that’s because Roderick was damaged.

  I wasn’t absolutely certain of my theory, but I was pretty damned sure. As a person he was overly emotional and strangely sentimental. Defiant. Deep. Wonderful.

  Definitely wonderful.

  It seemed crazy to sleep with him, considering what had happened so far. I’d had my first ever threesome with Bryce and Camden, and now I was screwing the only one of my bosses I hadn’t messed around with yet. If there were a ‘trying my best to fuck up a good thing’ award, I was definitely in the running. Maybe even a shoe-in.

  Still…

  There was something special about this man that drew me to him in close, emotional ways. An intangible kinship. Something that made us the same.

  That, plus he was just hot as fuck.

  I thought about these things as he thrust even deeper into me; my third lover in two days. Between his chest, his shoulders, and his fierce black beard, Roderick reminded me of a sexy Greek god. Maybe a young Zeus, judging by all the lightning.

  BOOM!

  Thunder struck again, followed immediately by more jagged streaks of silver, criss-crossing the sky. The room lit up, and I could see the bead of sweat dripping off the tip of his nose. His eyes were this fierce green-blue. The color of a stormy sea.

  So… maybe Neptune?

  Either way, he was working me over. Drilling me long and hard, until I felt that familiar tingle sweeping upward from a place deep in my belly.

  Oh fuck…

  The rush of fire was quick this time, and I bit my lip and let it do its thing. My limbs went stiff as my eyes unfocused. Somewhere in the distance thunder roared, and I could hear myself scream.

  Then I came like a demon… all over Roderick’s thrusting, churning cock.

  “Unnnghhhhhh…”

  The sound I made was desperate, almost strangled. I clutched him tightly through my mind-numbing orgasm, savoring the steel-like feel of his two big arms, as he screwed me right through to the other side.

  “Ohhh… ohhhh yessss.”

  I finished awake and alive, totally rejuvenated by the flood of electrolytes and endorphins released by my climaxing brain. Roderick was still fucking me. Still drawing on his own pleasure, even as he focused on mine. There was the thrill of accomplishment in his expression now. Along with the distinct feeling he’d done something important; maybe something he’d longed to do for some time now.

  “Baby…”

  The word came easily to my lips. Partially because I meant it as a term of endearment, especially after having connected on such an intimate level, but also in the hopes that it gave him pleasure too.

  Twisting my body, I shoved him backwards and climbed onto him in one fluid motion. His cock was an iron rod, twitching with every beat of his heart. Moving in rhythm with his labored breathing.

  Fuck that’s hot.

  It took nothing to throw my leg over him, and sink all the way down. As I did, my smile turned positively wicked.

  “Your turn.”

  His expression changed as I bottomed out, taking him all the way to the base. I shifted forward and back, rubbing my clit — still swollen with the aftershocks of my own climax — against the top of his hard shaft.

  Two hands found my breasts, and then his hungry mouth. I leaned into him, feeding him. Giving him every inch of my smooth warm flesh, as his hands kneaded and his tongue swirled and his lips dragged deliciously over each of my pert, pink nipples.

  MMMmmmmm…

  We rocked like that for a long while, sliding our bodies sexily with my lover buried inside me. The storm passed. The lightning was less bright, less frequent, and with each passing strike it took longer for the thunder to roll in.

  And through it all, we kept kissing and licking and touching. Smiling into each other’s happy faces as the noise of the rain grew quieter, and the storm rolled away. I felt the tension build in Roderick’s body, as he approached the penultimate moment. His chest tightened. His shoulders strained.

  “Do it.”

  His eyebrows turned up at the edges as his face contorted in pleasure. His hands reached out to caress my face as his ass clenched, lifting me into the air—

  “Come for me.”

  Roderick’s eyes screwed shut and his jaw clenched, a split second before he came. It was like a bomb going off inside me. And explosion of heat and wetness surging into me, filling me warmly from within.

  Ohhhh… fuck.

  Roderick’s hands moved independently, dragging so softly over the skin of my flushed cheeks it made me feel fuzzy inside. A lone finger dragged over my lips. I opened my mouth and took it inside.

  My GOD, this is just so fucking—

  Again and again he spurted, splashing his hot seed into my womb. The moment was so personal. So sexy and private and oh so very fucking hot.

  Forward and back, over and over, I rode him until he was utterly spent and empty. His body went limp. His jaw unclenched and his full lips parted, either in ecstasy or surrender.

  I leaned down again, pressing the softness of my body against his hard, lean chest. Our kiss was a celebration. More of a personal high-five, as I smiled against his perfect face and winked.

  “You really needed that.”

  Twenty />
  KARISSA

  I spent the night in Roderick’s bed, sleeping peacefully to the rhythm of the rain. His body was warm and comforting. His blankets so impossibly soft, he had to nudge me awake at the crack of dawn and point to the door.

  “Gotcha.”

  Slipping back down the hall was easy enough, and I managed to avoid encountering anyone else. Not that I did anything wrong, really. The others had shared me without Roderick even being there, so it seemed almost fair that he got a crack as well. Whether they knew it or not, the guys were even-steven now. All tied up.

  You’re an asshole, Karissa.

  Maybe. But I’d always been an asshole, if we were keeping score. And now I was a very well-laid asshole. That, to me, made the whole thing worth it.

  Unless you lose your job from this.

  Nah, I just couldn’t see that happening. I was kicking too much ass here, and the guys were too overwhelmed with their own stuff to hire and train someone new. Even so, you never knew how people took things. Some guys could be jealous. Some guys could be—

  “Well look who’s getting the worm today.”

  I bumped into Bryce in the hallway, after having stripped my cold, wet bed. I still had the sheets and blankets gathered in my arms.

  “A little early for laundry, isn’t it?”

  “You gonna shower?”

  He blinked down at me a few times, then added a yawn. “I was.”

  “Make it a fast one then. I’m next.”

  He was in a pair of old sweats, and a T-shirt so worn through I could see the color of his well-tanned skin. He glanced down at me and grinned.

  “Shower with me, problem solved.” He added a wink. “We’ll save water too.”

  I laughed and shook my head. “You save water. I’ve got too much stuff to do.”

  My gorgeous construction worker turned lover gave me a slight shrug, then smiled like he knew something I didn’t. Throwing a towel over one big slab of a shoulder, he whistled as he walked away.

  “See you tonight, then.”