Elements of Mischief (Hijinks Harem Book 1)

by C. M. Stunich

  I caught a brief glimpse of silver in the firelight, Billy's piercings winking back at me from the long, curved length of his shaft. He was as big as Shane, thick and hard and ready for me.

  I was going to be seriously fucking sore come morning.

  “Ready, Firebug?” he asked, but I was pretty sure he didn't give a shit if I was or not.

  He slipped inside the warm, aching tenderness of my body, raking a fervor with the tip of his shaft. I could feel all those bits of metal, warm from his skin, arousing me in places I hadn't known were cold and wanting until now.

  The way he chanted sounded possessive, and the grip of his hands on my hips was firm, unyielding. He didn't look at me like a stranger that was interested in a quick fuck, but like a man who'd spotted something that was supposed to be his.

  That is not at all sexy, I tried to tell myself, but hey, even feminists can have kinky fantasies, right?

  And this whole thing?

  It was so a fantasy come true.

  George threaded his fingers into my hair and drew my head back, breaking Billy's gaze as he kissed all the sore places the fire and water elementals had left. For a few moments there, I breathed in through both my nose and mouth, absorbing the vast array of scents in the air—some of them pleasant and sweet, others base and animal.

  But then George was turning my face to the side and kissing my mouth with that firm but insistent press of lips that had started all of this shit in the first place.

  In the back of my mind, I was still aware of the knife—sorry, athame—and chalice that were sitting on the floor, but it was hard to care what the back of my mind wanted when my body had everything she desired.

  Billy rocked the bed with his frantic, angry thrusts, coming hard and fast inside of me and pulling away with something that sounded suspiciously like a growl. With that sound, that campfire scent of his perfumed the air, mixing with the tang of spent fireworks, like it was the Fourth of July or some shit.

  “Hurry Reg, I'm freaking out,” I heard him say, but I didn't watch as the men switched. My eyes were drifting closed as a strange sort of heat fell over me, mixing with that odd, detached feeling I'd gotten earlier when the men had first started to touch me.

  I knew then that I was being kissed by magic.

  As soon as Reg entered me, I could feel it.

  The marking was coming full circle.

  Two mouths pressed hot, wet heat to my nipples, sucking and biting and drawing pleasure up through my spine like…well, okay, like water through pipes.

  These plumbers really knew how to keep the flow going.

  My eyes opened wide and when I glanced to my right, I could see the five of us reflected in the mirror, this primal mix of bodies, our limbs tangled, flesh wet with sweat. The runes glimmered on the surface of my skin like tattoos, and my heart beat so frantically at the sight of Reg fucking me that I almost passed out.

  “I'm going to whisper some words in your ear,” George told me as I watched my eyes go from green to purple, a faint glow emanating from them and tinting my cheeks with color. “Repeat after me.” In a language as fluid as the stars, he told me beautiful, beautiful things I could not understand.

  My lips … they seemed to move of their own accord.

  I spoke the words, Reg came inside of me, and my orgasm hit at the same moment the runes began to glow, casting away all the shadows and filling the room with light.

  Above our heads, another fucking pipe burst.

  A cool breeze across my naked back woke me and I opened my eyes, frowning. How could there be a breeze when the window wasn't open?

  The room was dead still, the only sound coming from the deep breathing of the four naked elementals scattered around the room. No one had really wanted to return to their own rooms after the, ah … magic happened, so here we all were. My body was aching in the most delicious way, one that reminded me how damn clean my pipes must be, after all the plunging they'd just taken.

  Head on my arms, I'd been sleeping flat on my belly, which was not the easiest task when one was as busty as I was. Exhaustion had taken over quickly though so I must have crashed before noticing how uncomfortable my position was.

  I lifted my head, looking around for where the breeze had come from. The lacy curtains fluttered with the same breeze, yet the window was still closed tight.

  What the shit … is my power still going rogue?

  The guys had said once we finished the ritual that I would have them under control though, so it shouldn't be causing wind without my conscious decision.

  Rolling over carefully so as not to wake the two burning hot bodies either side of me, I sat up to get a better look.

  “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, my girl!” Grams scolded me, suddenly appearing beside the bed and making me scream with fright.

  All four elementals woke at the sound of my girly shriek, bursting into action and scanning the room for what had just caused my alarm.

  “What's going on, darlin'?” Shane asked, his voice thick with sleep as he stood in the middle of my Gram's guest room, stark naked and ready to attack any intruders.

  At a loss for words, I simply squeaked and pointed a shaking finger at my recently deceased grandmother, who stood beside the bed dressed to the nines in the skirt suit she'd been buried in and wearing a very pissed off expression on her face.

  “What are you pointing at, ST?” Reg coaxed with a yawn. “There's nothing in here.” He had just been efficiently checking all the dark corners of the room, anywhere someone might hide, and clearly came up empty-handed.

  Of course, he came up empty-handed. Grams is standing right there, only a foot or so in front of him!

  “H-her!” I stuttered, my shaking finger still pointing at my dead grandmother, but all I got from the elementals were varying looks of confusion … like I had just finally lost my last marble.

  “You don't see her?” I shrieked, now second-guessing whether I had in fact, let kangaroos loose in the top paddock. Or found myself a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

  “See … who, Blossom?” George asked gently, running a soothing hand down my back. “There's no one in this room except us.”

  “They can't see me, stupid girl,” my Grams snapped with a roll of her eyes. Now that I was a bit more awake, it was becoming clear that she was somewhat see-through. “Although you might show the common decency of covering up your lady bits while speaking to your grandmother.”

  Arching a vaguely translucent eyebrow at me, she waved her spectral hand towards my nakedness and I scrambled to yank a sheet over myself. No one needed their grandmother to see them stark naked, covered in glittering runes and elemental semen.

  “You all don't see my dead grandmother standing beside the bed?” I hissed, blushing furiously. Obviously, I knew she was dead and possibly a figment of my wine addled brain, but some things are just ingrained in your DNA. Being embarrassed when your Grams caught you in post gangbang afterglow was one of those things.

  “There's no one there, babe,” Billy drawled, yawning heavily and stealing Shane's recently vacated spot in the bed. “Just go back to sleep or I'll start thinking we need to wear you out again …”

  His hand snaked up and grasped my breast under the sheet I'd been clutching to my chest, deftly locating my nipple and tweaking it teasingly. A yelp of surprise squawked out of me at the same time as Gram hissed in anger.

  “Seriously! She's right fucking there!” I smacked Billy's hand off my breast and tucked the sheet tighter to my body. “Grams, what the hell?”

  “I beg your pardon, Arizona Morgan Smoke?” The old woman's eyes almost bugged out of her ghostly head. “I will thank you not to use such foul language when speaking to me.”

  “Grams, seriously?” I muttered. “I'm nearly thirty, and you're dead. You'd think I would be allowed to say fuck.”

  “Goodness knows you clearly know the meaning of the word.” She gave a pointed look at all the naked men occupying the room with me. “I w
ould have expected better from you than this, Arizona.”

  “What? Group sex?” I blurted, the shock and exhaustion weakening my filter. Gram narrowed her eyes at me in disapproval.

  “Elementals,” she snapped, giving the guys a dirty look. They, meanwhile, were all staring at me like I'd just transformed into a seven-boobed cyclops.

  “You guys really can't see her? She's standing right there being all judgmental and condescending.” I waved my hand at where my Gram's ghost—because that's what I assumed she was—stood.

  “Where?” Reg asked, taking a step closer to the bed and coincidentally ending up with his dick touching Gram's butt.

  “Ah yep, right there.” I cringed. “Your wrench is right on top of her sewage.”

  “Oh for the love of Christ.” Grams rolled her eyes again. “These plumbing jokes are out of control, Arizona. They need to stop. All I've heard in this house for the last two days has been snake my drain and hide the plunger and frankly, my dear, it's severely lacking in class. As if you shacking up with an elemental quad wasn't bad enough, surely my afterlife doesn't need to be haunted by your appalling puns too?”

  My jaw dropped open, at a loss for what to say—my puns were excellent.

  “Wait, Grams, you knew about the elementals? Why the hell didn't you ever tell me?” I screamed, anger flaring hot in me as I frowned at the elegant old woman.

  “Would it really have made a difference?” she sniffed, giving Reg's dick a curious look as he moved to where he probably thought was a safe spot but actually ended up halfway inside my ghostly grandmother. I made a scoot over gesture to him, because the sight of his naked body practically wearing my Gram's ghost was beyond disturbing.

  “Yes, it really would have.” I ground my teeth together hard. “Maybe if I had known to watch out for the sexy plumbers, I wouldn't have ended up in this mess!”

  “Now wait one hot second here,” Shane demanded, glancing at the other men, “is it possible Ari's exhibiting some of her spirit powers? Talking to ghosts isn't exactly much of a stretch—I've heard of weirder manifestations.”

  The ghost in question gave Shane a withering look which probably matched the one I was giving him. Surely it was painfully obvious that was what was happening—either I was crazy or you know, ghosts.

  “Stupid air elemental,” Grams muttered. “Oh don't give me that look, Arizona. I did my best to keep you out of this mess and look at you. The second I'm gone, you're in my guest bedroom letting an entire quad have their wicked way with you. My body is barely cold in the ground for goodness sake!”

  “What do you mean?” I growled, growing increasingly frustrated with the cryptic ghost in a twin set and pearls.

  “Sugar Tits, do you mind filling us in on what's going on?” Reg frowned. “We're only hearing one side of this conversation and it's a bit hard to follow.”

  “What do you mean, that you did your best to keep me out of this mess, Grams? You never mentioned anything about elementals or magic or any of this crazy bullshit. Yes, I said bullshit. Get over it woman, you're dead already.” I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to convey my best death threats through my gaze but this old bird was a pro at that game and just gave me a bored look back.

  “I mean that I had you spelled to cover your elemental blood. No supernatural creatures should have sensed anything more than human on you … but I guess that started to wear off when I died.” She pursed her lips and frowned. “These boys weren't wrong that you carry elemental blood, but it’s a whole heck of a lot more than the one percent they're talking about.”

  “What? Grams, I'm ...” I rubbed my hand across my eyes, careful not to drop the sheet in the process. “Sorry, but a little elaboration might me nice. Color me confused here.”

  “I can imagine, dear. Excessive drinking does tend to kill off brain cells.” The smug old bitch smirked at me, but she had reminded me that there was still wine on the bedside table.

  Reaching over to grab a bottle, I yanked out the cork that George had helpfully removed earlier, and took a long swig from the bottle.

  “Oh lord,” my Gram's ghost groaned, “tell me you're not drinking a three thousand dollar bottle of wine like some sort of homeless lush?”

  Shrugging, I turned the label to show her, then took another healthy gulp. The guys were all watching me, waiting patiently for me to fill them in.

  “Ok, Gram, explain. What percentage of elemental blood do I have, and more to the point, why is this house practically falling down when you can afford to have wine this expensive sitting in the cellar?” It really was good wine too. Nice and smooth.

  “Because the only handymen in this entire bloody state are elementals, aren't they?” she muttered, sulking a little. Guess she didn't discover this until after she bought the house.

  She cocked her head to the side, her pearls sliding across her wrinkled neck as she seemed to be listening to something we couldn't hear.

  “Sorry, Duck, I have to go. I'll be back though, so try not to destroy anymore of my house in the meantime. And for goodness sake, tell these boys to start wearing pants!”

  And with that, she was gone.

  Shocked, I blinked a couple of times at the space she'd just disappeared from, then took another long gulp from the wine bottle.

  “So …?” Shane prompted, folding his massive arms over his chest and frowning down at me. Damn, he was a sight to behold, standing there all stern and in charge. Tattooed waves crawled across his chest, bordered by some elaborately detailed scroll with words in a language I didn't recognize—probably the same way they'd been chanting in last night while they fucked me.

  “In a nutshell: my Gram is haunting us, I have considerably more than one percent elemental blood in me, and this wine costs more than my car.” I paused. Did I miss anything? “Oh and she says you all need to start wearing pants, but … that's optional I would say.”

  Yeah, yeah, I know I said we would have this one orgy and then I'd be done with them. But a girl can look, right? There was no harm in looking … Right?

  “That's it?” Billy grunted, still laying back with his head on my pillow and an arm thrown over his head.

  “Pretty much, then she said she 'had to go' and disappeared.” I chewed my lip. “Is this really a spirit elemental power? Like how I can make lightning and shit?”

  There was a pregnant pause, a moment while no one responded, then Reg ran his hand over his short hair, sighing heavily.

  “Short answer, Sugar Tits ...” Reg frowned at me, then hunted around the floor for his clothes. “Yes and no.”

  “Yes and no?” I repeated. “Where are you going?” He was pulling on his jeans, and buckling his belt up while looking exceptionally concerned.

  “Reg is going to go speak with Charlie, hon,” Shane answered for him while Reg located his phone and started tapping out a text. “If anyone knows more about this, it's Charlie.”

  “I don't understand, is this a bad thing?” I wasn't sure if they were talking about the ghost thing, the lightning, or the elemental blood. Maybe all three?

  Their worried expressions were freaking me out. George also pulled on his pants, then left to find a shirt I presume, seeing as he hadn't been wearing one earlier, and I turned to Billy who was still lying in the bed beside me.

  “Billy, what's the drama? Do you know more than you're letting on?” I felt stupid still sitting there stark naked while everyone else was getting dressed, so awkwardly scooted off the bed with the sheet still wrapped around me.

  Uh, before I seriously considered heading downstairs, a shower was in order. Because, you know, juices from the ritual and all—theirs and mine.

  “Firebug, I think the time for modesty has long since passed, don't you?” Billy grinned, ignoring my question completely and raking his burning coal colored eyes all over me as I shuffled around hunting down my clothes.

  Somehow, my fox printed pajama pants had made it on top of a lamp and my top was halfway under the bed. I bunched them up
in my arms while still struggling to hold the sheet in place. Bare tits plus bare Billy ... that would only get me into trouble again.

  “Yes, well, that was before I knew my Grams was watching me,” I muttered, then cringed when I remembered everything that had just gone down in this room earlier in the night. Fuck I hope she didn't see everything.

  “What are George and Shane doing?” I asked, noticing they had both now left the room leaving Billy gloriously naked and sprawled across the bed by himself.

  “George will be going with Reg,” he told me, yawning, “otherwise Reg and Charlie will end up in a fistfight. Water might seem like a gentle element, but it's not. Those bastards give fire a run for our money in the aggressive stakes. Actually so does air, come to think of it. Earth are the only ones who are even remotely grounded … so to speak …”

  “Oh Billy …” I whispered, “that was awful. Maybe leave the puns to the professionals, yeah?”

  He scowled and threw a pillow at my head, which I just managed to catch while laughing at his hurt expression.

  “Alright, so Reg and George have gone to see Charlie. What are the three of us doing in the meantime?” I considered his relaxed pose, and he raised his eyebrows at me suggestively.

  “I can suggest a thing or two …” His hand dropped south to his hardening dip tube and I threw the pillow back at him, leaving the room to go find Shane.

  I had to step over the fucking pentagram drawn on the floor, the one with the athame and chalice inside of it, but I decided that was a mystery best left for another day.

  Regardless of what we'd all just gone through, magical gangbang and all, I still wanted nothing to do with these assholes and the drama they were raining down on my life. Never thought I would see the day that I missed being just a barista.

  “Shane!” I yelled out once I reached the corridor. Even though they'd said I should be safe now that the ritual was over, I didn't trust another freak storm not to rip the roof off, or another winged executioner to come knocking at my door. Padding cautiously down the hall and dragging the sheet behind me like a ghost (pun intended), I followed the sound of Shane's voice when he yelled back.