“No, of course not. Our situation is different. I mean, Rachel is another woman.”
“Well noticed,” I muttered.
Todd sighed. “I’m not explaining very well, but I’ll get there.”
“Sorry.” I made the sign of a zip across my lips and gained a weak smile in response. It still felt like progress and I would take that.
“The four of them had a good life for a couple of years, but then one of Regina’s other mates, the one she’d known for years, died.”
I clasped my hands over my mouth and tried not to think the thoughts that came flying at me. I may not have known the guys for long, but the idea of losing any of them didn’t sit well with me. Even if that one was Todd.
“I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine…”
“None of us can. Regina sunk into a deep depression. It’s been three years, and she’s still not out of it. She doesn’t pay either of her other mates the attention they deserve because she’s too hung up on grief. I know it can’t be easy to lose someone….” he trailed off, a pained look crossing his face.
I leaned across and placed my hand over his. He didn’t need to say anymore, I got it. “I can’t promise that won’t happen,” I said after a moment’s silence. “But I promise I will do my best to not let it. I already know I don’t want to lose any of you, and I would be devastated to, but…”
“Life is for the living,” he finished for me.
“Yes,” I responded softly.
We sat looking at one another. Todd’s gaze was soft for what seemed like the first time since we’d met. He finally felt like someone who was in this with me and not trying to act against me.
I got up on my knees and shimmied over the small space between us. I lifted my hand to his face and cupped his cheek, swiping the thumb over the stubble there.
Neither of us said a word.
Neither of us had to.
I leaned in and brushed my lips against his, kissing him softly, hesitantly. It took him a moment or two to respond, but when he did, he tangled his hand in my hair and pulled me closer. I moved in again, straddling his lap but not deepening the kiss. I understood now. This had to go at Todd’s pace and not mine.
We broke apart and just sat there, both enjoying the sense of peace and oneness settling over us. Finally, we felt like two parts of a team. Now all we had to do was tell the world.
12
I let my fingers dance over the keyboard, grinning broadly as I showed Todd a little trick. As it so happened, I knew a little bit about hacking myself.
“The MMA system is protected by multiple walls and security systems. It’s not easy to get into it… So instead of hacking them, we hack the person who has access to it.” I put the final touches on the program I wrote, hoping that run 2.3 would get rid of all the bugs.
“And how do we do that?”
“Easy. This program will send one of the programmers an email that the security has been breached. Naturally, he’ll go check what’s up, but we’ll already be watching. He’ll take us into the system. Easy peasy.”
Todd grinned. “Devious.”
“It’s not as neat as hacking into the system itself, but this should get us a visual of what you’re looking for.”
“The line-up for next season,” Todd smiled, his face lighting up. I didn’t know why he loved MMA so much, but he said it was to win a bet. If helping him win this bet would win him over, than that was an easy job.
Letters and numbers ran across the screen as we tried to keep up with the programmer on the other side. With every move he made, we needed to make at least two or three. We didn’t want him to detect us or to kick us out of his system.
“We’re in.” Todd’s hand grasped mine as he stared at the screen. “Fuck yes.”
“What are you guys doing?”
We jumped up, minimising all the screens as quick as possible and turned around. I gave Martin the most innocent smile, hoping to charm him into forgetting what he saw. “Nothing.”
“I saw that. Are you hacking into somewhere?”
“Whaaaat? Us, hacking? No, never,” I stuttered, the lies colouring my voice. Martin pulled up an eyebrow and clacked his tongue.
“I expected this from Todd, but you too, Lola?”
I batted my eyes down. “I love hacking,” I muttered, shame spreading red blushes across my cheeks.
“But it’s illegal.”
“Yes, we know, Mister Goody-Two-Shoes,” Todd retorted, pushing himself away from the desk on his wheely chair. “Bah. We just got in, I didn’t even have time to check everything.”
“Tsssk. I liked it better when you two were fighting.” Martin shook his head and slammed the door shut. Silently, we waited until we could no longer hear his footsteps echo in the hallway.
“Martin doesn’t like hacking,” Todd muttered, shrugging his shoulders as he returned to the screen. “Damn it, so close.”
“Next time,” I smiled, patting his shoulder. “I’m going to see what Rachel is up to.”
“Okay, thanks for the help anyway.”
“You’re welcome.”
I waited for a moment, wondering if he’d kiss me goodbye. As his eyes followed the lines flickering across the screen, I figured not. I nodded to myself and got up, a little disappointed. I thought we’d been making good progress over the past days, but apparently not enough for him to consider me more than a friend.
“Lolita?”
I halted at the door, a shiver running down my spine. The name was ridiculous, but there was something about the way Todd used it that left me a little speechless. I gulped. “Yes?”
“You’re alright.”
I hid the smile stretching across my face and bit my lip. “You’re not too bad yourself.”
With a warm feeling bubbling up, I skipped through the hallway to the kitchen. I heard the blender so either Rachel was making one of her healthy smoothies or Hector was making one of his even worse ones.
“Hi?” I peeked my head across the corner, curious to who I’d find. With five people in a relatively tiny flat, it was always a surprise to who popped up where.
“Hello!” Hector appeared from behind the fridge, a devilish grin tugging up his mouth. So he was experimenting again then.
“Hi,” Rachel popped up from the other side, waving happily. “Just in time, we’re having a taste test!”
Oh shit…
“Lovely,” I lied, not wanting to hurt any of their feelings. Ever since Hector and Rachel decided to start H.E.C., they’d been spending a lot of time together to get the recipe perfect and all the branding set up. Between his endless energy and her knowledge of marketing, the two of them were making great progress. H.E.C. was almost starting to sound like a legit business.
“Here, try this one!” Rachel pushed a red drink in my direction and I pulled up my nose.
“Do I have to?”
“Yes, it’s tasty, I promise.”
I wiggled the cup, alarmed by the fact that the smoothie didn’t exactly move. Reluctantly, I took the smallest sip possible and prepared for instant gagging. “Huh. That’s actually not too bad… What’s in it?”
“Strawberry, beets, and chili flakes. We’re calling it H.E.C. Firestarter!”
“What does H.E.C. even stand for,” I asked, pushing the cup away. Despite it being tasty, I didn’t feel like taking in that many healthy nutrients. My body would get confused.
“Healthy Exciting Concoctions! Brilliant, no?” Hector chimed in, taking a big swig from the Firestarter.
“Yeah, fantastic. Why is this called firestarter? It’s not that spicy.”
Rachel pushed a bottle towards me and clapped her hands. “This is why. If you press the button, the powder inside will fall and distribute into the drink. Try it!”
“Are you sure?” I eyed the bottle suspiciously, unsure if I wanted to know what it was before or after I drank it.
“Yes, try it!”
The cap clicked and a yellow powder cascaded down
into the red sludge. With great caution, I took a sip and this time, I did gag. “Oh fuck, this is horrid!”
“What do you mean?” Rachel asked innocently, a wicked smile tugging on her lips.
“Is this the stupid sulphur again?” I cried, shaking the bottle in their faces.
“Yes!” Hector chirped.
“Exactly,” Rachel beamed, clapping her hands again.
“Are you trying to poison your customers?” I asked, the question more serious than not. Who would even like this?
“But doesn’t it make you want to start a fire?” Rachel smiled, her head tilted so cutely I almost wanted to agree. There was a deviousness to her grin and I pulled her away from Hector.
“You two have been spending too much time together! Hector, no corrupting of the Rachel!” I scolded, wrapping my arms around my best friend. I kissed her temple softly and she melted into me.
“Hi,” she giggled, bouncing up and down to return some kisses of her own.
“Hello,” I laughed, pushing her chin up so I could properly kiss her. She grew still in my arms as a heavy sigh left her chest. Her lips moved gently against mine and I couldn’t believe I spent all those years not kissing her. I had some catching up to do and I was certainly going to.
“What about me?” Hector pouted, poking my arm. I chuckled against Rachel’s lips and with another soft peck, ended the moment.
I turned to my other mate and ran my hand through his hair. He growled softly, his eyes closing in satisfaction. He did love being petted. I curled myself against his chest and listened to the soft crackling within. It had taken me over a week to figure out what the noise was.
Fire. It burned deep inside of all my mates, intensifying when I got closer to them.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Rachel said, the words barely registering as my senses were overtaken by Hector. It was hard to believe they all could have so much of an effect on me. Before, I’d never have imagined I could want four people so equally, even if I knew it was in my future. Well, that three had been.
She trailed a hand across my back as she left, sending shivers down my spine. I was a goner, well and truly.
“She always runs away when we’re about to kiss,” Hector grumbled.
“How do you feel when I kiss her?” I asked, hoping he’d get the issue if I put it like that.
Hector frowned. “Like I want it to be my turn already.”
“Oh.” At least he wasn’t being turned on by it. That would be weird. No one should be looking at my Rachel like that.
“So?”
“So?” I echoed.
“Is it my turn?” Even as he asked, he lowered his head.
Anticipation thrummed through me. Of all my mates, Hector’s kisses were the most primal. The most passionate. More what someone would expect if I said I’d been kissing a dragon.
I licked my lips, causing Hector to grin like an idiot.
Not waiting for him to make the first move, I went up on my tip toes and pressed my lips against his. He slipped his arms around my waist and dragged me to him. My breasts flattened against his chest as I yearned to get closer to him.
A small moan slipped from me and reverberated around the two of us. Hector pulled me closer.
If I moved him a little further to the left, I could perch myself on the counter and....
“No, Lola,” he said between kisses.
I pulled back. “Why not?”
“You know why not. We talked about it.”
I pouted. Not very ladylike, or very fair, but what did he think was going to happen? He got me all fired up and then I had to put out the flame.
“I know we did, but I kind of hoped you’d change your mind.”
“Not going to happen,” he said, a firm look in his eyes. How he hadn’t given in yet was beyond me. Martin and his goody-two-shoes-ness, I could get. Todd and his until recent dislike of me made sense too. Even Rachel made sense. We were still getting used to being more to each other. Though I had noticed her getting more comfortable with holding me.
Hector though...he was a red-blooded dragon male. And I’d felt how much he wanted me. And yet the man wasn’t caving and having sex with me. How annoying.
“But whyyyyyyy?” I whined.
“You know why. We shouldn’t even be kissing so much before-”
“No. Don’t give me that. You know that’s complete rubbish. Why shouldn’t we be kissing? The only thing it could possible do is strengthen the mating bond we already know is there,” I pointed out.
“True…”
“And sex would do the same…”
“Lola, no.”
“Whyyyyyy?” I repeated.
“I promised Martin I wouldn’t break tradition on this.”
“You did?”
“Yes, a few years ago when we realised we were mate-brothers.”
“I hate that word,” I muttered.
Hector laughed. “It is a little ridiculous. But then, so are some of the words we’ll say next weekend.”
“I suppose that’s true.” I bit on my lower lip. I was nervous about the ceremony. A lot could go wrong. And we had to work out how we were going to split the words for three mates into four. It wasn’t going well so far.
“So no sex.”
“Yes, yes. No sex before marriage. We’ll all go back to living in the nineteenth century.” I rolled my eyes.
Hector leaned in, his lips only millimetres away from mine. “If it was up to me, there’d be no waiting.”
“Good,” I said breathily.
He kissed me swiftly, then pulled back. Disappointing, but probably for the best.
“As soon as the ceremony is done though…” He winked at me before leaving me alone in the kitchen.
A shudder went down my spine thinking of what was to come and I found myself simultaneously dreading the ceremony, and not being able to wait for it to be over.
13
“Why is this car so damn small?” I moaned, squashed by Martin and Todd’s broad shoulders. Despite me being all of their mate, I didn’t get the nice seat in the front with all the leg space.
“Because I don’t need to overcompensate,” Hector chimed in from in the driver’s seat.
“I wouldn’t know about that,” I pouted, pushing out my bottom lip. I caught Hector’s eyes in his back mirror and hoped he knew just how much I wanted him.
“I’m quite comfy,” Rachel chirped, happily gesturing to all the space she had in the front seat.
“Lucky,” I mumbled, softly kicking her chair. “I still think we should’ve taken my car.”
“Your car is even smaller than mine!” Hector shouted.
“Yes, but at least I could have driven and gotten more space. I feel like a sardine. Or a hot dog… Hmmm. I do have nice buns.”
“You do have a nice ass,” Hector grinned, licking his lips as he winked at me through the mirror.
I pointed at Todd and Martin, a smile tugging up my lips. “I meant these two.”
“Did you just call me a nice bun?” Martin asked, frowning as he stared at me. I chuckled and tried to shuffle closer to Todd.
“Maybe.”
“Don’t come cuddling up to me,” Todd snipped, but I could hear the playfulness in his tone. Yes, we definitely got along a lot better after our talk and I was quite pleased with that. Underneath his grumpy exterior, Todd was quite sensitive and smart. We had a lot more in common than expected and I quickly found myself very attracted to him. But then again, all the sardines in this car were very attractive. And mine. My sardines. And with the upcoming ceremony, the whole dragon community would know they were mine and I was theirs.
I bit my nails and tried not to worry about meeting all of their families. Fire dragon families were always very extensive and from what I’d heard, none of theirs were any different. Three brothers on Hector’s side, one sister and two brothers from Todd’s family, and three sisters from Martin. Apart from two of them, they were all mated and were bringing their
own harem. That was…
Six... Nine.... Fifteen...
I tried to count the siblings and their spouses in my head, but failed miserably. So many people, and that was without my family or Rachel’s. This was going to be a massive celebration and I couldn’t wait for it to be over.
“We should be arriving any moment now,” Hector announced, turning into a small street leading up to a big forest. The scent of smoke and fire greeted us before we even reached the parking area. The sea of cars caused flips in my stomach and I dreaded to find out how many people were here. Why did we all have so much family again?
I only just got out of the car and I got pulled into a big hug from a hispanic looking woman that I assumed was Hector’s mother.
“Lola! I’ve heard so much about you!” she squealed, placing two loud kisses on both my cheeks.
“Hi, nice to meet you, Misses—”
“No, no, no, you can call me Mama!”
“But—”
She hugged me again in such a genuine way, the love radiated from her. “I won’t take no for an answer. You’re family!”
“Mama, give her some space,” Hector said, his words stern but his tone loving. They were clearly close and it showed. There was something utterly adorable about Hector being fussed over by his Mama. She straightened out his jacket and plucked some dust from the collar. A smaller version of Hector ran into his legs and with a grin, he picked up his little brother.
“Hola, how are you?”
“I’ve missed you, where have you been?” the child chirped, completely ignoring Hector’s question. He grinned proudly and pointed at me.
“I had to handle some business, but now I’ve returned with my mate, Lola.”
“She’s pretty.”
“Thank you,” I smiled, hoping that all their families would be as accepting and open as they were. Judging from the radio silence Rachel got when she told her parents, this wasn’t going to be the case. But then again, they never really approved of anything she did. As far as parents went, they were quite shitty. Hopefully Todd and Martin’s families wouldn’t be as cold and stiff as Rachel’s.
A gong sounded in the background and something like white hot dread flamed through me. That was my signal to go take my place as a twenty-five year old female who’d found her harem. The whole thing was ridiculous.
Realms and Rebels: A Paranormal and Fantasy Reverse Harem Collection Page 31