The Nine: An Urban Fantasy Reverse Harem Romance (Foxfire Burning Book 1)

by C. M. Stunich

  Revel, a virtual goddamn stranger, moved aside as I grabbed a towel and started to dry off. Should weird me out that she was here, but I was just too ... something to care about it.

  "Tell me about the kid you shot," she said as I whipped my long, wet hair over one shoulder and picked up a brush. But looking at the tangled mess, it just did not seem worth the effort. Instead, I braided the mussy strands as best I could while Revel watched, her own locks loose and wavy and somehow miraculously free from helmet-hair syndrome.

  I looked at myself in the mirror for a long moment, at the almond shape of my eyes, the point of my chin, my small nose. Nothing looked out of place, but something was definitely off.

  "She was a wolf," I started, still looking into my own eyes. "Pre-teen probably, but it was hard to tell."

  "How so?" Revel asked, shedding her leather jacket and tossing it onto the bathroom counter, like she lived here or something. She crossed her arms under the full heavy mounds of her breasts and waited.

  Telling her about the infected drugs and the STDs, about how shifters weren't able to shift, that was enough to get me 'fired' from the guild a dozen times over.

  "There's a sickness going around," I said, oversimplifying the matter for convenience's sake. "It keeps us from making the change. And when that happens ..." I stepped back from the mirror and flicked my attention over to Revel.

  Her eyes were still on my face and not on my breasts. Good for her. She was attracted to me and she was managing to look me in the eyes. There were few men I knew who could pull that one off.

  "When that happens, they go crazy. Fucking rabid. They ..." I thought about the mutated werewolves I'd seen and shivered, turning and moving back into the bedroom. Ziff was waiting on the bed for me, and didn't bother to let me put on any clothes before he clawed his way up my bare skin to sit on my shoulder. "They don't look like human or animal anymore. It's like they're decaying from the inside, out."

  I opened the top drawer of my dresser and selected a button-up satin top and matching pants, both in rainbow stripes with glitter, both gifts from Fae-Bitch. Speaking of, I seriously needed to give him a call. If I missed too many of his messages or took too long to respond, he usually started freaking out and—

  The intercom—mind you, this was a Mikhail add-on as I'd never had a frigging intercom before—buzzed, and I stumbled over to it, squinting as I tried to figure out how to answer the damn thing.

  "Oh for fox sake, put your damn clothes on; you're giving me a serious slippery kitty-cat and some blue ovaries over here." Revel pushed me aside and then hit a button on the control panel. "Who are you?"

  Chris, dressed in a tight black t-shirt with a rainbow depiction of the White House that read Make America Gay Again cocked his hip out and put a fist on it.

  "My question, honey, is who the hell are you?" he asked, his wings on full display. Some faeries—literal faeries and not just gay dudes, okay—bought special shirts to accommodate their wings. Not Chris. He just chopped the back off with scissors and called it golden.

  "Revel Jones, Thea's mail-order bride." I was already groaning as I pulled my pants on and buttoned up my shirt. Fae-Bitch was not good with others of, um, strong personality. He tended to squabble a bit. I could see this going very badly for me.

  "My Thea?" he asked as he put a hand to his chest and then glanced over at the metal gate that led up the driveway. "My Thea? Miss Dick Addict? I'm sorry, but I find that particularly hard to believe. Since when did the menu get switched from hot dogs to fish tacos?"

  "Maybe she likes a little bit o' both? Could be she’s a surf ‘n’ turf kind of girl" Revel said, hitting two buttons simultaneously. One of them shut off the two-way camera and speaker for the intercom and, from what I could hear, the other opened up the gates. "You didn't tell me you were a fag hag," she said with a grin as she turned to face me. "That's hot. I like girls who help twinks get laid." Revel made a sexy little swish of her hips and then gestured with her head in the direction of the window. "I'm assuming it was alright to let him in? Unless you have enemy assassins who dress in political LGBT attire that regularly refer to your addiction to cock?"

  "Assassins?" I asked, going stiff, but Revel just rolled her eyes and moved over to sit on the end of my bed, leaning back and swishing her ruby red hair over her shoulder. As she reclined, I could see a tattoo crawling up from her pants and over her hip, just like the cherry blossom ink on my own body. Hers, though, was a red, red rose covered in thorns. Sexy, but deadly. I liked it.

  "I work for HASR Group," she said with a sideways grin and a twinkle in her green eyes. "We're worth more than the GDP of the fifth through tenth richest countries combined. Sorry, but RADOPA is so low-rank, I know exactly who you are and what you do."

  "And that's not creepy at all," I said as I readjusted Ziff's position on my satin-y sleeve and tried to feel ... anything at all when I looked at Revel. Talk about confusing. Not only was I not sure what men in my life I might have a crush on, but I was also not sure if I even liked women at all. Did I? Could I have been wrong for thirty years? I mean, I'd read so many articles about how women are subconsciously trained through society to suppress any bisexual urges they might have, and how much importance our culture places on finding a man in relation to a woman's worth but ... I was a fucking feminist, and a strong ass bitch, and I loved dick. But I was also, maybe, just a little into Revel, too?

  HASR Group, Revel's employer, also known as the Human And Supernatural Relations Group, was a scaled up PR firm with a frightening amount of resources, fingers in every pie imaginable, and footholds on every continent.

  I would most certainly not want to piss them off.

  "Alright," Chris said, sauntering into the room with a look of sheer determination burning in his purple eyes. "Who the fuck is this bitch? Why is she so damn hot? And did you seriously have sex with her? If so, then I claim that hottie boss of yours if you're done with him."

  "Dude, you need to chill out," I said, but I was already smiling. There was something about Chris that just fucking cheered me up when I needed it most. You shot a kid, Thea, my brain whispered, but I blinked several times and it went away. I would take that awful feeling, ball it up, and shove it into the deepest, darkest recess of my mind if I had to. "Nothing has happened between me and Revel."

  "Nothing yet," Revel corrected as Chris cocked a perfectly manicured brow.

  "Five G's: good god get a grip, girl." My bestie lifted his hand and ticked off his fingers. "Explain the sitch, please."

  "Apparently little miss sexpot over here checked the, uh, I am a woman seeking a woman box on the dating site and ended up with me as a present for her ex."

  "That's not exactly—"

  "She did not," Chris said, totally scandalized and loving it.

  "But we have a connection whether she likes it or not," Revel continued, trailing her bright red nails down the pale skin of her throat. Her orange tails swished behind her and she swiveled one ear in my direction, just in time to hear the small exhale I let out. "So, yeah, while I'm disappointed I didn't come over here and find a willing little gold star waiting for me, I think this could still work."

  "Gold star?" I asked and this time, it was Chris who laughed.

  "Oh, Hunt-y," he said, mixing my last name up with a common drag queen term of endearment. "A gold star is a lesbian who didn't have to let a boy change her oil to find out her sexuality, if you catch my drift."

  "So you're a gold star gay?" I asked, and they both laughed at me.

  "Thea is like ..." Chris started, lifting his purple eyes up to look at the ceiling. "A penis pointed star, you know? Like maybe there's a vagina in the middle, but there are five dick points on the edges, right?"

  "She's bisexual, I figured," Revel said, looking back over at me. She had a way of making eye contact that I'd never experienced before, like she was drilling directly into my skull.

  "Wouldn't I have known before the ripe old age of thirty?" I asked them both, putt
ing my hands on my hips and wondering if I was making a total asshole out of myself. "I've never been attracted to a woman before, not really."

  "Sexuality isn't an either/or thing, sweetie," Chris said with a sigh. Both he and Revel exchanged a look that probably communicated something like look at this stupid cisgendered straight white bitch.

  "It's a sliding scale," Revel explained, standing up and moving over to one of my dressers. She pulled it open without even asking, looked around inside for a moment and then closed it before going for another. She continued on until she found my swimsuit collection. "You can be like ninety-nine percent straight and one percent gay, you know? I might be the only woman in the country you'd find attractive." She paused and glanced over her shoulder, artfully flicking her hair in the process. Wish I could do that, that shampoo commercial bullshit. "Maybe the only woman in the world? Now, are there any bikini tops in here that aren't made for preschoolers? You have a heated pool outside, so why the fuck aren't we using it?"

  Revel lifted up one of my tops and shook it in my direction.

  "If you're so attracted to me, lay off the small tit jokes," I said, snatching it from her hand. "And whoever said you were invited to use my pool?"

  "Uh, I came all the way over from Japan to see your ass and all along, you'd planned on giving me your sloppy seconds as a reward. Gross. Don't you think you owe me a swim?" As I stood there, Revel pulled her top off and tossed it aside.

  Jesus fuck.

  Not only was I surrounded by alpha males, but an alpha female, too? Fantastic.

  She reached back to undo her bra, and I found myself turning away to look at Chris. His nose was wrinkled slightly, but he was more interested in finding us a tune on his phone. He said hanging out without music was like sex without orgasming. I still liked sex without orgasms, but whatever.

  "You guys'll love this one," he said, putting on a song I'd literally heard about ten billion times. It was Kitty Girl by RuPaul. "I've got a suit in the spare bedroom—it's my room, bitch, so if you're staying here, please pick another. Anyway, I'll put it on. Meet downstairs in five?"

  "Are you fucking kidding me?" I asked, wanting to wallow in my bed with the blinds closed and gorge myself on ice cream and chips.

  "We're like, an hour out at least from this high hitting us. Maybe two? What else do you want to do while we wait for the edibles to kick in?" Revel gave me a look and ... I just sort of gave in. I could sit in bed, binge eat, watch reality TV, and then fall asleep surrounded by nightmares.

  Or I could go outside in the sun (still freezing cold but sunny) and swim in my pool with my best friend and ... a beautiful woman.

  "You made brownies with my babies?" Chris asked, snapping a selfie and then standing up off the bed. "Counter, I'm assuming? Because being the only straight person in a room full of high flyers blows harder than my ex boyfriend blew his secretary." I nodded and he gave us both a salute, sashaying out of the room. Some folks thought it was irresponsible to give a dust addict marijuana, but I didn't consider it a drug. Sorry, but while it was possible to get addicted to a THC high (people got addicted to food, FFS), I was a hippie at heart: pot was the peoples' medicine, bro.

  "Help me with this?" Revel asked, the curvy line of her back drawing my attention as she pointed to the red lace of her bra.

  "You've got to be fucking kidding me," I murmured as I stepped forward and reached out carefully to unhook Revel's clasp. "You're going to try and squeeze into one of my tops?"

  "Actually," she said as she turned around and flashed me a chest that I would've cried for as a teenager. I'd once believed my boobs would grow that big if I rubbed them with a special lotion everyday. Ah, to be thirteen again. I'd actually held off losing my virginity to Fin until we were both fifteen because I was waiting for boobs. Never happened, but I was finally happy with what I had.

  Also, I was most definitely staring at Revel's nipples.

  "I'm planning on going topless," she continued, smiling wickedly at me. "Your friend doesn't care. I'll wear bottoms though, if only to protect his rainbow eyes from the power of my cunt."

  "I had a really hard night," I said, and Revel paused as I stepped up beside her and grabbed a suit. "But honestly, this is helping." I snatched up a white bikini with pink cherry blossoms on it and ducked into the bathroom to change.

  Also, I locked the door.

  Because Revel ... really was fucking hot as hell.

  Ugh.

  Revel had brought a bottle of wine with her, and when she'd gone out front to get it (still topless, actually), she'd also called for a glass service to stop by and deal with my car window. Lucky me. Also, Mik was a serious asshole.

  "This stuff will melt your taste buds," she promised as she sat on the edge of the pool and poured me a glass of some sweet white wine. "Even amateur winos know this is good stuff."

  I lifted the glass to my lips, swirled the liquid around inside of it, and took a sniff.

  Smelled like ... wine to me.

  "You should be getting a hint of fruit on the back of your tongue," she continued as I downed the entire glass and then set it back on the brick edging that surrounded the pool. I kicked back and let myself float in the water.

  "Sorry, but I don't taste anything but wine. Wine is wine, right?" Looking up at the clear, blue sky above us, I reveled in the ice cold air on the top half of my body, and the steamy water underneath. Between my thighs, there was this distinctly sweet soreness that reminded me I'd finally gotten laid last night.

  Laid.

  And then trashed by Mik.

  But now, I was kind of being celebrated, wasn't I?

  "Wine is wine, Inari's tits, I can't believe you just said that." I sat up and dropped my feet to the bottom of the pool as Chris sunbathed on a chair nearby, and I enjoyed the energetic, uplifting little high I had. Revel was watching me swim as she sipped her drink. When she set it aside and slid in with me, I found myself moving back until I was pressed into the stone wall on the opposite side of the pool.

  "Some people are wine people and I respect that; I'm just not one of them." She swam closer to me, her red hair trailing in the water. When she got close, she reached out and lifted a loose strand of my hair.

  "You smell like cherries, you know that?" she said, her eyes looking right into mine.

  "You smell like pine and oak," I blurted, and her smile, well, it was naughty as hell. Revel moved in closer to me and put a hand on either side of my shoulders, pinning me in and pressing her full, ripe breasts to my chest.

  "I got a job in town, so ... I can stay a while. They gave me this posh little apartment in a high rise, but I'd rather stay here with you."

  "I don't even know you," I said, but Revel just pushed in closer, the softness of her breasts lighting up all sorts of strange parts inside of me, parts that I'd never felt come to life before unless I was looking at Riot's arms, or Fin's ass, or Mik's mouth ... Shit.

  "I'm clean; I can pay rent. Look, we're both kitsune, and we gotta stick together. Plus, you have a lot of shit to work out and well, I'm like basically a therapist."

  "How so?" I asked as she leaned in close to me, bringing that sweet, feminine scent of hers with her. But there was a strength in her gaze and in her body language that said I wasn't getting out of this so easily. She wanted me, and she was going to make a damn good play for it.

  "I talk my clients off cliffs all the time," Revel whispered, putting her mouth up against mine, reminding me how goddamn good our first kiss was. "That's my job, de-escalating situations."

  "I feel like you're really trying to escalate this one right now."

  Revel smiled and then flicked her green gaze down to my lips.

  "Tell me I can kiss you right now, and if you hate it, I'll leave you alone forever." Revel leaned in close, putting her mouth right up against mine. When I said nothing, she turned her head to the side and bit my earlobe instead.

  "Okay," I said as she started to pull away, treading water, her bare breasts j
ust barely obscured by the ripples.

  "Okay, I can kiss you?" she asked, and I shrugged. Why not? The high from the brownies was setting in, mixing with the light buzz from the wine. I felt goddamn great, so why not?

  I nodded and Revel swam close, putting her mouth back up against mine. She pressed in close, sliding her tongue along my lower lip and making me groan. But just when I thought she was going to take it further, kiss me like she had at the restaurant, she pulled away with a laugh and swam to the opposite edge of the pool.

  "That's all you get for now. But, like I said, if you hated it, I can just leave." She pulled herself out of the pool and sat on the edge, smiling at me. Her wet red hair dripped over her shoulders, not quite long enough to cover the pale pink spots of her nipples. My bikini bottoms were way too small on her, showing off the entirety of her rose tattoo as it trailed over her hip and down her thigh.

  "You're a predator, you know that?" I said as she picked up the bottle of wine by the neck and chugged it.

  "So I can move in with you then?" she continued as she put the bottle between her thighs and smirked at me. "Not as a lover or a fuck buddy or anything, just a roommate. For now." She took another drink as I glared and then flicked some water at Chris to get his attention.

  "You don't need my advice, doll face," he said, lifting his shades up to peer down at me. "If you want the hot lesbian chick to move into your house then go for it. You only live once, you know." He dropped his sunglasses back into place and relaxed back into the chair.

  Taking another look at the buxom beauty sitting on the edge of my pool, I seriously did think about it. I was alone (except for Ziff) in an obscene fucking house with nobody but my thoughts for company. I had a complex relationship with my exes, a strange sexual attraction to my boss, and a job that was likely to kill me any day of the week. So why not let this chick move in for the hell of it?

  "I'll think about it," I said and Revel chuckled, taking another chug of her wine.

  "You'll think about it, huh?" she asked, but this time, it was my turn to smile back, duck under the water, and watch the sunshine filter through the ripples.