Crave: A Reverse Harem Romance

by Roma James

  I couldn’t help it, though. That was exactly what I was doing. I was picturing my future. And it was a nice picture, I couldn’t lie. It was something I wanted to keep fantasizing about.

  But who knows if it would ever come to fruition? We’d only had one good day. Maybe things were going to change. Maybe we wouldn’t be able to hold back our jealousy, and in the end, this really wasn’t going to work.

  As I looked around at Harlow and the other two guys, though, that didn’t seem true to me. I hadn’t had a hint of jealousy about either of them. Even as we were all having sex, there was no jealousy. No need to be the one who got the most attention or gave the most pleasure. I was oddly at peace with them in this situation. I wondered if they felt the same.

  In my heart, there was only one thing that mattered to me these days. That was Harlow. From the day I met her, I couldn’t get her out of my head. Though I tried to shake it, I knew she was the one for me. Love at first sight sounds so cliché and lame, but it was the truth. I loved her at first sight. I felt like she really was my soulmate.

  More than anything, I desperately wanted her to be happy and safe. I believed that was the real reason why I was so at ease with all of this. I could see the happiness on her face every second that I spent with her, and it brought me so much joy. I had no room for jealousy. How could I be jealous of the two other men that were making her so happy?

  Even beyond that, these were two other men who would keep her safe. I wanted that just as badly as I wanted her to be happy. Maybe it was the way we met, with her nearly getting drugged. Or maybe it was because just recently, she was almost dragged out of Crave and assaulted…

  Either way, I’d been acutely worried about her safety. And that worry was a big weight on me because I didn’t feel like I could possibly keep her safe all by myself.

  Now I didn’t really have to feel that way. Her safety was no longer just on my shoulders. We all could keep her safe. It made me feel… calm.

  Harlow began to stir on top of me. She lifted her head a little bit, and as she did, I began to slide my arm out from under her. My other arm nudged Axel, and he began to wake up, too.

  We were going to need a bigger bed. Do they get bigger than a California King? Whatever, we could have one custom made. Lord knows we had the money for it.

  As everyone began to wake, Harlow stretched and yawned loudly, blinking cutely at me. Man, this woman was just so damn adorable. I was never going to get enough of her.

  “How did you sleep?” I asked her.

  “Fantastic,” She beamed, stifling a yawn. “I don’t know if it was the sex coma or the fact that I was in bed with all my men, but I slept like a baby.”

  “So did I,” Diesel agreed. “It’s probably not because I got to sleep with all my men, though.”

  We all laughed, and Harlow looked around the room.

  “Did you guys have fun yesterday?” she asked.

  I nodded. “I did.”

  Diesel and Axel nodded in agreement.

  “So, then… how are we all feeling about… you know? All of this?” Harlow asked.

  “About us all being together?” I asked.

  She nodded nervously. I knew why. She was scared that one of us was going to object to this. I could see how much it meant to her to have all three of us here, and how desperately she didn’t want to let that go.

  Well, I definitely wasn’t going to be the one to break her heart when I wanted so badly for her happiness. I hoped Diesel and Axel wouldn’t, either.

  “I feel good,” Axel said first.

  “Yeah,” Diesel agreed. “So do I. I really didn’t think I would. I wouldn’t normally think I was capable of sharing my woman, but it was great. And the sex was hot.”

  Leave it to Diesel to need to comment on the sex to all of us. But he wasn’t wrong, it was hot.

  “Right,” Axel acknowledged. “There wasn’t any weirdness between any of us. Even though I know this isn’t a normal situation for most people, I felt fine with it. I guess, really, I felt more than fine. I really enjoyed yesterday.”

  I could see the joy rising in Harlow’s face as she looked at me.

  I was the one who doubted this yesterday, so my opinion was probably the one she was most nervous about.

  “I really feel good about it. I know there are no guarantees on this arrangement—how long it could last, whether this is going to work out—but I’m kind of hoping it does. I don’t know. Something about this just feels… right?”

  “So you feel that too?” she asked eagerly.

  I nodded. “I do. Maybe you were right. Maybe this is a way that we can all find happiness.”

  She wrapped her arms around me tightly, then leaned in for a sweet, deep, loving kiss.

  Then she moved to Axel and kissed him, and she kissed Diesel last. Again, there was no jealousy. I didn’t mind seeing her kiss them.

  In my heart, I also felt that there were no favorites. I mean, she couldn’t even pick between us yesterday. It truly seemed like she needed to have all of us, and like it simply wasn’t going to be the same if she couldn’t. Knowing that I was just as important to her as Diesel and Axel meant so much to me.

  “You guys, you have no idea how happy this makes me. Seriously, thank you. You all mean… so damn much to me.”

  “We should set up some rules, though,” I suggested. “I mean… like I said, I really do want this to work. And if it’s going to work, it’s going to be because we set up clear rules from the beginning.”

  Harlow nodded at me slowly and understandingly. “Okay, like what?” she asked.

  “I don’t know…” I said. I hadn’t actually given it too much thought. “Like, to avoid any future jealousy, we should all spend the same amount of time with you. Like maybe we each get our own day of the week?”

  “Yeah, that’s good!” Axel agreed. “There are seven days a week, so we can each have two days. Then, maybe on the seventh day, Sunday, we all hang out together!”

  “Definitely,” Diesel agreed. “Especially if every Sunday we can have fantastic sex like we did yesterday.”

  Harlow chuckled. “Well, I’m definitely not opposed to that. I think that’s a great idea.”

  “And it gives us all time to run Crave, too. Whenever it’s not our day, we can just go run the club as usual. It’s kind of perfect.”

  The more I thought about it, the more I fell in love with the idea of us all dating Harlow. And maybe this would finally pull me away from work. My business had become my life, and I didn’t even take two days off a week as it was.

  Now I actually wanted to take days off. Because I wanted to spend every moment I could with Harlow.

  “And hey, maybe sometimes I’ll come to the club.” Harlow smiled. “I’ve really come to love it there.”

  “Sure,” Axel said. “And we’ll have security watching you like a hawk the entire time because you seem to be a magnet for dangerous situations.”

  Good, so I wasn’t the only one worrying about her safety. We were all thinking the same thing in that sense.

  “Yeah, yeah. Watch me like a hawk, whatever.” She shrugged.

  “Uh, we’re absolutely going to,” Diesel answered seriously. “Nothing is going to happen to you. Not if we can help it.”

  I saw her blush a little as she began climb out from under the covers. She had a big, oversized t-shirt on and panties underneath. Fuck, she was so goddamn sexy.

  “So, are there any other rules?” she asked.

  “Just no jealousy,” Axel answered.

  “Absolutely. If we feel a twinge of jealousy, we need to talk about it immediately,” I added.

  “There can’t be any favorites,” Diesel teased. “It’s gonna hurt my ego.”

  “Trust me,” Harlow answered, “there are absolutely no favorites. I’m crazy about all of you equally, all for different reasons. I feel like even as my affection for you guys grows, the feelings are so unique to each of you that I’m never going to have a favorite.�
�

  It touched me to hear her say that. It confirmed what I already knew. We were all deeply important to her, all in our own ways.

  As we all talked this through in a serious way, I was overwhelmed with the feeling that this was going to really work. Now that I knew we were all on board and serious about dating Harlow, it felt like things were finally falling together perfectly.

  Despite the fact that I loved my career, I had been feeling a sense of discontentment in my life for a long time. I wasn’t sure I was even fully aware of it until Harlow had come along, but now that she had, I knew there was something I’d been missing.

  I already felt so much happier since she walked into my life, and I was so sure that was going to continue on now that we decided to be in one big, happy relationship.

  “You’re wonderful, do you know that?” I asked her.

  She grinned. “And so are you. All of you.” She looked around. “I can’t thank you enough for being open-minded about this for me.”

  “It’s not just for you,” Axel said. “I’m doing it for me, too. I really wanted to be with you. I wasn’t sure that was going to happen. And even if it did, I thought it might ruin my relationship with Diesel and Ryker. Somehow this feels like the perfect arrangement, where I get the best of both worlds. I get to date you without anyone getting hurt.”

  “Yeah,” Diesel added. “I really think that it’s going to work out. I just hope we can keep our personal lives and our professional lives separate.”

  “I don’t think we’ll have any problem with that,” I answered. At least, I hoped we wouldn’t.

  “Alright, I’ve got to go,” Harlow announced.

  We all looked at her with confusion.

  “What?” she asked.

  “We’re not all gonna hang out some more?” I said.

  She laughed. “You guys haven’t had enough of me yet?”

  “No,” we all blurted out.

  She rolled her eyes. “Well, sorry, boys, but you’re going to have to wait. I’ve got to get some writing done.”

  “Does it have to be right now?” Diesel whined a bit.

  “Yes, it absolutely does.” She smiled. “I’m inspired. I was just hit with a whole new direction for my story, and I absolutely have to get this all written down while I can.”

  She stood straight up on the bed, towering over us as we were still lying down. She stepped over each one of us gently before hopping off the bed.

  “I promise you’re all going to get a lot more time with me soon, okay?” she said as she began to get dressed. “Just let me work out this creative energy, and then I’ll be running back into all of your arms.”

  I absolutely couldn’t wait.

  Chapter 17 - Harlow

  I took a deep breath as I finished reading the last chapter of my new novel, trying to find the courage to send it to my editor.

  …and I had found it with them. Life had a new edge to it, a new lease. I had found love in a place I never expected to. Or should I say places I’d never expected to.

  I once had a vision for my life that included my Prince Charming. Well, nowhere in the fairytales do they tell you that sometimes, there’s more than that one Prince Charming. Sometimes, you have three. And if you’re one of those lucky women who do, you just have to roll with it.

  Sure, it was complicated. And yes, we had to work on it every day. But I was so happy to work on it with these wonderful men. Men who loved me so truly and deeply that they’d do anything to make me happy.

  I was a lucky woman, and I was reminded of that every day. No matter who I woke up next to (sometimes it was all three of them), I woke up with a peace I’d never known. Before them, I don’t believe I was ever truly loved. If I added up the men I’d dated before, they couldn’t compete with one of these men. And I didn’t have just one, I had three!

  Some days, I wondered how I got so lucky. Other days, I tried not to figure it out. Life had blessed me, and I was going to be thankful every day for that.

  It was nothing like any book I’d ever written before. And I really wasn’t sure how it was going to be received.

  After that day two months ago, when Ryker, Axel, Diesel, and I decided to embark on a relationship, I came home to my book and decided to scrap the whole damn thing. Everything I’d written hadn’t felt right anymore.

  That book was a very traditional man meets woman and falls in love kind of book. And to continue writing it felt so disingenuous for some reason. It no longer felt like a story I could relate to.

  I wanted to write my own story, one that connected to my life. One that did something different than your typical romance novel. I wanted to show people that there’s all different kinds of love, all types of relationships, and that sometimes the unconventional just… works.

  After I’d come home that day, I went crazy with writing. I wrote basically the whole day away, not even realizing that the sun had gone down. I was inspired by my night with all three of them.

  This book was really closer to non-fiction than it was to fiction. It was my life… with the names changed, of course, and a lot of the locations changed as well. But I certainly felt that my heroine was me, and that her three business mogul lovers were my three boys.

  It felt so real. I hoped that other people would see it that way too, even though it wasn’t your traditional romance novel. I hoped that what was in my heart shined through my writing.

  These last two months had been the best of my life. I was excited as soon as the boys agreed that we could all try to date, but in the beginning, I was still worried it wouldn’t work out. I mean, it seemed more likely that it wouldn’t than it would. Three boys with no jealousy, no frustration, just love, happiness, and a lot of hot sex?

  It was working. Axel’s original plan of them each having two days a week was a phenomenal one. Nobody ever felt like they weren’t getting enough time with me. Everyone got to enjoy my company. We all spent time together on Sundays and sometimes at Crave.

  We’d built a life together. Yes, it was still new, but I had no doubts that this was something long lasting. I desperately wanted it to be. I had reached a point where I was sure that if I couldn’t have all three of them for the rest of my life, I’d never be completely happy.

  I’d fallen in love with each and every one of them, and they’d all fallen in love with me. We discussed it as a group just a few weeks after our relationship began… how happy we all were to be together. How deeply they loved me and wanted to be with me.

  Diesel had even recently been talking about how he wanted all three of us to move in together. He’d been talking to an architect and was looking at plots of land right outside the city to build our own mini-mansion.

  I was pretty excited by the idea. I loved my house and I would miss it, of course… but I was starting to feel pretty out of place in it. It was a weird feeling, being a stranger in your own home. It felt like the home of the old version of Harlow.

  The somewhat boring one who stayed home every weekend and wrote about the life she wanted to live instead of actually, you know, living it. That home was quiet, simple, and a little too ordinary. I felt anything but ordinary now. The home no longer matched me.

  I was excited about building something new with my boys—a future we could create together. We were even going to talk to the architect and discuss things we each felt we needed in the house. Like I really wanted a balcony off the master bedroom. I wanted somewhere I could go to look out into the yard and enjoy a cool breeze as I spent my evenings writing.

  It sounded odd, but being with them had even made me a faster writer. I supposed it was just part of having more experiences to write about… but yeah, it was different now. I was getting more joy out of it than I had in a long, long time.

  I used to stress out about my work a little bit. It had become a lot less enjoyable to me because it was a necessity for me to survive, and I often felt like I had to write regardless of whether I was inspired or not. But it wasn’t that w
ay anymore.

  It wasn’t because I could mooch off my boyfriends. I was still an independent woman, but money was certainly less of an issue now. I was going to sell my house before I moved in with the rest of the boys, and it would be a great little nest egg for me as I continued to write at my leisure in my new home.

  I had no intention of going back to writing regular old romance. There would be no more boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, she falls in love back, and they lived happily ever after. I was blown away by the beauty of my polygamous relationship, and my only passion was showing that to the world.

  That was why I was so nervous about sending this first draft to my editor. Even though I was proud of this book, I had no idea how it was going to be received. If it wasn’t received well, my heart was going to be broken and I was scared I was going to lose my passion for writing romance.

  On a more personal level, it scared me to not have this book well received because it was my life. I was terribly afraid that my relationship with the boys wasn’t going to be well received either, and that I was going to be judged for our lifestyle.

  I had to get over that, though. I couldn’t care what people thought about me. I wasn’t living my life for them, I was living it for me. I was living to be happy. This made me happier than anything ever had before. People could dislike me all they wanted for it, but I was determined to spend the rest of my life with these boys. Mark my words, I’d marry them all one day.

  My phone rang, and I welcomed the distraction. I just wasn’t ready to click send on my book, even though I had the file already attached in my email. I set up the email as I mulled over my feelings about it.

  I thought it was going to be one of my boys calling, but it was Liza. Oh, good, I thought. I hadn’t talked to her all week.

  “Hello?” I answered.

  “Hello, Miss Queen of Crave,” she said.

  I had to laugh. That was how she referred to me lately because it was how a lot of people had been referring to me at the club. Everyone knew who I was now, and they knew that I was dating not just one but all of the owners. We were very open about our relationship at the club.