During the time of year of ghosts and goblins, I’m beginning to think both would be safer options than family.
Are You Ready?
Wine colored crotchless panties.
It was sexy as hell, but a little out of my comfort-zone.
Shopping for underwear shouldn’t be this stressful. This was the first time in months that I had finally found some time to go shopping and replace all the underwear that Dante had been stealing from me.
“I vote hell yes on that one, Holls.”
“You have them then,” I muttered.
Kate reached over and snatched them out of my hands. “Seriously, these are sexy.” She looked around the store, frowning suspiciously. “What the hell? This is Korea.”
I tilted my head as I arched an eyebrow. “Says the woman pregnant from one of the six men she’s dating.”
“Your point?” She held the panties up against herself. I was surprised she could see them under the bump.
“My point is that South Korea isn’t quite as conservative as everyone seems to think it is.” I moved down the store, eyeing up a pair of white lace panties. They were more my style.
Kate tossed the panties into the basket she had already loaded full of underwear. “Tell that to the K-pop fans who won’t allow their oppas to date.”
Annoyingly, she had a point.
My best friend and I were dating idols.
Plural.
Each.
In some respects, the fact that we were dating more than one idol made everything a little safer—because who in their right mind would believe that story if it broke? But if the press ever found out about us dating just one of them, the scandal would definitely ruin the idol, and probably the group.
Hell, if the press got wind of me dating any of H3RO, Atlantis was going to sink into the ocean like its namesake.
A familiar stabbing pain got me in my side. I rubbed at it as I picked up the lace panties and put them into the basket.
Fuck it.
Who was I kidding?
Underwear shopping wasn’t stressful.
My whole damn life was stressful.
Just the job alone was enough to push a person to their limits. Running a Korean entertainment company was not an easy task. I envied the other CEOs who made the whole thing look like a breeze. Park Jinyoung—JYP—was releasing his own freaking albums at the same time as having one of the most successful girl groups in the history of K-pop. And that was just Twice.
“Will you stop playing it safe and buy something that will make Todd want to rip the panties off you?” Kate harrumphed before plucking a black pair of crotchless panties into my basket.
“The reason I’m here is because Daniel keeps ripping them off me and not giving them back,” I hissed back at her as I put the underwear back on the rack. “I don’t want him taking more of them.”
Kate and I had a code. Although we rarely spoke anything but English with each other, I was well aware that a lot of Koreans in Seoul had a basic understanding of English, and it wouldn’t have been too much of a stretch for someone to recognize me—or her—and put two and two together.
So, the guys we were dating had English code names.
“Yeah,” Kate said, her nose wrinkling up. “Look, I’m not going to kink shame because my lot have their moments, but what’s up with the stealing your underwear fetish?” She shook her head. “Just tell him to give them back. Or go and search his room when he’s off on promotions. That’s where they are now, right?”
We all lived together—most of the time, anyway. During promotions, when more eyes were on them than normal, the guys alternated between the dorms and our home. Only, during promotions, their schedule kept them so busy, I rarely saw them.
But even if we all lived in the same house, I didn’t feel comfortable searching through their things. They were still entitled to privacy.
If I wanted them back, I could have just told Dante to get them.
“Oh my god!” Kate exclaimed before I could respond. “That is your answer.” She pushed past me with her bump, practically diving to a rack to pluck something off it. Kate turned, brandishing it at me. “A body.”
Body was generous. “I can’t wear that to work.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “Dude, it’s underwear. It goes under your dress.”
I bit my lip. It was the kind of thing one of those confident sexy girls would wear with a skirt out to a club and have it pass as a clothing.
But that wasn’t what I was thinking of. It just seemed more like the kind of thing to wear in a bedroom.
Wearing it to work was asking for trouble.
I was trying to keep work and home separate. My job, and H3RO, with their even more public job … We had both worked so hard to save their careers that I didn’t want to risk them losing it.
Not over me.
And worse, it wasn’t just H3RO who were at risk with me.
Atlantis had over eighty idols and actors on its roster, and that wasn’t including the staff who supported them.
The pain jabbed at my side again. I rubbed at it, even though that didn’t make any difference.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Kate said, thrusting the item in my basket. “You can give it your best shot, but we both know you’re never going to convince me that Daniel and Jude haven’t had you in your office. And at least with that, you get to keep your panties on.”
I bought the body.
Admittedly, sensible as Kate’s idea was, I wasn’t going to wear it to the office though.
Dante had enough filthy ideas running around inside of his head. He didn’t need any more suggestions from me.
It was late when I got home, but compared to the last few weeks, I could still consider it an early night. I’d been rushed off my feet with scheduling the next few months of comebacks across the various groups at Atlantis, combined with the final approval on sponsorships deals and then there was the Onyx situation.
Kate was my best friend and I adored her.
But fuck me, trying to work out how to hide a pregnancy around managing Onyx’s schedules, finding them a team to work with them permanently—including a new manager because I was convinced Sungmin was about to quit…
If I had a team of people I trusted working on the board, or at least in some of the senior positions, it might have been easier.
And it wasn’t anything to do with my relationship status, for once.
Despite repeatedly voicing my concerns to my father, Lee Woojin, he refused to let me fire people who were clearly still supporting my evil demon-spawn half-brother, Sejin.
OK, so maybe Woojin was right: Sejin was still employed by Atlantis, albeit in China, and therefore I couldn’t fire people en masse because I didn’t have a reason better than “they’re all still in Sejin’s pockets”, but Sejin had not only tried to ruin H3RO, he’d had no problems with anyone (including me), getting hurt in the process.
I was still pissed off that he’d been shipped off to Shanghai instead being handed over to the police and brought up on all kinds of charges that would have him locked up in prison for a long time instead of living a life of luxury in “exile” which no one but me and Lee Woojin knew about.
Bastard.
The only thing I could do was check up on those I didn’t trust, and because I couldn’t be seen to be picking on only a few individuals, I was checking everything.
As if to prove a point, my phone chimed at me, alerting me to new emails. I put the Range Rover into park, thankful that I had made it home, and glanced at the phone. After firing off a couple of replies, I slipped the phone into my handbag. There was nothing else that couldn’t wait until after I’d poured myself a glass of wine.
It was early October and the weather had turned cool and wet. Thankfully, the house I’d bought had a garage. I gathered my shopping and hurried into the house, toeing off my heels. A moan escaped me as I slid my slippers on.
The house was empty.
&nb
sp; I knew it would be, but it still didn’t make it any less lonely to come home to.
“Six boyfriends and not one in,” I muttered as I flicked the lights on and walked through to the kitchen.
Calling this place a house didn’t do it justice. In all honesty, it was a mansion. Eight bedrooms, a home gym, a swimming pool, a games room, and a home theater.
Hours had been spent trying to find somewhere the seven of us could take sanctuary in. Somewhere with a lot of space for all of us.
Only now, there was too much space.
I pulled a wine glass out of a cupboard and a bottle of rosé from the refrigerator, pouring myself a large glass.
That hit the spot.
Gathering up the shopping bags, I took them, and the wine, upstairs to my bedroom. It didn’t take me long to put the new underwear in my drawers. Well, almost all of them. There was a pale blue baby doll set which I certainly hadn’t chosen—that was one hundred percent Kate sneaking it into my basket—and while it was cute, I couldn’t see myself wearing it. That was going to go into my office so that I would remember to take it into work. I’d return it tomorrow.
One thing I’d refused to do was put a desk in my bedroom. Even before we’d moved into this house, I spent a lot of time working and I needed to have one room where work wasn’t allowed to enter.
Unless, of course, it came in via an emergency call or text.
Which happened more frequently than I cared for.
My office was a small room at the front of the house. It wasn’t small. That was a lie. But by comparison to the rest of the rooms in the house, it was. There was a desk and a couch that was buried beneath all the paperwork I couldn’t fit on the desk.
Dressed in my pajamas, I sat down at the computer and brought my emails up, working my way through the ones that had come in as America had woken up.
“Holly?”
If it weren’t for the pain in my neck, I would have thought Nate’s low, rumbly voice was part of my dream. Given that H3RO had an early morning start to their schedule, it should have been part of my dream.
“How many times do I have to tell you that this isn’t good for you,” he chided me, in English.
I sat upright with a small groan as I rubbed at my neck, squinting in the bright light from my monitor at Nate. Like me, he had been born and brought up America. I’d come from Chicago just over a year ago, whereas he’d left his parents in San Francisco to move to Seoul by himself when he was in high school.
“I hadn’t intended on sleeping here,” I protested as I turned and looked at him. “But you’re not supposed to be here at all.”
“Manager Kim knows I’m here—he dropped me off, and he’ll pick me up in a few hours. But I missed you, and I knew you’d be burning the candle at both ends. I bumped into Sun.”
Sun Wei was a member of Atlantis’ only second-generation group, B.W.B.B. and the only member who wasn’t in his mandatory enlistment—being Chinese he was exempt.
“God help him when he gets a girlfriend if that’s how he keeps secrets.”
“So a comeback world tour for B.W.B.B. is happening?” Nate asked.
I pushed myself out of the chairs so I could wrap my arms around Nate. He’d lost weight. He was the only member of the group who fully utilized the home gym… I swear he was trying to get an invite to BM’s Big Tiddie Committee. But promotions had kept him busy and he’d definitely lost inches around his waist.
“2020 is going to be a good year for B.W.B.B. All members will be out by February and their fans have missed them. So yes, after the success of Onyx’s world tour, they’re going to have one.” I inhaled deeply, appreciating the smell that was Nate. “And before you say anything, if Tae wasn’t likely to be restricted with his upcoming enlistment, I’d be organizing one for H3RO too.”
“I think I’d rather you got some sleep,” Nate murmured against me.
“Technically, I was asleep before you woke me up.” Yawning, I pushed away so I could shut the lid on my laptop—not because I didn’t want Nate to see anything, but because he was making a good point, and if I spotted an email, I’d end up responding to it.
I glanced at the digital clock on the other side of the room. There were only a few hours before my alarm would be going off anyway. Especially if Nate was still here.
“I can’t believe you came back here,” I muttered, more to myself than to Nate as I led us out of my office.
“And I can’t believe you fell asleep at your desk.”
All of a sudden, his arms wrapped around me, scooping me up into his arms. Although the move had startled me, I nestled up against his chest. “Can I sleep here?”
Nate’s chest vibrated as he chuckled. Instead of responding, he carried me down the hallway to his own bedroom. He’d clearly been in there before coming to find me as the lamp was on.
His room reminded me of a guy’s room at college. Nate was sporty and it was reflected in how he’d chosen to decorate the room. Chicago Bulls red (we had searched for the correct pantone) on two of the walls, sports memorabilia all over the shelves, and one wall he had dedicated to displaying his extensive Nike collection.
The bed had been pushed up against the wall to make room for a weight bench, despite the fact there were several in the gym. Nate went straight for it, holding onto me as he pulled the covers back and shifted the pillows around to line the bedframe.
Keeping me in his arms, he took a step up so that he was standing on the bed, and then lowered himself into the pillows, pulling the covers up around us. All without letting me go.
“I can really sleep here?” I asked, smiling sleepily.
Nate leaned over and kissed my forehead. “Always.”
I hadn’t seen Nate properly for weeks and there was nothing more that I wanted than to stay awake and actually spend some with him, but my eyelids wouldn’t let me. Before I could ask him how he was doing, I was asleep.
Run It
My sleep didn’t last long. I wasn’t sure how long it was, but when I awoke, it was still dark outside, and Nate hadn’t turned his lamp off.
But I was still asleep in Nate’s arms.
Bliss.
I snuggled into him, listening to his heartbeat just below my ear as I lay there. I’d left my phone in the office and I wasn’t going to be able to stay where I was for much longer.
Neither was Nate.
“You sleep about as much as an idol does during promotions,” Nate mumbled.
I tilted my head back, finding him with his eyes still closed, but a frown on his brows. “That’s because I’m responsible for dozens of idols all of whom have promotions to keep me and Atlantis busy every week of the year.”
Nate’s arms tightened around me. “Sleep. My alarm hasn’t gone off yet.”
“And mine isn’t in here. Stay here.” I leaned up and kissed his cheek. “I’ll be right back.”
Extracting myself from his grip wasn’t easy, but I slipped off the bed and left his room, heading back to my office. The phone was where I’d left it, beside my computer. I’d already gotten seven emails and I’d only been asleep for a couple of hours.
Normally, once I had finished for the night, I didn’t check my emails. It took everything in me not look any further than the notifications. Turning, I almost walked straight into Nate.
With a sly grin, he shot his arm out and wrapped it around my waist, pulling me flush against his body. “Hi there.”
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. “Why, Mr. Choi, it seems you have a signature move.” I stood up on my toes and kissed him. The grip on me tightened as Nate kissed me back.
Kissing Nate felt like … home. Being in his arms, his tongue teasing at my lips: there was familiarity, comfort, and safety. And he still managed to make butterflies flutter in my stomach.
Damn, I’d missed him.
My lips parted and Nate’s tongue slipped in, sweeping over mine. His hand slid down my arm to my hand, wrapping around my phone. Too distracted by the
heat radiating through my body, I didn’t notice him pull it free from my grasp until it was too late.
I pulled back, just as he tossed it onto the desk chair. “What are you doing?”
“You should be sleeping right now.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Then why are you kissing me?”
“Because I don’t have long until Manager Kim arrives and if neither of us are going to sleep, I can think of better things for us to be doing,” he informed me. Nate placed his hand on the small of my back.
“And what’s that?” The question was rhetorical. The growing wetness between my legs meant I already knew what he had in mind.
The hand on my back pressed me up against his body as Nate leaned down and stole another kiss, his tongue making slow, sweeping motions over mine.
And then he stepped back. “Breakfast.” With that, he turned on his heel and started walking out of the door.
Something somewhere between a squeak and a growl left my mouth, but Nate didn’t look back. Scowling at the back of his head, I practically tore my pajamas from my body and walked out into the hallway, naked. “Really?”
Nate had taken a single step down the stairs when he turned back. He burst out laughing.
In an instant, I felt my face flame up, and even though he’d seen my naked body more times than I could count, I shifted my arms to cover myself.
“Oh, no,” he said, darting over. “I laughed because that was the last thing that I was expecting you to do, not because of your body. Don’t be covering yourself up like that, baby.” He took my arms, pushing me backwards against the wall so he could pin them above my head. “You’re beautiful.”
“Why is it surprising?”
Instead of answering, Nate lowered his head, his mouth seeking out a spot on my neck, just behind my ear. The moment he found it, I closed my eyes, moaning in pleasure. As Nate sucked at that one spot, he pressed his body up against me. I could feel him, hard and erect through his pants, pressed up against my stomach.
I tried to pull my hands free, but Nate’s grip tightened.
Wicked Souls: A Limited Edition Reverse Harem Romance Collection Page 109
