Wicked Souls: A Limited Edition Reverse Harem Romance Collection

by Rebecca Royce

  “I fight them off. I leave…”

  “What if you decide to stay somewhere?”

  It took him a moment. “I guess I’ve been moving place to place. I’ve kept moving. Just got here last night. Arlo Fernsby, from California originally, settled in Seattle later. Been on the road for a while.”

  Figures, he wasn’t from around here. “What brings you to Creepy of all places?”

  He sat up into a full-blown lotus position. His blue eyes met mine. “I heard about this place on the road.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to drive an Amazon truck, would you?”

  “You saw it out front?”

  I smiled. I hadn’t. As usual, I’d used the side entrance. I started to ask him how he got in the gate.

  “Yeah, I’m partial to the Prime trucks. There are so many. Keep picking up another when one runs out of gas. And bonus, they’re full of packages.”

  “Who told you about this town?”

  “Real cool dude gave me the scoop. Figured it’d be a great place to hide out until all this blows over.”

  “Blows over? Impossible.” Where’d he been?

  He took my hand. “Anything is possible when you have inner peace.”

  Party on dude. Retrieving my hand, I got to my feet. Dusting off my leggings, I wondered what dumb fuck told him about Creepy.

  Standing, he joined me. “I rode on ahead, but I’m expecting the others any day now.”

  “More people coming,” I huffed.

  “Hey, if this is your pad, I can tell the others we have to move along. Or we could coexist here. The more the merrier.” When I didn’t answer right away, thinking of what to say, he continued, “It didn’t look like anyone lived here. But that house down the road…”

  Figuring I couldn’t keep the secret long, I said, “I live down the road. That’s my house.” I didn’t plan to give it up. My voice conveyed as much.

  “So, what’s the problem?”

  “I’m storing some of my belongings here. This used to be a dear friends house.” I’d call Mr. Jules a friend, I guess.

  “Am I understanding, you don’t mind having neighbors?”

  “I’ll want to get my stuff out, you see.”

  “There’s no rush.”

  My ass there was no rush. Fuck. I’d been collecting and storing for so long, planning to move in here this winter. Mr. pacifist here may not steal my supplies, but I had no idea who else was on their way to Creepy.

  “I better be going. It’s getting dark.”

  “I’ll give you a ride.”

  “No, it’s okay, really, I’ll walk.”

  “I’ll walk you.” He placed his hand on the small of my back, urging me along.

  “Thanks, but no thanks.” I turned into him, putting my hands on his chest. Our eyes met.

  His lips parted as he was about to say something. Damn. He was beautiful. Warm breath hitting me, he hesitated. His hand went to stroke my hair. “How about dinner?”

  Clearly, something was going on here. Totally not my type, Surfer dude was making me blush. “Not tonight.” Then I thought about Troy the ball player, I’d blown him off and nearly got him killed. “A raincheck?”

  “Tomorrow night?”

  “Sure. I’ll make you dinner tomorrow.” I checked to make sure he was wearing a watch. Taking his wrist, I read it noticing it was hours off. Turning the tiny wheel, I set it. “Be there at five, central time.”

  Having a date, I practically skipped home. Too bad I had another surprise waiting on my doorstep when I arrived. Dillon glared up at me. He held the radio I’d left on the back porch between his knees. “Where’ve you been?”

  “Not far…” What was he doing here? I squinted my eyes in confusion.

  He stood and stretched. “I told you I’d be back.”

  “I thought you said you were heading back.”

  He handed me my radio. “Bad connection. Said my crew was headed back.”

  “Y’all find anyone?”

  “Nah. But I just realized I didn’t check the end of your lane.” He started toward his motorcycle.

  Thinking fast, I said, “I just did.” I twirled the radio and shoved in my backpack, all nonchalant. “No sign of anyone at the Jules Estate either.”

  “Good. So, it’s just you and me.” He came back to the porch. “I’m due for a payment.”

  “I’m due for a bath.” Hot from my oh so easy encounter with Arlo, it would be a cold one.

  “Me, too. We can kill two birds with one stone.”

  “But…” I started to say, it wasn’t Monday, then I remembered I was having dinner with Arlo tomorrow on Monday. So stupid of me not to realize. I’d have to get rid of Dillon tonight. “I’m taking a bath first,” I told him. And afterwards, I thought.

  “I’ll join you.” Dillon followed me into the house.

  I lit some candles. “Yeah, right. You can wait here.” I told him, motioning to the living room. I shooed him to the couch and went to grab my bucket from the kitchen.

  “Seriously, Sissy, let me help you.” Dillon had followed me through the dark. He stole the bucket from my hands. “I’ll fetch some water. You go get undressed.”

  Either way, I’d have to get my payment over with. Picking up the candles, I took them to the bathroom. The small room lit up too much. I blew one of them out. That was better. Any other time, I’d think about how sex with my ex fiancé, blackmailed sex with him wasn’t the worse thing in the world now that it’d pretty much ended but meeting two eligible bachelors changed my perspective. The prospect of people actually coming back to Creepy and life returning to some semblance of normal was not conceivable to me just last week. Although Dillon had warned me. Having second thoughts about our arrangements, I thought of ways to get out of it. I could tell him I was on the rag. No, I’d already done that two weeks ago.

  Reluctantly, I disrobed. Watching my body in the mirror, I noticed all the ways the days of hard work had made me more attractive. My arms and legs’ toned muscles danced as I moved. My midsection tiny and flat sported a four pack. All my voluptuous bits were even more so thanks to the muscle underneath. Nice as it was, I didn’t feel this body belonged to me. I would have never worked hard just to achieve it. It was if my face had been photo shopped onto an Instagram model who cared about her looks. It was alien. I was the body snatcher. A shame there’d been no man to appreciate it. Besides Dillon, and he didn’t deserve it. Before the epidemic, I’d not had the confidence to date many men. But who knows what I would have done with a body like this?

  Probably been a whore.

  Since then, there hadn’t been any men to choose from. You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, YOLO and all. Recalling the look on Arlo’s face when I’d placed my hands on his chest made me almost convulse. Damn, I was easy.

  Dillon returned with a bucket of rainwater in one hand and the pot I’d used to can tomato sauce cradled against him. “This water good?” He asked.

  “Yeah, it’s clean too.” I hadn’t thought about bathing in my canning water. Once it cooled, I always drank some, saved some to wash up my evening dinner and to brush my teeth. I’d usually heat some more to bathe. Thinking of Arlo, I told Dillon to get naked. I didn’t have to tell him twice.

  “You wash me, I’ll wash you.”

  He wasn’t expecting that. “I like that idea.”

  Once he was naked, he positioned himself beside me in the mirror. “Look at us. Who’d have thought. We both survived.”

  “You look like a mountain man with that beard.”

  “You don’t like it?” Dillon, rubbed it, pulling it down. “Look at your body, Sissy. You could’ve been a model with that body. But I liked you softer.”

  I elbowed his side. “I never liked you with facial hair.”

  He left the mirror, bending to pour the buckets of cold water into the tub. Taking my hand, he helped me in. We stood facing each other until he sat and pulled me down to straddle him. Finding my loofa hanging wh
ere I’d left it and the soap, I lathered it up. Dillon tore it from my hands. Starting at my neck he went down, stopping at two strategic places, making soap circles around my nipples. He came up and bit at one. Stealing the loofa from him, I flung suds in his face. He sputtered and shoved me down against his hard dick. He took the loofa and washed my back. Taking the bar of soap, I started at his strong shoulders and worked my way down to his tight abs, but I didn’t see Dillon’s muscles, I saw Arlo’s eight pack. Biting my lips, I took Dillon’s dick between my slick hands.

  “Sissy,” he moaned out as I pumped.

  Lathering him up, I was working myself up, thinking about Arlo. In turn, Dillon washed Miss Mary with such care. Him so gentle, it was easy to keep up the illusion it wasn’t him. Dillon, lately, he’d been so rough, just how he liked it anymore. The gentleness of him drove me mad. Soon, I was lowering myself onto his cock. My fingernails digging into the back of his neck, I rode him as best I could in our strange position in the tub. Not enough, Dillon pulled us to our feet. He raised me, pressing me against the cool porcelain to allow his cock to move into me again. Swathed in my legs, he thumped softly, so out of character, and I was still thinking of Arlo. Running my hands through Dillon’s dark hair, I thought of pulling the hippy’s sandy blonde hair. When that wasn’t enough, I thought about Troy’s coarse locks.

  Fuck. Where had that come from?

  I thought about all three men at once.

  The dirty thoughts sent me over the edge… almost.

  Voicing my coming climax, I cooed in a rhythm. Dillon’s face reacted, a satisfied smile overcoming it. He strengthened his thrusts in tune with me until I was screaming out. He covered my mouth with his, lunging his tongue down my throat.

  That had done it.

  “Spectacular,” Dillon remarked as I came. Thrusting one more time he had his own moment, like he’d been holding it in.

  We finished bathing, but this time, ourselves. Patting myself dry with a towel, I thought about the time, about how dark it was outside. Would I let him stay the night? Unexpectedly, the thought of being held all night seemed appealing.

  Dillon put his dirty clothes back on, as I wrapped the towel around me. Sated, I regarded him, he’d been overly sweet, more like the man I fell in love with. I was about to tell him he could crash on the couch when he said, “I better be going.”

  “In the dark? Alone?”

  “I have Karl waiting for me back in front of the diner.” He wasn’t even trying to stay.

  “Oh. Okay. I was about to offer to make you dinner.” I thought about how I hadn’t eaten anything, yet. Because of him.

  “I do have to get back,” he said, as if he was making excuses not to stay.

  “Well, I’m glad I didn’t offer.” It’d do me no good to get soft on Dillon now, anyhow.

  “Sissy, I would stay but…” Clearly, he didn’t want to. Or he would.

  Feeling rejected, I shrugged. “Worried what the lost boys will do while your away?”

  “Nah, just have some obligations.” His words punched me in the gut.

  I wondered who Miss Obligations was. I opened my mouth to say something, to fight, but shut it tight. Fuck him. I crossed my arms.

  “See you next Monday.”

  “Tuesday.”

  “Huh?”

  “See you next Tuesday… I was calling you a cunt.”

  “Funny, Sissy. Lock your doors.”

  When Dillon’s motorcycle roared to life and faded into the distance, I decided I wasn’t hungry. Sulking, I went to bed alone. I didn’t read a romance book to escape this boring dystopia. Closing my eyes, I thought about people returning to Creepy, normalcy trying to sprout back to life. I couldn’t sleep. My stomach rumbled, but I was feeling too sorry for myself to eat. A glass of wine would do the trick. I sat on the couch, by a single candle, sipping. I cried a little and then a lot.

  I knock startled me. I tiptoed to the door.

  “Arlo?” I let him in.

  “I couldn’t stop thinking of you.” His lips hovered over me again.

  Miss Mary perked up. “I…”

  He kissed me.

  Somehow, we made it to the couch, and I set the candle safely down all while locking jaws. He pulled off his shirt uncovering that glorious eight back of muscles.

  Running his hands down it, he asked, “Want a drink?”

  That was weird, but I nodded my head wanting nothing more than to taste him. Next thing I knew, I licked his crazy looking abs like a hungry lioness, all while reaching for his dick. Taking the rigid rod in my hands, I was impressed by the size. I pulled it toward my mouth and about swallowed it whole. I rolled the salty treat around my tongue and sucked, wanting the briny fluid to hit my throat. Arlo sounded like he enjoyed it. Funny, he was making the same noise he had earlier doing Karate.

  “Hhhrr.”

  I looked up at him, but something was off. His face sultry, boiled. A bubble grew beside his nose and oozed, leaking green pus. Flesh melted off as he decomposed in real time. His body resembled a butchered chicken, bones exposed, meat showing. Half of his skull visible, deep set eyes spun back like he was getting off.

  Geezus. Fuck. What the… I also realized the dick in my mouth wasn’t attached to Arlo. I’d tore it off. Surprise, horror, disgust, they all took over. Spitting out the putrid dick, I realized I was dreaming.

  Waking up from the nightmare, I felt like I’d been beat. Replaying the dream a few times, I concluded I was probably dehydrated. I ate some Cheez Its I’d saved for a rainy day, and went to bed properly this time, with a glass of water and a book in my bed.

  By three o’ clock, I’d gotten my day’s work finished, minus the weeding, picking and canning. Who was I kidding? If I was going to start dating, I’d have to rewrite my schedule. Saving gas, I decided to use the reel mower to go over the front yard before I cleaned up for my dinner with Arlo. I debated on what I would make, deciding not to take him to Mrs. Deans’ for something substantial. I had to keep some secrets, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t go all out.

  We’d be having a big Greek salad, since I had fresh lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and red onions plus I had a jar of kalamata olives I’ve been waiting to open. We’d even have some canned chicken on it if he weren’t vegan or something. He seemed like the type who might be. I also had a nice Rose wine that I think he’d enjoy. It’d been the craze right before the pandemic. Then like any southern woman, I planned to surprise him with a pie. I had a can of cherries with filling and a graham cracker crust. I was getting a bit too excited. When he asked me to have dinner, he clearly meant as a date. That much I was sure of. I hoped he liked cherries. It was sort of symbolic. He was my first date of the apocalypse since Dillon didn’t count. He’d be popping my post-apocalyptic cherry. Maybe in more ways than one. I already knew I wouldn’t wear my workout clothes that I had on now. I’d laid out another new sundress. It might have been fall but the weather said otherwise. I’d also laid out my best matching bra and panty set, a blue lacey number from Victoria Secret, one that matched my eyes.

  I didn’t expect him to surprise me. Arlo, casually eating an apple, I wasn’t sure where he’d gotten, strolled toward me. Tan, he glistened in the sun as if the yard was a sunny beach.

  An easy smile came. “What are you doing here already?” It was just a little past three.

  His wrist twisted up as he read his watch, “Twelve o’ clock.” He explained, “Apparently, my watch is busted. It stopped working earlier after I took a dip in the pool. I didn’t want to be late.”

  “The pool?” I knew there was a pool at the Jules Estate but was confused. “There’s water in it?”

  “Yeah, I uncovered it and spent all morning cleaning it.”

  My mind couldn’t wrap around that. I wasn’t sure if we shared the same idea of clean. His hair still wet, he appeared clean enough. Stepping closer, one whiff clued me into the fact he’d used chlorine. “They have all the chemicals?”

  “Yeah, it even
has a diving board.”

  Full of surprises, he had a basket full of apples for me. The grounds around Jules estate was one place I hadn’t searched. Free of the basket, Arlo put his hands on his hips and looked around my yard. “Just like the Garden of Eden.”

  “Thanks,” I said and meant it. “Most people think it’s silly to keep up the yard now, all the flowers on the porch,” I explained, talking about Dillon before I caught myself. “You know, everyone in Creepy still kept up their yards during the pandemic. It’s a southern thing I guess.”

  “It’s nice. It’s your positive energy showing.”

  I shrugged not sure there was anything positive about it. But he smiled, staring into my eyes. I beamed. His face held the same sexy hunger it did yesterday. Things were already perfect. I took him on a tour around the yard before we went inside. Arlo marveled at the fact I kept some electric going during the day. He relaxed in the cool living room while I excused myself to clean up. I sponged myself off and got dressed. Since I’d had my clothes laid out, it didn’t take long.

  Our conversation flowed while we made dinner. Arlo seemed at home cutting up the vegetables and whipping up dressing. I added some apples to our salad. He added a lot of parmesan. The chicken pleased him too. We sat on the back porch at his request.

  “It’s beautiful out here.”

  Him against the passion flowers, I couldn’t agree more.

  “I wonder if I can get some electricity on across the way.”

  “It’s a big place.”

  “It has solar panels on the roof.”

  “I know.” Honestly, that was one of the reasons I hadn’t gone over there, yet. I had a generator here. I knew how to operate it. We’d gotten our power from the co-op. I had no clue about solar panels. Arlo seemed determined to get the power on over there somehow. Explaining he was an electrical engineer, he surprised me again.

  “I thought you taught karate.”