The Corner House: A Reverse Harem

by Daisy Jane

  His palm is flat against my back, under his t-shirt that I’m wearing, and he rubs up and down my spine, over and over. Putting kisses in my hair, he tells me repeatedly that it’s going to be okay.

  That I’m going to be okay.

  And for some crazy fucking reason, I believe him.

  Chapter 25

  Eli’s phone vibrates against his nightstand and when he rolls back to reach for it, I feel empty without being pressed to his chest. Hollow. It’s scary because this moment will end. My migraine will be gone and I won’t have him.

  Once I feel better, it’s back to business as usual. Sloane, single, now unemployed and a pain in the ass.

  He answers in a whisper, for my benefit not for discretion. “It’s an emergency. Call Candice. Fuck, call anyone else. I have a personal emergency.” There’s a pause. “Good, don’t call me, I’ll call you.” He rolls back and my hands go to his bare chest, fingers only very slightly resting atop the blonde hair that covers his pecs.

  “Eli,” I say, feeling more coherent now that the plethora of remedies has been pumped into me.

  Gently, he takes my chin in his hand and lifts my face to his. “Please fucking tell me you’re feeling like, at least ten percent better Sloane. Please.” The dark worry is back, and now the panic seems more intense. As if the events have just started to really sink in. Like he was running on adrenaline before.

  Feeling able to nod, I nod. “Yes, it’s getting better. It’s getting better.”

  “Fuck,” he pulls me into him and hugs me, his leg pulling my lower half closer too. “Jesus Christ, baby, you fucking scared me.”

  “I’m sorry,” I say against his chest. He releases me so that we’re able to face one another and talk.

  “What happened last night?” he asks, smoothing my hair out of my face. It takes the one molecule of strength I have left to not turn my head and kiss his palm, trap him between my face and shoulder and hold him there forever.

  “What time is it?” When was last night?

  “Four in the morning.” He rests his hand on my hip, the same way he did that night. The only night I ever got to be with him. “What happened with Brynn?”

  “What did she say?” I ask, not wanting to let go of his eyes. Clear and beautiful, swirls of darkness near the pupils. I feel so small next to him, I feel so protected with just one of his hands on my hip. He could easily swallow me whole and become my everything. Easily.

  Candice rushes back to me. But so do Bodhi’s words.

  “She said she just wanted to talk to you. And she said to tell you she’s sorry and,” he moves his hand from my hip to my cheek, thumb stroking my trembling bottom lip. “That she loves you.”

  He gives me a minute but keeps his hand on my face, stroking my lip, steadying me, calming me.

  “The lease is up at Salon Six. Brynn found a place next to the Wilting Daisy. Only six stations. The girls voted me out. I’m too unreliable, you know, because of these little headaches.”

  His lips are straight line. “Is there anything else that upset you?” He drops his hand back to my hip and pulls me a little bit closer but still there’s enough space between us so that we can talk.

  I remain silent because I don’t know if I can come clean to him now. I’m so tired, mentally, emotionally, physically.

  “Sloane,” he says, “please talk to me. I care about you.”

  “That,” I say quietly, my eyes tracing the ornate cursive on his collarbone. “I care about you, too.”

  “Okay,” he says, in a coaxing tone, asking me to elaborate. And I know now, energy or not, now is the time.

  “I came here, to the corner house, needing to feel alive. Wanting to feel something. And I wanted to be with the three of you. It felt like something I needed to do. Explore, go crazy, feel wanted. Feel desirable. I needed that. And that’s what I wanted. And I got it.”

  “Okay.” Still, a coaxing tone.

  “But then I started to really like you, Eli.” His grip on my waist tightens. “I wanted to tell you, you know, because we live together. I didn’t want to like, be hiding this crush. But then the gift bag. I thought, well, maybe you have someone? Not like a girl but a friend with benefits or, I don’t know. It got in my head.”

  “Okay.”

  I swallow. “Okay well. Every time we’re together, I tell myself to detach but you just draw me in. I just, I really like you, Eli. I’ve wanted to tell you. I was going to tell you tonight. I was,” I press my hand to my eye briefly, cringing at how things played out. “I was waiting up for you to get home and I made food. I thought if I could get you to eat, have a meal with me, I could summon the courage to tell you how I felt.”

  “But then Candice was here,” he supplies, face still expressionless.

  “Yeah, and she seemed to be much more your type and she was calling you E and, I just felt really silly for ever thinking you’d have any interest in me. And Brynn had just left a few hours before. It was just a lot of rejection at once.”

  “Okay.”

  “That’s it,” I say, feeling incredibly uncomfortable, trying to slither from his grip. But he grips me harder.

  “Is it my turn?”

  Oh. “I didn’t know you wanted a turn. Yes. Yes, it’s your turn.”

  “Sloane, Candice is my employee. We’ve worked together for years. Not only is she not my type but she’s married.”

  “Oh,” my cheeks pinken and Eli smiles a tiny, tiny smile. But it doesn’t reach his eyes. He’s not relieved yet.

  Then a searing tears through my brain, latching onto to my optical nerves, twisting and yanking like there’s a painful game of tug-o-war in my head. I grip my temples and squeeze my eyes closed, not wanting another wave of nausea to hit.

  Eli pulls me into him and I just want to scream, wait, please, tell me more! But I know I’ve already spoken too much. The hammering at the base of my skull sends a sickness to my belly and I roll back, taking a deep breath.

  He holds and strokes my hand in the silence as I struggle, and that’s all I remember before I fall asleep.

  Chapter 26

  Oh my god, raging migraine hangover from hell. My entire body seems to be numb yet vibrating ever so slightly with fatigue. My bones feel sore. My brain is slow and groggy. I am slow and groggy. Blinking a few times, I wait patiently as the memories fill in the cracks of the migraine aftershock.

  Brynn.

  Eli. Eli? I rub my eyes with the heels of my palms, wondering if that was a fever-dream, a wish, something burning deep inside my brain only to escape when I was no longer in control. But then…

  There is an arm around my waist, fingertips tucked in under me, holding me. I stroke the blonde hair peppering the forearm and he groans, his morning groan. The groan only heard by someone who slept in his arms.

  I slept in his arms.

  Rolling back, I see Eli’s sleepy face as he too rubs his eyes. Then I remember my admissions and a second wave of pain rushes through me. This time, not my brain. My heart. Because he didn’t really say anything back, only that Candice wasn’t an interest that way.

  I guess what was something. Still, my heart felt a little hungover, too.

  “Good morning,” his voice is gravely and velvety. I could wake up to this voice every day.

  “Good morning.” I press my fingertips to my eyes and then slowly, very slowly, I turn and prop myself onto an elbow and look over him. His eyes are puffy from sleep and his normal blonde, neatly combed sexy hair is tousled and sticking up everywhere. I want to run my hands through it and tug at it.

  “Listen, I’m really sorry about everything I—”

  “I thought we were connecting.” He props himself up on a pillow and the comforter shifts down, exposing his pecs, smooth and hard. Fuck, I love the light hair smattering his muscles and the tattoo. I swear it could say Boys Rule, Girls Drool and it’d still get me going. And holy shit, he’s going right into it. He’s talking to me about this. My pulse zooms.

  “B
ut then after we ran those errands, you took a shower with Bodhi and Bastian.” He scratches the side of his jaw, the noise of his stubble grating his fingernails driving me mad. “And I know you had zero allegiance to me, but it just made me think that maybe you really only wanted all of us for sex.”

  My heart leaps, my body tenses. We were connecting.

  His eyes are trained on mine and I know it’s my turn. I lick my lips, mouth so dry. “I thought I did but I know now what I want.”

  He rolls his tongue across his bottom lip and blinks. “What do you want?”

  “You.”

  “You want me or you want my dick?” His eyes still feel so serious on me.

  “Both.”

  “Outline what that looks like because I have to know that we’re thinking the same thing, Sloane.”

  His leg draws me even closer and I can hardly think being so close to him. I can hardly breathe. I can’t do anything but melt and ache. I take his hand from my hip and press it to my chest.

  “Do you feel how fast my heart is beating, Eli?” I whisper the question.

  He nods.

  “That’s you. That’s being near you.” He reaches under the t-shirt and presses his palm to my bare skin and a moan slips past my lips, feeling his hand on me. “I want to be yours, Eli.”

  “You feel like you still need to be wild?”

  “You mean, do I still want to fool around with Bodhi and Bastian?”

  He nods.

  “No. And I realized that all I wanted was you a while ago. I just… I didn’t think it was possible. So, I had fun with them.” I pause, considering something I’ve not thought of before. “Could you be with someone that they’ve been with? I know you guys shared Cami for a bit…”

  “I didn’t do anything with Cami. Just Bodhi.”

  “Oh,” I say, feeling a little hope disappear. I’ve emptied the contents of my secret-sack, I’ve said I want him and only him and still, he’s given me nothing. My palms grow sweaty and my head sways despite the fact that I’m lying down.

  He smooths a thumb down the bridge of my nose then slowly over my bottom lip, making my face pull up towards his. “It doesn’t matter to me if you’ve had sex with Bas and Bod. Nothing before now matters.”

  Hope fills my limbs and I think it’s hope that moves my fingers and toes, as I feel them come back to life.

  “Be my girl, Sloane.”

  My body smiles, I swear it does. “Say it again.”

  Eli leans forward, sealing his lips to mine. I moan into his mouth and he returns it, pulling me flush to him with his leg and arm.

  “Be my girl, Sloane,” he whispers against my lips.

  “You really have no idea how much I want that,” I press my lips to his and let my hands wander his chest before the dip lower, down his abs, resting on the waistband of his pants. “Can we like, consummate this?” I tug at his pants, and he laughs, stroking my lower back, making me so wet.

  “Not right now. Because you’re pale and exhausted and you need to eat.” He hugs me tighter and I can feel his arousal on my belly.

  “Doesn’t feel like that’s what you want.”

  “Baby, I’ve been looking at your naked body for the last eight hours. I just somehow got you to agree to be my girl. Of course, I want to fuck your brains out. But you scared the shit out of me and I know however well you feel right now, its adrenaline. You need food and rest.”

  He’s right and I love that he’s thinking of me, even though his cock is at attention. Most guys would just get it in. Not Eli.

  “Thank you for taking care of me. And I’m sorry I scared you.”

  “You really fucking did. When I found you…” he trails off, and presses his lips to my forehead.

  “How did you know I was in my room with a migraine?”

  He shifts, propping himself up on his elbow, looking down at me.

  “I’m a little embarrassed to tell you,” he admits shyly, wrapping a piece of my long blonde hair around his finger.

  “I’m the one that should be embarrassed. I feel so cringe having you see me that way. No girl wants to be naked and unable to speak around the guys she lo—likes.” Fuck, did he catch that slip? “Now,” I move quick, “tell me. Because I didn’t have a migraine until after I came upstairs.”

  His lips curl into the faintest of smiles then they twitch a little. Our eyes are intensely locked. He smiles, moving forward. Thank God.

  “I knew you were upset because of whatever had happened with Brynn. I mean, you’ve lived here a few months and never has Brynn come by after hours crying trying to apologize, telling a stranger to tell you that she loves you. I knew whatever it was, it was bad. After you went up, I told Candice to go. That she’d have to take over for a few hours.” His hand slows on my back. “I was just going to talk to you. But I got in the hallway and I couldn’t hear anything. I thought maybe you went to sleep. And I don’t know why, but I just sat outside your room.” He moves his hand in circles again. Slower.

  “Don’t ask me why. I don’t know. I guess something inside of me was just, really fucking worried about you. And I’d been working all day and I got tired. I dozed off. I woke up to this really scary fucking noise. Choking, coughing, I don’t know. I knocked on your door and you didn’t answer. I went in and you were thankfully on your side, but unconscious, vomiting.”

  That had never happened before and had I been on my back… I don’t want to think about it. And neither does Eli, clearly.

  “I, uh, I had to go through your stuff in the bathroom to find the injection.”

  Looking up, I slant my mouth over his, kissing him hard. He’d taken care of me in a time when I needed it most. He saved me, just like a fucking superhero.

  “You really are Captain America, aren’t you?” I stroke my fingers through his hair, gently grating his scalp with the tips of my fingers. He groans and shifts, his cock lengthening against me further. Reaching down between us, I rub his bulge over his slacks. He groans.

  “No, I am not Captain America,” he kisses me, sweeping his tongue through my mouth, rolling back over me. “Captain America is probably a nice guy in bed.”

  “And,” I bite my lip, spreading my legs apart to accommodate him between my thighs. “You’re not?”

  Lowering his mouth to my ear, my hair tickling my neck, he whispers “I’ll be tender with you Sloane. I’ll hold you with softness in my touch and I’ll fuck slow and make you come fast.” He licks the side of my neck before kissing below my ear. “But I’ll also fucking hold your jaw and fuck your face until I can’t take it, then I’ll fill that sweet pussy of yours until we both explode.” He kisses a trail to my mouth. “I’ll give you all of the orgasms you’ll ever fucking need. You will make up for lost time being my girl.” He rolls me onto my back and hovers over me, grinding against me, rolling his hips in a motion that pushes his bulge right against my seam.

  The spark at my spine is growing bigger and bigger as he grinds his cock against me, his husky moans only making me more turned on.

  “I-I thought you didn’t want to-to fool around?” I whisper, my head rolling side to side as his lips work one side of my neck then switch randomly to the next, as if his mouth cannot get enough of me.

  “I didn’t say that. I said you need food and rest. But fuck, Sloane.” He drives his cock hard into my center, sending a thrumming through my clit.

  “Oh my god, we have to stop or I’ll come.” I’m panting, my legs curling up around his back as he humps me.

  He stills over me, his thickness pressed at my opening. Thank God it’s not rubbing my clit. I am embarrassingly close to orgasming right now.

  “Fuck, Sloane, you, uh, can’t say shit like that right now.”

  “Like what?” I ask, turning my head fast enough so my blonde hair whips us both in the face before settling over my eyes and mouth. Eli raised off an elbow and smooths it from my face, turning me to see him. His is so fucking big and hard against me, it takes everything I have not to
shamelessly grind him through his pants like a dog in heat. I want the pressure of his cock on my clit right now more than I want oxygen. Seriously. I’ll hold my breath.

  “Like you’re going to come just from me dry humping you,” he groans against my neck, his lips sticky on my skin. “That’s insanely fucking hot.” I’ve never heard Eli curse this much and it does something so good to me.

  “I’m not kidding, Eli, just, don’t move for a second.” I squirm a little underneath him, trying shake the urgency free. Buy me more time.

  Slowly, he moves his hips up, the eager tip of him pressing against me. “Was that too much movement?” He whispers against my nose, biceps engulfing me.

  I whimper, something I’ve never done. But that’s how I’d describe it. A whimper. Quiet, desperate, the only thing I can do in response.

  He lifts his hips a bit further, adding more pressure against me. My wetness soaks my panties and probably the front of his slacks. Peering down between my legs there’s a wet spot on his bulge from grinding me. He looks and sees it.

  “Fuck, that’s so fucking hot, Sloane.” His voice is this low rumble, like a small earthquake that moves the ground underneath you; I feel a shift inside me.

  Pushing into my slit deeper, he grinds me faster, reaching up the back of my neck, dipping into my hair with his fingers. He presses his lips to mine and kisses me quick, breathing hot words against my lips.

  “Come before I change my mind,” he growls, and the threat is a thrill and a surprise entwined in one flash of heat zipping up my spine.

  “Eli,” I pant against his lips. He’s not kissing me but our lips are touching. He breathes out and I find his breathe, sucking it in. When I exhale, his mouth is there, tasting it.

  “Five,” he growls, hand behind my head. He pushes his cock into the seam of me hard, then grinds my swollen clit slowly, repeatedly, zipping through four and three as I moan and writhe, letting go. Because I can’t hold on.

  “Two.”

  “Eli, I’m coming, I’m coming, Eli,” I slap at his solid shoulders before scraping my nails up his back, sinking my teeth into my bottom lip.