Order of the Akasha: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Complete Series)

by E. M. Moore

  “Are you a potato chip or Cheetos kind of girl?” he asked, motioning toward the snacks.

  I stared at him from the corner of my eye. It was evident he’d been trying lately, and I was doing my best as well. I just wondered if we’d taken it to a point where it was too little, too late. “Both,” I said, moving forward and dipping a big ol’ potato chip into some sour cream and onion dip.

  I continued to feast on what they had as Gabe explained more and more of the game of soccer—shit, I had to stop doing that—of football to me. Travis interrupted with his own thoughts from time to time. Eventually, Gabe placed his arm around me and I cozied into his side, reveling in the way his chest moved up and down when he breathed, and how I could hear his heart thump away inside. When his team got closer to the goal, it picked up speed ever so slightly.

  Travis shifted on the couch, his thigh coming to rest on my leg. I almost pulled away, but a spark tingled my skin. I looked over to find him staring at me. It squeezed my stomach, the pure longing in his face, but at the same time, a confusion that muddied everything up. If I had bigger cohones, or any at all, I would’ve asked him what he wanted right then and there. Why did he show up in my room to get some, get us both over-the-top excited, only to leave without finishing the job? How could he look at me with two such clear emotions written all over his face with none of them clearly winning over the other? There was so much to be said, yet it never seemed to be the right time. It was getting exhausting though, this back and forth. Something needed to be done about it.

  I kept my leg there to see if he’d shy away, and he didn’t. If anything, he kept it there on purpose. I couldn’t deny the attraction that pulled us together every time we touched. It was the same I had with the rest of the guys. I almost hated that I had it. Travis had given me a lot of shit since I’d come here, and I knew, deep down, that when Travis finally got over his hang-ups, I’d let him in. It didn’t mean I wasn’t going to make him beg for it, but I was going to let him in nonetheless. It wasn’t an option not to.

  He scratched his jaw, and then his hand came down. It landed on top of my leg and I flinched. Gabe kissed the top of my head. “You okay?”

  I bolted off the couch, Travis’s hand sliding away from me. “I’m okay. I’m just…exhausted. I have a big day at the shop tomorrow and I should probably just head to bed before I fall asleep right here.”

  Gabe reached for my hand and gave a small tug back. “If you fall asleep, I’ll carry you up to the room.” It was a sweet gesture, but then he lifted his eyebrows suggestively.

  I chuckled. “It’s okay. Thanks for offering though.” I walked by Travis, peeking at him as I did so. A shadow had crept over his features. I continued my way toward the stairs and was halfway up when a voice whispered my name.

  I turned and looked down. Travis was there, his green eyes focused on me. “You don’t have to leave on my account. I won’t…touch you again, I promise.”

  “It’s not that,” I said. Though, it was. His hand on my leg, his intentional touch, had freaked me out. That was only the second time he’d done that.

  “I’m sorry. Okay?” Travis said, obviously not believing me. Maybe I wasn’t a good liar like Randy had said.

  “I just…I don’t want to do this right now, Travis. Okay? I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  I turned and ran the rest of the way up the stairs and right into my bedroom. Once free, I took a deep breath and let it out. My magic was surging inside me, practically begging me to go back downstairs and be surrounded by Gabe and Travis. It really liked when Travis touched me. Like, really, really enjoyed it. I was full of expectation, sweaty palms, twisting stomach, excitement burrowing through me. I was giddy. There was no way around it.

  I stood in the middle of my room and took deep, calming breaths before I returned to a somewhat normal state. Then, I pulled my pajamas on and got ready for bed. I was finishing up brushing my teeth when Randy sauntered his way into my room. I saw him through the bathroom mirror as he sat on the edge of my bed. “Hey,” I said, wiping my mouth one last time and putting my toothbrush away.

  I turned and walked over to him. He eyed me in my short silky shorts and my flimsy tanktop. I stepped right into his space and his hands rested on my legs and then moved up my thighs where they stopped just at the hem of my shorts. I wound my hands around his shoulders and stared down. “You okay? You seemed out of it after we left Ren’s.”

  Randy closed his eyes and a hundred different emotions flickered across his usually passive face. He shook his head and burrowed it in my sternum. “I just want to say something.”

  “Okay…” I said, pulling him closer to me. “What is it?”

  “I’m nothing like my dad.” He looked up, his dark eyes intense as he stared at me. “I’m nothing like him.”

  “Of course not,” I said, reassuring him. I pulled my hands through his hair. “You don’t have to tell me something like that. I saw you at your old house, Randy. I saw some of the horror your dad put you through. You’re not capable of that.”

  “But I threatened Ren. I wanted to beat his ass, and more.”

  “We all have those moments,” I said, thinking back to me trying to take out Madame Serena. I would have too if Travis hadn’t stopped me.

  “I just…” He sighed, and fell back on the bed, taking me with him. I landed on top, my knees on either side of his torso and my elbows next to his shoulder blades. “It felt wrong being there. I’ve dreamt about fucking shit up for Ren and whoever else goes to that Godforsaken place, but I never did because I thought it might put me over the edge.”

  His hot release of breath hit my chest, sending a shiver down me. “I know,” I told him. “We went for Liam, though, and we found something out, too, so it wasn’t a lost cause. There’s a book full of bad magic that probably has something about familiars in it. Even if Ren can’t get it for us, we can look for it ourselves. One exists, so we can get answers one way or another.”

  “I just want him to be okay,” Randy said. “I tried to talk to him when we got back, and he completely blew me off.”

  “I wish he would talk to one of us,” I said, biting my lip. I tried to tell myself we were closer, but it still felt like we had a ways to go yet. “It’s obvious he’s scared, but he’s keeping it all inside.”

  He shook his head. “I thought maybe if I invited him to your room, he might come.”

  “You’re trying to pimp me out?” I teased.

  “I just wanted to connect with him somehow,” Randy said, his eyebrows pulling in. “Besides, you love it when the three of us are together, don’t deny it.”

  The rush of heat to the area between my thighs left nothing in doubt on that front. “Well?” I asked, curious to see if he’d gotten through to Liam that way.

  He shook his head. “He hasn’t answered, and he probably won’t.”

  “Maybe we could go in there?” I suggested.

  “I don’t want to push it on him. He acts scared to be around us. I don’t want to push him too much and have him just completely retreat.”

  He had a point there. That would be the worst-case scenario, and I wasn’t ready to consider that. I could lock myself in a room with him some other time and get it out of him. “What you did today was a really good thing. Brave, too. I know how much it must’ve killed you to ask someone like Ren, who helped destroy your father, for something. Liam knows how good of a friend he has, and as soon as we can get that familiar off him, he’ll be back to his old self.”

  “I hope so,” Randy mused. He pulled me over until we lay side-by-side. Tugging my tanktop down, he kissed the swell of my breast. “Are Gabe and Travis still watching the game?”

  I nodded, his hot breath caressing me and exciting me at the same time.

  “So, we can have some time to ourselves?”

  I moaned. “If that’s what you want.”

  He took my hand and placed it around his cock, which was already hard.

  I smiled. When Rand
y and I were together, it never took either one of us very long before we wanted to jump the other. The electricity between us turned me on. I rubbed his cock on the outside of his pajama bottoms. “You definitely came in here with too many clothes on then.”

  “I wasn’t sure if you and Gabe, or you and Travis had made it up here.”

  I stuttered out a breath. “Me and Travis? You’re insane.”

  “Don’t tell me you don’t want him buried deep inside you, Norah. Remember, you’re terrible at lying.”

  My head fell back against the bed as an image from my dream popped into my head. Travis’s cock buried so deep inside me that his base rubbed against my clit. Damn. I moaned just thinking about it.

  “Yeah, it’s only a matter of time,” Randy chuckled. “He’s been getting the same look on his face, too. Now I’m going to have to share you with one more. How will we find the time?”

  He lifted my tanktop and wrapped his sweet lips around my nipple. I arched into him. “Oh, we’ll find the time. And if we double up, we can have even more fun. We don’t have to sleep.”

  “Mmm,” Randy said, pushing my shoulders to the bed as his tongue teased around my nipple. “It’s so weird I don’t care about someone else getting you off. I’d like it even more if I was involved though.”

  I urged his pants down and grabbed his cock, stroking him from base to tip. He slipped my tanktop over my head and stared down at me, his face in awe. My nipples strained, wanting his attention again. “Fuck, Norah,” he practically purred. “Every time I find something new to marvel about you. Your skin is the perfect shade of beautiful.” He darted forward, taking my nipple into his hot mouth again. “Especially this area right here.”

  Randy’s hand slipped under my shorts and found my clit. He flicked his finger across it several times and my hips came off the bed, begging for more. He trailed a line of kisses down my stomach to my belly button, and then lower as he worked my shorts off. He parted my legs, pulling them to the sides until I was fully exposed to him and he was stationed between my thighs. “I think I need a taste tonight. It’s like licking candy down here.” He made a long stroke with his tongue, swirling the tip over my clit at the end.

  “Yes,” I said, my breath coming out in gasps. I placed my hand on the back of his head and pulled him closer, urging him to do the same thing again.

  He did, then stayed on my clit, running his tongue over it again and again in different angles and pressure. I held him there, almost too hard, but Randy didn’t seem to mind. He hummed, sending a vibration through me and I gasped.

  “Sweet, sweet sugar,” he breathed. “Addicting. Travis is going to have fun with you.”

  Oh, fuck. I stoked his neck, urging him to stay there, and he did so. His tongue played and massaged, switching directions and speed until I was looking down the arrow of my orgasm. “God, yes, Randy. More. I’m almost there.”

  He pressed harder, his tongue flicking faster, and I peered down, looking at the sweet look of pure pleasure on his face as he gave me exactly what I needed. At that moment, he opened his eyes, and we locked gazes. My orgasm ripped through me and I gasped, clutching Randy’s head and holding him there until my body came down from its high.

  He pushed his pajama pants down and off as he sat back on his haunches. I followed him, straddling his thighs and pushing myself down on his cock until every last rigid piece of him was seated inside me. We both sighed as I wrapped my legs around his waist and he gripped my ass, pulling me down over him time and time again. “Shit, Norah.” He played with my breasts as we drew our pleasure out. Finding new rhythms that made us want more and more, and then switching it up again like we were teasing one another, drawing the moment out, not letting us reach the culmination too quickly. A trickle of sweat ran down my back, and I smiled at the sheen on his forehead. “I feel like I could do this all night.”

  We stayed that way for a long time, just enjoying one another. I ate up his kisses, giving as much as I got. My hands traveled all over his hard, chiseled body, outlining his tattoos. Of course, I also spent time playing with his piercing as he explored my body, giving and giving. All of it was perfect. Every last moan and sigh was pulled from my soul.

  He teased my neck, pulling the skin away with his teeth before kissing the pinch of pain away. “I just can’t get enough of you. Lean back,” he said. He placed a hand in between my breasts and pushed lightly. I did as he asked, my shoulders retreating and my back arching. He kept a firm grip on my hips and then moved his touch down, his finger trailing down the curve of my body until it settled on my clit. My body jumped. “You know what’s going to happen if you do that, don’t you?”

  “Don’t tell me you don’t want another one. I’ll be forced to call you a liar again.”

  His thumb played over it and I sucked in a breath. “Oh, no, I want it.”

  His thumb pressed down, and I groaned. I was so close now. “God, I wish Liam could see you like this. Fuck, girl. The look on your face is pure lust. Everything about this is erotic as fuck.”

  My insides squeezed as he pumped inside me. The thing about this position was that I couldn’t see or do anything, only feel what Randy did to me, and damn it was amazing. His hips picked up speed as he rocked into me and his thumb massaged me, peaking my pleasure until I was about to lose all breath.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” I chanted. Fuck if he didn’t always feel like heaven.

  Randy rocked faster, his base teasing my clit along with his thumb. I tightened my hold on his waist with my legs as a tremor started to take hold of my body. He rocked one more time and my world blissfully fell apart. I screamed, letting the waves of pleasure take me away as he continued his lengthy strokes inside me. When I finished, he pulled me up and guided me down on him hard a few times before coming, his cock spasming inside me. I clenched my walls tighter and Randy let out a short gasp as he held me to him. “Fuck yes.”

  Afterward, we fell back on the bed in a heap. He wrapped his hand around my neck and bent forward, giving me a solid kiss on the mouth as we both tried to catch our breath. I cuddled in closer to him, laying my head on his chest as we stared at the ceiling, waiting for our hearts to return to a normal rhythm instead of this crazy, cracked out one.

  Randy kissed the top of my head. “We’ll figure all this out.”

  “I know,” I told him. Then, I shut my eyes and tried to get some sleep. For the moment, I was safe surrounded by Randy’s huge arms, and we were a step closer than we were that morning to helping Liam.

  5

  I woke the next morning to find Randy gone. It wasn’t so surprising because he had to be to the gym super early in the morning to work out the people who came to the gym before they had to go to work at an also early time in the morning. I didn’t know how he did it. My body was so relaxed this morning, fulfilled. I didn’t even want to wake up. I hated that he always got up without me noticing too. I would’ve loved to send him to work one morning with a present. Something to remember me by as he trained the women in their sports bras and tight pants. Then again, I wouldn’t want him walking around with a gigantic hard-on all day. I bet women looked at him enough as it was. They didn’t need another reason and seeing what he was packing would’ve been distracting. I should know. I was constantly distracted by it.

  I pulled my pajamas on after sleeping naked next to Randy all night and walked into the hallway. All the doorways were shut, most likely the rest of the guys were still sleeping before we all had to get up and do what we needed. I walked to Liam’s door and pressed my forehead against it. It was the only one that felt as if it was closed off to me. Even Travis’s door felt more inviting at that moment than Liam’s, which was saying a lot. I twisted the doorknob and walked in. His still form lay on the bed facing away from the door. I padded closer to him, itching to see his face when he didn’t have his mask on like he did all the other times since he’d acquired the familiar.

  Bending over, a slow smile crept over my face as I caught his peac
eful look. He was peaceful. It was the Liam I’d first met. Even in sleep, his nose was a little scrunched up as if he was thinking about something major or trying to keep his glasses on.

  A knot pulled in my stomach though when a dark shadow crawled over his neck. My heart rate spiked. I moved in, getting down closer and noticing that it wasn’t a shadow at all. It was the serpent familiar. It coiled around Liam’s neck until its head crept onto Liam’s cheek. It paused, his head moving upward until it stared at me. Its beady, black eyes latched right onto mine.

  I gasped and took a few steps back. My hand flew up to cover my mouth. It moved. It looked at me. There was no doubt about it. It was as if it had thought all its own. “Don’t you dare hurt him,” I said, whispering coldly in the dark.

  The snake’s tongue shot out, a dart of red on Liam’s cheek.

  A shiver ran up my spine. “I mean it,” I said, my voice trembling now. “I swear to God, I will end you.”

  The snake curved back around, dismissing me. Its body wound around, its tail flicking in my direction before it slithered over Liam’s neck, then down his shoulder blade until it disappeared under the comforter. I sat there, staring, almost unbelieving.

  Tentatively, I moved forward. Liam hadn’t woken up through all of that and I just needed to know he was okay. I put my hand on his shoulder. Liam jumped, practically coming right out of his skin. “It’s okay, it’s just me,” I said.

  Liam whipped around, his feet already pulled up onto the bed in a crouched position. He regarded me, his body relaxing just a fraction. “What are you doing in here?”