by Emma Dean
A Cup of Christmas Magic: the short
A Reverse Harem Holiday Story
Emma Dean
A CUP OF CHRISTMAS MAGIC
THE SHORT
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Copyright © 2019, 2020 by Emma Dean
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, locations, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Contents
Author’s Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Want Free Stories?
Other Books
Other Books UK Links
Other Books CA Links
Other Books AU Links
About the Author
Author’s Note
All of my paranormal books exist in the same universe. The more you read the more you see familiar faces. You don’t need to read them in any particular order, or to know any others before starting any of my series or standalones.
This is a steamy holiday short, not a full-length novel.
Last but not least, this is a slow burn reverse harem series.
Don’t forget to share and review and recommend your favorite books.
Join my group for the spoiler thread for each release!
Emma’s Enclave
<3 Emma
A Cup of Christmas Magic: the short
1
There was a knock on her door and Lila looked up from her spell book in surprise.
Sudden panic infused her as she looked around her workroom and all the stuff she had going on, the ingredients still out from the other night.
So much for a cup of good tidings magic.
Who could possibly be calling, all the way out here? Anyone from the coven always texted first, knowing how she was about privacy.
Lila padded to the front door and peered through her spelled glass. Taylor and Isaac stood there, waiting patiently.
What were they doing here?!
Looking down at her pajamas and the pagan decorations everywhere…she freaked. “Hold on!”
Thankfully her workroom had doors just for this reason. She slid them closed and checked to make sure no spell books were laying around.
Then she checked her reflection in the entryway mirror. A snap of her fingers with a few muttered words got the mess of hair into something less awful, but not too overdone since she was wearing leggings after all and the spell to change clothes was one she’d never managed to perfect.
Her blonde hair was up in a bun with deliberate sections hanging down and a few braids to add that little something extra. Another word and her most basic makeup was done. Lila shouldn’t care what these guys thought of her looks, but they were scorching hot and at her house.
At least this way she would feel less self-conscious.
Lila looked through the spelled hole on her door again, and couldn’t help but admire Taylor’s brown skin, the knot of silky black hair at the top of his head, his gorgeous red-brown eyes, or how full his lips were. He was almost to pretty to be real.
And then his boyfriend, Isaac. Hell, they were both so tall. But Isaac was slightly shorter, with dark blonde hair and a close-cut beard that did strange things to her. Lila licked her lips and tried to ignore the massive muscles in his arms. His chest was so much broader than Taylor’s, but they were both massive, gorgeous human men that made her mouth water.
She also didn’t want anything to do with them at the moment, and she had no idea why they were even here. But she wasn’t going to be rude.
Smoothing down her cable-knit sweater over her leggings, she took a deep breath and then opened the door. “Can I help you?” she asked, eyeing them both. Lila tried not to be openly suspicious, but after what had happened the night before she honestly hadn’t thought they’d ever talk to her again.
Well, not outside of work.
Seriously, who wanted to deal with all the hate she got for ‘keeping animals prisoner?’ It never mattered to these people that the animals she cared for would be dead otherwise, or extinct. It never mattered to them that she had over forty acres of land and plenty of space for them all to roam around in…
But she could never tell any of them her biggest secret.
Lila knew the animals were happy. Because she could talk to them.
Thanks to her affinity with wild and green magic she understood animals and they understood her. But go around telling humans that and they’d all think she was nuts. They’d put her in a psych ward. It wouldn’t be the happily ever after Doolittle got.
“Mark was worried about you,” Isaac explained, handing her a basket full of muffins and croissants. “He wanted us to come check on you.”
Lila sighed. Mark was a good friend. He owned the Northern Preserve up near the border. They’d worked together for years. He was the closest thing she had to an uncle or a dad. That he sent these two to check on her…her heart swelled.
But these two? The bisexual couple who wanted to ask her out suddenly on her front porch seemed suspicious.
Taylor held out two coffees, one iced and one hot. “I figured you’d want options with the weather like this and the pastries…” he trailed off when she didn’t take either of the offerings.
Lila wasn’t sure what to do with these two, on her porch with food and coffee. Normally she’d be ecstatic and flattered. But Mark had sent them instead of coming himself. “It’s a shame you two had to do his dirty work,” she said instead.
“May we come in?” Taylor asked.
Lila was tempted to say no, but she didn’t want to be a total bitch either. Silently she stood aside to let them pass, stomach flipping as they studied all her decorations. Her heart lurched when she saw the sliding barn doors to her spell room hadn’t closed all the way.
Taking the basket of muffins, she glided past them both, nudging the doors closed before they could see inside, and went straight to the kitchen.
“Did you make these decorations yourself?” Isaac asked, sounding mildly impressed.
“Most of them.”
She set the basket of pastries on the center island and just...stood there. Lila had no idea what to do with these men in her house. What could they possibly want from her?
“We’re not doing Mark’s dirty work,” Isaac told her, voice gentle and soft and right behind her. “We offered to come check on you.”
Lila turned and saw Taylor eyeing the wooden pentagram at the top of her tree, small antlers framing it - the antlers had been a gift from Mark a few years before, but she doubted the sweet human knew what she’d done with them.
“You left without telling anyone last night. We just wanted to make sure you were okay. We heard what happened,” Taylor explained, setting the coffees next to the basket on the center island.
She should offer to make them some tea or something, but Lila felt so stupid and embarrassed after last night. Everything had gone so well with the reindeer in Santa’s Village, she hadn’t anticipated having trouble with the humans.
“It’s not my first time dealing with protestors,” she said, eyeing the basket. “I just didn’t expect them to be so nasty.”
Protestors had insisted she was being cruel to the reindeer by allowing them to be photographed. Lila shook her head and went to the stove. Filling it up with water was second nature. She turned on the heat and sighed.
She’d asked their permission first, of course. But explaining that wasn’t so
mething she could ever do.
She shouldn’t have left Mark to deal with it all without telling him goodbye. It wasn’t like the reindeer could tell him where she’d gone.
“I’ll be back tonight though. I won’t abandon the herd,” she promised. “Would either of you like tea or coffee?”
“I didn’t see exactly what happened,” Taylor said, looking at her with such an intensity Lila blushed even though she didn’t know why. “But I heard one of them threw hot cocoa on you. That could have been really dangerous.”
“Lucky they missed,” Isaac agreed, eyeing her from head to toe like she might just be hiding something from them.
Her hand went right to her chest where the hot cocoa had hit, nothing left but tender skin, slightly pinker than the rest of it. “My coat got the worst of it,” she promised. “I’m okay. So, tea?”
“I don’t really drink tea.” Isaac still didn’t look convinced.
Lila crossed her arms over her chest, careful of the tender skin. “Taylor?”
“Do you have something a little stronger?”
She nodded and started gathering the ingredients for her famous hot buttered rum. It usually came with an enchanted cinnamon stick to cheer up and warm even the grumpiest soul, but Lila was already suspicious of their sudden introduction into her life.
Adding more magic to their lives didn’t seem like a good idea.
“So, why are you two really here?” she asked, grabbing her jar of mundane cinnamon sticks.
“This place is really unique,” Taylor murmured, picking up her carving of Hestia kneeling before a hearth. “What is this?”
Lila crossed the kitchen anxiously, grabbing the statue and placing it next to the stove. Most witches born into this life only worshipped the witch goddesses or the Fates, but Lila had grown up human. If one god was real - and she had it on good authority from someone who’d met a goddess that they were - then why not all of them?
Cooking was not something she was amazing at, but she could follow directions and Hestia watching over her comforted her. Even if it was all in her head.
“Just a Greek deity,” she muttered, stirring the butter into the pot full of her favorite spiced rum. “I’m sure you’re used to such things.”
Taylor grinned at that and leaned on the counter next to her. “From my tribe elders yeah, but not from white people.”
Holy hell bells, Taylor was literally the most gorgeous, beautiful man she’d ever met with his full lips and high cheekbones. Lila snuck a look at him and blushed when she saw he was still looking at her. Would he ever take his hair out of that knot? How long was it?
She nearly shuddered imagining how silky it would feel on her bare skin.
Lila froze, brown sugar in her hand and everything.
This wasn’t like her; she shouldn’t be so physically desperate for someone who just happened to be beautiful.
“We’re also here because you never answered our question,” Isaac said, coming around her kitchen island to lean on the counter, just behind Taylor.
Watching Taylor lean back into Isaac set her entire body on fire and Lila looked between them, unsure what to say or do.
The silence stretched and she jerked into action, remembering she was making them drinks. Dumping the brown sugar into the pot she stirred, keeping her eyes on the concoction. “Which question?” she asked, feigning ignorance.
“We’d asked if you wanted to go out with us sometime,” Isaac said with a small smile on his face, clearly aware that she was playing some kind of game.
Lila stirred the rum with a cinnamon stick and then threw it in, muttering a small thanks to Hestia as she always did. “The two of you are together right?”
“Yes, but we’re both bi,” Taylor told her, reaching out and taking her hand gently. “We’ve been looking for someone like you for a while now. Someone who wouldn’t mind sharing us with each other.” Then he tugged her forward until she collided with him. “Someone who wouldn’t get upset about us being so far north.”
Lila clamped her mouth shut on the words that almost slipped out. The Northern Preserve was only an hour from her all the way out here. The only reason she had the land she did was because the shifters had gifted it to her for the animals, but she paid her tax to them just like any other paranormal living on shifter land.
These two didn’t need to know all the intricate details of her life, she reminded herself.
And it was rather presumptive that they thought she’d be into this kind of thing.
“I’m not a good candidate,” she said, looking up into Taylor’s gorgeous brown eyes that had a hint of red to them, like burnt sienna. “I really only get along with animals.”
The way he smiled, showing his canines, it shouldn’t have turned her on as much as it did.
“That’s why we like you,” Isaac said, walking around Taylor so he was now at Lila’s back. He ran his hand up her arm, over her shoulder until he gently caressed her neck. “It’s endearing, and I’ve never seen the reindeer take to anyone like they did you. Their approval is good enough for me.”
Lila almost said the animals’ approval of these two was the only reason she was even entertaining this idea, but her thoughts were cut off when Isaac softly kissed her neck. She held onto Taylor, looking up at him in shock and surprise.
What was she supposed to do? It had been years since she’d had sex with one guy, and she’d never been with two at once.
Taylor smiled and leaned down, cupping her face gently before he kissed her.
Despite all her protestations, Lila wanted them, badly. This wasn’t committing to a date or committing to anything except this moment in time.
She decided she could do that, and deal with everything else later.
Nothing in the rule books said she couldn’t enjoy herself during the holidays just like everyone else, and it wasn’t like she needed to show off a traditional man to her family as a token of her happiness in life.
Lila let herself get lost in the kiss, in the warmth of Taylor’s mouth and the muscles she could feel as she held onto him. She was also intensely aware of Isaac at her back, hard as a rock cock pressed into her ass, one arm wrapped around her waist.
His fingers slid under the waistband of her pants, teasing her as he skimmed the hem of her underwear, knuckles brushing against Taylor.
Taylor was just as hard, and Lila wondered if Isaac could feel it too.
The thought made her groan into Taylor’s mouth, suddenly desperate and needy and trembling.
Isaac took that as a sign and his hand slid into her panties, cupping her pussy while Taylor softly held her face with both hands, his tongue slowly dancing with hers, patient and in no rush to get to the good part.
Lila felt her knees go weak at that realization and curiosity started to burn through her.
These two men clearly cared about each other. How would that translate when she was put into the mix?
2
“Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” Lila managed, freaking out slightly. She pulled back from Taylor only to remember she was trapped between them.
Taylor just smiled down at her and moved the bubbling rum from the fire. “Why not?” he asked.
“You two care about each other but you’ve just met me,” she tried to explain, feeling stupid.
It was difficult to form words with Isaac’s hand still down her pants, fingers slowly sliding through her folds, spreading her desire everywhere.
“We care about you as a person, we care about your needs,” Isaac murmured into her ear, rubbing her clit with slow circles. “We want to get to know you more, see if you fit into our life. And we gotta start somewhere, right?”
That was logical. Lila could see how that made sense. “I’ve never done this kind of thing before,” she admitted.
“Don’t worry,” Taylor told her. “We’ll lead you.” At that he dropped to his knees before her, Isaac still fingering her and Lila gripped the edge of the counter tight, gritting
her teeth against the onslaught of sensation.
Taylor slid her leggings down and she inhaled sharply as the cold air hit her skin, but she didn’t have time to think about it too much when he wrapped his large hands around her thighs, spreading her legs slightly. His tongue flicked and her knees nearly buckled then and there.
“I’ve got you,” Isaac murmured against her shoulder. He scooped her up and carried her into the living room where it was warmer thanks to the roaring fire.
He sat down and arranged her on his lap so she was still facing Taylor, his hard-on pressing into her ass and it made Lila squirm. She wanted his cock inside her, but Taylor was grinning as he pulled her leggings off the rest of the way.
The way Isaac settled her legs on the outside of his and spread them wide...Lila couldn’t think. She couldn’t speak, or move, or even try to close them when the hungry look on Taylor’s face had her melting. His warm breath against her pussy was delicious.
Lila leaned back against Isaac, reaching back to run her fingers through his hair. Despite how anxious she’d been at the beginning, Lila felt like this was exactly what she’d needed. These two ridiculously hot guys would wash away all her negative feelings, even if it was just for a few hours.
A few hours of pleasure was worth it, even if she had to deal with real life at the end of it.
When his full lips kissed her pussy, Lila gasped, pressing her hips up to meet him, desperate for more. Isaac slipped his hand under her cable-knit sweater and groaned into her ear when he discovered she wasn’t wearing a bra. He palmed one breast, reaching up with his other hand to tug and caress the other.
She was lost in a sea of sensation and desire. Taylor’s tongue licked long and slow except when he sucked hard and fast on her clit, making her want to come right out of her skin with how intense and delicious it was.
