Charged: An Otherwordly Reverse Harem (The Otherworlds Series Book 1)

by Gillian Zane

  “You look amazing. Mirror selfie time.” Viv stepped out of the frame and Bobbie picked up her phone and posed in front of the mirror with lips pursed, but not too duckish. Leg out, hands on hip, she snapped a quick shot.

  “What do you think?” Viv slipped into her own scrap of material, a fringed white tank dress that barely covered her twat. She had legs Bobbie would sacrifice her soul for, but she wasn’t lying about the no tits and ass part. If Viv was a B-cup, it was because of stuffing and you couldn’t figure out where her back ended and her ass began because it was flat as a board. Bobbie’s curves might not be as tight and hard as Viv’s lithe frame, and she might not have a leg gap, or be able to wear an XS, but it was good having tits and ass, even if her thighs had a penchant for rubbing together.

  “You look fantastic, but don’t bend over.” Bobbie gave her the side-eye as Viv snapped her own mirror selfie.

  “Why would I have to bend over?” Viv looked mortified.

  “You always find a reason, usually it has to do with a line in a song that says ‘touch the floor,’” Bobbie joked.

  “Never,” Viv laughed and packed her lipstick in the tiny clutch that perfectly matched her dress.

  Bobbie’s phone pinged only a second after she Instagrammed the shot, and she frowned seeing it was Marlin.

  “Marlin just liked my photo.” Bobbie rolled her eyes.

  “Instant justice,” Viv laughed. “C’mon, bitch face on. You look good! You’re gonna get so many boys bidding on you. It’s gonna be a bro fight! They’re gonna be panting after you!”

  “Whatevs.” Bobbie seriously doubted it, but she smiled a little from Viv’s comment. She was leery about going to this event. She wanted to just go out and have fun, not go to some charity party and get bid on by total strangers. What if some sleaze was the one to win a date with her? What if it was someone like Marlin? She didn’t want to think about that. She had to do this, she knew she couldn’t back out. If she screwed over Chuck, she risked becoming a social pariah.

  Her second and only other friend besides Viv, was Chuck. Charles Haverly Jefferson Parrish the third. Chuck to only his closest first thousand friends. He was on every social wannabe list in the city, and could get you into every club and every party worth attending. He had gotten Bobbie and Viv into events that only the most elite attended.

  Chuck was also Bobbie and Viv’s closest friend; the surprising thing was he started out as Bobbie’s friend first and she had introduced Viv to him. This wasn’t usually the case since it was Viv and Chuck who had the huge social group and introduced Bobbie to everyone.

  Bobbie and Chuck grew up together and were inseparable until Bobbi’s life went from charmed to tragic. Chuck was shipped off to and elite boarding school in France when he was on the cusp of puberty, whereas Bobbie’s parents had died in an avalanche on a skiing retreat in Aspen. Bobbie had been sent to live with her Grandmother in Idaho.

  Chuck was a spoiled trust-fund baby who counterbalanced his party ways and carefree lifestyle with lots of causes and charity functions. Bobbie had only recently come into her inheritance when she turned twenty-five and her grandmother had passed. She used what was left to move back to New York, buy a quaint apartment, and pay off a few student loans. On her first night back in the city, she and Chuck had reconnected, since he was the only one she remembered, and had been fast friends again from day one.

  Chuck was always trying to pull Bobbie and Viv into his charitable causes and if they refused, he would pout and not talk to them for months. The last time they backed out of one of his events, they were put on the eighty-six list for six-months, until Chuck finally forgave them when he wanted premiere tickets to a show only Bobbie could get tickets to since it was produced by a company owned by her employer. She had been surprised he couldn’t wrangle them up himself, but figured he just wanted an excuse to talk to her again. He was a pain in the ass, but Bobbie loved Chuck. He was one of her only friends. Had been for a long time. She didn’t have many good memories involving her childhood, but the ones she did have, usually involved Chuck.

  “C’mon, I ordered a car and it’s almost here.” Viv held up her phone, a flashing car on the app showed it right around the corner.

  “I know I’m going to regret this,” Bobbie sighed as Viv dragged her out of the apartment and didn’t stop to let her catch her breath as they hurried down the steps and into the waiting hired car.

  “Just chill, Bobbie, you might be surprised what’s going to happen tonight!”

  4

  Baby Cakes

  Roc tore into an overstuffed burrito he had managed to scrounge up at another street vendor and contemplated how these humans had managed to get to this point of evolution if this is what they subsisted on. He sat on a park bench, slurping his orange mocha thing, deciding it tasted nothing like fruit, and stared off into the wall of clunky metal and reflective glass that soared into the sky. It was like a massive wall that protected this tiny green space in the middle of the city.

  He maintained a careful watch while he ate. One could never be too careful in this city. The humans maintained an ever-vigilant security presence, a local armed militia they called police. Their distinctly marked vehicles were on almost every corner, but they were still missing a lot of things. Assaults in back alleys, illegal substances exchanging hands in plain view, and a robbery was currently going down.

  The police gave the people around the park a sense of security as they enforced an almost ridiculous amount of local and regional laws. From what Roc gathered, these humans had laws against consumption of certain chemicals, rules on how to use their air conditioning in a proper fashion, and even rules for where they must cross the streets. He thought most of the rules and regulations they enforced were ridiculous. The humans considered this realm a place of great freedom compared to the other realms on Earth. He did not want to visit those other realms.

  “Say, man, you got something for me? I ain’t eaten in days.” A small man covered in dirty, mismatched clothing shambled up to Roc. He was limping, and looked underfed and weary from some kind of toxic substance. It could be that he was actually starving, but most likely he was addicted to one of the many chemical substances people took on this world to make them feel happy. Roc dug in his pockets and pulled out a few bills and handed it to the man who looked at the bills stupidly.

  “No chemical substances,” Roc said gruffly.

  “Anything you say, man. Thanks, no really, thanks.” The guy turned on his heel and hurried off, his limp not bothering him as much. Roc didn’t watch him leave; his eyes were on the building across the street. There was now a line of people waiting to go inside; all were dressed in the clothing that was in fashion in this region, all of which looked strange to Roc.

  The common trend of the realm was tight. The men wore tight pants and tailored shirts on thin frames, the females wore small tight dresses on well-padded frames. It was usually barely enough to cover their more delicate parts. Lucky for Roc, the men remained covered, but with the tightness of the outfits he wondered how they could move around normally. He had taken to wearing tailored suits during his travels on Earth. It was considered formal, but it wasn’t restrictive and he wasn’t looked at oddly when he walked into a social environment with humans.

  A car pulled up to the curb near the building and Roc felt an electrical jolt go through him. His body began to vibrate as if he were a magnet and he was being drawn to metal. He got to his feet and pitched his trash into a receptacle already overflowing with garbage, not wanting to get overly excited in fear that he was overreacting. His hands tingled with the nearness of something. Could it be what he was looking for?

  He wondered if it could finally be her. Had everything he went through this last year led him here? Was his search over? There was only one way he could know for sure. He made his way to the crowd of people waiting in line. It was time to confront his destiny. And it looked like whatever he needed to find was in the general direction of whatever
these people were waiting in line for.

  “Why are you standing in this line of humans?” Roc asked a woman at the end. She turned, aggravation on her face, until she took him in. She pursed her lips and looked him up and down with an appreciative perusal. Women of Earth had no qualms about letting their wants made known; he found it refreshing. So much easier than trying to navigate the social etiquette of his planet. He did not find this particular human attractive, but he still found her open appreciation flattering. He smiled at her, and she began to speak.

  “This is for Xinx, baby cakes, it’s the hottest club in the city, everyone who’s anyone is gonna be there tonight. There’s some kind of thing,” she said with a hint of seduction in her tone. She looked over his shoulder at his other manifestation and winked.

  “If they do not let you in, why do you wait?”

  “It’s all for show, a line means the club is hot, you know. I’ll get in, they let the hotties in first,” she cocked her hip and shot him another sultry look. “Stick with me and I’ll get you in.”

  “You stand at the back of the line,” Roc observed honestly. She rolled her eyes as if what he said had offended her, but it was the truth. When her appraisal turned to an outright glare, Roc turned away from her, walking down the length of the line until he got to a revolving door where a muscle-bound human stood sentry, dressed in black and holding a clipboard.

  “In the line if you aren’t on the list,” he said in a robotic tone that clued Roc in on the fact that he had been saying it repeatedly.

  “I am not on a list, but I will not get in that line,” Roc said.

  “Then you will not be getting into the club,” the human said, mocking Roc’s accent. The man turned away, dismissing him, which should have infuriated Roc, but he was getting used to this behavior on Earth. They did not know him, or his important role. It was not their fault. He also knew how to handle these situations.

  Roc dug into his pocket and pulled out two bills, which he assumed would be suitable. He placed them on the clipboard that the man held in his hand like a shield. The Earthlings put great value on these papers, associating them with currency and trade, much like his people treated silica and obsidian. Printed paper was absurd in his opinion, easily corrupted and misused, but it had been easy to come by when he first landed.

  “Does this help?”

  “Yes, sir, I see you and your—" he looked behind Roc, “brother are on the list. Through the doors and take the elevators to the top.”

  Roc forced a happy gesture with his mouth that the humans used so liberally, and walked into the building. The tingle began again as he neared the elevators. This had to be it. He pressed the button to take him to the top floor, and hopefully to the end of this damned mission.

  5

  ass slapping, panty wetting, jaw-dropping hot

  The line for Xinx was down the street and around the corner by the time Bobbie and Viv made it. The club was located on the top floor of an office building in Manhattan. The lobby of the building was where the line began and guests were ushered into elevators when they were “approved” and sent up to the party.

  Viv and Bobbie had been to Xinx a few times since it had opened a year ago. It was one of the more intense clubs in the area and they always had a good time when they went. They knew the drill of a Chuck night out, and avoided the line by heading through another set of doors at the side of the building. They walked across the lobby like they owned the place, which was the key to getting into any club. They directed their attention to a woman with a clipboard and headset standing in the middle of the lobby. She frowned at their approach.

  “Vivian Hill and Roberta Flemming,” Viv said with a smile and pointed at the woman’s clipboard. The woman said something meant for her headset, probably repeating their names to whoever was in charge. She nodded and tapped the clipboard, pulling something from underneath, her demeanor changing immediately when they were confirmed guests.

  “Good evening, ladies.” She handed Viv and Bobbie key cards with VIP stamped on the front on sparkling glitter lanyards with Chuck’s charity printed down the side. The girls put them around their necks.

  “Those will get you into the back elevators which will take you to the VIP section. Take the lifts to the right. Have a wonderful night.” She smiled a pretty smile and gestured to the area with a secondary set of elevators set back from the lobby floor. This was a first. They had never been in the VIP section of Xinx before. Bobbie felt a tingle of anticipation in her stomach.

  As the girls walked across the floor to the elevators, everyone in the long line stared at them with jealousy. Bobbie couldn’t help herself, she walked a little straighter, her sashay a little more pronounced. This was exciting for her, and she was glad, for the first time ever, that Viv had dragged her out.

  “This is awesome,” she whispered and Viv flashed her a grin and a nod in agreement, as she placed her card into the slot in the elevator and it called the elevator to them, sliding open silently in just a few seconds. Their ascent to the top took only a moment. They had barely enough time to take a deep breath before the door slid open to the pulsing sounds of one of the hottest DJs in the city. The music was thick and rapturous; the heavy beats of the EDM music slammed into the air like a living entity. It crawled over Bobbie’s skin and urged her on, making her want to move, to dance.

  They had been deposited in the back area of the club, directly in the VIP section, roped off and raised above the dance floor. Women dressed in corsets with their hair pulled back in tight ponies served drinks or other specially-requested items to the patrons. Some of the women even entertained the guests with a bit of hands-on attention and Bobbie tried not to stare too hard at what was being done in some of the darker corners of the space. Bobbie’s eyes landed on a cocktail waitress sitting on the lap of a man she was apparently serving. She lifted a glass to his lips while he massaged her leg. That interaction was tamer than most Bobbie had seen, but it was still disconcerting.

  Chuck noticed them the moment they stepped onto the platform, and he rushed to their sides excitedly, flailing his hands around in an overly dramatic reaction to their appearance.

  “Perpetually late, Bobbie and Viv! Nearly gave me a heart attack,” he exclaimed but clucked appreciatively over their attire. “The festivities are about to start. Viv, go play with Geoffrey and Mel, I have to get Bobbie to the stage.”

  “I don’t feel comfortable with this, Chuck.” Bobbie didn’t move, hoping to back out of whatever he had planned. He was having none of it. He grabbed onto her arm and began to tug her forward.

  “Stuff it, Bobbie, you’re always complaining about how you can’t get a date with a wealthy, put-together man. Viv and I decided to force the issue.”

  “I’m never going to forgive you for this,” Bobbie pouted, but gave in to his tug and let him drag her along. “What if I get a troll?”

  “There are no trolls here! I promise you, we have strict requirements for this event, yes indeed. And you will forgive me, yes you will. You’ll probably kiss my ass with thanks after the guy who bids on you gives you a massive amount of orgasms and lavishes you with expensive gifts and toys.” They made it through the crowd and to the side of the raised stage where the DJ was located. Four other women and two men stood nervously to the side. The women were as dolled up as Bobbie and all of them had generous curves and were somewhere in their late twenties or early thirties.

  “What is this? Auction off a desperate chick night?” Bobbie said in horror, looking at the other women.

  “Hush,” Chuck whispered directing a glare at Bobbie. “It’s for a good cause. And all the girls being auctioned are hot up-and-coming professionals. Just like you! Be quiet, and get your ass up on the stage when I call you. Same goes for you, ladies.” He gestured to the women behind stage and placed his foot on the first of three steps that led to the microphone stand as the music screeched to a close.

  “This is happening right now?” Bobbie squeaked.
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  “You’ll be fine.” He pecked her on the check then turned with a flourish and climbed onto the stage.

  In typical Chuck fashion, he strutted across the tiny area, grabbed the microphone, disengaging it from the stand and taking it in hand. He smiled big as he stepped to the front of the stage and gave an exaggerated bow like he was about to perform a circus trick.

  “Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the BABS Humanity Effort Annual Auction!” A smattering of applause erupted from the crowd, with a few half-hearted woo-hoos. Chuck pursed his lips and put his hands on his hips, giving the crowd a good glare until they relented and the applause increased.

  “Now that’s better!” He smiled, flashing his perfect, straight, white teeth. “You’re here for a good reason, a charity that is near and dear to my heart. So, get out those phones and start bidding. Look around at the tables near the bar and join in on the silent auction—all you have to do is type in your bid via the app. We have some wonderful items donated by our very fabulous sponsors! I don’t know about you, but I could use that Rolex Jillian Jewelers has up for auction, or that trip to Cancun from Bildy Travel, so you better get your bids in quickly!”

  Bobbie’s curiosity got the better of her and she stepped up on the first step to get a good view of the crowd and auction items. She could use a trip to Cancun, she hadn’t been to Mexico in a while and could always use a little R&R. Chuck had the place set up nicely with the tables against the half-walls that separated the VIP section from the main bar area and dance floor.