Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88064 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
"Bradley, are you making more pancakes?" Cooper asks, nodding at the now empty plate. While I’ve been watching Dawn and thinking, all the food has been cleared, as if a plague of locusts has landed.
I pour more batter onto the griddle and listen as my friends talk, or should I say flirt, with Dawn. Her phone is buzzing like crazy, distracting her attention every few seconds.
"Who is that?" Mitchell asks, nodding at the device that rests on the table next to her plate.
"My friend Kyla," she says. "She’s teasing me about living with you guys."
"Really? How come?" Cooper asks.
"Well, the last time she got a new job, she ended up in a relationship with the eight tattoo artists she was working with."
"She what?" Cooper says, his eyes bugging out in surprise.
"It’s a reverse harem thing."
From my angle, I can’t see her face, but I can imagine the smile tweaking at the corners of her full lips.
"Reverse harem?" Bryce asks.
"Yeah. You know. Like a harem, but with many, many gorgeous men."
"Does your friend know you describe her boyfriends as gorgeous?" Mitchell asks.
"Hell yeah. I was the one who got her into that enviable situation. It started as a game."
I flip the pancakes onto the plate and Cooper rises to serve himself.
"What kind of game, Dawn?" I ask.
She swivels in her chair to face me. "Well, Kyla wasn’t very experienced in the bedroom." She raises her eyebrows suggestively. "So the very generous men of Ink Factor offered to introduce her to their favorite kinks."
"I bet they did," Mitchell laughs, raising his mug to finish the last of his coffee. "That sounds like the most awesome game ever."
"And they all ended up in a relationship. How?" Bryce asks. Of course, he’d be the one to want to know the ins and outs.
"They all fell in love with her. She’s an incredibly special woman."
"She’d have to be to balance the needs of eight men," Lachlan says, his mouth twisting in a thoughtful way.
"She’s got it working like a well-oiled machine," Dawn says. "Women are masters of multi-tasking."
"And so, how does it work? Do they each have a day? I don’t think I could go eight days between sex."
"No. It’s mostly a free-for-all."
"What does that even mean?" Lachlan asks. I narrow my eyes at my friend, shocked that of all of us, he’s the one practically interrogating Dawn about her friend.
"It means they all share a bed."
"It can work," Mitchell says. "I’ve seen many movies showcasing this exact same thing."
"You’ve seen many gang bang pornos," I say. "Not many loving reverse harem relationships. I’d bet there’s a whole load of difference."
"Maybe," Dawn says. "Kyla confided a little before they were official, but now it’s all private."
"As it should be," Lachlan says.
"Well, if one of your friends has eight lovers, there’s hope for us," Mitchell says.
Lachlan chokes on his coffee and Jared and Joshua laugh like it’s an idea they’ve already considered. I get that. When you have a twin, sharing becomes second nature. But sharing a woman with eight other men would be a few miles further than we’ve ever gone.
"I’m going to tell her you said that," Dawn laughs, tapping away on her phone. It beeps again and she splutters. "She wants to see a photo of you all, just to check you’re good enough for me."
"Didn’t you give her your reviews on Thomas, Joshua, Jared, and Mitchell already?" Cooper asks.
"I like to kiss," Dawn smiles, "But I’m not so big on the telling part."
"Kyla’s going to be pissed at you if you don’t," Logan says. "People in relationships always seem to want to live vicariously through single people with exciting lives."
"She’s working in a bar with us," I say. "How exciting is it going to get?"
"Pretty damned exciting so far." Dawn stands, bringing her plate with her to fork the last fluffy pancake. "They're good," she says, "But my recipe has the edge."
"Really?" I say, surprised. I’m a chef by trade, so I’d expect mine to be better.
"A pinch of cinnamon in the mixture," she says with a wink.
"Interesting."
Mitchell’s chair scrapes across the tiled floor, and he leans back, resting his hands behind his head. "You could one-up your friend Dawn. There are enough of us."
"Mitchell!" Lachlan exclaims, shocked by the suggestion. Maybe there are only eight of us who’d be up for the challenge. Dawn could at least equal her friend without needing Lachlan to cooperate.
"What?" Mitchell stands, making his way over to Dawn and leaning in to kiss her lips in front of us all. When he comes up for air, Dawn’s face is perfectly flushed. "She loves it, don’t you baby?"
"I do," she says, grinning and making a point of looking around at all of us so we can be sure she’s telling the truth.
"You only live once, right?" Mitchell says, his hand drifting over her tattoo.