Page 43 of Crave: A Reverse Harem Romance

Yeah, that seemed attached.

I was preparing myself to say no, but evidently I had no willpower because what came out instead was “yes.”

“Really?” He looked surprised.

“Uh, yeah.” I was surprised, myself. “Let me just tell Liza.”

I walked up to her car and knocked on the window. She rolled it down.

“Hey, um… you don’t have to take me home after all. I think I’m going to go home with Axel.”

She gave me a cheeky smile. “Not a problem. Call me tomorrow, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah… I will,” I told her.

She rolled it back up and then began to reverse out of the parking lot, giving me a wave as she drove by.

When her car was gone, I looked over at Axel.

“So, my place, then?”

“Yeah, your place.” I smiled.

I’d obviously never been to his or any of the guys’ houses before, so I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. As it turned out, Axel lived downtown in this absolutely gorgeous penthouse.

When I walked in the door, I couldn’t help but gasp. It was straight out of a magazine. An all-white kitchen covered in gorgeous marble. A television that literally spanned his entire wall in the living room. Gorgeous tile floors throughout the place. It was one of the prettiest homes I’d ever seen.

“You’re really living in the lap of luxury, huh?” I asked him.

“Oh, it’s not all that…” He laughed, trying to play it off.

I raised my eyebrows at him. “Seriously?”

He chuckled again. “Okay, okay, yeah. It’s pretty awesome, I’ll admit that. I enjoy it a lot. It’s so wildly different from the home Diesel and I grew up in.”

“He told me,” I said, nodding. “I think it’s really impressive the way you guys managed to accomplish all this for yourselves.”

He looked pleased. “Thank you, I really appreciate you saying so. It’s been a crazy journey, but I’m really happy to be here.”

Then he looked at me oddly. Something about his stare told me that when he said he was happy to be here, he meant he was happy to be here with me. Like, in this very moment. But that couldn’t have been what he meant, right? I mean… I didn’t actually mean anything to him.

Did I?

“So, what do you want to do?” he asked me. “I want you to be as comfortable as possible. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Do you want me to order some food? Or we can just watch TV or—”

I cut him off with a smile. “You’re so sweet, but relax. I’m totally fine. Honestly, more than anything… I just want to go to sleep.”

I felt a little awkward saying so, since, you know, I was in his house and all. It felt so awkward sleeping at someone else’s place. But it was the truth. That was what I wanted to do in this moment. Just lay down for a while.

“We can absolutely do that,” he told me.

“Really?” I asked, comforted by the thought.

“Yeah, sure.” He looked me up and down, staring at my dress. “You’ll probably want to change into something more comfortable, though. I’ve got a t-shirt and a pair of gym shorts you can have.”

“Oh…” I hadn’t thought about that. “Yeah, that would be great.”

“Follow me,” he said, as he stepped into his bedroom.

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