The Inheritance (Contemporary Reverse Harem 1)

I pushed open the door to the dive bar around the corner, where I’d been only a couple times before. Jack and I worked such long hours, we rarely had downtime to just sit and have a beer. The Drive By was kind of a smelly dump, but the beer was cold and cheap, and most times, that was all I needed. I settled onto a barstool and ordered myself a Michelob Ultra. Tasted like crap, but at least it was low in carbs.

The bar was fairly crowded, with old dudes who looked like regulars clustered down at one end and yuppies slumming it at the other. I kept

to myself, as usual, while I waited on my brother.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get to use that pretty mouth on me later.”

WHAT? I whipped around to find the dude who was talking to me like that. But I was alone. No one was even next to me. I turned back to my beer.

“Baby, I can’t wait to see you gag on me,” the voice said.

Shit. Okay, I was pretty sure that wasn’t intended for me. But who was it intended for?

I looked around again, wondering who was putting on the show. It seemed I was the only one who heard it, until I caught sight of a pretty young woman whose face was covered in fear. She was a couple barstools over, sitting with the dirty-mouthed asshole. Her upper arm was wrapped in his tight grip, indented by the pressure from his fingers. He looked pleased with his clueless seduction skills and oblivious to her clear desire to escape. Any idiot could see she was not enjoying herself. Except him, apparently.

“C’mon now,” the guy continued smoothly. “I know where you live. So don’t act like you’re too good for me.” His cheesy smile told me he did that sort of thing all the time.

The woman tried to pull away, her dark curls getting caught in his grip.

“Could you please let go of me?” she asked, looking around nervously.

He released her. “Yeah. No problem. Let’s get going.” He stood and threw some money on the bar. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. She nearly fell when she caught my eye.

That was all I needed.

“Excuse me,” I said to the two of them.

The guy looked me up and down. I might be an introvert, but I was a fucking fit one.

He was not deterred. “Bro, get out of our way.” He attempted to push past me, dragging the stumbling woman.

I placed a hand on his shoulder. “It doesn’t look to me like the lady here is either having a good time, or wanting to go anywhere with you.” I turned to her for a reaction.

She quickly shook her head and looked from him to me and back. “I…I don’t want to go anywhere with you. Please leave me alone.” The poor thing was shaking.

I turned to the guy. “Did you hear what she said? You need to leave her alone. Or do you need me to help you leave her alone?” I pulled myself up to full height, a good head taller than the asshole.

When he got a load of the disparity in our sizes, his face blanched and he dropped the woman’s hand. She stepped back and partly behind me. But the guy’s mouth wasn’t backing down. “Fuck you, dude. Why don’t you mind your fucking business?” he spat in my face.

He was even dumber than I thought. “If it’s not clear to you that it’s time for you to leave, I will be happy to help you out the door,” I said calmly.

“Fuck off,” he said to me, turning to the woman. “And you, you little c—,” but he didn’t get to finish. I grabbed him by the collar, dragged him through the bar, and tossed him out the door just as my brother was coming in. I pulled the door closed once Jack was inside, leaving the creep out on the sidewalk on his ass.

“Hey, I got us a couple seats,” I said, nodding toward the bar.

“All right then,” Jack said, following me with a big smile.

Chapter 5

Garnet

That had gone well—not. I’d weeded through all those damn Craigslist emails, looked at an untold number of penis photographs, and chose the one guy I thought was not a complete psycho. There had to be one good one in there, right? Wrong. He might have been the best of the worst, but I quickly learned that wasn’t saying a hell of a lot.

And now I was face to face with the Adonis of a guy who’d thrown my creepy Craigslist date out the door and onto his ass. And if that weren’t embarrassing enough, another fellow joined him who could have been his twin. Good grief, there were two of them?

“Hey, are you okay? That guy was a real asshole,” Adonis said. God, he was gorgeous with his scruff of facial hair and slightly unkempt ponytail.

But even though the creep was gone, I was still shaken. I could play it cool, though. I flipped my hair back in my best no big deal fashion. Adonis didn’t look fooled.