Page 84 of Shifted Desire

“You’re part-succubus. There’s nothing wrong with needing more than one sexual partner to keep yourself satisfied.”

I sniff, wishing I could see his expression. There’s no way that he’s actually as chill about this as he sounds. “There isn’t?”

He snorts. “No. It’s pretty fucking natural.”

“How would you know?” It’s a bratty response, but I can’t help it. I’m a raw nerve right now.

“Because I have succubus friends. Your mom, Max, and Maggie are all a bit of an anomaly. Polyamory is the norm. I feel like you already know this, though. Claire has multiple partners, and so does your grandmother and all of your mom’s cousins.”

“Yes, but…”

But what? He’s not saying anything that I didn’t know. But polyamory has never felt right to me. It just seemed like more people to let down or not be good enough for.

“I want what my parents and Maggie and Max have,” I admit, more to myself than to him. “I want that soulmate partner, fairy tale romance bullshit. But I can’t have it because I’m too needy for one person to handle. Too greedy.”

There’s a brief pause, followed by a gentle sigh. “The person who is the right match for you will understand. Will want you to have all your needs fulfilled and get that it won’t come from only them.”

“Oh yeah? And where the hell is that person?” I snap, hating the platitude.

There’s another pause, longer this time.

I’m about to call him out on his shitty lies that don’t comfort me at all when he speaks.

“I agreed not to be monogamous, didn’t I?”

My pulse spikes. “You did, but…”

“You read my kink survey. You saw what I’m into.” His voice lowers. “Don’t you remember that night when I watched Declan use you?”

“We weren’t anything to each other back then,” I protest, my mind racing because there’s no way he’s serious and⁠—

“If you were mine, if we did this for real, I’d want you to get everything you need. And I’d fucking enjoy every moment of it.”

“Nathan…”

“Come to The Vault with me. We’ll go tonight. I’ll show you if you don’t believe me.”

This is beyond a terrible idea, but my body lights up at the thought. I’ll blame heatstroke when this ends up a disaster, because when I open my mouth to say no, what comes out instead is, “Alright. If you think you can handle it, let’s find out.”

31

When I pick Samantha up—around the corner from her parents’ house so they don’t see who she’s going out with—she’s buzzing with palpable agitation.

“Hey, so if you changed your mind, we can go do something else. We can go get dinner or go back to your place, or I can go back to my room and you can go do something fun that doesn’t involve me. I don’t want you to feel like I’m pressuring you to⁠—”

I place a hand on her thigh and squeeze. “I didn’t change my mind.”

Her brow furrows. “It’s okay if you did. I know this is weird.”

“It’s not.” I want to smooth the worry off her face with my fingers, but I think she’d slap my hand away. “I want to try this out.”

She’s wearing the little pearl pin that we picked out to mean she’s down for free use, so I slide my hand inward, hooking my fingers under the sleek fabric of her miniskirt to tease her over her panties. “I want to see how pretty you look when you’re getting fucked.”

She sucks in a shallow breath, her cheeks pinking as I tease her pussy, the thin fabric growing wet. Her scent fills the car, and I wonder why we didn’t do this before, because it’s going to smell like her for days, and damn, I love that.

“Well, if you insist,” she sighs, the tension in her spine loosening as her pleasure builds.

When I reluctantly pull my hand away, she growls at me. It’s the cutest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. “What the hell, why did you stop?”