Harem House - Selene Pt. 17

Arthur's journey from the office to the cafe was quick but pleasant. The weather was beautiful, and he almost regretted going inside. The cafe smelled of thick coffee and syrups, and the noise of people at their tables and booths was dull compared to the Monday night football pre-show on the big screen television at the far end.

To his surprise, Selene was reading with her books spread out all over one of the smaller cafe tables when he arrived, but she quickly shoveled away her notebooks and textbooks to clear the table for them both. For a moment, he was almost transported back to any number of days before last week when they might have been hanging out as friends. The main difference now was the thin leather band around Selene's neck that she adamantly refused to remove, marking her as his slave.

Arthur approached the table with a smile but stayed standing. "Hey." He said as he bent over her and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

Surprised, she went rigid but melted into the kiss before he pulled away. Her smile was huge when he'd pulled back far enough to see it. A few people around them noticed the new dynamic, but no one commented on it. The bystanders looked satisfied as if some long-held suspicion was now confirmed.

"Ready to eat?" Arthur asked.

"Yes, sir." Selene beamed as she moved to her feet and slid out of her chair.

With their bags over their shoulders, Arthur led them to the queue where the food was and selected the grilled chicken salad for himself. Selene took the Caesar salad and got them both some cutlery. Arthur paid for it all at the register and nodded toward the doors. "Let's eat outside tonight." He suggested. "We can take up one of the benches by the pond. It's nice out tonight."

"Yes, sir." Selene smiled at him as she followed.

Arthur offered her his hand, and she took it in hers, each holding their packaged food in the other. They walked together down the main campus walkway from the dining hall toward the pond and fountain in front of the campus. There were a few people out and about, a few they even knew, but no one bothered them as they walked hand-in-hand and enjoyed the pleasant weather.

"This is..." Selene hesitated. "Nice."

"What's wrong?" Arthur asked, recognizing the hesitation immediately.

"Nothing's wrong. It's just... weird." Selene giggled. "I'm not used to this new dynamic yet. I guess. Holding hands, like a couple or something."

"Well, we are like a couple." Arthur said. "Aren't we? I mean, we've been over it a thousand times. We're definitely not fooling anyone by calling ourselves just friends."

Selene laughed. "We are a couple." She assured him. "It's just new. Different. Nice." She explained. "Holding your hand feels nice."

Arthur squeezed her hand gently, and she smiled up at him, resting her head on his bicep for a moment until momentum made it inconvenient. They found a bench by the pond with a great view of the fountain and sat down to eat dinner together as the sun set, turning the sky over this patch of the park a shallow pink. Others were scattered around the fountain on different benches or patches of grass, each enjoying the day.

"So, how was your day, Master?" Selene asked. "Mindy said you two finally had some fun in the office." She said suggestively.

"Yeah." Arthur nodded. "That was... pretty great." Then he thought of something. "That wasn't against the rules, was it? Because her date was last night?"

"No, that was one-on-one time. That was fine." Selene nodded. "We all agreed you take one-on-one time with us when possible." She assured him. "Date night is... well, this." Selene smiled. "Tonight is your date night with me. Dinner, Theater club, and then some one-on-one time when you shove me in the trunk, drive me to some remote spot, tie me to a tree, fuck my brains out, and leave me there to find my way home naked, used, and alone?"

Arthur laughed, nearly spitting out a chunk of chicken and spinach. "Oh, is that the plan for tonight?" Arthur asked incredulously. "I didn't know. Don't you have work tomorrow? I wouldn't want to make you late."

Selene smiled. "Just a suggestion, of course, Master. Our plans tonight are entirely up to you."

"So if I told you to lay face down on this bench right now, and-" Arthur cut himself off as Selene started to move to obey. "I was being hypothetical." He laughed. "Geez."

"Sorry, Master." Selene blushed slightly, but judging by her smile, she was not sorry at all.

"How was your day?" Arthur asked after a brief silence. He'd debated telling her about the similar misunderstanding with Beth, but he decided to keep that to himself. Arthur told Beth he wouldn't tell anyone about it, and he saw no reason to now. It wasn't as if anything had happened, and he had no intention of adding Beth to the harem. Not that she wasn't hot, but she was his boss, which was complicated, and five women were definitely enough. He was starting to worry he wouldn't have time for the girlfriends he had, much less time for more.

"My day was boring, other than breakfast." Selene admitted. "Kat and I spent most of it making up for my lack of studying over the weekend. Then I went to classes for four straight hours of blah, blah, and blah."

Arthur laughed. "What do you normally do on Monday mornings?" He asked.

"Sleep." Selene admitted. "Tuesdays and Thursdays I might pick up a few hours at work. Sometimes Wednesdays, but Mondays and Fridays? Sleep."

"That's a good gig if you can get it." Arthur nodded.

"Well, I doubt we'll have a lot of Monday morning maintenance requests once we're all moved in." Selene smiled. "Maybe you can shift your class schedule to take them all in a chunk?"

"Not a bad idea with the commuting, I suppose. My new housemates will probably keep me up pretty late." He mused.

"Oh yeah." Selene nodded. "Those sisters? I know they're planning on keeping you up till the early morning every night until the others move in."

"How cruel of them." Arthur scoffed.

"Downright sadistic, but you must be cruel to be kind." Selene said sagely.

"Oh, is that a fact?" Arthur asked.

Selene nodded. "Pretty sure that's a fact."

"I'll have to remember that." Arthur said as he glanced over at Selene, who was already smiling at him wickedly. "Let's see... how could I show you kindness tonight?" He mused. "Maybe I should make you toss those jean shorts in the pond. Make you go to the theater club meeting in just those leggings and a t-shirt that's too short to cover them."

Selene shrugged. "I wear whatever you want me to wear, Master. That's not sadistic."

"What if I want you to wear no top at all?" Arthur mused though he noticed that, thankfully, Selene did not immediately move to obey when he hadn't commanded her to do anything. "We could tell everyone you're method-acting. They'd buy that. We're actors. Actors can blame literally any crazy shit on method-acting."

Selene giggled. She didn't argue or protest, but she didn't move to obey him either. Selene knew he wasn't serious about it, even if the thought of being forced to sit through the meeting with nothing but a bra, or not even a bra, for a top while everyone else was fully clothed made her feel hot. She glanced at him a few times while they ate, but he never gave the order.

Arthur smiled at her, and they finished the rest of their salads in companionable silence. Then they sat on the bench and watched the fountain, cuddled up with Selene's head on his shoulder, her arms hugging his arm, with both her hands holding his left hand between them. They both felt a new and direct sense of closeness that was romantic and almost comically innocent to Arthur. It was almost as if they were cuddling for aftercare for a session that hadn't happened yet.

Selene sighed.

"What's wrong?" Arthur asked.

"Nothing," Selene said. "That was a happy sigh. A contented sigh. A, I wish this moment could last forever, but on the other hand, I really want to taste Mindy on your cock sigh."

Arthur laughed. "And, moment ruined."

"What?" Selene sounded shocked. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

Arthur lifted a hand and pressed a finger to her lips, which shut her up more effectively than any command. He left it there as he looked into her eyes for a moment. Then he removed his finger from her lips and replaced it with his lips. They kissed on the bench for a few minutes, enjoying each other's company, until Arthur's phone alarm went off.

"Alright." Arthur said softly. "Time for theater club. And then, some one-on-one time."

"In the woods?" Selene asked as she gathered her things.

"We'll see." Arthur said patiently. "If you're a good girl during theater club."

"I'll be the best girl." Selene smirked at him and nudged his arm with her shoulder. "You'll see."

Arthur laughed, and together the two of them walked hand in hand to the arts building across campus.

While Arthur and Selene ate their dinners at the pond, Mindy and Rani ate dinner together at the cafeteria. They'd spent most of the day together outside of work classes, but since Mindy was coming from class and Rani was coming from a study group session, running into each other now at dinner seemed coincidental.

Rani was in line alone. Mindy was already at a table with her suitemates. Her suitemates were three other freshmen girls, and Rani wondered how similar or different they were from Mindy. They looked like the cast of a Disney TV Channel show, each with another ethnicity and body type. It was almost amusing, which prompted Rani's smile as Mindy spotted her and gave her an enthusiastic wave and smile.

Rani waited in line for her panini and looked up again when she felt Mindy collide into her side and wrap her in a hug.

"Come sit with us!" Mindy said enthusiastically. "I want to introduce you to my suitemates."

Rani chuckled. "I already joined one cult with you today. Isn't that enough?"

Mindy giggled. "We're not a cult!" She looked around and realized a few people had heard her protestation and were looking at her funny.

"It's fine." Rani said with a chuckle. "If I'm going to join a cult, I'm glad it's a sex cult. I could never understand why people would join religious or demonic cults when sex cults exist. Like, if you're going to go through all that trouble of matching robes and candle sticks, you better be fuckin'."

Mindy shook her head. "That's not funny." She said, but her smile betrayed her. "Are you going to come to sit with me or not?"

"Sure." Rani said. "Are they in the harem too?"

Mindy shook her head violently. "No. And they don't know about it, so... please don't say anything. I haven't had a chance to bring it up yet."

Rani arched an eyebrow. "I thought we were out and proud about this." She said.

"Well...." Mindy hesitated. "Yes, and no." She didn't mind if people on campus knew about her open, poly relationship with Arthur, but her nearby family was a different story. Her parents were, naturally, a different generation. They wouldn't understand. Most of her suitemates might understand her situation even if they thought it was weird, but her direct roommate would not, she was religious, and she could be a bitch about it.

"You don't want people to know you're in a sex cult?" Rani teased her.

"It's not a sex cult!" Mindy whispered harshly and pinched Rani's arm in her displeasure.

"Ow, okay. Okay. Sorry. I was just teasing you." Rani smirked. "Do they know you're bi?"

"No." Mindy answered quickly. "And I have no idea how my roommate's gonna react to that news. She's a...." She glanced over her shoulder at the table. "She's a Baptist."

"What's a Baptist?" Rani asked. "Is it one of those Christian sects?"

Mindy looked at her funny.

"What?" Rani asked. "I was raised Hindu. Religiously, we're allowed to do pretty much everything. Obviously, I'm not planning on telling my parents about the cul- harem. I don't know the difference between all those different Christian religions. There are too many of them! Are they anything like Catholics?"

Mindy sighed. "Kind of, but like... very strict about what they think is right and what is wrong."

"And sexual liberty or liberty in general for women is...." Rani prompted.

Mindy looked up at her with the answer in her eyes.

"So..." Rani surmised. "A prude."

Mindy giggled but nodded.

"Alright." Rani shrugged. "If I pretend to be demon-possessed, will she freak out?"

Mindy slapped her arm. "Please behave?"

"Only because you asked so nicely." Rani fluttered her eyelashes at Mindy, who looked at her momentarily as though she were about to say or do something else but backed down. "But I'm keeping that in my back pocket for Halloween."

"Okay." Mindy relaxed. "Oh, and if anyone asks, we take chemistry together, and I fell asleep studying in your dorm room last night, and you were too nice to kick me out."

"What?" Rani asked, surprised.

"I'll see you at the table." Mindy patted her arm and headed back over to her suitemates.

Rani shook her head and returned her attention to the food she was waiting for. Paninis were popular, and there were only so many presses. Eventually, she joined Mindy and her suitemates for dinner.

"Everyone, this is Rani." Mindy said with a smile. "She's a friend of mine. Rani, this is everyone. Sara, Bella, and Rachel." They each waved and welcomed her to the table.

Sara was a surprisingly tall but slender African-American girl with her short coiled hair swept back by a headband and dressed in an open-collared shirt with a ribbed undershirt beneath it. Bella was a dark-skinned moon-faced Latina who seemed as round as Sara was slender, with pudgy cheeks that were surprisingly cute.

By contrast to her three companions, Rachel was the whitest white girl to ever white from Rani's perspective. She had long, thin black hair that was combed straight and kept back with a blue headband, and she wore a conservative blue dress that covered her from its collared top, to just above her ankles, with sleeves that came to her elbow. It was an ugly dress, but Rani kept her mouth shut. Judging from the cross-themed necklace around her neck, she was the one Mindy was worried about having an issue. Rani had to stifle back a chuckle. To her, it was like Rachel was out of a parody sketch or teen movie. People like her didn't actually exist, did they? Rani was almost surprised there wasn't a Bible on the table beside her.

"Hey, everyone." Rani said with a wave of her hand. She set her tray next to Mindy's and gave her a slightly nervous smile.

"It's nice to meet you!" Bella said happily. "Always glad to meet someone else suffering through Chem 101." She chuckled.

"I haven't seen you around the class, though, have I?" Sara asked.

Rani shook her head. "It's a big class, but no. I take a different section than you. Same class, same professor, different time." She shrugged.

"Are you ready for the mid-term?" Bella asked.

"That's, like, weeks away." Rani scoffed, but that seemed to be the wrong thing to say. The four girls at the table seemed more nervous about the exams than Rani was, but she remembered what it was like being a Freshman. They weren't as comfortable with the system yet. This was the first time they were taking exams in a college course, and their high school teachers had probably warned them about how difficult college would be, just like hers had.

It wasn't. Chemistry could be challenging, but college classes weren't intentionally difficult to pass. High school teachers were liars because they wanted you to over-prepare so you would do well. It was sweet, in a way, but Rani had learned how to study for which exams by now, and her chem class had been burdensome, sure, but she was good at chem.

"Mindy said you two fell asleep studying last night." Rachel smirked. "Was it that boring or that late?"

Rani smirked. "Bit of both, I guess. I think I accidentally brewed decaf."

The girls laughed, and the conversation moved away from classes and into pop culture, which was not Rani's strong suit. She let the others talk and ate in an easy silence next to Mindy, whom she watched with an absent-minded smile.

"So what are your plans for-" Bella started to ask Sara something, but she was cut off as a male voice interrupted the table.

"Hey, there you are!"

Rani visibly winced before turning to see Sanjay coming their way. Their date yesterday had ended gracefully, but thankfully. As in, Rani was thankful when it was over. Then she, at Mindy's invitation, spent the rest of the night with Mindy and Arthur after they'd dropped Sanjay off at his place.

"Hey." Sanjay said when he arrived at the table, still standing but cutting in so that the girls made room for him, so he became the head of a triangle between Rani and Mindy around the round table. He was preparing to put his plate down when he spoke up again. "I had a great time last night." He said cheerfully.

"You did?" Rani asked. "Why? What'd you do after our date?"

Mindy giggled but if Sanjay heard her he made no sign. He'd clearly planned what to say, and his plans did not account for rabbit trails or distractions. What Rani said didn't seem to matter to him.

"I thought we should go out again, maybe get a proper dinner this time. Do you want to be my date to the homecoming game and the party after?" Sanjay asked hurriedly as he set his plate down.

Sara and Bella at the table looked at each other excitedly as if they were witnessing the birth of romance. They watched with eager interest.

"How is that a proper dinner?" Rani asked.

The girls looked surprised, but now that they thought about it, they realized she was right. Sanjay's comment didn't match his offer.

"Well...." Sanjay hesitated, clearly presented with an obstacle he hadn't encountered before. "There'd be food at the party."

"No thanks." Rani said flatly.

"Great, I'll-" He hesitated. His brain caught up to his ears and realized that something about his plan had fallen apart. Something hadn't worked or gone how he expected, and now he had to improvise. "Oh, well, if you're not into sports, we can skip the game and go to a restaurant?"

"No, I'm going to the game and probably to a party afterward." Rani clarified. "But I'm going with... someone else."

"Oh." Sanjay looked disappointed but quickly thought of a way to turn it around. "Who?"

"Uh, well..." Rani glanced at Mindy, who looked at her with wide eyes in alarm.

Mindy's head gave just the tiniest shake of a no so Rani could see it, but no one else seemed to. The group's eyes turned to Mindy too late.

"Just a group of... people." Rani answered lamely.

"Well, I can tag along if it's a group hangout. I already have my ticket." Sanjay offered.

"No, it's-" Mindy seemed surprised to be talking and looked to Rani for help.

"It's kind of a date. A group date." Rani clarified.

"Perfect." Sanjay said. "I'll pick you up at your dorm?"

"No." Rani shook her head. "God, you listen about as well as you kiss."

"Thank you." Sanjay smiled.

Mindy, Sara, and Bella giggled. Rachel looked like she'd eaten something sour.

"You need to listen when I talk." Rani informed him. "It's a group date I'm going on with other people." Rani explained. "Not you. It's already a date without you."

A frown graced Sanjay's face, and he looked back and forth between Rani and Mindy for a moment. "Oh." He said finally. "Sure, I get it." He nodded, then paused. "So, who's the guy you're going with?" He asked with just a tinge of annoyance tainting his tone.

"Arthur." Rani explained as if he were dense.

"What, are you one of his girlfriends now?" Sanjay laughed, still treating the entire idea of Arthur dating multiple women as a joke. Arthur had mentioned it on Sunday, but he couldn't have been serious, could he?

"I mean..." Rani hesitated. "Kind of?"

"What?" Sanjay asked, shocked. "Did you... did you two hook up after he dumped me off at my place last night?"