Harem Startup : The Demon Billionaire is on Vacation

Chapter 329: Lust Consumes, Greed Invests



She looked him up and down.

Very slowly.

"You work out?"

"I run the hell finance department and seduce goddesses. Gotta keep the cardio sharp."

"…Fair."

She stepped inside, arms folded under her robe, watching him with a weird expression.

Not judgment.

More like… fascination she was trying to hide.

Lux picked up a towel, wiped his face. "You sleep well?"

She nodded. "Better than I expected. Bed was good. Sheets too soft. Pillow almost seduced me."

"Seduction is standard here."

She leaned against the wall, squinting. "Do you always wake up before six?"

"Mostly."

"That's hellish."

"Literally."

She snorted. Then, quieter, "You're really not what I expected."

Lux tilted his head. "Meaning?"

"I don't know. I thought you'd still be in bed. Surrounded. Smug. Hungover from sex and sin. Not… this."

He tossed the towel aside. Walked to the drink shelf. "Tea?"

"Please."

He poured it himself.

No servant. No spell.

Just hot water. Loose leaves. Patience.

She took the cup from him.

Sipped.

Then looked at him again.

"Why are you like this?"

"Like what?"

She gestured vaguely. "This. All of this. Demon CFO with self-control. Incubus who doesn't chase tail in the morning. Man who works out instead of grinding on his harem."

He leaned back against the counter, watching her over the rim of his own cup.

"I was born from Lust," he said quietly. "But I was raised by Greed."

She blinked.

"Lust consumes. But Greed?" He sipped. "Greed invests."

Silence.

Then Mira laughed softly, brushing a strand of sleep-tangled hair behind her ear.

"I think," she said, "you just seduced me with a business metaphor."

"Good," Lux murmured, tilting his head just slightly. "That means I'm staying on brand."

The gym still smelled like spice and steel—like coffee left too long in a sunlit glass and the subtle heat of bodies that moved without pause.

Mira padded across the room, still barefoot. She made her way to the bench across from him.

She sat down slowly, stretching one leg out, mug still warm between her palms.

"So…" she started, "Sira talked a lot about you."

Lux didn't stop. He continued his set. His breath stayed even, steady. Pull-up after pull-up, his muscles flexed and released, sweat clinging to his spine in deliberate beads. "Let me guess," he said without looking at her. "About her games? What she wants to do with me next? How many times she tried to bait me?"

Mira smirked. "No. Though I imagine she's done that."

"Frequently."

She sipped her tea. "She didn't talk about your sex life. Not really. She talked about me."

That got him to glance her way. A flicker. Just enough.

"She seems to know I'm interested," Mira continued. "She wants me to join your harem. She didn't say it outright, but…" Her voice curled with sarcasm. "She's not exactly subtle."

Again, Lux dropped down from the bar and grabbed a towel. Wiped the sweat from his hands, then his chest. He slung it over his neck and met her gaze with a calm that was too focused, too surgical.

"Sounds like her," he said.

Mira watched him a moment longer, studying the way his shoulders moved. The absence of arrogance in his posture. He didn't preen like other men. He was attractive, sure—but he carried it like it was a side-effect of something deeper.

"So?" she said. "What do you want from this harem of yours, Lux?"

He didn't answer immediately.

"I mean," she went on, setting her mug down on the floor beside her, "you're collecting women. You sleep with them. You provide. You bond. But what's the endgame?"

She leaned forward, elbows on her knees.

"Are you… trying to build an army for some kind of financial apocalypse? A legion of wives who can outbid the gods in a portfolio war?"

He said nothing.

She tilted her head, voice softer now, more dangerous. "Or is it something else? Are you just collecting women who love you? Who'll bear your name? Breed your heirs like some infernal prince building a dynasty in his image?"

Lux looked at her fully now.

He dropped the towel on a nearby bench and crossed his arms—unbothered by his own half-nakedness, but not flaunting it either. Just present. Steady. Honest.

"The second one," he said, "and the third one."

Mira blinked.

For once, she didn't have a comeback.

She sat back, staring at him. "Wow. No shame?"

He shook his head. "No sugarcoating either."

She studied him again, trying to pick out the lie—but there wasn't one. His eyes didn't flicker. His shoulders didn't tense. His voice didn't rise or dip with uncertainty.

"What," she said slowly, "you just… want a bunch of women who love you?"

"And want me," he clarified. "Not my position. Not my money. Not the power. Me."

He stepped closer, picking up his mug. Took another sip. Then set it down.

"And yeah," he added. "I want children."

That one hit harder than she expected.

Her brows furrowed. "Seriously?"

"Dead serious."

She scoffed, still dazed. "That's not the incubus fantasy I was sold."

Lux's mouth twitched. "I'm not your average incubus."

Clearly.

She shook her head. "That's… a lot to admit."

"I don't play coy," he said. "This isn't the boardroom, and I'm not on a stage. I'm on vacation. I prefer to spill what you're signing up for bluntly."

He smiled faintly. "I'd rather you know now, than regret it later."

Mira's tone was incredulous. "So let me get this straight—you want a house full of lovers who all know each other, sleep with you, trust each other, and raise children in a shared infernal polycule of emotionally mature co-parenting?"

Lux didn't flinch.

"Exactly."

"…You're insane."

"Thank you."

She blinked again. "You're not even denying it."

He shrugged. "I don't need to."

There was a long beat of silence. Then Mira asked quietly, "Why? Why do you want that? What kind of demon wakes up and thinks, 'Yeah, a full house of hormonal women and demon toddlers crawling on ceiling tiles, that's the dream.'"

Lux's voice dropped.

"Because… I'm a miracle," he said.


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