Chapter 15
FIFTEEN
REED
The memory of how my girl stiffened when Jasper placed his arm around her shoulders stayed with me for the entire car journey. I was confronted by a deep, primitive desire to protect.
As my eyes had roamed over her figure in those tight yoga pants and top that fit her body like Saran Wrap, I could see she’d lost weight.
Her shoulder blades and collar bone were more pronounced.
Storm’s fragility had unsettled me, and that searing look she gave me as I reversed the car was unnerving.
I loved the fact that she’d been jealous, stewing over whether I’d taken anyone back to my hotel after our win.
Players generally steered clear of sex pre-game; unspent sexual energy and tension were useful on the field.
Post-game was an entirely different story, with teammates panting for a rough, no-holes-barred victory fuck.
I’d strung her along on purpose, reveling in that way she’d stuck her nose in the air, all puffed up like an indignant chicken.
I had forgotten how good it felt winding her up.
Some of the best sex we’d shared had been the making-up kind.
I particularly remembered that one time when I’d bent her over her Daddy’s desk and nailed her from behind, how sweet her pert ass had looked with my handprints all over it.
I wasn’t into the kinky shit as much as Nix was, but I enjoyed spanking my girl and how she got off taking it.
When I’d left the car, I couldn’t stop staring at her tits, because let's face it, where my girl’s rack was concerned, I was that guy.
My dick twitched against the zipper of my jeans, and I knew I had to brush those erotic thoughts away. Otherwise, there was a good chance I would be sitting beside my brother with a huge boner.
“So, how come you stood Storm up? Bold move,” Phoenix’s voice cut through the fog, sharp and annoying. “She looked ready to tear your head off.”
My skull felt like someone had taken a drill to it. Maybe that splash of booze had turned nuclear when it hit the Xanax I’d popped before the game?
“Tell me about it. I overslept,” I croaked.
“Bullshit. You don’t sleep in. You’re like a machine.”
I shrugged and then winced. Even that small movement made my brain rattle. “Must have been something I drank.”
“Double bullshit. You were nursing water for most of the night, like a fucking pussy.”
I searched for a comeback, but came up with nothing. Maybe I was just burnt out; practice building up to the game had been a relentless grind.
“Turn left here,” Phoenix barked, fiddling with the air-con dials.
“Stop fucking with the settings!” I slapped his hand away—hard.
“Ouch, motherfucker!” Nix recoiled, clutching his fingers to his chest like a wounded puppy. “You’re such a whiny bitch. It’s like a furnace in here. Who’s up your ass?”
“You,” I explained with an incredulous look. Phoenix made a face, and I cut a look at the GPS; we were nowhere near Broadway. “You wanna tell me why I’m turning left and ignoring the directions on the screen?” I added, my hands gripping the wheel so tightly my knuckles were white.
At the thought of what we were about to do, my body felt heavy, almost like my bones had been lined with lead.
“Ease down, numb-nuts. We need to stop at the studio first. To pick Harper up,” Nix finally replied as he started to readjust the headrest of his seat.
His face was still shooting daggers due to my lightly tapping his fidgeting fingers.
I watched with a grunt of annoyance as he started turning back and forth and playing with the seat levers.
“Fuck me, does this seat not go any further back? I can hardly breathe.”
Phoenix had a point; my Bugatti certainly wasn’t built for guys with a frame the size of a mountain.
“What did you say about Harper?” I questioned, having been so distracted by the car rocking that I misheard him.
“We need to pick her up. Keep the fuck up.”
OK. That was unexpected. “A heads-up would have been good. I’m not a fucking taxicab.”
As I turned the corner, my foster sister was waiting outside the gym dressed in her yoga shit with an impatient expression.
“Why didn’t she hitch a ride with Storm?”
“Because I forgot my fucking crystal ball, clearly. How was I to know that Storm had a class with Harper today?”
“Don’t you talk to each other?” I grunted.
“Not about mundane shit like that.”
I pulled up to the sidewalk, and Nix slid out to let Harper into the back.
“Why do you guys look so shifty?” she questioned, tugging on her belt.
Phoenix and I exchanged a look. “Hey, I’m just being me. Your boyfriend is the dodgy one.” Nix flipped me off, and I turned away with a grin. “Looking good, Baby S. How are things?”
Nix slid into his seat and pulled the door closed as she replied. “Good, but, looking at your face, you’re not. I heard you got your ass kicked.”
I surreptitiously raised my hand and attempted to brush some of my hair over my bruising. “It wasn’t like that exactly.”
“Good job that my boyfriend was there to save the day,” she replied, beaming at the soppy fucker from the backseat.
“Indeed,” I replied, shooting Nix a dirty look as I steered the car away from the sidewalk.
“What happened to keeping the fight from the girls?” I tutted.
“Yours and Hudson’s fucked up faces happened. What was I supposed to say? You both fell into someone’s fist?”
Dude had a point, of course. “What about Molly?”
“She only knows we got into a fight, not all the rest. Hudson gave strict instructions that he would handle Molly his way.”
Harper chuckled. “Yeah. That conversation didn’t go down too well. Molly said he was a mess when he appeared outside her window. He ended up sleeping on the sofa last night for his trouble.” Hudson must have gone to Molly’s house when he left us covered in blood.
“Ouch.” Nix and I both grimaced. Oh dear. We both knew what Hudson was like when he wasn’t getting any.
“Have you managed to steal Storm back yet?”
I glanced over my shoulder with a smile, “I’m working on it.”
After some brief banter, I cut to the chase and looked at Nix. “So, what’s the play?” I kept my voice down as I wasn’t sure how much Harper knew.
Phoenix was scrolling through his phone. “We’re breaking into Remmington’s office, apparently.”
“What?” Harper squeaked.
We had to. It was the only place Jasper could have stored that fucking file. Phoenix had already ransacked his father’s house, including the room Jasper used when he stayed over.
Phoenix had told me ages ago that Storm and Jasper didn’t sleep together in her room at the house, and she’d unknowingly confirmed that when she didn’t correct me the previous night.
I imagined her father was too old-fashioned for his daughter and fiancé to share a room in his house.
Ironic, bearing in mind he cheated on his wife when she was pregnant.
I kept that thought to myself, the other woman being Nix’s mother.
“Who’s Remmington when he’s at home? And why are you breaking into his office?” Harper added with a creased brow.
I stole a glance at Phoenix as he answered. “Jasper Remmington. And it’s not me. James Bond here wants to break into his office.”
She looked between us, puzzled. “As in Storm’s fiancé?” I overtook a particularly slow car, waiting for the GPS to re-route us.
“The very same.” As if there could be anybody else, we knew with such a lame-ass name.
“In broad daylight?” Harper commented with wide eyes.
“Yep.”
“Ballsy.” Pursing her lips, the girl I saw as my little sister then asked. “Why?”
Dragging a hand through my hair, I exhaled noisily. “We suspect Jasper has an ulterior motive for pressing his marriage to Storm. It’s a long story. Are you in or not?”
Her lips thinned as she absorbed that information.
Nix lowered his hand to his thigh and turned in his seat. “What do you mean, are you in? She is not part of this, man.” His gesture was protective.
“By picking her up on our way to carry out said mission, you kind of included her man.”
“We can drop her off at home?”
“Like a parcel?” Harper added hotly, shooting Nix the stink eye. He’d always been overprotective of her, even when they were just foster siblings, before getting together.
As I steered the car off the freeway, I pointed out. “She only needs to sit in the car, as a lookout.”
Harper’s eyes flashed. “I can do that,” she admitted in an excited tone, her nostrils flaring.
Phoenix puffed his chest, almost stealing all the air in the car. “No.”
Harper smacked him on the shoulder. “Excuse me? No? Since when did you start making decisions for me, Phoenix?”
Err, since, like, forever, I felt like saying, but kept my mouth shut. Harper’s temper had a sting to it. It was much easier to stay on her good side. Her backup was also quite terrifying. You messed with his girl, and Nix showed you why they called him Brutal on the field.
Pulling his seatbelt off his body so he could turn to watch her, Nix explained, “I don’t want you to get into any trouble. Things are going great with the studio. If you became a felon, I can’t imagine your customers from the sorority renewing their membership.”
“Screw them. They’re snooty old bitches anyway and can’t do a Downward Dog to save their lives,” she sniffed, folding her arms across her narrow chest. “I spent half an hour this morning with Mrs. Peterson’s camel toe in my face. Believe me, out of all my clients, I’d miss them the least.”
For someone so tiny, she had a backbone of steel.
Phoenix and Harper, as a couple, were a sight to see.
How things worked in the sack wasn’t something I thought about often, but it would surely be complicated due to the differences in their sizes.
As I said, I didn’t overthink it. I also saw her as my sister and Nix as my brother, and so the image of that shit was gross.
“Baby Sawyer isn’t going to be a felon. It will be fine.” I explained, side-eyeing Phoenix as I used our full nickname for Harper.