Chapter 31 #2
I found him in the hallway leading to the garage, his backpack in one hand as he looked at all the pictures on my wall. The one he was in front of now was of my dad and me when I was a kid. I smiled to myself. That had been a good day.
I planned to tell Harper about it, but as I reached out to run my fingers through his hair, he jolted, throwing himself back against the wall as he faced me with eyes wide and a pale face full of pure panic.
We just stared at each other for a moment, and I tried to process what had just happened.
Then he burst into tears.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry, baby. What did I do? Are you hurt?”
I didn’t understand where I’d gone wrong, but I’d clearly hurt or triggered him, and as much as I wanted to wrap my arms around him protectively, I was terrified that if I did, I’d just make it worse for him.
I didn’t have to worry for long, though, because his hand gripped a fistful of my T-shirt as he stepped closer and thumped his head against my chest.
I slowly wrapped my arms around him, and he trembled within them, my hands smoothing circles over his back until he calmed again.
“Want to go sit on the sofa?” I asked, and he nodded.
Once I had him sitting down, I wrapped a blanket around him and kissed his head. “Want some strawberry tea?” I asked, and he nodded again.
I made him a cup as quickly as I could and brought it back to him.
Harper cradled it in his hands, his eyes locked on the dark pink liquid. I had so many questions, but I waited for him to speak first.
“I’m sorry,” he said after a while.
I shook my head. “No. There’s nothin’ you need to apologize for. I just… you don’t have to tell me the details if you aren’t comfortable, but please just tell me what not to do, so I don’t hurt you like that again.”
He nodded, quiet again for a while until he inhaled deeply, then looked up at me. “You should know… what happened.”
I knew right away where he was going with this. I knew who had hurt him. Who my touch had unintentionally reminded him of.
He swallowed again. “Tristan.”
He struggled with the name, and my heart broke for him. My hand gently rested on his knee and one of his own left the mug to cover it.
“That night… I was… distracted.” He frowned at himself before shaking his head and deciding to be more honest. “I was crying. I wasn’t paying attention as I…
ran away from you. And Tr—he was waiting for me, in an alley.
I didn’t see him until…” He swallowed again.
“Until he grabbed me. Shoved me against the wall. He… used my hair to hit my head against it. That’s why…
I didn’t realize it would be a problem.”
My heart melted as my blood boiled, rage and grief demanding I protect him from what had already happened, against an enemy who was already dead.
“He… hurt me.” Harper couldn’t meet my eyes anymore, looking back down into his mug instead. “He um… tried to…” The words were coming out slow, like he had to fight himself to get them out, and I’d wait as long as it took him. “To… rape me.”
My stomach twisted, then plummeted like it had morphed into an anvil. My chest and neck tightened with rage. My jaw clenched to keep it all inside because that wasn’t what he needed right now. He didn’t need my anger. He needed me to be calm, to listen, and to be here for him.
“He…” He exhaled slowly. “Threw me. Kicked me. Dislocated my shoulder… G-got my pants down… And then I beat him to death with a rusty bike pedal I found under the fucking dumpster.”
His hand left mine to wipe away a tear before I could get it for him.
“And he told me that he raped my brother too.” His voice broke.
There were feelings inside me too big to contain, but I didn’t know how to let them out.
I wished with all my being that I hadn’t let him leave that day.
That I’d followed him. That I could have torn that worthless piece of shit limb from limb before he ever had the chance to lay a finger on a single hair of my prince’s perfect head.
Instead, when his hand rested on mine again, I brought it up to my lips to kiss over his perfect knuckles. “I should have been there,” I whispered, my voice having difficulty leaving my tight throat.
He huffed. “I shouldn’t have run.”
“It’s not your fault. None of it.”
Harper nodded. “So I’ve been told.”
“Well, I’ll keep tellin’ you. I just wish I could make him suffer.”
A wet sniff, and then I watched as he tried to pull himself back in, to shove it all back inside and compose himself. “Well, now you know. That’s why—” He gestured his head toward the direction we’d come from. “I didn’t think I’d react like that over something so stupid.”
“No. Listen to me. It’s not stupid. It’s not. It’s so beyond understandable and valid, and you’re so incredibly strong to have dealt with this all on your own and continue on like nothin’ was wrong after all of that. Seriously. My love. You are so strong, and I am in awe of you.”
He smiled and leaned forward until his head pressed softly against mine. We stayed like that for seconds, minutes, until he claimed my lips again.
“Enough of that,” he said as we parted. He reached over and put his cup down on the table. “I want you to fuck me again.”
I huffed. “Are you sure about that?”
He nodded. “Absolutely. In fact, I demand it.”
“Well, if you demand it, then I simply can’t refuse.”
He smirked, his eyes sparkling with mischief rather than tears as he turned around to give me his ass. I softly massaged the small, perfect mounds, placing kisses over the pale flesh.
“Now, Benny,” he snapped.
“Of course, my love.”
I had to trust that he was okay, and that this was what he needed now, and that if he wanted to talk more about what had happened, he’d come to me when he was ready.
Slowly, I popped the plug out of his pink and puffy hole, still stretched and slick enough with my cum that my cock slid right in.
Once I’d filled him again and pushed the plug back inside to keep it all in, I turned him over so I could claim his lips, giving him every ounce of love and adoration I had for him through that connection.
As soon as the sweat had cooled from our skin, he was getting up again, collecting his bag from the hallway and sitting down with his laptop.
“I need to head out quickly and get somethin’ I’m missin’ for lunch. Will you be alright?”
Harper nodded. “Yep. Just going to catch up on some work.”
I bent to place a kiss on his forehead, replaced his tea with a hot cup, then dashed upstairs to get changed before heading out.