57. Everest
M y head throbs, as I force my eyes open and lick my lips.
The iron taste is instant, but it’s nothing compared to the regret coating my tongue.
I can feel the pills and alcohol pulsing through me, but apparently not enough to keep me in my slumber.
The lamp is still on, but the guys are nowhere to be seen, and I flick my eyes to the clock on the nightstand and note it’s nearly one-thirty in the morning.
I’ve not even been asleep an hour, which isn’t surprising considering I can no longer sleep at all without Aurora by my side.
I slump back against the pillow, but as I do, the door opens and Griffin appears, his eyes trailing over me quickly, before he smirks. “Enjoy your nap?” he asks, cocking his brow, and I grunt, cringing a little when my head pounds once more.
“Fuck off, Griff, I’m really not in the mood,” I scoff, shaking my head, but his smile only widens.
“Damn, that’s the thanks I get after I defended your honor and brought your girl home,” he muses, making me frown, before he steps aside and allows Aurora to rush past him.
I barely catch a glimpse of her before she is throwing herself against me, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Everest,” she cries, sobbing into my chest, as my arms come around her, looking toward Griffin in confusion.
She’s here, she came.
When I walked out of the house earlier, I did it knowing she wouldn’t follow me, knowing that I was losing everything, but accepting it because it meant she still had them.
My presence had done enough damage, damage that can’t be repaired, damage that I fucking caused by being selfish, and putting myself and my needs above my family’s.
The way Archer looked at me hurt more than any one of his punches, because it wasn’t just anger in his stare, it was disgust and disappointment.
My brother, the person I have looked up to since I was eight years old, looked at me like I was a stranger, like I was someone he needed to protect her from.
I am no longer his mountain man, I was just a predator who went after his real sibling.
“You’re here,” I whisper in disbelief, not understanding how she’s here, why she’s here, and she pulls back in confusion.
“Of course I’m here,” she breathes, as if she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, and I almost choke on my guilt, as she assesses my injuries. “I can’t believe he hit you,” she chokes out, fresh tears gathering in her eyes, and I pull back before her fingers can touch my face.
“I can’t believe he didn’t do worse.” My words have her pausing, searching my stare to see if I really mean what I just said, and I do. “You shouldn’t be here, he won’t like it, none of them will.”
It wasn’t just the look in Archer’s eyes that killed me, it was the look in theirs too, my mom and dad’s, they were looking at me like they had never seen me before.
Like they didn’t know me, like I wasn’t their son.
Nausea rolls through me, and I have to close my eyes to fight against the images my mind conjures up.
“I don’t give a fuck what they like, Everest, I’m not leaving your side.” This time when her hands come up to my face, I lean into her touch, breathing her in.
“I’m so fucking sorry, princess, for everything.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, you’ve done nothing wrong,” she tells me, and a scoff leaves me before I can stop it, as I try to push her away from me.
“I did everything wrong,” I snap, trying to shove her off, but she pushes me back against the headboard, keeping me in place. “I never should have fallen for you.”
Tears gather in her eyes again, her head already shaking.
“Nothing about us is fucking wrong, Everest, I love you.” Her words crash against the cold black organ in my chest, willing it to come back to life.
“I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember, and it wasn’t as my brother, it was as you, as us, so don’t fucking sit here and apologize for that, not when I know this is the realest thing I have ever felt. ”
I can feel both Griffin and Harden staring at us, but I keep my gaze on her.
“But is that love worth it? Worth losing everything else? Worth ripping our family apart?” I search her stare, desperate for her to say yes, no matter how selfish that is, because I could survive losing them, but not losing her.
“It’s worth everything,” she cries, as my heart starts to thunder in my chest. “You’re worth everything, you are everything to me, all of you,” she adds, flicking her stare to the other two, who are still watching us closely.
“This is our family, the four of us right here in this room, it always has been and always will be.”
Both guys move closer at her declaration, but I can’t take my eyes off her, because I have never loved her more.
I don’t know when she went from the girl who used to follow me and my friends around, to this powerful woman who is claiming what she wants without regret, but I have loved every version of her.
“I love you princess,” I whisper, kissing her softly.
“I know I shouldn’t, and trust me I tried not to, but it was an impossible task.
I have loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you.
I even love your two other fucking boyfriends,” I add, only making her smile through her tears, as I kiss her softly.
“I love you too, Everest.” Her words ignite something inside of me, as I pull back and look toward the other two.
Griffin only smirks. “Damn, you better save me, Haze, our boy here sounds like he wants to choke on my dick.” He grabs his junk suggestively, trying to ease some of the tension, as Harden rolls his eyes.
“In your fucking dreams, Blake, you’d both be lucky to have my mouth wrapped around you,” I toss back, as his hand comes up to pull Aurora in for a kiss. “What happened to your knuckles?” I ask, noting that they are red and swollen, and he shrugs.
“I hit your brother,” he states simply, and I blink back in surprise.
“You hit him? Why?” I can’t fathom what must have happened for that to occur, especially when there are no other marks anywhere on him, as if Archer didn’t retaliate.
“Because the only people allowed to give you shit are in this room, Monroe, I won’t stand for anyone else doing it.” His tone isn’t soft or even playful, he just states the words matter of factly, and it’s only now, in this moment, that I realize Aurora is right.
The three of them are my family, through the good times and the bad, the highs and the lows, we have weathered it all together.
Does it still hurt that my brother and parents hate me? Yes, but I know I can survive that pain, because I have the three of them.
I swallow thickly, the lump in my throat so big that I can barely choke it down, and I know none of them miss the tears shining in my eyes, but I take a deep breath and bat them away.
“Now what?” I ask, so desperate for this day to be over, but knowing that even with her here, I won’t be able to sleep, not yet.
My gaze flicks between the guys, but it’s Aurora who answers me, pulling my chin between her fingers and dragging my attention back to her.
“Now we finish what we started earlier.” I open my mouth to ask what she means, but she reaches for the hem on my shirt and pulls it swiftly over her head, making Griffin curse.
“Aurora,” I say in warning, my eyes feasting over her perfect tits, but she doesn’t back down. No, instead she lifts up, pushing the joggers she is wearing down her legs, and taking Griffin’s hand, as he helps her out of them.
“I didn’t get to come earlier, and I think it’s time we rectify that.” She drops back into my lap completely naked, my cock already hard as steel beneath her, but I fist my hands around her hips to keep her in place.
“Aurora, we can’t do this.” I don’t know why I try to deny her, it’s not in my fucking nature and never has been, but after everything that happened tonight, it just doesn’t seem like the best idea.
“What’s the matter?” she asks, bringing her hands up to toy with her tits.
“Don’t you want to make me come? Don’t you want to fuck me until I am calling out your name?
” Her fingers work her nipples into stiff peaks, my mouth watering at the sight, but still I hold her gaze, as I let her gently rock her hips against me.
“Or maybe I need to get on my knees so you can feed me your cock. What is it again? Mouth open, tongue out?” She leans forward, tilting my head back, and dragging her tongue up my neck until she can reach my ear.
“Come on, big brother, fuck me like a whore and remind me who I belong to,” she whispers, pulling my earlobe between her teeth, and I lose control of my sanity.
Reaching between us, I release my cock, fisting it roughly and positioning her above it, before slamming inside her in one thrust. She cries out at the intrusion, the sound so fucking perfect it makes me pulse inside of her.
“Is this what you want, little sister? My thick cock pumping inside of you?” I fuck her hard, my hands fisted around her hips, letting her bounce on my cock, as the other two watch with keen interest.
“Yes, fuck, yes,” she cries, circling her hands around my neck and holding on to me for dear life.
“You fucking own me, Aurora, every fucking inch of me,” I grit, pounding into her until she is crying out my name. “Now make yourself come on my cock,” I demand, dragging one of her hands to her pussy, and she instantly obeys, circling her clit roughly.
“Fuck, you two are hot,” Griffin grunts, as Harden reaches from behind him and starts unbuttoning his shirt.
Their attention only makes me fuck her harder, getting off on the idea of them watching her, of watching what I’m doing to her.
“That’s it, Monroe, fuck her nice and hard for us,” Griffin cuts in again. “Be a good little slut and come all over his cock, Aurora.” His words have her moaning, slamming down onto me and meeting my every thrust.
My release bubbles at the bottom of my spine, her body starting to shake as she starts to find her release.
Her fingers claw at my shoulders, leaving perfectly executed marks, and I groan thickly.
“That’s it, fucking give it to me,” I demand, fucking her ruthlessly, until I feel her explode around me.
“Oh fuck.” Her cunt strangles my cock, drenching it in her orgasm, as I start pumping out my own.
“Fuck, princess,” I hiss, rocking her against me as I spill deep inside of her, not stopping until every last drop has been wrung from my cock.
When she collapses against me, we are both panting, covered in a light sheen of sweat, and before she can open her mouth to say anything, Griffin is there. He climbs on the bed behind her, ripping her off my cock and flipping her over, until her back is pressed against me.
“You look so fucking pretty bouncing on my friend’s cock, sweetheart, now spread your thighs and let me see.
” He spreads her thighs, cursing at the sight of my release spilling out of her, and it shouldn’t be erotic to watch him take his fingers and stuff my cum back inside of her.
“Ah, ah, we need to keep you nice and slick,” he purrs, gripping his cock and lining it up with her hole, before he flicks his stare to mine. “Hold on tight, Monroe.”
That’s the only warning I get before he starts fucking her ruthlessly against me.