Chapter 54
Defending the Ally
Caden
After I push her over the edge one more time and find my release, we wash each other. When Luke joins us, she turns to clean him. He kisses her long and deep while she thoroughly scrubs his cock.
I don’t feel jealousy sharing Harper. No hot ball of rage at her paying attention to him instead of me.
It’s like we were always meant to be together like this. That’s why it never happened before now. None of us were ready for this. Ready for her.
When we step out of the shower, I rub the towel over her body, taking inventory of the little marks left on her from us. She’s been claimed. And the bite mark on my shoulder shows she’s claimed me.
“I need to...” Her soft brown eyes lift to mine and my heart catches. Fuck, this girl could wrap me around her finger so fucking tight. I’d do anything for her.
Cupping her cheek, I brush my lips across hers. “Shove a tampon into my favorite hole?”
Her cheeks flush pink. “Not how I’d phrase it.”
Smirking, I arch an eyebrow. “Can I watch?”
“Stop being a perv.” Luke smacks Harper on the ass, making her jump. “She can keep some secrets.”
“Since when?” she asks with an arched look. She loves talking back to Luke. I think she’s itching for a punishment. It’s been a while.
“Do you want the bathroom to yourself, or do you want Caden to help you with your tampon? Again.” Luke smirks.
Fuck it, I’d do it. Toss the applicator and use my fingers to guide it into her body, suck her nipple into my mouth, feel her pulse around me.
The redness on her cheeks deepens. Her lips press together. Luke chucks her under the chin and turns to me. He smacks me on the shoulder.
“Come on.” Giving me a pointed look, he leads the way into the bedroom.
Reluctantly, I follow him. I want to know everything about my little nympho. Every inch of that awesome body. Every thought in that pretty head. What she feels in that too big heart of hers.
I grab my shirt, one that smells like me, and a fresh pair of panties from the closet. Luke would have done the same thing. We may not be jealous of each other, but we’re still possessive as hell and love to claim our girl. The marks on her body prove that.
As soon as she opens the door, before she can ask for it, I hold them out to her.
Her eyes brighten and she smiles. “Thanks.”
She takes them into the bathroom and closes the door softly. The fact that she doesn’t expect this shit from us, and it’s easy shit to do, just makes my heart ache.
“We should ask her about MacKenzie. We can’t disregard her as a suspect without looking into her.” Luke sits on the edge of the bed in his boxers. His damp hair hangs over his eyes. The bruise on his side is still mottled green and purple and yellow.
We’re familiar with the fact that sometimes the people we’re supposed to trust hurt us the most.
I nod and sit next to him. “I hope it’s not her. For Harper’s sake.”
“It’ll break her.” At one point, that’s what Luke wanted to do to Harper. Break her down into our little pet. Possess her for the year. But now, the idea of her broken causes him physical pain.
I put my hand on his shoulder. “We’ll get the information we need, and Jack will do a deeper dive into MacKenzie. We’ll figure out who our mole is and work to use that to our advantage.”
It’s simple really. Outing the mole without letting on we know who they are will be hard, but we’ll set the trap carefully to get them to reveal themselves.
I’m okay with the stealth stuff, but it would be quicker to beat it out of the guy.
And after everything these assholes have done to Harper, I have some pent-up aggression to work out.
The bathroom door opens and Harper walks out in my t-shirt, all confident. She’s different since the first time we saw her naked. I wasn’t wrong when I said this girl would be built for sex. I just didn’t understand how she would be built for sex with us.
And only us. Fuck sharing her with the world. She’s mine. She’s ours.
If Zach had done anything to her, he wouldn’t be breathing. I’d have my parents’ full attention for once as they fought to make sure I didn’t end up on Death Row. But fuck. Anything that threatens to extinguish that light in her eyes, I’ll destroy.
“I need sleep.” She looks at both of us warily since we don’t move from the foot of the bed. She arches an eyebrow and tosses her single braid over her shoulder.
“We won’t bite, little nympho.”
Her look says she doesn’t believe me. She’s right because she’s delectable, and I love the taste of her.
“Come on. It’s been a long day.” Luke holds his hand out to her and she steps in to take it. “That nap will only get you so far.”
“You’re not wrong.” As she closes in, she brushes her hand over my shoulder. “You good, Caden?”
“Just waiting to watch you crawl that fine ass into my bed.” I smirk at her saucy smile.
When I stand, so does Luke. She slips between the two of us before climbing onto the bed and crawling to the headboard. My shirt rides up around her hips, showing the black silky panties I bought her.
“Fuck, princess, if I had something to punish you over, those panties would be mine.”
She turns and sits by the pillows, patting each side of her. “This bed will seem too big with just the three of us in it.”
“I sleep in it alone all the time.” I wink as we both skirt around to opposite sides of the bed. Not sure either of us crawling would be as sexy as Harper. Besides, we aren’t really the crawling type.
Harper slides under the covers and grins at me. “Not this year you aren’t.”
Luke and I get under the covers and Harper lays her head on my chest, throwing her leg over mine. Luke covers her like a blanket, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her in close to him.
This is becoming a familiar pattern with us. The three of us sleeping together. Luke probably hasn’t slept alone in a while. That night my parents were home I had to, but only because I knew Harper’s mom was home and I didn’t think she’d be cool with me sneaking in.
Luke didn’t get away with sneaking in that night. I chuckle.
Harper lifts her head and props her chin on her hand on my chest to look at me. “What’s funny?”
“Your mom.”
Her eyes narrow, but before she can open that beautiful mouth...
“I was thinking how it would be harder when she’s home, but she seems okay with us sleeping over.” I tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear, and she leans into my touch. My heart trips over itself.
“In the guest bedroom,” Harper points out, but no one is fooled. Not even her mother. It fascinates me that she’s cool with any of this. My parents aren’t even happy I’m dating one girl. Maybe they’d be happier if I was dating five.
“Everyone is aware we can’t stay away, little nympho.” I stroke my hand down her back. My gaze catches Luke’s. He gives me the look to talk about Kenz. Yeah, I kind of figured he wanted me to bring this shit up again. Make me the bad guy. Fuck.
“Tell me about your friendship with MacKenzie.” I meet her soft brown eyes.
“Is this an interrogation, War?”
“It’s not an interrogation, princess.” Luke’s hand drifts over her ass, rucking up the t-shirt. “It’s a question about you and your relationship with someone outside of us.”
She blows out a breath and shivers against me. Her eyes are suspicious. “What do you want to know?”
“When did you meet her and how did you become friends? Nico said he was your only friend.” I rub her back. Pretty sure, Luke is rubbing her ass at the same time.
Her cheeks grow pink. “Nico left in sixth grade. It was hard to have friends growing up because Mom would have to sleep during the day or she didn’t want anyone over when she was gone to work.”
Part of me wants to go back and pull sixth grade Harper into our group. To have her with us always, but I know the angry boys we were would have fucked that up beyond repair.
“I was lonely, frankly. Kenz transferred into our school after Nico left, and I showed her around that first day.” Harper smiles as she remembers. “She wanted to know everything, and nothing scared her. Not even you guys, and you were bigger assholes than usual that year.”
A smack fills the room, and Harper turns with an ow to glare at Luke.
“What was that for?”
He kneads her ass cheek with his hand. “Don’t talk bad about your owners, princess.”
She rolls her eyes and returns her gaze to mine. “Anyway, we just clicked. We hung out that year, and none of the other girls really tried to poach Kenz into their groups.”
“You didn’t find that odd?” My sister tried to collect as many friends as possible, but she was never close with any of them. It was more of a solidarity in numbers.
Harper strokes her hand down my chest and blows out a breath. “Not really. She and I were always together, so the others just kind of left us alone. Most of the girls were too busy trying to get your attention.”
“Mine?”
She smirks. “The horsemen.”
“And you weren’t interested?” Luke’s voice is low and Harper’s breath hitches in that way when she’s getting messed with.
“You guys were becoming legends.” Her voice is a little breathy and her hips move against mine.
I lift my gaze to Luke and he smirks. Fucker.
Her lips are parted when I return my gaze to her face.
“And you wanted no part of us?”
She shakes her head as her cheeks flush with color. Her pupils enlarge. “No, and neither did Kenz. We decided to watch and see what happened.”
“Did she hide with you, little nympho?” I slide my hand down her side, drawing my t-shirt up more so I can see what Luke is doing to her. His arm shifts back and forth and his hand is buried in the front of her panties.
Her breath comes out in soft pants. “No, she usually had a boyfriend. So she never really had to hide.”
Is it odd that the girls didn’t want Kenz, but the guys did? Or maybe that’s why the girls didn’t want her?
“Why did you hide?” I shift against her as her arousal floods my nose with her beautiful vanilla scent mixed with that heady scent that is all Harper. My cock hardens, but we’re done fucking for the night. Fuck, we should already be asleep. It’s late.
She cries out, and her eyelids slide shut as her body twitches against mine. I’ve seen plenty of girls come over the years, but none of them did it with the complete abandon Harper does.
It makes me want to keep making her come until she begs me to stop. Or falls into subspace again. Fuck, that’s like horny Harper on a much higher level.
Her breath relaxes as it blows across my chest. Luke draws his hand out of her panties and sucks each of his fingers clean.
“Tell me, little nympho. Why did you hide from us even back then?”
Her eyes open and there’s this hint of sadness in them. “My best friend moved away, and I was lucky enough to find someone new who could see beyond what everyone else saw.”
“What did everyone see, princess?” Luke holds her against him. His mouth brushes her neck with every word.
“No one.” The words are low and almost inaudible.
I tip her chin up so our eyes meet. “You’ve never been no one, Harper.”
She breathes out but holds my gaze. “I’ve always been no one, Caden.
You guys barely even noticed me before this year.
Most people didn’t even know my name until you made me yours.
It’s... whatever, but when you can’t be where people are, they tend to forget you exist. When you can’t go to their parties and don’t have parties of your own, people stop inviting you. You become no one.”
Her eyes flash with heat. “So when you guys accuse the one person who didn’t care if I went to parties because she still hung out with me.
The one person who stood by me when no one else remembered I existed.
Yes. That upsets me. She’s my friend because we get each other.
We like the same movies and laugh at the same jokes.
We spend time together. And yeah, she spends a lot of time with her boyfriend now.
But I spend a lot of time with you guys.
That doesn’t make her less of my friend. ”
She draws in a breath. “Because at the end of the day, if I need her, she’ll be there for me. But she’s in love with her boyfriend, so do I blame her for wanting to watch him play in his football game while I undo what those horrid Cheermonsters did to Luke’s jersey? Absolutely not.”
Her eyes narrow. “She did come looking for me in the bathroom. Maybe my message never got to her about the locker room? And when she couldn’t find me, she tried to get to you guys for help.
So, no I don’t believe she’d set that up.
But do you know who would have ripped Zach’s balls off if he’d laid one hand on me? ”
“She’d have to get in line, princess.”
“The only reason he’s still breathing is because he didn’t touch you.
” I hold her gaze because this is important.
“If she’s who you think she is, then anything we do to find out more about her won’t affect her.
You can tell her our theory. You can even tell her we’re looking into her.
It’s not because we think she’s out to get you.
It’s because we need to be certain. One hundred percent. ”
Her lips press into a stubborn line. “I’m one hundred percent certain she has nothing to do with this.”
“Good. We’re not. I’m like ninety-nine, but that one percent bothers the fuck out of me. And I’m not willing to overlook the one person who knows everything about you as a suspect.”
She’s not happy about it, but I can see the moment she concedes.
“I’m going to tell her.” She rests her head on my heart.
“Good. Now be my good girl and go to sleep.”