Chapter 19 The Compromise
The Compromise
Luke
Practice is short since we have a game tomorrow. Eli wants to talk before we turn on the webcams with Harper tonight. I know what he wants to talk about, but I have it under control. Fuck, mostly.
We all roll up to my house and go down to the rec room in the basement. Dad is out of town, so we have the house to ourselves. My rec room isn’t as extravagant as Caden’s, but I have a pool table.
I rack up a game as the guys get settled. Eli grabs a stick and chalks the end.
“Are we going to talk about this?” Eli asks, leaning against the wall as I grab my stick.
I line up to break. “No.”
“You need to step away. We can deal with Harper for a few days.” Eli’s words are soft. He’s not angry with me. We just know each other’s limits. And for some reason, Harper is pushing mine.
“Worried I might break our toy before you get a chance to?” I break the balls, and two stripes go into the pockets. I straighten and chalk the pool stick’s tip as I watch Eli. “She’s just another virgin.”
As if Harper could be more than that. She’s the last. Yes, we own her, but that’s all.
I pocket two more stripes before I miss, and Eli steps forward to work on the solids.
“She’s not like the others,” Caden pipes up after taking a long drag from his bottle of beer. He rests his head back on the couch and closes his eyes. “She’s not as hardened.”
“She hid from us for three years. She knows who we are and what we do. It’s not like she’s naive.” I watch the solid go into the corner pocket.
Harper isn’t like the rest of them, but she isn’t soft or overly trusting. She’s a firecracker bursting to be set free.
“She’s like this untapped well of potential.” Jack stands and leans against the wall to watch the game. “She wants more, but she’s afraid to go after it.”
Her wide brown eyes after kissing us in the field light up in my memory. Confusion and horror splashed all over her face. And desire. She wants us. She needs us to unlock the door and show her what she can become. How much pleasure she can take.
When I drew away today, she came after me. Her mouth hot on mine. Her hands digging into my hair until I wanted to spread her out on the table and take her in front of the entire student body. Show them how she’s mine.
Eli misses his next shot. “She needs time. If we push her too fast, she’ll balk. We’ll hit a wall she won’t be able to get past. For fuck’s sake, the girl just had her first kiss yesterday.”
She’s also been starving for attention. She wants everything we can show her and fears it at the same time.
I blow across the chalked tip and line up my shot. He’s right. I know he’s right, but when she’s in my arms I lose all sense of myself and only feel the need. The need to sink into her, claim her, mark her as mine. Prove to her she belongs to me. To us.
I squeeze my eyes shut and focus on the shot. When I open my eyes, I tap the cue ball. It clips the ball I want to go into the side pocket. It falls in easily.
“Fine. I won’t push for this weekend, but I want this grounding gone soon. Especially if it’s fictional.” I line up my next shot. “She can come to terms with being owned by us.”
“I don’t think she’ll ever come to terms with that,” Jack says with a smirk. “I bet a hundred dollars she’s hoping one of us fucks up this weekend and sleeps with someone else.”
“How will you ever know?” Caden asks. “You a mind reader now? What am I thinking now, dickwad?”
“That you wish you were my type, so I’d suck your monster cock.” Jack winks at Caden, who rolls his eyes.
“Actually I was hoping you and Eli would fall madly in love and leave Harper to me and Luke.” Caden wiggles his eyebrows at him. “I swear I feel the tension between you two all the time. Eli’s just afraid to give in to his darker side.”
“Fuck off, Caden.” Eli leans against the wall and turns to look at Jack. “Jack’s and my love may be quiet, but we’ll always have sophomore year.”
“Not that shit again.” I roll my eyes as I line up for the winning shot. “Eight ball in the far corner pocket.”
“Just because you can’t understand brotherly love doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, Luke.” Jack smirks.
“You tag-teamed two girls. It’s not like he buried his dick in you.” I take the shot and sink the eight ball. Putting my stick up on the rack, I grab a beer. “I have the Harper thing under control.”
This desire to keep her all to myself will diminish. To take everything she has to offer. To feel every inch of her against me. To bury myself in her over and over again until my cum leaks out of her pussy, ass, and mouth. Until she is thoroughly, irrevocably mine.
Shit.
Yeah, maybe a weekend away from her will be a good thing. I’ll find my control again. I’ll get her taste out of my mouth and out of my head so when next week comes around, I’ll be able to concentrate on breaking down her boundaries one by one.
“Eli, you pick up our girl tomorrow for school.” I take a drink of my beer.
Eli nods. “Of course.”
“Keep her in line tomorrow, Caden.” I take another drink. “I’ll focus on school. You all focus on her.”
Harper
Their rooms are empty. It’s almost nine and they haven’t even texted me. I suppose I should be thrilled and grateful they’ve left me alone. I finished my homework and watched some TV with Mom before coming upstairs to stare into their empty rooms.
No one told me to turn it on tonight. Jack dropped me off earlier with a kiss that stoked the fire inside me. I’ve got on long pajama pants and a camisole since a t-shirt simply won’t do, and I don’t want to change it.
I take out the historical romance I’ve been reading and get caught up in the story.
It feels different to read the sex scenes now that I’ve been kissed.
I keep thinking about that kiss with Luke in the cafeteria.
I’m not sure why he melts my brain more so than the others.
Not that the others don’t make me melt, but I don’t feel stupid for falling for their kisses.
A noise sounds on my computer. I look up to see Luke in his bedroom. No one else is in their rooms yet. He sits down at his desk and meets my eyes. My heart races and my stomach clenches.
“Have you had a good night?” His voice is low and there’s a slight slur to his words.
I straighten on my bed and set my book down. “I did homework and watched some TV with Mom.”
I want to ask what he did, but it’s not my business what they do. As long as he didn’t touch or fuck another girl that is. But I don’t think he has.
“We drank and played pool,” he offers.
I hesitate and then I ask, “Did you win?”
“Of course.” He smirks. My pulse skips. “What were you reading?”
“Oh.” I lift the book and set it down again. It feels weird without the others. It feels weird to talk to him like he’s a human being and not just a guy trying to get into my pants. “It’s a historical romance set in Regency England. Kind of like Bridgerton.”
Eli walks into his room. “Good evening, kitten.” His gaze goes to Luke with his lips pressed together. I haven’t forgotten how he and Caden stepped in at lunch. It’s embarrassing that they needed to.
“Nobody has asked Harper to strip yet, right?” Caden says as he lies on his bed. “I could use something new for the spank bank.”
“No one has asked her to take off anything,” Luke assures him.
“That’s a shame.” Jack sits at his desk, and suddenly all the horsemen are here once again. Something settles inside me. It relaxes me to know they are all here with me.
Though I’m a little worried they’ll want me to get naked again.
“I found something,” Jack says as he clicks away on his keyboard.
I’m not going to ask. If I just sit here, they’ll have no reason for me to strip. Well, besides the fact they’re guys and like looking at naked women’s bodies.
“What’d you find?” Eli rests against his headboard.
Jack smirks. “Our little virgin has a secret.”
My brows furrow. What the hell is he talking about? I’m a really boring person unless he found some of the erotic romances I’ve read on my Kindle. Even then, it’s not really a secret.
“Harper was on a competitive dance team until last year.”
My cheeks flush with color. It was outside of school, and both Kenz and I were on the team. I needed something to pad my college applications since I’m not involved in much at school. “It’s not really a secret.”
Jack shares his screen, and he plays footage from our last competition. We did a jazz routine to “She’s All I Wanna Be” by Tate McRae. Our outfits weren’t uncommon for a dance competition, booty shorts and a tight crop top with long sleeves.
Instead of watching the video of myself, I study the guys.
Caden smirks while he watches me move to the music. Eli seems thoughtful, watching as if he’s critiquing my performance. I can’t see Jack, but I assume he’s still grinning at what he’s found. Luke watches without expression.
His gaze lifts to mine like he knows I’m watching him. A shiver races through me.
Jack changes the video to a bunch of us during dance class working on new choreography. The instructor put on Doja Cat’s “Need to Know” and we were working on dancing in heels.
This time it’s not me on stage with a dozen others, but me, Kenz, and Becca, a girl from the team. Becca is out front hamming it up, while Kenz and I do the routine behind her. I’m sure the guys focus on Becca. She’s not from our school and older. She’s hot and definitely has the moves down.
I take a deep breath as Jack ends the share. He grins at me. “Nice moves, sweetheart.”
“Where did you find that last one?” I know it wasn’t posted online. Hell, I don’t even know if I have a copy of it anywhere. I think it was on Kenz’s phone.
Jack winks. “A master never reveals his secrets.”
“You gonna dance for us, little nympho?” Caden leans in toward his screen. His green eyes are hot on me.
I feel my cheeks heat. “I retired from dancing last year. It got to be too much with school, and I need all the time I can get to study this year with the AP classes I’m taking.”
Please don’t make me dance for you guys. I really don’t want to do the whole peepshow thing, so I’m hoping I diverted their attention enough.
“But you definitely know how to move.” Jack smirks. “I would dance first, but I’m afraid my skills aren’t equal to yours.”
“Maybe we can have a dance-off once I’m not grounded anymore.” I give him a small smile and don’t look at Luke. He’s the one who would force the issue. He’s the one who pushes a little harder than the others.
“It’s a date, sweetheart.” Jack winks again before he pulls up another class video where we’re goofing off. By the end of class, most of us usually stripped down to shorts and sports bras because of the heat. In the video, we’re working on a hip-hop routine and Kenz and I are messing around.
It feels more awkward and intimate than when they stripped me naked. At least then I knew they were watching. This is past me who hid from them and flew so far under the radar that I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t know my name.
I’m not sure where Jack found the videos or who he stole them from. I should ask Kenz what she has on her phone. It’s probably too late if Jack already got it from her.
Caden is still watching, but Luke seems to be working on his homework. Eli alternates between watching and working on his own homework. I can’t see Jack. I pick up my book and start reading again.
This is going to come back and bite me. Not now, but it will come up again.
Harper’s Phone
Me:
Do you have old dance videos on your computer or phone?
Kenz:
Yeah, why?
Me:
You might want to update your security
Kenz:
Shit
Me:
Yup