Chapter 33
Chapter
Thirty-Three
EMERSON
D eclan checks his phone for the sixty-seventh time in the past two hours. As soon as he sets it back on the cushion beside him, he jumps back into the video game. Cy quietly chuckles beside me as Declan’s PC nearly gets killed because he’s too distracted to play smart. He throws up his middle finger in our direction while keeping his eyes on the screen.
“She’s fine, you know,” I say quietly. “She’s just at Saylor’s house. It’s off campus and secure.”
“I know.” He tosses his controller onto the coffee table as his PC gets taken out by the enemy. “We’ve just always been with her. It’s weird to not have one of us have eyes on her. I feel out of control and jittery.”
“Same, but I think she needed this.” Cy keeps playing. “She was so quiet today. I don’t know if she’s having trouble with memories from being taken or if there’s something else going on.”
“We could ask her.”
“No. We have to let her settle in,” Declan says emphatically.
We agreed when we came back home after fall break not to pressure Harper about anything. No initiating sex and no pushing heavy conversations. We just want her to come to us when she feels comfortable doing so.
All three of us perk up when we hear a car in the driveway. Cy turns off the game, not bothering to save our progress because our girl is home. Declan is the first out the door to get to her. She’s just hanging up her coat and scarf when he reaches her.
She squeals as he spins and picks her up, carrying her into the living room and sitting with her on his lap. “What are you doing?”
“I missed you.”
“ We missed you,” I correct.
She looks over at me, surprised. “You did?”
“Yes.” My brow furrows as I sit down beside them, pulling her feet into my lap. “Of course we did. Declan and I were gone all day, and then you took off so soon after we got home.”
“And I’m just a needy bastard who can never get enough of you,” Cy adds.
She takes a deep breath and blows it out slowly, like she’s working up to say something. Her turmoil plays out in her expression, and she takes another breath. Even Declan, the asshole that he is, can tell she’s nervous about something.
It increases my own anxiety. None of us want to push her, but there’s clearly something going on here. A variety of thoughts ping pong around in my head, none of them good. What if she wants to move out? The answer would obviously be a resounding no.
“What’s going on, my little star?” Cy asks, taking her hand in his and running his thumb over her knuckles.
“I just wanted to ask how you guys are? You know, handling everything that happened with me?”
The three of us share a confused look.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Things have been weird, you know?” She keeps her eyes downcast. “Like none of you seem interested in touching me or?—”
“Wait.” Cy holds up a hand. “I spent all day touching you.”
“Yeah, but how friends touch each other.”
“I kissed you.”
Her cheeks flame, and she tries to get up. Declan clamps his arms around her waist holding her in place. “Don’t run away. We can talk about hard things.”
“Are you wanting to be more physical again?” I ask.
“Yes? Don’t you? I’d understand if you aren’t interested anymore.”
“Fuck, yeah, we do,” Cy says. “And why wouldn’t we be interested anymore?”
“Because of how you found me and knowing that he touched me.”
“Stop,” Declan says. “Don’t ever, and I mean fucking ever, think any of us would hold that against you. Or that it would make us not want you anymore.”
“Really?” Her glassy eyes move between the three of us.
She’s genuinely surprised, and we’re fucking floored that she’s been thinking this way for the past few weeks.
“Harper, look at me.” I wait until her eyes meet mine. “We just didn’t want to push you into anything before you were ready, physically or mentally.”
“So you had a whole conversation about it, but didn’t think it was important to include me?”
“I wouldn’t say—” Cy begins to explain.
“Yes,” Declan interjects. “We did have a conversation about it because you just endured something traumatic. Something you never should have had to deal with. We did what we thought was best.”
Her eyes narrow as she looks at him. “Going forward I think conversations that revolve around one of us should include all four of us.”
My heart leaps at going forward . There’s hope for us and this relationship we’ve grown. I see the same hope reflected in Declan and Cy’s eyes. We all murmur our agreements.
“My body is basically healed.” Her cheeks flush again. “I don’t think you have to be too careful with me anymore. If you want, of course, no pressure.”
She barely has time to get the words out when Declan pulls her face to his and covers her lips with his own. Her fingers sink into his hair as she tilts her head, giving him better access to her mouth. He lifts her from sitting sideways in his lap to straddling him.
Cy moves toward me, his palm settling on my cheek. “They shouldn’t be the only ones having fun.”
Our lips meet in a slow, deep kiss. The kind where you could spend hours exploring each other. I reach behind his head and pull the tie from his hair. It falls around us, filling the air with the scent of his tea tree and mint shampoo.
The sound of Harper whimpering pulls both our attention from each other. Declan is holding her chin so she could watch us. Her lips are puffy from his kiss, and her eyes hooded with lust from watching us.
“Do you like watching, little star?” Cy pulls his shirt over his head and drops it on the floor. “Should we show you more?”
“Yes,” she says, her voice sultrier than I’ve ever heard it before.
“Ask nicely,” Declan says quietly.
“Please,” she whispers.
Cy grabs the hem of my shirt and lifts it over my head. As soon as it hits the ground, his lips are on mine again. I move my hand from his hair down to his neck, squeezing in the way that makes his cock instantly hard. He groans against my lips as I release his neck and let my fingertips graze his chest. I circle the bars piercing his nipples as they harden at my touch. I want every bit of him aching for me, for her, for release.
“Take her shirt off, Dec,” Cyrus says. “I want to see those perfect tits.”