Chapter 8 #2
“You know we aren’t going to hurt her.” The words are soft, no censure or reprimand in them, but he can’t quite hide his own hurt in them either.
I’ve never wanted to hurt them either. It’s always been us against the world.
Always been them protecting me when I wasn’t always good at doing it myself.
“I know,” I agree, but don’t know how to put all my feelings into words.
Berlyn doesn’t need protection from my brothers.
They love her the same way I do. Hurting her is not something any of us are capable of.
Ezra stays quiet for a moment but then moves closer to my side, resting his hand on my thigh. “Then what are you planning?”
I shrug, there are no real plans yet. “I’m watching,” I answer, gesturing to my laptop screen where we can still see Berlyn and her friend laughing on the couch.
“And what are you thinking?” he pushes, but I can’t tell what he wants me to say.
Berlyn is like an untapped mine. She has all these different desires and fantasies hidden beneath her good girl exterior, but she’s yet to explore any of them.
She hasn’t discovered all the things that will make her blood rush with excitement, but on the flip side, she’s yet to find her lines.
How can we know what might be taking the fantasy too far when she herself has no idea?
The only answer is to watch carefully. Diligently. So I don’t miss a thing and can change what we’re doing based on what she needs.
“I can’t lose her,” I say, dropping my head to rest on Ezra’s shoulder.
He tightens his grip on my thigh. “We won’t.
We’re moving carefully, I promise,” he reassures me, pressing his lips to the top of my head.
His warmth brings its usual comfort and feeling of safety.
“Do things your way,” he continues, “just don’t shut us out.
” He grabs my chin and forces me to meet his eyes. “Promise?”
I hold his gaze, reading everything he isn’t saying. He trusts me to do right by our girl. To be what she needs by being myself. He needs me to trust him in the same way.
“Promise,” I agree, finally feeling at ease.
“Good boy,” he praises, pressing his soft lips to mine in a gentle, teasing kiss before nipping at my bottom lip and pulling away. He smirks at my dazed expression and gestures back to the screen with our girl.
Jude plops down on my other side, grumbling about being left out. He wraps his arm around my back and leans his head against mine. Ezra’s soft chuckle washes over us as all three of us as we do what we do best, watch Berlyn.
Ezra is the one who wears the mask and enters Berlyn’s house using the key we had made when she first moved into this place. Berlyn and her friend ended up drinking too much and fell asleep on her living room floor, but not before they remembered to set her laptop up with the camera running.
Jude and I watch on my phone as we track Ezra’s movement into the living room where both girls are sleeping soundly.
It really does make this job easier. Ezra deliberately passes the camera as we planned, but rather than heading straight for it, he bypasses it to where Berlyn lays sleeping on the floor.
This wasn’t the plan, asshole. He picks her up carefully, bundling her sleeping form in his arms and pulls her against his chest. “Bastard,” Jude curses and I huff a soft laugh of agreement. Ezra saw his opportunity and he took it.
Jude and I would both do the same, but it’s annoying that Ezra gets to hold her in his arms while we wait out here in the cold.
He purposely carries her in view of the camera before turning down the hall towards her bedroom.
Jude uses his phone to pull up another camera’s feed of her bedroom while I keep an eye on the living room.
Ezra tucks Berlyn into her bed, pulling the covers over her as her entire body relaxes into the mattress.
A small smile twists her lips when Ezra tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear, letting his hands caress her arms before he walks away and reappears on my screen.
Jude grumbles under his breath about how he should have been the one to go inside, but Ezra’s body type doesn’t stand out as much as either of ours do. It’d be too easy for her to connect the dots if she saw either of us in her video tomorrow. Still, I can’t help but agree with him.
Ezra walks straight to the laptop this time and Jude and I both start to head for the front door now that he’s finally following the plan. He gives the camera a little finger wave before cutting the video and closing the laptop.
“Took you long enough,” Jude hisses, walking into the living room with me on his heels. Ezra only flips him off but I can sense his smirk even if I can’t see it under the mask.
With Berlyn’s friend still here, we have no intention of lingering the way we normally would. Our girl might be a very deep sleeper, but we have no idea if that will hold true with her friend. Even with all the alcohol they consumed.
Jude and Ezra head back to Berlyn’s room to leave the replacement gifts and the note we wrote before coming here. I hesitate following them, glancing back at her friend still on the floor. It’s not good for them to be passing out like that. They could get sick.
Ezra already settled Berlyn safely but this girl… I don’t like the idea of touching her or of my brothers touching her. I’ve never liked the touch of anyone but my brothers and our girl. The very idea of it is repulsive.
Yet, I can’t walk away.
Berlyn treats this girl like family. The only person in her life who really makes as much of an effort for Berlyn as she does for everyone else. She wouldn’t like it if this girl got sick either.
My attention is torn back and forth between where I want to be, and where I know Berlyn would want me to be. I groan near silently to myself and follow after my brothers, decision made.
Berlyn comes first. She always comes first.
They’ve already left the gifts and note on her bedside table. I wasn’t in love with encroaching her space even more, but they reminded me she already knew we had been in her room. The most important part is the note.
I nudge my brothers out of my way, grabbing the pen laying atop Berlyn’s open notebook and add a P.S.
to the note before putting it back into the envelope.
Ezra cocks his head to the side in question.
“She could have gotten sick,” I whisper.
She needs to know to do better. To take care of herself more and when she fails to do so, we’re going to do it for her.
We’ve already lingered longer than we agreed to, but I can’t stop myself from watching her sleep so peacefully.
Her hair looks darker against the white of her pillow cases and comforter.
I trail my fingers across her cheek and a sigh of content is whisper-soft against my knuckles as she turns into my touch.
She’s never once shied away from our touch.
Her body welcomes our presence, our heat.
She always sleeps better on the nights we visit her, falling into a deeper slumber, sinking fully into her dreams. Even if she hasn’t realized it yet, subconsciously she knows we belong to her. She belongs with us.
I brush a lock of hair out of her face before tracing her lips with my thumb and she parts them, inviting me in. My cock grows hard as I slip my thumb into her warm mouth, my breathing growing heavier as her tongue runs along my thumb unknowingly.
Jude groans at my side and I barely manage to tear my gaze away from her to find him gripping his own cock through his jeans.
“We really don’t have time for this,” Ezra warns, but the outline of his own erection does nothing to dissuade me from circling her tongue with my thumb.
His breathing deepens and he leans in closer to her sleeping form.
I dip my thumb in and out of her mouth and my dick pulses in my pants, my desire for her overwhelming every other rational thought in my brain.
“Fuck,” Ezra moans, only encouraging me to push further. Fuck our plans. How can we walk away when she looks like this? Defenseless. Begging to be touched. To be worshipped. Perfect for her favorite fantasy.
Pulling my thumb from her mouth, I leave a trail of wetness down her chin, tilting it up and exposing her neck to us.
Her pulse beats steadily under my touch as I graze my fingertips in a featherlight touch down her neck and to her shoulder where the thin strap of her favorite pajama top rests.
I finger the thin strap, flicking my gaze to Ezra who can’t take his eyes off where my hand rests.
I don’t need his permission. In fact, I love pushing him, maybe even more than Jude does. Especially when it comes to his pleasure. Still, I wait, loving the war waging in his eyes between his beloved plan and timeline and the delectable feast laid out in front of us just begging to be taken.
Jude’s body heat warms me to my core as he leans into me, his nose brushing across my cheek.
His dark chuckle washes over me, lighting every last nerve ending on fire and my grip tightens on the delicate fabric.
I could so easily rip this top from her body.
I force myself to take a deep breath and relax my hold.
“You know it’s too late for him to walk away,” Jude taunts just loud enough for the words to be clear amongst the three of us, but not loud enough to cause a disturbance.
“We don’t have time,” Ezra repeats. “It’s risky.”
The kind of risk we like. I stare at the black circles of the ghost mask and slip the strap from her shoulder, exposing more of her cleavage. The top hangs loosely on her and I push the neckline further down as I drag my fingers across her chest and push the other strap down.