Chapter 32
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
EZRA
Do you have any kids out of wedlock? My mom says it’s important to ask these things as women tend to lie in order to gain a willing partner these days. By the way, I want at least five kids—all my own and I love a good pot roast. You?
—Laurd
I stared at the ceiling.
Holy shit. I just slept with my best friend.
Harper.
I just slept with Harper.
She was curled against my chest, her breath slow, her hand resting right over my heart like it belonged there.
I hadn’t expected her to actually fall asleep after that—hell, I hadn’t expected to sleep after that—but she’d watched me, studying me like…
like I looked at her. It was a damn good feeling, being seen.
She teased me sleepily, her words low and sultry.
And I’d cleaned her up. Tucked her in. Scratched her head until her lashes fluttered shut.
Because that’s what you do when it’s Harper. You take care of her. Always.
She knew it now, even if she’d never admit it: with me, she was safe.
Which just left me. Wide awake. Freaking the hell out. Not counting sheep, thank you very much, random lady from the bar—no, I was counting mistakes, possibilities, every way this could blow up in my face.
Holy shit. I banged my best friend.
She rolled to her side, turning away from me, and for a second I wondered if she was dreaming of someone else.
I slipped out of bed as quietly as I could and padded into the living room. My phone sat on the counter like it was mocking me. Normally, I’d call Harper about something like this. But it was Harper.
So I called the next best thing.
My brother.
He answered on the second ring. “She said you’d call.”
I froze. “Me? Who?”
He chuckled. “The old ball and chain. And before you say anything, yeah, I know I’m not allowed to call her that, but let me have one, okay? Just one.”
I groaned. “Oh dear God?—”
“Relax, you’re on speaker now. We’re vicariously living through your drama.” There was laughter in the background. “So. We took bets.”
I scrubbed a hand down my face. “Bets?”
“You totally slept with her, didn’t you.” She piped up I could imagine her dancing on the bed while simultaneously asking my brother to pay up. “I mean, I knew you would after that makeover I just knew it plus she’d have to be blind not to like you, it would be like not like OZ!”
“Oz?” I repeated. “Like the Wizard of Oz?”
My brother sighed heavily. “She means OS like MacOS this is why we don’t teach her things, she tries to use them in general conversation, it freaks me out and gets very confusing if I’ve had a drink or two.”
My sister-in-law really was a gem. “Please, it’s not my fault you can’t keep up, it’s why I watch all those TikTok videos so I can understand my own children, I’ve never been happier to know what Gyat means and that I have one, it’s an ass Ezra, in case you didn’t know.”
“Yes.” I cleared my throat. “I’m aware, I’ll be sure to rizz you right up later.”
She giggled.
My brother cussed again. “So, what did she say after?”
“Did you talk?” Her.
“Was it good?” Him.
“Errr,” I looked back at the bedroom. “She’s sleeping.”
Dead silence.
“Hello?”
“Bro, um, Ezra, shit, um, man, oh man,” I could feel his disappointment through the phone. “That’s not good man, like, she should not be sleeping like you just sang her a lullaby, she should be sweating like you just hiked through the Sahara naked with no water you know what I mean?”
“But hiking with consent.” She had to add.
“Yes, consensual sweaty hiking.” He said in a bored tone. “Anyway, I’m concerned man, that’s not supposed to happen, is she breathing?”
“Why did I even call you?” I wondered out loud. “And she’s fine, I took care of her alright? And I rubbed her face, and head, and held her close because I l—” I took a deep breath and stared at the door I’d just walked out of. “I love her man. I love her so much.”
Sniffing was heard on the other end. “That’s so sweet.”
“Hey, I tell you I love you all the time!”
“It’s different! It’s Ezra!” Was she hitting him? “I’m so proud of you, but aren’t you freaking out right now? I mean she’s all in dream land and you just blissed out with her and now she’s sleeping and you have all the weight of what just happened just sitting on your shoulders.”
“Like boulders.” My brother said not so helpfully.
“Giant ones.” She added.
“Got it. I have boulders. Thanks. Again, so very helpful!” I said through clenched teeth. “What if she wakes up and says it was a mistake?”
Nobody said anything. Finally I said. “Now’s the time to give your opinion guys!”
“Oh!” They both said in unison then hushed discussions from both of them before my brother finally said. “She won’t and if she does, you hear her out, you’re processing it all right now, she’s going to be processing it when she wakes up, so give her some time.”
Yes, because time didn’t sound or feel like torture.
“Yeah. I know. Okay. I know… Because it’s Harper…
Because she’s—” I stopped, my chest constricting as I spoke the words I’d never said out loud but sworn in my heart for so long.
“Because she’s it.” I took a breath, my heart pounding with the truth of it all.
“I don’t want to mess her up. I want to fix what I broke.
And I want to keep her. All of it sounds impossible at the same time. ”
“Stop sighing, and you!” my brother shouted. “Stop making me look like I’ve never done anything romantic!”
“You can up your game.” Maya interjected.
“I’m ignoring you.”
“This is why you aren’t romantic.
“Guys!” I called out, again.
“Marry her. Get a ring. Worked for me.”
“Damn right it did.” Maya replied, and I think I heard a smack.
“I’m going to have a bruise on my ass from that!”
“Just marking my territory.”
“Ew. Stop.”
Yelling sounded followed by screaming.
“Gotta go man, the locals just started fighting over the XBOX again.”
“Why are they up?”
“They never sleep.” She whispered. “And it’s not a school night genius.”
Oh yeah well that made sense.
“Okay.” I stared at the room again. “I might just drug myself to sleep then.”
“NyQuil saves lives.” Big bro agreed. “Catch you on the flip side.”
“Yup.” I hung up and then put my phone back on the table and leaned forward, elbows on my knees. “Aghhhhh.”
I tugged at my hair.
What if she regretted me?
What if she was upset?
What if it wasn’t what she wanted even though I know in my soul it was? What if she denied it? Denied me?
Fuck, I should have thought more with my brain less with my heart.
I was so stuck in my own thoughts I nearly shit my pants when something wrapped around my neck, then warm hands slid down my chest. I shuddered. “Please don’t be a hallucination or someone out to kidnap me.”
“Do you want to be kidnapped?” Came Harper’s sleepy voice.
I smiled straight ahead. “What does it entail? This kidnapping?”
Harper slid into my lap like she’d been waiting for the cue, her fingers tracing down my chest, lower, teasing the waistband of my pants.
“Mmm.” She hummed like she was already satisfied, but her eyes were wicked. Her hand dipped just a little lower, brushing against bare skin. “A bit of exploring.”
“Yeah?” My voice came out strangled as her fingers ghosted closer to my cock. “Exploring, huh?”
“I like to…explore.” She gripped me with one hand, tight enough to nearly send me off the chair, then retreated just as fast.
“No—no, come back!”
“Should I keep going?” she asked sweetly, like she didn’t already know the answer.
“Never stop.” I grabbed her wrist, desperate. “You’re on the USS Enterprise, exploring worlds never explored before. Do it for mankind, Harper. They need you.”
Her laugh was a low, dangerous sound. She slid off my lap and around the chair, dropping to her knees in front of me.
Shit. That was a sight.
I’d never been more turned on in my life than seeing Harper kneeling there, eyes heavy, lips still swollen from my kisses.
“I can’t let my captain down,” she murmured, fingers skimming up my thighs.
Yeah he wasn’t going down in a very, very long time.
I groaned. “I never thought Star Trek dirty play was going to be my kink, but here we are.”
Her smirk could’ve brought galaxies to their knees. “I’ll dress up next time. Ears, uniform, the whole thing.”
“Next time,” I rasped, already half undone, “you’re not getting out of the captain’s chair.”
The next ten minutes was a blur of her mouth on mine, her fingers gripping at me, toying with me, and then I couldn’t take it. I needed to be inside her, as much as I wanted her tasting me, I needed more.
“Don’t fight it.” I picked her up and walked back to the room, this time taking my time as I kissed down every inch of her body before positioning myself above her, gripping the headboard, entering her in slow fluid thrusts, my free hand moved between us so I could get her off at the same time.
She bucked against me, her eyes blurred with tears. “I like you undone.” She closed her eyes, a tear sliding down one perfect cheek. “You were right.” She whimpered. “You are perfect.”
“Glad you finally noticed.”
“I always have I was just too afraid to say it out loud.” She clung to my biceps as I switched positions deepening my thrusts causing her to sit up and wrap her arms around me. We stayed like that meeting thrust for thrust, not talking, just existing. And it was everything I wanted us to be.
It was needed after my minor, okay major, freak out. We both found our release like it was the most natural thing in the world, both of us in bed together.
We ended up sprawled across her bed in a tangle of limbs, too exhausted to move. She flipped around so her feet were by my head, her hair tickling my stomach as she giggled.
“Not very dignified for your first officer,” she murmured.
“Correction,” I said, catching her ankle and rubbing lazy circles into her arch. “Captain. Always the captain.”
She snorted into her pillow.
We both went quiet then, staring up at the ceiling, the silence stretching out heavy and fragile.
“Promise me when we wake up,” she whispered, her voice as delicate as the soft demand. “It’ll still be like this.”
I stared at the ceiling, the words almost too much. “I promise.”
I jolted awake hours later. Body hot. Harper hotter.
I needed sleep, I really did, but she was naked. And a naked Harper had always been my personal no-fly zone—never stare too long, never get caught, never let her figure it out. But now? Now I let myself look.
“Not morning yet,” she mumbled, voice thick with sleep. “Doesn’t count. Not adulting time. Do me.”
My mouth curved, even as my pulse spiked. “By my calculations,” I teased, “that would be round three.”
She kicked me in the shin. “Ow!”
Another kick.
“You probably had one of those giant graphing calculators that wouldn’t fit in your pocket, didn’t you? Nerd.”
I grinned through the pain. “Wanna know what else never fits in someone’s pocket—though they’d want to keep it around?”
She blinked at me. “…Wow. That didn’t land the way you wanted it to, did it?”
“Too early,” I admitted.
Her phone pinged, and dread knotted in my chest. Tomorrow would be here soon enough and we had quite the mess to wade through, but we’d do it together.
Harper glanced to her phone.
“Don’t.” I whispered the word, gentle yet commanding.
And in Harper fashion, she ignored me and swiped through the messages anyways.
I exhaled through my nose as I watched her eyes dart across the screen reading. “We’ll handle it.”
“Promise?” She asked, her tone soft, trusting. Her eyes lifted to meet mine and I could have slayed a dragon or drown in their depths, they were so beautiful. Unable to resist, I tugged her in close and brushed my mouth over her temple.
“Promise.”
She pushed up on her knees, crawling toward me, hair wild, mouth dangerous. My throat closed. She stopped just short of my cock, lips inches away, and whispered, “it’s never too early for breakfast, Ezra.”
Breathing? Optional.
“Suddenly I’ve got a thousand fantasies of you on your knees,” I rasped. “Cosplay included. Just let me have five seconds in my head.”
She burst out laughing. “Aww. Want me painted blue next time while I dig around for some unobtanium?”
I laughed—until her tongue flicked my tip. Then I stopped laughing. Stopped breathing. Stopped everything.
“Wasn’t expecting the Avatar reference,” I gasped. “Respect.”
Then she took me all the way in, and I was Lost in Space. Pun intended.