Page 14 of Their Cruel Play
“She good?” Eli’s dark eyes narrow.
He’s talking about Harper. Her reaching out to me will be a thing. Just like last night, sleeping with her will become a thing, like it did the last time.
“Sidney changed the terms again. The exchange is happening before the game.” I run a hand through my hair. “I don’t trust them.”
Eli grunts and nods. “They’re not happy. Ashley keeps giving me the stink eye.”
“How exclusive were you guys with those girls?” Nico taps his foot under the table, like he’s nervous about something.
“Not at all.” I take him in. His hair is disheveled from him running his hand through it.
“Were they exclusive to you?” He meets my eyes.
“No. You good, man?”
“Yeah. Just this whole thing is fucked up.” Nico straightens. “Someone tried to attack Harper last night.”
“We don’t know what his end game was.” Eli is always the last to make assumptions.
“He wasn’t there for cuddles like Luke.” Jack smirks.
“Fuck off,” I grumble. I needed her to sleep last night. “She’s ours.”
“Someone on the team is involved. At least providing information, if nothing else.” Caden cracks his knuckles. “Whoever is targeting her knows too damned much.”
“That would make sense. The guys knew about Grant Perkins.” Eli’s mind is already turning it over. If anyone will figure it out, it will be Eli.
“Only a select, trusted few knew.” It makes sense though.
“We need to find out who’s fucking the cheerleaders now.” Eli blows out a breath. “They could have their claws in any of those guys. For good pussy, a guy could give up information and not even realize it.”
“You’re not wrong.” Nico shoves back. “Are we going to discuss Harper?”
My eyes narrow on him. What’s this about? “About?”
“Boundaries.” Eli speaks up.
“I didn’t fuck her last night.” This fucking shit again? “It wasn’t an option. We agreed to let her be.”
Jack rubs his finger over his lip, hiding his smile. “She’s not sore anymore.”
Good, because I’m doing what they’ve all done and will fuck her in my jersey. But first I need to deal with this.
“What boundaries would you like, Eli? Should Jack have not fucked her? Should I not sleep with her? Should we discuss your pleasure in biting her lip?” I lift my gaze to his. My words are all steady with no hint of aggression in them. “Maybe you should be the only one to fuck her hard when she’s still in pain?”
Eli narrows his eyes. We don’t keep shit from each other. That’s why this works. But he acts like I’m taking fucking advantage.
“We have a fucking traitor on the team, and you two are bitching about who’s sticking their dick where?” Caden stands. “Someone is targeting Harper, besides Tanner. Maybe you two can pull your heads out of your asses long enough to stop bickering about her pussy and worry about the girl it’s attached to.”
He pounds his fist on the table. “This is about us. Not her. They’re coming at her because of us.”
“They attack her when we leave her vulnerable.” Jack leans back. His eyes are calculating, the same way he gets when he’sworking on his computer, sliding into someone’s private shit. “The away game. When we ignored her. Last night. They know when we aren’t protecting her.”
“When you ignored her?” Nico leans his elbows on the table.
Fuck. He wasn’t here then. I fill him in on what he missed, mostly from that first couple of weeks. Spanking Harper in the cafeteria. Our decision to keep her. The negotiation to seal the deal. Her pretending to be grounded. The day she decided to not react and our decision to show her what it feels like until she had a flat tire.
Then we couldn’t ignore her and wouldn’t let her ignore us anymore. After we made her admit she wasn’t grounded, he was there in the mix.
