Page 104 of Their Cruel Play
Frustration works through me. No, that’s not what I want. “Harper, I?—”
“Nico.” She turns in my arms. Her brown eyes search inside me, and I hope she sees how much she means to me. “You and I are searching for ghosts of who we once were.”
“We’re still those same kids.” I thread my fingers into her hair, desperate to hold onto her anyway I can. “You’re my best friend.”
She shakes her head sadly. “No, wewerebest friends. We aren’t the same people we were back then. We haven’t been for a long time.”
“We shared everything.” I clasp the back of her neck in my hand, desperate for her not to withdraw from me. To keep her here. To make her understand she’s it for me. Everything I’ve ever wanted.
Her hand cups my jaw. “We need to figure out who we are to each other now. You were my best friend, but obviously we didn’t know everything about each other.”
Fuck, this again.
“I kept you from them. I didn’t want to share you.” I rest my forehead against hers.
“And back then, you didn’t have to.” She drops her hand. “But while you were able to grow and thrive in a new school, I was forced to hide from them.”
“You had a choice, sunshine.” I hold her neck, making her stay with me. I arch an eyebrow. “You could have just gone to a party. You would have found a boyfriend. I wasn’t the only one looking at you differently that year.”
She shakes her head. Her brow furrows. “You don’t understand.”
That she hid herself away. No, I don’t. She could have had any number of boyfriends, but she didn’t want them.
“You could have had anyone be your boyfriend.” I close the distance between us, forcing her to tip her head back to maintain eye contact. “But you didn’t want just any guy, did you, sunshine?”
The memory comes back to me. The way her eyes sparkled when she talked about Luke Foster. Fuck, all it would have taken was one word between those two, and I would have lost her. He could have had her all to himself. Or he could have ruined her long before I came back.
“You wanted him.” That anger that rode me when I had to leave her behind and move, knowing I was leaving that opening in Harper’s life, splits me open. Knowing I was leaving her for him.
It’s why I didn’t stay in touch. So afraid as her friend, she’d tell me all about him. About how much she wanted him. About them going on dates. Kissing. Fucking. The things you tell your friend.
“Him who?” Confusion mars her face.
“Luke.” My nostrils flare.
Her nose wrinkles, and she jerks back as if I hit her. “I did not.”
Smiling through my anger, I back her into the wall. Awareness of her soft curves, the way her neck tenses in my hand, her quickening breath, it’s all here. She’s attracted to me just as much as them, and if I’d stayed, she could have been mine alone. But for how long? How long before Luke turned her head?
“If I’d claimed you as my girlfriend, they would have noticed you.Hewould have.”
“He?” The word is breathy.
“Luke,” I bite out. “Fuck. Don’t you see the way he looks at you. The way he seeks you out, draws you in. You could have been mine, but you were always meant to be his.”
She shakes her head and pushes against my chest. “What the fuck are you talking about? Luke wants me because I’m the last. I’m their pet project. Not the other way around. There’s no way I wanted any of this. I did what I had to do.”
Flames lick at my spine. The jealousy of them having access to her all this time. Them being able to claim her the way I wanted to.
“See, this is what I’m talking about.” Anger burns hot in her eyes. “We don’t know each other at all anymore.”
“We know each other, sunshine.” I wet my lips.
“Nico, we should go.” She tries to pry my hand from her neck.
I lift her against me and lower her onto the bed, caging her in with my arms and body.
“You’re mine too, sunshine.” I’ve been holding back, trying to make sure this is really what she wants while watching them take and take and take from her. Holding on to the scraps she gives me.
