Page 103 of Their Cruel Play
“I can take you.” Standing, I reach my hand down to her. “My place will only take a minute to run in and grab my things.”
As long as Mom isn’t home.
“Okay.” She slides her hand in mine, and I pull her up against me. Her other hand touches my chest to steady herself. A rush of tingles courses through me, making my cock hard again.
“Jack and I will be back in a few.” Caden stands and stretches. His gaze falls on Luke. “What about you?”
Luke shakes his head. “I’m caught up.”
Good. I don’t want him to have to go back to his house. I might be jealous of his connection with my sunshine, but he’s still my friend, my brother, and I don’t want him to get hurt anymore. He never should have been hurt in the first place. There’s a lot about the guys I don’t know.
I tug Harper through the house with Caden and Jack following us.
After a quicksee you soonoutside, Harper is inside my car and mine for the next half hour. A few minutes later when I pull into my driveway, I breathe a little easier. The coast is clear. No parents.
“Do you want to come in with me or wait here?” I pause with my hand on the ignition. Fuck, I want her to come in.
She smirks. “Is your mom home?”
“No.”
“Dad?”
“No. I’d like to say I won’t take advantage of having you all to myself in an empty house, but...” I shrug. There’s no use lying. If I had her in my room, it might be at least an hour until we left. If not longer.
“I should probably stay here.” A flush stains her cheeks. She looks down at her hands. I just want to spend more time with her.
“Come on. I can control myself for five minutes.” I turn off the car and unlock the doors. We both get out. When I get close to her, I hold my hand out and take hers.
“Did you expect your parents to be out?” she asks as I lead her to the back door and enter the numbers on the keypad.
“Honestly, I was worried Mom would be here, and I wouldn’t be able to sneak in and out.” I push open the door. “If I brought you in, she’d start fussing, and as much as I hate it, I let her do it because she needs it.”
She smiles, and I take her up to my room. When I close the door behind us, she wanders in the opposite direction from me. I head to my desk to load my books into my backpack.
“What are these for?”
When I turn, her fingers trail over my ribbons and awards Mom insisted on hanging. “Art shows.”
She nods and her gaze goes over each of the pieces of art. Sculptures, paintings, some charcoals. She turns the page on my art pad and sucks in a breath.
Leaving my bag on the chair, I come up behind her and rest my chin on her shoulder. The picture is a charcoal drawing I did of her. She’s laughing, and she practically sparkles on the page.
“When did you do this?” Her voice is soft, reverent. Her fingers hover over the drawing.
“In the evenings.” I reach around her and flip the page. It’s also a picture of Harper, but this time from when we were kids. It’s almost the exact same pose. Same girl but different.
“This is really good, Nico.” Her fingers ghost over the picture. “You’re way better than I am.”
“You underestimate yourself. You always have, sunshine.” I kiss her behind her ear. A little shiver goes through her. We needto go or I’ll have her spread out before me. “I have everything if you’re ready to go.”
I begin to turn, but she grabs my hand and holds me in place behind her. She leans back against my chest with a soft sigh, one that goes straight to my cock. I breathe in her vanilla scent, mixed with something earthier from her shower with Eli.
“We haven’t had a chance to talk.” She threads her fingers through mine and wraps my arms around her.
I sigh. “No, we haven’t. I hate how things went down.”
“I understand you did it to protect me, but it didn’t hurt any less. It felt like a betrayal of our friendship.” She blows out a breath and squeezes her arms over mine. “I think we need to start over?—”
