Page 172 of Their Cruel Play
My eyes widen. When I start to pull away, his hand tightens on my hip. I meet his pale blue eyes and see the ice forming there. But there’s something else. Something that settles me.
“Sidney didn’t like that Rebecca was getting so much attention from the varsity cheerleaders. She wanted Rebecca brought down a peg or two.” Luke’s eyes meet mine. “It’s not a pretty story, princess. But it’s all in the past.”
“The problem wasn’t that Luke claimed her.” Eli’s eyes lock with mine. “The problem was she became interested in another horseman.”
“You.” My voice is small. My insides twist even knowing this is all in the past. I’ve seen the way he interacts with her. Eli doesn’t want Rebecca and she sure as hell doesn’t want him. Not now.
He nods. “She wanted me, but we made rules.”
“No one else could touch her until Luke finished with her.” Those were the rules they told the cafeteria when they claimed me, except for me it was all of them.
“Right.” Eli exhales. “She fought against it. She decided if she wanted a horseman, she should be able to decide which one she should have.”
“If you just wanted to take her virginity, then why not?” I’m not seeing the problem. They wanted to discredit her by taking her virginity. Any horseman would do, right?
“She also thought she could keep her pristine reputation by being a fucking martyr.” Eli locks eyes with Luke. “She thought no one would know she wasn’t a virgin anymore.”
“Wait?” I missed something. “If Luke didn’t take her virginity, who did?”
“It was a party.” Eli meets my eyes and holds them. His eyes plead with me to listen. “My parents had been arguing again. I got drunk. Caden and Jack were off with some girls. Luke’s father wanted him home that night. Everyone knew Luke was supposed to do the deed. Rebecca saw her opportunity, and I wasn’t in any shape to refuse her.”
“She took advantage of you?” I twist in my seat so my feet are next to his on the ground, needing some contact. There’s a burning in my chest. This need to protect Eli swirls inside me, which is fucking hilarious thinking a horseman would needmyprotection.
“I didn’t exactly try to fight her off, kitten.” Eli smirks, but there’s an edge of regret. “I don’t remember much of the actual night, but she got me talking about my parents and things just escalated.”
I don’t know how to feel about any of this. “So you broke the rules.”
“Luke had been working on her. Wearing her down. Had her almost begging for it, but she kept holding out on the actual act.” Eli runs a hand through his hair. “She just wanted to get one over on us.”
His eyes look haunted. “We decided she should be punished—fuck, I can’t.”
“It’s better you tell her than some jealous bitch.” Caden’s words chill me. There’s something more to this. Something theydon’t want to tell me. Something Eli doesn’t want to tell me. “She can take it. She’s ours and we’re hers. Flaws and all.”
“I let Rebecca believe she was my girlfriend for a week.” Eli doesn’t reach out to touch me or anything. That truth just hovers in the air around us. Because this part of the story is sounding hauntingly familiar.
Eli gives me a self-conscious smile. “Understand why I didn’t want to tell you, kitten?”
“So you let her believe she was your girlfriend and what? Fucked some girl in front of her to prove a point?” Yeah, that sounds like something the horsemen would do. Fuck, I’m so fucking stupid.
I try to stand but Luke holds me in place. I huff out my impatience, but he holds me.
“No, princess. She went around telling everyone she was Eli’s girlfriend.” Luke brushes my hair over my shoulder and I shiver, betrayed by my own body’s cravings for him. “We leaned into it. But he never asked her or told her it was okay to say that. Everyone thought we’d gone easy on her since I’d claimed her, and now she was dating Eli.”
“It had to be brutal, kitten.” Eli leans back, his hands on the coffee table similar to the way he did on his bed. I swallow the lump in my throat, because nothing he’s said is making me run. I should be appalled.
Instead, all I can think about is that bullied freshman girl who hurt herself to escape the words Rebecca cast into existence. Because why? “She was jealous of the freshman girls? Who slept with them?”
I look around, and Jack and Eli raise their hands.
“So she wanted Eli and didn’t have the balls to go after him until Luke made his move?” I’m not sure this will make any of this better, but I’m trying to make sense of it. I’m trying to understand who Rebecca really is. The nice cheerleader whoeveryone liked was just a myth. She destroyed someone else’s life because she was jealous those girls could have what they wanted.
“Maybe.” Eli pushed his hand through his hair. “I invited her to a party. Fucked her in one of the bedrooms and left after. When she came downstairs, she found another girl riding my dick in the middle of the party. Rebecca cried and left.”
Even ripping the Band-Aid off doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. “You’ve had sex in the middle of a party?”
With that girl in the bathroom. I didn’t see her and I’m not sure I want to ask who she was.
Eli smirks. “Most of us have, kitten. We’re not shy about our bodies and some girls really get off on it.”
