by James Tate
She smirked at him, with more than a touch of evil. “Eddy’s moving into your bachelor pad, big brother.”
Jasper gasped dramatically and buried his face in my hair, pretending to sob as he wailed “Noooooooo!”
We were all laughing at his expense when Beck approached and peeled me out of Jasper’s grip and tucked me into his side. I was just about to make a comment about how I was getting tossed around like a dog chew toy when—
“Slut,” someone spat, and my head snapped around to see who it was.
There. Walking past us was a group of cheerleaders, with Katelyn Huntley’s shining blonde head in the thick of them all.
“Excuse me?” I snapped back at them, unsure who had actually delivered the insult.
None of them seemed so brave as to further their insults while Beck, Jasper and Evan were all staring right at them, but the looks I got were pure poison.
“They’re getting bolder,” Evan murmured as the girls continued across the parking lot to their own cars. “Katelyn’s influence, no doubt.”
Beck grunted a pissed off sort of sound. “We need to handle her. Sooner, rather than later.”
“Handle her how?” I asked, frowning up at them. Damn. Why were these boys all so damn tall, even when I was in heels? “What do you mean by that?”
“Undecided,” Beck murmured, then turned to Eddy. “I hear you’re moving in with Jasper, huh? This is going to be fun.”
“What? How does he know and I didn’t?” Jasper grumbled, pouting and stuffing his hands in his pockets as we all headed for the cars.
Eddy snickered a laugh. “Because it was more fun to blindside you. Hey, we should have a housewarming party! Like a giant one, for all of the apartments!”
Jasper gave his sister a light, playful whack on the back of her head. “Security, dipshit. No parties, no guests.”
Eddy let out a groan. “I thought the rules would be different away from the compound. Come on, Jazzy, one little party couldn’t hurt.” She put on her very best puppy dog eyes, but I could have told her she was barking up the wrong tree on this one.
“The answer is no, Edith,” Beck said in response to her pleading. “If anything, security needs to be even tighter now that we’re out of the compound. There has already been a death threat sent against Riley, and need we remind you of the incident here at school just last week?”
Eddy’s face fell, and she gave me a guilty smile. “Good point. Sorry, I was just caught up in the excitement.”
“Don’t stress,” I replied. “We can just party it up at someone else’s place and leave them to clean up the mess instead. It’ll be great.”
This seemed to cheer her back up a bit. “Oh yeah, Friday night. Sick. Okay, I’m gonna grab clothes from Mom and Dad’s place and head over. You wanna come with?”
Just as I opened my mouth to accept, Jasper cut me off. “No, she can’t. I already booked Riley for Mario this afternoon.”
“Ugh, you suck!” She whined at her brother, but eventually got in her car and took off with a wave and a promise to be over soon.
“Mario?” I questioned Jasper. Beck still hadn’t let go of me, and if I was being honest I wasn’t really in any hurry to detach his arm from my waist any time soon. “I hope you either mean Mario’s Pizza or Mario Kart. Or both.”
Jasper grinned, and Evan laughed.
“I like the way you think, Spare,” Evan complimented me. “Both sounds fucking epic. I’ll swing past Mario’s Pizza and meet you guys back in Riley’s apartment, yeah?”
The boys all said their goodbyes and I—shockingly—ended up strapped into the passenger seat of Beck’s Bugatti. A seat I was beginning to think of as my seat, which was probably another item to discuss with my therapist, whenever I got around to that.
Neither of us spoke for the drive home, but the way he drove—taking the long route, slamming through corners and far exceeding the speed limit—was deliberate. By the time we pulled up in front of our building, I was practically trembling with adrenaline. Among other things.
Fucking Beck. Everything he did lately seemed to just be proving how well he knew me, and god fucking damn if he hadn’t just got me all kinds of hot and bothered right before we were supposed to hang out with the whole gang.
“Everything okay, Butterfly?” he asked with total faked innocence when we stepped into the elevator. My arms were folded under my breasts and my thighs were clenched tight, but still I gave him a tight smile like nothing was wrong.
“Of course, why wouldn’t it be?” I lied.
A small smile played at his lips. Smug fuck. “Okay, well if you need a hand with anything ... just let me know.” His wink told me exactly where that hand would go if I accepted.
Beck pressed the button for our floor and as the doors slid closed, my resolve crumbled.
I threw myself at him in a flurry of motion, my school skirt was bunched around my waist, my panties discarded, and Beck’s long fingers were buried deep inside my aching pussy.
I moaned, long and way too loud as he skillfully finger fucked me against the wall of the elevator, sending me crashing over the edge into a dizzying orgasm right before we reached our floor.
Thankfully, no one was in the corridor outside the elevators when the door slid open, because although he’d gotten me off with the speed of light, I was still riding the aftershocks of my climax as he smoothed my skirt back down and pocketed my underwear.
Beck’s strong arm around my waist was the only thing that kept me on my stupid stiletto heels as I wobbled out of the elevator, my knees like jelly and glow worms still dancing across my vision. Still, neither of us spoke until we reached my front door and he claimed my mouth in a bruising kiss.
“I should get changed, and so should you. The boys will be here any minute,” I warned him, and a devilish look crossed his face.
“Do me a favor?” he asked, and silly me with my post-orgasm euphoria, just nodded. “Don’t wear any panties,” he whispered, his voice dark and dirty and full of promise.
I should have told him to go shove it, that we couldn’t just go back to playing happy families because we’d had one little group heart to heart. I should have told him that sex was not the answer to our problems, and that it was only confusing the situation more. I should have told him that I wasn’t interested in letting him toy with me, in allowing the sexual anticipation and excitement near drown me until the rest of the guys fucked off later that night.
I should have. But instead I just gave him a smirk of my own and let myself into my apartment, leaving him out in the hall without an answer.
Which, really, was answer enough.
24
As it turned out, letting my libido rule my actions was a terrible idea. Or an excellent one. The jury was still out on that case. I’d not only followed Beck’s instructions of leaving my panties off, I’d gone one step further and changed into a casual sweater dress, rather than the sweats I’d been planning on.
While I was perfectly safe sitting in one of my twin recliners to whoop Jasper’s ass in Mario Kart—proving I was a better driver than him on and off the roads—it was when I relinquished the controller to Evan, and Beck pulled me into his lap on the couch, that I was in trouble.
He wasn’t even subtle about toying with me, either. Eventually it was getting all too heated, and I excused myself to get a glass of water from the kitchen.
And by glass of water, I meant that I needed to go stick my head in the freezer for a quick second.
“Hey,” Dylan said from behind me as I was neck deep inside my ice box, and I jumped with fright. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” he apologized with a knowing smile. “Looking for ice cream?”
“Huh?” I blinked at him for a second. “Oh, uh, yes. Yes, that’s what I’m doing. Looking for ... ice cream.” I chewed my lip and avoided eye contact so he wouldn’t see the clear lie. Not that he probably hadn’t already worked it out. Ugh, I badly needed to work on a Delta face of my own.
“So what’s up?” I asked him, grabbing the first carton of ice cream I could touch from my freezer and plonking it down on the counter to grab a spoon.
Dylan started to say something, then stopped himself and scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. “I just wanted to check you were okay,” he finally said. “The other night at the gala—” when I kissed him...
“I’m fine,” I assured him, cutting off whatever else he was going to say. “We’re cool, right?”
He frowned at me for a long moment, concern evident on his face. “Yeah, always. Just so long as Beck didn’t—”
“I’m fine,” I said again. I didn’t really want to hear what he thought Beck might have done after seeing me kiss his best friend, but I was pretty sure fucking me fast and dirty in the bathroom wasn’t it. What could I say? We had issues.
Dylan nodded, seeming to accept my answer. “Okay, cool. I just wanted to touch base. I know all this shit with Delta and everything that happened last week has been a lot. You know you can talk to me if you ever need to?”
I smiled at his genuine offer, despite the fact that Dylan wasn’t exactly the most talkative of my new friends. “Thanks, Dylan,” I said with sincerity. “I appreciate it.”
From the living room, loud voices spiked, and we both glanced in their direction.
“Sounds like Jasper’s cheating,” Dylan commented, heading back through to investigate.
I laughed. “He does that often?”
“Way too often,” Dylan replied with a long suffering sigh then waded in to break up the heated argument between Jasper and Evan, which Beck was just sitting back and watching with an amused smile on his face.
While Dylan tried to mediate the argument between the two friends, Beck caught my eye and jerked his head in the direction of my bedroom. Then got up and sauntered his sexy ass in there all casual as anything, like he didn’t have a hard as fuck boner showing through his sweats. Then again, the other three were so deeply embroiled in their argument they probably didn’t notice a damn thing.
Fuck it.
Leaving them to their debate over whether it was cheating to interfere with the other player’s controller or not, I crossed the room and slipped inside my bedroom.
In a second Beck’s lips were on mine, his hands all over my body just like I’d been craving all evening. He picked me up and dropped me onto the bed without once breaking our kiss, pressing all of his hard body into mine as I almost silently moaned my encouragement. The guys were just in the next room, but if we were quiet enough we might have a shot...
Right up until my front door banged open and Eddy stepped inside my room, announcing loudly, “I’m here for my sleepover! Beck, that means you’re outta here.”
We froze where we were, my legs spread, Beck’s erection grinding into my naked crotch and his mouth on mine.
“Come on,” Eddy snapped, whacking Beck on the shoulder. “Move it. It’s girls’ night.”
“It is?” I asked, pulling back from Beck just a fraction.
“Since when?” he demanded, turning a glare over his shoulder at Eddy.
Typical of my new best friend, she just propped her hands on her hips and glared right back at him. “Since you all stole my girl for pizza and video games instead of letting her help me move. Now shoo. Go take a cold shower or jack off or something.”
I needed to cover my mouth to hide the startled laugh that escaped me at her suggestion. Beck glowered and turned back to me with a look of disbelief on his face, but I just shrugged.
“You heard her,” I chuckled, wiggling out from under him and making sure my vagina was covered before I flashed it at Eddy.
Beck grumbled something under his breath, but reluctantly stood up and adjusted his pants before glaring at Eddy again. “Never knew you to be such a cockblocker, Edith,” he muttered, but I could tell he was mostly joking. Mostly.
Eddy just shrugged and grinned. “’Kay, have fun with your hand tonight, Beck.”
“Think of me!” I suggested oh so helpfully as he stalked back out of my room.
Eddy dissolved into a puddle of laughter as the boys all left my apartment, and I whacked her with a pillow. Hard.
“Ow, what was that for?” she complained, still laughing.
“That.” I whacked her again. “Was for being a pussyblocker! Now I’m horny as shit, you asshole.”
This only seemed to make her laugh harder, but she rolled off my bed and grabbed a professionally wrapped gift box from on top of her bag. “Good thing I came bearing housewarming gifts then, isn’t it?” She winked, and I opened the box with suspicion, then started laughing myself.
“A vibrator? You bought me a vibrator as a housewarming gift?” I leveled an amused stare at her. “I can’t decide if you’re the best friend a girl ever had or the worst.”
She made a sound of mock outrage. “Clearly the best. It’s waterproof. Go take a shower and relieve some of that Beck induced tension so we can actually have a proper girls’ night.”
I had no idea what to do with the absurdity that was Edith Langham, so I just shook my head and went to do what she said. Why not, right?
* * *
School the next day was uneventful; it had been a quiet week on the old bullying front. There were still a few slut-coughs which probably wasn’t helped by the fact that all four boys seemed totally comfortable hugging me, holding my hand, generally shadowing me freaking everywhere. Then again, I didn’t much give a shit about what other academy students thought of me.
“Hey, how come there hasn’t been any blow back from the school admin about ... last week?” I asked Beck and Dylan after school while we waited for the other guys, and Eddy, to join us.
I hugged my arms around myself and shivered. I wasn’t really ready to discuss and dissect it but it had been playing on my mind that the whole school was acting like nothing had happened. I mean, Beck almost killed at least one student. There was no way the faculty didn’t know about it. It also made me wonder just where the hell all those teachers were during my attack.
“We had it handled,” Dylan replied, cryptic as fuck.
I scowled. “What happened to no more secrets?”
He nodded and sighed as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Okay, Delta made some threats, then softened it with a sizable donation to the school. In about a month, they’ll be breaking ground on a brand new Olympic grade polo stadium.”
My jaw dropped. “It’s that easy? Katelyn pays some guys to try and gang rape me in a classroom, then Beck puts them all in the hospital, and it’s all swept under the rug with money?”
Beck tilted his head to the side as he watched me. His back was against the side of his car and he looked totally relaxed, despite the content of our conversation. “Did you want to file criminal charges against them, Butterfly? We probably should have asked you instead of just assuming.”
“What?” I shook my head, frowning. “That’s not what I meant. And no, I don’t want to file charges and do the whole court hearing bullshit. Pretty sure they got what was coming to them anyway. Is that revolting cretin still alive, by the way?” By that, I meant Todd who’d clearly been the one leading the attack. I had a small hope that he’d eventually died from his injuries.
“For now,” Dylan murmured. “Oh look, here’s Eddy.”
I huffed, but let the subject drop seeing as I knew they wouldn’t discuss Delta around Eddy. Not that she didn’t already know way more than they realized. But whatever. Appearances.
“What’s the plan tonight?” she asked, bouncing up to us with Jasper and Evan not far behind her. “Movies and Indian food?”
My belly growled, but Beck shook his head. “Not for me, I’ve been called in for a Delta meeting.” He looked as happy about that as I imagined.
Just then, my phone buzzed with a message, and I swiped the screen to check it.
Richard: Riley, would you be able to stop by the house this evening? Catherine is away in New York. I promise you
won’t see her.
“Apparently I’m popping by the Delta compound for dinner with Richard,” I told everyone.
“I’ll drop you over,” Evan offered, “I need to go check on my mom anyway.”
We all split up into our respective vehicles and headed out of the academy parking lot. I wasn’t super chatty with Evan, but there was a lot weighing on my mind. What Delta was calling Beck in for, and even stronger, what Richard wanted to discuss that couldn’t be done with Catherine home. Whatever it was, surely couldn’t be good or he would have just called.
25
Walking back into the Deboise mansion felt ... weird. I’d only had my apartment for a week and a half and it was already a million times homier than this soulless estate.
“Hello?” I called out, hesitating in the foyer. I was still a stranger in this house, blood ties or not. “Richard? It’s Riley.”
I didn’t know why I announced myself like that. As if any other teen girl would be wandering into the Deboise manor uninvited.
My biological father—who I honestly knew about as well as Stewart, the butler—came through from another room and smiled broadly when he saw me.
“Riley,” he greeted me, “It’s so good to see you. I heard about the unpleasantness last week. Are you doing okay?”
His casual mention of my gang rape attempt had me taken back, and I stumbled over some kind of neutral response without really hearing what I was saying. But what the fuck? Richard knew about that and never reached out to me? Obviously he was my father by DNA only but still...
Then again, just because Catherine held his seat by proxy now, didn’t mean Richard wasn’t the true Delta member. Maybe I’d been giving him too much credit as a nice person.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, leading me through to the dining room, “Of course you are, you’re a teenager. I remember what Oscar was like at eighteen, he never seemed to be full.” He started to smile at the fond memory, then his face crumpled with grief.