by Vivian Lux
"What?" I exploded. "What are you being so fucking stoic and quiet about over there? This sucks!"
"Yeah," he sighed. "Sure does."
"So why aren't you upset?"
He pressed his lips together like he was about to say something and then caught it at the last minute. "We're gonna see Harper," he finally said in a rush of breath.
I closed my fist and then opened it again. He was right of course. He was fucking right, we were going to see Harper and I should be excited and happy, just like he was. He loved her, it was written all over his face, that dopey half-smile, that unfocused gaze.
He loved her.
And I did too.
And that was...cool?
Whatever this thing was that the three of us had stumbled on, it was enough to put a dopey smile on my face too, traffic be damned. The idea that we were going to see her again, surprise her, in her element, well, it just made me happy.
I slumped back against my seat. Gray shot me a knowing look. "Yeah, did you forget or something?"
I let off the brake and we rolled forward a whole five feet. "Nah. I mean, maybe I lost sight of it for a sec."
"You're not good at thinking about the future."
"That's pretty rich coming from the guy who's renting a room in my house for beer money."
"Dude, don't be an asshole."
"Sorry," I sighed.
"Seriously, why the fuck are you being so prickly? And don't tell me it's because of traffic because this is like the first traffic jam your yokel ass has ever been in. It should be a novelty." I rolled my eyes heavenward, but he caught me and pointed. "And don't tell me it's because you're tired because you never fucking sleep. You're like a vampire or something, always shuffling around at night and waking me the fuck up."
"I got shit to do."
"At three in the morning?"
I looked down at my hands. "That's when it's quietest so I can think."
"Yeah well, us normal people are sleeping then."
"And snoring like a fucking warthog," I reminded him.
He grinned. "Harper doesn't seem to mind."
I looked forward. "So we're doing this, Gray? Is she like...do you want her as your girlfriend?"
"Damn straight I do. Even if it has to be long distance, I don't give a fuck. I don't have a job. I'll make that shit work."
I nodded. "Yeah fine, but like, at the same time, she's...my girlfriend?"
"Think you'd better ask her that."
"Fuck you, I'm serious. You're cool with...sharing?"
"This is kind of like locking the barn door after the horse bolted about two weeks ago, Cal."
I rolled my eyes again. The traffic was easing inexplicably and I felt my heart unclench as the speedometer crept up to five, then ten, then a whole twenty-five miles an hour. "Yeah, we shared her that way. But I mean other ways."
"Like...how?"
"Haven't you ever had a fucking girlfriend before, you shallow fuck?"
Out of the corner of my eye I could see him pursing his lips in thought. "What was Annie Watkins?"
"She was a stalker who was obsessed with you in junior year of high school who you slept with for some stupid reason."
"Availability," Gray sighed. "Okay what about Helen?"
"You're talking about Helen Coyman? Our biology teacher? You slept with her?"
"I told you I did."
"I thought you were lying because we were all obsessed with her sweaters and how she never wore a bra."
I could practically hear him grinning. "She knew a lot about biology, and she was a hell of a teacher, that's all I'll say."
"Gross dude."
"Well she was a girlfriend...sort of..."
"What did you do besides fucking?"
"She, um...tutored me."
"I don't think Harper is interested in tutoring you."
"Huh. Okay well Mr. Relationship-Pro. What the fuck are you trying to get at here?"
I took a deep breath as the GPS chimed in with our turn. We were only a half mile from Harper's. We needed to get this shit sorted before we showed up at her door looking like a couple of idiots. "Like, dating. Going out to dinner and shit. Do we...all go? Take turns? How about if one of us is alone with her? What happens then?"
Gray was silent for far longer than I expected. When he finally took a deep breath, I had literally no idea what was about to fall out of his mouth...
Especially not what he actually ended up saying.
"I think you're trying to control something that's not in your control, Cal," Gray said slowly. "You tend to do that, dude. You want everything spelled out for you from the get-go. You're a control freak and that's fine and usually I just let you do your thing, but I'm sorry man. I gotta put a damper on this. You're asking me to define terms about Harper...without Harper being here."
I felt my stomach slide downward and twist into a knot. "Well shit, when you put it that way, I sound like an asshole."
"You are an asshole. But you're a smart asshole too, you'll figure it out. We all will. Hey, there's a spot, right there!"
He wasn't kidding. A Jetta was miraculously just sliding out of a legal place to park on the street just as we turned down Harper's tiny, too narrow block.
"I'm shit at parallel parking," I confessed.
"I haven't done it since my driver's test," Gray said, nodding.
"And I'm driving a huge fuck-you pick-up."
"This'll be interesting. Should I just close my eyes and duck?"
I shrugged. "Might be smart." I threw it into reverse, narrowly escaped clipping the bumper of the car in front of me, rolled right up onto the curb and the plopped back down with a bone-rattling thud when I straightened out the wheel.
Gray was looking a little sea sick. "Good job," he muttered.
"Yeah." I leaned over and looked up at Harper's neat little building. "I have a feeling that was the easy part."
Chapter Thirty
Grayson
I swung my legs down to the curb, wincing at the pins and needles that ran along my legs. Taking a deep breath, I looked over to where Cal was stretching by the hood of the truck.
We'd just hammered some shit out, yeah. But that didn't stop me from breaking out into a run.
"You fucking..." he swore as I blew past him, racing him to be the first at her front door. "Idiot! You don't even know which one is her place!"
I slowed to a halt. He was right. "Dammit," I exhaled, leaning over. "And I suppose you're not going to show me?"
Cal grinned his control freak grin and waved his phone in my face. I snatched at it, but he yanked it away. "Ha!" he yelled, dancing backward. "What are you gonna do now?"
"Kick your ass?" I promised, ducking for the dive tackle.
"Hey!" a voice came from above. Cal and I both looked around for a second like God himself was speaking from the heavens, but it turned out to be an Indian guy on the fifth floor of the building in front of us. "Keep it down!"
"Aren't they used to people fighting on the streets in New York?" I wondered as Cal called up his apologies. "It's loud as fuck, here."
And it was. At this hour in Reckless Falls, the only noise would be the cawing of crows and maybe the sound of the wind through the bare trees. Here the sheer volume felt like an assault on my senses. "How the heck does Harper get any sleep?" I wondered aloud.
"She's probably sleeping right now," Cal added. "It's Saturday morning. She might have been out last night."
I definitely did not like the twinge of jealousy I felt at that. "You think she went out with someone else?"
Cal's lips twisted into a snarl and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. "You wanna go find out?" he asked turning towards one of the low brick buildings.
"Yeah, and kick his ass," I muttered, following him. He walked up the concrete steps and then paused for a second before opening the first door into some kind of atrium. He pulled on the second door that led into the lobby of the building and then stopped.
; "Well that makes sense," he chuckled.
"What's that?"
"It's locked," he said. "So random guys like us can't come wandering into people's houses.
I looked around and noticed a bank of names on the wall. "Here's the call buttons," I told him, then stopped. "Do we just...buzz her?"
"I guess, yeah."
"What do we say?"
"Are you starting to freak out on me?"
I was, but I definitely didn't want to admit it. "It's just, she's not expecting us."
"It'll be a fun surprise."
"What if she doesn't want to see us?"
Cal's face darkened. "Then we'll make it worth her while."
I sucked in a deep breath. "Fuck yeah,” I said, and turned to press the button.
I heard a muted beep and then the speaker came on with a hiss. "What the hell?" came a tinny voice.
"Harper?" I called.
There was a faint scratching sound and then a bang, then that same tinny voice, louder this time. "Is that... Grayson is that you?"
I felt my face stretch into a smile so wide I was afraid my mouth would break. "Yeah baby. Yeah, it's me."
"It's us," Cal chimed in from over my shoulder.
"You..." There was that scratching sound again. "You're here? How did you get here?"
"Cal's truck," I told her. "It wasn't very comfortable. Mind if we come in?"
"Stretch our legs?" Cal added.
There was a long stretch of silence. I looked at Cal who looked away and I knew he was thinking exactly what I was thinking. One time we could write off, call it a fluke. Something to cross off our bucket lists, like Harper said. But a second time? A second time, that made it into something real. Something that we couldn't ignore. A second time made it clear that this was something we wanted...especially after driving through the night to make it happen.
There was a buzz, then a click. Cal grabbed the door and yanked it open, but I shoved past him. "You don't know which apartment is hers!" Cal hissed, reminding me.
But I didn't need to know. "Harper," I breathed, stopping short.
She stepped out into the hallway, feet bare, green eyes shining. Were those tears? Was she happy or sad? Or pissed?
There was only one way to find out.
"I've fucking missed you," I said, moving to catch her in my arms. Before she could stop me, before she could say anything, I was kissing her, and holy fuck she was kissing me back and that's when I knew that her tears were tears of happiness, of relief, because I felt them too. I had her again.
We had her again.
Cal slid behind her, kissing her neck, her shoulders. She made a sound against my mouth, and her hand flung out, pulling us back into her apartment before anyone could see. Where we could be reunited, for real.
Chapter Thirty-One
Harper
I'd come home from my disaster of a meeting and gone straight to bed. I slept so hard that the noise of my door buzzer blended with the noises of my dream. Grayson's voice filtering through the buzzy pop of the speaker convinced me I hadn't woken up yet. And when Callum announced they were both here, at my building in the early morning, I was convinced it all had to be a dream.
I was still convinced they weren't real, even as they were kissing me before I could close my door.
"Wait!" I begged, pulling back. Gray blinked at me with his warm eyes. The muscle at the top of Cal's jaw jumped and I saw his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed.
I took one look at them both, and I burst into tears.
"You're here? You're really here?" I babbled as I brushed my hair down Callum's cheek.
"Shh, baby," he soothed, catching my hand. "It's okay, it's okay."
Gray ran his hand up and down my back as Cal cupped my face and I was certain they had no idea why I was crying and I was pretty certain I had no idea either, other than I felt like some hole inside of me, some aching longing was finally healed.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded, but I didn't want to know the answer to that. I had to keep touching them, reassuring myself that they were real, and solid, standing here with me in my apartment. I needed to know that I hadn’t somehow conjured them out of the desperate loneliness I didn't know I was suffering from until this very moment. .
Gray caught my fingers and pressed them to his lips. "We're here," he said softly. Then he grinned against my fingertips. "I mean, Cal didn't want to come..."
"Fuck off," Callum growled, as he bent his lips to my neck. "We both wanted to come."
"But…" I wanted to say something about how crazy this all was. How we all had our own separate lives in two separate places. How I had so much going on in my life right now, and I couldn't afford the least little bit of distraction. How I'd had so much trouble adjusting to returning to the city, and their presence was only going to make it that much harder to stay here...
But any words died on my lips as Cal raked his fingers across the opening of my blouse. "Why aren't you naked?" he demanded.
"I was wondering the same thing," Gray said, sliding his fingers past my waistband.
"You haven't even given me a chance," I protested. "You guys are so grabby."
"Yep," Cal said, and he had my pajama top somehow almost undone already. "I've got two weeks of pent-up wanting you, right here," he said, cupping his hand against his groin. "I'm not in the mood to take it slow, are you Gray?"
"I'm wondering why you're not moving faster," Gray said, and I sucked in my breath to hear a stitch pop as he yanked my pajama bottoms down. Then I gasped as I felt him pressing against me, the length of him, already impossibly long and hard, and I believed him when he said he'd been wanting this for weeks now, because I felt the same damn way.
"Then hurry up," I barked, smacking Cal's hand away and finishing the final button myself.
"Aw listen to her. The lady is getting demanding," Cal said, tilting my chin upward. He fixed me with those eyes of his. "I like it," he growled as his lips covered mine. I surrendered into his kiss, rough and demanding as always, loving the way his blonde stubble, nearly invisible on his cheek, marked me as he kissed me so hard. I loved the way that Gray's fingers delved into the skin of my thighs, kissing a trail down my spine and raising goosebumps along my arms. I moaned as his fingers splayed across me, and then moaned again when they slipped inside of me, as if by accident.
"Oh, shit, feel how wet you are already, girl," Gray panted against my neck.
I couldn't speak with Cal's lips still on me, but I moaned some inarticulate sighing sound as Cal dragged his fingers down the front of me to come to rest directly on top of my clit.
"I feel it," Cal murmured against my mouth. A ragged gasp escaped my lips as they began moving in some kind of perverted rhythm, Cal's thumb brushing and rubbing my clit in time with the forceful thrust of Gray's fingers. He slid one, then two then three inside of me, stretching me, and I sagged against him, flinging my arms over Cal's shoulders. They held me, suspended there between the two of them as I went completely boneless and at their mercy, every inch of my skin on fire, my ears filled with the sound of their filthy, dirty talk.
I threw my head back, resting it on Gray's shoulder, and gave myself over to the mounting heat that gathered inside of me. There was no escape, I was sandwiched between them, acutely aware of Cal's length pressing into me in the front, and Gray's brushing up against me in the back. They had made me the meat in the middle of their sandwich and it was so dirty, and so wonderful at the same time.
"Goddammit!" I yelled, convulsing in a sharp shudder. Cal's fingers were moving so fast, and Gray's were holding me so tight, delving in and out of me, that I raised up on my tiptoes. "Shit, shit, shit!" I exhaled and a ragged half gasp, half scream tore from my throat as the white-hot bolt coursed through me.
"Fuck me if that wasn't the hottest thing I've ever seen," Gray hissed into my ear.
I flung my arm out and pulled him down to me. He rested his forehead on mine for a moment and then he broke out into a wide smile b
efore kissing me. "I'm so glad you're here,” I whispered. "I missed you so much."
"What did you miss?" Cal growled, his voice low and dangerous. "Tell us."
I turned to him and bit my lip. "You know."
"No, I'm not sure I do," Gray said against my neck. "Say it."
"I missed you...you know."
"You missed..." Cal prompted, reaching out to tweak my nipple.
"I missed you fucking me," I hissed as the sharp pain spread into searing heat. "I missed the way you spanked my ass."
Cal made a low noise and looked at Gray and I felt Gray nod against my shoulder and even though I had no idea what they'd just said to each other without speaking, I must have known on instinct because my body seemed to turn to jelly.
"You have a dirty mouth, Harper," Cal said, taking me by the hand. "What should we do with your dirty mouth?"
Chapter Thirty-Two
Callum
Feeling her come against my fingers undid me. My thoughts connected right to my mouth with no brain in between.
"You have a dirty mouth Harper McCabe," I told her, grabbing a fistful of her hair and yanking it back to expose her throat.
"Yeah," Gray said. He was somewhere behind her. Kneeling, doing something with his hands to make her gasp. And fuck if I didn't like that. Knowing that he was doing something to make her squirm even as I cupped her face with both my hands. "What happened to the wholesome little pigtailed girl I knew?" he asked.
And yeah, that was fucking hot too. "I'd like to put your hair in pigtails right now," I grabbed her hair in my fist again. "Good handlebars."
"But that mouth of hers," Gray growled. "You shouldn't be talking that way Harper, somebody needs to shut you up." My heart started to race in my chest as Gray looked over her shoulder at me. "Don't you think Cal?"
I nodded, unable to speak for a second. "Yeah," I said, my voice catching in my throat. I pressed down on her shoulders. "Shut her up, Gray,"