Harkham's Case (Harkam's #1)

by Chanse Lowell

  Zach laughed so loud Adam covered his ears.

  “Come on—you work out. Use those muscles. Move me out of your space,” Zach challenged.

  She grinned with her lips pressed tight together. “Don’t even . . .”

  “Why? Afraid?” Zach shoved her shoulder back.

  Adam sprung between them, but Mari moved him out of the way without even looking at him.

  All of his insides were like black, sticky mud—messy and dirty. He wanted to push his brother so hard that Zach would pull a muscle and have to stay in bed for days.

  His eyes watered.

  This was wrong! But Mari and Zach liked each other. They talked a lot, and she was doing stuff with him she never did with Adam.

  She didn’t play rough with him like this.

  “I’m warning you, tough guy!” Mari smiled.

  “Oh yeah? Warning me how?” Zach rocked back and forth from side to side.

  “I grew up surrounded by big dudes. I played football with them all the time. They never held back, and neither do I.” She bit her lip, but her smile was still there.

  “Show me. Arm wrestle?” Zach suggested.

  “No! You’ll hurt her,” Adam protested.

  “Leg wrestle. We’ll be more even that way,” she said.

  Zach sunk to the ground.

  She shoved a pair of Zach’s shoes out of the way and then lay down on the floor.

  Zach was next to her, their hips lined up and their heads by the other’s feet.

  She giggled. “This is so dumb.”

  “Cool, huh?” Zach chuckled. “One . . .”

  “Two . . .” She followed.

  “Three!” they shouted in unison.

  In a blinding flash, their legs were in the air and their knees intertwined. Within seconds she had Zach’s bent knee by his ear and he was flipped over.

  “How’d you do that?” Adam asked, covering his mouth with a fist. The other hand shifted over his suddenly hard penis.

  “Practiced with all sorts of guys—most of them bigger than you,” she answered, directing her comment at his brother like Zach had asked instead of him.

  Adam growled. “My turn!”

  “Nah, it’s okay . . . I need to set my stuff up in here,” Mari said, getting up.

  He offered her his hand, but she ignored it and moved herself to standing without him.

  A knot tugged at his stomach.

  “Before you go . . .” she directed her words to his brother again “. . . explain real quick what you mean by ‘them being sell-outs is what’s so great about them.’”

  Adam sat back down on the bed. “Please leave,” he told his brother.

  Zach paced over to the doorway, turned around and paused. He looked at Adam briefly, smiling, then his attention went back to her. “Have you ever seen the Matrix movies?”

  “Yeah,” she said.

  “Well, some people don’t like it because they say they copied other movies before them and kind of mashed them together. You following me so far?” Zach ducked down a little like he was trying to see into her eyes.

  It was odd because she was standing several feet away.

  She chuckled. “Yeah. So you’re saying they’re paying homage to other popular bands, taking what others do best and combining it into goulash music for our picky eaters?” She laughed loudly at him.

  Adam’s insides were all mangled. His frustration over not understanding what they were talking about turned into numbers, but he hummed to make it go away. The problem was it was hard to hear what they were saying.

  He fisted the sheet on the bed, took a few deep breaths and rocked back and forth.

  “ . . . better go,” he heard her say at the end of some garbled sentence.

  Soft hands cupped around his ears, lips landed on his crown and feminine fingers threaded through his hair.

  “Adam . . . ? Sweetie, talk to me,” she cooed.

  “I like it when you say that,” Adam whispered. His eyes were struggling to focus—his head was foggy.

  “When I say what?”

  “Sweetie. You’ve called me that five other times—this is the sixth, and I wish you’d do it more.” Adam’s body was still moving to a rhythm. “It’s nice.”

  “I . . . I didn’t even realize I ever called you that,” she said, lowering herself into a crouch. Her hands used his thighs for support to get into that position.

  Blood rushed up his thighs. He glanced around the room to make sure it was just the two of them. He sighed when there was no sign of Zach. Finally! He was alone with his girlfriend.

  “Say it again, please, and hug me while you do it. I need you to”—his voice went high pitched because of where her hands were caressing—“because you like Zach better than me.” He peered into her eyes and forced his vision to clear. His head pounded. It was like the music and the numbers were warring over space.

  “Oh, sweetie, I’m sorry . . .” She straightened up some and straddled him, sitting in his lap. “I’m only trying to gain allies so I’m not the enemy in this house.” Her lips made steps all along his face in a circular pattern like a clock. He smiled, purred and cupped his hands together.

  Would she let him touch her breasts?

  “Say it again. I’m your sweetie, right? Not Zach? You ignore me sometimes when it’s just the three of us. I don’t like it. It makes me feel my heartbeat in my stomach, and I feel like my muscles are all hard and rough. It makes me want to hurt him—punch him out of the room!”

  She chuckled. “Oh, God. Adam . . . I’m sorry, but you have to know, he’s not my type.” Her nose rubbed his, and her eyes were shiny.

  “Why do you ignore me then when he’s with us? I want you to talk to me that way—joke and push me around.” He looked at her, and his tongue felt heavy. What could he say to explain this?

  “Sweetie . . .” Her eyes softened.

  His hands trembled, but he touched her there. He exhaled in a rush, transfixed as he watched his hands skim over her wonderful round breasts.

  “Did he make you jealous?” she asked.

  “I . . . I don’t know . . . Are you trying to make me jealous?” His fingers flexed, but he kept his touch gentle. He still wanted to punch his brother’s face.

  “Not on purpose, no.” She paused and licked her bottom lip. “I’ve never had a boyfriend before.”

  “So? I’ve never had a girlfriend before, but I don’t talk to other girls in front of you like they’re all I care about.” He blinked hard, and his jaw tensed. His hands were more needy, touching her with more firmness.

  “I’ve hurt you, and I never meant to. I guess a part of me almost wants to see what you’ll do. I get a little carried away. And another part”—she looked away and a small smile appeared but then vanished—“another part of me loves it when you do get jealous. You’re sexy as hell when you get like that. I can’t even begin to explain how turned on I get, watching you tell him to shut up and get lost.”

  “Is that all?” He breathed a little better. His fingers rubbed over protruding nipples. It made him smile at how tight they were from his touch.

  “I don’t know. I mean, he’s fun to talk to. I like your brother as a friend. I don’t have a lot of those, so it’s great to have one who’s into talking about the music I like.”

  He frowned.

  “What should I do when he’s talking to me? I don’t wanna hurt you, but I don’t want to be rude to him either. I also think you and I need to keep a safe distance while in your house so we’re respecting your dad’s rules.” She kissed his lips in a slow, safe way and brushed his hands off her chest.

  “I don’t care what he thinks.” His frown deepened. “I don’t care what anybody in this house thinks except you.”

  “You keep saying that, but in here. . .” she settled her hand on his heart “. . . I think you do.”

  “No.” He thrust his hands back on her breasts and squeezed them—not too hard, just enough to make her squirm. “I’ll show you ho
w stupid I think Dad’s rules are.” He slid her shirt up as quick as he could and pulled at her bra, almost snapping it off. Somehow, he managed to get it free.

  She gasped and wrangled it out of his hands while covering her bare breasts with her other hand.

  “Stop it,” she whispered and tried to get off his legs.

  He moved his hands to her waist instead and held her tight. “Be bad with me, Mari. I want to be really bad with you. I want you to touch me. Just this once—without worrying . . .” His breath felt like it caught in his stomach.

  “No. We’re not doing this, especially not now when I’ve finally earned some kindness from your dad and possibly even respect.” She leaned back, and when his grip slipped, she lurched forward, making his hands shift down. In the next second, she had flown off his lap.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Not anymore. You’re over there, and I’m over here.” His hands lay on his lap, palms up. They were so empty and sad. “I want you. And I want you naked with me all the time. Waiting isn’t okay,” he said, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he tried to swallow and speak. There were feelings stuck in his throat, making it hard to say anything. “Why don’t you want me?”

  “Oh, God . . .” She groaned. She tipped her head back, and her toe propped her foot up behind her. “Truth?”

  “I want to know,” he insisted.

  Her head slowly came back down. “I’m afraid—all right?”

  “Of me? Because I’ve hurt you before?” Both of his eyes twitched. He was about to have tears or else see numbers.

  “Nothing like that.” She sat down on the floor cross-legged and looked up at him. “I have no idea what I’m doing with you. When I had sex with other guys . . .” he cringed but she continued “. . . it was only to get something in return. I didn’t really want to do it with them. But with you . . . I want to give you nothing but pleasure. Do you know how hard it is to resist you? I think my body hates me because I keep denying it what it wants more than anything.” She sighed and picked at the throw rug under her, staring at it now instead of him. “Please stop asking me to touch you. If I do that, I won’t be able to stop, and I’ll never forgive myself. Your family will hate me, and I’ll be no better than that girl that tricked you into getting naked and took pictures of you in the girls’ bathroom.”

  “You’re nothing like her, and you’ll never be!” He stood up.

  “I will. I’d be using you to fill my own lust. It won’t be fair.” She sniffled. “And it won’t be the way I want it—where it’s all about you.”

  “I won’t ask you anymore, but if you”—he bit his lip for a moment—“if you ever want to . . . I want you to, just so you know you can . . .” He rubbed his chin. Did that sentence make sense?

  “I’ll remember that, but I don’t think I can go that route no matter how much it kills me to keep from loving on you—all of you.”

  And . . . He was even harder now, dammit.

  He got up and left. A visit to the bathroom was in order.

  Chapter 22

  “Mari,” a voice purred in her ear.

  Warm skin was up against her back.

  Her eyes flew open. She had been sleeping well, considering a little dark Keebler Elf slept in the room next door and had a penchant for knives and an all-consuming hate for her.

  “How did you get in here? The window?” He had to have, because she knew she locked the door to the bathroom she shared with Samara as well as her bedroom door.

  “No. That’s dangerous.”

  She turned over, and he smirked.

  “I missed you.” Adam gave her a peck on the lips.

  “How can you miss me while you’re sleeping?”

  His face was so angelic. Her heart softened, and she wrapped an arm around him.

  “I was dreaming about you, and it was a really good dream.” He shoved his lower half into her. “I keep wanting to put my hard dick inside you, and this dream made me want it even more.”

  “I can tell,” she said, chuckling. “Go back to your bed, and you can continue that dream.”

  “I’m not asking you to touch it. I’m not.” He shook his head and grinned. “I only thought . . .”

  “That I’d be so tired I’d slip and do it on my own?” She turned her head and yawned. He had no qualms about touching her when she was distracted or out of it. This was merely an extension of that type of thinking, and slyness on his part.

  “Is that bad?” He bit his lip at her.

  She groaned, pushed him out of the bed gently and walked him to the door. “I’ll see you in the morning. We’ll kiss, hug and hold hands a lot at school. I promise, but right now, we both need to sleep.”

  He pouted, making her shut her eyes. Maybe if she didn’t see him she’d stop thinking about how easy it would be to pull his loose pajama bottoms off and give him what he wanted. What she wanted, too. He was already bare-chested—the big tease.

  Must his body be so tight and toned and mouthwatering good?

  “Goodnight,” she whispered and opened the door. She gave him a little nudge.

  He turned around, and his devastated expression had her a second away from walking him back to her bed.

  “I’ll miss you. Do you promise to miss me?” he asked quietly.

  She nodded, blew him a kiss and closed the door as slowly as she could so she could make sure he was dragging his body away from her. He did, but slower than she’d anticipated, making it that much more agonizing for her.

  She locked the door again, even though that seemed to be useless as he’d already proved, but still . . .

  Should she push some furniture up against the door?

  She smiled at the thought, got back in bed and fell back to sleep with relative ease.

  Her pillow smelled like him . . .

  * * *

  It was odd sharing a conjoining bathroom with Samara. It was spacious, but that girl had tons of products she used.

  At Mari’s mother’s home, they shared, but they both kept most of their private toiletries in their own bedroom.

  Samara’s stuff was spread out everywhere—a bunch of it scattered in some kind of insane order on the countertop.

  Mari closed the toilet lid and put a few of her own things there since countertop space was limited.

  It was humid, and the smell of Samara’s perfume filled the air.

  Mari had already double-checked to make sure her bedroom door was secured tight, and now locked both doors in the bathroom, turned on the shower and brushed her teeth while it warmed up.

  The steam was comforting, wafting out of the top of the shower curtain.

  She stripped down fast and almost jumped in, moaning on contact when the hot water pelted her. It seemed to penetrate and unwind her muscles right away.

  “Uuuuuhhhhhhn.” She stood there, eyes closed as it doused her head and the rest of her.

  A song came to her mind. She hummed it loudly and ran her fingers over her scalp to make sure the water got down to the roots.

  “Hi,” a familiar voice said.

  She jumped. The curtain was open, and a very naked Adam stepped inside, joining her under the spray.

  “How did you get in here?”

  He smirked, and his lips twitched with mischief. “Samara’s room.”

  “Crazy damned Jack and Jill bathrooms and genius boyfriends that pick locks,” she muttered.

  “You don’t want me in here with you?” His eyes widened with shock written all over them. “But you said you want me—just like I want you.” He glanced down at his hard-on.

  She groaned, “That’s not what I said. I only asked how you got in here. I never said I didn’t want you in here with me.” She leaned back and kept her gaze at eye-level. Shit. How was she supposed to explain this so his feelings wouldn’t be hurt, but also so he would leave and they wouldn’t break the rules—thereby forcing his dad to throw her out on the street on her ass?

  Adam stepped closer to her, smiling, holding his di
ck at the base.

  His fingers moved around it a little, and it drew her eyes right there—to his hard, twitching, fabulously huge cock.

  A rush went straight from her stomach to her clit, almost making her jerk toward him and get an even closer look—from her knees.

  Goddammit. He was uncut and hung. She knew he was on the large size, having felt that thing on her thigh before and having it in her hands briefly, but fucking hell—seeing it now, made her imagination seem sad and beyond pitiful. She honestly hadn’t done him justice at all in her fantasies. And she really liked what she was seeing—a little too much—but fuck it all! She couldn’t do this. It would be the stupidest thing she’d ever done. It would be pissing in his dad’s face, after he was finally supporting her relationship with Adam and seemed a little more okay with her living here with their family.

  “I’m glad you want me in here with you. That makes me really happy.” His smile grew, along with his cock—if that was even possible.

  “Wait a minute. Adam, we need to stop and think.”

  He shook his head, and his eyes were filled with desperation. “No, Mari—we don’t need to think about anything else right now except being in here together.”

  She groaned. “How do you think this is going to be any better than being in my bed with me? What do you think is going to happen when we’re both in here naked together?”

  “Nothing, or everything. I don’t know, but I wanted to be with you.” He grinned once more and half-shrugged.

  “We’re gonna get caught. I can guarantee it. And I’ll get kicked out.”

  “No, you won’t. I’ll make sure you don’t.” He jerked his cock at the root for a second.

  He bared his teeth at her as he intently watched her reaction to him.

  Erect nipples were kind of hard to hide. Her gaping mouth? She didn’t even bother.

  Fuck—she was lucky there wasn’t a puddle on her feet at this point. That monster cock was gorgeous—and he wanted to give it to her. In here. Right. Now.

  “Oh dear God.” She licked her bottom lip. “If I ever learn to say no to you, check me for a pulse, because it probably means I’m dead.” She grabbed the shampoo. “Get over here. I’m gonna wash you.”