Even with the towel wrapped around his waist, his erection is obvious.
He notices what’s holding my attention as he steps up to me, slips his hands under my arms and lifts me so I’m standing.
“Let me look after you, Kitten.”
He leans forward and brushes his lips against mine in the sweetest kiss I think I’ve ever received, and just when I’m ready for him to deepen it, he pulls away, lifts me out, and wraps me in a warm towel.
After once again sweeping me off my feet, he carries me to my bedroom and sets about getting me dried and dressed for bed before encouraging me to crawl under the sheets.
“Don’t leave me,” I demand in a panic, reaching out to grab his hand, when he moves toward the door.
“I’m just taking the towels back and getting my clothes.”
“O-okay,” I whisper, feeling silly but still not wanting him to leave me alone.
“There’s food and drink if you need it.” He nods to my nightstand and I find a little picnic waiting for me. I have no idea who did it while we were in the bath but I’ve never been more grateful to see a glass of water.
“I probably should have thought about that sooner, huh?”
“You’ve been everything, Ky,” I tell him honestly.
“I’ll be back,” he promises, and less than two minutes later he is crawling into bed with me, pulling me into his arms and encouraging me to sleep.
Seconds later, I do exactly as I’m told and allow sleep to claim me.
34
Kyle
Slipping from beneath a sleeping Harley, I sit on the edge of the bed and watch her for a few seconds, ensuring that she’s not going to wake with my movement. My eyes flick over the bruises and cuts on her face and my fists curl in my need to find wherever that fucker has been taken to and put an end to him for good. A bullet in the shoulder isn’t good enough.
Happy that she’s in a deep enough sleep, I drag on my clothes and slip from the room.
“How is she?” Stella and Poppy ask simultaneously as I step into the Hunter’s kitchen.
“Sleeping. Thanks for the food.”
“It was the least we could do,” Poppy says softly, sympathy for her friend oozing from her eyes.
“That was pretty badass of you,” I say, pinning Stella with a look.
“It was nothing.” She shrugs.
“When did you learn to shoot like that?”
“My dad had me at target practice when I could barely lift a gun. He’s big on self-defense.”
“Who exactly is your dad?”
“I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that his men will make sure Gray regrets ever even breathing the same air as Harley, let alone putting his hands on her.”
“They’ll kill him?” I ask, needing to know that he’s going to be wiped off the planet.
“They won’t be that kind.”
My eyes narrow on her but she just shakes her head, telling me that’s all I’m going to get out of her.
I don’t believe her denial for a second. She knows exactly what her father does. There’s no way she’d have access to guns and trackers as easily as she does if she didn’t.
“Is Zayn around?”
“You got a death wish?” Poppy asks, forcing out a laugh.
“I don’t know, from what I’ve heard, he got off pretty lightly from your brother so he can’t go too hard on me.”
“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that,” she mutters. “He’s out in the garden.”
“Okay, wish me luck.”
“Here, take a coffee as a peace offering,” Poppy says, jumping up and making him a mug.
“Do I get one?”
“Sure thing.”
With two mugs of strong black coffee in hand, I make my way toward the back of the house.
I know where he is before I see him, the smoke floating up from the other side of the lounger a dead giveaway, the bitter scent of the weed another.
“Here,” I say, placing the mugs on the table between his lounger and an empty one.
He doesn’t say anything but I notice his entire body lock up tight at the sound of my voice.
When I glance over at him, I find his hard eyes trained on me, that same muscle in his temple pulsating to the point I’m worried he might be about to have a coronary.
I blink and he’s no longer resting back with his joint between his lips but instead, he’s right in my face, his nose brushing mine and my shirt twisted in his fist.
His breath coats my face as his angry, dark eyes hold mine.
“Go on,” I say, holding my hands out at my sides. “Hit me. Do whatever you think will make this better.”
“She was supposed to be off-limits, man,” he seethes, his grip on my shirt tightening.
“I know, and trust me, I held back for a long time.”
“That night. She was with you, wasn’t she?” he asks, but I know he already knows the answer. “Did you fuck her?”
“N-no. We just kissed.” He growls in warning, but I keep going, it’s time this was all out in the open. “I wanted to though, and I thought it was our time at last. I’d watched her, wanted her from a distance for a long time. But there she was, and you weren’t and… she was as interested as I was. I just fucking wish I took her away sooner. If I’d have dragged her out of there that night then…”
He nods. “I fucking hate him.”
“You and me both. If it weren’t for Har calling the cops, I dread to think what would have happened that night.”
“Fuck,” he barks, releasing me and rubbing his hands over his short-cropped hair, his face twisted as if he’s in physical pain.
“I really want to fucking hurt you,” he admits, turning his back on me.
“You’ve got a free pass. I deserve it.”
He looks over his shoulder, his eyes hold mine. The knowledge of what could have happened to Harley that night, along with what almost did happen last night darkens them even more than usual and before I know what’s happening, his fist isn’t flying toward my face but he’s pulled me into a hug, his curled fists slamming down on my back.
“You’d better fucking look after her. If you so much as hurt—”
“I won’t,” I say, my voice full of a confidence in myself that I don’t feel.
I think he knows it too because a laugh vibrates in his chest.
“What fucking bullshit,” he says with a laugh as he pulls back from me. “We’re both Harrow Creek boys, it’s in our fucking DNA.”
“I don’t know,” I say, dropping down to the lounger beside the one he’s now in again. “You seem to be doing a pretty good job with Poppy.”
He laughs. “You’ve met her brother, right? My life wouldn’t be worth living.”
“Know that feeling,” I joke.
“There’s still time for me to take you out for this, you know?”
“Yeah, and I’m sure one day you will.”
He falls silent for a few seconds. “Who was the chick last night?”
“Fuck knows. It was a stupid way to make Gray think I didn’t want Har. He saw the move a mile away.”
“I hope you know you’re fucking up before you’ve even started.”
“I know. I should have told her the truth about him. I thought I was protecting her. It was naïve of me to think she needed that.”
“Fucking right. Harley doesn’t need protection from anything. Aside from Poppy, she’s the strongest girl I know. Don’t patronize her by making her think you underestimate her strength.”
I nod at him, accepting the joint when he offers it to me.
“How’s she doing?”
“Sleeping.”
“Did he…” He trails off, not wanting to say the words that I equally don’t want to hear.
“No, I don’t think so. But I truly believe he would have if we didn’t get there when we did.”
He nods, and it makes my stomach drop into my feet, knowing that he agrees with me. It’s no surprise.
We know he’s a monster. I just hate that he was part of our lives—our friend—for as long as he was.
Silence descends leaving us sitting there with just the sound of the birdsong overheard filling our ears.
There’s so much more we both want to say, but neither of us vocalizes any of it. It’s too painful.
“I’m going to cancel going away this week. She needs me here,” he confesses, staring off into the distance.
“I think we both know that she’ll hate you for doing that.”
“I don’t really give a shit what she thinks. She was just kidnapped and nearly fucking… again. I’m not leaving her for a week to be at some senior team booze fest.”
Jake’s girlfriend, Amalie, has rented a huge house for their winter break, and almost the entire varsity team are heading there with their girlfriends to celebrate the season.
“She won’t want you babying her. Just go, Z.”
“So you can stay here and look after her.”
“No, that’s not my reason.” Although I can’t deny that it sounds like a fantastic idea.
“You should go, you’ve already been invited along with Ash and Ruby so you can talk tactics with Jake all week.”
“I’m not gate crashing your thing.”
“You’re going to be a big part of the team we leave behind, you have every right to be there.”
“To get me away from Harley?” I ask, finally twisting in my lounger to look at him.
“No, I…” He blows out a long breath and turns to meet my stare. “Do you… do you love her?”
My heart tumbles in my chest as his eyes hold mine, drilling me for an answer.
“I… um… I think it might be a bit soon for that,” I mumble, trying to get out of answering for real. I wanted to have this conversation with Harley first, not her older brother.
“Bullshit. You just told me you’ve wanted her for a long time. You know exactly how you feel about her.” His brows rise and he sips at his coffee while he waits for me to find my balls.
“Fine. Yeah, yeah, I do. Happy now?”
“Nowhere fucking near, man. Now you need to go and tell her.” His voice leaves no room for argument and after a beat, I push from the lounger intending to do just that.
The kitchen is quiet as I drop off my mug and as I climb the stairs, I realize why.
“Hey,” I say, slipping into Harley’s room where all the chatter is coming from. “How are you feeling?” I ask, zeroing in on Harley who’s sitting up against her headboard with the covers pulled up to her neck.
The second her eyes find mine, I know something is wrong.
My heart beats a little fast as our connection holds, but I already know what’s coming before she opens her mouth. I sense it.
“I need you to leave,” she says coldly, her features hard and unwavering as if she actually believes the words.
Pain coils around my chest as I think about the words I intended to say to her when I got up here.
“Can we just talk, please? Alone.”
“No. I’m done, and you need to leave.”
“But—” At my argument, there’s movement off the end of the bed and Stella comes to stand in front of me.
“She’s in shock. Just give her some time.”
“But I—”
“I know, Kyle. I know,” she soothes. “But she just needs a little space to get her head around everything.”
She holds my eyes, silently begging me to do as Harley wishes and not to make this any harder and my heart shatters in my chest.
“Fine,” I bark, gritting my teeth and turning away from all of them before I make the mistake of showing them just how much this fucking hurts.
35
Harley
Watching Kyle turn his back on me and walk away like I just asked is the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced.
Part of me hoped that he’d fight. That he’d tell me that I was wrong and force me to change my mind. But he didn’t.
He just turned and walked away, ripping my heart out and taking it with him for shits and giggles.
“Oh my God,” I sob the second I know he can’t hear me.
Stella and Poppy are there immediately, wrapping their arms around me and holding me tight. A few seconds later, my bedroom door opens. I panic at first, thinking that he’s come back and about to witness my meltdown until I see Ruby running full pelt toward my bed and joining the huddle.
I cry until my eyes burn and I feel like I have no more tears to shed.
My body is weak and exhausted, and all I want to do is crawl under my covers and hide away from the world.
When I finally pull back, three sets of sympathetic eyes search mine.
“Are you sure that was the right thing to do?” Poppy whispers, probably expecting me to lash out at her question. I might if I had the energy.
“He lied to me. If he’d had just told me the truth instead of playing these stupid fucking games then none of this would have happened.”
“He was trying to protect you,” Ruby unhelpfully adds.
“Yeah, and how did that work out for him?” I mutter, gesturing to my face. “I’m done. I’m so fucking done with him, with all of it. He never should have moved here.”
Another tear drops on to my cheek as I imagine him not coming back into my life but I can’t allow that to consume me. Everything has gone wrong since he walked into Rosewood.
I just want my old life back. Not this one where I feel like I can barely breathe with the searing pain in my heart.
“You need to eat,” Stella says, always the levelheaded one. “What do you fancy and we’ll order it.”
“Thank you,” I mouth to her. I have no idea if Poppy and Ruby know all the details about what happened in that warehouse only a few hours ago. But I have a feeling I might owe my life to that girl. And I sure as hell know I’ve got a million and one questions for her about how all of that went down.
Stella squeezes my hand in acceptance.
The three of them barely leave me all weekend, they must have come up with some kind of schedule while I was sleeping because they seem to come and go like a well-oiled machine ensuring that I’m never alone.
We order all the bad food we can get our hands on and watch sickly sweet rom-coms back to back, if it weren’t for the reality of the situation, it would be a pretty sweet weekend. But as it is, it’s probably one of the worst of my life.
Zayn pops in regularly to check on me and he intercepts Mom when she reappears after her business trip to save me having to relive everything to her all over again.
When she finally makes her way into my room, the girls all leave for the first time since they arrived and Mom pulls me into her arms.
“I wish you’d called,” she whispers in my ear, her voice cracking with emotion.
“I’m okay. Zayn and the girls have looked after me.”
“I know but—”
“It’s okay, Mom.”
She blows out a long breath.
“I’m so sorry, Harley. This is all my fault. I never should have offered to help Kane. I brought this on all of us.”
I shake my head. “No, Mom. This isn’t on you.”
“But—” I pull back from her embrace and pin her with a look that stops whatever she was about to say. “Okay,” she concedes, clearly seeing that I don’t want to get into this right now. “I’m taking the night off, what would you like to do?”
Poppy and Zayn are sitting on my bed with me when Ruby appears the next morning, a sullen look on her face. I know both she and Poppy feel guilty about going away for the week while I’m here still recovering, but I point blank refused to allow them to miss the time away. They both deserve the break, and I’ll be fine here with Mom and Stella.
Mostly I’m just glad I didn’t have to go to school this morning and face the rest of our class looking like this.
“We really don’t have to go.”
“Stop please, I’m begging you. Just go and enj
oy yourselves.”
“You should come,” Zayn suggests. But just like every other time he’s suggested it, I turn him down. “Come on, he’s not even going to be there.”
“Don’t whine, bro. It doesn’t suit you.”
It takes ten minutes, but I finally convince them all that I’m going to be fine. I’ve got Mom and Stella to keep me company, but mostly, I plan on locking myself in my bedroom doing homework and hiding from the real world.
I stand at my bedroom window and watch the four of them load up Zayn’s car before disappearing for their trip.
My heart aches. Of course I want to be there. But I know that I’m in no mood to be around people, and I know that the second the team takes one look at me, they’re going to get all annoyingly protective and want to seek revenge on my behalf. And while I appreciate their support, it’s really not necessary.
“Hey girl, your mom said to come straight up,” Stella says over an hour later, her arms full of books. When I told her to get my homework, she happily agreed.
“Sure, come in, make yourself at home.” She dumps the books on my desk and drops a couple of bags to the floor.
“Staying all week?” I comment.
“If you need me.”
“Won’t your dad want you at home?”
She shakes her head. “He’s out of town all week.”
“And you’ve come here? Shouldn’t we be at yours with the pool and jacuzzi?”
“We can if you want,” she says sadly, making me wonder if she doesn’t actually want to be there herself.
“I’m easy. We just don’t have the kind of luxuries you do.”
“Maybe not, but this place feels like a home.” I open my mouth to respond but I find I have no words, and I can hardly argue. For as incredible as her home is, I know exactly what she means.
She gets herself set up with a couple of textbooks on the other side of the bed to get started, but I have other ideas.
“Are you ready to start talking yet?” I ask her, addressing the elephant in the room.
“I… um…”
“You don’t have to tell me anything you’re not happy sharing, Stel.”
LEGEND: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Rosewood High Book 7) Page 32