Ramsey, Deke, and I surpassed friends a long time ago to the brothers we are now. We all three were only children, so this was as close to brothers as people could become minus the DNA. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them, and I knew there wasn’t anything they wouldn’t do for me.
The first bell for classes rang and everyone started making their way towards the school’s entrance. It’s not like we’d get in trouble if we were late, but why act like an asshole for no reason?
As Deke and I fell in line with the rest of the students, I turned to him and asked, “Did Roselyn say anything to you last night as you got ready to leave?”
He shook his head. “Not a word,” he said. “As a matter of fact, she was rather quiet, if you ask me.”
“Did you feel the chill this morning, or is it just my imagination?” Sometimes even if a person doesn’t say a word, you can still feel a change in them.
Deke snorted. “Nah, it’s not your imagination,” he confirmed. “Sometimes up with her.”
“She was…off last night after you left,” I told him. “I thought it might have just been exhaustion, but now I’m not so sure.”
“You don’t think Greene’s giving her shit, do you?” he asked, and it was something worth considering.
Brandon Greene was the poster boy for rich entitlement. While, many of us ran around with no responsibility or regard for consequences, Brandon was an outright dick. He was a decent-looking guy with enough money and charm to get what he wanted. He had a girlfriend, but it wasn’t a secret that he fucked around on her all the time.
Roselyn’s never said a word about him, but Brandon hadn’t kept his mouth shut when he learned that his father was getting remarried. He told anyone who would listen about the gold-digging whore who got her hooks into his father, and her slut daughter.
Brandon and Roselyn have been living in the same house and going to the same school for four years, and I’ve never seen them interact. Brandon ignored her completely at school, but I didn’t know what their relationship at home was like.
It didn’t matter though. If Brandon was fucking with her, he’d have to answer to me, Deke, Ramsey, and Emerson. And no one wanted to have to answer to Emerson these days.
The fucked-up thing was we couldn’t even ask Roselyn if something was wrong. That was against the rules. She never asked us personal questions, and we never asked her any. It was almost as if we were trying to act as if what we did in the bedroom didn’t exist. If we got too personal outside the bedroom, well then, it might appear as if we were all something more. We did our best not to complicate the sex, and that sucked sometimes.
I stopped and looked over at him. “Do you think we should ask her?”
Deke’s steps stopped with mine. “That’s a slippery slope if you want to continue what we’ve been doing, Lee,” he warned me.
I glanced around making sure no one was lingering and could overhear our conversation. “It doesn’t feel right to be with her for so long and not…know anything about her, Deke.”
One of his raven brows arched. Deke had black hair paired with bright green eyes, and there were lots of times I thought he resembled The Devil. “It doesn’t feel right to you,” he corrected. “I’m not confused about my role in all this, Liam.” He shrugged a shoulder. “I absolutely adore the girl, and I consider her a friend, but I don’t feel for her like that. She’s hot as fuck, and I enjoy her beyond our friendship, but if this ended today, I wouldn’t trip.”
I knew he was telling the truth. The one thing Deke Marlow didn’t do was bullshit. He didn’t need to. Very few things affected him on an emotional level. Which is probably why I asked, “Do me a favor, will you, and hit her up for me.”
Deke nodded. “I can pull her aside in between fourth and fifth period,” he suggested.
“You guys have those periods with Emerson though, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but I’ll text Ramsey and tell him to grab Emerson and ditch those classes.” Deke chuckled. “You know he’ll say yes.”
“Christ,” I laughed. “Who would have ever thought Ramsey would fall in love, huh?”
Deke let out a snort. “Love? Is that what you’re calling that?” He shook his head. “That’s not love, Lee. I’m not sure what that is, but it’s not love. It’s beyond love.” He had a point. What I felt for Roselyn was probably love. What Ramsey felt for Emerson was…life altering. If Ramsey ever lost her, he’d probably set the world afire.
“Point taken,” I agreed. “Just…find out what’s bothering her. I don’t think I can do it unaffectedly, especially if her answer is that Greene is fucking with her.”
Deke’s face lost all expression, and I knew his darkness was skimming on the surface of his well-constructed façade of control. “If Greene’s fucking with her, it won’t matter if it’s you asking her or me doing the asking. Or, God forbid, Emerson finds out,” he said. “Greene’s a dead man if he’s messing with our girl.” He said ‘our girl’ and I knew he meant as the girl he’s sleeping with, the girl I care about, and the girl who was Emerson’s best, and only friend.
If Brandon Greene was fucking with her, he didn’t stand a chance.
“Just…find out for me before I do something we’ll all regret.”
Deke laughed. “Like out us to everyone because your mind is running wild?”
“Yeah, something like that,” I laughed.
We ended the conversation and headed to our classes. I had first period with Roselyn, and I was going to have to walk into class, as always, and act like I didn’t want to be sitting next to her. Or, more aptly, like I didn’t want to drag her across my lap and have her sit on me all through class.
I had always been fascinated by Roselyn, and I had only been kidding myself when I thought I could start a sexual relationship with her and keep it from becoming emotional, because that’s what it has become-emotional.
Very fucking emotional.
I knew it a few months into our little arrangement. I knew it wasn’t just sex for me, but we had a good thing going and I wasn’t going to fuck it up. But, now, I didn’t see where I had much choice. Pretending I wasn’t emotionally invested in Roselyn wasn’t working for me anymore. And even if she wanted to keep Deke with us in the bedroom, I could handle that. As long as she understood that she was my girlfriend, and that things were changing between us, I could handle that.
However, I knew that wouldn’t be the case. Deke’s known, and he knew it when we were talking, that I was finally ready to make my move. He’s knowns all along that this change would happen. And, once it did, there was no way he’d ever lay a hand on Roselyn again in a sexual manner. He’d become her friend only and erase this past year from his mind forever.
And that’s what it meant to be loyal.
Chapter 5
Roselyn~
They knew something was up.
Liam had been giving me the side-eye all morning in our classes, and when Emerson disappeared with Ramsey after lunch after skipping fourth period, I should have realized I hadn’t come off as cool and collected as I had hoped.
My suspicions were confirmed when Deke snatched me by my arm and dragged me with him behind the Ag-Science building. No one studied Ag-Science, so it was the closest place you could get to for privacy unless you were in an empty room somewhere.
I hugged my books to my chest and looked up at the black-haired, green-eyed sex god. He’s never singled me out before, so I knew we weren’t back here for fun and games. “What’s up?”
He cocked his head, and I could tell he was determining which way to approach our talk. I stared up at the gorgeous boy and really did consider myself a lucky girl to have experienced him sexually.
Where Liam had dark blonde hair and keen blue eyes, Deke had raven-colored hair with burning green eyes. They were both the same height, but Liam was light, where Deke was dark. They both had bodies chiseled to perfection, and both were blessed in the package department. It was crazy how they could be so alike,
and yet so different.
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” he said. “What’s with the moodiness, Linnie?”
Linnie.
Deke took to calling me Linnie in private a few months ago, and Liam called me Roz. Deke calling me that now was a harsh reminder of why I needed to end things. I was tired of not being able to be their friend after everything we’ve been through this past year.
I bit my lower lips as I looked around to make sure no one was around. Looking back up at Deke, I told him the truth. “I wasn’t going to do this here, but…” God, what if he ended up hating me? What if I was demoting myself to one of the many disposable sluts that have been in their beds? The thought was painful. “…I think, I…”
Deke gifted me with one of his rare smiles. He knew what I was trying to say, and he decided to take pity on me. “You kicking me out of your bed, Linnie?”
I wasn’t expecting the tears.
I wasn’t emotionally invested in Deke beyond friendship, so I wasn’t expecting his teasing words to bring out such an emotional reaction. “I…”
Usually, Deke was a mask of indifference; he never gave himself away. But he couldn’t disguise the look of shock as he took in my tears. His hands reached up to cradle my face, and his thumbs brushed the wetness away. “Oh, hey,” he whispered. “I was just teasing, Roselyn. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
I shook my head, and I had to swallow before I could speak up. “No, it’s…I wasn’t expecting this to feel so…deep,” I tried to explain.
His face softened. “Ah, so you are kicking me out of your bed,” he chuckled. “Can I, at least, ask why?”
I thought that was an odd request. Deke Marlow didn’t strike me as the type to care why a girl was cutting him off. And then I had to laugh at the idea that a girl has ever cut him off. I’m probably the first female in the history of females to ever, as he so eloquently stated, kick Deke Marlow out of her bed.
No wonder he was asking why.
I took a deep breath and got myself under control. As soon as Deke saw me gathering myself together, he removed his hands from my face, but stood tall, waiting for my answer. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to reveal to him, but I knew I didn’t want to lie. If there was going to be any chance of all of us remaining friends, there couldn’t be any lies. “I’m going to be a total girl here, so bear with me, okay?” Deke smirked, and for a split second, I wanted to change my mind.
Deke Marlow was sinful sex on a stick.
“I…I want a…a boyfriend, Deke,” I said, finally spitting out the words.
His smile was soft and understanding. “You want someone to walk you to class, is that it?”
I nodded. “Is that stupid?”
“No, Roselyn, that’s not stupid,” he assured me. “Even though this thing with us lasted longer than any of us expected it to, I’m pretty sure we all knew it couldn’t be forever, no matter how pleasurable it was.” His words cut through me deeper than he could ever imagine. Confirming that we were never going to be forever cemented the fact that Liam had been looking at this as temporary too.
I almost started laughing. How pathetic that, as much as I tried not to be that girl, I turned out to be her, anyway. I had agreed to a mutual sexually satisfying arrangement, promising to keep my emotions at bay, and failed.
It’d be morally excusable to say it was the alcohol that had prompted me to let Liam and Deke take me to bed that first night, but it wasn’t. Oh, the alcohol had helped make me rather inhibited, but all the credit didn’t belong to the liquor that night. After two years of being invisible, and making superficial connections at best, the two princes of Windsor Academy had been in my bedroom, focusing all their attentions on little, ol’ me.
With my mother gone all the time and a stepbrother who hated me, I had been lonely. I just hadn’t realized how lonely I had become. I had been starved for more than attention, though. I had been starved for conversation, human intimacy, and connections that mattered.
The second Deke’s touch had joined in with Liam’s, I became lost. I could still put myself back in that room and actually feel the heat from Deke’s hands on my hips and the scorching touch of Liam’s fingertips on my chest and his thumb over my lip.
Threesomes were not anything I had ever contemplated or encouraged, and I knew it wasn’t for everyone, but the experience was amazing. I never knew how amazing it’d feel until it happened, but it’s not anything I will ever judge a woman for doing-ever.
Have you ever been with in the middle of making love with your husband or boyfriend, and as he was going down on you, you wished his lips could be pleasuring your breasts too? Have you ever felt both of his hands on your hips, holding on tight, but wished you could feel his hand wrapped around your throat at the same time? It’s not about your man not being able to please you; it’s about him not physically having enough hands, lips, teeth, tongues, or dicks to touch you everywhere at the same time. You had to sacrifice one pleasure for another, but with two lovers, you didn’t have to do that.
And even after experiencing such an overload of pleasure, I still knew one man would be enough. Or rather, Liam would be enough. Liam would be enough because I was in love with him and loved trumped unbridled pleasure every time. Or, at least, it did for me.
“It…this won’t affect anything, right?” I asked, voicing my real concern.
Deke shrugged a shoulder. “Not as far as I’m concerned,” he replied. “Really, it’ll be nice to finally be able to act like the friends we are, Linnie.”
I took a deep breath and couldn’t believe the relief I felt at his words. He unknowingly answered one of the questions I had always been afraid to ask.
Deke Marlow and I were real friends.
Deke actually considered me a friend, and instead of feeling awkward about how this was ending, he was glad we could finally be real friends.
I wanted to cry all over again.
Instead, I smiled at the beautiful boy in front of me. “Thank, God,” I laughed. “I didn’t want to make things awkward, you know? With Emerson and Ramsey now…well, I didn’t want things to get weird with all of us. Knowing you and Liam are okay with this makes things so much better.” Deke’s entire frame stilled at my words. His eyes were the only thing moving on him as they searched my eyes.
My body shivered with the nervous tingles that broke out all over my body.
After a few tense seconds, he asked, “What do you mean, me and Liam? You’re…you’re not changing shit up so you can be with him only?”
What?
I shook my head. “No. I’m…now that I’ve told you, I’m going to tell him later today about…this,” I clarified.
Deke looked tense, and that wasn’t normal. Like I’ve said, Deke’s usually hard to read. He never gave anything away. But, right now, he looked tense as hell. “So, you’re calling things off with both of us?”
Hadn’t I just said that? “Well, yeah…”
Deke nibbled on his lower lip, and I cursed myself for letting it distract me. Deke Marlow was going to make some woman very happy one day. “Roselyn, I think…well, why Liam, too?”
I blinked at his question. I know I heard him correctly, but I wasn’t sure I understood his question. “I already told you, Deke. I’d like to have a boyfriend, and there’s no way…”
“Are you sure you want to do this, Roselyn?” he asked seriously.
In a perfect life, Liam wouldn’t ever know me as the girl who fucked his best friend, and he’d want me for his girlfriend, but this isn’t a perfect life. “Absolutely, Deke,” I confirmed.
Chapter 6
Liam~
I was chomping at the bit.
Deke had texted me earlier that he’d spoken to Roselyn and informed me he found out what was bothering her. Sitting in fifth period, not knowing what the fuck was going on, was fucking me up.
When she came rushing late to fifth period and dropped down in the first open seat she saw, I had wanted to march dow
n there, grab her by her arm, and drag her the fuck out of class to demand some answers, but I hadn’t. I kept my ass seated in my chair and prayed I had the control to wait until after class to meet up with Deke. It hadn’t helped my anxiousness when he texted that we needed to talk face-to-face.
I knew Roselyn’s schedule after this class, and then we’d meet up again for seventh period, but she’d be with Emerson during that class, so we’d have no privacy. And I had a feeling she and I were going to need some privacy after Deke told me whatever it was he needed to tell me.
The bell rang, and I was out of there as if the cops were after me. I had texted Deke to be at our lockers after class because I hadn’t wanted to go looking for him. Deke, Ramsey, and I had always had our lockers together, and they had been the same lockers since our freshman year. The only difference now is that Emerson’s locker was alongside ours. Roselyn’s was in the other hallway.
As soon as Deke saw me, he jerked his head for me to follow him into the nearest classroom. It was a study hall period, but like the entitled assholes we were, we marched into class, and Deke barked, “Everyone out.”
Mr. Rollins, the study hall teacher, stood up from his desk. “Now, wait one minute, Mr. Marlow-”
Deke snapped his eyes towards Mr. Rollins. “It’s for five minutes,” he assured him, but then added, “Don’t make me say it again.”
Mr. Rollins wasn’t stupid. He knew that even if Deke wouldn’t snap his neck for not coming to heel, Ramsey would. He pursed his lips. “Five minutes, Mr. Marlow,” he harrumphed before instructing his students to follow him. There were only a handful of students in this period, so it wasn’t that big of an educational disturbance.
Once Mr. Rollins shut the door behind him, Deke turned towards me. “She broke up with me,” he announced unceremonially.
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