by Cassie James
As I crouch to dig through my bag, I let my eyes swing briefly in Brennan’s direction, checking for his reaction to Jude’s kiss. I’m startled when I find myself the subject of his intense gaze. I smile, and relief rushes through me at the easy smile I get in return. Oh my god, no one’s going to start fighting. It’s like a dream come true.
This is easy, all of us here together. There’s some posturing, sure. The sexual tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife, too. But we’re here, and our dynamic—the way all of our varying personalities complement one another—is clear. This is what I want. Sure, I want to do things separate sometimes, but I also want to be able to come together like this. No jealousy. No fighting.
My eyes go wide when I finally grab my phone and see I’ve got several missed calls from Mom. My mind immediately assumes the worst, that something’s happened to her or Dad, and I’m trembling as I call her back.
There’s only one ring before Mom answers, her breathing fast and hard. “Where are you?” she snaps.
“Is everything okay?” I ask in a hoarse voice.
“Piper Leigh Hawthorne, where the hell are you?” Her voice is tight, and I realize that her ragged breathing is the product of anger, not panic. That’s really not any better.
“I told you. Hanging out at Jude’s.”
“Why haven’t you been answering your phone? You know the rules!” I open my mouth to apologize, explain, something. But she cuts me off, “We have rules for a reason, Piper. You need to come home right now.”
I start to protest but the line clicks dead. I let my phone clatter to the floor as I drop my head in my hands. This is exactly the sort of thing I didn’t want to happen. When I do finally glance up, three sets of eyes are boring into me.
“Is everything okay, Pipe?” Tyler is the first to ask.
“Mom wants me home, like yesterday. Could one of you give me a ride?”
“I’ll take you,” Brennan volunteers, cutting off Tyler who was already pushing to his feet as well. Tyler’s face darkens and his mouth snaps closed. “Izzy has the flu and is somehow even more annoying than usual. Mom could use a break.”
I nod my thanks before saying a quick goodbye to the others. Anxiety tears at my stomach the entire drive home, and I feel like I’m barely present when Brennan brushes a quick kiss over my lips and tells me to call or text him if I need anything. I agree numbly before climbing down from his Jeep.
Mom’s waiting for me at the door as I approach, and I’ve barely made it through the threshold of the house before she wraps her hand around my arm and drags me toward the office. Dad offers me a startled smile when Mom pushes me into one of the chairs across from the massive executive desk Dad’s sitting behind.
Mom doesn’t say a word as she circles the desk to stand behind Dad, arms crossed over her chest with a tight frown fighting its way down her lips. He glances over his shoulder with a quirked eyebrow, clearly as confused as I am at her lack of words after the dramatic fanfare, but all Mom does is stare at me pointedly. “Look, I’m really sorry about the phone thing. I swear it won’t happen again.
“Phone thing?” Dad asks, and Mom tries to shush him. He scoots his chair away from the desk, eyes volleying between me and Mom as he crosses his ankle over his knee and leans back to more comfortably stare at us. “We haven’t had any issues with the phone, Pipes. Jackie?”
“Mom just made me come home because I didn’t answer my phone immediately when she called.” It’s a petulant answer, a little whiny for sure, but it does the trick. Dad’s face goes from impassive to disbelieving in a second as he turns to stare at Mom.
“No,” she snaps as she points at me accusingly. “I called you several times, and you didn’t answer!”
“Jackie, she’s here now, isn’t she?” She grudgingly nods. He turns to me. “You were at the Altons?” I nod. “You’ll do a better job at answering the phone. Right, Piper?” I nod again.
God, he’s so tired. I see it in his eyes and his sagging shoulders. The past few months have been nothing but him moderating between me and Mom, trying to keep the peace while also appeasing his wife who’s still grieving almost a year later. He doesn’t deserve the tension and the arguments, but it seems like that’s all we ever give him. I feel bad immediately, and all I want to do is apologize and go to my room and never give Mom another reason to pull Dad in to moderate us.
Mom starts to say something else but Dad puts a hand up. She might like to railroad the household, but it’s Dad that’s really in charge, and it seems like now he’s keen to remind her of that. She falls silent at his prompting. “I’d say this matter is closed. Don’t let it happen again, Piper.”
As I get dismissed to my room, I can’t quite wrap my head around what just happened. One thing is for sure, Mom’s hot and cold routine is getting old fast, and it’s putting me on edge. At least this time, Dad was in my corner. But I’m not sure when—or if—I’ll be able to count on that happening again.
27
Jude
I glance up in time to see Piper stepping out of the pool house in a bikini that leaves little to the imagination but is still way more clothes than I want to see her in. She shivers as she crosses the cold tiles at the edge of the hot tub, and I can’t stop the smile that crosses my lips at the sound of her groaning as she dips her toe into the hot water. She’s half-shrouded by the steam that rises between us.
Piper moans as she sinks to her knees in the middle of the hot tub, and I swear I go instantly from semi-hard to raging boner. She dips her head back and her tits strain against the tiny bikini top she’s shoved herself into. I’m pretty sure I’m either asleep or dead because there’s no way this is real fucking life. Is this heaven because I fore sure thought I was going to hell?
She climbs to her feet after a half minute submerged in the water, shivering against the cool air. Part of me worries my dick might fall right fucking off now that it’s turned to stone in my damn swim trunks.
Water runs from her hair down her shoulders and chest, and my eyes are tracing a particularly interesting rivulet just between her tits as she moves in front of me. I reach for her hips, fingers hooking through the strings holding her bottoms together and drag her forward, smirking when she lowers herself to my lap and gasps at the feel of my hard-on pressing against her.
When I asked her to hang out, acting out my own personal porno in the hot tub wasn’t my intention. But as she lowers her lips to brush languidly over mine, I realize that I don’t really give a shit. It’s only the knowledge that my mom’s wandering somewhere through the house, home for a few days in between shooting, that keeps me from pressing for something more than a hot-as-hell make-out session as she grinds her hips in slow circles over me.
Piper shudders hard before she pulls away from me. A slow smirk crawls over my lips at the dazed look in her eyes, but then I notice the same shudder passing over her again. It’s not really cold, but it’s chillier than typical for early February, and the difference between the 104 degree water and the air around us is drastic. Reluctance shoots through me, but I fight the urge to keep her where she is and let her grind against me until we’re both coming undone. Instead, I lift her and deposit her by my side.
“Finish later?” she asks with a pout, and I can’t help but grin as I lean over to kiss her again. I’d once made her the joking promise of running her dry, but there’s a real possibility that she might actually be the death of me before that ever comes close to happening.
I wink at her. “If you’re good.”
Piper shoves me playfully, making my laugh as she settles into my side and throws her legs over my lap. That’s sure as hell not helping the dick situation. I pull her closer, anyway.
“I never would have taken you for a tease.” Piper pouts up at me.
“Yeah, well, I can’t give you what you want all the time. Then you’d start expecting me to give you anything you ask for.”
She laughs as she wraps her arms around me, making my
stupid goddamn heart beat harder in my chest as she asks, “What can I ask you for that you haven’t already given me freely?”
I almost say my heart. I don’t know where the fuck the sappy thought even came from, but I can’t even try to deny the sentiment. Still, it’s not the answer I’m giving her. I feign seriousness as I answer, “My purity?” And then I bark out a laugh as she dissolves into a fit of giggles.
“Jude Alton, your purity ship sailed a long, long time ago, and I sure as hell wasn’t the one captaining it.”
“Mmm, maybe not at first, but I’m pretty sure you’ve pillaged and plundered your way aboard.”
Piper pulls back enough to shoot me a disbelieving look. “Did you really just insinuate that I’m a pirate?”
It’s the stupidest conversation I’ve ever had, but I can’t help myself. “If the peg leg fits, sugar.” She shakes her head and laughs but settles her head against my shoulder again.
We’re quiet for a few minutes, her fingers lazily running circles over my skin, and I’m so goddamn content. If only every day could be like this. That reminds me of something. A stack of papers Brennan gave me a couple weeks ago. I’d meant to tell her sooner that he’d brought the Hawthornes’ contract to me, but I kept getting… distracted.
“Hey, Piper?” She hums in the back of her throat. “Brennan showed me those papers you got from Stan Hyde’s place.” She pulls back, staring at me with her face scrunched in confusion. “He’s the smartest guy I know, but he couldn’t really make heads or tails of that contract.”
“So he brought them to you?” If it were anyone else, I might take more offense at the implication of her words. But this is Piper, and she knows me better than anyone. It’s a fair question, even if it does irk me that she’s asked it the way she has.
I shrug it off, stroking Piper’s jaw because dammit, I just like any excuse to touch her. “He brought it to me so I could take it to my lawyer. She’s looking over it for us.”
“You did what?” There’s panic in her tone that makes me reach out to try to pull her back to me but she resists.
“Don’t do that,” I chastise her, waiting until she grudgingly relaxes against me again before I continue. “She’s discreet, Piper. She gets paid really well to keep her mouth closed. Plus, she’s fucking ruthless. If anyone can figure out how to break a contract, it’s her.”
She bites her lip, but eventually relaxes. She leans in to kiss me, whispering, “Thank you,” against my lips. For a long time, she’s quiet, just relaxing in my arms. When she does speak again, it’s so quiet I almost miss it, but the words make me feel fucking incredible. “I’m happy, Jude. Really happy.”
28
Piper
I chew my lip as I stare out the double doors to the back yard. It’s late, well past two in the morning, and my parents have been in bed for hours already. It’s foolish, and so fucking reckless, but I can’t keep walking past these doors every day and ignoring the call of the water. As unwilling as my parents are to change their minds, I’m desperate to slip my feet into the pool—to take back the one last missing piece of myself.
I slip quietly out the door, checking one last time that the switch to the floodlights is flipped off. My stomach flips as I step out and close the door back behind me. What we’re doing, what I’ve asked the guys to help me with, it’s so stupid. If I get caught, Mom’s going to lose her damn mind. But I need this so bad, in a way I can’t fully explain. I could have asked to take a swim at Tyler’s or Jude’s, but it didn’t feel the same. This moment is all about reclaiming what’s mine, and that means doing it in my own damn pool.
I hear the scuffle of quiet footsteps, and I turn toward the side of the house to see a small flare of light bobbing in my direction. I smile when one of them drops something and quietly exclaims, “Fuck!” just to be chastised by another. It’s Tyler and Brennan, I think, and my suspicions are confirmed when the light goes out and I’m squinting up at Jude in the dark.
He wraps an arm around my shoulder and pulls me close, running his warm hand over my bare arms. I catch him glancing down, and I give him a shove when I realize he’s trying to see down the front of my tank top. He laughs, but it’s muted, and it doesn’t sound quite right as it catches in his throat and he tries to quiet himself.
I grab a fistful of his shirt and pull him closer to me as I poise myself on my tiptoes. I brush my lips over his and whisper, “Shut up!” When I look over at the other two, Brennan’s lamenting over the broken screen on his phone and Tyler is shushing him, effectively making more noise than Brennan. I move toward them.
“You hush, too,” I whisper at Tyler, and his lips snap shut. I wrap my arms around his middle, content to snuggle into his embrace, soaking up his warmth and breathing in his scent.
He pulls me closer, nuzzling his nose in my hair as he breaths deeply. His lips move against the crown of my head, but I can’t quite make out what he’s saying. I hum a content sound in the back of my throat, and he pulls back just enough to whisper, “Are you sure you want to do this, Pipe?”
“More than anything,” I tell him, hoping he can see how serious my face is even in the darkness. I know this is harder for him than the others, for obvious reasons, but I told him he didn’t have to come if it was too much. And yet here he is. I reach up on my toes to kiss him quickly.
“You’re positive you don’t want to do this somewhere else?” Brennan asks, and I pull my gaze away from Tyler to see him shoving his phone into the pocket of his pants with a tight frown. I nod with enough enthusiasm to convince them and maybe myself that this really is a good idea. Or at least that it’s not the worst idea I’ve ever had. “Okay, lets get it done then,” he says quietly, and I dart forward to wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him, too.
Three boys. Three kisses. Each one of them as special as the next.
Brennan holds me when I start to pull away, his tongue running along the seam of my lips so that I open for him. I’m tilting my head back to deepen the kiss when someone yanks me back by my hair.
I pull away from Brennan’s touch with a pained hiss, glaring over my shoulder at Jude, who’s standing behind us with his arms crossed, entirely unrepentant. He jabs his finger in the direction of the pool, and I can feel Brennan tense as I disentangle myself from him. He still smiles at me before jogging over to help Jude and Tyler with the bindings on the pool cover.
My stomach flutters with anticipation as I watch them working quickly and quietly to pull the cover from the pool for the first time since I came to life. As I stand there studying them, hands trembling and knees weak, I can’t help but think that this is how it’s supposed to be. Me and my boys, my Thorns, here together, working in tandem. My heart’s so full with love I could burst, and it takes everything inside of me to not just throw all caution to the wind and start shouting my feelings for all the world to hear.
I bounce excitedly from foot to foot as sparkling blue water finally greets me. The water laps gently against the walls of the pool until the boys accidentally lose their grip and part of the cover hits the surface with a loud splash. We all go stock still and I hold my breath as I jerk around to face the back of the house.
Seconds tick by slowly, turning into minutes under my watchful gaze, but the lights never come on, and I manage to relax again. When I turn back to face them, they’re all standing on the far side of the pool, whispering heatedly back and forth. Tyler’s pointing at the uncovered half of the pool while Jude’s pointing at the still covered portion. Brennan’s shaking his head at both of them and hissing words under his breath as he mimes a rolling motion with his hands.
I can’t hear the argument, and I don’t think I would care if I could. The water is calling to me as I shuck my tank top, straighten my bikini, and lower myself into the uncovered portion of the pool. They don’t notice what I’m doing right away. There’s nothing but me and the water as I close my eyes, take one last deep breath, and let the water swallow me.
I let my bo
dy sink to the bottom, relishing the warmth of the heated pool water against my skin. I open my eyes even though the chlorine stings. For a moment, I feel peace. And then hands are wrapping around my arms and jerking me back to the surface.
“What the fuck, Piper?” Tyler hisses, and my gut reaction is to reach out and shove him and Jude away from me and give them a piece of my mind. Didn’t they know how goddamn nice it was down there, how at peace with the world I felt for the first time in months? But even though I have a palm on each of their slick chests, the argument dies on my lips when I see their expressions. They’re drawn and tight, and there’s honest-to-god concern etched over their too-handsome-for-their-own good faces.
I turn my gaze up toward Brennan, who’s standing at the edge of the pool with his hands on the waistband of his jeans and a frenzied look in his eyes. No one speaks for a long moment, the only sound filling the air the low humming of the filter and the water that’s still lapping against the side. My eyes catch on their clothes lying haphazardly at the side of the water, and my heart leaps in my chest.
“Shit, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
Tyler pulls me hard against his chest, wrapping his arms so tight around me that I can barely breath, but I don’t dare complain. He’s shaking. “Tyler.” I put my hand over his heart. “I’m so fucking sorry. But I’m okay.” He doesn’t respond or move. “Tyler, do you hear me? I. Am. Okay.”
He doesn’t answer with words. He pulls back just slightly and attacks my mouth. I’m not sure if he means to punish me or reward me for still being alive—either way, he kisses me so hard our teeth clash painfully. I wince but don’t stop him. I kiss him back with the same intensity, desperately trying to keep him from reliving what happened to Piper the way he did on Halloween.
