My Ex’s Roommates: Chapter 27

Hungover from drinking too much the night before, I stumbled out of my bedroom and headed towards the stairs to find caffeine and something to soak up the rest of the alcohol sloshing around in my stomach. I had to pass by Harper’s room and a bolt of anger did nothing to ease the ache in my head. I couldn’t help it, though. I’d walked by her room the night before and heard noises that made it clear she’d brought some asshole home for the night.

Jealousy had sent me down to the liquor cabinet. Who was she with? She wasn’t exactly making new friends all over campus, thanks to Jake’s bullshit, but she’d managed to find someone. I wanted to kill whatever asshole had touched her. The breathy moans I’d heard were fucking with my head and making me both hard and irate. It wasn’t like I had any claim over her, but fuck, I wanted to.

The twisted part of my brain was wondering how much money it would cost me to make the fucker in her bed vanish. There was no way I could listen to those moans night after night and not lose my shit. At least when Jake had been the one fucking her, there were never any moans.

I froze when Harper’s door crept open. I held my breath, hoping to god that it wasn’t one of the assholes from the team that I’d have to listen to talk about her. When the dickhead turned around, though, I saw it was Silas and wasn’t sure if I wanted to hit him or drag him somewhere quiet so he could give me details. I hadn’t expected to see him sneaking out of her room. It wasn’t some stupid fuck from the team. Well. He was a stupid fuck from the team but he was also my best friend.

That didn’t mean I still didn’t want to kick his ass. I grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him into the wall, not hard enough to hurt but enough to let him know that I was pissed. “What the fuck, Si?”

He grunted and knocked my hand away. “What the fuck do you mean, what the fuck? Why are you just creeping around outside of Harper’s door?”

“What are you doing creeping around in her room?” I knew. I wasn’t an idiot. Still, I wanted him to say it.

“You know exactly what I was doing in there.” Silas looked over my shoulder and groaned. “Great. Now we can all sit down and have a fucking fireside chat about it.”

I glanced back at Dylan and crossed my arms over my chest. “I just caught him sneaking out of Harper’s room.”

Dylan didn’t look as angry as I’d expected him to. Instead, he looked guilty and more than a little curious. “Oh, um…”

Silas smacked me in the arm. “He knows all about sneaking around with Harper. Be mad at him.”

“What?!” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d raised my voice at someone. I didn’t do drama. Things didn’t get to me the way they did Silas or Dylan. I was a fucking turtle, letting shit roll off my back, but if they were telling me that they’d both slept with Harper, I was going to lose my ever loving mind. In a big way. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Before either of them could answer Harper stepped out of her room, hazel eyes wide. She had a robe clenched around her waist but it was doing nothing to hide her body or the way her hard nipples stood out. She looked…fucked. Her hair was a nest around her head, probably from Silas’ hands tugging at it. Without her makeup, sleep still marking her face, she looked like the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. It stung that much more that she didn’t seem interested in me.

“What’s going on?” She looked at the three of us, her eyes settling on me. “Carter? Are you okay? You were yelling.”

I ran my hands over my hair and nodded. “Sorry if I woke you up, Harper. Go back to sleep.”

Her eyes trailed down my bare chest and her cheeks heated before she looked away. “I’m up now. Is everything okay?”

Silas sighed. “He caught me coming out of your room.”

Harper’s shoulders slumped and her skin flushed an even deeper red. She stared at her toes and seemed to close in on herself. “This is embarrassing.”

“No, it’s fucking not.” Silas glared at me. “Are you seriously going to make her feel bad?”

I pushed him into the wall again and then blew out a rough breath before moving closer to Harper and tugging her into my chest. Gripping the back of her neck, I held her stiff body until she slowly relaxed. “You don’t need to feel bad. You didn’t do anything wrong, Harp.”

She tilted her head back to look up at me and I felt like a piece of shit when I saw the tears in her eyes. “I did. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I know that it’s wrong but I… I’m attracted to all of you and it’s… I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. Things were easier when I was committed to Jake because I never looked twice at anyone. It never crossed my mind to sleep with anyone else. But now I’m here and I’m feeling all these things and I just…”

I cupped her face and stroked my thumbs over her jaw. “What? You just what?”

“I slept with Dylan and then I slept with Silas and I’m probably a slut, I guess. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I don’t want the three of you to fight.” She tried to look away from me but I grunted, keeping her focus right where I wanted it. “I’m sorry, Carter.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Why are you sorry? You’re not a slut. We all know you lost your virginity to Jake. Even if you hadn’t, sleeping with people you’re attracted to doesn’t make you a slut. You’re just living your life, Harper. I’m sorry if I made you feel like I thought you were anything other than fucking great. I was just pissed. At Silas and Dylan. Not because anyone did anything wrong but because I’m jealous and that’s not something I handle very well.”

Silas snorted. “Silver spoon boy always had everything he wanted so what was there to be jealous of?”

I knew there was no malice in his words. We’d been best friends for long enough that I could read his moods. Rolling my eyes at him, I smiled down at Harper. “He’s not entirely wrong. I do normally get whatever I want.”

Her eyes widened even more as she looked up at me, hearing the way my voice deepened. She saw the way my eyes moved to her mouth and she didn’t attempt to move. If anything, she tipped her head back even more, like she was waiting for my lips.

Cognizant of Dylan and Silas behind me, I threw caution to the wind and dropped my mouth to hers. She gasped and I stole the chance to slide my tongue past her lips. Feeling how soft she was, tasting her, it was enough to clear any hard feelings I had against my best friends. I got it. One taste and I was a goner. I backed her into the wall next to Silas and kept one hand on her face while running the other down to grip her thigh and pull it against my hip. I kissed her like I was a dying man and she was my only chance at salvation. As hungry as I was, she met me there, kissing me back with just as much enthusiasm.

I could feel her heat where I had my dick pressed against her and I wanted to finish it. I wanted to pull my cock out and slid it home. I remembered myself just in time, though. I slowed the kiss until it was just soft brushes of my mouth over hers before pulling back completely. She stared up at me with swollen lips and eyes heavy with need.

Forcing myself to go back to being easy-going Carter wasn’t easy but I managed with a smirk. I could tell my eyes hadn’t lost any of their intensity by the look on Harper’s face and the way her mouth dropped open when I gave my parting shot did nothing to calm me down.

“I’m not opposed to sharing.”