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I nodded.
“I spend a couple months abroad for an internship, and this place goes to hell.” He was unloading his pockets. The cigarettes, lighter, phone. I looked down at my attire. No bra, just a t-shirt and elastic shorts with underwear still wet from Tituss fingering me earlier. I shook my head. Damn. I couldn’t even masturbate tonight.
“You using that bathroom or…what?” he asked as he undid the boots and removed them.
“No.” I climbed up the ladder and got into that bunk bed. I didn’t want to brush my teeth or be clean in any way, shape, or form right now.
He finished undressing, down to his underwear, and I tried really hard not to actually look, but damn he was fire. He went into the bathroom but stepped back out and said, “I also read your file. Harpy, right? Yeah. I know you might have the urge to get up and do something stupid when I go in there. Don’t.”
I gulped. I had thought about it. I settled under the top blanket and pulled out the list of items, and read it over and over again until he stepped back into that room with a towel around his waist. His black hair was even darker wet. I rolled to face the wall and kept going over the items on the list.
The light turned out, and I held the paper tighter. I closed my eyes and repeated those items in my mind. I wasn’t sure what was happening. I just knew I had a class at ten, and I had errands to run after class was over. I was supposed to meet two of the guys from the house. They were tasked with driving me, helping me. It was not a grocery store type of shopping event when feeding a house full of men. A quarter of them were athletes of some sort, the others junk food junkies, and a handful of them had special dietary needs.
My phone was ringing. I heard him say, “When was the last time you saw her?”
I stiffened, but I didn’t roll to face him. He said, “You’re a bunch of complacent, lazy fuckers. That is what you are. Fuck up like that again and see what happens.”
I did roll over and looked at Dark and Mysterious in the daylight. He was in a t-shirt, jeans, and looked so fucking handsome. He picked up his cigarettes and lighter, pulled on a Metallica ball cap, and said, “Take my sheets and blanket with you. Bring them back clean.” He walked over and handed me my phone. “Get the fuck out of my room. Close the door behind you. Don’t touch anything else, understand? Just get up. Grab that linen, and get the fuck out.”
I gulped but nodded.
I was holding the bundle of linen as I was exiting Junior House. From the first surprised face to the last, I held my head high. It was a walk of shame I had no reason to be ashamed of since I hadn’t done anything wrong. Once outside, that was never more evident than when Tituss and Dane both jumped over the fence separating the two houses, a three-foot chain link, and ran toward me.
Dane took the linen, and Tituss checked me over head to toe as they both seemed to think the worst had happened. They were talking over each other, and I finally said, “I’m fine!”
I batted Tituss’s hand away and frowned up at Dane. I said, “I have to get to my own damn room. Shower, dress, go to class, and then make the—”
“You don’t have to do that today.” Dane shook his head.
“Yeah, I do. And you need to send the list for that kid this weekend.” I snatched the bundle out of his hand and said, “I’m fine.”
I was far from fine.
Chapter Fourteen
Tituss
We walked behind her all the way to the Bunny House. I should have walked her to her house. I thought she was going back to Dane’s room. Thought for sure she would after I left her all wound up like that. He thought she had come to my room since he basically passed out on her. It wasn’t like we were trying to please this woman, but she was ours. She did a lot of work at the house, and in a very short amount of time, things were running smoothly for the first time since moving there. Harpy…organized and handled shit. She was tired of picking items up here and there all week and wanted a big shopping run.
Originally, that was going to be with a couple of the guys who had the day off from classes. Now, that would be us. Dane and I would skip our classes and be with her. Apollo…took her. He just took her, and after texting, confirming with the Bunny House she was not there, we…panicked.
After making sure she was home, for lack of a better word, I looked at Dane and asked, “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“They don’t like her anyway.” He rolled his shoulder. “She doesn’t have the same…protection.”
“Just us.” I puffed out a breath with the admission. There was a reason only certain girls were sent those bracelets. The upperclassmen were part of the larger politics. We were still little fish in this pond, only invited to meetings that pertained to all of us, such as doing another sweep for bunnies after the other houses lost more than they had aimed for. We were not planning to let go of any of ours. I sure as shit was not letting go of that one in particular.
“This weekend, with Rip. Let’s…see if we can make that work first.” Dane at least had the smarts to try it out. Harpy on a full-time basis might be a bit much for all of us. Especially the two of us.
Since I wasn’t going to classes today, I sent Apollo a text and asked when he was free. He texted his location. I looked at Dane and asked, “You coming with or—”
“Yeah.” He nodded. He gave a thumbs-up through the window, and I realized it was Cass. “She’s going to look out till we pick back up at lunch.”
“Cassidy?” I snorted a sound. He shrugged. Most of our house was in classes today. What choice did we have? I sighed and said, “Yeah, I guess.”
They were not precisely hanging out lately, but at least Cass would follow an order, and she did know Harpy. She also knew if that first-floor spot came open, she would be the one filling it, and we would not be fucking her. Though now that I was thinking about it, we hadn’t been fucking Harpy either.
“We need to like…make this day worth it. I don’t think she realizes we fucked up last night, and she could hold that against us.” Part of the agreement was providing a certain level of protection for what was ours.
