Page 14 of Duke
“Right. And… you said something about her being a head case,” Bear rumbles, holding up his hand before Duke can open his mouth to explain. “We all know you were just repeating what fucking Tristan said. You don’t have to defend yourself.”
We’re quiet for a few moments, all three of us watching over her as she sleeps. She’s become so important to us in such a short time. I wish I knew how to fix things, but how the fuck can I do that when I can’t even help myself most of the time? We’re both broken. Hell, I’m damaged beyond repair. But… I can be here for her, so that’s what I’ll do. I chew on my lip as I draw in a deep breath. “I see what you’re getting at, Duke, but fuck. The awful nightmare that happened after the whole mess at the football game had nothing to do with you… except the fact that she did say Juliette’s name.” I wince.Okay, so maybe it did have something to do with him.Damned if I’m going to admit that, though.
Duke groans, throwing a hand out as he speaks. “The sleepwalking into the pool… that was post fight night—where I spent a lot of time with her again.” Duke rolls from the bed, the irritation he’s feeling vibrating from him, making his every movement jerky and erratic. He huffs as he stands at the side of the bed, looking down at the three of us. “Did you see the way she looked around in a panic before she realized where the fuck she was when she woke up?” He rubs his hands over his face, cringing when he asks a second time, “What if this is all my fault? I don’t understand. But— What if it is? It’d break my fucking heart if being around me is what’s causing all this to fucking escalate.”
My heart squeezes, then cracks right in two at the agony in his voice. I scramble from the bed to reach for him, but he shoves me away. I blink hard, hurt lancing through me.
“Duke, really?” Bear rolls his eyes. “You’re being a complete idiot about this. Let’s not forget that she’s been attacked multiple times since being here. Don’t you think whoever is behind all of that is the one who should be taking the blame for what it’s doing to her?” He throws his arm in the air, and his jaw automatically tightens. “Fucking wake up. Pushing any of us away isn’t going to help a goddamn thing.” He heaves out a breath, his face pale. “I need a second.” He gets up from the bed, careful not to wake Lennon, and goes into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him with a quiet click.
Duke hasn’t moved, but stands no more than a few feet from me, his jaw twitching as he stares at the floor. Slowly, I close the distance between us, then in an act of complete daring, considering his current state of mind, I grasp the nape of his neck with both hands and gently tug until he looks up at me. Those bold blue eyes. Fuck, they do me in every goddamn time. My thumbs slide back and forth, stroking the hinge of his jaw. He’s so worked up, I’m kinda waiting with bated breath for another explosion. Several agonizing seconds pass while I wait for him to make his move. The ball is in his court. He can accept that I’m here for him, always—that I fucking care… or he can deny me like he’s done in the past, ruining all the progress we’ve made.
Just when I think it’ll never happen, he relents, tipping his head toward mine. Our foreheads meet, and a shuddering breath escapes him. “Mase, I don’t want it to be my fault.”
My teeth scrape over my lower lip as I stare into his worried eyes. “I know. Neither do I. Not my faultoryours. But even if she somehow connects you and Juliette in her head, and that’s why things have gotten worse, you’re not to blame.” When he doesn’t answer, my fingers dig into the back of his neck. “You can definitely be an asshole to her—you burrow right under her skin—but it’s because you’re trying to bury yourself deep. You might not be ready to fully admit what you feel for her, but I fucking know. I’ve known since the second I first saw the two of you together. The chemistry is explosive… but you’ve felt something for her for a very long time. Or am I wrong?”
Duke shakes his head, his jaw twitching, and a second later, he grasps my hips and pulls our bodies flush. “No, you’re not wrong,” he whispers raggedly. His lips crash into mine, hands sliding back to palm my ass through my boxer briefs. I let out a semi-startled groan, but quickly recover, angling his head so I can push my tongue deep, explore every part of him. My heart trips and falls as we continue to kiss like the other person holds our last breath. We remain locked together like that for a very long time until, gulping for air, we pull apart.
“You okay?” I search his eyes, hoping for a hint that anything that I’ve said matters to him.
His gaze slides over my shoulder to Lennon. “I won’t be okay until she is.” A hard swallow works its way down his throat. “But I fuckin’ need you, Mase.”
My heart flips in my chest, and because I know that was hard for him to admit, I retort, “Of course you do,” then give him a cheeky, devious wink. I grab his hand and lead him over to the couch on the far side of the room. “We’ve got more shit to discuss if we’re going to get to the bottom of this. I didn’t get a chance to ask what the last thing Lennondoesremember is.”
Bear comes out to join us, and I have no idea what to say to him, but maybe he’ll fucking clue us in on what’s going on with him. We all have eyeballs and can see he’s struggling. He did mention last night he’s out of his prescription meds—the same meds that Duke and I are both convinced aren’t coming from a doctor. He slings his long body sideways over the armchair, his arms crossed over his chest without saying a word.Cool.I guess we aren’t ready for real talk where he’s concerned.
Duke takes a deep breath, catching Bear’s eye. “We were just saying we should start with asking her what she remembers from last night.”
My brow furrows hard. “I want to say how could she not remember? But then I think about myself and my malfunctioning brain, and it doesn’t seem so odd. Is she not remembering because she was drugged, though? Or because she doesn’t fucking want to have to think about what happened?” Whatever she was given fucked her up bad.
“Good question, right?” Bear’s lips twitch in discomfort before he nods. “Seems like as good a place to start as any. Maybe ask if she remembers Cannon being in her room? We know he was up there with her… and we know she saw us take Elliot into the pool house, otherwise, she couldn’t have relayed that information to Cannon.”
The bedding rustles, and I crank my neck around in time to see Lennon’s lashes flutter before her eyes open.
“Okay, so we ask about that,” Duke intones quietly.
From over on the bed, Lennon exhales an audible breath. She pushes herself to a sitting position, an anxious look on her face. “I’m awake. Who’s Cannon?”
Bear grits his teeth, gets up and goes to her, picking up the discarded T-shirt from the floor and helping her back into it. “We were hoping you could tell us the last thing you actually do remember from last night.” As she rises from the bed, he puts an arm around her and steers her over to the chair he’d just been sitting in and pulls her down on his lap. She automatically curls up, leaning against his chest.
Looking among the three of us, she winces, and it’s obvious she’s uncomfortable. “I-I don’t know. I was at the auction. You were dealing with Elliot.” Her eyes crash shut. “I don’t know if I even want to know what happened with her. I ran. I remember I was going to my room.” She pauses, and my eyes narrow as she touches a spot on her chest like it’s bothering her.
I rub my hand over the side of my head where Kingston managed to nail me. “We took her to the pool house. We wanted it to look to everyone at the event that we were hauling her off to fuck her.”
Lennon’s lip trembles, but she stares blankly at us. “And?”
Duke’s brows dart together. “No, Stella. We didn’t fuck her. It was an act. We told you there would be things happening that we knew you wouldn’t like, but it was for show. For my father and Derek and the rest of the alum, since apparently they aren’t happy with how we’re running things around here. We aren’t asshole enough, I guess. And you know what?” Duke eyes each of us before looking around to the far corners of the room. “I don’t fucking care if they can hear us right now. At least we’ll know if they come after us for what we’re discussing that they’re somehow listening.”
Ah, fuck.I shouldn’t have said anything about our deception.Dammit.“Shit. Sorry. That was my slipup. Too fucking late now, though.”I raise both hands in the air, flipping the bird to whatever cameras might be catching it and say in a flat, disinterested tone, “You hear us, you motherfucking bastards? We don’t fucking care if you hear us.”
Bear grumbles with a twitch of a smile on his lips and a roll of his eyes, “Well, that was certainlyoneway to find out if there’s a camera in here.”
“Maybe it’s better if we know whether they’re watching and listening. Whatever. They’re going to do what they want. Use anything we say or do against us, if necessary. If it’s not cameras, it could be someone spying. Either way, they’re bound to find out how we really feel sooner or later.” Duke rubs a hand over his face before refocusing on Lennon. “Anyway, just so you know the rest of what happened, we went as far as getting into it with the Hawthorne Hall brothers while we were in the pool house, just to make triple damn sure that the OG Bastards saw—via camera or snoop or however the hell they are finding things out—that we’d lived up to the bastard code or whatever.”
Her eyes widen.
Bear ducks his head near her ear. “It’s okay, it’s over. We fought. We’re fine. They’re fine. Elliot went home with them, unharmed.”
I huff out a disturbed laugh. “Too fucking bad according to Hunter they still didn’t see it that way. I have a damn headache this morning from Kingston ringing my bell.”
