Page 36 of Endless Harmonies

“I spoke to Layla when she came to South Carolina last week,” I tell them. “She feels as if she’s not worthy. I know you can’t have wanted that. I’ve known both of you for a long damn time.”

“Turner,” Mav says. “I want her, but it’s not right. We can’t. She’s Lennon’s sister. What if we fuck it up?”

“You already fooked the pooch, Mav,” Roark roars. “Teasing the girl, flirting with her, and then when she’s asking for more ya leave her wanting and fuck each other instead? That’s bloody cruel.”

Atlas looks stricken, and I realize he didn’t think she’d tell us.

“We know as much as she was comfortable telling us,” I tell them, trying to hold onto my temper. “So she’s a virgin, if you care about her why is that an issue?”

“I’m thirty-five, and Mav is pushing thirty-eight next year,” Atlas complains. “And yet… I’m drawn to her. Things got out of hand last week after our concert. We’ve tried so fucking hard not to touch her.”

“But she smells like lilacs, and everytime she walks past me it drives me mad,” Mav snarls. “We haven’t touched anyone in over a year.”

“I didn’t realize it had been a year,” I muse. “How did I not know you two were fucking? Like is this a recent thing, are you two together? No offense, but this is throwing me. Not because I have anything against it—”

“Nah, I know you don’t,” Mav drawls. “At first, it took us by surprise about a year ago, when it first started. We live in the public eye as entertainers, so we kept it quiet as we figured out our shit.”

“We dated privately, which is difficult to do for us,” Atlas explains. “We didn’t mean to keep it from you for so long. Shit hit the fan, and there was never a good time to come clean.”

“And Layla?” Ror asks. “She thinks she’s not worth fucking while you two are getting your rocks off together. Was that necessary? The O’Reilly girls have abandonment issues, guys. You can’t fuck around with either of them.”

“I know. I know, okay? Mav and I were riding the high of the performance and kissing her, and that’s when we found out she was a virgin,” Atlas winces.

“So you freaked out and fell onto each other’s dicks?” Roark growls. Of all of us, he’s the most protective of Lay. We all are, but the fact that she’s in pain, hurts him. “This isn’t working, and I don’t know what to do. You’ve been with us the longest, but—”

“Layla is our Valkyrie’s sister,” Atlas rasps. His eyes get red as he grips his brown spiky hair. At first glance, it looks like he highlights it blond, but it’s naturally like that. The tattoos on his arms stand out in stark contrast to his pale skin, and he looks genuinely upset. But if he can’t be around Layla…

“We have to go,” Mav whispers. “I didn’t think, fuck, fuck, fuck. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, I promise you that.”

“I know, and it’ll mean we’ll need to figure out a lot of things for the tour, but…” I blow out a breath because this sucks balls.

“Fuck the tour,” Roark says. “Layla is young yes, but she’s really fucking smart too. She likes the two of you, and she has her sister as a role model. Lennon is with multiple men, happy, with babies. We’re getting married in late October. Layla deserves to have all of that.”

“We’ve never been the type to even think about marriage,” Atlas says, thinking hard. “My parents are divorced, and I don’t know many people who are happily married.”

“I do,” I counter. “Marriage is like any relationship, you put the work in, because it's worth it. Lennon is worth it, Ror is, Derek is, and so is Orion. We’ve built a family of our own. You’ve always been included in that but you really fucked up.”

“Layla needs to figure out who she is,” Mav says, rubbing his goatee. His black hair is wet from sweat after the concert, and lays over his forehead. “We fucked up, but she’s so innocent. I feel like I’m going to fuck her up. I didn’t feel like this with Lennon, but I don’t know why.”

“She was less innocent because of her past,” I remind him. “Lennon never really got to be a kid. Whereas, Layla was able to have a childhood. She didn’t need to grow up all at once.”

“Turner, it feels wrong to want her, but it’s tearing me apart to be here,” Atlas whispers. “It doesn’t make sense, it’s a fucking hymen, and yet…”

“It still feels wrong to have sex with her if we don’t know that we’ll be her end all be all,” Mav says. “I wish I had a crystal ball that could tell me that she’s the one the way that I know Atlas is mine. I know I can love more than one person, but Altas can call me on my shit.”

“Oh she called you a lot of things,” I mutter. “No one has the ability to tell you that everything will work out perfectly. Lennon and we didn’t even have that and we went through hell together.”

“You made it through, though,” Atlas says, rubbing his eyes. “You never stopped looking for her, helping her with everything that happened.”

“Nope. That’s what you do for someone you love,” Roark says simply.

“Layla, Atlas, and I haven’t had enough time to love each other,” Mav says. “Maybe we just fell into this too quickly.”

“You should have kept your dicks completely in your pants,” I tell them. “It’s too late now. She’s hurt, confused, and thinking about dating other people.”

“I can’t be around for that,” Mav says immediately. “I’m sorry. I can’t watch her fall for someone else.”

“She’s on a dating app.” Roark shrugs. “It’s not serious yet. It doesn’t have to be. Layla wants to be paid attention to, she wants to explore.”

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