I watched as Molly started to edit whatever she’d recorded with her cell.
Rolling my eyes, I chuckled at the way Storm scanned the boys playing ball. She was clearly trying her best to hide her interest in Reed. She still wore her huge sunglasses. Desperate much? There was no sun; it was dark outside, and soI doubted she could even see. It was the fall, and the sun set much earlier in the evenings. Storm had kept her glasses on so she could continue to eye-fuck my brother on the sly.
The rich bitch had liked him forever, but she’d never do anything about it. He was a foster kid and so shit beneath her shoe. I still didn’t understand how a girl like Storm had made it into the Sawyer boys' friendship group. Maybe the rumors were true that she gave them sexual favors. Molly stated that thatwasn’tthe case, but who knew, right?
That nickname my brothers were given in high school also stuck in college. Even though they’d retained their real surnames, they were seen as the Sawyer Brothers. The name was taken from our foster mother, Ma Sawyer. I didn’t get a look in with that one either. I was just Harper Radcliffe. The pathetic orphan girl who lost her parents in a house fire. Yeah, as if it were that straightforward. My brothers sometimes called me Baby Sawyer, but only to piss me off; it wasn’t meant as an endearment.
Dragging my thoughts away from those that still pained me, I narrowed my eyes at the two girls. Ihatedthat they were now friends. Storm had been so mean to me in the past. I was at that point of no return, no matter how many times Molly told me the ex-cheer captain had changed. She was now also a junior in college with the boys, and so was a little fish in a big pond. Now they were separated, Molly explained that Storm wasn’t coping so well at Epic Heights. I guess they didn’t lie when they said karma is a bitch. From what Mols had said, she’d hung up her pom poms and had thrown herself into her studies—something about Sports Psychology. That didn’t sound like Storm. Maybe she could suck the Dean’s cock or something, for extra credit?
I drew back sharply as the ball bounced off my bedroom window, drawing Storm and Molly’s attention toward it.
Goddam boys.
A sharp noise echoed through the upstairs hallway, and from the direction of the bang, I would have said it was Phoenix’s bedroom door. Perfect timing. At least I didn’t have to take them all on at once. It was much easier dealing with the Sawyer boy’s one-on-one as they stuck together like the wolves they were.
Although at least I only had to deal with the three of them. My fourth and youngest foster brother was temporarily out of the picture. Micah had gone to college in New York after being awarded some fancy-assed scholarship. His absence had slightly weakened the pack.
And now I was intending to confront Phoenix, the biggest of those thorns in my side.
Phoenix Carter, or Nix for short, was also called Brutal on the field. He was both the bane and the love of my life, wrapped up in one messy package. Well, the jury was still out on the love part. Our relationship both confusedandfrustrated the hell out of me.
I would have preferred to tackle one of theotherboys, but you had to work with what you were given. Phoenix and I had history, one I had tried to bury, but it was tough with us living under the same roof again.
As I peered out of my room and down the hall towards his bedroom, I could see that my best guess was correct. His door was closed. Hudson’s was wide open, and his light was off. Plus, he’d have needed superhuman speed to have made it upstairs that quickly. The same went for Reed. And irrespective of those rumors about how fast they were on the football field, neither of them was in top form when they were shitfaced. The door into the bathroom was also open, so at least it hadn’t been some lightweight who needed to puke their guts up in our toilet.
Time to poke the beast. I stepped outside my room and took a deep breath, mentally coaching myself through my next fight with Phoenix. There was just no way of knowing how that shit would go down, but it wouldn’t be a positive experience. Especially when he’d been drinking. I still found it hard to believe that we had been close once. The best of friends.
As a child, I had thought Phoenix Carter hung the moon. As an almost-adult, I wasn’t so sure. Things had changed. Yes, I still had feelings for him, but they were more complex. A love-hate scenario, Molly would say.
I wasn’t stupid; I knew that hormones also got in the way. I was a girl; he was a guy, but you didn’t see things that way pre-puberty. As a teenager, it slapped you in the face, no matter how hard you tried to ignore it.
Due to our past, he was the hardest of my brothers to cope with. Nix could be overbearing and as mean as fuck;relentless,like a cut that kept on bleeding.
Annoyance danced along my spine. I was so done with his arrogance and bossy ways. Like all the Sawyer Brothers, Phoenix Carter thought he was all that. So, what if he was good-looking with the bronzed body of a gladiator? He was still a domineering dickhead with a natural talent for rattling my cage.
I was sixteen and due to turn seventeen at the end of November, yet he still treated me like a child, and Ihatedthat. Like, I didn’t know the world was full of demons. I knew evil when I saw it. It was male, six three, with black hair and whisky-colored eyes. I lived with it every day.
This doesn’t need to get personal. You are going to complain about the noise, end of.
Time to give him a piece of my mind as I pulled back my shoulders and marched with purpose. There were no windows in the upstairs hallway, just the doors to the bedrooms and the main bathroom. The only light was a soft glow from a couple of downlights that had been left on, so at least I could see without face-planting.
Straightening and attempting to appear taller than my five-foot-zero frame, I lifted my hand and rapped on his door twice. Nervous anticipation twisted in my stomach.
I could hear noise from inside, footsteps. Phoenix was massive, and so didn’t know the meaning of treading lightly. He had the type of presence that stole the air from the room. It had always been that way, even when I was ten and he wastwelve; a manchild, with big fists and feet and an even bigger attitude. He’d been tall then but gangly, all limbs and hardly any bulk. Now he was huge, muscle sat upon muscle, and there was zero fat on his body. Didn’t vets say that dogs grew into their paws? Well, that’sexactlywhat Phoenix had done.
And. Then. Shit. Happened.
What went down was fast as Phoenix’s door waswrenchedopen and a hand shot out, grabbing my upper arm, andhaulingme into the darkened space.
What the fuck?
I didn’t have time to gasp or do anything; I was taken by surprise. Even more so when the door closed and I was pushed backagainst it, the wood biting into my shoulders.
Why was it so dark in there?
As my arm was released and my palms automatically lifted to defend myself, I hit a warm, rocklike chest. My mouth opened, but no words left it. Pushing, I attempted to put some distance between me and it, but my wrists were captured andyankedabove my head.
I was trapped, and then he whispered, “You took your time.” And a hot, hard mouthslammeddown over mine.
