Mature(ish) content.

"A bad boy?" I echoed. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Like her, I was eighteen. Consenting adults. Of sound mind and body. And, unfortunately for every shred of common sense in me, my body ached in the worst way for this girl.

"I am talking about you..." Her finger on my chest dipped lower, making my stomach clench. It stopped on my waistband, where her knuckle nudged my tip. "Being an absolute fuckup."

Fucking tease.

I scanned her for any sign of whatever the fuck she meant, finding only her eyes glimmering with a secret at my expense. Gorgeous, the best tits in school, but her eyes were always my weakness. Slivers of green cut into the sky blue. Razor-sharp. Saw everything. Forgot nothing. Blunt. Unapologetic. Saw straight through my bullshit.

Being my sister's best friend worsened my feelings and attraction. I wasn't alone. She held the first spot on my teammates' spank banks. Almost every guy on my team would give their left nutsack to be with her, but she was off-limits.

She was mine.
In theory.

Like always, looking at her filled me with regret. Regret I needed to make amends for, but Harper never forgot, and she certainly never forgave.

Lying that our V-card trade meant nothing was the second biggest mistake of my life. I regretted it more than when I cheated on Camille with Harps, and definitely more than when I rubbed off to her—or worse groaned out her name in other girls' faces.

If I'd ever told her how I felt, how I craved her in a way no other girl ever compared to, then she'd have laughed her ass off and proclaimed she had bigger balls than mine.

Turning from her was painful in more ways than one, but I forced my feet back to Dad's shit project car. "Why are you here?"

As soon as he'd brought this piece of scrap heap home, I knew it was a punishment to keep me here. I'd be lucky to finish before graduation.

Exactly Dad's plan, keep me grounded, away from parties and girls. Apparently, decent grades and an undefeated football season weren't enough evidence of my drive and hard work this year.

Only Harper. If only they knew the truth.

I'd been attracted to Harper since I was thirteen and while her previous share of guys hadn't bothered me, the tender way she looked at Ryan flared an ugliness in me like nothing else. If she hadn't broken up with him, I would've already given him at least a black eye and busted lip because she hadn't looked at someone else like that since...me.

Because I fucked everything up, deserving of her insults, I reminded myself and grabbed my socket wrench set. The metal blurred duller.

Fucking turn on, every insult. Every time the word 'dick' left her mouth, mine twitched with lust. But her rare vulnerability, crying in my arms, had tugged at and cracked open something inside me. And I wanted to dig deeper into that something.

After burying my cock balls deep inside her.

I blew out a frustrated breath. "So, you know why Chloe broke up with me. Big fucking deal. Matter of time."

My attempt to be better backfired. She was a nice, sweet girl–too nice, and too sweet.

The exact opposite, Harper yanked me around like she got off on the power trip. Knowing her sex drive, she probably did, but if anyone could turn what I'd done to Chloe into a compliment, she would.

And, if anyone would explode at the ridiculous shit Camille had blackmailed me with, it was also her. No part of me wanted to follow through on what we'd agreed on but she had my balls in a vice, threatening to tell the whole school about Harper's clinic trip.

Problem for future me to deal with.

"You really, truly haven't been with anyone else?"

Harper's eyes appeared in my peripheral vision. Like she pulled me in with an invisible magnet, I pulled upright, braced the hood, and leaned closer. "Biblically, yes."

No doubt, she liked that, being my only. As hard as her exterior was, the fragile girl inside hadn't changed.

The fragile girl whose heart I'd broken.

"And it was my name..."

"Falling out of my mouth."

In the end, I was just another asshole to her, but Chloe did me a favor because of the opportunity now standing right here.

And, when it came to Harper, I took advantage of every opportunity.

Like now, with the rare occurrence of her silent shock, I leaned over and skimmed my nose up the side of her neck. The view down her shirt, breasts heaving with elevated breaths, was so fucking hot. "I bet you fucking love that. Her mouth, but your face getting me off."

Testing her again, I grasped her hip and rubbed my thumb under her shirt. Stroking the silky skin earned me a suppressed hum.

"Most girls would find that quite offensive, Jacob." Her smugness traveled over my skin like a whisper, tingling into my balls. Her next words were the end of me. "Lucky for you, I'm not like most girls."

She wasn't, in every way that was bad for me. Rude. Unapologetic. Hated me.

Fuck, I was hard again.

Most girls came from just my fingers. Not Harper. That was just a warmup. "Whenever you're done bullshitting yourself, firecracker, I'll be here to fuck your brains out."

Calling her out should do it.

"Fuck my brains out?" The blue of her eyes blazed like a bright sky backdrop as her pupils betrayed her and expanded. She was for sure DTF. "Is that a challenge or a guaranteed disappointment?"

Lifting my hand off her hip, I rolled my knuckles around the outline of her breast. Nipples poking through the fabric, my voice was low and raspy as I assured, "It's a promise."

Within a blink, our lips smashed together clumsily, my socket case crashing somewhere onto the floor. Her perfume infiltrated my senses and fogged my brain.

Hungry and impatient, my mouth attacked hers. She tasted fucking fantastic from all the damn red candy she lived on, and I couldn't swipe my tongue over hers enough, groaning when her hands guided my hips so I sat on the hood.

Stepping between my legs, her rolling against me was absolute torture. Our lips still attached, I surrendered under her touch. Nails scraping my chest, fingers clutching my sides, rubbing over my dick jutting between us—She was the absolute fucking best.

"Yes," I grunted when she reached between us and bucked into her hand, already leaking into my underwear. "Squeeze it."

Thank fuck, she obliged, the pressure making my eyes roll closed. On her second squeeze, I jolted from the pleasured ache rushing through me.

I dragged my fingers through her long, soft hair and tugged her mouth, her body, her everything closer. Our kiss was hard and frantic, overflowing with the desperation and need only this girl built in me.

Teeth scraped against teeth, her tongue lashed against mine just as hard as her verbal cuts, and every taste ignited my drive for more.

My hands traveled over her plush, banging curves, grabbing, and groping every inch of her. Seizing her ass, I pulled her in and shifted my hips, dry-fucking her until we both released sounds of frustration.

Skimming the heated skin just below her bra's edge strained my cock completely hard. Her low, throaty moans filled my ears like a siren call straight into my balls. When my hand slipped down onto the clasp of her jeans, she hummed with impatience.

Reminding me who was in charge, Harper squeezed me again. "Fucking hell, that feels good," I grunted into her neck, bucking my hips again.

With rough tugs, I lowered her jeans and panties together. Heat pumped from between her thighs, the bare skin glistening with slick.

"Harper..." I groaned into her neck and stroked my finger into her warm, wet pussy.

Without hesitation, she propped her foot next to my hip and opened herself completely. Face wrenched in pleasure, she alternated moans and curses as I slipped my index finger inside her and curled it into her tight, wet ridges.

Finding her swollen sensitive spot, slightly off to the left, I rubbed it and thumbed her clit like a fucking on switch.

Her hands clamped my shoulders, and the hardness of her forehead pressed into mine. Loud, hot pants fanned over my mouth. "Fuck, Jake."

"Come on," I encouraged another finger inside of her. "Ride my fingers."

Her hips flinched at first contact, but she exhaled, relaxed, and took everything I gave her. Twisting them. Scissoring. Rubbing her wall. Her hot, pulsing insides clamped around my fingers like a trap. My ego exploded as her pussy drenched them in hot slick, clenching and dribbling like a good, messy girl.

Needing zero encouragement, nails tearing into my shoulders, she rode my fingers until shuddering and muffling a cry into my chest.

Focusing on her, how her hands worked off my pants and boxers hadn't registered until they dropped down to my ankles.

"Like I said..." Arrogant from how easily she'd soaked my fingers, I pushed off the car and hinged her over it. Peach-shaped ass in the air, curved back pitching from her pants, shiny thighs—my dick was hard enough to break off.

Palming her lower back, I froze. I was many things but a guy who kept a condom in his pocket wasn't one of them.

Just when I reached for my pants, her taunting laugh sounded. With a crinkle plastic sound and triumphant smirk, Harper produced one between her fingers. "Brainless."

Challenge accepted.

My heart pounded, waves of anticipation rippling through me while I rolled on the condom, smirking at her remembering the right size. Like always, her sounds, the feel of her, the pressure to explode, hot ache roaring through me—

Fuck, she was the best.

Blinking against the tunnel of haze clouding my vision, my heart thundered in my ears and the room spun.

No sooner had I tossed the condom in the trash can, she stood upright, inches away and fully clothed. Other than her flushed cheeks and short pants matching mine, the rest of her looked completely relaxed.

Within a blink, her expression hardened. Back into the version that hated me.

The cold, harsh reality of Harper's true feelings sobered me as she shoved my shoulder to leave. Three months since I'd last had my way with her, a strange, uncomfortable feeling pinched inside my chest.

My hand surprised both of us when it covered hers on the door handle.

"Wait." The weakness cracking my voice sounded unfamiliar. "We should—"

"Whatever that brain fart is, don't." Her fingers pried off my grip, then patted my chest. "I don't do feelings, remember?"

"Then do something else with me." I outlined her cheek with the back of my knuckles. Discomfort in my chest knotted tighter the longer her eyes studied mine. "Anything."

As if in slow motion, her mouth pulled into a wistful, almost tentative smile, and her face relaxed into a flattered smile.

Beautiful. And I'd been nothing but an ass to her.

Within a blink, her kiss-swollen lips narrowed into a pressed line, and her gaze hardened like water crystallizing into ice. The tip of her tongue split her lips as if removing the taste of mine.

"Aww, Jake." Her voice had never sounded colder, mocking me with the tip of her head. "We both know it was shit and didn't mean anything."

Those words, chosen deliberately, were an invisible smack. Flinching, I stepped back.

No longer here, we stood, face-to-face, the same horrible words leaving my mouth. Shattering all that was good between us, I'd regretted them as I'd said them, and the shock on her face turned into crushed feelings.

The words slipping out in anger because of my failure didn't matter. Being a total lie didn't either.

Repeated to me now, which I also completely deserved, I rubbed my inflicted chest. The last thing I saw was the back of her head when she unlocked, opened, and slammed the house door.

Silence compressed my guilt in tighter, choking my throat as if choked by an invisible hand. Crossing my arms, I stared at the door as if she'd reopen it.

She didn't, of course. No, she'd never see me again, if possible, but I knew her. Better than anyone, including Ellie, and deeper than she'd ever be comfortable with.

When her needs caught up with her, she'd be back. Most people probably wouldn't appreciate being used like a personal fuck toy, but, for now, it was the only thing tethering me to that girl.

And I was anything but done with her.