20
Huxley
It was close to three in the morning when all of my brothers were finally gathering in the fireside lounge in the backyard of Harley’s vacation house. The rest of us had pools in our backyards, mainly to combat the Italian heat, but also because we also enjoyed a dip in the pool. Quentin, in particular, hated fireplaces and always sat as far away from them as possible, so Harley had taken the initiative to move a comfortable lounge chair out into the backyard, close enough to still be part of the group, but far enough away to not have the fireplace freak him out.
When everyone was gathered and comfortable, Harley leaned forward to address the group. “Thanks for coming, I know it’s late.”
“Is Alexa upstairs?” Maverick asked. “Is it my turn to take a run at her yet?”
Harley and I exchanged confused glances. “No, she’s not here,” I said.
“Then where is she?” Maverick asked.
I was turning to stone in place. “She’s not at the main house is she?”
“Um, no.” We all looked over to Rogan and Jett, who we were now realizing both had shit-eating grins on their faces. “She’s at my place. In bed,” Jett explained.
Rogan shrugged his shoulders. “She needs the rest after the night she’s had.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Did you guys fuck?” Jett looked at me and didn’t say anything, yet he was screaming. I grinned. “Awesome, isn’t it?”
“Like nothing I’ve ever experienced,” Rogan responded.
“Wait!” Maverick stood up. “She had sex with you guys?!”
“Tell me you took it easy at least?” Harley asked, looking much more disappointed than approving.
“What’s gotten into you?” I asked. I typically had a sixth sense for what Harley was feeling, but he was all over the map. I knew he was worried about Malia and how the wedding was going to pan out, but I expected him to be excited that Alexa was opening up.
“I just don’t want to rush things with her, you guys. She’s…” He shook his head. “She’s not just another fuck.”
“You were the one that said if she started to fall for even one of us, that was our opening,” Jett retorted. “Are you actually jealous that it wasn’t one of you?”
I held up a hand. “Hey. She’s falling for us.”
“Yeah, well she’s falling for us too,” Rogan said. “So what’s the issue?”
Maverick started jumping up and down in place. “The problem is that I haven’t fucked her yet.”
“The problem,” Harley cut in, “is that the stakes are much higher now. It’s not just dad, or us, now Alexa’s involved too. The proposal was a bad idea, we never should have brought her here. She’s in danger.”
I hunched my brow, glaring at Harley. What aren’t you telling me? He looked back at me with concern rooted deep in his expression. Finally, he swallowed hard. “Malia knows we slept with her.”
Everyone went silent. “What? How?”
“She had people watching our place,” Harley responded. “She’s known ever since it happened. She knows how we feel and that, at this point, Alexa is the greatest leverage she has against us.”
Rogan framed his chin between his thumb and finger. “So, the longer Alexa is here with Malia, the bigger the chance that she’ll get hurt. We have to send her home.”
“Oh sure, you get to sleep with her and now we’re sending her home,” Delvin said.
“Exactly!” Maverick yelped. “What the hell is that about?”
Quentin reached over and backhanded Maverick across the back of the head. “Can you stop worrying about your dicks for two seconds? Don’t you hear what he’s saying? If Malia kills Alexa, we can’t be with her, can we?”
“So what do we do?” Keaton asked. “If, immediately after these two banged her, we send her home, she’s gonna think that’s all we’re after. She’ll probably never talk to us again.”
Harley didn’t respond. That’s why he was frustrated with Jett and Rogan, but it wasn’t their fault. If Alexa was willing, they would have had to be superhuman not to go for it. “Alexa knows about the situation with Malia. We can just explain.”
“And then what?” Harley asked. “We go back home and have to constantly keep looking over our shoulders? We’ve been doing that for the past two weeks and, if anything, it made us further from Alexa. We were lucky she was still interested in us after the way the last couple of weeks went. A band-aid isn’t going to fix anything. We have to just end this battle with her.”
“What? How?” I asked. I could see in Harley’s face that he was near to giving up.
Harley shrugged. “The way that’s been presented. I’ll marry Malia.”
“What?!” we all shouted in unison.
“You can’t marry that psycho,” I spat. “What about Alexa?”
Harley nodded with a pathetic scoff. “I think I could really fall for her. Honestly, I think I already have, but I can’t let her be in danger for the mistakes our father made. We’re already suffering through that. We can’t drag anyone else in. We have to end it.” He looked up at me, on the verge of tears. “I’m sorry.” He looked around at all the guys. “To all of you. I’ll do the best I can to keep her from doing anything to the company. Maybe she’ll be more willing to work with me once we’re together.”