Harper's Rules 1 & 2

Chapter 55: Jake

"Kieran hates me because..." I swallowed against the tightness that choked my throat. "Because I slept with two of his girlfriends."

My eyes dropped down to where my hands rested on the dinner table, where my fingers interlocked and clenched tightly together. "It was wrong but I didn't know they were at the time."

"Both times," Harper shot back in a flat voice edged with skepticism and raised her eyebrows. Even though her face glowed from the bulbs strung over the restaurant's outdoor terrace like a criss-crossed canopy of lights, I still caught when the same disbelief appeared in her eyes. "Doesn't sound like a coincidence."

"Yeah," I mumbled as my shoulders dropped. "Came from the fact I didn't give a fuck who I slept with for... a while."

"A while," Harper practically snorted the words out. From where her palms cupped her chin, she looked at me like none of her believed me. Her voice was direct but lacked judgment as she pressed, "Let's be honest. Years, Jake."

"Semesters, but yeah..." I wasn't at all comfortable with this conversation topic but other than how she prodded me for the truth, Harper held back her judgment.

Despite her usual outward display of disgust or how she roasted my ass with sarcastic digs or back-handed comments, she hadn't ever truly judged me on my past hookups.

Yet. We'll see what she says when she finds out about Scarlett.

"Scarlett, as she'd introduced herself to me, was one of my randoms during my first year at USC," I admitted quietly and clasped my hands tightly on the table. "At our week four party of the season, she was all over me like white on rice."

Even as a benchwarmer who only played on the Trojans' practice field, I still attracted enough solicitations that I never worked for them.

Certainly never chased another girl, let alone to another school's campus.

While I glossed over the details in my recap, I still remembered them clearly because I hadn't drunk a drop of alcohol before we met. She'd arrived early at the party, when the house was mostly filled with friends or girlfriends of guys on the team.

From the moment she'd stepped into the football house, her eyes found me and her feet followed. From where I'd sat on a sofa, she'd pounced on my lap and dry-humped me like a personal lap dance. My cock appreciated her efforts, so we went to my bedroom.

"And you just ate that white rice shit up." Harper's hardened voice cut through my memory.

My eyes closed for a moment, but I opened them and looked straight at her so she knew I told the truth. "Back then, I wasn't one who passed up a sure score. So yeah, we slept together."

Scarlett was short, with long, chestnut brown hair, decent tits, and a round ass that offered enough grab in each of my hands while I topped her from the bottom. Overall, she was a decent enough lay even though she made me do all the work.

"Back then," Harper muttered more to herself than me, like she wasn't at all convinced I was any different now, three years later. When my mouth opened in protest, she waved a hand quickly. "Go on."

"Details aside, she'd enjoyed herself as much as I did." I took a deep breath. "Or so I thought."

Afterwards though, I moved her off my lap and she sat in my bed with tears in her eyes. Like the arrogant ass I was, I just stood up and grunted my appreciation for the release. Without a look back, I tossed her discarded shirt at her, thanked her, and said she needed to leave.

"Instead, she sat on the edge of my bed, clutched her shirt into her chest, and sobbed garbled words about cheating." Both my hands raked over my hair. "I had no idea what the fuck she was talking about."