Page 11 of Don’t Say You’re Sorry (Hawthorne University #2)

Nodding, I get up and leave them to it, heading back toward the house to grab a drink.

Just as I step through the sliding glass doors and into the kitchen, I’m grabbed by my arm and shoved back against a wall between the windows, and there’s a body pressed against mine, solid and warm and smelling like me, pinning me in place.

Easton drops his gym bag on the floor as his hand finds my throat, and I stare into his bright blue eyes, breathing hard and fast through my parted mouth.

“Huh,” Carter says, coming up behind Easton and putting his mouth next to his ear. Looking right at me, he says to Easton, “I like this new side of you, sunshine . Can I get a piece when you’re done with him?”

I glare at the asshole. “Don’t call him that.”

Carter laughs. “Oh, it goes both ways. How fun.”

“Get out, Carter,” Easton says, not once taking his eyes off me.

Carter smirks before he grabs Frankie’s hand and walks her outside.

“Hi,” Easton says.

“Hi,” I croak.

“What do you think you’re doing?” There’s amusement in his tone, but there’s also something else, something a lot more sinister than that. It makes my pulse knock against his fingers.

I swallow, struggling to find my voice. “What…what do you mean?”

Does he not want me here? Were Nate and Xavi fucking with me?

“Spreading your wet body out like that in front of my friends…” he says, his grip on my throat tightening. “Were you trying to make me jealous?”

Wrapping my hand around his forearm, I relax into his hold. “No.”

He tilts his head, skeptical. “Did you know I was watching you?”

“No.”

His other hand moves down between us, rubbing my now rock-hard dick over my shorts. “You weren’t touching this to try to get me to snap?”

“What? No, I was just…” Realizing he couldn’t see what I was doing with my hands with my back to him, I flick the drawstring on my shorts by way of explanation. “…thinking about you,” I finally finish. “Waiting for you to find me here.”

His body loses some of its tension as he takes a breath, his mouth close to mine as he exhales. “God, you make me crazy,” he whispers.

“What else is new?” I joke.

“Brat.” He squeezes my dick a little too roughly, and I shut my mouth, my hips bucking into his hand.

He smirks, about to pull back, and I dig my fingers into his wrist, begging him with my eyes not to let go yet.

His smirk grows, his fingertips brushing the underside of my dick above my balls, his gaze on my mouth. “Did you eat?”

A shudder rolls through my body. “I had a burger.”

His tongue pokes out to wet his lower lip. “Making yourself at home, are you?”

“Nate said I could.”

His hand pauses as his brows pull in, the smirk still pulling at his mouth. “Nate did?”

“Xavi’s making him be nice to me.”

He chuckles. Removing his hands from my throat and cock, he keeps his lower half pressed against mine, still pinning me to the wall, his finger tracing the tattoo on my chest. “You’re here.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I’m here.”

“For me.”

“For you,” I reiterate.

“Why?” He cocks his head. “Are you suddenly ready to ruin your mother’s life for me?”

I huff out a shaky breath. “No, I…I know it’ll take some time, but maybe we could just…

go back…to the way it was before. I want to be brothers again.

Best friends. Or just two people who live in the same house and talk and hang out sometimes,” I add in a rush.

“I’ll take whatever I can get. I just want to be in your life again, E. I want my person back.”

He stares at me for so long, completely silent, that I’m almost sure he’s not going to say anything at all.

But then he lets out a laugh, and I get it.

I’m aware how naive and stupid I must look right now.

Talking about being brothers and best friends when our hips are pressed together and his hands are on my body, his mouth hovering over mine.

“Do you know what I would have given for you to say all that three and a half years ago?” he asks.

“I would have done anything to keep you around. Anything . I would have pretended not to want you if it kept you by my side. I begged you to let me do that. You wouldn’t let me.

You left me and never talked to me again.

” He shakes his head. “There’s no fixing that, Adam. There’s no going back .”

“Please,” I beg, much like he did the day I left, covering his hand on my chest with mine. “Let me try. Let me do what I should have done back then.”

Again, he stares at me, before dropping his gaze to our hands.

“Nothing good will come from this.” It’s not a warning.

It’s not a no . It’s just a fact, one I’ve been pretending to ignore up until now because he’s right.

I don’t know if I can be in his life without wanting something more— needing something more—but I want to try.

“I want to risk it.”

His gaze flicks back up to mine. “I’m not the one who’s gonna get hurt this time.” That’s a warning. It’s as if he’s giving me one last chance to back out before it’s too late.

I don’t back out. I lift my chin, my breath ghosting over his lips as I tighten my grip on his hand, locking our fingers together. “Are you gonna hurt me, sunshine?”

Not that I’d blame him if he did, but I don’t think he’s capable of doing something so cruel. I could be wrong though. Three and a half years is a long time. He could be an entirely different person than the one I knew back then.

That goddamn smirk returns as he bumps my chin with his knuckle and walks away, pausing just as he gets to the back doors. “Are you coming?”

“I need a minute,” I say, not so subtly adjusting my dick in my shorts. “Or five.”

He laughs as he adjusts his own. He steps outside to join his friends, then stops again, hesitating before he says, “You know, Nate hasn’t used that barbecue since the day Frankie moved in.” I’m unsure why he’s telling me this, until he adds, “Welcome to the family, little brother.”