I don’t let my gaze dip beneath the surface of the water as I contemplate this. I’ve had friends, but never one I’ve so desperately wanted to see in wet underwear. I swallow. “Sure.”
“I don’t want to go home.”
A surge of protectiveness washes over me. “Why? What’s going on?”
She shakes her head. “Brittany’s in the hospital again. I just went to visit her, and she was . . .” She drags her bottom lip between her teeth and seems to search for the word. “She didn’t want me there.”
“I’m sorry, Brinley.”
She shakes her head. “No. It’s fine. She’s struggling to stay optimistic, and she’s sick of being sick all the time. She hates the hospital. But . . .”
I can’t pretend to know what that’s like. I used to wish I had a brother—someone to get through the hard times with—but to have that and then feel like you might lose it any day? I can’t imagine how lonely that would be, and Brinley’s loneliness makes my heart ache. I’ve felt it in her since that first night. Maybe that’s what’s always drawn us together. “Why don’t you want to go home?”
She looks to where the sun is disappearing into the trees. “Because she asked me to do her a favor, and I don’t know if I can.”
Only after a long silence do I ask, “Do you want to talk about it—the favor—or . . .”
She shifts in the water and floats toward me.
She loops her arms behind my neck, and my breath catches in my throat, but then her legs come around my waist, and I’m done for. “What are you doing?”
She licks the water off her bottom lip. “Throwing myself at the boy I like.”
“Why?”
She shakes her head, her eyes fixed on my mouth. “Why what?”
“Why—” Fuck it. I don’t need to know. I slide a hand into her wet hair and bring my mouth down to hers. I kiss her gently, and she answers my tenderness with intensity. I can practically taste the need to escape on her lips. She clings tighter and tighter to me, her breasts pressed against my chest, her hands tangling in my hair.
I tear my mouth off hers and kiss my way down her neck, licking and sucking lightly until she’s arching into me and moaning softly in my ear. I kiss across her collarbone up to her ear.
I think about this constantly. Brinley in my arms, kissing her, touching her. I think about it in bed at night. In the shower every morning. In the middle of fucking calculus. I’ve never been so gone for a girl. I keep telling myself it’s because she’s off-limits, but I know it’s more than that. I am so fucking done trying to talk her out of this, trying to pretend I don’t want her with everything I am.
When I lift my head, I draw in a ragged breath. Her eyes are closed and her head’s thrown back, as if to give my mouth access to every inch of her neck. She slowly opens her eyes, and the hunger I see there makes me want her even more. “I don’t want you to be with anyone else,” I say. “Not with Roman or Liam or even some guy who’s actually good enough for you. I want you to be with me.” I swallow. “And I know your parents would lose their minds, so I’m not asking you to tell them, but I’m saying friends isn’t going to be enough for how I feel about you.”
Her lips part. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“Same.” I look around. It’s gotten dark, and the only lights come from the rising moon and the houses along the lake. “We should go.”
“I don’t want to go home,” she tells me again.
I shake my head. “We’ll go get dressed and then talk. You go home when you want. I’m not here to boss you around.”
“Good,” she says, but she doesn’t pull back or unhook her legs from my waist, and I don’t try to push her away.
“Are you really mine?” I ask.
She cocks her head to the side. “Depends. Are you mine?”
“Fuck yes.”
Her smile is so big and bright and just for me that I feel like I’ve won the lottery and gotten superpowers all in one fell swoop.
Chapter Eleven
Brinley
Present day
The room is dark and silent when I wake up, and my head aches.
I listen for Cami, for the soft sounds of her watching art tutorials on YouTube in the living room, but then I remember. My birthday. Savvy’s insistence that I do something for myself and make my dream weekend in Vegas a reality. Running into Marston. Kissing Marston. Touching Marston. The lights on the Strip. We met Savvy at that club with the poles. I watched Marston as I danced, drank shots, laughed, and . . . everything gets fuzzy after that.